DS game only Header
Numeric metadata for this overlay as read from the overlay table at ROM
offset 0x8DE00 (per-entry stride 32 bytes). Function
counts, data-item counts, and the call-graph fan-out are from a Ghidra
11.3.1 headless auto-analysis pass.
Reading the binary
The overlay ships on the cart at file ID 177 under the BLZ code-LZ compression wrapper (the same backward-LZ scheme Nintendo uses for executable ARM9 code).
At load time the engine reads the overlay table entry at ROM offset
0x8DE00 + 177 * 0x20, allocates the destination
RAM region at 0x021fb3c0, decompresses
the body in-place (if compressed), and resolves any external
relocations.
To inspect this overlay outside the running game, decompress
overlay/overlay_177.bin with
ndspy.codeCompression.decompress() (Python ndspy library)
and load the resulting plaintext into Ghidra or
IDA at base address 0x021fb3c0. The
raw Ghidra auto-analysis dump used to populate this page lives at
notes/overlay_knowledgebase/raw/ov177.json;
the per-overlay descriptive markdown is at
notes/overlay_knowledgebase/ov177.md.
Embedded strings
No UTF-16 LE strings are embedded directly in this overlay's binary. Any text it displays at runtime comes from a container file loaded via the content cache.
Container references
This overlay references no container files β it is pure code (or reads only from globals shared with the persistent ARM9 binary).
Function list
Functions Ghidra auto-identified inside this overlay's RAM range.
Names prefixed FUN_ are auto-generated from the function's
entry address; size is in bytes; the "calls" column counts both
intra-overlay branches and external ARM9 call targets. The "strings"
column counts how many UTF-16 LE strings each function references.
Show all 3 functions
| # | Address | Size | Calls | Strings | Role hint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0x021fb428 | 356 | 20 | 0 | code |
| 2 | 0x021fb5ac | 32 | 1 | 0 | trampoline / small helper |
| 3 | 0x021fb5d4 | 12 | 1 | 0 | trampoline / small helper |
Open questions & conflicts
Open questions / unknowns
- Auto-analysis identified 3 functions covering 400 of 640 overlay bytes.
- Function names are auto-generated `FUN_<addr>`. Manual renaming based on call-graph + string-ref analysis is a follow-up.
- BSS size is 0 bytes; Ghidra-imported overlay does not include BSS so any references into the BSS range appear as unresolved.
Conflicts with the prior shallow pass
- No major conflicts detected with prior-pass `overlay_role_final.json` record.
Source
- Per-overlay markdown:
notes/overlay_knowledgebase/ov177.md - Raw Ghidra dump:
notes/overlay_knowledgebase/raw/ov177.json - Overlay-system explainer: overlays system
- Plain-English overlay primer: overlay knowledgebase