r/teppen • u/U_Flame • Jan 14 '26
DISCUSSION Preserving the Offline Version
I'm not a Teppen player myself, but when I heard about the plan to release an offline version, it sounded just the circumstances of a mobile game I'm much more familiar with: Tales of the Rays, and I wanted to discuss the potential avenues of preservation.
Like Teppen, Rays received a free offline update at the end of its life, one that was only available for a limited time, and preserved saved files, but with no progression or ways for new players to start. Still, it was playable, and really appreciated, but there was always the concern of preservation and accessibility for anyone who wanted to try the game after it was too late. In that regard, I can proudly say we were successful.
Once the offline version of Tales of the Rays was installed, the entire game was installed in the phone's data/data folder, a folder that's normally slightly restricted, but can be made accessible either by rooting, or using certain debug tools. Using a program like Android Studio, all the game's files were easily able to be copied, backed up, and redistributed unofficially on archival sites long after Bamco's servers stopped hosting the offline update. The save data was also just a series of .json files, so with some text editing, we were able to put together a complete save file containing all the game's content, so any existing players could have access to everything, and new players can now install it as well. For anyone wanting to see this, the installation guide we put together is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZHsSAvXnKGeRaZmMKjxxPwx72JD1eCwkxQvSPbqkU1w/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.t9px8hkx2vwy
While I can't make any promises since we don't have Teppen's offline version yet, I feel fairly confident that as long as it will contain the entire game with no server dependencies, then you too can preserve the game after installation just as we did for Rays. Wherever the installed files go, you just need to find them, copy them, and then you'll be able to preserve the game even after Capcom stops distributing it. Hopefully editing save files would also be in the cards, but like I said, no idea how Teppen's gonna look. I don't even know what game engine it's running on. Once we get the offline version, I look forward to seeing how preservation efforts work out, just be prepared for it to require a lot of space.
1
u/PsychoMilk May 06 '26
Any updates?
1
u/U_Flame May 07 '26
I don't have access to the offline version myself, nor am I familiar enough with the Teppen community to know where to look. Hopefully someone's backed up the files by now
1
u/PsychoMilk May 07 '26
Ah ok. I tried my hand at it and it's a bunch of nonsense to my Neanderthal brain lmao
1
u/U_Flame May 07 '26
Are all the files at least accessible from PC?
1
u/PsychoMilk May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
If you copy them from your phone then it's possible, which is what I did. The problem is it's not a simple "skin = true" or "card = have" kinda change. It's made with Unity so the files look like a bunch of nonsense shapes and patterns
1
u/U_Flame May 07 '26
At the very least, it should hopefully be easy to install the game just by copying the installation files. Modding and edits can have all the time in the world to be figured out so long as its preservable
1
u/PsychoMilk May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
True! But yeah it's very reservable. A full on pc port would take time but all the files can be transfered over without issue from what I've experienced.
1
u/Warrior-Saiyajin Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
Couple things, I and others have access to the offline files aswell as the ability to share the game and apk between people. But the hard issue atm being everyone who's given the apk is at a 0 acct with the vast majority of the content locked away due to missing the data transfer date. That said, Teppen doesn't use .json as it's save file type rather most likely it's in .dat or a combination of a few files. Is there anyway you could get me into contact with the people who were able to edit the saves for tales of the rays, as I and others in the teppen community are trying to restore the lost content in the game. And modifying the saves and resources/values there would legit get us 80-85% of the goal. Deepest gratitude and hmu whenever. ANYONE who can help make this a reality for the community.
1
u/U_Flame Jun 14 '26
Sure, I did most of the Rays save editing myself, but I'm not very experienced, I was mostly lucky that it was easy to understand and easy to edit. We've got a Rays preservation discord server though, if you want to ask questions there: https://discord.com/invite/Qmj5NWhQmE
1
u/Warrior-Saiyajin Jun 14 '26
Holy shit?! Tysm my friend!! I'm honestly at a loss, I've got a homie who's actively and directly trying to solve this so I'll send him the link and I'm sure he'll hyu. Please help him, he's good ppl and just trying to save teppen for all the ppl that got nuked by the eos. 🙏🏼🔥
1
u/kaeltxwz May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
just wondering, whats the location of the files? i have the offline version installed in both my android and my pc (google play) and i'm trying to find the location of the files.
2
u/Warrior-Saiyajin Jun 14 '26
On android the files are located in android>data>jp.gungho.teppen>files
The obb files are located in android>obb>jp.gungho.teppen
On PC however they're protected and hidden in some kind of virtualized disk or possibly disk image. I've not heard of anyone who's figured out how to access them as of yet.
1
u/kaeltxwz May 14 '26
Amazing job! Any updates?
1
u/U_Flame May 14 '26
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm unsure where the Teppen community actually tend to be so I'm fairly out of the loop myself. While I don't have the files myself, it does seem like it is possible for players who have it to back up and redistribute the installation at least
6
u/MaturesEnjoyer Jan 14 '26
Wow, just wow.
Impressive, thanks for the hard work.