geNorNics Gene Header

67 65 6E 65 | gt st ## 00 | so sm

Each Creatures gene begins with a 'header' that identifies the gene and its basic characteristics.

67 65 6E 65

This is a literal translation of the word 'gene' into hexadecimal code, and serves as the marker for the beginning of each gene. The genome as a whole ends with '67 65 6E 64' - gend.

gt st

These two characters define the gene type and gene subtype, which together describe which category the gene falls into.

##

This character identifies the specific gene within a type/subtype category. All genes on the geNorNics subtype pages are ordered by this gene ID number.

00

This byte may be an indicator of whether a gene is a duplicate gene, but this has not been confirmed.

so

The 'switch-on' time for the gene - at what stage of life it becomes active.

• 00 - embryo
• 01 - child
• 02 - youth
• 03 - adolescent (teen)
• 04 - adult
• 05 - senior
• 06 - old

Please note that there are seven life stages, as described in the owner's manual, but there are no genes that switch on at 06 in the original generation 1 genome (although the Forest and Ron genomes contain one gene that switches on at 06).

sm

Special thanks to Cameron Paine and MaDuesing, for providing the suggestions which helped crack this byte.

The 'sex dependence' of the gene - whether it is only active in females, in males, in both. AND the 'mutability' information, describing whether the gene can be duplicated, mutated, deleted, or some combination of those three possibilities.

All the values can be represented with the last five of eight bits as follows:

bit # 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0  00 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  01 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1  03 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1  07 - 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1  0F - 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1  11 - 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1  17 - 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1

Bit 0 - mutability Bit 1 - duplication Bit 2 - deletion Bit 3 - male-specific gene Bit 4 - female-specific gene

In summary:

   01  =  Mutable
   03  =  Mutable  Duplicable
   07  =  Mutable  Duplicable  Deletable
   0F  =  Mutable  Duplicable  Deletable  Male
   11  =  Mutable                         Female
   17  =  Mutable  Duplicable  Deletable  Female

This information implies that the following genes are not naturally mutable (have a 00 in this byte):

• Brain Lobes - 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9.
• Receptors - moving from one life stage to another, also death and 'languish when weak.'
• Reactions - eating for two, the IV injections, three of the four Purple Mountain reactions.
• Initial Concentrations - aging
• Genus
• Poses - all
• Gaits - all
• Instincts - eat food

Thus, any changes in these genes are either due to gene editing or program errors.