Animal Crossing Broken Codes & Bugs Fixing Guide

In the original Animal Crossing, players find joy in the game's serene environment and engaging activities. However, like any complex game, it's not without its programming oversights. This guide will explain exactly how each bug works and show the programmatic solution on how to potentially "fix" them.

1. Tree Growth Bug

One of the most perplexing bugs involves the growth of trees. Interestingly, planting a tree in one area of your village could inadvertently cause a sapling in a different, distant area to die. This happens due to the game's acre system, which divides the map into segments that the camera shifts between as you move.

What Happens?

When you plant a sapling at the edge of an acre, the game checks if nearby spaces are clear to allow the tree to grow. However, due to a bug, if a sapling is planted at the bottom of an acre, the game mistakenly checks a space in an entirely different acre. For example, planting at the bottom of acre B5 mistakenly triggers a check in acre C2. If C2 has a tree or building, the sapling in B5 will die.

The Fix:

This issue can be resolved by adjusting the game's code to correctly reference the adjacent acre instead of a distant one. The game needs to update its array indexing to check the correct spaces around newly planted saplings.

2. Missing Sakura Weather

The game features a cherry blossom event in early April where petals are supposed to fall from trees. However, a lighter version of this event, intended for April 5th through the 7th, never occurs due to an incorrect reference to a 'light snow' effect, which is not possible in April.

What Happens?

The lighter cherry blossom weather event does not trigger because the game mistakenly references a weather condition that does not occur in April.

The Fix:

Correct the game's reference from 'light snow' to 'light cherry blossom' in the weather settings to ensure that this beautiful event occurs as intended.

3. Flying Snails

Releasing snails causes them to fly away as if they had wings, which is both amusing and incorrect. This bug affects the gameplay realism, as snails are not supposed to fly.

What Happens?

When snails are released, they sometimes fly away due to a bug that treats them like winged insects.

The Fix:

Modify the release mechanism for snails to ensure that they are set down gently on the ground, aligning their behavior with their real-life counterparts.

4. Incorrect Town Rating

A startup bug incorrectly penalizes players for trash in the town dump by misidentifying the dump's location, leading to an unfair decrease in town rating.

What Happens?

On startup, the game checks an incorrect location for the dump and penalizes the town rating if trash is found outside the actual dump boundaries.

The Fix:

Adjust the game's startup code to correctly identify and check the dump's actual location to prevent false penalties and ensure accurate town ratings.

5. Missing Coconuts

Coconuts that should wash up on the island beach are absent due to an item table size error, which excludes them from the possible items that can spawn.

What Happens?

The game fails to spawn coconuts on the island beach because the item spawn table does not include them due to its incorrect size.

The Fix:

Update the item table size to include coconuts, allowing these tropical fruits to appear on the island beach as intended.

6. Incorrect Item IDs

Certain e-Reader cards give items that do not match their descriptions, such as receiving a fish instead of a musical instrument.

The Fix:

Update the item IDs in the e-Reader card's dot code to match the intended gifts.

7. Tortimer's Random Diaries

The function designed to gift a random diary on New Year's Day excludes the 16th diary due to an off-by-one error.

The Fix:

Adjust the random function call to include the full range of diaries, ensuring all are possible gifts.

8. Impossible Oranges

Players with certain native fruits cannot receive oranges as gifts from villagers due to a flawed random selection process.

The Fix:

Revise the fruit gifting logic to include all fruit types, possibly using a list that excludes the native fruit for fairness.

9. Incorrect Harvest Moon Dates

The Harvest Moon Festival dates are occasionally incorrect due to flawed lunisolar calculations.

The Fix:

Correct the pre-calculated dates for the Harvest Moon Festival to align them with the actual lunar events.

10. Buggy Beta Textures

Some beta maps display incorrect textures due to references to outdated Nintendo 64 draw functions.

The Fix:

Update the texture references in these maps to use the correct GameCube draw functions, resolving display issues.

11. Paper Airplane Softlock

Throwing a paper airplane can lock the player's controls, trapping them in a non-interactive state.

The Fix:

Reassign the player state during the airplane throw to one that allows control to return after the action, like mimicking a different non-locking action.

These are just a few examples of the quirky bugs found in Animal Crossing. Each bug, from the mismanagement of tree growth to weather anomalies and beyond, can be addressed with specific code adjustments. By understanding and potentially fixing these issues, players can enjoy a smoother and more predictable game experience.