Super Mario All-Stars Redrawn ( Lost Levels Demo is now Available in the OP )

[pocket]

I'll be shifting my focus to SMB1 for now.  As you can see i've posted the first batch of enemies. I'm not sure i'm feeling the blooper. SMB2 is done. The subcons are already faithful to what little artwork they have, there have been a few tweaks to the items, but nothing worth documenting, save for one easter egg for Super Smash Bros. Melee nerds in the battle against wart, but i'll let people find that one for themselves. Right now the only thing left i'm even thinking about tweaking in SMB2 is Toad's spots.

About SMAS+SMW...
I encourage you to make a faithful artwork edition for it, please
The Koopalings are awful in SMW, and your touch on them would be fantastic!

Also, don't worry about compatibility with SMAS+SMW Redux.
If all you do is sprite/palette work, then your changes should be compatible with Redux without any problem at all.

I did also apply the brick fix patch but I suppose there is no reason I can't just copy paste to a clean rom. Though i'll have to tweak pallets again.   
Again, we'll see.  I have a little bit of experience with SMW, it's a bit of a big job, and I think the Koopalings would be even harder to fix given the nature of how all of them but Ludwig share graphics.

EDIT: So I actually did open SMAS+W in YY-CHR because I needed to yoink the graphics from a clean rom after a little mishap. And I noticed that I couldn't find any SMW graphics whatsoever, except for the new Luigi graphics. What's the deal with that? If I was to make a SMAS+W edition of this hack, i'd have to leave the SMW portion of the game untouched it seems...??


EDIT: Since I had an easy time changing the King of Water Land back into a Kappa, I thought about changing the other kings. The King of Ice Land went from being a seal to a Monty Mole. IDK how everyone feels about Monty Mole but I always found it to be one of the more boring Mario mooks. It's just a mole, it's not even got a gimmick like it's cooler cousin, Rocky Wrench. The new sprite is too small to turn back into a seal, so I had to make it into something equally small. Maybe a much cooler Mario easter egg? Maybe the size of... a doll?



How do we feel about this? Does it break too far from the theme of artwork accuracy? Can people even recognize it being so small and all? There's no artwork of the Kings besides the Kappa, I just thought a cool little easter egg for another SNES Mario game I really love would be appropriate but if I get enough responses booing it, I'll revert back to Monty Mole ( or maybe try to make a really small seal )

[TRIFORCE89]

For some more inspiration you might want to look at MFGG.net

[ShadowOne333]

@pocket for Super Mario World on the SMAS+W package, I believe the graphics are compressed (or at least I seem to remember they were when I did Redux). It should be easy to uncompress the graphics, edit them and compress them back into the game.

For this you will need exhal (decompress) and inhal (compress).
It's rather simple, though I don't have the documentation at hand for getting the graphics out of the SMW portion from the SMAS+W ROM.
Let me see if I can find and I'll post it here.

EDIT:
Okay I did a small trip down memory lane, and indeed the graphics are compressed.
However, the process to decompress and inject the graphics back into the game is way simpler.

All you need is Lunar Magic.
Simply open up the SMAS+SMW ROM with Lunar Magic, then search for one of the red mushroom icons, this one extracts ALL of the GFX from Super Mario World into a single .bin file with the name "AllGFX.bin".
This .bin file that Lunar Magic extracts can be opened up with YY-CHR for editing, as with any normal game graphics.
Once you are done editing the graphics with YY-CHR, there's an option to insert the graphics back into the game with Lunar Magic as well.
Do so and then that should be it!

If you have any doubts, please let me know and I'll gladly help

NOTE: I suggest you keep two SMAS+SMW ROMs if you are going to hack SMAS and SMW.
Keep one SMAS+SMW ROM ONLY for all your SMAS changes, and another SMAS+SMW ROM ONLY for all the SMW stuff.
This way we can be sure we keep both separate, and avoid any intrusion from one into the other.
Once you are done with both, you can simply make IPS patches of each separate ROM, then patch both of them (combine them) into a single ROM.

[pocket]

@pocket for Super Mario World on the SMAS+W package, I believe the graphics are compressed (or at least I seem to remember they were when I did Redux). It should be easy to uncompress the graphics, edit them and compress them back into the game.

For this you will need exhal (decompress) and inhal (compress).
It's rather simple, though I don't have the documentation at hand for getting the graphics out of the SMW portion from the SMAS+W ROM.
Let me see if I can find and I'll post it here.

EDIT:
Okay I did a small trip down memory lane, and indeed the graphics are compressed.
However, the process to decompress and inject the graphics back into the game is way simpler.

All you need is Lunar Magic.
Simply open up the SMAS+SMW ROM with Lunar Magic, then search for one of the red mushroom icons, this one extracts ALL of the GFX from Super Mario World into a single .bin file with the name "AllGFX.bin".
This .bin file that Lunar Magic extracts can be opened up with YY-CHR for editing, as with any normal game graphics.
Once you are done editing the graphics with YY-CHR, there's an option to insert the graphics back into the game with Lunar Magic as well.
Do so and then that should be it!

If you have any doubts, please let me know and I'll gladly help

NOTE: I suggest you keep two SMAS+SMW ROMs if you are going to hack SMAS and SMW.
Keep one SMAS+SMW ROM ONLY for all your SMAS changes, and another SMAS+SMW ROM ONLY for all the SMW stuff.
This way we can be sure we keep both separate, and avoid any intrusion from one into the other.
Once you are done with both, you can simply make IPS patches of each separate ROM, then patch both of them (combine them) into a single ROM.

Well I'll be... I just assumed Lunar Magic wouldn't be compatible with SMAS+W this whole time. I never thought to ask or test it.  That'll make things a little easier.

Would other patches and tools from SMWCentral work on SMAS+World? Iggy's hair fix would be crucial to have so he wouldn't share the same hair graphic as Larry.

[ShadowOne333]

Some might be compatible yeah, but don't expect 1:1 comparisons between vanilla SMW and the All Stars collections.
But if it can be done in SMW, then for sure it can be done in the collection.

[pocket]

Well, once I'm done with all the original SMAS stuff, I'll look further into SMAS+W. There's a good chance i'll do something for SMW after everything i've done here, i'm having too much fun working on this.

I've almost finished with the enemies of SMB1, check the OP as usual. Actually I AM done with the SMB1 enemies, I'm just trying to decide if I want to make any alterations to Bowser... besides reddening his eyebrows anyway. His Sprites in SMAS are pretty good representations of him but I think i'm shooting for better than "pretty good" at this point.

In the mean time, I'd like some opinions... everyone knows the original NES SMB game just uses the cloud graphic colored green for bushes right?  I couldn't help but notice there's an animated cloud graphic on the preview screen for levels that doesn't actually show up in the levels themselves, I thought I'd see how it looked if I replaced the grass with it to emulate the bushes from the NES game.



...How does it look? I kinda like it, a little more faithful to the original game I think, but the blowing in the wind animation makes it feel at home on the SNES. My only apprehension is that the original game's story did say something about Bowser turning the Toad's into horsetail grass.


One more thing.
I wasn't planning to alter any of Mario's sprites beyond color but I thought I't give it a little test...

Hmmmm...
Let me know if I should proceed. This likely wouldn't be the final version.

[AdamDravian]

I think this whole project is looking incredible--great job.

As for your most recent post, the animated bushes look good to me, and I totally love that new SMB2 Mario sprite.

[pocket]

SMB1 is done more or less. I ended up changing Bowser after all. Buzzy Beetle and Hammer Bros were added to existing reference sheets instead of getting their own so check them out.  Toad and the Princess got changed too but I'll screenshot them at a later time.

I have been touching up things I've already done and updating the OP as I go, so you might notice some changes if you look over the OP again. Wart got a somewhat significant facelift today.

I guess Mario 3 is next. The Koopalings are already done, so that's one big hurdle down. After that, I'll look into changing the player characters, and I think that'll be the end of vanilla SMAS. I'll be ready to move onto SMW, but I can at least let people try out SMAS on it's own.

Since i'm moving onto SMB3, I'm going to go ahead and add a poll regarding the transformed Kings.

[niuus]

In the mean time, I'd like some opinions... everyone knows the original NES SMB game just uses the cloud graphic colored green for bushes right?  I couldn't help but notice there's an animated cloud graphic on the preview screen for levels that doesn't actually show up in the levels themselves, I thought I'd see how it looked if I replaced the grass with it to emulate the bushes from the NES game.



...How does it look? I kinda like it, a little more faithful to the original game I think, but the blowing in the wind animation makes it feel at home on the SNES. My only apprehension is that the original game's story did say something about Bowser turning the Toad's into horsetail grass.


One more thing.
I wasn't planning to alter any of Mario's sprites beyond color but I thought I't give it a little test...

Hmmmm...
Let me know if I should proceed. This likely wouldn't be the final version.

Loving both changes. The SMB2 sprite looks fantastic, and the animated bushes REALLY look amazing and in-line with what you could have expected from a 16-bit remake!

[Zimgief]

For the bush, it doesn't feel right:
- the bright color makes it look like it is on the first plan alors with other interactable objects
- the bright color, animation and shape make it look like it is some kind of mutagenic ooze/blob you have to jump over. x)

In SMB2:
- the crab's eyes are not easily readable for afar, which is important
- Birdo looks annoyed rather than charming

Everything else looks great! You're quite skilled!

As you are working on this game, could you maybe make an optional patch whitch would erase Mario's portrait in the background in bonus rooms (in SMB1... don't remember in the other games)? I think it is anti-immersive, and, for real, is the main reason why I still prefer the original Nes game.

[FireWallBarrier]

Well, its good I guess.

[MandatoryPixel]

I'm loving that new Mario sprite! Are you planning to re-do Luigi's as well?

I voted on the poll to revert the kings to their NES versions, because that seems like the best way to keep with the project's goal of incorporating the "original" designs of things... but I would also not be mad at all if you took liberties with some of them! I'm in favor of keeping the little Geno king.

Also, I like the idea of animated bushes a lot, but I think they could be touched up a bit. I was thinking something similar to Zimgief - it looks kind of like it's bubbling or something, rather than blowing in the wind.

[Shade Aurion]

Wow, this looks amazing! Keep up the great work. Your sprites are phenominal
ShadowOne333 is a pretty great and well-known hacker. Maybe you two could collab. I know he was looking for a sprite artist to remaster a handful of sprite sheets for Mother/Earthbound too <3

[Metalwario64]

Those SMB2 sprites are excellent, and you should reuse them for Super Mario Bros. 1 as well since the SMB2 USA box art was based on the Famicom box for SMB1.



I'm not much of a fan of the redone stances you made for those sprites anyway, since he's looking off to to the side instead of directly in front of him.

Also, are you going to be able to make the ground tiles different for "The Lost Levels"? In the FDS version it had a different, rocky look instead of the cracked blocky look of the first game. I don't know how the altered engines on All-Stars works and if it's possible to easily separate the graphics from both of those games.

I also made some slight tweaks to your Birdo sprite:


Mostly the eyes, which the pupils seemed a bit too small in the original, and looking too straight, and maybe above the player's eye level in their big forms, and I made other, minor tweaks to things like the bow and the cheek.

[pocket]

So, about the bushes. Does this look any better?



Colors are all a shade lighter, and i've animated it myself so it does look more like swaying as opposed to "bubbling", it's still based on the clouds from the original game since I still used the sprite as a base.

Well, its good I guess.

Thanks I guess? 

I'm loving that new Mario sprite! Are you planning to re-do Luigi's as well?

Chances are if I go through with changing Mario i'll do something with all the player characters, although I feel the Princess doesn't really need any changing in SMB2.

Wow, this looks amazing! Keep up the great work. Your sprites are phenominal
ShadowOne333 is a pretty great and well-known hacker. Maybe you two could collab. I know he was looking for a sprite artist to remaster a handful of sprite sheets for Mother/Earthbound too <3

Thank you! I have been wondering what I might do once this is all over. I'd really like to do something with Zelda tbh, BS Zelda in particular interests me a lot but there's not a lot I think I COULD do with it. The sprites already look really good, I'd really just be tweaking Link and Ganon and maybe some of the NPCs. I wish I knew how to do more than just sprite editing because I'd kill make BS Zelda into a proper Zelda 1 remake.  EarthBound did cross my mind at one point, the overworld sprites in particular could really use some work imo, could be worth looking into if ShadowOne333 is still looking for someone when SMAS is finished.

Those SMB2 sprites are excellent, and you should reuse them for Super Mario Bros. 1 as well since the SMB2 USA box art was based on the Famicom box for SMB1.



I'm not much of a fan of the redone stances you made for those sprites anyway, since he's looking off to to the side instead of directly in front of him.

Also, are you going to be able to make the ground tiles different for "The Lost Levels"? In the FDS version it had a different, rocky look instead of the cracked blocky look of the first game. I don't know how the altered engines on All-Stars works and if it's possible to easily separate the graphics from both of those games.

I also made some slight tweaks to your Birdo sprite:


Mostly the eyes, which the pupils seemed a bit too small in the original, and looking too straight, and maybe above the player's eye level in their big forms, and I made other, minor tweaks to things like the bow and the cheek.

I will likely make a new, but very similar sprite for SMB1, I don't want things to look too uniform between all the games, part of the big appeal of Super Mario All-Stars for me is that you had these 3 Mario games on one cart with their own distinct look and feel. I'd still like to go with the original SMB1 stance, it's such a classic, even in Smash Bros he's doing a variation on it, and his idle stance in SMB3 isn't much better with his hands balled up at his chest, but i am open to tweaking it.

As far as I know, there is no way to give Super Mario Bros. The Lost levels it's own sprites, since the game shares all of it's graphics with Super Mario Bros., otherwise I absolutely would. Best I could do is make two different patches for TLL style graphics or SMB style graphics.  Actually if you use Yoshifanatic's disassembly you could have all the All-Stars games as seperate roms, and theoretically I could make Lost Levels with it's own graphics, but unless someone can get the brick fix patch working for the games in seperated form, I'm not going to bother with that.

I like those Birdo tweaks lot.  Birdo was the sprite I started with, so I suppose it could have done with some touching up. I also took the chance to tweak the body a bit too.



As for the Crab, I agree, I was really dissatisfied with it but I felt there wasn't many changes I could do. I'll do something about him soon.

EDIT:

"End of the line plumb-scum"

( don't worry, im not keeping this, just did it for a quick laugh. I love how the portrait of the real Bowser is looking hatefully at 'ol "King Koopa" there... but now I'm considering doing a Super Mario Bros. Super Show themed hack someday  . )

EDIT: I realized that nobody but the most masochistic type of person will play this on an emulator in windowed mode at it's smallest possible size, I personally plan to play this on my TV when it's "Finished" So I'll be posting my updates in larger sizes and enlarging what i've done.

[julayla]

"End of the line plumb-scum"

( don't worry, im not keeping this, just did it for a quick laugh. I love how the portrait of the real Bowser is looking hatefully at 'ol "King Koopa" there... but now I'm considering doing a Super Mario Bros. Super Show themed hack someday  . )

Lol, that is pretty good. Next there's gonna be a Super Show accurate Toad & Princess Toadstool in these hacks.

[Ar8temis008]

As far as I know, there is no way to give Super Mario Bros. The Lost levels it's own sprites, since the game shares all of it's graphics with Super Mario Bros., otherwise I absolutely would. Best I could do is make two different patches for TLL style graphics or SMB style graphics.  Actually if you use Yoshifanatic's disassembly you could have all the All-Stars games as seperate roms, and theoretically I could make Lost Levels with it's own graphics, but unless someone can get the brick fix patch working for the games in seperated form, I'm not going to bother with that.

Something to note, is that (at least as far as I could see in my own experimenting) patching Yoshifanatics split patches to All Stars roms that only have graphical changes doesn't break them, they work entirely fine.

So, if you simply included no brick fix versions and a version with Lost Levels style sprites, people could simply patch it together themselves using YF's hack.

[Metalwario64]

Lol, that is pretty good. Next there's gonna be a Super Show accurate Toad & Princess Toadstool in these hacks.

I'm still waiting for Genesis Sonic hacks with AoSTH Robotnik that's titled "Pingas Edition".

[pocket]

Wart is the only one in the ending sequence to be animated. Thought I'd have some fun with it. I figure it'd be fitting that he would be pouting about his defeat.


Also Ostro and Birdo have now switched places in the credits, their names stayed in the same spot. Simple enough fix to that whole mix-up, yeah?

Something to note, is that (at least as far as I could see in my own experimenting) patching Yoshifanatics split patches to All Stars roms that only have graphical changes doesn't break them, they work entirely fine.

So, if you simply included no brick fix versions and a version with Lost Levels style sprites, people could simply patch it together themselves using YF's hack.

Not 100% sure I follow, but you did just get me curious. I wanted to see what would happen if I took the seperated Lost Levels rom, made it into a patch, and applied it to my current build of Lost Levels.  The result? Well, it turned the game into just Lost Levels.  It even removed the brick fix.

What this does tell me is I could theoretically make a patch for each individual game if I wanted to. So far as I know, that would be the only way I could give Lost levels it's own graphics.  Still doesn't solve the Brick fix incompatibility though, but if enough people want it, I could do it. ( Hell if someone can solve the brick fix incompatibility i'll do it regardless because I want each game individually on my SNES Mini menu
)

Coincidentally, when I was trying to find a level with Red piranah plants to screenshot in TLL, I noticed it still used the unedited grass sprites. I guess Lost Levels does use it's own seperate graphics in some scenarios. Just not for ground tiles unfortunately.

I'm still waiting for Genesis Sonic hacks with AoSTH Robotnik that's titled "Pingas Edition".

I did consider making a hack somewhere in that area. Though I'd be shooting for something closer to the really early archie comic back when it was a funnybook illustrated by Scott Shaw and Art Mawhinney ( AKA before Penders made it a weird drama )  buuuut it's not quite something i'm dying to do.

[MathUser2929]

I think Clawglip is supposed to be Clawgrip.