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A few years ago I used Meka in combination with Auto-it and a bit of Python hackery to get all the levels of populous in a nice list, but for reasons out of my control, lost it :(

So anyway, I wanted to make the list again, but when I get all the components together, it seems that Meka doesn't like simulated enter key presses.

To follow along:

Start meka in debug mode, load populous.
Have memory view and debug panels open.

Now when pop starts it will 'break' on $0000 automatically, you will have to (c)ontinue execution when it 'break's at the beginning.

Continue to level name entry screen, in the debug panel add a breakpoint: b 3050. Also note around the memory location $b3d8 in memory viewer.

Enter a junk level name, e.g. "a", start searching.
It will almost immediately break, check the memory viewer.

You can show the interesting memory region in debug output: "m d3a8 0xc".

Keep pressing c to see the level names appearing in that interesting section of memory...

(The debug output is automatically put in the debug logfile ready for parsing)

Now I want to (re)automate all of this!

I wrote a script to simulate the keypresses in an infinite loop, and at the moment with 'sleep's so that I can see that each step is working.

Opt("SendKeyDelay",5)
HotKeySet("+!s", "Start") ;Shift-Alt-s

; Wait until hotkey pressed
While 1
Sleep(100)
WEnd

Func Start()
Sleep(1000)
Send("m d3a8 0xc")
Sleep(1000)
Send("{enter}")
Sleep(1000)
Send("c")
Sleep(1000)
Send("{enter}")
EndFunc

Now the problem is that somewhere along the line something is gobbling the {enter} so that nothing happens in Meka. It takes all the other automated keypresses, and when I manually press enter it accepts that. When I press the hotkey combo with notepad in the foreground it works fine in sending those keypresses to notepad.

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences like this and could help me any. I've also asked in the auto-it forums but that wasn't any help.

Thanks.

http://wip2.smspower.org/uploads/Cheats/populous-worldnamegenerator.html

On modern browsers, listing all names only takes a few seconds.

You might need to try using different settings for stuffing keystrokes into Meka.

Maxim wrote

http://wip2.smspower.org/uploads/Cheats/populous-worldnamegenerator.html

On modern browsers, listing all names only takes a few seconds.

You might need to try using different settings for stuffing keystrokes into Meka.

Even better, thanks! I remember trying and failing hard when I was a kid trying to get a working generator going based on finding out the level names/syllables and finding patterns in the syllables, apart from the first part of the level name which was trivial to find and the second part which in which I was either right at guessing or off by a few, I never got it the algorithm accurate or in its entirety.

There are also the easter egg level names as well, seemed sort of funny watching those come to life on my old sms!

from ages ago wrote

http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4324

heero wrote

There are also the easter egg level names as well, seemed sort of funny watching those come to life on my old sms!

...shown on http://wip2.smspower.org/Cheats/Populous-SMS for those too lazy to enter the codes. If we could find the programmer it might be nice to get an explanation of them, they all seem like private messages.

Actually, the messages themselves seem to be stored compressed. If we could figure that out we might find some credits in there too..?

Author	Message
heero Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 2	Meka debug mode and Auto-It: not quite working Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:57 pm
heero Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 2	A few years ago I used Meka in combination with Auto-it and a bit of Python hackery to get all the levels of populous in a nice list, but for reasons out of my control, lost it :( So anyway, I wanted to make the list again, but when I get all the components together, it seems that Meka doesn't like simulated enter key presses. To follow along: Start meka in debug mode, load populous. Have memory view and debug panels open. Now when pop starts it will 'break' on $0000 automatically, you will have to (c)ontinue execution when it 'break's at the beginning. Continue to level name entry screen, in the debug panel add a breakpoint: b 3050. Also note around the memory location $b3d8 in memory viewer. Enter a junk level name, e.g. "a", start searching. It will almost immediately break, check the memory viewer. You can show the interesting memory region in debug output: "m d3a8 0xc". Keep pressing c to see the level names appearing in that interesting section of memory... (The debug output is automatically put in the debug logfile ready for parsing) Now I want to (re)automate all of this! I wrote a script to simulate the keypresses in an infinite loop, and at the moment with 'sleep's so that I can see that each step is working. Opt("SendKeyDelay",5) HotKeySet("+!s", "Start") ;Shift-Alt-s ; Wait until hotkey pressed While 1 Sleep(100) WEnd Func Start() Sleep(1000) Send("m d3a8 0xc") Sleep(1000) Send("{enter}") Sleep(1000) Send("c") Sleep(1000) Send("{enter}") EndFunc Now the problem is that somewhere along the line something is gobbling the {enter} so that nothing happens in Meka. It takes all the other automated keypresses, and when I manually press enter it accepts that. When I press the hotkey combo with notepad in the foreground it works fine in sending those keypresses to notepad. I was wondering if anyone had any experiences like this and could help me any. I've also asked in the auto-it forums but that wasn't any help. Thanks.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14738 Location: London	Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:39 pm
	http://wip2.smspower.org/uploads/Cheats/populous-worldnamegenerator.html On modern browsers, listing all names only takes a few seconds. You might need to try using different settings for stuffing keystrokes into Meka.

heero Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 2	Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:35 pm
heero Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 2	Maxim wrote http://wip2.smspower.org/uploads/Cheats/populous-worldnamegenerator.html On modern browsers, listing all names only takes a few seconds. You might need to try using different settings for stuffing keystrokes into Meka. Even better, thanks! I remember trying and failing hard when I was a kid trying to get a working generator going based on finding out the level names/syllables and finding patterns in the syllables, apart from the first part of the level name which was trivial to find and the second part which in which I was either right at guessing or off by a few, I never got it the algorithm accurate or in its entirety. There are also the easter egg level names as well, seemed sort of funny watching those come to life on my old sms! from ages ago wrote http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4324

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14738 Location: London	Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:44 pm
	heero wrote There are also the easter egg level names as well, seemed sort of funny watching those come to life on my old sms! ...shown on http://wip2.smspower.org/Cheats/Populous-SMS for those too lazy to enter the codes. If we could find the programmer it might be nice to get an explanation of them, they all seem like private messages. Actually, the messages themselves seem to be stored compressed. If we could figure that out we might find some credits in there too..?

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