MORTAL KOMBAT II SPECIAL NES

[tacoschip]

For the moment, I'd like to use a clean rom first to catch my own mistakes. Then I'll publish the source code *after* your project is released, to avoid giving others an early advantage.


Currently we can have 10 stages (Goro Lair, Pit MK1, Armory, Dead Pool) without much trouble; Wasteland (11) requires re-coding which I am looking into, plus I'm reserving extra space for possibly 4 more maps (either future hack or other game).

Funny enough, I noticed that Living Forest + Goro's Lair have a duplicate palette - meaning only 2/3 palettes are fully used. I did have to remove a color from Armory + Dead Pool + Wasteland to make them fit within MK2 engine. I'll show this difference later.


Next I need to expand the IRQ engine, which will take time as the original is a template copy-paste mess. Then I have some of my own ideas to look at, see what more can be squished out of this game.


EDIT: It can handle 12 stages without majorly breaking anything.

[drax01]

For the moment, I'd like to use a clean rom first to catch my own mistakes. Then I'll publish the source code *after* your project is released, to avoid giving others an early advantage.


Currently we can have 10 stages (Goro Lair, Pit MK1, Armory, Dead Pool) without much trouble; Wasteland (11) requires re-coding which I am looking into, plus I'm reserving extra space for possibly 4 more maps (either future hack or other game).

Funny enough, I noticed that Living Forest + Goro's Lair have a duplicate palette - meaning only 2/3 palettes are fully used. I did have to remove a color from Armory + Dead Pool + Wasteland to make them fit within MK2 engine. I'll show this difference later.


Next I need to expand the IRQ engine, which will take time as the original is a template copy-paste mess. Then I have some of my own ideas to look at, see what more can be squished out of this game.


EDIT: It can handle 12 stages without majorly breaking anything.

I'm sorry, I didn't understand well, I hope I write what I'm going to say correctly, are there possibilities to incorporate the scenarios: "Dead Pool + Wasteland" in my rom? I ask because they are helping me with the music and it would be good to incorporate the music of these 2 scenarios. In my channel you can see the progress of the composition of amilgi and rkk is adding it to the game, in my discord we have a private channel only with the collaborators so that the rom is not leaked until it is finished. If you like I put my discord here again:

https://discord.gg/taUKBqSfF4



Now with those scenarios and the music, it would be left to publish and it remains for more experienced people like you if you want to continue working on this improvement. Do you think it's OK? what do you think tacoschip? Do you like the idea?

I send you a big hug my friend

[tacoschip]

I am editing the ROM to include 3 new stages - Dead Pool, Wasteland and Armory. It's partly done but it takes time.

[drax01]

I am editing the ROM to include 3 new stages - Dead Pool, Wasteland and Armory. It's partly done but it takes time.

ok, thank you very much tacoschip for your contribution to the project, take the time that is necessary, we will wait to include them in the rom, I am going to tell Amilgi that he composes the music for the new levels to have them ready, we are very happy.

[drax01]

Hello community, I share my great joy, our master tacoschip managed to successfully import the scenarios: "Dead Pool", "Wasteland" and "Armony". Great job!

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https://www.romhacking.net/community/7906/

[tacoschip]

Funny part is that there's still 4-5 free chr banks; other than background animations or inserting another stage, I have no use for them.

Floated an idea of replacing palette 0 (hud) for playfield (mid-frame update), giving 3 more colors per stage, but I have no artistic use for that idea either.

Not a waste of my time but unused future potential. :lol:


That aside, fixed a minor x-center scrolling bug with Pit II (far bridge in background). And x-scroll no longer shows black bars on right side of stages.

I think @drax01's team is nearly finished, so everyone will get to play soon.

[SuperStarFox]

Thanks! Hmm. Wonder if it's hidden somewhere.

The full-screen version of the logo is accessed by pressing Up, Right, A, Down, Right, B, Up, Left at the demo. (After the high score table is shown)

[tacoschip]

Thank you for explaining! I have to fix that sometime soon-ish.


EDIT: Fixed and sent to drax01.

[drax01]

Master tacochip, you who are more advanced, do you think it may be possible to do this:



hahahaha, I did it in paint, it's not in the game but it would be great to achieve it.

[tacoschip]

Sadly I think no. Having 2 fighters on-screen will force removal of blinking box cursors.


EDIT: Reset. Splitting upper - lower sprite chr banks could work (25% possible). I want to work on other projects for awhile; that will take a lot of thinking.

[drax01]

Sadly I think no. Having 2 fighters on-screen will force removal of blinking box cursors.


EDIT: Reset. Splitting upper - lower sprite chr banks could work (25% possible). I want to work on other projects for awhile; that will take a lot of thinking.

Well I understand, thank you very much for your collaboration, contributions and help, it has been great to meet you, I think the final product will accentuate the base for another intrepid to continue taking this improvement to the next level, maybe we can see this screen later, fatalities and a kintaro larger 

I have been very happy, we are already reaching the end of the improvement, Rkk is importing the music into the game and it sounds spectacular, the good thing is that it was done within the limitations of the game, this means that if they later do it in a cartridge should work perfectly on an NES hardware.

[tacoschip]

For a larger Kintaro, there's no PPU space left other than maybe tile 0? I suppose two tiles are needed for drawing taller legs. Without a mockup using existing chr tiles, it'll be harder for someone to work on it.

[drax01]

I was going to leave it like that, but if you dare, I have another friend who makes pixelated drawings, he has collaborated on different projects, the most recent one was "Protopixel" and "Cebolla Llorona" with this trick: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7730/ if you say yes, I can ask "Protopixel" if he can model kintaro for us. You have the last word, I await your confirmation to make the consultation.

[tacoschip]

Hard to say yes because I'm 25% sure it can be done - more big unknowns than fighters on select screen; greatly depends on the mockup. :rofl:

[drax01]

Hard to say yes because I'm 25% sure it can be done - more big unknowns than fighters on select screen; greatly depends on the mockup. :rofl:

Ok, so confirm me the technical characteristics to make the query to "Protopixel", we are in a discord forum and I can write you directly online.

[tacoschip]

Let me try editing the sprite code first to make sure it's okay.

[drax01]

Let me try editing the sprite code first to make sure it's okay.

Thanks master 

[tacoschip]

Interesting side-note is that chr $94000-$a0000 is unused.


Having fighters show on select screen will be hard, not impossible. I think one would have to write a whole new draw routine, which would take a lot of time since everything is confusing and not in bank 0 (free space problem). More than a few weeks - months job imo.


Larger Kintaro sprite will be difficult, but for artist. Example data.

Code Select Expand

standing idle1
06:827c => 06:8472

05 08 10 f8 00
- This is sprite header  (5 width, 8 height, attr table #, xpos, flag)

ff 03 04 ff ff
0d 0e 0f 10 11
23 24 25 26 27
38 39 3a 3b ff
49 4a 4b 4c ff
ff 59 5a 5b ff
68 69 ff 6a 6b
76 77 ff 78 79
- These are tile #s (00-7f), with FF = blank

My issue is lack of PPU space. It takes creative tile editing to add 1 more row of 3-5 tiles for every pose - stand x2, walk, uppercut, knockback, damaged, win, special moves. Uppercut has fewer tiles to use because shares with fireball.

If the artist succeeds, then there's enough space in bank 0 for new sprite metadata. Would require small amount of hacking work imo, other than testing.

[tacoschip]

Reset. How many animation frames does Goro / Kintaro have?
- 2 = standing
- 2 = walking
- 2 = throwing
- 1 = dead
- 1 = fireball
- 2 = punching
- 1 = blocking
- 2 = stunned
- ??

Very important to know math for new idea.

[tacoschip]

NES hardware allows 64 sprites = 32x2 fighters. Goro standing is 32 tiles so epic fail. Either taller or wider but not both.

For fighter select screen, only 1 fighter can be shown but I guess it could flip 1p-2p every few seconds. Still not an easy solution.