Journey to Silius Terminator project MMC5 chip and level editing help

[Doodle_Dangernoodle]

I am working on a passion project of restoring the Terminator license to Journey to Silius and I have some Mockups of what I hope the final project will look like:


Unfortunately, for some of the things like extra levels and cutscenes, I would need more room on the ROM. I was wondering if there was a way to put it on an MMC3 or MMC5 chip for that reason. I also need some help with level editing and certain hex questions.

[Disch]

I was wondering if there was a way to put it on an MMC3 or MMC5 chip

But of course.

_{(Though technically the game doesn't go ON the MMC ch...  nevermind)}

Mapper hacks have 3 basic steps:

1)  Change the header to indicate it should use the new mapper

2)  Cut into the game's initialization code (in the RESET vector handler) and write code to initialize the mapper to a known, stable state.

3)  Find all the code that accesses the old mapper registers, and replace it with code that has the same effect using the new mapper registers.  With an MMC1->MMC5 conversion, this probably will only involve PRG/CHR swapping routines and *maybe* a mirroring mode change.  So not counting the initialization stuff in step 2, there's probably only two to four routines in the code that need to be updated.




The steps are simple enough -- and even usually very easy for a seasoned hacker.  But they require you know a few things:
- You need to have a pretty firm grasp on 6502 assembly
- You need to understand NES memory mapping and bankswapping.
- You need to mostly understand both the old and new mappers.



If you're new to asm, I'm torn on whether or not a mapper hack is a good first project.  On one hand, the code you have to write for it is pretty small and relatively easy.  On the other hand it requires a significant chunk of domain knowledge.  On the other hand, if you don't know enough about asm to actually DO the mapper change, you probably don't know enough asm to make use of the new mapper anyway.

[Doodle_Dangernoodle]

This is a test to make pacnsacdave's Terminator Hack have a better title screen. Here's the Original:




Here's the progress:



But as you can see, the colors are all messed up, I'm having a hard time locating the palette hex in the hex editor (FCEUX).
Is there a program I can use to better locate where the palettes are and reorganize where the palettes will show up.

Here's what I hope what it will look like when I hopefully fix it:

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

Not bad,it's looking great so far,keep up the great work.

[Doodle_Dangernoodle]

Do you know any programs I can use to fix it?

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

Sadly no,Im more of an idea man. ^^;

[Doodle_Dangernoodle]

Well, I guess it is in your name 

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

Lol,yep! XD

[Proveaux]

Download

[RetroNuva10]

Looking great! Maybe once this game is finished, I'll finally have played Journey to Silius (well, a hack of it at least).

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

Alright since there's a different Terminator project going on I have a number of ideas I want to share with either PasthorRothers or Pacnsadave.

If that's alright with them?

Alright first off,see if you guys can add the extra credits & trademark to the title screen add those two pics from the mock ups to the intro plus add the nuke explosion again,also edit the second boss to at least make closely to the mock up one.

Also I can give music ideas from other versions of The Terminator games that was released for various consoles,plus if you look closely at the Nintendo Power ad of the game,you can kinda make the Life Meter is longer then the one in the final version plus the Gun Ammo meter is abesent,plus maybe you guys can up with modern day enemy sprites if you guys decided to change Stages 3 to 5 graphics,in any case,keep up the great work!   

[Proveaux]

Changes text fade from blue to green per request.



Download

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

Nice!

I hope this mod changes more overtime and please to try to add custom music & restore some of the scrapped ideas.

Nevermind,something tells me that this is discontinued ^^;

[Doodle_Dangernoodle]

I added the "You're Hit Bad!" Cutscene graphic into the rom.

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

Nice,you are restoring the lost cutscenes,keep up the great work!

Hope to see more progress.