[PKstarship]

I figured it would be like Super Mario 3D World because of the stars playing an important role in completing the game, and there would be many characters to play as, as well as a multiplayer function.

[CaseyCor]

Hello again everyone,

Quick update on the BS Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets situation. So, the codes I posted earlier do in fact work! Using the codes on the Week 4 ROM to freeze the timer at 18:48 allows the player to play the entire ROM up to the end, and skip the long waiting period.

At the end of the game, Zelda has to decipher a large Stone Tablet (this is the flag for the final boss), which is the game's explanation for the waiting period. With the codes, the final boss unlocks right after the dialog with Zelda about the tablet. Perfect! Now, all we need is a patch that hardcodes the memory changes into the ROM, and we're good to go! Note that the patch only needs to be applied to the Week 4 ROM, not all of them.

The codes in question, just to reiterate, are
7FFFFF00 - minutes = 00
7FFFF900 - hours = 00

As far as Ancient Stone Tablets goes, it would be really cool to have all 4 of the sections all in one so that speedrunners or casual players wouldn't have to switch roms and rename save files.

I was just discussing this with my friend MHFSilver, the speedrunner who got me interested in this project. One compilation ROM that can be played without switching ROMS and renaming the SRAM file would be great. I assume it's not an easy task, otherwise it would have been done already. An alternate approach could be a simple application or plug-in/extension for SNES9x that automatically renames the SRAM file and loads the next ROM. This would be a godsend for the BS Zelda 3 community.

[FAST6191]

I vaguely recall having a conversation about merging the satellaview zeldas not so long ago but a search came up short.
Depending upon what you want to do it is not the easiest trick, certainly not if you want to go all software. If you wanted to make a hardware cart and use some kind of bankswitching and soft reset then that would be fine. Otherwise everything will all want to use the same memory addresses and not be aware of the other program... and that would truly be a nightmare hack.

Back on the PC world then I would sooner code a custom emulator for it. You would not be coding any kind of emulator related code but pure file IO which is if not the first thing they teach you when learning to code then the second or third. You might even be able to get a bit creative with some of the arcade frontends that people like to use for cabinets and TV based emulation.
If you are in contact with any of the tool assisted members of your number then one of those can probably knock this out if you do not get any joy here.

On hardcoding the codes I think I would sooner figure out the trigger/check and break that. Pity the GG codes are RAM codes (slipped my mind when I was writing the earlier post) or they could have been in there already.

[Tsukiyomaru0]

Idea for Mega Man Zero series: A hack that replaces Zero and other characters with their Mythos armor (including fan designs in the style of Mythos). Perhaps even have Mythos Zero have different animations for attack and standing still.

[CaseyCor]

I vaguely recall having a conversation about merging the satellaview zeldas not so long ago but a search came up short.
Depending upon what you want to do it is not the easiest trick, certainly not if you want to go all software. If you wanted to make a hardware cart and use some kind of bankswitching and soft reset then that would be fine. Otherwise everything will all want to use the same memory addresses and not be aware of the other program... and that would truly be a nightmare hack.

Back on the PC world then I would sooner code a custom emulator for it. You would not be coding any kind of emulator related code but pure file IO which is if not the first thing they teach you when learning to code then the second or third. You might even be able to get a bit creative with some of the arcade frontends that people like to use for cabinets and TV based emulation.
If you are in contact with any of the tool assisted members of your number then one of those can probably knock this out if you do not get any joy here.

On hardcoding the codes I think I would sooner figure out the trigger/check and break that. Pity the GG codes are RAM codes (slipped my mind when I was writing the earlier post) or they could have been in there already.

After a ROM patch that fixes the timer issue is implemented, I will look into solving the ROM switching and SRAM re-naming issue. The current community of runners don't really have an issue with that aspect, so it's not of major importance. The timer issue is the highest priority.

If anyone can take the information I've provided here and make a patch for the Week 4 ROM, myself and the rest of the community would really appreciate it!

[Bahamut ZERO]

Hello again everyone,

Quick update on the BS Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets situation. So, the codes I posted earlier do in fact work! Using the codes on the Week 4 ROM to freeze the timer at 18:48 allows the player to play the entire ROM up to the end, and skip the long waiting period.

At the end of the game, Zelda has to decipher a large Stone Tablet (this is the flag for the final boss), which is the game's explanation for the waiting period. With the codes, the final boss unlocks right after the dialog with Zelda about the tablet. Perfect! Now, all we need is a patch that hardcodes the memory changes into the ROM, and we're good to go! Note that the patch only needs to be applied to the Week 4 ROM, not all of them.

The codes in question, just to reiterate, are
7FFFFF00 - minutes = 00
7FFFF900 - hours = 00
I was just discussing this with my friend MHFSilver, the speedrunner who got me interested in this project. One compilation ROM that can be played without switching ROMS and renaming the SRAM file would be great. I assume it's not an easy task, otherwise it would have been done already. An alternate approach could be a simple application or plug-in/extension for SNES9x that automatically renames the SRAM file and loads the next ROM. This would be a godsend for the BS Zelda 3 community.

Try searching up the "BS Zelda Soul Caliber Link" patch, as I remember playing it all the way through with just one ROM without the annoyance of switching roms/renaming saves. I can't say for certain if it has the same waiting around for 18 hours (or is that minutes??) but I remember just going in and fighting Ganon without having to wait.

Also, only noticable change I saw with the hack was that I could play as Link instead of a random guy or girl. If I remember correctly, I could play as "normal" Link, or classic Zelda 1 Link.

Alternatively, if you know where the codes are changing the data to freeze the timer (based on the 7F I'd say... RAM?), and those codes work on all 4 roms, you could just change the values by hand and make an .IPS patch.

Idea for Mega Man Zero series: A hack that replaces Zero and other characters with their Mythos armor (including fan designs in the style of Mythos). Perhaps even have Mythos Zero have different animations for attack and standing still.

That sounds like a cool idea! I also wish there was a hack that made Zero/X  have their classic Megaman X 1-3 look.  Zero Especially.

[CaseyCor]

Try searching up the "BS Zelda Soul Caliber Link" patch, as I remember playing it all the way through with just one ROM without the annoyance of switching roms/renaming saves. I can't say for certain if it has the same waiting around for 18 hours (or is that minutes??) but I remember just going in and fighting Ganon without having to wait.

Also, only noticable change I saw with the hack was that I could play as Link instead of a random guy or girl. If I remember correctly, I could play as "normal" Link, or classic Zelda 1 Link.

Alternatively, if you know where the codes are changing the data to freeze the timer (based on the 7F I'd say... RAM?), and those codes work on all 4 roms, you could just change the values by hand and make an .IPS patch.




That sounds like a cool idea! I also wish there was a hack that made Zero/X  have their classic Megaman X 1-3 look.  Zero Especially.

I'll look into the patch you mentioned.  As far as the timer issue (which is the more pertinent issue),  a patch to freeze the timer is only necessary for the Week 4 ROM,  which is the end of the game. As far as speedrunning goes,  the timer only affects the final boss fight.  So the plan is to make an IPS patch for the week 4 ROM that hardcodes the timer codes I posted earlier.

The only rom hacking I have ever done myself is making a Super Mario World ROM hack.  I'm not adverse to figuring out how to do it myself,  but if someone here could make the aforementioned patch for myself and the rest of the community,  it would be very much appreciated. 

[maxi]

Hello, I'm registered here now but I've been following these boards over the last 4 or 5 years.
I'm an active user of Sega-16 (where Pyron, from the MD hacks with enhanced colors also came from), and after a short talk there I had an idea about some recently dumped SMS games.
SMS Power managed to achieve some korean exclusives with unlicensed MSX games ported to the Master System. I wonder if it would be possible to change the sprites to something more advanced using the SMS colors? Would be really awesome to have new graphics for some of these games, especially some Konami releases like Maze of Galious and Gradius 2.
Just throwing the idea here, since I have no knowledge of how to do this. This is how they looks like now, with the MSX sprites unchanged:

[Vanya]

Final Fantasy VI - T-Edition + EX

Someone should translate this bad boy. I'm particularly intrigued by the "new events, new quests" part.

[tryphon]

SMS Power managed to achieve some korean exclusives with unlicensed MSX games ported to the Master System. I wonder if it would be possible to change the sprites to something more advanced using the SMS colors? Would be really awesome to have new graphics for some of these games, especially some Konami releases like Maze of Galious and Gradius 2.

You could start by opening the ROMs in Tile Molester and trying to locate the gfx. They are likely uncompressed.

[magictrufflez]

As I'm finishing up RS1, I would love if someone went in and fixed all the original games bugs, cut the on-screen monsters by ~50%, and made accessing vitally important map areas not dependent on gaining specific party members.

Seriously, if we can fix these things, I think the SNES game would be SO much better.  Although I still prefer the PS2 remake.

[KingMike]

You could start by opening the ROMs in Tile Molester and trying to locate the gfx. They are likely uncompressed.

I haven't done anything SMS-related but I know the SMS video chip is an extension of a chip (TMS99-something) used in several early '80s consoles (like SMS and Colecovision). The MSX ports thus probably use the old video mode and what the author is probably suggested is to rework it into the SMS-exclusive graphics mode (aka Mode 4).
I think one difference is that the TMS "legacy" modes use a palette predefined by the hardware while Mode 4 allows the palette to be changed.

[tryphon]

You may be right. But the first step would be to locate graphics data anyway, then convert it to specific SMS mode. And I suppose the legacy modes still uses 4bpp format ? (I only assume, I have absolutely no knowledge in SMS hacking)

[johnny]

A complete hack (sound, music, game play, level structure, etc.) upping the difficulty in Super Mario Bros by giving you Captain Toad to play with instead of Mario.This probably would require a complete level restructuring in all the worlds. Since Captain Toad can't jump or use any power ups (no growth or fireballs), it should be interesting to see how one would get through a level in 2D sidescrolling style.  Also having to fight Draggadon on Levels 1-4, 2-4, 3-4, 4-4, 6-4, and 7-4 and then Wingo on 5-4 and 8-4. Of course since Captain Toad can't jump this is a matter of just climbing up and up ladders and vines until you read the top (rather than just running under Bowser to an Axe). A unique star would be in place of the Axe and it would probably cause whatever boss you fought to be defeated that way. 

[KiddoCabbusses]

Hello RomHacking.net community,

I am a long time lurker here, and a speedrunner and competitive gamer. I have found a lot of entertainment out of hacks and custom ROMS from this website, and now I come to you with a request.

There is a small community of speedrunners who are taking interest in running BS Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets. Several people are already running the game and logging times, including some friends of mine. The game is great, and makes for a great speed game, but there is one issue that keeps people from picking it up; the timer.

A bit of background on BS Zelda 3, if you aren't familiar with the game. The game was originally a Japan only Satelliteview game which ran as a weekly episodic title, akin to a radio play of the time. The game was divided up into 4 hour long episodes, ran once per week. ROM hackers have put together a playable ROM of the game in a complete state, along with a translation patch to English. This ROM is very suitable for speedrunning and is the current standard, but the timer causes an issue at the end of the run. In the aforementioned ROM hack, the game is fully playable without restrictions, until the final boss fight with Ganon. At this point, the player is forced to wait around until the timer reaches 18:48 for the fight to unlock. This results in the player sitting and waiting, with nothing to do/accomplish, for almost a full half hour before the run can be completed. For this reason, the speedrunning community surrounding this title is very small, with no sign of growing unless this issue is addressed.

The community would like to ask (through myself) if any of you fine people could take a look at the ROM, and possibly alleviate the issue. Outside of the end boss and cutscene, the timer is completely irrelevant to a speedrun. Simply freezing the timer altogether may solve the problem, but if not, the timer component may need to be taken out entirely.

If anyone here is interested in working on this project for us, please contact me here on the site. With your help, a new Zelda speedrun community could flourish. More info about the game can be found here (http://zeldawiki.org/BS_The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ancient_Stone_Tablets), and a speedrun of the game for your study/enjoyment done by my friend MHFsilver can be found here (http://www.twitch.tv/mhfsilver/v/14699182). 

Below is a TL;DR of the situation.

Run down:
So to be able to fight Ganon we need the time to be at 18:48 and a good run of the game would be ready to wait around 18:1x which means almost 30 minutes of pure waiting. And waiting in a speedrun is not fun.

What we need:
Either a patch that removes that wait by making it always possible to fight Ganon or a patch that locks the time at 18:48 so when we get to that part, we wouldn't have to wait.

Thank you!

-Casey

Strange, didn't I hear months ago that a way to clip to Ganon was found? It'd render this whole thing moot.

That being said, I suppose I should let off a reminder that BS Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets is a Satellaview game, and the timer is an inherent part of it's rules. Would a speedrunning community consider using a hack to modify a key gameplay component "valid"?

But hey, I love Satellaview stuff, so if this makes a community, more power to ya.

On the note of the "LinCalibur" patch, do note, that's a BS Zelda Map 1/Map 2 patch, NOT an Ancient Stone Tablets patch. Those are SEPARATE GAMES ENTIRELY, and their internal structuring is COMPLETELY different. In the context of discussion of combining the episodes: Ancient Stone Tablets hasn't been done this way because each episode has it's own separate indoor map data that is standalone (as opposed to BS Zelda Map 1/Map 2, where new data is built on top of the old.) and combining all of these would take both a lot of effort and a large filesize. That being said, I think it would probably be easier to reconstruct the map data in a modified Link to the Past ROM (there's already LttP patches for engine tweaks introduced in AST.)

[FAST6191]

Strange, didn't I hear months ago that a way to clip to Ganon was found? It'd render this whole thing moot.

That being said, I suppose I should let off a reminder that BS Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets is a Satellaview game, and the timer is an inherent part of it's rules. Would a speedrunning community consider using a hack to modify a key gameplay component "valid"?

Such discussions are one of the things that intrigue me about the various speedrun vs tool assisted speedrun world. That said if it is solely an artificial barrier to an end boss and a patch is just trimming a quite literal dead zone/pointless wait then I can only see it troubling the ultra purists. Nerfing a mana bar, even if it makes the game far more playable, I can see, I can also contemplate what goes for something like Lunar: Dragon Song (running, which does very little other than increase movement speed, decreases your life when you do it) and disabling that feature.

[CaseyCor]

Strange, didn't I hear months ago that a way to clip to Ganon was found? It'd render this whole thing moot.

That being said, I suppose I should let off a reminder that BS Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets is a Satellaview game, and the timer is an inherent part of it's rules. Would a speedrunning community consider using a hack to modify a key gameplay component "valid"?

But hey, I love Satellaview stuff, so if this makes a community, more power to ya.

On the note of the "LinCalibur" patch, do note, that's a BS Zelda Map 1/Map 2 patch, NOT an Ancient Stone Tablets patch. Those are SEPARATE GAMES ENTIRELY, and their internal structuring is COMPLETELY different. In the context of discussion of combining the episodes: Ancient Stone Tablets hasn't been done this way because each episode has it's own separate indoor map data that is standalone (as opposed to BS Zelda Map 1/Map 2, where new data is built on top of the old.) and combining all of these would take both a lot of effort and a large filesize. That being said, I think it would probably be easier to reconstruct the map data in a modified Link to the Past ROM (there's already LttP patches for engine tweaks introduced in AST.)

The community is already using english translation patches, and manipulating the SRAM. The rules for a particular speedrun category are decided by the community. This patch would make the game speedrun friendly, if someone can make it for us.

[Tsukiyomaru0]

I was wondering how difficult it might be to colorize Final Fantasy Adventure... All I know is that GB Colorizer can't do it.

[Vanya]

Try searching up the "BS Zelda Soul Caliber Link" patch, as I remember playing it all the way through with just one ROM without the annoyance of switching roms/renaming saves. I can't say for certain if it has the same waiting around for 18 hours (or is that minutes??) but I remember just going in and fighting Ganon without having to wait.

Also, only noticable change I saw with the hack was that I could play as Link instead of a random guy or girl. If I remember correctly, I could play as "normal" Link, or classic Zelda 1 Link.

Alternatively, if you know where the codes are changing the data to freeze the timer (based on the 7F I'd say... RAM?), and those codes work on all 4 roms, you could just change the values by hand and make an .IPS patch.

That patch is for BS Zelda 1, not stone tablets. They are 2 different games.

[Bahamut ZERO]

That patch is for BS Zelda 1, not stone tablets. They are 2 different games.

Oh wow, I (obviously) had no idea! I'll have to check out Stone Tablets at some point then, as I assumed BS Zelda 1 was the only one.





Disch's OoT thread has got me thinking: I'd love to see a hack for Ocarina of Time that added swaths of enemies to Hyrule Field when you're Adult Link. Redeads,  Skelton/Stalfos armies, those bladed flying plant things, perhaps groups of Gerudo Warriors on patrol routes for Ganon. It makes little sense to me how much more peaceful Hyrule Field seems to be once you're an adult and Ganon is in control. It should've been like hell on earth trying to get back to Kokiri Forest, not completely void of enemies outside of a handful of Poes.


Another neat idea for an OoT hack - an arena-type hack where you fight wave after wave of enemies. Every 10-20 waves you fight one of the bosses, upon beating them you revieve a heart conainer or item.

Or, since I'm quite curious of it, a stress test of just how many enemies you could fight at once before the game starts lagging and falling apart.