Zelda 1 Redux / The Legend of Zelda Redux

[gdljjrod]

Retroarch PSVita
Core NEStopia
MMC1 with Link's Awakening GFX and Bomb Upgrades 5 instead of 10
But with fceumm_libretro it works fine

https://ibb.co/qxYdpBT




With this commit dont work in Nestopia
https://github.com/ShadowOne333/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Redux/commit/84b8c7a6ee9831512ecc6a585a11b4f7776d0375

[lexluthermiester]

Retroarch PSVita
Core NEStopia
MMC1 with Link's Awakening GFX and Bomb Upgrades 5 instead of 10
But with fceumm_libretro it works fine




With this commit dont work in Nestopia
https://github.com/ShadowOne333/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Redux/commit/84b8c7a6ee9831512ecc6a585a11b4f7776d0375

I'm not having any problems in Nestopia.

[ShadowOne333]

I cannot see any image at all on the Nestopia core that was reported.
And I cannot replicate it neither.

Please, make sure that whoever tests the game, tries using the latest patches available in the GitHub repository.

And while we are on the topic of patches, I updated the main patches and optional patches too.
Now all of the optional patches should be fully compatible and working with both the MMC1 version, and also the MMC5.
All patches should now be properly working.

Also, I wanted to mention that, according to everything that's been done and the features/points already covered, once the MMC1 (CHR-RAM) Automap is working with the animation made by Fiskbit, I think the project would be ready for an actual release!

I am hoping to have the hack ready for the Zelda 1 35th Anniversary, which is on February 21st of this year.
So all gears running, guys! And if someone can help with the last thing to meet the desired date, it'll be more than welcomed and very thankful!
Here's the method Bogaa did to make the Visible Secrets work with the MMC1 Animation, which is what I'm using as the base to implement the fix for Automap:
https://github.com/ShadowOne333/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Redux/blob/master/MMC1/code/gameplay/visible_secrets.asm#L164-L251

As for the Automap code itself, I believe these are the routines that need to be modified to make it work with the MMC1 Animation, taking Bogaa's implementation from the Visible Secrets as the base:
https://github.com/ShadowOne333/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Redux/blob/master/MMC1/code/gameplay/automap.asm#L560-L627

Final stretch! Just Automap CHR-RAM with animation and we should be ready for release! \o/

[ifightdragons]

Great news!

[ShadowOne333]

While the MMC1 Automap stuff is still pending, I worked on a little mockup for the title screen, to revamp it a bit (among other optional patches).
This is what I have at the moment, and it's how it looks in-game. Though I'm not sure what color I should go for the small letters:

                       Red Letters                         /                      Black Letters                       /                    All Black Letters


Opinions?

[SimplyDanny]

While the MMC1 Automap stuff is still pending, I worked on a little mockup for the title screen, to revamp it a bit (among other optional patches).
This is what I have at the moment, and it's how it looks in-game. Though I'm not sure what color I should go for the small letters:

                       Red Letters                         /                      Black Letters                       /                    All Black Letters


Opinions?

Honestly, I think the issue with the letters is not the color, but the lack of consistency or weight. They look a bit off next to the grandiose (and admittedly very well made) Zelda logo with just bland coloring. My suggestion would be to maybe add in a drop shadow, like this:



I also altered the sword in the intro a bit so that it looks more like the in-game White Sword; thought it was a neat touch.

Of course, that could just be me being nitpicky again; if I had to pick a color combo, I'd say...

All red letters ~ Red "legend of"/black "hyrule fantasy" > All black > Black "legend of"/red "hyrule fantasy"

[CoolCatBomberMan]

While the MMC1 Automap stuff is still pending, I worked on a little mockup for the title screen, to revamp it a bit (among other optional patches).
This is what I have at the moment, and it's how it looks in-game. Though I'm not sure what color I should go for the small letters:

                       Red Letters                         /                      Black Letters                       /                    All Black Letters


Opinions?

Going off just your mockups, I like the All Black. If you're adding a drop shadow to the small letters, then All Red.

[AdamDravian]

All black letters looks best to me.

[Pleiades7]

Diagonal sword swing

You mentioned there was once a hack by someone named infinity who got Link to do a diagonal sword swing? Confused.

What was that about?! Couldn't you just incorporate that hack into this one? I couldn't find any info about such a hack on Google.

[ShadowOne333]

Seems like All Black letters is winning, so that one might be the final one.
I'll wait for more people to chime in to make it final.

You mentioned there was once a hack by someone named infinity who got Link to do a diagonal sword swing? Confused.

What was that about?! Couldn't you just incorporate that hack into this one? I couldn't find any info about such a hack on Google.

The author of the hack is called "Infidelity", that's the person that created the hack.
The hack's name is "Legend of Link", which you can find here:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2136/

So far, he has been the only person that has made a diagonal sword swing for Zelda 1 in that hack, and the amount of ASM hacks Infidelity made for that one is just way too much. Maybe the diagonal swing could be RE'd from his hack, but atm it's a little out of my reach.

[iridium_ionizer]

Like a New Zealand rugby fan, I like the All Blacks.

[Fray]

I think that too, all black is "better" because there is more contrast with the Zelda logo.
Even the idea of DannyPlaysSomeGames is good but, maybe, the letters should be presented in a different color... But I don't know exactly what color could be better. Basically the idea of contrast is the key.

[ifightdragons]

Seems like All Black letters is winning, so that one might be the final one.
I'll wait for more people to chime in to make it final.

The author of the hack is called "Infidelity", that's the person that created the hack.
The hack's name is "Legend of Link", which you can find here:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2136/

So far, he has been the only person that has made a diagonal sword swing for Zelda 1 in that hack, and the amount of ASM hacks Infidelity made for that one is just way too much. Maybe the diagonal swing could be RE'd from his hack, but atm it's a little out of my reach.

If you ask him, can't he just tell you how he did it? Or is he just being an a**hole not wanting to help anyone?

[ShadowOne333]

Seems like All Black Letters wins then.
Will update the optional patch later this week.

If you ask him, can't he just tell you how he did it? Or is he just being an a**hole not wanting to help anyone?

I did ask him months (if not a year) ago I believe.
He did reply back with some hints, but he did mention that it was somewhat hard to manage.
He also did a hack to add bushes into Zelda 1, so the diagonal swing he did has to take those into consideration.
After that, he hasn't been online here as much, he seems to be focused more on hardware stuff rather than romhacking.

Nevertheless, I have never tried to RE the Diagonal swing he did.
Most likely it will be linked with the bushes hack, so I'd need to remove that, if I do end up porting it over successfully (which I doubt lol).

Still though, I managed to find the routine that checks whether you press A for using the sword, and where it jumps to realize the normal stab.

The game checks for an A button press at the routine located at 05:$B2A8 (0x172B8).
It's a comparison which checks RAM $F8 (input address) against value #$80 (A button value).
If the check is effective, then the game jumps to 05:$8E00 (0x14E10), where the actual sword routine seems to be located.

I took a quick poke at "Legend of Link", and from what I could see, it seems Infidelity needed to make some copies of the A button check routine (and the sword routine) into 4 banks, instead of only being in bank 5, like in the original game. It could possibly be reduced and reworked to our advantage. Possibly by reusing the Magic Sword graphic, which is in a diagonal manner, and use that one for the animation. Then effectuate the swing animation based on that without changing Link's arm animation, so we don't do any fancy stuff that could be difficult to RE.
Basically, just make it swing diagonally and detect collision, I'd be happy with that. Having Link's arms animated to match the sword and all is too fancy already lol

[ifightdragons]

To be honest, I really like the original stabbing action Link makes. Though it would be cool with a sword swing as an optional add-on patch, it's not a feature I'm desperate to try again.

[lexluthermiester]

Honestly, I think the issue with the letters is not the color, but the lack of consistency or weight. They look a bit off next to the grandiose (and admittedly very well made) Zelda logo with just bland coloring. My suggestion would be to maybe add in a drop shadow, like this:



I also altered the sword in the intro a bit so that it looks more like the in-game White Sword; thought it was a neat touch.

Of course, that could just be me being nitpicky again; if I had to pick a color combo, I'd say...

All red letters ~ Red "legend of"/black "hyrule fantasy" > All black > Black "legend of"/red "hyrule fantasy"

This is cool! The lettering stands out better! ShadowOne333, use this!

[CoolCatBomberMan]

Automap appears to be broken. I made sure to use a PRG0 ROM. I played on Mesen. I applied the patches I used in this order, all of which MMC1:

Zelda1_Redux
Bomb Upgrades 5 instead of 10
Full Health at Start
Rearranged Bosses
Recoloured Dungeons
Reworked Title Screen

The end result? Automap flashes between random tiles that I had previously visited. The photo below shows an example in the bottom-right corner.

Did I apply the patches in the wrong order, or use the wrong emulator?

EDIT: For Pete's sake, how the heck am I supposed to post a photo on here?! Bah, just click on this link!

https://imgur.com/a/tgxYq1P

EDIT 2: Just tried using FCEUX 2.3.0. Same issue with Automap tiles erratically flashing, but now, the item counters flash between their respective values and ellipses, albeit at a slower rate than the Automap tiles. Also, when walking sideways, Link's walking animation doesn't trigger. Instead, he blips in and out of existence.

EDIT 3: I was up all night testing different patch combos. All I got was increasingly worse results, to the point where the entire screen was starting to glitch out.

https://imgur.com/a/gUNH6Bh

In the end, I finally got it to work........by giving up and using the MMC5 version. I don't know if this is old news, and I'm too sleep-deprived to bother checking. I just wanna go to bed.....

[netux]

This is an amazing job. I have tried until now and I love it. I cannot wait to see the animation working in MMC1. Thanks you for you hard work, keep it going 

[ShadowOne333]

Automap appears to be broken. I made sure to use a PRG0 ROM. I played on Mesen. I applied the patches I used in this order, all of which MMC1.

The end result? Automap flashes between random tiles that I had previously visited. The photo below shows an example in the bottom-right corner.

This is the very last bug I was mentioning in the post here:
https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=29403.msg407357#msg407357

Where I say the following in regards to that bug:

...I wanted to mention that, according to everything that's been done and the features/points already covered, once the MMC1 (CHR-RAM) Automap is working with the animation made by Fiskbit, I think the project would be ready for an actual release!

I am hoping to have the hack ready for the Zelda 1 35th Anniversary, which is on February 21st of this year.
So all gears running, guys! And if someone can help with the last thing to meet the desired date, it'll be more than welcomed and very thankful!
Here's the method Bogaa did to make the Visible Secrets work with the MMC1 Animation, which is what I'm using as the base to implement the fix for Automap:
https://github.com/ShadowOne333/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Redux/blob/master/MMC1/code/gameplay/visible_secrets.asm#L164-L251

As for the Automap code itself, I believe these are the routines that need to be modified to make it work with the MMC1 Animation, taking Bogaa's implementation from the Visible Secrets as the base:
https://github.com/ShadowOne333/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Redux/blob/master/MMC1/code/gameplay/automap.asm#L560-L627

Final stretch! Just Automap CHR-RAM with animation and we should be ready for release! \o/

Automap is not fully compatible with the MMC1 animation, and that's the last remaining thing to do so I can effectively make a proper release of the hack, hopefully by February 21st for the 35th Anniversary.

As for your second point:

EDIT 2: Just tried using FCEUX 2.3.0. Same issue with Automap tiles erratically flashing, but now, the item counters flash between their respective values and ellipses, albeit at a slower rate than the Automap tiles. Also, when walking sideways, Link's walking animation doesn't trigger. Instead, he blips in and out of existence.

EDIT 3: I was up all night testing different patch combos. All I got was increasingly worse results, to the point where the entire screen was starting to glitch out.

https://imgur.com/a/gUNH6Bh

In the end, I finally got it to work........by giving up and using the MMC5 version. I don't know if this is old news, and I'm too sleep-deprived to bother checking. I just wanna go to bed.....

I got this report as well from another user, IcePenguin, when he was doing some tests on his own.
I always test on FCEUX 2.3, and the only bug I had encountered so far was the Automap flickering/blinking, but this is because Automap isn't compatible 100% with the animation for MMC1.

However, it seems IcePenguin found another bug, which is entirely and solely an issue with the Automap code, and it gives the results you describe.
The problem here is that the issues both IcePenguin and you describe can ONLY be replicated if you have no previous SRAM of the game created, so if you go load up the hacked ROM blank, with no previous save done or never opened up in the emulator before, you replicate the issue, but as soon as you reset the game, the issue seems to be gone for some reason.

Example from a fresh start, with a ROM that had no previous save:


The glitchy results:


I did find the culprit of the issue though. Seems like a "solution" I made months ago to an original Automap bug simply created yet another bug:
https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=29403.msg403797#msg403797

The solution posted by @gzip also results in a similar issue, but way more noticeable.
I'll see what can be done to fix this, but at least the issue is now identified.



EDIT:
I think I managed to fix it.
Please, to whoever was having these issues with the MMC1 version, try the newest patch in the GitHub repo within the MMC1 folders.



As for the MMC1 Automap stuff, I haven't been able to work on any hacking stuff these past days.
I am not quite sure if it will be possible to have the Automap work with MMC1 Animation before the 21st, so the decision to release the hack by that date is still up in the air. By the look of things, I doubt it, but we'll have to see.

[kaine23]

any more updates?