Final Fantasy VII NES Project

[DarknessSavior]

What does "the whole game" mean?

Cause I'm pretty sure the NES doesn't have the hardware capabilities for the whole game taken literally. What is actually being done here is an approximation of the game's storyline, and as an approximation it will never be literally "the whole game" but only a more or less better approximation. Or you could call it an adaptation or a remix or whatever.

What Moulinoski means is that once Lugia is done going through the Famicom game and replacing all of it's graphics.

~DS

[Lugia2009]

You could be in for a long wait.

Currently, I still have about 80 maps left to work on. Along with the events, dialogue, and enemy graphics. But I don't think the project should take too much longer. I may be done in the early to mid part of next year.


Junon is done, here's the before and after:

[Miksy91]

Looks great! Almost like the map was really pictured from the side-view.

[Lugia2009]

Insert Quote
Looks great! Almost like the map was really pictured from the side-view.

Thanks 



Junon Locker room is done:

[Sirasu]

Amazing,Especially lockers & walls!

すごく良い。特にロッカーと壁が!

[Gideon Zhi]

This really is looking quite spectacular. My only concern is that you might run out of space in the chr and/or prg (for graphics and expanded map data sizes, respectively); have you considered that possibility? And what sort of contingency plans do you have if that happens? I really don't want to be a downer, but I find that space is at an absolute premium when I'm hacking NES games

[Lugia2009]

Amazing,Especially lockers & walls!

Thanks 

My only concern is that you might run out of space in the chr and/or prg (for graphics and expanded map data sizes, respectively); have you considered that possibility? And what sort of contingency plans do you have if that happens? I really don't want to be a downer, but I find that space is at an absolute premium when I'm hacking NES games

There's no worries there, the programmers programmed each map to have it's own map graphics and character sprites. Which is great, except that leads to many repeated character sprites throughout the rom, and some repeated map graphics.

Here's what Junon and the Chocobo Farm look like in the tile editor:





So any space I use for the map graphics is just the space that was originally set for that map. Of course I might dig into the character sprite section if there are some repeated or unnecessary sprites to give the maps a little more detail.

Here for example you can see that for some reason the programmers felt it was necessary for some characters to have a sprite of the character facing left, and another one of the character facing right. When you only need a sprite of the character facing right. So I use that extra space for some more map graphics.




June 16, 2012, 02:41:08 pm - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)Junon Inn/Item Shop is done:

[Garoth Moulinoski]

There's no worries there, the programmers programmed each map to have it's own map graphics and character sprites.

That's so wasteful... O_o I can't imagine why they're feel the need to do that, but at least it helps you.

[KingMike]

Well, these are pirate coders we're talking about (who knows their skill level) and they're using a pretty low-capability mapper.

[Nerd42]

Well, these are pirate coders we're talking about (who knows their skill level) and they're using a pretty low-capability mapper.

I get the feeling they had much more ambitious plans for the cart (something more like what's being done here) but got interrupted and just released what they had - bugs, crappy placeholder graphics and all. That's how these projects go sometimes. Sometimes, you have no chance to survive make your time.

[Chpexo]

I get the feeling they had much more ambitious plans for the cart (something more like what's being done here) but got interrupted and just released what they had - bugs, crappy placeholder graphics and all. That's how these projects go sometimes. Sometimes, you have no chance to survive make your time.

Naw, a lot of Nanjing carts are like this. Just look at Pocket Monster Red NES, though they put more effort than usual into Final Fantasy VII.

[Lugia2009]

I guess they put so much more effort into FF7 because they knew what kind of money a game like this would bring in. I would imagine that they made a decent amount of money off of this game what with the release of the movie shortly before. But they also most likely rushed the game a bit so they can release the game at a date that they would gain the most profit from it, which is why most of the graphics are taken from FF1, 2, and 3.


The weapon shop and magic shop are done:

[InfamousKnight]

You guys should work on the enemies in the game. I would start with the midgar enemies. Ugly monsters in a factory. No one wants to see that in the beginning of the game.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

I guess they put so much more effort into FF7 because they knew what kind of money a game like this would bring in. I would imagine that they made a decent amount of money off of this game what with the release of the movie shortly before. But they also most likely rushed the game a bit so they can release the game at a date that they would gain the most profit from it, which is why most of the graphics are taken from FF1, 2, and 3.

This makes me now wonder what some of the pirates would do after you finish with this... Or already may be doing for that matter, since you've released a few patches already, right? I mean... "IT LOOKS MORE LIKE FINAL FANTASY VII NOW" and it gets something like FINAL FANTASY VII NES PLUS or something.

I don't know... :/ Hopefully that thought doesn't dampen your enthusiasm for this project.

[SargeSmash]

I just know I'm really looking forward to this.  I'm not a huge fan of FFVII, but the work here is looking spectacular.

[Moothead]

You guys should work on the enemies in the game. I would start with the midgar enemies. Ugly monsters in a factory. No one wants to see that in the beginning of the game.

Think he's doing things like enemies after completing all of the maps.


One thing that he won't really have to worry about is the fact your typical repro maker won't be able profit off of this as it'll likely require the original which demands quite a high price these days making it hard to profit from. Those who can make their own PCBs and chips with the correct mapper however may be able to unfortunately.

[InfamousKnight]

Well, at least the project has midgar and the farm done. Is junon done?

[Lugia2009]

Hopefully that thought doesn't dampen your enthusiasm for this project.

It doesn't, If a pirate is actually able to put this game onto a cartridge and sell it, I'll probably be one of the people ready to buy one. It'll save me the trouble of learning how to do it myself. I just hope the person won't want a ridiculous amount for one. I'd say $100 would be my maximum for one.

Is junon done?

The only thing left for Junon is the boat area.

Think he's doing things like enemies after completing all of the maps.

Yeah, I am. I also thought about doing an enemy or two between maps. It'll probably save some time.



Junon armor shop is done:

[KingMike]

I thought it was said somewhere (perhaps even earlier in this thread) that the Nanjing pirate carts actually just use a pretty standard flash ROM chip. So it probably wouldn't be too hard to replace the ROM on an existing cart. And the mapper is fairly simple so if... certain sites that claim to be manufacturing NES repros from fresh (non-donor) PCBs can do it... I don't think it would be too hard to make.

Not that I'm encouraging it to happen, but just saying it doesn't seem too unlikely someone is going to do it anyways.

[Lugia2009]

I found a NES flash cartridge that may be able to play Final Fantasy VII. It's not the PowerPak.

http://www.retrocollect.com/News/new-nintendo-nes-famicom-flash-cartridge-in-the-works.html

According to this, it can allow up to 2MB of PRG which is just what this game has. And it also allows custom mappers.

It's not released yet, but hopefully it will be soon.