These flipper names were determined by Claude (an AI), not recovered from an original author. Each was inferred from a concrete observation in a running, retail-matching build; the experiments below are that supporting evidence, reproduced from the analysis (function references updated to their current names). Treat every name as tentative until confirmed by a human.

Note: The experiments reference fields by raw struct offset (e.g. xDD4, attrs->x0), matching the original derivation; each field's current name is recorded on its @alias tag.

Method

Tooling: Dolphin GDB stub (port 2159) + dolphin-debugger-mcp, with symbols loaded from the matching decomp (config/GALE01). Because the build byte-matches retail GALE01, symbols.txt addresses are the live RAM addresses, so a halted PC / field offset maps directly to source.
Layout: item field offsets are absolute within struct Item. ip = gobj->user_data (gobj + 0x2C); flipper itemVars at ip + 0xDD4; flipper DatAttrs at ip->xC4_article_data->x4_specialAttributes.
Instance addresses are per-spawn; the offsets are stable. (E0-E3 used ip = 0x80d79900; after a game reboot E4/E5 used ip = 0x80d77520.)

Experiments

E0 — Read the static DatAttrs out of RAM

Action: broke at itFlipper_Spawned(); followed ip -> xC4_article_data -> x4_specialAttributes to attrs = 0x80825a44; read 40 bytes. Observed (offset = value): x0=18 x4=25 x8=500 xC=0.8 x10=0.5 x14=10 x18=11.5 x1C=0.131(rad) x20=0.000872 x24=0.8727(rad, = 50 deg).

E1 — Flipper deals damage while airborne (normal throw)

Action: broke at itFlipper_DmgDealt(); threw the flipper into a fighter mid-flight. Observed: xDD4 = 18 (== attrs->x0); xDD8 = 0; Item.xCF4_fighterGObjUnk = 0x80cb2a60 (set), Item.xCEC_fighterGObj = NULL. Deduced: xDD4 is loaded from a flight-timer attr; xDD8 = 0 is the "airborne projectile" state (itFlipper_DmgDealt() took the bounce branch); the dealt handler reads xCF4, the received handler reads xCEC.

E2 — Flight timer counts down and triggers settle (strong throw)

Action: broke at itFlipper_Inflight_Anim() (per flight frame) and itFlipper_Settle(). Threw the flipper into open space; sampled xDD4 each frame; read xD44_lifeTimer and xDD8 immediately before and after itFlipper_Settle(). Observed:

xDD4 over consecutive frames: 25 -> 24 -> 23 (-1/frame); == attrs->x4 at throw (this was the strong throw).
itFlipper_Settle() entry: xDD4 = 0, xDD8 = 0, xD44_lifeTimer = 1400.0.
itFlipper_Settle() return: xDD8 = 1, xD44_lifeTimer = 500.0 (== attrs->x8).

Deduced: xDD4 = flight timer (counts down; reaching 0 triggers settle); x4 = strong-throw flight value (25); xDD8 = settled flag (0 -> 1 on settle); x8 = post-settle lifetime (500).

E3 — Settled flipper strikes a fighter (spin + hitbox)

Action: broke at itFlipper_AddSpinImpulse(), then itFlipper_UpdateSpin(); walked a fighter into the settled, spinning flipper and sampled xDE0/xDE4 over consecutive frames. Observed:

At the hit: caller of itFlipper_AddSpinImpulse() = itFlipper_DmgDealt+0x114 (the settled, xDD8=1 branch); xDDC = 10 (== attrs->x14).
xDE4 (spin velocity): 0 -> 0.528 at the impulse, then per-frame 0.5283 -> 0.5274 -> 0.5266 (decreasing ~0.00087/frame == attrs->x20).
xDE0 (spin angle): 0 -> 0.5274 -> 1.0539, i.e. xDE0 += xDE4 each frame; itFlipper_UpdateSpin() feeds this to HSD_JObjSetRotationX() (the paddle visibly spins).

Deduced: xDDC = hitbox cooldown set from attrs->x14 (10) on a hit; xDE4 = angular velocity (kicked on contact, decays by attrs->x20); xDE0 = accumulated spin angle driving the paddle rotation; x20 = per-frame spin decay; x14 = hitbox interval.

E4 — Hard hit saturates the spin clamp

Action: broke at itFlipper_AddSpinImpulse(); dash/aerial into a freshly-settled flipper (xDE4 = 0). Read the angle arg (f1) and xDE4 before, then xDE4 after via the return address (itFlipper_DmgDealt+0x114). Observed: angle arg f1 = 0.8047 rad (~46 deg); xDE4 before = 0; xDE4 after = 0xbf5f66f3 = -0.8727 (== -attrs->x24; same magnitude bits as x24 = 0x3f5f66f3). Deduced: x24 = maximum |spin velocity|; xDE4 saturates at +/-x24. The angle arg (= MTXDegToRad(x18) * fighter_speed, per itFlipper_SpinFromFighter()) confirms x18 scales fighter speed into spin. This hit's angle + x1C (~0.936) exceeded x24, so it clamped – x18/x1C magnitudes are read (11.5 / 0.131) but their exact split is not isolated from a clamped hit.

E5 — Wall and floor bounce restitution

Action: disassembled itFlipper_Inflight_Coll(); set breakpoints at the two collision-gated vel.x stores: +0x44 (vel.x *= -xC, on wall coll & 0xC) and +0x98 (vel.x *= x10, on floor coll & 1). Threw the flipper into a wall, then skipped it off the floor; read vel.x before (f1) and after (f0). Observed:

Wall (coll = 0x4): vel.x -1.6953 -> +1.3562 (factor -0.800 == -attrs->xC).
Floor (coll = 0x1): vel.x -2.6798 -> -1.3399 (factor 0.500 == attrs->x10).

Deduced: xC = wall/ceiling restitution (0.8; flips and scales vel.x); x10 = floor restitution (0.5; scales vel.x).

E6 — Stage-anchored flipper (Bowser's Target Test)

itFlipper_Spawn() (the only writer of xDE8 = 1 / xDEC = jobj) is called from Ground_801C42AC(), which runs on Target Test stage load and spawns a flipper anchored to each stage joint in stage_info.x280[0xFC..0x103]. It never fires in Training mode (no such joints), which is why E0-E5 only saw xDE8 = 0. Action: entered Bowser's Break the Targets (its course has a flipper obstacle oscillating on a moving joint); broke at itFlipper_UpdateActive() (settled-flipper per-frame); read the itemVars and compared the flipper's pos (ip + 0x4C) to the anchor jobj's world-matrix translation (xDEC + 0x44, column 3). Observed: xDE8 = 1; xDEC = 0x80c2d140 (non-NULL HSD_JObj); xDE4 = 0 (idle, state 5 via itFlipper_Active_Anim()); flipper pos = (20.326, 16.621, 0.0) == anchor jobj world translation (20.326, 16.621, 0.0), bit-for-bit identical (0x41a29c00 0x4184f7d3 0x0). Verified at spawn: reset the stage with a breakpoint at itFlipper_Spawn(); it was called with jobj arg r3 = 0x80c2d140, and the flipper it returned had xDE8 = 1 and xDEC = 0x80c2d140 (== the arg) with xDE0 = 0 (fresh) – so itFlipper_Spawn() sets xDE8 = 1 and xDEC directly from its jobj argument. Deduced: xDE8 = stage-anchored flag (set only by itFlipper_Spawn()); xDEC = the anchor HSD_JObj the flipper is pinned to (its pos tracks the joint exactly).

Function experiments

F1 — Motion-state machine (msid = ip + 0x24)

Action: write-watchpoint on a flipper's msid; drove it spawn -> fall -> land -> pick up -> throw -> settle (Training mode), logging each (new msid, caller) (caller = LR at the Item_80268E5C() store). Observed transitions:

itFlipper_EnterFalling() -> msid 1 (at spawn): falling
itFlipper_EnterResting() -> msid 0 (on landing): rest on ground (also resets velocity)
itFlipper_PickedUp() -> msid 2: held
itFlipper_Thrown() -> msid 3: thrown / in flight
itFlipper_EnterActive() -> msid 5 (via itFlipper_Settle()): active flipper

Deduced state ids: 0=rest, 1=fall, 2=held, 3=flight, 5=active (matches E6's anchored flipper sitting in state 5).

F2 — Flipper-vs-flipper separation (itFlipper_Repel())

Action: broke at itFlipper_Repel(); clanked an attack into a settled flipper, then put two flippers in contact. Read the kind arg (r4 = ip->xC38) and x40_vel before/after. Observed:

Normal attack clank: kind = -1 (0xFFFFFFFF); x40_vel unchanged (0,0,0).
Two flippers touching: kind = 0x14 (== It_Kind_Flipper); x40_vel (0,0,0) -> (0.199, -0.019, 0), magnitude exactly 0.2, directed away from the other flipper.

Deduced: itFlipper_Repel() adds a fixed 0.2 separation impulse away from a colliding flipper, only when the collided kind is It_Kind_Flipper.