User blog:RottenBlock/A Quick Look at the Toushin Toshi Hint Disk

The Toushin Toshi Hint Disk has two big problems: This is just going to be a quick survey of the Y commands. I don't intend to spend much time on them at the moment, since the first problem is such a big hurdle that I don't really intend to work on this for the time being, but some observation might be helpful, who knows. That's all I've got for now.
 * 1) Its opening crawl is seemingly defined into the program itself, and I can't find its text anywhere, meaning that not only would it have to be recreated by hand, but an actual person who can read Japanese would have to translate it.
 * 2) It uses a lot of custom Y commands. It's possible that some of these were used in Rance I, II or TT1 itself, none of which TODO bothered to recreate, but for our purposes they're new.
 * Y 1: always seems to use a variable as a parameter. Most System 1 games use a weird function seemingly designed to output numerical variables before the introduction of the H command, so it's probably that.
 * Y 2: Most System 1 games use this to 0 a set of variables, but the actual variables vary by game. Seem to be used when Rance moves away from Page 11.
 * Y 3: Y 3 has remained constant from Intruder to System 3.5 and this is no different, it's the "wait for a few milliseconds" command.
 * Y 4: Same, this is unquestionably the standardized Y 4: randomization. And now that the easy stuff is over...
 * Y 5: Strongly suspect this was used to preload images, given how the opening "countdown" is actually hiding Y 5 commands ranging from 1 to 61, the exact number of images in the image file. Frankly we can probably just delete these.
 * Y 6: Only used in H scenes after an animation. Cleanup?
 * Y 7: Frequently seen alongside Y 22 and sometimes Y 34. Probably text related, usually appears when the popup dialog boxes show up. In System 2, Y 7 is used to draw a pre-set text box (set during startup), so probably that.
 * Y 9: Calls to Y 9, 1: frequently appear followed in the very next line with calls to Y 9, 0:. The only reference to Y 9, 2: is in the ending, just before the program returns to the main menu. Opening and closing dialog boxes? Need to check the playthrough again (in fact I should probably record it).
 * Y 12, Y 13: I suspect that one of these disables player ability to advance message boxes, and is used during the opening countdown. Whichever command it is can be eliminated, since we don't even need the countdown. The ending of the countdown seems to reverse Y 12 by using the opposite param, but there are several calls to Y 12, 0: in later files with no counterparts, but this could just be a relic.
 * Y 21: Used in the setup code for combat and in-dungeon cutscenes (pages 13 and 12, respectively). Hard to tell it apart from similar commands at this stage.
 * Y 22: Used frequently before pop-up dialog boxes with Y 7 and Y 34. Either it or Y 34 probably set text size, similar to System 2's Y25 or 26 (not to be confused with this game's Y 25).
 * Y 25: Called multiple times in blocks at the start of scenes, including the tops of pages or the starts of in-dungeon cutscenes. No idea what they're doing but possibly arranging the screen somehow?
 * Y 27: Used exclusively in combat, but only in a few clear-cut scenarios that should be easy to ID with a playthrough on hand. At one point uses a param equal to the amount of damage caused (to Rance?), while in other cases uses 0. On-screen effects, flashing or the like?
 * Y 29: Occurs once if you land a hit and twice on a crit, also probably on-screen effects.
 * Y 30: Another variable frequently seen with text, paired with Y 31, Y 34 or (with a gap) Y 37. The combo with 34 suggests this is some alternative with Y 22, which is 34's other partner in crime.
 * Y 31: Also frequently paired with text. Its params can vary from small to large.
 * Y 32: Always seen in front of an F command (return to top of page). Maybe returns control for the map sequences?
 * Y 33: Always paired with Z commands. Constructing composite images?
 * Y 34: Frequently paired with text. Text size? But param is always 0...
 * Y 36: Only used in a single section of the hint gallery.
 * Y 37: Text related? Specifics unknown.
 * Y 38: Used for two monster special attacks during combat. Graphical?
 * Y 40: Toggles on, and then toggles off. In all but one instance, the toggles surround a G command. Maybe waiting to see if it's done being drawn? If that's the case, we don't need it.
 * Z Commands: Suspect this is used in the creation of composite images.