(NES) Total Conversion Hack Castlevania 3: Aperture of Corruption

[Googie]

Konami should be taking notes, this is gonna be badass when it's done.

[DavidtheIdeaMan]

In four years most likely XD

[Toffi]

Were Back!
It's been a month folks. I have some pretty juicy updates to chew on.
To start things of we have new stage updates for the Carnival and Clockwork Lab from our epic stage designer Holy Diver.


Next on the list is some major UI changes, which are currently in active development.
Credit goes to Trax for the breakthrough here.


ENEMY ALERT:
Small floating blimp drones have been spotted over the skies of Romania. These dastardly inventions will float in wait until a target is in sight. If a stray Belmont gets caught underneath one they unleash a flurry of tiny bomb's. On their own they don't pose too much of a threat, but be careful they can be deadly when flying in packs or in coordination with wither enemies like axe knights or sword skeletons.



Lastly we have some new updates on team AoC's first cursed boss: Germain is getting the ringleader clown treatment. With some sprite overlay trickery at play we can get away with using a few extra colors here.


Many of the stages and art posted here will be polished before we drop our first demo. So expect to here more from us soon.

[StarWyvern]

 Awesome stuff Toffi! Keep up the great work. This hack is gonna be amazing. Things like this help keep fading series like Castlevania alive. CASTLEVANIA FOREVER!!!!! 

[j0nas]

So far, this hack looks great. CV3 is one of my favorite NES games and this is the hack I'm most looking forward to. Keep up the good work!

[Flaviogames]

it's getting really good, congratulations

[Fat T-800 Albert]

This looks absolutely incredible. Keep up the good work

[Toffi]

It's 21 days till Christmas folks!
Time for another monthly update from the Aperture of Corruption Forge Masters.
For those of you wondering about the frequency of posts be assured that we will continue to post monthly with project updates. AoC's still chugging along and staying on track. Keep in mind the team is doing this in our free time and need external help for progress. If any of you are interested in hopping on board were always looking for newcomers. Right now ASM 6502 work is our greatest limiting factor, so if you have any knowledge on the subject we would be more than happy to chat.

With that out of the way it's update time!
Sprite team has been working hard to push Claudia's move set into its first public demo ready phase. Thanks goes out to Ontar for their excellent BB work. To start we have some science sub-weapons based on WW1 tech.

The flame attack has been reworked into a proper flamethrower, and the lightning attack into a homing rotocopter.

Each attack has it's own book type, teaching Claudia the attack.

Last of the sprites is the crouching and downed sprites.



Next up we have some mini WIP stage progress from the stage team with some help from the masterful HolyDiver. At this rate we may have a whole route completed by the time the sound engine finishes its final rounds of bug testing.


Last but not least, we have made some breakthroughs with CV3's color addresses and have found that CV3's master sprite palette is stored on a level by level basis. This means we have a bit more control over the colors of in game cutscenes and credits (so look out for more edits in the future).


As always, if you have any questions feel free to ask below. If your interested in joining the Forge Masters, please pass me a DM. Thanks for keeping up with the project, and Happy Holidays!

[StarWyvern]

 Bruh! This is totally mind blowing. Every update you give us makes me all excited like playing CV3 for the first time. 

[Vanya]

I wish we could like posts.

[Flaviogames]

Everything is amazing, won't it be possible to save the game?

[Toffi]

Hi Flaviogames,
An in ROM save feature has yet to be properly implemented. This is mainly due to the original CV3's board structure not containing an internal battery. Back when these games were being manufactured, any game that needed an onboard save file would have to be directly attached to a small power source to keep the game from loosing all of its save data. Essentially it's a cartridge issue that rom-hacking will not be able to solve alone. In todays day and age, its much easier to save NES data through digital files. Systems like emulators and flash carts
(the main ways to play AoC) will allow for the game to be automatically equipped with quick save support. However ROM data itself will only have the original password save system. Thanks for asking

[Toffi]

I just realized we missed the 1 year anniversary of AoC It was back in December 8th.
Well, I wanted to thank AoC team and all of you wonderful folks here on RHDN for all the support you gave to the project. Thanks to you AoC's gotten:
3 New levels, including new level layouts and complete graphical overhauls
(one new level in progress)
2 Completely new graphical bosses
(one boss in progress)
3 New characters
(1 character left to go)
16 New enemy types
11 Original tracks tested
Weapon Drops
Faster cross movement
Faster door loading
Faster stair climbing
Instant character swapping
and even a super early form of a 2p swap out mode
(still a WIP that needs a whole new ROM to properly work)

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.
New updates should be rolling in this January.

[Flaviogames]

Toffi: merry christmas, this game does look like a new game, it just lacked a save mode, i know you already talked about it, but who knows in the future before the release it will be possible

[WaverBoy]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forums and this is my first post — I had no idea a new CV3 hack was in the works, and this sounds like it'll be a whole new amazing game — LOVING the screenshots and discussion so far, this is gonna be EPIC, can't wait!

[Flaviogames]

waverboy welcome
this CV is not a simple rack, it really looks like a new game with new enemy characters and scenarios, I'm looking forward to some beta rom so I can test this little beauty when it's not completed 100%

[nek10]

Para cuando estara terminado este gran trabajo? lo estoy siguiendo desde inicio.

[Googie]

Keep at it, it's coming along really smooth. 

[Toffi]

Hello nek10,
From a professional standpoint, the turn around time from project creation to completion can be as little as a year. In todays day and age, many people expect to see games come out as soon as they are announced; which is why most professional studios keep their projects well hidden until late in development.
As an independent dev team, things work a little bit differently.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when estimating the time of AoC's completion:

1. The original Castlevania 3 took 3 years to complete with a masterful team, full pay, and the proper equipment.

2. Many tools the original team had (like the games MMC5 music implementer) have been lost to time. Our little team of Forgemaster's has to rebuild all of those tools from scratch. Many of us are not as experienced with the hardware as the original team was, so our work takes much more time.

3. Despite the fact we have fully mapped the games ROM and RAM addresses; every mod we produce has the capability of crashing the game entirely. Introducing new features also means combating new bugs, which takes time without a ton of extra ASM help.

4. None of us are paid for our work on this project, we rely on our volunteer work to help make AoC a reality. The CV3 team used almost every day of those 3 years to build up what many consider to be one of the best games on the system. AoC team only has vacation days, weekends, and any other free time we can spare. This is why were constantly looking for new Forgemaster's, every day counts.

Even 4 years of dedicated work can be considered optimistic by some. The teams come quite a ways since the games start a year ago. In that time we've done a whole lot, and I hope we can do a whole lot more in the years to come. With projects like this, endurance is key.

Keeping the spirit of AoC alive for 4 or more years is no easy feat, which is why its wonderful to see the support here on RHDN.
Thank you all for giving us the strength to keep moving forward!
Have a Happy New Year guys!

[nek10]

Thanks for the great work, I'll wait patiently for this gem.