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News Submissions / Re: ROM Hacks: Bomber Man 83: Eric and the Floaters released

« on: Today at 08:11:33 am »

If you want a version of "Bomber Man" that's titled "Bomber Man" I have good news for you

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ROM Hacking Discussion / A Week of Garfield

« on: May 09, 2022, 07:57:43 pm »

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6728/

We've been working on upgrading A Week of Garfield (Famicom/NES) with new graphics, and some other changes.

I've overhauled the title screen (and made other changes) but that's not released yet. (Four-legged Garfield has a little more animation.)

This has a reputation as a bad game, but it at least looks better now.

Our question is about the jump kick. Garfield has a kick attack, and can also kick when jumping, but no animation plays for the jump kick. We've been hoping to add an animation to this for awhile. We still have about three extra tiles which would be enough to animate with, or otherwise the standing kick's art could be used.

For no reason, the jumping, stretching and damage sprites are flopped in the ROM compared to the walking sprites. This has become relevant when messing with the code.

We can experiment with affecting the kick animation by changing ROM address 01D0EB from 09 to 00, and additionally changing 1D0F0 69 to A9.

EDIT: According to Rani, Game Genie codes SXSIIESU+ZESITALP+OKSSAEPX+IESSPALA+PESSZAES+ENSSZAEI+PVSSGESU+YESSIAZE+XVSSTALE+XVSSYEAO+OXVIAEPV rewrite the code enough to get us the standing kick in mid air.

More ideally we would load a construction at 3840 or some other empty space in the ROM, where we could insert new left and right jump kick sprite construction.

Otherwise it could load the standing kick sprite construction.

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That would take a different sort of code rewrite than the one I did. We would have to plot out what all the animation frame call numbers mean and possibly shift a few around. Watch RAM addresses 004F and 0342 to see what I mean.

Version with jump kick has now been uploaded:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6728/

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News Submissions / Re: ROM Hacks: A Week of Garfield Upgrade released!

« on: May 08, 2022, 01:24:37 am »

Now updated to version 3, with a very revamped Jon, and I've redesigned Odie again.

May 13, 2022, 07:56:09 pm - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)

Updated to version 4.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6728/

Garfield now has a jump kick with two pixels more range, there's a revamped title screen, and revamped scenery for the Jon Arbuckle cutscenes and ending. Garfield's four-legged mode has a little more animation (as does Odie in this hack).

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Palette and text hacking for Super Boy 4 (SMS)

« on: April 29, 2022, 02:00:49 pm »

https://www.smspower.org/maxim/HowToProgram/Palette

There are a lot more tools to work with NES games if you're new to the whole thing.

I have used that SMS emulator to look at stuff though.

https://emulicious.net/downloads/

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: CHR bankswitching and NSF insertion in NES game

« on: April 27, 2022, 09:55:30 pm »

Thanks, that does make sense.

I've updated the ROM accordingly, and the 2 player mode looks MUCH better now.

Someone is also working on inserting the music, so more on that soon. There is already a test with "Friends Are There" working.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: CHR bankswitching in NES game

« on: April 22, 2022, 08:04:25 pm »

Okay, I've saved a larger 81KB version of the NES ROM which does allow for four more CHR banks.

The existing code seems to use binary, only really allowing for 0 and 1, so I'm not quite sure how to translate that to 8 and 9.

RAM Offset $727 keeps track of what player mode is selected, apparently.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / CHR bankswitching and NSF insertion in NES game

« on: April 22, 2022, 11:14:52 am »

This is a hack of the Dr. Mario prototype "Virus," released in 2020.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5452/

Amilgi has surprised me by writing NSF music for Dr. Garfield, four themes in total. I'd like to figure out how to get these into the NES and Game Boy ROMS.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1l-qyUpc4StqGLy4vPfZCXYtwvK1EvBUh?usp=sharing

Music selection #3 seems to exist in the ROM from 006ECF to 0072C0, and selection #4 from 75D2 to 78AD. The original music is left over from Tetris. I can copy/paste data into that section and get a bit of a mess of noise. Song 2 in the NSF starts at F0D probably.

Pasting from NSFs of Tetris and Dr. Mario also only gets nonsensical noise, at least where I've pasted them.

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Some notes:
- I only used the 2a03
- I didn't use any DPCM (could be used for drums if we wanted)
- I made one simple instrument to handle the arpeggio in the gameplay music. Some drivers/converters prefer no instruments & just tracker effects, while others prefer exactly the opposite. I can rework parts of the module if needed for easier implementation.

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Most straightforward way is to inject Famitone or a similar sound engine into the ROM somehow.

Tetris disassembly:
https://github.com/ejona86/taus

Also, about CHR bankswitching:

Being a prototype, there is a fair amount of empty space in the ROM and the title screens and backgrounds are basically drawn uncompressed in full. This made it easier to hack.

The backgrounds in 1P and 2P mode bankswitch between the 0 and 1 CHR registers, to create some animations with the viruses.

For 2P mode, I would like to switch between the 8 and 9 registers, so I can do more with the background.

I can about halfway understand what the code is doing, but not enough to make this happen easily.

(Searching for 9F63 leads to the associated code, I believe.)

The added 8 and 9 CHR registers are also not recognized by the ROM at this point. I think something needs to be changed in the header?

(Several CHR banks were already added to allow for sprite bankswitching on the title screen.)

I asked about this previously, and got a confusing answer:

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=31669.msg404770#msg404770

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Shared palettes on NES games. Fix?

« on: April 17, 2022, 02:50:50 am »

If you're new to NES hacking these will be new concepts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2XkJQFs0OQ

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Shared palettes on NES games. Fix?

« on: April 14, 2022, 10:17:25 pm »

Discussing this from a different point of view:

The NES uses four palettes at a time. You can view these palettes in an emulator like Mesen or FCEUX.

The graphics editor YY-CHR also has a hex palette editor. You can probably find specific palettes in the hex code and change them.

From a hex code standpoint, sprites are usually coded in four bytes like -- horizontal location, graphic tile used, which of 4 palettes used + whether flopped or not, vertical location.

If you can find the sprite construction in that code, you can usually change the palette used on every tile of a sprite. Finding that code can be tricky from a hex standpoint.

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News Submissions / Re: ROM Hacks: A Week of Garfield Upgrade released!

« on: April 13, 2022, 08:51:59 pm »

Now updated to version 2.2, with a taller Odie whose ears are pulled down, which gets him closer to being in scale with Garfield.

Also other minor changes like Garfield's walk cycle.

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News Submissions / Re: ROM Hacks: Garfield Kart NES released!

« on: April 13, 2022, 08:47:14 pm »

I wanted to do that but am not sure where it is in the coding.

EDIT: I've actually figured it out now, and can implement this in an update.

It's a little wonky since the original word "NINTENDO" was done in a different palette, with the N repeated. "GARFIELD" doesn't repeat letters and I didn't have the space for it, so I had to include "R" and "D" in the wrong palette. Otherwise it's fine.

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News Submissions / Re: ROM Hacks: Garfield Kart NES released!

« on: April 13, 2022, 03:44:33 am »

Looked it up, thanks!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1454498002

Reviews are appreciated!

The Garfield Kart Readme has some cheats which allow for immediate unlocking of Jon Arbuckle and Odie.

The game plays differently with these characters- Odie is always at high speed and has slightly goofy handling (partly because Elbobelo wasn't involved in the coding). It's fun.

Coincidentally, Rani and I have done a "better graphics" version of NES ET also, which isn't public yet and needs more work.

Also I'm doing another update on Odie in A Week of Garfield, and some other things ...

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News Submissions / Re: ROM Hacks: Garfield Kart NES released!

« on: April 13, 2022, 02:40:09 am »

I can update the hack listing to credit you. (And have already submitted a correction.)

Maybe even in the hack itself.

I would really like to see that unreleased RC Pro Am 2 hack.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Dr. Hello graphics format?

« on: April 13, 2022, 02:12:52 am »

It would be a good idea to port this from SG-1000 mode to Colecovision. I know there are a lot of homebrewers who do that. I don't know exactly what needs to be done for that to work.

I suppose if I could move the sprites around a little and change their colors, I could still turn it into Dr. Garfield - I'd just need some white highlights on a pink sprite.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Dr. Hello graphics format?

« on: April 11, 2022, 07:23:40 pm »

I guess 1BPP makes sense given the MSX origins of the game, but that presents further problems.

I'm not familiar with how MSX and SG-1000 handle colors but sprites on those platforms do always seem very 1-bit monochrome.

Looking at the graphics in 1BPP monochrome does give fairly sensible results:

You can see Mario's sprites, and facial elements of the red virus, then a font and pills/viruses.

I had hoped for something more like NES, with more colors. Especially since this is on the Master System.

The game sprites use multiple colors but maybe this is an overlay of multiple 1-bit monochrome sprites to create that illusion?

If I were doing something like Dr. Garfield, I would need at least three colors - orange, white and black/background. The NES offered four ...
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5452/

Another question: NES emulators like Mesen and FCEUX are useful for ROMhacking. They let you see under the hood at what the ROM is doing. You can look at PPU RAM and CHR ROM graphics, background nametable construction, sprite construction, the ROM and RAM in general, and so on.

Is there any equivalent like that for Sega Master System games? Or Game Gear, SG-1000, Genesis/Mega Drive?

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Dr. Hello graphics format?

« on: April 11, 2022, 06:41:16 am »

https://www.spriters-resource.com/master_system/drhellobootleg/sheet/112336/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ut16JNQNv0

There is an unlicensed Korean Dr. Mario knockoff called "Dr. Hello," originally for MSX and ported to the Sega Master System.
The two versions are very similar.

Due to its unlicensed nature, it's not hard to find ROMs of the game.

I have attempted to load the game's graphics into YY-CHR and Tile Layer Pro without success.

Viewing it in the more complex Master System format brings up pretty much just garbled nonsense. Viewing it in a simpler format, like 1-color 1BPP, shows that the graphics are there, but no format seemed to work to display the graphics sensibly. I hoped that the MSX format would come close, but "close" is not close enough.

Does anyone have any idea how to display these graphics accurately so that I can edit them?

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Gaming Discussion / Re: My Custom Box Arts! (feel free to share yours too!)

« on: March 31, 2022, 03:33:29 pm »

A Week of Garfield NES
Towa Chiki, 1989

Nancy NES
Hudson Soft/Capcom 1988

Dr. Garfield NES
Nintendo 1990

Heathcliff NES
Konami 1991

Penguin Land
(Nintendo Entertainment System/NES/Famicom, 1987)

Dr. Mario Romhack blank template

https://www.mediafire.com/file/3pd972gsr2uhkw5/NES_BoxArt_Pangenttech.zip/file

( I notice dewhenson07 has posted my work above as his own, and those of other people, in lower quality. He's trying to take credit from others. )

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Personal Projects / Re: 46 OkuMen - PC-98 Translations

« on: October 17, 2021, 04:48:47 pm »

How about What's Michael?
From Makoto Kobayashi's manga and anime about (multiple versions of) a mischievous orange cat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cFdO1vjq4M

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Personal Projects / Re: NES Games Disassembly (possible requests)

« on: October 06, 2021, 03:11:49 pm »

There is a program FDSExplorer which does some sort of disassembly of FDS ROMs. (And can convert the earliest 40K FDS ROMS to NES.)

Not sure how good or useful it is.

I'd like to see Michael English Daibouken FDS converted to NES.

A friend would like to improve the FDS of Knight Lore.

And Pac-Land NES.

Dr. Mario is interesting. I worked with bogaabogaa and Kasumi on a "Dr. Garfield" hack of the Virus prototype which required injecting additional code. (New win/loss states, and a lot more.)

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