NOTE: Free Enterprise is open source software. For information about developing for the game itself, see the Developer Documentation.

FE also exposes some features meant to assist developers looking to create tools related to the randomizer. These features are outlined here.

Each randomized Free Enterprise ROM contains a small embedded JSON document describing its basic metadata. The length of this document is specified at address 0x1FF000 as a little-endian 32-bit integer, and the JSON document (encoded in utf-8) follows immediately after.

Developers wishing to create automated trackers can make use of the same memory values used by the in-game tracker to read their data, detailed below:

• 7E:1500-1502 : Found key items (1 bit per item)
• 7E:1503-1505 : Used key items (1 bit per item)
• 7E:1510-151F : Checked potential key item locations (1 bit per location)
• 7E:1520-153F : Completed objectives (1 byte per objective, in the same order as in the metadata)
• 70:7080-70A1 : Locations where each key item was found (2 bytes per item)

Bit flags are in little-endian order, as are the 2-byte location values.

Key items are indexed in the following order:

Potential key item locations are indexed/numbered as follows:

Free Enterprise supports custom MSU-1 soundtracks. The process of setting up your ROM/emulator/cart with a custom soundtrack is outside the scope of this document, but for those who wish to build soundtrack lists, the following table indicates which track numbers correspond to which songs. (Note that fade-in and fade-out of MSU-1 tracks is not supported.)

If one of these tracks is missing from your custom soundtrack, the original in-game track will play in its place.

There is an API for programmatically generating seeds from the online randomizer; however it requires an API key to access and is currently restricted to developers working on support software for FE community races. The API doc is pasted here verbatim:

Slapdash FE Seed Generation API
-------------------------------

You will need an API key, you get these by talking to b0ardface.

Overall flow for generating a seed:

1. POST to /api/generate with your desired flags and seed (seed optional)
2. Monitor the status of the generation task at /api/task until finished
3. Retrieve the generated seed info from /api/seed

Note that if you are trying to generate a seed that already has been
cached on the server, you might proceed directly from 1 to 3.

--------------------------------------------------------------

To initiate generation of a seed, make a POST request to:

  /api/generate?key=<api_key>

The body of this request should be a JSON object with the
following format:

  {
    "flags"      : "<desired flag string>",
    "seed"       : "<desired randomization seed; optional>",
    "metaconfig" : <optional metaconfiguration object; see below>
  }

NOTE: For backwards compatibility, the flags and seed values may be
passed as URL query parameters or formdata values in the body instead.
To use metaconfigurations, you must use the JSON parameter format.

The metaconfiguration object, and all fields within it, are optional.
Note that when a metaconfiguration is specified, a "unique" seed is
generated -- rerunning the same generation parameters later will
result in a different seed.

The metaconfig object has this format:

  {
    "hide_flags" : <bool>
  }

The generate call will return a JSON response in one of the following
formats:

  // If the generation process started correctly
  {
    'status' : 'ok',
    'task_id' : <task_id:string>
  }

  // If the requested seed has already been generated
  // and is still cached on the server
  {
    'status' : 'exists',
    'seed_id' : <seed_id:string>
  }

  // If something went wrong
  {
    'status' : 'error',
    'error' : <error_msg:string>
  }

--------------------------------------------------------------

To monitor the status of a generation task in progress,
make a GET query to:

  /api/task?key=<api_key>&id=<task_id>

This will return a JSON response in one of the following formats:

  // If the task is waiting to start
  {
    'status' : 'pending'
  }

  // If the task is in progress
  {
    'status' : 'in_progress'
  }

  // If the task has completed successfully
  {
    'status' : 'done',
    'seed_id' : <seed_id:string>
  }

  // If the task failed
  {
    'status' : 'error',
    'error' : <error_msg:string>
  }

--------------------------------------------------------------

To get info about a generated seed, make a GET query to:

  /api/seed?key=<api_key>&id=<seed_id>

This will return a JSON response in one of the following formats:

  // If successful (example shown below)
  {
    "status":       "ok",
    "version":      "0.3.0",
    "seed":         "KW1FDT93",
    "flags":        "Ji K Ps Ca -rescue T4gr S4 B -whyburn Etf Xsbk",
    "verification": "Claw/Staff/Tent/Feather",
    "url":          "http://ff4fe.com/get?id=bAAMAJGQEAMCpoA4.KW1FDT93"
  }

  // If something went wrong
  {
    'status' : 'error',
    'error' : <error_msg:string>
  }