MMGen: The Mega Man Password Generator
Version 1.0.0 By Firehawke Rendant
Released on 11/28/2001
Special thanks to NS for the hosting and webdesign!
http://www.oldwarez.com/mmgen [should be up as of Dec 1st, 2001]


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This program is FREEWARE. Please distribute to anyone who wants it, just don't charge for it!


Finally.. it's four years overdue, but here you have it. MMGen.

MMGen is a password generator for several Mega Man games that is quite simple to use.
Choose your desired game from the list, then click the buttons and move the sliders to create
the password you want. It's that simple.


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Known problems:
Nothing. It has been tested, and SHOULD be 100%.


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Future intentions:
I'm looking over the possibility of adding the X series to the generator. The complexity of the
password system is a bit daunting a task, though, as there are at least two or three different
password bases that are seemingly chosen at random. I have some texts on the operation of the
X series passwords, but they give "use this alternate if this doesn't work" choices in a number
of places. This makes it very difficult to code a generator that always gives correct passwords.


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Credits where Credits are due:
Some information (where I had holes in my own information) was obtained from M. Paugh's 
excellent Mega Man Homepage at http://www.ibis-research.com/MM/

Do check the site out, it definitely is one of the best Mega Man pages on the internet if not
THE best.

In having taken the information from there, I credit the sources themselves which filled the
blanks. Actually, I'll credit all of them, even the ones I already had information in duplicate
of, because their hard work deserves it:

Mega Man 2: John Snow & Nintendo Power magazine
Mega Man 3: Kumog
Mega Man 4: Protoman
Mega Man 5: Thump Chan
Mega Man 6: Thump Chan
Mega Man 7: Anonymous Source
All of the Above: M. Paugh

Thanks to NS for the hosting, and for creating the page (I'm too lazy. ;P)
Thanks to Akiya, Dave W, Tenshi, Mystic, Ford, and Mitshulis for the beta testing!
Thanks to you for actually downloading this. ;)

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Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Why can't I choose energy tanks in Megaman 4? 5? 6?
A: Because the password system for those games doesn't save the number of tanks you've gained.


Q: Why is MMGen four years overdue?
A: I lost the source code to the original version, as well as all the reference materials I'd
   collected on how the password systems work, in a hard drive crash in 1997. I could not find
   any of the material for several years, and finally put it aside. When I found the 
   information again in late November 2001, I started from scratch and had a working generator
   for all of the games supported in this version in less than a week's worth of spare time.
   Mega Man 5 and 7 were the hardest to implement.


Q: I found a bug in the generator, or I have suggestions. Where can I email you?
A: You don't. I got enough spam and questions already covered in a FAQ for a FAQ I did several
   years ago, and quite frankly once was enough. I just don't have time to answer dozens of
   emails. If you run into a bug, or have a suggestion, I do lurk on the Retrogames message
   boards. Leave a message there, and chances are I'll see it. Don't expect a reply, though.
   Anonymity is important. ^_^


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P.S.
MMGen will actually allow you to create passwords for situations that are impossible to pull
off normally in Mega Man 6, such as having the B, E, A, and T plates (plus true bosses beaten)
without having beaten Flame Man and Plant Man for the Rush Power and Jet adaptors. Same with 
the energy balancer. Also applies with Mega Man 7, you can create impossible to normally obtain
passwords there too.

EOF