Baseball Simulator 2014 (NES)

[keithisgood]

Since I've hit a wall on my M.C. Kids hack (lousy text/pointer compression), I've decided to update Culture Brain's Baseball Simulator 1.000 for the 2013 MLB season.
I'm working from the hack I did for last year (Baseball Simulator 2012) http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,14580.0.html

Changes for Baseball Simulator 2013
Updating Rosters (duh)
Doing away with the "Star League"
Giving EVERY team Ultra Batting, Ultra Fielding and Ultra Pitching
Adding 3 AL and 3 NL teams.

AL:
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays
Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians
LA Angels
Texas Rangers

NL:
Atlanta Braves
Washington Nationals
LA Dodgers
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
SF Giants
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals
Philadelphia Phillies

Right now I'm doing graphic updates until rosters are set after spring training. I hope to have the finished .ips available for Opening Day. I plan on collecting the hacking data I have into one .txt file and uploading it to the database as well.

New Title Screen:

[Proveaux]

Awesome! Can't wait to see it.

[Pikachumanson]

Sorry to hear about M.C. hack problems. I was looking forward to playing that.

[keithisgood]

Thanks for your M.C. Condolences. I think I'm just going to e-mail the original game programmer and see what happens.
January 11, 2013, 05:26:14 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
New Team Logos Finished:

January 12, 2013, 11:48:27 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
For anyone interested, I've compiled all batting statistics (from the original Baseball Simulator 1.000) into an excel file which includes both the raw hex and the translated data. It can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sfjrksrx33cew39/BBSIM1000_Battter_Data.xlsx

I'm still uncertain what the stat marked "Lift?" actually does. It seems that the higher the value, the more likely a batter is to drive the ball into the ground (rather than lift the ball into the air). The game's top power hitters have a Lift value of 00, while the game average is 31 (#$1F).

Once similar data sheets for Pitchers and Teams are done, I'll submit the whole shebang to the database.

[SonOfLoto]

Baseball Simulator is one of my all-time favorite sports games, so I'm interested in seeing this. Good luck with the project.

[keithisgood]

SonOfLoto: Thanks! It's my one of my favs as well. The extra good news is that it looks like there's ample free space in the rom; if I can figure out how, I should be able to expand the game to all 32 MLB teams.

Also, I've uploaded my work so far in compiling Pitching stats from the original Baseball Simulator 1.000. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bv0xbwhwv6zskir/BBSIM_Pitcher_Data.xlsx
I'm not quite sure what bytes 14 and 15 of the Pitcher data do yet; it seems the better pitchers have lower numbers here.
January 16, 2013, 08:43:42 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Some quick graphical updates

Removing the bizarre Culture Brain Logo from the Pitcher select screen:
TO:

Removing another Culture Brain logo with some more appropriate advertisment:
TO:

...And because I'm bored:

[keithisgood]

In doing some overhauls, I found the Baseball Simulator 1.000 rom has empty space (in terms of team logo and player data bytes) to accommodate all 30 MLB teams (and 2 All-Star Squads as well).  This isn't to say I'll be able to manage the various byte swaps, etc. by opening day, just that it's POSSIBLE. So I've added the player data and team logo sprites into the rom, hoping I'll eventually figure out the rest. Here is the most current version of all 32 team logos:


Also, the previously discussed "Lift" value for batters is a modifier which subtracts from a players total power when the ball isn't hit squarely (A similar stat is used in the RBI Baseball rom).

The hurdles at this point are finding the team select screen hex and modifying it (and team tile data hex) to add the new teams. Then I'll need to find a way to give the new teams their own color schemes.

[Valkyrie_Ace]

Wow, this is really impressive work, Keith.  Nice job on the team logos especially, but with all of the other changes that you have planned, this hack is shaping up to be a classic one for baseball fans.

[keithisgood]

Thanks for the kind words. The goal is to get all 30 teams in there and then have an editor made (similar to what Tecmo Super Bowl has) so anyone can change rosters.

I've updated the trophy used on the game's playoff screen to something more appropriate:


I've yet to play anything other than a 1-game playoff, but it seems the playoff structure can accommodate up to 6 teams. Maybe down the road we can alter the game so EVERY season ends in a playoff, not just seasons where teams finish withidentical records.

[keithisgood]

Okay, I'm stumped. I still can't seem to find the hex controlling the team select screen. I've searched for every configuration of tiles with no luck. It seems the screen is constructed using control codes and metatiles and it's got me stymied. Anyone willing to lend a hand?

Here's What I Know:

• Hex controlling the order of team logos displayed on the Team select screen runs from $49CF-$49E0. Altering this data does NOT change which teams are chosen for actual gameplay. HOWEVER,changing this data DOES alter which team data shows up in Edit --> Display mode.


• Hex for borders around the Game/Mode select GUI is at $8409: 6C (Top Left Corner) 6A (Left Leg) 6D (Bot Left Corner)71 (Blank Space) 68 (Top Edge) 71 (Blank Space) 69 (Bottom Edge) 6E (Top Right Corner) 6B (Right Leg) 6F (Bottom Left Corner). A string of control codes goes back to $8402.


• A Hex series suggesting tiles used to draw borders on the Team Select Screen (6C 68 6A 71) can be found at both $12043 and $1293E. However, changing the values here DOES NOT affect how the Team Select Screen is drawn.


• $20000-$39DEF seems to be data for actual gameplay.


• Player/Team data runs from $39DF0-$3CF8F.


• Hex Data for displaying the Team Logos runs $3D08B-$3D132. Hex Data for displaying other non-gameplay screens (Title Screen, Standings screen for Season Play, Playoff Bracket Screen, etc) follows this all the way to the end of the Rom.

Obviously, ANY help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated.

[fellowroot]

This is cool and all and I support you on it, but lets not give up on the magic kids game. Your not afraid to battle chicken nuggets are you? I'm actually trying to be an up and coming rom hacker myself. I took a computer logic class and visual basic and now I'm taking programming in C.

Let me try and tackle it.

[keithisgood]

I FEAR NO CHICKEN NUGGET!

But Seriously, I'll PM you all the MC Kids files I have thusfar. McKudos to you if you can figure it out!
February 01, 2013, 09:33:10 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Additional BBSIM2013 Hex info courtesy of Proveaux:

Teams

Background

Outline

Team layout

Outline layout

Select layout

Team placement layout.

Music for team select screen

February 02, 2013, 04:32:22 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Mock up of an even newer Title Screen (the old one was annoying me)

Just a matter of plugging in the new tiles:

[keithisgood]

Batting stats are complete for the 18 Teams DEFINITELY in this year's release. A spreadsheet with all stats can be viewed at the link below:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxrZWl0aGlzZ29vZGZpbGVzfGd4OjYyMDY5YWNhNjBiYjQyNw

A quick note on Ultra Stats; Ultra abilities (as all teams will have them) are being used as a stand-in for clutch. I used fangraphs.com for clutch stats; players with a 0.7 or higher fangraphs clutch rating (regarded as above average performance in high-pressure situations) received an ultra hit.

[keithisgood]

All Statistics have been compiled from FanGraphs.com and translated into BBSIM rom. I weighted certain stats to give the game the same balanced play as the original BBSIM 1.000

A beta .ips with 24 teams will be released sometime this week.

[Da_GPer]

Wow! This reminds me of the Tecmo Super Bowl hacks that you can get on tecmobowl.org. Will there be an editor to allow you to edit the teams and players for upcoming years?

[keithisgood]

Yeah, I actually lurk over at tecmobowl.org as well. There was a hiatus with Baseball Simulator while I updated the helmet logos for this year's release of Tecmo Super Bowl: http://tecmobowl.org/topic/53374-new-helmet-logos/

As for an editor, I don't personally have the knowledge to code one. I figured after I get everything in order for this year's rom, I'll ask around and see if anyone wants to take up the job. I already know where all the names/stats/colors are in the hex.

[keithisgood]

Took a bit longer than I'd imagined, but I've got all the team data in the game and working like a dream.
This beta includes 18 teams. I'll update the link with an appropriate save file when the 24-team version is ready.

KNOWN ISSUES: Some teams have the wrong uniforms for their fielders; Mike Trout may be too awesome.

The Baseball Simulator 2013 beta .ips patch can be downloaded here: http://db.tt/QaUoQlma

NEW TITLE SCREEN IMPLEMENTED IN ROM:


NOTE:
The game hex has player and team data for 24 teams. This way as soon as I (or some other enterprising hacker) figures out how to get the game to recognize the new data, rolling out the full 30-team rom can follow soon after.

[Proveaux]

Download

Looks like you will more than likely need to move everything up one tile. 

[keithisgood]

This is bizarre. I managed to shift the screen up one tile, but for whatever reason, when I insert the new title screen hex into the rom, it negates your palette changes.

Here's the new patch with the screen shifted up one pixel:
http://db.tt/BFdJep8R

The only thing I can think is that the code which controls the tiles' horizontal position also has some bearing on palette choice. Unfortunately, I'm not 100% on how the control codes for the tiltle screen work.

Nevermind any of that. Got it working.

 
Looks pretty good compared to the box art I'd made beforehand, no? Thanks Proveaux.
Just for my notes, was it simply a matter of editing the palette pointer at $3E466 and the various color values or was there something else?

[Proveaux]

Original


2013-03-13


Edit


Some of the code was overwritten so repaired that first.

• 55 is to use the 2nd palette for BASEBALL.
• The 1st FF is to use the 4th palette for the middle of 2013.
• CC is to have left side of palette block the 1st palette and the right side the 4th palette for the beginning of 2013.
• The 2nd FF is to use the 4th palette for the end of 2013. The next 8 00's is to have the 1st palette follow.
• Any number after 27 that was changed was to move the palette block.
• Changed various palette values.

For your notes I think that's everything and hopefully correct.

You did an awesome job implementing the new title screen. It and the box art looks great!