Final Fantasy VII NES Project (Completed!)

[kasparas014]

yea good idea vivify93

[Dizzy9]

The hardest part would be finding the space for all of this. Some NPCs and shops may have to be sacrificed to fit it all.

Possible solutions:
-expand the ROM.
-delete some content.
-improve some code to be more effective.
-Or, if you skilled enough, write compress routine for some graphics to save space.
BTW: I didn't bothered to read every post in this topic(yep, I'm lazy).
But, is your help request still a live issue?
I'm not native English speaker, so sorry for any mistakes.

[Lugia2009]

You could shorten it to five battles. I mean, it's not like you're getting limit break items or ultimate weapons as a reward; it's just gil.

But even still, there's no space open in the area for events that are initiated by talking to a NPC or object. I am going to try and see if I can fit it in, but can't make any promises.

Possible solutions:
-expand the ROM.
-delete some content.
-improve some code to be more effective.
-Or, if you skilled enough, write compress routine for some graphics to save space.

The problem is that I don't have a great amount of programming knowledge. But I can see if I can delete some of the content to make space for it.

BTW: I didn't bothered to read every post in this topic(yep, I'm lazy).
But, is your help request still a live issue?

Yes, it is.

[syntax error]

@lugia2009:
nesdev.com is really helpful

[Lugia2009]

@lugia2009:
nesdev.com is really helpful

Okay, I'll try asking on there for some help.



The chocobo square is done:

[Dizzy9]

Hi, sorry for posting so late.
I was asking if you request is still live issue because I want to take it on.
I'm having big problem's can't find original Chinese ROM, so I can't use your patch and see what empty places in ROM you have used.
All I could find is Lindblum's English patched ROM.
But back to the topic: I can successfully add new sprites to the battle. So I can make animations mentioned in request page
Unfortunately, there's not enough space in NES's Memory to have all sprites.
Game uploads all character battle sprites at once, even if you have only one hero in battle, game uploads also other characters sprites to memory.
Taking that into consideration, I'll have to write a function that uploads sprites and takes into consideration which hero is in the players party. Just to make sure: You can't have more than 3 characters in battle, right? (I'm talking about hero's party).
You see, I actually never played FF7. Do not kill me. I'll looked into it a little(google, YT etc.) and it looks like 3 is maximum number in original, is it the same for NES port?
About other things mentioned in the request-I can work on those after I finish this one.(Also, I'll want you to explain how you want certain things to work).
Also, How actually do you want to script be handed to you? I think that IPS patch may be bad idea.

[kasparas014]

hello , Dizzy9 . I thought I'd be any help , you can find the rom here link removed it's chinese as you asked


Mod note: Linking to ROMs is not allowed. 

[Lugia2009]

I can successfully add new sprites to the battle. So I can make animations mentioned in request page
Unfortunately, there's not enough space in NES's Memory to have all sprites.
Game uploads all character battle sprites at once, even if you have only one hero in battle, game uploads also other characters sprites to memory.
Taking that into consideration, I'll have to write a function that uploads sprites and takes into consideration which hero is in the players party. Just to make sure: You can't have more than 3 characters in battle, right? (I'm talking about hero's party).

That's great news! Thank you for accepting the request.

For the active party, only 3 are allowed just like the original. But, unlike the original version, Cloud doesn't have to be in the active party, he can be switched out just like any other character.

I'm having big problem's can't find original Chinese ROM, so I can't use your patch and see what empty places in ROM you have used.
All I could find is Lindblum's English patched ROM.

It's true that I can't give the direct link, but I can point you in the right direction.

Google: "Final Fantasy VII (C) ROM" to find it.

About other things mentioned in the request-I can work on those after I finish this one.(Also, I'll want you to explain how you want certain things to work).

Okay, no problem.

Also, How actually do you want to script be handed to you? I think that IPS patch may be bad idea.

What do you think would be best? I don't know of any other method other than IPS.

[Chalkie]

The hardest part would be finding the space for all of this. Some NPCs and shops may have to be sacrificed to fit it all.

Is there no way to create loop so that the monster walking forward and starting a battle just repeats, each time adding 1 to a counter, and when it reaches 10, the loop breaks. Would that save some space, if its possible through hex editing that is?

[Dizzy9]

hello , Dizzy9 . I thought I'd be any help , you can find the rom here link removed it's chinese as you asked
Mod note: Linking to ROMs is not allowed. 

Thanks, I appreciate the try.

unlike the original version, Cloud doesn't have to be in the active party, he can be switched out just like any other character.

Want me to change that? 

Google: "Final Fantasy VII (C) ROM" to find it.

Thanks, I got it now.

I don't know of any other method other than IPS.[\quote]
We can try IPS.

Is there no way to create loop so that the monster walking forward and starting a battle just repeats, each time adding 1 to a counter, and when it reaches 10, the loop breaks. Would that save some space, if its possible through hex editing that is?

What he posted is not ASM language for sure. It seems to be opcodes interpreted by game to make actions. If there's no opcodes coded then he can't make a battle loop.
Lugia, why not just change pointer to somewhere in ROM where is enough empty space? There seems to be plenty of empty space at $FF30 in every bank.(?)

Heh, Lugia, I have to congratulate to great work. The graphics look much, much, MUCH better with your patch applied. And those soldiers at game's beginning is a master piece, not just as comparison to old one, but as NES art itself.
Very well done!

But, back to bussines. Lugia, it may sound a bit bad(or stupid, whatever) but, can you give me all notes about RAM used by game. No, can you give all you have about the game? I mean, the notes.I'm really curious about $7000-7FFF. Is it empty during whole game? If it is, then it's jackpot. This would speed up my part of work.
I already started writing animation functionally and I'll need these new sprites soon. A magic, damage, item and victory animations, was it? I want to use empty space at start of bank 03(it's $C00 bytes!) but I'm not sure if it really is unused(too baeutiful to be real..) Think you can help out somehow?

[Lugia2009]

Want me to change that? 

No, that's okay. I like how the game gives you that option.

But, back to bussines. Lugia, it may sound a bit bad(or stupid, whatever) but, can you give me all notes about RAM used by game. No, can you give all you have about the game? I mean, the notes.I'm really curious about $7000-7FFF. Is it empty during whole game? If it is, then it's jackpot. This would speed up my part of work.
I want to use empty space at start of bank 03(it's $C00 bytes!) but I'm not sure if it really is unused(too baeutiful to be real..) Think you can help out somehow?

That's great news.

From what I understand, from the untouched version of the game, even though the game is 2mb in size, I think only about 1.5mb of that space is actually used. The people who programmed this game weren't the best programmers and were very sloppy.

So that space is very likely unused.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the RAM. I've only edited the ROM space. But Lindblum I believe has information about the RAM in his notes.
So here's a link to the datacrystal, Lindblum's notes, and my notes.

The Data Crystal has quite a bit of info about what the spaces in the ROM are used for. (But the part about the music has changed with my version of the game.)

http://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII:ROM_map
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/emoulhpyc2pkxl6/bY7L6xnF5J/Lugia2009
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/emoulhpyc2pkxl6/5TZuX-cxRI/Lindblum

What he posted is not ASM language for sure. It seems to be opcodes interpreted by game to make actions. If there's no opcodes coded then he can't make a battle loop.
Lugia, why not just change pointer to somewhere in ROM where is enough empty space? There seems to be plenty of empty space at $FF30 in every bank.(?)

I didn't think about that, okay, I'll try that. Thanks

Heh, Lugia, I have to congratulate to great work. The graphics look much, much, MUCH better with your patch applied. And those soldiers at game's beginning is a master piece, not just as comparison to old one, but as NES art itself.
Very well done!

Thank you  The soldiers were done by Chpexo.

I already started writing animation functionally and I'll need these new sprites soon. A magic, damage, item and victory animations, was it?

Okay, I'll get started on them right away.

[InfamousKnight]

Um, on that datacrystal site you linked to us, I looked up the soldiers HP and it said it was 100 in decimal in the hex editor. 100 in hex is 64. Is that correct? I also used the patched rom. What I mean is is the soldiers HP really 100?

[Lugia2009]

Um, on that datacrystal site you linked to us, I looked up the soldiers HP and it said it was 100 in decimal in the hex editor. 100 in hex is 64. Is that correct? I also used the patched rom. What I mean is is the soldiers HP really 100?

The enemies in the game never really have permanent stats. I believe the game gives them base stats and then when you encounter them, depending on where you are in the game, the stats are altered. Which is why when you first encounter the soldiers, they appear to have less than 40 HP, but later on, their HP is higher. So what I put may actually be the growth curve of the enemies. I'm not 100% sure how it works though...



@Dizzy9

Did you see how when it comes time to select a command for the characters during battle, and then perform that action, the characters just slide forward and slide back.
I was wondering if you could add a walking animation so the characters take a step forward and then take a step back rather than slide.

For the victory animation, I wanted to know if you could put a loop so the characters go back and forth from their battle stance to their victory stance during the victory music. Like they do on the other NES final fantasy games.

For the damage animation, did you see how when the character takes physical damage, the sprite shakes back and forth?
Could you make the damage animation do that when the character takes any kind of damage?

And for the rest of the animations, I would like them to just be displayed once as they are currently in the game.


And thank you again for agreeing to do this
August 21, 2012, 01:07:29 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Here's Cloud's Sprites


Walking


Victory


Item


Damage


Magic
August 21, 2012, 02:33:29 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
The speed square is done:

[Chpexo]

The soldiers were done by Chpexo.

Nope it's from Vanya's abandoned Final Fantasy VII NES project. Though I did modify it a little

I can't find where the original image is though.

[Vanya]

I didn't make them, though. I don't remember who did.

[Lugia2009]

Nope it's from Vanya's abandoned Final Fantasy VII NES project. Though I did modify it a little.

Oops, sorry about that. I actually remember this pic now from the FF7 NES Upgrade Project.
Well, whoever made it did a good job.
August 22, 2012, 03:32:00 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Here's Red XIII's sprites:


Damage


Item


Magic


Victory


Walking
August 22, 2012, 07:14:34 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Here's Barret's Sprites:


Walking


Victory


Magic


Item


Damage
August 23, 2012, 10:56:01 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Here's Cid's Sprites:

walking


Victory


magic


Item


damage

[InfamousKnight]

I have a question. What does the midgar zolom look like in this version of the game? I watched a playthrough of the game and he didn't fight the zolom. I bet the zolom is like overly powerful since theres no strategy in the game.. Like in the original game, you have some elemental weaknesses/absorbs but in this version of the game, you don't even have to try to win a battle. You just have someone die, then revive them with that weird phoenix down which revives you to max. Why did they do that? Just have a critical hp variable and have a phoenix down revive you to your max critical hp. Then as your HP goes up, just add to the critical hp value. I also really doubt that the programmers made the zolom with the ultimate beta enemyskill. I think they just made his attack power insanely high so that it one shots you no matter what level you're at.

[Lugia2009]

The Midgar Zolom looks like an undead snake. Actually I did start a fight with the zolom and found out that he is specially programmed to be unbeatable. Even with his stats set to all 0's and my party's stats raised to their max, I spent a good 5 minutes dealing out nothing but 9999 damage and still did not beat him.

The game does actually have elemental and physical weaknesses and resistance that can be set for the enemies. So there is a little bit of strategy.

I don't know why they programmed the Phoenix downs the way they did.

Plus, when a character levels up, their HP and MP are completely replenished.
I did try to remove that, but couldn't figure out how.

[KingMike]

The Midgar Zolom looks like an undead snake. Actually I did start a fight with the zolom and found out that he is specially programmed to be unbeatable. Even with his stats set to all 0's and my party's stats raised to their max, I spent a good 5 minutes dealing out nothing but 9999 damage and still did not beat him.

Could it be like the unbeatable bosses in FF3 (they get their HP fully recovered every turn, and it's higher than the amount possible to do in one turn)?
The only other solution is that they simply made the boss not actually take any damage from anything.
Like Giygas in EarthBound.

Spoiler

Though it turns out due to a bug, poison can also destroy him. But the game wasn't expecting him to be destroyed by actual damage, so it creates seriously glitches when the battle ends normally instead of through the scripted events.

[close]

[InfamousKnight]

Here's some funny video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5No-pKSXJMY

Its ff iv NES ending. You should hear the guys speech at the end. That game needs some help.

WARNING, it does have strong language in it. If its against the rules, I didn't know better.