FIRE HAWK: Thexder the second encounter SAVEGAME file hack guide by Stefano "TheRuler" Crespi 06/17 rev.4 email: theruler@libero.it File SAVEGM.DAT is 315 Bytes long, divided into 8 chunks of 34 bytes each; these are the 8 savegame slots and each have a fixed position. First slot starts at byte 0, second starts at byte 35 and so on. All chunks are divided into two parts, first is the actual savegame slot, the second contains the same byte scheme of the first one with values from the previously played mission. The game performs autosaves each time you pass a mission and remember energy/equipment from the mission you've just played prior to advance into the following one. Second part can be ignored, game doesn't seem to perform any validity check on these bytes. The last two bytes of the 34 bytes chunk are always 20 and 16. Same byte scheme for all 8 Savegame slots in the file follow (you can copy+paste and assign, for the first byte of each slot, the mission number you desire; the game normally assigns fixed values from 02 to 09 sequentially). 43 remaining bytes are set to zero and not to be used. All values are expressed in decimal form except for the Energy bar that must be coherent with the value set in ENERGY group of three bytes (see ***). When Thexder takes a hit, Energy number and Energy bar decreases separately. If the two values are not set coherently the game will kill Thexder in any way whichever value comes to zero first. 02 ------> MISSION NUMBER 03 \ 00 )----> ENERGY (ie. 01 05 00 = 150) 00 / 03 \ 00 )----> MAXIMUM ENERGY (same as above) 00 / 90 ------> MISSILES QUANTITY 07 \ 05 )----> OPTION SLOT TYPES * 03 / 05 \ 10 )----> OPTION SLOT QUANTITIES (01-99) ** 30 / 3C ------> ENERGY BAR *** FF ------> End Byte of savegame scheme [...] ---> Values from previous mission, same scheme (16 bytes) 20 16 ---> End Word of savegame slot [...] ---> Same scheme of the previous 34 bytes x7 [...] ---> 43 bytes set to 00x till the end of the file * 01=DART MISSILE 03=BOMB 04=ENERGY TANK 05=FLASHER 06=ECM 07=STOPPER ** In the example types/quantities are: SLOT 1: STOPPER - 5 SLOT 2: FLASHER - 10 SLOT 3: BOMB - 30 *** Hex value, Must be calculated as ENERGY/5=X[hex] ie. 100/5=20[14], 300/5=60[3C], 900/5=180[B4]