21

ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: YouTube/Google Video thread

« on: September 25, 2021, 05:22:15 am »

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkncSeDWBDhoHEUp2ivstzg/videos

22

ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Hack ideas: for those without the skill but with all the ideas.

« on: September 24, 2021, 07:01:32 am »

Michael English Daibouken is a Famicom Disk System only game with characters from the comedic manga/anime What's Michael? ... Mainly the dancing cat Michael, or a version of him anyway.

It's intended to teach English, and requires some Japanese/English knowledge, but English speakers can bluff their way through most of it. Otherwise there's a lot of platforming and collecting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Auj0jfAW0

You change disks at the title screen. I've never seen the ending screen, but created a mockup of it here.

It would be difficult to convert this to NES format I'm sure, or to make it more accessible, but I think it's an underseen game.



What's Michael? was adapted more closely into a PC88 game which has not been translated, featuring many characters and situations from the manga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRZvOcD7u5E&list=PL7Xf6xKio9LGCQzKJH649HIOhO9uim23j&index=19

23

ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: YouTube/Google Video thread

« on: May 25, 2021, 07:01:50 am »

Hmmm ...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkncSeDWBDhoHEUp2ivstzg/videos

24

ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: [Help] Mickey Mousecapade Metasprites OAM and ASM

« on: November 30, 2020, 03:05:04 pm »

That is helpful, thank you.

I'm editing the Queen's construction, which I can now find around 6690/66D0. I should be able to do this now.

It's in a strange (to me) format, made up of three bytes rather than the sets of four bytes that appear in OAM, but the tile numbers are normal (matching what appears in the CHR banks), and so on, so I should be able to edit any assembly I can find. (The palette bytes are usually skipped, which prevents mirroring. There are H and V bytes, then the tile.)

I was, as I said, mainly trying to figure out where the sprites were in the ROM.


Edit: Okay, I'm basically done now.

There may be minor issues.

The sprites for the "playing cards" / dogs get messed up when they turn around, but that's behavior in the coding somewhere.

Submitted version 1.

25

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 29, 2020, 08:53:11 pm »

  I've been reading your code for awhile so I'm aware of that section, yes. I've also looked at the associated sections of the ROM at length in Mesen's Debugger. But I don't really know what I'm looking at.

  I don't know what you're talking about, or what exactly to do to get my desired result, sorry.

  I don't understand "Take nipple 4 Drop the others," although I now see you've edited your post to about halfway explain it. (Fourth 1 or 0 in the Binary?) That may be where I was stuck, some sort of math that was eluding me, rather than listing the bank numbers directly. That would seem to tally with the three LSR commands.

  (A sprite bankswitch you coded for the title screen handles things differently, listing the desired sprite banks directly.)

  Your partial explanations don't really tell me anything. I think you think you're being a lot clearer than you are.

  Expanding the actual ROM shouldn't be a problem. It requires updating the header in some way, and there are applications for it.

26

ROM Hacking Discussion / [Help] Mickey Mousecapade Metasprites OAM and ASM

« on: November 27, 2020, 11:01:34 pm »

I'm close to finished with a graphics hack of Mickey Mousecapade.

I need to change how some of the enemy and item sprites are constructed in the last two levels - what tiles they use and where (metasprite construction or OAM). My versions of some enemies are shaped a little differently, animate a little differently, use different tiles etc.

I have been unable, so far, to find the sprite placement data in the ROM. I searched for specific tiles and their palettes and did not find anything obvious in the hex. (Admittedly, the code is hard to read by sight.)

Mesen's Sprite/OAM RAM (in Memory Tools) is outputting valid metasprite data but I haven't yet spotted anything similar in the ROM.

I would be using Shiru's NES Screen Tool to rework the metasprite construction.

It's possible that there's some compression going on or an unusual format, or that the PPU is assembling bits and pieces of the CHR sprite sheets together, in a way that's different than expected, so the rows it's calling are different. It does that for the title screen, which I've already reworked. The emulators Mesen and FCEUX do not account for this, so I can't really be sure.

Maybe the game skips the palette byte, since every character in the game uses a single palette?

These are my notes on what I was looking for in the ROM (one expected tile and its palette)
71 00  Pirate boss
BF 01 Walrus
68 00 Queen boss   (A8 00?)
B6 00 or 02 Cake
A6 ? Diamond
E2, F2 01?? Strange Minnie?

More small questions:

There is a strange version of Minnie in gold on this sprite sheet, with reversed colors. I'm not sure if this actually appears in the game.

https://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/25909/

The game has a level select cheat, but it seems to mean that you don't get to see the Alice ending. I'm wondering if there's a way to skip to the ending for playtesting purposes.

Also if anyone has experience with ASM 6502 NES coding, I have some additional questions to ask you privately.

27

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 27, 2020, 03:03:51 pm »

 If anyone is reading this:

 The backgrounds in 1P and 2P mode bankswitch between the 0 and 1 CHR registers.

 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.)

28

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 22, 2020, 11:01:30 pm »

Submitted version 18 to RHDN, which contains Odie during gameplay and some expansions to the HDPacks.

Pics:
https://imgur.com/a/lAPdsWc

As noted, I kind of got the HDPacks version working but there is some missing code compared to version 17 (that there doesn't seem to be room for). That version is now very wonky when selecting music on the menu screen. It basically has to be done last, since the code responds to each button press, even the not music related ones. So the music is always jumping forward by one on non-music line items, or taking two button presses to register on the music line. It's odd.

UPDATE: I went back to an older, more complete version of Dr Garfield's code by Bogaa, made some changes and compiled it. I think it worked this time, for what I want with the HDPack music.

It'll need fixes but I think I got the music stuff working again.

I'm still not sure about adding (theoretical) bankswitching to different CHR background banks in 2P mode, though at least that's not necessary for the thing to function. The HDPack does simulate this already by including more characters in the backgrounds.


A Dr. Mario AI which would almost certainly have to be rewritten to work with this ROM.
https://meatfighter.com/drmarioai/

Dr. Mario virus placement discussion here:
https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/dr-mario-virus-placement.2037/page-1


UPDATE: Made some further minor fixes. Music menu works correctly again, some fixes to Odie, etc. Submitted as version 19.

Did not figure out how to implement different BG bankswitching in 2P mode, though I see the code that does it.

Hardware tests.

https://twitter.com/pangenttech/status/1331095746385330179

29

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 20, 2020, 04:21:44 pm »

  Aside from uncommenting it I don't really know how to enable Odie Animation Main Game either. I assume it needs to be a subroutine called from somewhere as JSR, with an RTS at the end.

 "Removing one RTS before pause screen" perhaps. Bogaa said that earlier and that was my best guess for how to handle this as well.

  UPDATE: Yes, removing one RTS before the pause screen (from the displaying Nurse) seems to work.

  Odie is functional during 1P gameplay now. I'm still working on aesthetics since he now has color issues. This has required some new/tweaked graphics and metasprite assembly. I'm using up the remaining blank sprite tiles for some variations on Odie, and will change his assembly during Pause also.

  I'm still low on background tiles. I need about five tiles for this and there are no blanks left. I've stolen some tiles from the nurse scene and tweaked the nametable. It won't look that different.

  To free up some tiles I would like to change the CHR banks used in 2P mode.

UPDATE:  Didn't do the bankswitching, but did get Odie working, with minor visual compromises that don't spoil the effect.

Odie loss frame is not yet implemented, or left-facing Odie, and music stops after every round in 2P mode.

The HDPacks Music ASM is now not working again, as it's overwriting the wrong code. I'll have to look into that again.

UPDATE: Yeah, once again I don't know how to fix this music code. It breaks everything.

UPDATE: I think I finally got the HDPack music working again. Will redo the HDPack graphics and this should be releasable. Hope I didn't break the code.

Hm, spoke too soon, something odd with the Music code. It's reacting to every button press on the menu, whether it's music related or not. It's not impossible to choose your music, if it's the last thing you do, or if you choose one behind, but it's more fiddly than it should be.

Will try again.

30

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 20, 2020, 10:33:13 am »

I'm aware that this work is difficult. That's why I was having trouble editing your code in full without causing issues, especially without any experience at all in ASM.

"You been not able to communicate"

I've already said what I have to say about this. I've moved on.

I'd like to have 1-player mode and 2-player mode use different graphic banks. This frees up a few extra tiles for a background Odie (and Nermal?). That might be a pretty small change in the code, so I could look into that.

There was a test where Odie was onscreen as sprites during actual gameplay, but was missing tiles. Some of Odie could be moved to the background to make this work.

31

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 19, 2020, 06:17:15 am »

  UPDATE: I've fixed it now, based on the 1.8 IPS patch, which was closer to what's needed. Will do a little more work before release.

  Again, I just asked for a patch that turns the HDPacks music on, and nothing else.

  I have a version of the ROM I'm happy with otherwise. I thought you were finished and I made all my changes, again.

  Your new IPS is close enough but still has some of the same old errors like the six-legged dog.



  Your new HDPack IPS is close enough though! I'll admit that. I can make a few small graphics and HDPack-related changes and be done.

  UPDATE: I've fixed it now, based on your current patch. Will do a little more work before release.

  The previous HDPack IPS messed with the title screen's bankswitching and I couldn't fix that, I kept breaking the ROM graphically.

  I'm not ready to learn the rest of this yet.

  (Your HDpack ZIP still crashes my PC, I think Track 7 is corrupt in particular. I'm using different music anyway, it's fine.)

  The music does need to loop; I'm trying to add
   lda $01
        sta $4100
or A5018D0041
  which gets it going in one of your older ASMs (which is all I have). Not sure where to add that without breaking the ROM though. So I just overwrote some of the other music logic with this (I think it was a mute command at $4105). Seems to work all right though.

   I also figured out conditions to add backgrounds. Basic format is something like:
<condition>titlescreen,tileAtPosition,57,89,507,0F302712
[titlescreen]<background>DrGarfieldBG2.png,1,0,0,N,0,0

  Where tileAtPosition or spriteAtPosition is followed by x and y position (checkable in Photoshop), tile number and palette (as output from right-clicking in Mesen's PPU).


  Uploading final (?) version here.
http://www.mediafire. com/file/sk2m74i2m6nk0mx/

32

ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Dr. Mario and changing palettes on Game Boy Color ROMs?

« on: November 19, 2020, 06:14:37 am »

Thanks, I figured it out! The Dr Mario DX color palettes appear around 00FA00 in the ROM.

The bytes are as they appear in RAM in an emulator but appear in reverse order for some reason. So a color 5B1F appears as 1F5B. From there I was able to change some colors.


  The music does need to loop; I'm trying to add
   lda $01
        sta $4100
or A5018D0041
  which gets it going in one of your older ASMs (which is all I have). Not sure where to add that without breaking the ROM though. So I just overwrote some of the other music logic with this (I think it was a mute command at $4105). Seems to work all right though.

   I also figured out some stuff about backgrounds and music in NES HDpacks for Mesen emulator.

Basic conditions format is something like:
<condition>titlescreen,tileAtPosition,57,89,507,0F302712
[titlescreen]<background>DrGarfieldBG2.png,1,0,0,N,0,0

  Where tileAtPosition or spriteAtPosition is followed by x and y position (checkable in Photoshop), tile number and palette (as output from right-clicking in Mesen's PPU).


  Music requires writing some numbers to certain registers in the ROM. Bogaa was trying to teach me this but I've never done anything with Assembly.
https://www.mesen.ca/docs/hdpacks.html#lt-bgm-gt-tag

33

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 18, 2020, 06:15:12 pm »

  I just want the HDPacks music turned on at this point, without undoing all my changes and involving the entire ASM file. I've spent days trying to fix it.

  Current ASM file for HDPacks music reverts the title screen and many other things.

  I would have to understand your 23 pages of ASM, and be able to edit it without breaking the ROM, when I've never done Assembly.

  I fixed the bulldog, the nurse, Odie, the whiskers, the viruses, the title screen, the menus, the spelling. You unfixed it.

  I have been asking you to stop reverting my changes, or make changes in a way that I can port to the release ROM.

  If I wanted to experiment with ASM I still could, but the game is one step from being finished and releasable.

   The ASM file stopped working for me, as it seems to be patching the Nurse to the wrong position in the ROM and so on (this is still true in your revisions). So I have to make hundreds of corrections to the hex code directly.

  You've made this complicated. I'm just trying to incorporate both your work and mine so I have a finished releasable ROM.

34

ROM Hacking Discussion / Dr. Mario and changing palettes on Game Boy Color ROMs?

« on: November 18, 2020, 12:57:55 pm »

Hi. As a followup to the NES version of Dr. Garfield, I did a quick graphics hack for the Game Boy version of Dr. Mario, also for Game Boy Color.

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5542/

This is based off of the Dr. Mario DX Game Boy hack by marc_max and Da_GPer, seen here:

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5281/

This hack added color to Dr. Mario (making it a Game Boy Color game) and also created more NES-like graphics for the viruses.


I've worked on a few NES hacks and gotten familiar with that format. This is my first time attempting Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

I'm using Visual Boy Advance for an emulator, which can look at and export palettes. Not as good as Mesen for NES, but all right.

I don't know much about Game Boy Color palettes, how to generate them, and how to change them. Google searching hasn't been helpful on this topic.

The Dr. Mario DX game cycles through a few different palettes on the title screen and during gameplay. Some work better than others. I need a palette that's basically one color to work with my greyscale title graphics (or I'll have to simplify them).

Since I haven't changed Mario/Garfield's palette, he's a bit pink right now instead of orange.

There is a Mario happy "winning" sprite, I'm not sure where that shows up in gameplay.

I also don't know how to access 2 player mode for testing.



On an unrelated NES note, I am trying to learn how to enable custom music and custom backgrounds in Mesen HDPacks. There's a lot of discussion about this but not much good info, probably because it differs for each game and isn't done automatically by Mesen or related tools.

35

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 18, 2020, 12:17:00 pm »

  I just want a patch that enables the HDPack music. It's done otherwise.

  Current ASM file for HDPacks music reverts the title screen and many other things.

  I was making small changes in a hex editor, and with tools designed to help with that (like NES Screen Tool. YY-CHR and I-CHR). I've never used a Debugger or written assembly code.

  You wrote a 23 page document in a language I don't understand, and made small mistakes like giving the dog six legs.

  I did make changes to this, graphical stuff which I would normally have done in hex. You undid my changes every time. It took me hours every time.


  Now I can't change anything because if I break anything in those 23 pages it breaks the ROM.

  I created new code and graphics for the title screen when you added bankswitching. I created HDPack graphics, and ports for the Game Boy and Game Boy color.

  Ideally I'd just want a patch for:

-HDPack music support / Looping Music (set byte flag on 4100)

-Custom palettes on the title screen

-HDPack background support on title and menu? It looks like people set conditions for these.

36

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 17, 2020, 11:48:01 am »

Your work is excellent of course, and has introduced many new ideas to me. Some of which I've understood.

It's just been very difficult to communicate. We're not understanding each other, or listening at all.

Thank you though.

I have sent you a final (I think) Dr Garfield ROM, via PM. I've made all my changes again for the tenth time or so.

The HDPack ZIP is corrupted I think, it caused a lot of problems on my hard drive.

I've sent a different one with my intended music.

I've gone ahead and created a visual HDpack also, check it out!

I've also added Game Boy and Game Boy color ports. (Basic, at this point, as I don't know how to work with palettes on GBC.)

You included a patch which makes the HDPack music work. This undoes my changes so I have one final request- I need a patch which JUST makes the HDPack music work, from an already-hacked ROM.

Can this be done via hires.txt instead somehow, or is the patch absolutely needed?

Is there any more information about how this is done that I might be able to understand?

Can we also add new HDpack background PNGs on title and menu, replacing them as they are now?

37

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 13, 2020, 09:02:37 am »

You do really great work, but if I spend a lot of time making changes and you keep reverting them, I don't know what to do, other than wait and let you do whatever it is you're doing.

Because you're not letting me make changes.

I guess I'll make changes when you're done. I am paying attention to what you're doing. I understand some of it.


I like the new Odie. Let me know what you need from me (more art or whatever). There is probably room for one more character.

If you need two or three or four more tiles to draw Odie on the gameplay screen, maybe you can remove some tiles from the Nurse where she's behind the Dog.

If you mean that the title screen CHR banks are confusing, I was using every possible tile. I think they're in order. It would be hard to do animation of that but not impossible.

Some banks (with the dancing viruses) I hadn't used yet.

I would like to add HDPacks music to Dr Garfield and Heathcliff. I am curious to see the method.


I would like to add two tiles to "Hamton" scene in Heathcliff as follows.

38

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 11, 2020, 11:36:12 pm »

  Thank you.

 Please don't undo my changes, please just work from my ASM this time, it took a long time to make that, twice.

- What did you mean with spelling?
I corrected the spelling of many words in the ASM. (Garfield for 'Garild' etc)

- I think we skip the jumpy animation?
That's how I wanted it.

  Title screen wouldn't need bankswitching animation for dancing viruses, I think there's room in the CHR already. Unless you mean bankswitching the background.

39

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 11, 2020, 05:49:18 am »

 I've messaged you privately. The ASM no longer works right for me, I think. But I've made my changes in it.

40

Help Wanted Ads / Re: [Technical] [NES] Virus and Tiny Toon Adventures

« on: November 10, 2020, 02:48:26 am »

   Nice, but, you undid all my changes. Should I redo those? I had made many changes to the ASM. (Fixed spelling and graphics and palettes.)

   We are using a different ROM (CHR graphics) also, I'll DM you.

   HDPack could also add a new background image to the title screen.

   I would still like a faster dog win animation, with the different-positioned nurse.

   Also this on Jon menu:   2A 68 03 AE 3B 78 01 BA
(I don't know how I'd write this in ASM)

   What other CHR animation would you want? Could use the Dr. Mario virus animations on title screen.

   I couldn't animate much in 2 player mode because I'd mostly run out of background tiles in 1 player mode. But I animated a Garfield.

   Slower music is great. Don't need to be selectable, should just be at speed 1 all the time. But that's fine. (Could still say "Lasagna level / mondays")

   Don't need to spell out "Garfield" for difficulty, GARF. fits?  (Although GARFIELD is 8 sprites and could fit on one line)