Grassdigger | Disabling a Wrong Cutscene Timer Crashes Pikmin 2 @grassdigger8695 | Uploaded August 2018 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
UnclePunch recently found a way to open crash logs in Pikmin 2! So I've been revisiting some old crashes in order to see exactly what they say. To open crash logs, press A, B, X, R, L, DPad Left, DPad Down, DPad Up, DPad Right, and Z in that order, with each button press about a half second apart.
In this particular video, I analyze crashes that occur when I try to play a Terminal cutscene while a cutscene timer is active that doesn't correspond with the Terminal. I will use terminology from past videos about cutscene timers, so if you haven't seen any videos about cutscene timers, I highly advise watching the videos in this playlist first: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSM88llr5kvtc9txkZCaAkLAyPMlCC2vu
I've ordered the videos in this playlist so that you'll have the easiest learning experience. If you haven't seen the videos in this playlist, my captions in the video will be confusing, as well as the rest of this description.
First, I try to play the Hey Pikmin Terminal (by having Pikmin follow closely to me) while the Louie Instructions Timer is active. This causes the game to crash. Then, when I open the crash log, the very top says the following:
CurrTimer (5) : disableTimer(4)
This is fantastic! Many of my hypotheses have now been confirmed, such as the existence of cutscene timers, the existence of unique cutscene timers, only one timer can be active at a time (since only one timer can be "CurrTimer"), timers can be disabled (which seems to happen when a Terminal plays), and that crashes happen when the game tries to disable a timer that doesn't match the current timer. In addition, we now know the in-game names for these cutscene timers! The Louie Instructions Timer is referred to with the number 5 in the game, and the Hey Pikmin Timer corresponds with the number 4 (what are the odds that I would call Timer 4 the Hey Pikmin Timer, since Hey Pikmin is sometimes called Pikmin 4...).
Now we can find the internal names for the cutscene timers that we all know and love!
I repeated the crash that Espyo documented a while ago: youtube.com/watch?v=FLpHJXZakTU
This told me that the Safe Louie Timer is referred to with a 3 and the Sprout Timer is referred with a 1, as the crash log said:
CurrTimer (3) : disableTimer(1)
So to recap, here are the cutscene timer names as they stand right now:
Timer 1: Sprout
Timer 2: - - - - - -
Timer 3: Safe Louie
Timer 4: Hey Pikmin
Timer 5: Louie Instructions
Now, the only cutscene timer we haven't seen in the crash log yet is the You Appear Lost Timer. I find out what its number is by letting it be the current timer while Timer 4 is disabled. Take your guesses on what the number is! If you guessed 2, you are...
wrong... wait, what? As the next crash log shows, the You Appear Lost Timer (the CurrTimer) is referred to with a... 7? How could this be? What happened to Timer 2 and Timer 6? Something strange is going on here. Either there are no timers that match with 2 or 6... or there are more cutscene timers to be found! If you have any information or ideas on why the You Appear Lost Timer would be called Timer 7 by the developers, please let me know in the comments.
From now on, I tried to crash the game while each cutscene timer (that we know of) was the current timer. So next, I stored the Sprout Timer, and went to a file where I could crush the paper bag before the timer ended, which would make the game try to disable the You Appear Lost Timer. Sure enough, the crash log showed that the CurrTimer was 1, and it tried to disable Timer 7.
Lastly, I wanted the Hey Pikmin Timer (Timer 4) to be the current timer during a crash. This was pretty tricky, as disabling Timer 4 wouldn't cause a crash, and there isn't enough time once Timer 4 became active to disable Timer 1 by plucking my first red. Thus, I needed to disable Timer 7 by crushing a paper bag. Fortunately, this was possible to do. I basically copied the steps to storing the Hey Pikmin Timer (youtube.com/watch?v=sWq_uQiJbYQ) up to crushing the paper bag. Then, I needed the You Appear Lost cutscene to play so that Timer 7 wouldn't be the current timer anymore. Finally, I could crush the paper bag, and just before it finished crushing, I could whistle the 1 wild red that I hadn't whistled yet, and if I timed this correctly, I would get the crash. As expected, the crash log said:
CurrTimer (4) : disableTimer(7)
(Fun fact, this is the opposite order as the crash log from the 3rd crash.)
UnclePunch recently found a way to open crash logs in Pikmin 2! So I've been revisiting some old crashes in order to see exactly what they say. To open crash logs, press A, B, X, R, L, DPad Left, DPad Down, DPad Up, DPad Right, and Z in that order, with each button press about a half second apart.
In this particular video, I analyze crashes that occur when I try to play a Terminal cutscene while a cutscene timer is active that doesn't correspond with the Terminal. I will use terminology from past videos about cutscene timers, so if you haven't seen any videos about cutscene timers, I highly advise watching the videos in this playlist first: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSM88llr5kvtc9txkZCaAkLAyPMlCC2vu
I've ordered the videos in this playlist so that you'll have the easiest learning experience. If you haven't seen the videos in this playlist, my captions in the video will be confusing, as well as the rest of this description.
First, I try to play the Hey Pikmin Terminal (by having Pikmin follow closely to me) while the Louie Instructions Timer is active. This causes the game to crash. Then, when I open the crash log, the very top says the following:
CurrTimer (5) : disableTimer(4)
This is fantastic! Many of my hypotheses have now been confirmed, such as the existence of cutscene timers, the existence of unique cutscene timers, only one timer can be active at a time (since only one timer can be "CurrTimer"), timers can be disabled (which seems to happen when a Terminal plays), and that crashes happen when the game tries to disable a timer that doesn't match the current timer. In addition, we now know the in-game names for these cutscene timers! The Louie Instructions Timer is referred to with the number 5 in the game, and the Hey Pikmin Timer corresponds with the number 4 (what are the odds that I would call Timer 4 the Hey Pikmin Timer, since Hey Pikmin is sometimes called Pikmin 4...).
Now we can find the internal names for the cutscene timers that we all know and love!
I repeated the crash that Espyo documented a while ago: youtube.com/watch?v=FLpHJXZakTU
This told me that the Safe Louie Timer is referred to with a 3 and the Sprout Timer is referred with a 1, as the crash log said:
CurrTimer (3) : disableTimer(1)
So to recap, here are the cutscene timer names as they stand right now:
Timer 1: Sprout
Timer 2: - - - - - -
Timer 3: Safe Louie
Timer 4: Hey Pikmin
Timer 5: Louie Instructions
Now, the only cutscene timer we haven't seen in the crash log yet is the You Appear Lost Timer. I find out what its number is by letting it be the current timer while Timer 4 is disabled. Take your guesses on what the number is! If you guessed 2, you are...
wrong... wait, what? As the next crash log shows, the You Appear Lost Timer (the CurrTimer) is referred to with a... 7? How could this be? What happened to Timer 2 and Timer 6? Something strange is going on here. Either there are no timers that match with 2 or 6... or there are more cutscene timers to be found! If you have any information or ideas on why the You Appear Lost Timer would be called Timer 7 by the developers, please let me know in the comments.
From now on, I tried to crash the game while each cutscene timer (that we know of) was the current timer. So next, I stored the Sprout Timer, and went to a file where I could crush the paper bag before the timer ended, which would make the game try to disable the You Appear Lost Timer. Sure enough, the crash log showed that the CurrTimer was 1, and it tried to disable Timer 7.
Lastly, I wanted the Hey Pikmin Timer (Timer 4) to be the current timer during a crash. This was pretty tricky, as disabling Timer 4 wouldn't cause a crash, and there isn't enough time once Timer 4 became active to disable Timer 1 by plucking my first red. Thus, I needed to disable Timer 7 by crushing a paper bag. Fortunately, this was possible to do. I basically copied the steps to storing the Hey Pikmin Timer (youtube.com/watch?v=sWq_uQiJbYQ) up to crushing the paper bag. Then, I needed the You Appear Lost cutscene to play so that Timer 7 wouldn't be the current timer anymore. Finally, I could crush the paper bag, and just before it finished crushing, I could whistle the 1 wild red that I hadn't whistled yet, and if I timed this correctly, I would get the crash. As expected, the crash log said:
CurrTimer (4) : disableTimer(7)
(Fun fact, this is the opposite order as the crash log from the 3rd crash.)
