# Original-engine Goku mod

The main `/` route runs the original Secret of Mana in the SnesJs core (with the HDMA guard described below) at `b904fdb63be15dc0470b69091622ba5b1bde7275`. The ROM supplies menus, opening, maps, tiles, layer priorities, collision, sprites, dialogue, events and SPC audio. The title substitutes gold GOKU letters and extends the native credit. BOY remains native until the new sword-scene arrival hands the role to Goku. See [arrival notes](arrival.md). `engine.html` is an explicit developer shortcut into Potos using the same engine.

## ROM changes

The wrapper normalizes a copier header, verifies the exact US SHA-256, then makes a memory copy. No operation modifies the supplied ROM on disk.

The main game's additive starting-Drum patch redirects the inventory initializer's four-byte epilogue at ROM `0x57AF` to `$C74285`. The verified unused region at `0x74285` receives `48 A9 27 8F 48 CC 7E 68 28 AB 2B 6B`: preserve A, store item `0x27` into `$7ECC48`, restore A and execute the original epilogue. That patch changes no title, menu, opening, door or map bytes. Separate title/arrival adapters operate on PPU fetches and event reads without further cartridge mutation.

`engine/dialogue-patches.js` changes four bounded player-text spans, padding with the native blank glyph `0x80`. It validates event pointers, original bytes, speaker tokens and following control codes before copying. All NPC text, native line breaks, commands and event lengths remain unchanged:

| Event | ROM offset | Original player line | Goku line |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `0x103` sword pull | `0x92691` | `:Urrrrrrrgh!` | `:Easy... Oh!` |
| `0x10C` Elliott | `0x9306A` | `:Hey! Stop it!` | `:I'm sorry!` |
| `0x112` aftermath | `0x9339F` | `:Huh? What?` | `:Too hard?` |
| `0x112` sword concern | `0x93450` | `:Here! It's yours!` | `:Did I break it?` |

The speaker's name still uses the game's own substitution. The original name editor is prefilled once with editable **BOY**, using its tile field at `$90D2/$9112`, length `$A1CC`, cursor `$A157` and redraw flag `$A20A`. A signature checks the native editor state and letter grid before touching the field; it never overwrites a user's later edits. Start commits the name through the original code. At Goku's impact, the arrival controller changes the native name slot at `$CC00` to GOKU and moves the typed name into the slot's unused tail (`$CC06`). Dialogue shows it as `{3}`, the boy Goku landed on; the editor default BOY reads as Randi (see `engine/native-names.js`). Its read adapter restores the original sword grunt; the older replacement stays only in the cartridge copy for hash compatibility.

The separate `potosPatch` developer shortcut replaces events `0x400/0x106`, loads door 3 above the gatekeeper, and moves the Potos world landing coordinate north. Only `/engine.html` uses it. The main game never applies those intro-skip patches.

## Native rendering

`engine/sprite-layer.js` adapts the MIT SnesJs OBJ evaluator. It substitutes Goku at the original boy's sprite order and priority, before `getColor`, background priority, windows, color math and brightness. Native foreground tiles, NPC overlap, dialogue windows, ring menus and fades therefore remain in the original rendering path. `ManaMod.draw()` no longer paints anything over the completed framebuffer.

`native-oam.js` identifies the boy from the actor descriptor used by native C0:E6AB, then follows ownership through WRAM and actual PPU OAM DMA. It captures the displayed pose and pivot, including native lift and shake. Replacement continues through door/boss fades and stops when the native actor disappears. The standard boy body was observed in bank-1 tiles `C0–C7` across all 51 actions and four facings; tile numbers alone no longer decide ownership. Ordinary ground scenes use palette 1; the waterfall uses palette 5, which enables native color math. The replacement retains that palette marker for water blending. The source sheet rows are down, **left, right**, up. Every frame is 32 × 32, including opaque boot pixels in the last row. The absent second rear idle frame falls back to the first. Native `$E010` facing drives both player movement and scripted turns.

The first name editor's bank-0 tiles `30–37` stay native during BOY's prologue. After Goku arrives, Status and Action Grid use that same eight-cell layout: a complete arrangement and a match to the original boy palette are required so Primm and Popoi stay unchanged. HUD portrait tile `E8` and ring character marker `0A`, bank 1/palette 1 or 5, use Goku head crops while keeping their native frame, cursor and item icons. Original shadow tiles remain. Flammie's world sprites use palette 5; the native HDMA terrain-shadow window is replaced with a small pixel shadow.

Native poison, flash and ghost palette changes are transferred to Goku's colors; petrify uses the actual native stone shades. Snowman and moogle keep their shared original bodies and portraits. Barrel, Balloon and Engulf (`$E191 & $45`) reuse weapon OBJ cells; those original overlays remain visible over Goku instead of being mistaken for sword art. Miniature mode (`$E191 & $02`, species `$F6`) uses a 16×16 Goku with adjusted hand/effect origins; unconscious uses a horizontal pose. Signed screen coordinates and wrapped OAM rows preserve partially offscreen sprites. Hidden replacement cells still count toward original sprite/sliver overflow limits.

Charge, beam, impact and aura pixels are decoded from 34 original spell cells. Their palette-0, priority-3 OBJ marker remains independent of the body's water palette, and they pass through native layer composition without browser glow, smoothing or HTML overlays. See [native effects](native-effects.md) for the recovered encoding and independent VRAM/CGRAM checks.

The core under `vendor/snes/` has one local Mode 7 overflow correction in `pipu.js`, described below. Its [MIT license](../../vendor/snes/LICENSE.txt) also applies to the evaluator adaptation.

## Native state and controls

Goku combat is active only after his arrival, when `$E4=$E5=1`, the actor active bit is set, player 1 owns Goku (`$E02C & 1`), `$D0=0`, `$2C=0`, `$EC & $FE=0`, no ring-opening request is pending in `$ED`, and neither `$E190 & $70` nor `$E191 & $D5` indicates an incapacitating or covering status. `$EC` bit 0 is NMI synchronization, so both 0 and 1 are valid during ordinary play. Native Y/X menu requests cancel queued attack state. Original button handling passes through unchanged during BOY's prologue, title screens, name entry, dialogue, scripted events and rings. Native inputs also handle escaping a barrel and struggling against status effects.

World flight is identified by the installed native interrupt vectors at `$0100..0107`: `5C CF 88 00 5C 4B 8A 00`. `$E4/$E5` are brightness fade timers, not gameplay mode bytes. `$EC&0x80` marks interactive world flight after loading; vector detection also covers its fades.

| WRAM | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `$00DC` word | Current map: waterfall 128, Potos 131, Mantis cave 260 |
| `$00E4/$00E5` | Native brightness fade timers; both 1 during settled ground play |
| `$00D0` | Event state; zero for ordinary controllable play |
| `$002C` | Input/event lock; dialogue/rings commonly 3 |
| `$00EC` | Native menu mode; 0/1 ground, 8 ring, `0x80/81` flight; bit 0 is NMI sync |
| `$00ED & 0x40` | Pending ring opening |
| `$E000 & 1` | Boy actor active |
| `$E002/$E004` words | Boy world position |
| `$E020/$E022` signed words | Boy screen position; subtraction gives camera origin |
| `$E02C & 1` | Player 1 owns this party member |
| `$E011/$E031` | Requested / latched native animation |
| `$E026` word | Current native pose within that animation |
| `$E045` | Native airborne height; already included in the captured OAM renderer pivot |
| `$E010` | Facing: 0 up, 1 down, 2 right, `0x82` left |
| `$E182/$E184` words | Current / maximum HP |
| `$E188` | Strength |
| `$E198` byte | Native attack, capped at 255; Goku's full attack is `mod.damageScale()` |
| `$E199/$E19A` | Weapon status effects; not attack's high byte |
| `$E1ED` | Attack recovery |
| `$CC00` | Native name slots, 12 bytes each: hero (GOKU, with the boy's name in its tail at `$CC06`), girl `$CC0C`, sprite `$CC18` |
| `$CC48` | Starting inventory slot; Drum `0x27` |
| `$1809/$180A` | Ring category / selection |

Addresses are within bank `7E`; helpers mask them into the 128 KiB RAM array. Entities have stride `0x200` starting at `$E000`: party 0–2, enemies 3 onward. Species is `+0x180`, HP `+0x182`, maximum HP `+0x184`, and dead status bit `0x80` is at `+0x191`. Damage excludes inactive records, party slots, NPC species ≥128 and dead enemies.

Ground B starts a punch immediately; holding it chains the combo; a whiff also emits a native B pulse for talking/cutting map obstacles. A connected punch suppresses the hidden sword's extra hit. Holding L+Y begins Kamehameha; charge caps at 90 frames or 45 in Super Saiyan, and only release fires. Punches have 14/7-frame actions, 2/1-frame impact delays and buffered three-hit combos. C fires travelling ki blasts every 12/5 frames. Base attack is 4095, Super Saiyan 8191; a finishing kick multiplies it by 1.5. Ordinary enemies and their native death effects follow 56/88-pixel launch arcs. Boss bodies remain in their original position so their native defeat events can finish. See [combat implementation and checks](combat.md).

Arrows are the only movement keys. X supplies B (punch / confirm), C supplies Y (ki), Z supplies A (fast flight with a direction), A/Backspace supplies X (ring / back), Shift supplies L and D supplies R. Space/Enter is Start; S is Select. Up/down changes ring tiers. Goku uses L focus, L+Y Kamehameha, L+B Instant Transmission, L+A transformation and L+R takeoff. Touch provides the same SNES buttons and four single-button chord shortcuts. No analog controls, triggers or extra face buttons are required.

`scene-fast-forward.js` recognizes both native text rendering ($D0=81) and button waits ($D0=83). Holding R targets 12× speed and pulses B for prose, with each batch bounded to keep the browser responsive. Intermediate pictures are skipped while CPU, audio processor, DMA and events continue running. It scans complete text windows for native selection commands before confirming, stops at choices, and mutes audio during acceleration. Events still execute every original frame; their map and story writes are preserved. Actual acceleration depends on the device; the local final check measured about 5.8×.

Takeoff calls the verified native C1:E76D world dispatcher at C0:B073. The C1:E837 handoff skips Flammie summon choreography for direct takeoff, the Fly ring item and scripted departures, preserving coordinates, return map, fade and landing logic. World controls remain Flammie's steering, A ascent and B descent to land; L+Y charges the aerial wave. Senzu and Fly icons match all three native bitplane encodings in either OBJ bank, independent of inventory order. Fly uses Goku's complete upright hover pose in the current form.

## Console and checkpoints

```js
mana.pause();
mana.mod.status;
mana.read16(0x7e00dc);
mana.mod.entities();
mana.snes.ram;
mana.snes.ppu.vram;
mana.snes.ppu.cgram;
mana.snes.ppu.oam;
mana.mod.spriteLayer.plan;

mana.run(60, [7]);          // native right
mana.run(120, [10, 1]);     // hold L+Y to charge
mana.run(1);                // release
const checkpoint = mana.snapshot();
mana.run(60, [6]);
mana.restore(checkpoint);
mana.play();
```

Native button indices: B=0, Y=1, Select=2, Start=3, Up=4, Down=5, Left=6, Right=7, A=8, X=9, L=10, R=11. Wrapper-only indices are confirm=16, ki=17 and transformation=18. `mana.bootOriginal(bytes)` starts the real title sequence; `mana.bootPotos(bytes)` is the developer shortcut. `mana.fly()` runs native menu inputs.

The serializer preserves CPU/PPU/RAM/audio state and live closures, omits ROM bytes, and rejects a different patched-cartridge hash. Goku metadata includes action clocks, charge, facing, combo buffering, projectiles, launches, sound queue, native sprite ownership, destructible redraw queue, flight/hover state, whip crossing, queued orb event and locomotion state. Charge lightning is deterministic from frame and live map state. Debug snapshot replay is exact; the user-facing Restore button clears physical held input to prevent an unintended release attack. Browser checkpoints from the earlier ROM patch version are intentionally not offered for restore into a different patch.

## Verification and limits

The two named quick starts in `quick-start.js` are generated from the selected ROM and cached in separate IndexedDB slots. `?start=title` stops at the original editable BOY name menu. `?start=sword` runs the bridge/fall, skips the river walk using the verified sword approach coordinates and the native camera-streaming adapter, then executes the sword interaction, pod arrival and original event tail. It captures only after control returns. `?start=sandship` builds on the cached sword checkpoint: it recruits the test party, seeds only the desert and Sandship flags, and enters the dunes as the native thirst scene (28A) begins. No ROM or checkpoint file is distributed. A failed build restores the previous complete state; manual saves are not overwritten. Cache keys include the compiled story layout fingerprint; restores reject a different fingerprint so cached PCs cannot resume into moved virtual scripts. `quickStartRevision` still versions other preset changes.

`beast-challenge.js` makes **Feed seeds** mandatory once all seven seeds are personally collected. Event9A routes to96 with seven seeds and95 otherwise; both converge at97. Even an older checkpoint taking95 redirects to96 when all seven were collected. Fewer seeds permit the ordinary fight but cannot earn the good ending. The existing Mode7 door and setup commands remain intact. Feeding starts species127 at 65,535 HP and scales Goku's hits to one eighth in that battle; the ordinary version has 48,000 HP and half damage. Automatic healing is disabled throughout the game; the one-time maximum-HP expansion preserves missing HP and never revives a dead character. C0:4053 intercepts queued player damage before its load: each distinct hit receives 250–500 damage. Ninety controllable frames of recovery prevent one spell sequence from hitting repeatedly. The native HP subtraction, defeat and ending routines remain authoritative. The retired Mana Ward fields in old checkpoints are ignored.

Circle eruptions target Goku's position when their warning begins. There are 90 frames to move clear (72 below half Beast HP); the damage radius is 26 pixels (34 enraged), with a six-pixel player footprint. Only active, controllable battle frames advance them. The warning and blast use original Mana spell cells, and a hit queues 450 native damage. Menus/cutscenes pause them; boss death removes them. Palace collections grant Dragon Balls, with no additional shield mechanic. There is no delivery path; legacy delivery metadata cannot satisfy the collection requirement. Challenge choice, recovery, target and warning age all survive checkpoints.

`power-intro.js` adds one-shot first-hover banter and a longer first transformation using existing sprite poses and native spell art. These are presentation reveals, not ability locks. Their radio messages pause during Kamehameha so they cannot add another King Kai remark during a charge.

Flight classifies native movement codes `2x` (stairs) and `3x` (currents/conveyors) as floors. In flight only, C0:D359 bypasses their walking guidance before the existing swept collision/speed hook. Wall height, shaped-tile and event checks remain intact; ground charging retains the native floor behavior. Name prefill uses cursor `$A157=18`, so deleting three letters actually clears all of BOY; Backspace maps to native cancel and the prefill latch survives checkpoints.

`world-scars.js` stamps the ROM-decoded Potos crater into the native Mode 7 surface sample before brightness/color math. Town positions come from C6:7A80. The world attack ledger preserves craters through travel, restores and the final wish; no ROM or VRAM tile data is rewritten. Town dialogue acknowledges collateral damage, while ground town maps and their progression scripts remain available. Mode 7 boss arenas skip the ordinary tile-row camera streaming after teleportation and mod-added BG quake pulses, preserving their matrix/HDMA renderer.

Tests compare title pixels outside the changed word/credit with the native path; exercise editable BOY naming, bridge parity and the complete opening to controllable waterfall; play the new sword arrival through all five pages, mid-impact checkpoint replay and return to control; verify sprite crops, water color math, priorities and combat gates; and traverse Potos, flight, landing and original Elder/Mantis events. ROM tests prove the cartridge copy only changes the inventory trampoline and four selected player-text spans. The arrival read overlay restores the original sword grunt while retaining that copy's hash.

The original Mantis death/rescue path was also played to completion with native controller inputs and the patched dialogue. The earlier ROM research compares extracted Potos/cave tilemaps and graphics directly to WRAM/VRAM.

The [regional graphics audit](graphics-audit.md) adds native entry-view coverage across the map table, full-party UI comparisons and native-event initialization of the Mana Beast arena. It does not substitute for a complete story playthrough or every scripted pose and animation.

This remains a browser hybrid. Goku's replacement artwork is injected into the emulated OBJ layer, not stored as a complete native SNES sprite-bank patch. Status menus may recalculate native stats; Saiyan combat values are reapplied during play. The earlier custom JavaScript chapter is a separate local prototype, not the main game.

## Story and aerial shortcuts

`native-story.js` relocates selected native event streams into virtual cartridge banks F0–F7 on reads. Original ROM bytes remain unchanged. The native interpreter still draws dialogue, operates choices, grants rewards, loads maps and runs credits. `event-codec.js` treats credits' 7D/7E ASCII spans as opaque. Party variants omit absent speakers and skip movement commands for absent companions; native spell grants are remembered across later recruitment. `story-areas.js` supplies local prerequisite floors only on entering the relevant maps.

Luka's native event134 offers Advice / Save. Save opens the original native save screen. Events85–97 and9A occupy verified unique unused END slots. The original one-time spear gift precedes the menu, and cancel closes the native selection window. Retired travel callbacks87/88 return to this menu without changing maps or boss flags, including during Frieza's hunt. Luka's Advice starts with the current Dragon Ball count. The ending uses a restoration wish, with the Tree sheltering souls until the Beast is calm.

Thanatos event4E1 uses native dialogue, music, fades and object refresh, then door2F and event70C for Dark Lich. It does not position or strike an absent Primm or wait for the original party choreography. Frieza supplies ki for his amusement. Dyluck introduces himself and forces Thanatos out; his soul waits with the Tree. The Fortress entrance owns this scene. Native boss defeat still owns CF4E advancement.

Transient battle windows share `$2C=3` with full-screen menus. Input routing now identifies the field by its native interrupt vectors instead of treating that byte as a menu lock. Goku's Y never falls through to the native ring command during a spell or level banner. X/back sends native Y for ordinary menus and Start for the window/controller editors, retaining that route until release. Short action taps last four emulated frames so the slower menu poll sees them; directions remain two frames.

`battery.js` tracks real cartridge SRAM writes and flushes settled batches to local browser storage under the original ROM hash. Quick starts preserve that SRAM. The original GAME FILE validity checks still decide which slots can load. The renderer recognizes the four native file windows and validated GOKU records, including backup copies, before replacing their portraits. HUD portraits have separate native OAM writer ownership, independent of whether a world sprite exists during a door fade.

`native-equipment.js` removes Goku's weapon tier through the original empty-tier path and rejects sword-dust equips before native inventory writes. The sword's nine names become DUST BAG and the corresponding native weapon icons become a small pouch. Other characters retain weapon swaps and forging. Shop icon identity is separate from HUD portrait identity. Goku's starting armor 22 is named Heavy Gi. Wearing it reduces his powered strength and damage by 10%, and native agility by 20%. Armor 21 is the native empty body slot. The original armor ring handles taking it off, putting it on, shops and saves; checkpoints retain the unpenalized agility base so the modifier cannot compound. The Sandship guards cannot lift the gear, so Goku stows it: unequipped, still owned, with his fists and ki available.

The agility hook marks a fresh native level-table read at C0:4699 and applies weight at C0:4BF6, after armor/status modifiers and before agility feeds evade. A weapon-only rebuild is not another fresh base. C0:4576 restores the powered strength and capped native attack at the end of the rebuild. Large attack values live in wrapper combat, never in the adjacent native weapon-status bytes.

`native-status.js` replaces Goku's STATUS text layer in Mode 5 with the cartridge's font and window cells. The green background, Goku sprite, menu input and fades stay native. It requires the STATUS selection, Goku as the displayed actor, and the original panel layout; other character and menu screens remain native. Values are read from live combat/native stats without changing RAM. The large power reading uses the same `powerLevel()` as the scouter, including training weight. Power level is a narrative ki reading, not a second damage multiplier. Attack is shown without the retail byte limit. The form, training penalty, native seed count and money are visible, and meters stay inside their panels.

`native-barriers.js` checks punches and charged travelling beams against the Haunted Forest rose/bridge gates (maps29/30), Witch Castle map300, Northtown Castle map82 and Gold Tower map116. It also recognizes the original F-prefix hit-event descriptors for cave and palace switches; a whitelist excludes whip posts, and each beam activates a switch once. Native events set their own gate progress and refresh objects/map pieces. Unrelated walls remain solid.

`world-ki.js` uses FA/FC world coordinates, F6 heading, wrap at4096, and the real moving Fortress object at0128/012A. Hold/release L+Y (Shift+C) uses the same charge and Japanese chant as ground combat; B (X) provides native descent. The AF cloud patch surrounding the Pure Land uses E3 bit40 for its landing lock. Breaking it changes that bit without changing CF46's boss progress. The Fortress is rendered early through its own C2:B119 path. A fully charged hit explodes it, then executes its original C2:B1CA landing ABI via C0:8260 and native landing record10 before starting the Mana Beast scene. The post-destruction conversation differs from the ordinary finale.

Landing originally draws a large Flammie fly-by on BG3, not OAM. `native-flight.js` clears only landing request E8 bit0 at C0:BC0B after destination selection and before ground setup. Fortress landing record10 stages the party 1,024 pixels east for that fly-by. The adapter subtracts its 64-tile X offset before ground initialization, matching the skipped C1:FD37 relocation. The miniature approach dragon has its own C2:B230 submission; that is replaced by a shrinking Goku and curved trail, with a shorter native docking timer. Ordinary native map/party placement and fading remain; the Goku descent clock waits for a visible actor frame. Cannon request bit1 remains untouched.

`tests/browser/story-shortcuts.spec.mjs` checks closed/open/return visits for the three gates, blocked/charged/open Pure Land landing with untouched boss progress, absence of the BG3 fly-by, aerial Fortress-to-Beast solo progression, and the Fortress's solo route through the final battles to the ending. Luka's menu separately checks Advice/Save, cancel and the retired travel callbacks. The authored changes are regression-tested routes, not evidence that every possible permutation of the original story has been played.

2026-10-13 story/flight validation: 89 unit tests passed. The complete 30-test browser suite passed; the added Luka-menu check passed separately, and all six story/shortcut browser checks passed again after the final dialogue changes (31 distinct browser checks total). Build succeeded; no ROM or private save files were included. The supplied ROM's SHA-256 remains `4c15013131351e694e05f22e38bb1b3e4031dedac77ec75abecebe8520d82d5f`. Private logs and screenshots are in `.local/story-research/`.

## Telepathy, Dragon Balls and ceiling escapes

`native-radio.js` decodes the retail 8×12 font at PC `0x12D600 + glyph*12` and window tiles at `0x12D080`. A PPU color surface draws three-line messages before native brightness/window processing; no DOM text, controller injection or event lock is used. The first three SSJ charges prompt a warning after spending 90 active frames at full power; later charges have one 10% roll each. A per-charge latch includes silent results and prevents retries regardless of hold duration; release rearms the latch without generating a reply. The attempt count and random state are saved. A global cooldown also limits successive charges. Native dialogue, menus and fades hide and pause the radio. Aerial messages use the bottom of the screen, keeping the Fortress and giant beam visible. Mode 7 reuses `$2C` as scratch memory, so only the ground UI uses it as a menu guard. Warning rotation, timers, the latch and first-flight banter survive checkpoints.

`dragon-quest.js` records the seven unique palace reward commands, after their original flag writes execute. The native Light/Dark flag order is `$CF94/$CF95`. Seed theft, broken seals, the Tree's mass blessing and Dryad cannot duplicate or erase a Ball. Events93/94 warn about an incomplete quest or acknowledge seven personally collected Balls. `ending-rules.js` requires the earned and held masks, defeated Frieza, an actual upgraded Beast victory, and an intact Fortress before allowing a wish. The quest ledger and wish state are included in browser checkpoints; old delivery metadata is read only for compatibility and never awards Balls. Older checkpoints infer available progress from sealed palace flags; the native seed-case puzzles and rewards stay intact.

`ceiling-exits.js` lists 253 eligible rooms in 35 routes with verified original exterior doors. Peaceful Water Palace rooms, houses, shops and inns are included regardless of the map's weapon permission. `ceiling-escape.js` animates an upward punch, native impact cells, falling roof chunks and dust. It does not draw a persistent breach; legacy checkpoint hole records are ignored. Debris uses neutral stone or timber shades from the room's own background palette. The native dispatcher loads the exterior door, then requests world flight; the already airborne sprite stays offscreen through this handoff instead of briefly appearing on the outdoor floor. Party coordinates, collision, camera and VRAM are initialized by the game. The adapter waits for entry choreography and retries interrupted takeoff. Confirm remains available if an exterior has dialogue; live bosses and unsupported scenes retain normal control. Escapes never set boss-completion flags. Ground collision is unchanged. Existing overworld landing restrictions still apply, so steer to a valid landing area.

Private evidence is in `.local/plot-chaos/` and `.local/danger-progress/`. Browser checks cover held ground/aerial attacks during telepathy, menu priority, reward uniqueness, incomplete-Ball warnings, three dungeon escapes, seven additional palace/house/inn/shop escapes, checkpoint replay, party landing and the two finale paths. Catalog checks validate all listed doors against the supplied cartridge. These checks do not constitute a playthrough of all 253 escape rooms.

Earlier plot/escape validation: 113 unit tests passed; all 50 distinct browser checks passed across the full run and targeted reruns after fixing radio checkpoint ownership. This included the normal Water reward, seven-palace reward markers, both finale routes, keyboard/touch/gamepad control, charge/beam replay, the original opening/Potos story, doors and landing. Local ROM bytes remain unchanged and the public build contains no ROM or private checkpoints.

October 13 follow-up: 124 unit tests passed. Targeted real-ROM browser checks passed for the fed Beast's damage, wards, death and victory; Mode 7 teleport/quake protection; first power reveals; quick-start creation and reload; Backspace/blank-name restore; water/stair speed in both forms; collision walls; permanent town craters and repeated mid-shot restores; indoor roof exits; both finale paths; and early Tree landing. Public-build checks passed for a local ROM selection without upload and icon-only phone layouts. The world-flight shadow now survives checkpoints too, preserving exact rendered replay. This was targeted regression testing, not another complete regional playthrough.

## October 13 controls and traversal update

The shared SNES keyboard layout is arrows plus Z/X/C/A, Shift/D, Space and S; see the README control table. Touch cancellation includes lost pointer capture, page hiding, viewport resizing, rotation, control-page switches and fullscreen changes. The visible pause overlay consumes its resume gesture. Same-origin ROM loading tries `./rom/secret-of-mana-us.sfc` with validation and a bounded timeout before the file chooser. Builds version the complete module graph. Developer tools, test scenes and the content-derived build ID are hidden in the normal player; `?debug=true` or jumping to a test scene (including a `?start=` / `?scene=` test link) reveals them.

`dragon-radar.js` uses the native world takeoff table for the next uncollected palace, including the Moon ferry exterior (map95). It yields its native-font panel to dialogue, charges and the Fortress docking approach. Aerial ki impacts have delayed cosmetic horizon bursts; damage to landmarks still requires a charged wave. Destroying the Tree barrier replaces obsolete first-flight chatter with King Kai and Luka's reaction.

The HDMA initialization now terminates disabled and zero-length channels before the frame runs. Previously, a channel enabled late in NMI could execute a stale zero repeat count, wrap it to 255 and write unrelated RAM into CGRAM. This fixes the reproduced orange end-screen palette. It is a targeted core correction, not a claim of cycle-exact SNES timing.

Validation: 145 unit tests passed. Real-ROM browser checks covered persistent Haunted Forest gates, cave/palace hit switches, the guarded button-combination shortcut, destructible vines, Gaia's Navel ledges, bee-hit recovery, Fortress approach/deck/interior traversal, radar progression, aerial impact ordering, ending colors, and checkpoint replay. The broader combat, controller, teleport and story-shortcut regressions and all three public-build ROM-loading checks also passed. The reported intermittent high-altitude sky flicker was not reproduced; these checks do not constitute a full playthrough of every area.


## October 14 story and finale review

`story-compiler.js` compiles four party variants from the native event stream.
`scene-dialogue.js` supplies explicit alternatives when a missing companion
changes the scene's meaning; ordinary NPC lore stays native. Speaker state
persists across text pauses, and empty filtered dialogue windows disappear
without removing reward or progression commands. Identical compiled variants
share virtual storage. `native-story.js` still dispatches events through the
original interpreter, skips movement waits for absent actors, and retains
spell rewards until actual recruitment.

The Sandship only marks companions who were aboard as captive. Its kitchen and Sergo dialogue include those temporarily absent companions. Without Popoi, the kitchen advances to the guard-distraction stage without waiting for his rescue; a direct cabin visit reunites a captive Popoi before leaving the ship. It never recruits a character who was not captured. Choosing KAMEHAMEHA at Sergo's plan (or any full-power wave fired below deck while captive) is player-fired: `sandship.js` only arms a hint. The beam whites out the screen, which `sandship-wreck.js` applies after native brightness so it survives the escape door's fade. That door reloads Goku's own room. While wrecked, the native object loader reads through a view (`mod.sandship.read`) that hides fled guards and crew, sets the enemy-map header byte, and appends up to three Kakkara monster records placed on loaded floor collision. Enemy rooms keep about three live objects, so the fleeing NPCs free slots. The breach, soot, alarm and firelight are drawn into the BG layers; flames reuse the Exploder/Fireball cells. Nobody rejoins automatically. Entering the kitchen or cabin starts that captive's rescue (their native walk-ons only arm in the original story order), and the deck (77) starts Geshtar once all are back. The escape script starts the cartridge's boss battle theme (01 04, the Mech Rider's own song, sound-test parameters 04 FF), and while wrecked each room's ship song (25h) is swapped for it at C3:0004. Thanatos's crisis cue (1Bh) was too ominous for a ship under attack. Any punch or wave in the wreck uses the dungeon demolition planner, so bulkheads open. On every ship map, local flight passes over all walls (`openAir`), and hovering on a door marker takes that door through event 7A, whatever side Goku came from. The wreck is also the absorbing state for every unfinished route. Aboard the ship before stage 10, sneaking included, any punch or wave can break bulkheads (`breakable`); five strikes (one per strike, not per redrawn row) blow the ship up: explosions, a white-out, and event 7D runs Geshtar's deck ambush (stage 10, door 1AB, stage 11, 29D) into the Mech Rider with whoever Goku has freed. Every unplanned way off the ship does the same: the L+R roof takeoff (`takeoff`, checked before the ceiling escape), local flight more than four tiles from every walkable region that holds a door or Goku's arrival point (`shipHull`: the void past the rooms, or the desert beyond the deck's hull, which is walkable deck-map floor), or any map change off the ship. After the fight, 2A1 (as compiled, Goku's reaction included) is wrapped: every captive rejoins before its door to map 91, then the party reacts. A Goku left standing inside a wall lifts into a hover. The wreck ends at stage 12. The dunes afterwards (map 91) are a closed basin whose native exit is the crew's "Are you leaving?" (2A7, then 2A8: stage 14, the 2A9 hint, door 194). Flight also crosses the wreckage there, and takeoff leaves through the Kakkara ceiling exit; leaving map 91 any other way than 2A8 sets stage 14 itself and King Kai repeats the 2A9 hint. Northtown's
Dyluck encounter no longer removes Primm or recruits her during a solo run;
its Vampire encounter and native exit/reward flags remain. An older checkpoint
with Primm already captive retains the rescue path. In the new scene, stage 6
removes the NPCs before stage 7 enables Vampire: the native object loader can
run between script commands, and a leftover NPC can crash its boss updater.
Missing party stand-ins
are hidden in the Mana Tree's opening shot as well as in its dialogue.

`shenron-ending.js` composites the summoning into the PPU before brightness
and color math. It reuses map 236's sunset vista from Frieza's Tree scene,
with the dragon behind the native foreground cliff. The reveal pans the
cliff, dragon and distant scenery at different whole-pixel rates. Native
forest tiles replace the destroyed Tree until the wish restores its original
canopy and trunk with a brief glow. Events A3–A6 cue the dragon, wish,
Potos return and end card; event14F starts the separate departure after the
wish and Shenron's farewell. `wish-flight.js` uses the native world texture
for a nighttime perspective ascent, a held seven-Ball apex, then scattering
along fixed headings. Combat loops, speech and the Frieza score stop during
the ending; the departure's air sound ends before the village transition.
42F owns the native dialogue, travel and finale flags. The wish restores the
world, then the native boy actor appears as the revived Randi beside an extra
Goku sprite. The old montage that forcibly adds companions is no longer used.
The full ending state and animation timers survive browser checkpoints.

See [story review](story-review.md) for coverage, scene changes and reproducible
checks. Original dialogue dumps and test screenshots remain private under
`.local/`; the build includes authored dialogue and extraction logic only.


World flight's horizon IRQ selects Mode 7 and ground horizontal scroll. A delayed native NMI can skip the next sky setup at `C0:88FB/8918`, leaving terrain graphics across the sky. At `C0:8903`, `native-flight.js` restores Mode 1 and the cached sky scroll only if the world-flight interrupt vectors are active, overhead view is off, and Mode 7 is still selected. Native HDMA tables, the horizon IRQ and flight physics are unchanged. Ground Mode 7 arenas and the overhead map retain their rendering.

Talking to Water Palace Jema before the plate approach now routes through `water-palace.js`: the existing Jema walks up the stairs, Goku follows, and the explanation runs once at stage eight before advancing to nine. A fixed virtual event allocation preserves mid-walk checkpoint replay. At the idle field boundary, `native-story.js` also removes stale duplicate Jemas from older checkpoints without changing flags or interrupting choreography. Fire Palace maps 327 and 240 supply only the prerequisites of their local pressure plates when flight bypasses earlier rooms; their native orb and boss events still have to run.


### Frieza route and native saves

`engine/frieza-events.js` occupies verified one-byte END event slots A7, A8, AC, AD, AF, BF, C1–C3, C5–CC, D6–D9, DD, F6, 129 and 12A. Frieza is mainline: event 4A4 starts his entrance regardless of Ball count, and an early Fortress visit does the same if he has not appeared. Legacy offer IDs now unconditionally enter the scene. Three theft text variants cover zero, some, and all seven collected Balls; recovering his pouch never invents missing palace rewards. Native music event 7D7 begins before his first reveal.

The Emperor's death, reveal and theft share altar map 431. `frieza-intro.js` finds his actual OAM chest position for a thin pink beam from stage right, a black impact frame, white body flash and native sparks. Only afterward does the native camera stream upward over 300 frames; Frieza enters from the right and stays beyond the Seed while Goku approaches. Outside on map 195, the red Death Ball plunges entirely below the picture over 100 frames, holds underground for 50, then erupts through staggered native explosions. The Tree pursuit retains its original ash-field aftermath; `tree-return` and `tree-wake` cover the native map/visibility handoff so neither a hidden Goku nor a one-frame Randi appears.

The normal Fortress route runs F6: native records load Dyluck and Thanatos before entry, and the camera frames them with Goku, the present companions and Frieza. The ki transfer targets Thanatos specifically. Frieza flies above the screen and clears his scene. Event 71 starts the original 60-frame brightness fade and waits 70 frames before CF4E=6 exposes Dark Lich; the native door then loads his streamed body and song 0C. Two health thresholds permit bounded, saved ki boosts with offscreen taunts. Native victory event 42D routes to 12A, which marks the trial complete and starts C1. Goku returns to base form and Frieza descends from the top center; the battle begins at his final scene position. Kai tells Primm that the Balls can bring Dyluck back. Popoi rises to Goku's left, clear of Frieza and the dialogue window. Quick battle checkpoints skip the warm-up; `?start=frieza` plays it solo, and `?start=thanatos` recruits Primm and Popoi for the complete sequence.

Frieza is virtual entity 12, targeted by the normal beam/punch/teleport code. Returning discs stagger him and deal 12,000 of 96,000 HP. Normal attacks deal 15% damage, rising to 65% during stagger. Death Orbs queue 310 native damage; discs queue 230 and finger lasers 170, with 48 frames of shared hit grace. Ground phase one halves those amounts and fires one projectile at a time. He rushes between safe positions but holds still while steering discs. HP thresholds at 64,000 and 32,000 trigger one power surge each; damage cannot skip them. The first surge lasts 380 frames: Goku agrees to wait, Frieza reaches his muscular form at frame 270 and the floor fractures. The second surge holds four collateral shots with establishment, impact and aftermath, intercut with two escalating aerial teleport fights. `aerial-melee.js` scrolls original flight-cloud cells behind native-sized punch/kick sprites and Exploder impacts. A 240-frame surface pullback leads to an 855-frame orbital pause with Luka's reaction, Frieza's monologue and Goku's reply. Ring menus pause projectiles and phase clocks. No additional boss health bar is drawn.

`frieza-arena.js` records bounded scars and debris bursts. Their footprint is clipped to verified walkable floor cells. The PPU alters only BG1 floor pixels, preserving native actors, windows, collision, doors and map bytes. Orbs, disc counters, eruptions and surges break the arena; no tile-grid patch or broken floor atlas is involved. Afterimages and recoil communicate motion; native charge cells warn of attacks. Four fixed disc tilts replace continuous rotation, and finger lasers use the same fixed-heading native beam strip as orbital combat. Native Exploder cells replace procedural eruption columns; attack trails and aiming lines are omitted. Impact/rubble/rush cues reuse processed DBZ samples at individual gains and pitch, with a separate sustained enemy charging loop. All state is serialized.

The escape still uses door 3F7, party setup 47C and native command 1F04. CF41/44/45 advance monotonically to the post-continent state without completing Pure Land or the Fortress. At flyby end, a one-shot native camera request at C0:8779 changes the overhead map to the rear view for Kai's sky warning. No PPU matrices or HDMA tables are replaced.

`engine/frieza-crisis.js` owns the authored five-minute dialogue and world-state transition. The deadline is persisted story state, not a real-time game-over timer. Goku accepts it but considers it ample time; everyone else takes the danger seriously. NPC interactions prepend one native warning, then resume the exact original event pointer, preserving shop, inn and save choices. Greetings serialize their continuation for browser checkpoints. Jema's 4E0 and the Mana Tree's 5F8 retain native choreography with crisis-specific text; Frieza's Death Ball is responsible for the damaged Tree. Clearing the Pure Land cloud barrier no longer destroys or craters the Tree. The radar repeats the deadline until the restoration wish repairs the core.

Arena 246's native object records are hidden during Frieza's own scenes and battle; they remain active during the Thanatos trial. BG2 is reserved for that boss's streamed body; its display is masked during the custom encounter while the original BG1 floor, BG3 dialogue and native PPU registers remain intact. Popoi's membership is recorded before a guest is added and restored conditionally in the wish. The ordinary poison/sleep form break remains unchanged outside this route.

Native save sidecars are keyed to the original ROM and exact SRAM record hash. C7:55D9 captures mod state at the start of a save; battery writes finish before the sidecar is hashed. C7:558F identifies the validated record (including a backup); C7:55C5 restores mod state after native RAM loading. Four $400-byte slots each have a $1000-offset backup. No bytes are inserted into SRAM or ROM. Overwritten or unmatched records reject the old sidecar.

The `?start=` selector supports `trial` (Goku versus Vegeta), `late`, `intro`, `hexas`, `tree`, `fortress`, `buffy`, `slime`, `flight`, `frieza`, `battle`, `orbit`, `space`, `beast`, `good-ending`, `bad-ending` and `explosion`, alongside the original `title` and `sword` presets. **Test scenes** exposes all links and buttons. `quick-boot.js` runs native new-game initialization with temporary event 400/106 redirects, then restores every cartridge byte in `finally` before capture. Late starts bypass the bridge/pod and seed only the requested test progress. Frame batches retain native CPU/APU execution with periodic PPU frames. The Beast still enters through event 429 to initialize its Mode 7 art; endings use event 42F and Frieza combat uses its real phase transitions. Browser-cached states are scoped to the preset revision, cartridge hash and compiled story layout. Loading a preset preserves the live battery RAM and never replaces the manual checkpoint. Unknown query values fall back to ordinary startup. No cartridge or savestate is distributed. Older Frieza save metadata acquires the crisis state without replaying the entrance.

Fire Palace window recesses in tileset 23 have walkable native descriptors but contain brick/arch art. They are excluded from demolition's floor sources and endpoints, preventing those bricks from replacing a blasted passage. Debris now emits one bounded burst per redraw row, deduplicates the two map layers, and draws before Goku and the beam.

Earlier Death Ball validation covered the native twilight handoff, shop/inn continuation, solo/full-party Tree scenes, native GAME FILE persistence and the original flight camera. Source checkpoints are tagged `checkpoint/pre-frieza-2026-10-14` and `checkpoint/pre-death-ball-2026-10-14`. The revised mainline/finale checks are listed below; this remains targeted coverage rather than a complete new playthrough.

### Fortress beam and final consequences

`world-ki.js` renders a single beam along the flight camera’s forward axis. Hit testing still uses native world bearings; a culled Fortress projection can no longer steer the beam sideways. The destruction sequence locks flight input, pauses the docking hook, and plays a 186-frame planet cutaway before returning through the existing native landing and Beast setup. The cutaway’s clock and target survive checkpoints.

Only a fully charged Super Saiyan wave breaks the Fortress shield. Other waves stop at the shield and rebound without setting destruction, crater or landing flags. Luka and Goku's two-page response has a cooldown. `fortress-collapse.js` adds bounded floor scars, native spell-cell explosions, debris and red background pulses to the damaged deck on map255; it never rewrites map tiles or collision. A native sound-dispatch call at the world-loop landing boundary starts crisis cue 1B before touchdown. The map loader's ordinary cue 26 is replaced on this route, while the subsequent Beast cues remain native. Collapse and shield effects preserve exact checkpoint replay.

`world-texture.js` decodes the loaded cartridge’s world map, tile pixels and day/night palettes without Node dependencies. `planet-view.js` draws the globe, outward beam, dust, planetary destruction and King Kai’s tiny planet into a 256×224 RGB555 PPU surface. It leaves Mode7 matrices, HDMA and VRAM alone. Native ending dialogue remains above the picture; the aerial cut has no radar or combat HUD.

The shared orbital/ending sky uses a fixed seeded scatter with independent coordinates and varied brightness, replacing the visible diagonal star rows. During combat, `orbit-camera.js` projects stars and distant bodies from the globe's accumulated travel and zoom, with depth-dependent parallax and whole-pixel output. Their positions and wrapped impact locations replay exactly from checkpoints.

Planet destruction fractures the actual globe image into 64 deterministic Voronoi masks. Cracks follow their boundaries before separation; the irregular pieces spin, drift outward and fade with hot edges and shaded undersides. Inverse pixel sampling keeps rotating faces solid. Fragments are derived from the globe texture, so checkpoint replay needs no extra saved art and no square tile grid is exposed.

Event42F selects the ending from actual progression, never from a dialogue choice. Good: seven earned Balls, Frieza defeated, upgraded Beast defeated, Fortress intact. Shenron restores the core, victims and craters, the scene visits living Randi in Potos, and Goku leaves for Kai’s planet. Bad: the planet explodes, Goku teleports away, and Kai condemns his recklessness. No Balls are delivered, no wish executes and no crisis flag is repaired. DE/E4 are verified unused native event slots for the good departure and Kai arrival. A3–A6 use outcome-specific phases for both endings.

The good ending uses the original reunion music (event 73A) after the wish and in the restored village. `ki-sound.js` mutes native music during the separate 480-frame Shenron/Ball scattering shot while preserving its air and spark effects. Native waits use five frames per unit. `ending-departure.js` keeps the village visible for Goku's brief base-form power-up and upward launch, bridges through white into the distant planet, then fades to Kai over a 300-frame departure. Kai's good epilogue also keeps Goku in base form.


### Playable orbital finale and Snake Way epilogue

`frieza-orbit.js` owns independent screen-space movement and projectiles. Native party coordinates and map data stay on valid Fortress terrain. L+Y charges a sustained blue beam; ordinary Y fires rapid ki, B attacks nearby, L+B teleports and A increases flight speed. Shots follow Goku's facing and can miss. Frieza dodges approaching attacks, favors beams and finger lasers, and occasionally uses discs or a Death Orb. Punching immediately after teleporting triggers a four-hit exchange with camera travel, native impact cells and solid hit cues. A full beam can deflect Death Balls into distant bodies. Destroyed moon/planet state is serialized. A countered projectile can reach a distant body only when it already lies near the shot direction. The spell travels visibly for 120 frames, with one explosion at a time and a separate aftermath. `orbit-debris.js` lets aimed shots destroy the visible moon and planets without a destruction cooldown. Deterministic irregular chunks drift into an orbiting ring, larger pieces deal contact damage with a grace period, and further shots or beams reduce them to harmless persistent dust. Luna has one delayed, nonblocking moon reaction. The native ring remains available and pauses all fight clocks, including debris.

`orbit-menu.js` keeps native rings inside the screen with a tiny Goku preview at their center. Opening and closing the ring leave the planet, stars and other fighters at their paused battle positions. The ground actor's duplicate body and shadow are hidden, while HUD portraits and full-screen status/equipment artwork remain native. Menu anchors do not move the underlying Fortress actor or change collision data.

`orbit-pixels.js` uses sixteen fixed headings and whole-pixel positions; homing discs can turn one heading every twelve frames. Legacy saved angles are converted once. `orbit-effects.js` samples the original Lucent Beam strip at those fixed headings; Frieza's beam shares the pink/magenta ramp of his finger laser and Death Discs. Charges, sparks and explosions reuse native cells, while rising auras use the shared pixel flame animation. `death-ball-art.js` decodes original Dark Force cells into twelve frames with moving outer sparks around a stable core. Small combat orbs retain violet colors; cinematic Death Balls have a separate red/orange/gold texture with bounded, even-pixel growth. No extracted cartridge art is distributed. The ROM-derived globe rotates in eight-unit texture increments with four shade bands. Only attacks, charges and impacts emit spell cells. This is a browser rendering constraint, not a claim that this compositor executes on SNES hardware.

At 6,000 HP, Frieza retreats while the camera widens over 150 frames. Goku automatically charges for 108 frames and fires; the counter travels for 72 frames, then holds contact for 48 frames before the struggle. This finale is beam against beam. Fresh B or Y presses increase pressure; holding a button does not. The junction moves gradually, with at least 660 frames before breakthrough. Failed struggles queue native damage, recoil, and automatically charge another attempt. Victory sustains the beam through Frieza's defeat and waits through the original boss explosion and whiteout before retrieving the pouch. The native acquire sound precedes the full victory fanfare. A quiet beat precedes Goku's descent toward the enlarging globe; a cloud fade joins the native Fortress view with a feet-first landing. After 84 landing frames, the original interpreter resumes the upgraded Beast route. All clocks and camera origins survive checkpoints. Older ground-only phase-three checkpoints enter the orbital phase through its normal transition.

`frieza-orbit-view.js` renders tiny character sprites, large attacks and the real ROM-derived globe without writing Mode 7 registers. `ki-art.js` shares Dragon Ball art and cartridge-derived Death Orbs across ground combat, space and Shenron's wish. `frieza-score.js` plays an original entrance cue and eight-voice arrangements of the requested Frieza and Vegeta themes, all rendered in a worker from the cartridge's own BRR instrument bank (`mana-instruments.js`, `spc-score.js`); sources and rights are recorded in CREDITS.md. It ducks the native soundtrack and stops on pause or mute. At Frieza's defeat it keeps playing under the native explosions and fades with the game's own fade command into the whiteout. `boss-victory.js` dispatches the original Mantis Ant sequence: opening sound 02 94 0F 80, repeated explosion bursts, and the native fade command. Frieza flashes red and white, followed by the original red/white dotted oval; the whiteout holds through the final burst. As after Mantis Ant, the death cue sounds on the fatal hit and the victory fanfare starts 375 frames later, inside the whiteout. The full 540-frame fanfare finishes before the pouch arrives with acquire command 02 D8 00 88, which still sounds after the fanfare's sample upload, and its 120-frame hold precedes travel motion. Victory clocks wait for every queued cue to dispatch, including a song cached from a previous boss. Defeat does not replay the Kamehameha voice. A private-ROM regression compares these commands and their timing against the unmodified Mantis Ant fight.

`beam-detonation.js` ends both beam struggles with a rolling cluster of native Exploder cells and Fireball embers. Training resumes only after the full blast and tail, whether Goku wins or loses. Thanatos's received ki uses the shared magenta aura behind native actor pixels, with alternating-frame transparency; arriving charge orbs disappear instead of stacking on his face.

`audio-output.js` keeps native PCM and custom cues on one clock. It streams each frame's raw 32 kHz DSP output to `audio-worklet.js`, which resamples on the audio thread. Buffering adapts from 50 ms up to 160 ms after underruns, which fade out instead of clicking, and ±0.5% rate control keeps the queue on target. Ki effects use the estimated stream time from the worklet's ~20 ms reports. Catch-up bursts trim stale audio instead of accumulating delay. Without AudioWorklet, it falls back to per-frame buffer nodes with 25 ms of lead and a 75 ms ceiling. Pause, mute, fast-forward, ROM changes and checkpoint restores clear pending PCM; ongoing effect tails survive clock corrections. The planet compositor resolves scene state once per scanline, avoiding repeated space-state checks for every pixel of ground battles.

`battle-retry.js` retains its adapter name for existing tools but no longer restores a phase. Fatal native damage during Thanatos, either ground Frieza phase, orbital Frieza or the Mana Beast starts the saved `boss-rush-death.js` sequence. Ground deaths keep native actor animation running for 360 frames: Goku reverts at frame 18, tumbles, and shows the original ghost palette and reaper. A scoped C1:E77B gate skips the native all-party-dead event 7FF and boss-victory events 42D/42F during this sequence, so neither a wake-up/Continue warp nor a companion's last hit can interrupt it. Orbital deaths freeze gameplay immediately, retain the battle camera, and render base Goku falling and shrinking toward the surface. Both hold the death scene for five seconds, fade over one second, remain fully black for 48 frames, then establish and destroy the planet before Game Over. Native execution stays frozen after the ground fade; no health, inventory or battery data is restored. Death clocks, orbital camera and native animation survive checkpoints. Start returns to the title without rerunning the URL preset. After a Frieza victory, the shorter native aftermath uses healing command 2F01 and a Zenkai remark before the Beast.

The King Kai epilogue uses an opaque overhead map of his lawn, house and car with Snake Way among golden clouds; it does not use the orbital starfield. `kai-planet.js` renders King Kai's poses and an independently walking Bubbles, with deterministic targets, pauses and collision around the speakers. The ending checkpoint deep-copies Bubbles' RNG, position, target and animation clock. Native dialogue stays above the map in both outcomes. The intro pod's airborne frames omit the ground shadow; it returns only after impact.

Earlier finale validation: 221 unit tests; native solo, Primm-only, Popoi-only and full-party good-ending routes; playable orbit movement, injury, beam counters, ring pause, exact checkpoint replay and the charged/mash finisher; normal and fast-forwarded pod intros; and original-score pause/mute/mix checks passed. Separate good/bad epilogue checks verify the Snake Way map, Bubbles movement and exact replay. This is targeted regression coverage, not another full game playthrough.

### Mana Beast background correction

Local flight on map 253 has its own bounded arena at native coordinates X=184–408, Y=292–432. It does not reuse ordinary dungeon void classification. Goku can hover over its open sky and carry CPU companions; the camera dispatcher receives zero movement deltas during field play so no ordinary map rows overwrite streamed Mode 7 boss graphics. World takeoff remains locked during the fight. The normal Beast receives 48,000 HP and half incoming Goku damage; the fed Beast retains 65,535 HP with one-eighth damage. HP initialization runs once and preserves wounds from older checkpoints. Native attack, damage-queue and defeat code still own the battle.

The repeated gray glyphs on map253 also occurred with idle input and no terrain modifications. In the emulator, Mode 7's outside-map character-zero fill followed tilemap entry zero instead of sampling character zero directly. Streaming Beast animation changes that tilemap entry, so its art repeated across the empty sky. `vendor/snes/pipu.js` now selects character zero directly for this overflow mode, matching [bsnes's renderer](https://github.com/bsnes-emu/bsnes/blob/master/bsnes/sfc/ppu-fast/mode7.cpp). Inside-map tiles, transparent overflow, wrapping, horizontal flip and EXTBG priority retain their behavior.

All 225 unit tests passed. Real-ROM checks exercised 1,440 frames each of idle, beam, teleport and local-flight input during the Beast's streamed animation, verified correct overflow samples and nonempty boss art, and reproduced exact pixels after checkpoint restore. High-altitude world-flight rendering also passed. Fortress checks cover base-form and partial-wave deflection, full-power destruction, damaged landing, crisis music, and continuation through the native Beast to the bad ending. The earned seven-seed route still forces the upgraded Beast and reaches the good ending after victory. All three public-build ROM-loading checks passed. This remains targeted regression coverage.

The direct-start / arena-flight update passes 230 unit tests and 11 targeted browser checks. These cover every finale query, manual upload after opening a query link, unchanged cartridge hashes and battery/manual slots, legacy title/sword checkpoints, irregular-fragment pixel replay, all four arena edges, hovering, a real punch against both Beast variants, 1,440 frames per action through its streamed animation, and upgraded-Beast victory through the good ending. Public builds continue to exclude ROMs and savestates.