Now that is very nice to see! Currently almost done watching it all the way through and liking of what was done so far.
Though I deeply enjoy the original I am liking the fact that all stages can be played through without any choices of routes to take! Looking at this more as I'm at the 58 minute mark I'm already seeing tons of possibilities to add onto this hack like more music tracks instead of the same ones, new bosses along with new boss mechanics to dodge the repeats and new abilities for the heroes to undertake new obstacles.
So many possibilities it's awesome :D
My hat goes off to you sir and am definitely keeping an eye on this hack's progress to see on what comes up next!
Pretty damn cool. I'd definitely like to give this a try.
SRAM is always a great addition to any NES game. How complex is it? Are you just saving the password and loading it automatically?
I'd love to see a more fleshed out version of it some day with say multiple save slots, an interface and skipping the intro scene. If it hasn't been done by the time I finish my Megaman project I might just tackle it.
Also, is it compatible with the translation?
And are you going to release the SRAM, Long Version, And Alucard hacks separately?
Nice! Very nice! I hope you keep at the ASM hacking. So many doors and possibilities open up when you ASM hack.
Adding so many more things may be difficult. The max prg size of the vrc6 is 256k and this game uses almost all of it. I had to code in bankswitches to get at more free space to insert new code. I actually had to optimize a lot of my code just to get everything to fit. Fitting in the bankswitches was the hardest part. My code could be further optimized but it works as is so smeh. Adding music is more doable because you could just overwrite songs that are no longer used.
You probably won't see much other progress on this. I've pretty much done everything that I feel makes the game better. To me this is as perfect of an experience as I could make.
Awesome!! I really love the idea of playing thru all of the stages without missing anything. But... I really don't like the idea of having Alucard unlocked from the beginning. You think you could make an alternate patch to only remove the routes? Also, I'm not a fan of music changes either. Don't get me wrong, it all looks really well done, but I'd like to simply have the original game extended without all the extra stuff. Wouldn't one be able to use multiple patches in the same ROM, anyway? Why include all of your hacks together?
Oh I see. I was aware of the 256k limit on ROM's but my word, didn't know it was THAT big!
Yeah, would be interesting to add/edit songs as I myself is still trying to figure out how both the U.S and Japan ROM's tick for music since I want to do music hacks for certain projects that I have planned for Castlevania III and/or Akumajou Densetsu (want to aim at Akumajou more since I have found an English hack for it). People have told me how to do such music hacks but since I don't have much experience on in-depth hacking and most 'tutorials' that I've read on ASM Programming and 6502 Assembly doesn't help me out much since there's not much there unless I've found some poorly explained ones. So for now I'm just messing around creating custom character designs to place into the character sprite areas while still continuing to find info that will help me in editing Castlevania III's music or someone that is willing to volunteer their spare time when they desire to in order to help me out in editing/adding music for the projects. I might have to release a project beforehand before anyone takes me seriously about helping me out in my quest for hacking the music lol :P
I'm not saving the password I tracked down where in the ram all information I want to save it kept. I'm sure I saved some information that the password system doesn't keep track of. What it saved is who your main guy is, what his weapon is, who the second guy is, what his weapon is, current number of lives, current stage, current substage, and if you've looped the game or not. I wrote a block of code that transfers those ram locations into the sram area and vice versa depending on if you choose "new" or "continue" in the main menu. I completely bypassed the password system and added my own code. Since this is one save slot I made the cursor default to "continue" so you have to hit select to start a new game making it hard to erase your data by accident. I don't know if it's compatible with the translation but it should be. I added new code in usused rom areas (fuill of ff ff ff) and then just replaced a 3-4 hex command with a jump command to my code. If this gets released I'm releasing everything in one big hack.
Hey Dekon, how much room do you have left on the ROM itself until it reaches the maximum limit? I recently brainstormed up an idea of how this hack could be turned into something else though depending on that open space that is left and what could be done.
Since you eliminated the path routes in the game and could change certain aspects of the attacks and all with/to different characters, why not take away the side heroes (Alucard, Grant and Sypha) and use some of their abilities on the main hero? Minus the wall climbing and bat ability of course. One could turn the hack into an actual NES remake of the original Castlevania and call it Super Castlevania? The 'super' title would be justified enough to give it!
Of the Super Castlevania concept, one could redo all of the graphics along with the layout of the rooms (if reVamped accepts the hack for editing) or implement Castlevania I's graphics onto Castlevania III? Would be one hell of a big castle ;D
I got quite a few more ideas to throw into the pot for this hack but just wanted to share this small bit with ya, sir!
the idea phase is pretty easy, its actual implantation that is the real challenge. Level editing of Akumajou Densetsu would be pretty difficult without a level editor, and considering that it's a VRC6 game, I don't think putting a level editor together would be simple.
I have no idea how neat Konami was with their code, but Capcom sure was a mess with their games, literally building one on top of the other with all sorts of unused leftovers. Importing the tilesets from Castlevania 1 would be awesome I agree, but adding more stages to the already long version seems kind of unnecessary. Maybe As a second project where the CV1 stages replace the CV3 ones, but grouped all as a single game without a stage select? I'm not so sure.
I just tried to look at Akumajou Densetsu on reVamp and it didn't like it so only the U.S version is allowed on it. My bad as I couldn't remember if it accepted it or not! There really needs to be a level editor for Akumajou Densetsu along with a feature to add new tunes to replace the current, existing ones. Kinda like of what one editor for Metroid has...and I can't remember of what it's called...not sure if it was Editroid or something else. If I knew how to make a program such as this idea I would be whipping my fingers into action on creating it day in and day out until completion lol :P
Oh my word no! Not to add stages as that wouldn't be proper since everything was 'combined' back to back in Dekon's hack so really no need to do such a thing but just convert stuff to look like Castlevania I so it has that added stages feeling to it. For me I like the feeling of just go all out and do the graphics from scratch to have it in it's own stand-alone recipe of a hack after everything else was finalized before doing so. Of what Vanya said "to add new music tracks so there wouldn't be no repeats" is definitely agreeable as I'd love to pitch in some track ideas for them to consider!
Could add new stuff to the bosses that are used a couple of times over so it can seem like a different version but more deadly like how the Skull Knight is used in Warakiya Village then again in the 2nd part of Alucard's Cave with the bone throwing bit around the screen.
I agree to you as well sir as everyone is to each their own in their thoughts!
Another thing to note I just downloaded the "reVamp editor" and loaded the latest version of my hacked rom into it and it seems to have loaded just fine. Right now I'm looking at the first stage in the level editor.
I personally have no interest in doing these things which is why I won't bother. I don't know how much space would be freed up by removing the password system because I haven't had time to gut it out. Most likely if you wanted to add something you'd need to remove something else to make space for it. If you want to make these changes then why not do them yourself?
Level editing in CV games beyond changing tiles and TSA seems to be a notorious pain in the butt.
Do you mean by hand as to program it all by scratch or by the level editors?
By hand. The editors don't let you do anything beyond tiles, TSA, and objects. In other words you're stuck with the room progression of the original rooms. This is rather limiting when compared, for example to the complete control most Megaman editors give.
...really now? I wonder if the translation hack that I have doesn't work in it then. All this time I never bothered to try the original Japanese one as I was just editing bits and pieces in the English hack that I found by accident. I can't believe I didn't go that route...gonna put a bag over my head and sit in the corner for the time being on this one :banghead:
My understanding from reading the nsf document is the nsf file contains the dumped music hex data it's not decoded at all. So theoretically you could open the nsf in a hex editor, copy a small random string of hex in the middle, open the rom in an editor, and search for the string and you'll most likely find it. That should be part of your music data. Then you just need to read about how the nsf format determines where data for a song begins and ends to know where your data for each track starts and finishes.
From what I understand, an NSF is pretty much a ROM with all the non-sound code/data stripped out.
This is a crazy idea here, and I'm sure you're probably done with this hack, but hear me out. What if you made the game skip the team up cutscenes all together, and made it so you had all four characters right from the start. You might have to implement a menu, but it's totally possible. I know optomon was able to do something like that when we were working on CV3. To take it a step further, I bet there could be a way that you can make the game pick which ending it shows based off of who you are playing as when you beat the game. Just throwing it out there.
This is a crazy idea here, and I'm sure you're probably done with this hack, but hear me out. What if you made the game skip the team up cutscenes all together, and made it so you had all four characters right from the start. You might have to implement a menu, but it's totally possible. I know optomon was able to do something like that when we were working on CV3. To take it a step further, I bet there could be a way that you can make the game pick which ending it shows based off of who you are playing as when you beat the game. Just throwing it out there.
Would it free up space to get rid of the encounter scenario's? If so then it could make room for whatever else that needs to be ironed out or add, depending on what's desired to be added.
Hmm...if it's possible, one could 'extend' the area in the end just enough for all 4 characters to stand there on the cliff to show the team effort. I dunno how well that would go over as it could clash with certain stuff that's used in the ending scenario. Can't remember if they all have the same amount of animation frames or not on the cliff to pull it off properly.
Getting rid of anything frees up space, but you'll have to find where it is to get rid of it. Also don't forget the nes has a limited amount of sprite palettes it can draw (up to 3 banks in this game from what I've seen). Therefore if you have too many sprites with different palette data it probably won't work having all four characters unless you make some of them share the same palette data.
A lot of sprites share the same palette data which is why some sprites aren't much different looking.
Nice vid, so how much money are you requiring for this to be released? Because you said in your video's comments that you won't be releasing this unless you're paid. How much of that is going to go to +daniel+ for using his utility reVamp?
I don't expect people to pay. So why's it important? If daniel wanted money for his utility then perhaps he shouldn't have released it for free.
That's not what your comment said pre-edit...Spoiler:(http://i61.tinypic.com/ayt76b.jpg)
That's not what your comment said pre-edit...
What would be really cool, if you hacked Rondo on PC-Engine to have all the levels and boss from CV3. Surprised no one has attempted hacking that game. It's not like 6280 is much different than 6502, and a lot of romhackers have cut their teeth on 65x.
"Not unless" doesn't mean "I expect". I don't expect people to pay money for this sort of thing.
I think the game is too perfect as is.
I don't see the problem with wanting money. In fact I give him props for standing up to the this doctrine that everything on the internet has to be free for it to be acceptable.
The fact remains that he'd be making money off of copyrighted material. :police: It would be different if he was making an NES homebrew totally from scratch using characters of his own design. I couldn't care less if he releases his romhack for free, or at all.
The fact remains that he'd be making money off of copyrighted material. :police: It would be different if he was making an NES homebrew totally from scratch using characters of his own design. I couldn't care less if he releases his romhack for free, or at all.
Sure, if he distributed it as a ROM. He's not selling the ROM, he's selling the work he put into the game; SRAM, some kind of useful gamplay changes etc. It's his work, no one elses.
Not if he's selling the patch itself. If the patch contains nothing but his original work, regardless of how it's applied to the application, it's still his work. He can't sell the rom, but he could sell the patch. Or go about it a different way; release it to the public once enough people have 'donated' or the amount donated meets his goal/whatever. Not so much different when people hold beta carts and such - private, until enough people 'purchase' his decision to make it public (dump the game).
I don't personally do this, but I also don't attempt to dictate what other people do with their time/work. Just because I, and other people, give away their hard work - doesn't mean everyone else should have to as well. To each their own.
I don't see the problem with wanting money. In fact I give him props for standing up to the this doctrine that everything on the internet has to be free for it to be acceptable.
I've had Drakon do some work for me before too.
I agree his mods aren't the neatest around. He sure loves to use excessive amounts of hot glue, but that's hardly a capital offense. Hot glue is useful to secure solder connections. I use hot glue on my mods as well.
Oh. I guess I did miss your point.
Then yes, I agree - Drakon is a nickel and dimer. Most definitely. I haven't been spared that either, and I'm his friend.
But again I would say....so what? We live in a nickle and dime world. If you can offer a service, you charge, and it's not like he's getting rich offering his modding services. I agree his prices are too high which is why I haven't commissioned him to do a whole lot. I've told him many times in the past that he should lower his prices so to get more interest. But if he wants to charge more and have fewer customers, that's up to him.
As for adding glue over soldering connections as something inexperienced/insecure modders do, I think that's a matter of opinion. For years adding glue was something I didn't do at all, and I discovered its a useful aid when building arcade sticks especially. Obviously you make sure your solder connection is good first, the glue only acts as an additional wall of protection.
I don't use half the glue Drakon does, but no, I cannot agree that the practice of using hot glue is wrong.
If you choose not to that's great for you, but I've personally seen the benefits and nothing's going to stop me from using glue in the future.
Skips: Did you come here/sign up, ~just~ for this thread???
I dunno, comes off as a little stalkish/trollish...
I dunno, comes off as a little stalkish/trollish...
It's great to ignore all the satisfied customers I've worked for and just focus on one or two who didn't like the service.
I don't think it's stalker/trollish. It's more like he's telling the community about how Drakon works, which apparently he has an incredibly bad rep on MANY places in the modding community.
Pointing out bullshit or past history is not trolling. I love how people automatically think any harsh criticism or negative comments are trolling in today's online society. Trolling would have been me posting something along the lines of "This hack is shit" then saying nothing else just to get a rise out of all of you. I actually have no problem with the hack and thought it actually looked kinda cool. This thread was linked to me by friends that do frequent this site as a sort of "BTW did you see this?" sort of thing. I replied to simply point out what I thought was bullshit and to show there was a past history of it. I did not have to go looking for this, it came to me.
Well, for one - this isn't a console modding site. So I don't see how any of that is relevant. Two, it didn't come 'to' you. You came here. What he posted here, has no relevance to your modding scene. You basically came here to attack his character. Him personally, and in public fashion. So yes, while you didn't 'troll' us - you are trolling him. If this was another console mod themed site, then you might have a more valid point. But this isn't, and this thread isn't about whatever beef you two have (or you have with him). And that the fact you followed him here,... ~is~ stalkish. Because you have no other interest here other than to confront him personally, and make him look bad in front of others on an unrelated subject. Yeah, that's not stalking or trolling..
I'm not defending anything Drakon has done, nor did I know what he's supposedly done (or care). But I am pointing out your behavior. There's no 'hot glueing' in rom hacking (well, maybe in the metaphysical sense), and he's not reselling someone else's work or stealing credit for it (that I'm aware of). So... if that's all you came here for, and you don't plan on to contribute to anything on this site/forum, then well.. don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.
I don't think it's stalker/trollish. It's more like he's telling the community about how Drakon works, which apparently he has an incredibly bad rep on MANY places in the modding community.
Though, I can't really pertain in this argument much as I would never, ever do any sort of modding like that to a cartridge, system or anything.
I still say though, if you do work and WON'T release it via IPS patch, at least do what you said you'd do and release your notes (Preferably legible and not a broken mess) you did so someone CAN create it if they do so in their time, otherwise, it'd appear you're coming off as very condescending.
I didn't actually look as I don't really have any interest in NES modding sadly, but thank you for releasing the notes at the very least. That's greatly appreciated
That it is. Notes are always appreciated. Otherwise what does the community have to build on?
All stages are played in sequence giving you the full experience. No more choosing routes, now you get to play every stage in the game! Don't have time to do it all in one sitting? Worry not! Because there's sram saving so you can turn it off and come back to it whenever you feel.
Will I release the ips? No, I don't feel like giving out this much work freely.
But for anyone who's interested in hacking away at castlevania 3j here's my hacking notes so you can make your own awesome hack! (I want to inspire more people to learn how to do this):
I don't expect people to pay. So why's it important? If daniel wanted money for his utility then perhaps he shouldn't have released it for free.
I don't feel like giving out this much work freely.
For example I heard somewhere that Capcom used the original logo created for Megaman Unlimited when it was still called MM10.
If this is true, even though MegaPhilX did the work on the logo it still belongs to Capcom and they can use it how they see fit.
In the same sense, Konami can ,for example, take the re-translation patch for Castlevania 2 from this very site patch their ROM, remove all credits related to Bisqwit, and release it for Wii U Virtual Console and Bisqwit would have no legal grounds to protest Konami's actions.
So what? that actually would be nice, have you seen the 8-bit versions of Megaman 7 and Megaman 8? really cool shit, but even if CAPCOM takes these ROMS and puts them on the Virtual console or makes and sells collectable NES cartdridges, the authors would get no money from it...Actually it's not ROMs but PC programs, that were designed to look/play similar to NES. And I agree they're very cool. Since the original Mega Man 7/8 were made by Capcom it makes perfect sense to me that Capcom are the owner of this, even if they didn't ask anyone to do it.
sad but trueI don't think this is sad, but plain logical.
Actually it's not ROMs but PC programs
they are PC programs? i could swear they were MM6 hacks...Do you realize the quantity of things that wouldn't be doable on NES hardware with these games ?
Ms. Pac-Man is different. That was the result of a result of a legal settlement.
If what Drakon does really bothers you, re-create what he's done and release it for free.