FF8: can't trigger the movie that begins the Galbadia Garden battle

[Dunan]

Hi folks; long-time Qhimm/Griever fan, first-time poster.

I've got a problem playing the PC version of FF8 (on my Intel Mac) -- I can't trigger the battle with Galbadia Garden on Disc 2, which is supposed to happen automatically when you get close to it.

At first I thought it might have been a Mac-specific problem, but this girl on Youtube is encountering the exact same situation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLoVZdwNyqk

She's on a regular Windows machine and she's got exactly the same problem I've got.

I also used Griever at the very beginning, but I didn't give myself all the GFs, or do anything that might glitch the game, plotwise.  (For example, the problem can't be that Cerberus is already acquired even though he's sitting in Galbadia Garden waiting for you.)

The only changes I made with Griever were to create a "no-drudgery" initial game state, and a few other things:

* 100 of each low-level Fire/Blizzard/Thunder magic to three characters

* Quetzalcoatl's "Card" already learned, and a few of the "--- Bonus" abilities  (I admit, this is out of order)

* Magic-J already learned for a few GFs (so that I could Draw easily)

* Abilityx4 to a few GFs

* Gave myself several level 8 cards, and 20 Elnoyle cards (no one-of-a-kind cards)

* Squall at level 1

The whole game went swimmingly until the infamous scene at Trabia where the heroes learn of their origins.  Then it's off to Centra, but nothing happens when I get close to Galbadia Garden.

Any advice?  Did I accidentally flip a switch or flag something when I used Griever, so that the game thinks that the trigger to that movie is finished?  Can I re-edit the files somehow?

[misterb2001]

have you updated to the latest version?

[Prince Lex]

I wonder if she ever got that fixed, I remember seeing that video years ago.

[Dunan]

have you updated to the latest version?

Latest version of FF8, or of Griever?  I updated FF8 long ago -- version 1.2, maybe? -- and actually played through it once, using Griever that time too, and nothing bad happened.

Come to think of it, I also gave myself 4 Rosetta Stones (no fun playing that guy in the prison over and over) and 60 Fuels (to tool around in rental cars to my heart's content).  I didn't give myself anything that would break the sequence of the game; all I wanted was a no-grinding-needed, no-hassle initial save file.

I can send the save file to people if someone would be kind enough to look at it.  How does the game store your status with these kinds of things?  Is there a simple bit somewhere, 0 = hasn't fought Galbadia, 1= has fought them?  Something more complex?

[Dunan]

Update: I had played the game three years ago on my old PC, and still have the same files from back then, and managed to load one, which ran fine.

I used Griever then, and even gave myself normally-unobtainable magic like Apocalypse and Percent just to see what would happen.  I wonder what caused the game to react like this?  I noticed that I gave myself a few of the "-- Up" stat-raising GF abilities before getting the "-- +20%", etc., prerequisite abilities, and it looks like the girl in the Youtube video did too (she gave her GFs everything).

Could that have affected whatever flag it is that starts the Galbadia Garden battle scene?