=============================================================================
               Secret of Mana Save-State editor for ZSNES


                        Version 1.0 - May 26, 2000

                          By Paul D. Shoener III
=============================================================================



CONTENTS
  Introduction
  Getting Started
  Explanation of What Everything Does
  Automatic Update Feature
  Uninstall Information
  Version History
  Acknowledgements
  Contact



================
- INTRODUCTION -
================



Secret of Mana has always been one of my favorite games for the SNES.  So
  naturally (for me at least), it was my first choice for making an Editor.
  It's been an on-and-off project for me over the last couple of years, but
  I decided to make it available recently so that other Mana fans who are so
  inclined may also enjoy it.



===================
- GETTING STARTED -
===================



The first thing I recommend doing is going into the Option and setting the
  location of your ZSNES save-state directory.  After this, the program's
  dialogs will always start there when browsing for save-files, etc.

To load a save, just choose File | Open from the menu and select a save-state
  from Secret of Mana.  Make sure it's from Mana, or else things could get
  funky! :-)

To edit the information, just change to the appropriate tab and modify to
  your heart's content.

To save your changes, choose File | Save from the menu.



=======================================
- Explanation of What Everything Does -
=======================================



Check the hints that appear in the status-bar when you move the mouse over
  many items.

"Party Info" Tab:
  This tab contains information common to all party members.  Here, you can
    edit the party's GP and Utility Items (healing, misc. items)

"Equipment" Tab:
  Here, you can see what kind of Armor the party has in the appropriate menu
    "rings".  If you see a "B", "S", or "G" next to an item, that means that
    either the Boy, Girl, or Sprite, respectively, is currently equipped with
    the item in that slot.
  To change an item, just click on it and a menu will appear from which you
    may choose the new item.  If a character was equipped with an item from
    that slot, the character will NO LONGER be equipped with the new item.
    You'll have to do that when you're back in ZSNES.

"Weapons" Tab:
  On this tab, you can see which weapons the party has, the weapon names,
    their levels, and which weapon a character is equipped with.  You can
    edit the levels of the weapons by changing the number in a weapon's edit
    box.  Choose from 1-9.
  The icon next to a weapon indicates that it is equipped by a character.
    To equip a different weapon, right-click in the box to the left of the
    desired weapon and a menu will appear.  Choose who will be equipped with
    the weapon, or "None" to un-equip the weapon.
  A couple of notes about this information:
  * First, when you forge a weapon that you have edited, the game can get
      confused.  If that happens, just click the '!' button and all of the
      weapon levels will be restored to their correct values.
  * Secondly, in order for a change in weapon level to show up in the game,
      you may be required by the game to equip a different weapon and then
      re-equip the weapon of choice.  This must be done while playing.  To
      get this to work right away in the beginning of the game when there is
      only one weapon (just the sword), you'll have to un-equip the sword
      from the editor (see above), change the level, and save.  When back in
      ZSNES, press F4 to load the save.  Now go into the weapons ring and
      equip the new sword!

"Boy", "Girl", and "Sprite" Tabs:
  These tabs let you view/edit the information about the respective
    characters.  If an edit box is greyed-out or a button is disabled, then
    that information can not be edited.
  Personal Info.:  Here, you can change the character's Name, Experience, HP,
    MP.  To change the level, edit the experience points.  The game will
    take the appropriate actions to level-up your characters.  The changes
    may not show up right away.  To trigger the update, you must take an
    action that causes the desired value to change (defeat a monster, etc.)
    You may also be wondering why the Maximum HP and MP is greyed-out.  The
    reason is that this information cannot be restored to the appropriate
    values if changed.  I may make an option that allows you to change it in
    a future version.  For an easy way to set HP/MP to maximum for all
    characters, see below under "Goodies".
  Skills:  Clicking the appropriate button will bring up a dialog that allows
    you to edit the Weapon/Magic skill-levels.  To change the skill, just
    type in a new value over the old one.  Choose OK to accept all changes
    and Cancel if you change your mind.  Once you choose OK, the values will
    be altered and will appear the next time you enter the dialog.  The file
    will not change, though, unless you explicitly save.


"File" menu:
  Open/Save (should be obvious :)  See below for a note about automatic
    updating of information.
  Re-load:  Choose this item to update the program's information on a
    saved-state.  You might want to do this if you know that the information
    has changed since you loaded the file.  This will cause the program to
    re-load the save from disk and update all of the tabs with the updated
    information.
  1 through 4:  These are the most recent save-states that have been edited.
    You can use these to quickly load a save-state.
  Clear List:  Choose this to clear the list of most-recently opened files.


"Goodies" menu:
  The different choices in the Goodies menu will let you quickly restore the
  check-marked items to their maximum values.  This is useful if you need to
  heal frequently and are switching back-and-forth between this program and
  ZSNES.  To apply these goodies, just choose the option to "Apply goodies"
  or press the equivalent short-cut key (Ctrl+G).

"Options" menu:
  Settings:  This will bring up a dialog that lets you change the program's
    settings.  Here is an explanation of the settings:

    "Default path for save-states":  This option lets you determine where the
      program will first go for save-state operations (loading/saving).
    "Save settings on Exit":  This will cause the options to be saved when
      you quit the program, as well as the most-recent files list.


"Help" menu:
  About:  Brings up program information.  For example, version information.



============================
- Automatic Update Feature -
============================



If you are running the editor at the same time as ZSNES, you can use both
  programs in an alternating fashion to keep your characters healed and
  your items filled, if you so desire.

Here is an example to illustrate this feature:

  Say you loaded a save-state file into the program.  Next, you switch back
    to ZSNES and play some more.  In the process of doing this, you save
    over the same slot that was loaded into the editor.  Now, the party
    takes some serious damage and needs to be healed quickly!  You save the
    state and then switch back to the editor.  When you do, the editor will
    say that the save-state file has changed since it last loaded the file
    and will ask if you want to update.  You choose yes and the newest
    progress is loaded into memory.  You then choose to apply the goodies
    and the quick-fixes are made.  After this, you save the file and switch
    back to ZSNES and press F4 to re-load.

  Note:
    If you don't update, the old information will remain in memory.  When you
    save, the save-state in memory will replace the save-state on disk.  Thus,
    any changes that had occurred to the file since it was loaded into memory
    will be wiped-out.  Be careful!

  Explanation of why anyone would want/need such a feature:
  1)  It will keep you from accidentally overwriting a new save file with old
      data because you forgot to re-load.  Needless to say, this can save a
      great deal of frustration! :-)
  2)  It's a bit faster than manually reloading all of the time.



=========================
- Uninstall information -
=========================



The program can be removed from your system via the following steps:

  1)  In the Options, there is a check-box to remove registry information.
      Check the box and click OK.  The program will then remove its' registry
      entries.
  2)  After closing the program, just delete this program's files.



===================
- Version History -
===================



Version 1.0 - May 28, 2000 :  Initial release. 



====================
- Acknowledgements -
====================



  SquareSoft, for making this great game.
  The ZSNES team, for their excellent ZSNES emulator.
  The Snes9X team, for their SNES9X emulator and for being one of the major
    pioneers of SNES emulation in the early days.
  Razor, for encouraging me to write my editors and for some coding advice.



=======================
- Contact Information -
=======================



Check my web site (http://home.earthlink.net/~paul3) for updates to this
  program or to see what other programs I've got.

If you have any comments, find any bugs, or just want to say "hi",
  feel free to send me an E-Mail at "paul3@earthlink.net"
