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11-02-05 12:59 PM
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Dr. Mario

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Posted on 07-26-05 11:37 PM Link | Quote
Originally posted by DahrkDaiz
How about I change this thread title and let Dr. Mario make a repost about his hack. We can keep this debate in here and keep it out of his hack thread. Everyone wins.


DD, that would be great.
DahrkDaiz

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Posted on 07-27-05 01:54 AM Link | Quote
Ok guys, let Dr. Mario say or do whatever he wants iwth custom palettes in his new hack thread and keep the custom palette debate in here, kthx.
Reshaper256

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Posted on 07-27-05 02:56 AM Link | Quote
I seriously do not care whether or not a ROM hacker uses custom palettes to improve the graphics in their hack. It is the ROM hacker's preference as to how he or she wants to alter the game, and as to what his or her end result shall be. If a ROM hacker sets out to make a perfect hack - one compatible with the old dusty NES console and with every *perfect* emulator out there, then so be it. We should give that person the respect they deserve, because they set their goal and accomplished it, and are allowing us to share in their finished product.

If someone wants to alter the game in a different way - perhaps by using custom palettes, or by 'abusing' an emulator's bugs to create the desired effects - they deserve that same respect, because they never set out to make a hack that would play perfectly on the old NES... They set out to make a hack that you could play. When someone releases something like this - something that has improved graphics via custom palettes or some other effect that an NES couldn't really do - please just relax, and play it if you can, and enjoy it for what it is, and for what the ROM hacker who made it intended it to be.

Maybe everyone just needs a cookie.
One big cookie. For everybody.
DahrkDaiz

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Posted on 07-27-05 03:19 AM Link | Quote
The problem with that is if emulators fix their bugs, then the ROM hack is broken and either the emulator writer has to write a special one that has the bug still intact, or the ROM hacker will have redo their entire rom hack. I say, better safe than sorry.
Dish

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Posted on 07-27-05 03:43 AM Link | Quote
To sort of add on to what DD said:


The ideal emulator will behave exactly like the real system. And in fact, this is the unattainable goal of every emulator. After all... emulators are made to emulate the system before anything else. This is especially true for the NES, since NES emulation is so crazy popular and there's a wealth of information available for it.


The fundamental flaw in your guys logic is that you're treating NES emus like they're some sort of gaming engine -- like RPGMaker or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. They're EMULATORS. Mimicing the behavior of the real system is priority number 1.


If someone wants to alter the game in a different way - perhaps by using custom palettes, or by 'abusing' an emulator's bugs to create the desired effects - they deserve that same respect, because they never set out to make a hack that would play perfectly on the old NES... They set out to make a hack that you could play.


That's certainly an option. I mean you COULD target a specific version of a specifc emulator and say "everyone has to use this emu or my hack won't work". But as previously mentioned, that's bad for everyone. Like I said before... would you even give a hack the time of day if you had to use NESticle or something to run it? Of course you wouldn't.

And since (unfortunatly) this is a real option -- it also has real consequences. Not only in the compatibility of your hack, but the added confusion to the emulation world as a whole. Like I tried to lay out before -- making bad ROMs just makes emu authors have to choose between emulating things right (for the sake of accuracy) -- or adding the quirks and 'features' that lazy ROM hackers depended on when making their hack. The former is preferable, since that would bring the emu one step closer to its goal, but the latter might appear better to newbies who just want to play xxxx broken game.

I know I've said this before -- but it really is the underlying truth that seems to still escape some of you:

If your game does not run properly on the real system... you cannot expect it to run properly in any emulator.

The system is the rulebook. The reason they're called NES roms is because they're to be played on the NES. If you can't live with the limitations of that system -- nothing's stopping you from heading to a more powerful system.


While at first glace it might seem that custom palettes are a quick and easy way to improve your hack's graphics -- they are laced with many problems. Emulating a system is no easy task... and all these twists, quirks and cheats that you irresponsible romhackers come up with do nothing but add to the confusion and problems. Everything would be SO much simpler and better if people just followed the rules instead of constantly searching for ways to get around them.


(edited by Disch on 07-26-05 07:00 PM)
beneficii

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Posted on 07-27-05 04:11 AM Link | Quote
I agree completely with what you said. I don't want to be mean or cruel, but I think that if you claim something's for the NES, then it should work on the real thing, not just an emulator or too.

When I make my own ROMs, my first priority is to make sure they would work on the real thing. Though I've been unable to perform a test on the real thing, I've learnt some things that would help make sure your ROM works (though it cannot substitute the real thing, and you should find someone who can test it and ask them):

At the beginning make sure to set interrupt disable (SEI) (or if you're going to use MMC3 interrupts, write #$40 to $4017 so IRQs don't appear again and again, and also write any value to $E000 at the start to make sure it's disabled and then make sure to clear interrupt disable (CLI)).

Make sure to the clear the decimal flag (CLD) because the NES does not support decimal mode.

Set the stack pointer to #$FF, the top of the stack (LDX #$FF / TXS).

If you're using any mappers, do the initialization at the beginning.

Wait for at least two VBlanks before editing the screen at the start (VBLANK: / LDA $2002 / BPL VBLANK).

You should zero out all the memory and also zero out the PPU-RAM as well (; This only covers the first nametable, change the first write to $2006 for each nametable / LDA $2002 / LDA #$20 / STA $2006 / LDA #$00 / STA $2006 / LDX #$04 / LDY #$00 / ZERO_SCREEN: / STA $2007 / INY / BNE ZERO_SCREEN / DEX / BNE ZERO_SCREEN).

Make sure to write stuff to $2000 and $2001 so you know what it's set at.

Make sure to always read from $2002 before writing to either $2006 or $2005 so you know high byte is first (for $2006) or so you know that horizontal is first (for $2005).

On every NMI, set $2006 to the address of the nametable you're using minus $2000 (you can also start in the middle of the nametable, by doing, say, $0200) and also set the scroll you want it at (LDA $2002 ; This sets it to the nametable starting at $2000 / LDA #$00 / STA $2006 / STA $2006 / BIT $2002 / STA $2005 / STA $2005).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Perhaps others can contribute.


(edited by beneficii on 07-26-05 07:13 PM)
(edited by beneficii on 07-26-05 07:17 PM)
Bit-Blade
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Posted on 07-27-05 04:12 AM Link | Quote
Skip down to the pictures if you don't want to read this long part down here. You have been warned.
----------------------------------------------


And my point is, my dear Disch, that this is such an inconsequential, even trivial point, and you guys are getting mortally offended over something as simple as that.

Now if I were a talented programmer and ASM writer, you know what I would do? I would create an emulator that would rape the hell out the nes. It would offer a sort of game maker's format, but it would probably require a lot of intimate knowledge of the game in question, as well as understanding sprite AI as well as sprite definitions (not how to edit them, but just how they behave). The good thing about this is that this emulator, properly used, would be able to load, oh, let's say PNG files, and with it's configuration it would be able to display these 'custom' frames of animation rather than what is inside the rom itself. The same would apply to backgrounds. This method of doing things would be incredibly tedious and you would more than likely be neck deep in hex and quite possibly code. And I imagine that doing the same thing with music, being able to load mp3s in place of nsf's/midis (while we're at it, I would also add the option of loading NSFs, and another configuration file would say which tracks replace which). It would be a big, major pain in the ass to do all of this. Before you really could do anything you would have to understand how one rom loads its graphics, or just to be able to sort of... interupt the authentic loading of NES graphics. That's a trick that I'm pretty sure would make all of what I said meaningless, if it can't be done.

-------------------------------


Now we get to the more relevant part of this post. Pictured below are two things; my custom palette, Destroyer, and a slew of screenshots comparing the two differing palettes. The screenshots to the left side use my Destroyer palette (the only exception is the first shot... I goffed and switched it around :x) and the ones to the right use the YY-Chr nes palette (a bit inaccurate at times, but still my preferred one).



This is where I imagine some of you would scold me. The palette is fine up until the final colors on the left. I didn't have a lot of room so I kind of had to stuff them around as best I could... This is only version one of Destroyer and I will more than likely edit it and fine tune it... it could use some work.












Disch might get a kick out of this. It was much, much more challenging to make the NES palettes look good than it was for me to just stick with the Destroyer palette, but the challenge itself was actually kind of fun. I still prefer the dark tones in Destroyer, but it really wasn't that bad. The differences in the palette are kind of trivial in operation, when it comes right down to it.
Reshaper256

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Posted on 07-27-05 04:40 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by DahrkDaiz
The problem with that is if emulators fix their bugs, then the ROM hack is broken and either the emulator writer has to write a special one that has the bug still intact, or the ROM hacker will have redo their entire rom hack. I say, better safe than sorry.

I agree on that point; it would make it more simple if no one made hacks of ROMs that wouldn't play on the old NES or on future emulators. But I also have to argue that it's the ROM hacker's choice as to whether they want to take the chance of their hack becoming 'broken' (and they shouldn't be harassed for making that choice). When it get's to the point that a hacker wishes his thread shut down because of this kind of argument ensuing, I believe it's gone too far.

Telling a ROM hacker to make his hacks work perfectly on the old NES to avoid confusion in the emulation community would be like telling all emulator authors to fix all their emulators' bugs and only have perfect emulation to avoid that same confusion. It's just unreasonable, and although hackers would be forced to use their creativity to work around the limitations of the NES, I don't believe they should have abide by these limitations if they choose not to, and have a reasonable alternative.

Concerning the creation of new emulators with the bugs fixed, the author of any new emulators could leave a bug intact just so it would be compatible with such ROM hacks, or the author could choose not to. I really don't see the conflict here - emulator authors have the freedom to make their emulators however they wish. They're big boys and girls, they can handle that decision.

But I still agree with you DD, I wouldn't want to take the chance of my own hacks becoming 'broken' in the future, if I could avoid it.


Originally posted by Disch
If your game does not run properly on the real system... you cannot expect it to run properly in any emulator.

The system is the rulebook. The reason they're called NES roms is because they're to be played on the NES. If you can't live with the limitations of that system -- nothing's stopping you from heading to a more powerful system.

Although I would love to avoid any ROM hacks I make from becoming broken in the future, I don't believe we can tell others to only release a hack if they can make it playable on the original NES. If it's playable on only certain emulators, the ROM hacker should definitely make this point clear, but their obligation ends there, especially after putting forth the creative effort to make the hack to start with.

Let's just not cripple others for the sake of ease or simplicity.



(edited by Reshaper256 on 07-26-05 08:34 PM)
(edited by Reshaper256 on 07-26-05 08:40 PM)
Celice

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Posted on 07-27-05 04:44 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by BMF54123
Originally posted by Celice
That's my reasoning. Which is why I'm using BMF's pallete. I just wanted to add a slightly different hue to it, to sortarefelct the mood of my hack.
Eh? My palette is an attempt to accurately recreate the NES's colors, so it really doesn't count. Unless you're saying you modified it...


Your pallete is much more rich and deeper with the colors then the default pallete. Crap, I ruined your topic Dr. Mario
Dish

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Posted on 07-27-05 04:44 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Reshaper256
Concerning the creation of new emulators with the bugs fixed, the author of any new emulators could leave a bug intact just so it would be compatible with such ROM hacks, or the author could choose not to. I really don't see the conflict here


ermm.... you just stated the conflict. Either they maintain support for the bad ROM (potentially breaking proper ROMs) -- or they emulate the system properly (but break the bad ROM). The proper behavior conflicts with the improperly emulated behavior -- an emulator cannot take both paths -- it must choose one. What it has to sacrifice is where the conflict comes in. That sacrifice could be avoided if all ROMs were proper (granted it's already too late for that, but adding to the improper ROM count only adds to the problem).


Asking a ROM hacker to make his hacks work on the old NES would be akin to asking an emulator author to fix all the emulator's bugs and only have perfect emulation.


A) It's not even that big of an issue for ROM hacking since commercial ROMs already work on the real thing. The only thing we're asking here is DON'T BREAK THE ROM. Not only is that not unreasonable... it's actually very easy to do. In fact... you have to go OUT OF YOUR WAY to break the ROM -- it's not something that is usually done on accident.

B) Emulators DO try to remove all their bugs. It's not an unreasonable request that they keep up to date with the latest findings on the NES. In fact, many emus do (Nintendulator is the perfect example -- it's updated almost daily)



It's just unreasonable, and although hackers would be forced to have more creativity, they couldn't do as much with it.


If you can't hack within the boudaries of the system... choose another system.


Although I would love to avoid any ROM hacks I make from becoming broken in the future, I don't believe we can tell others to only release a hack if they can make it playable on the original NES.


Considering the harm and confusion it causes -- I say yes -- you should not release a 'NES' homebrew/hack which is not actually an NES game. For it to be an NES game it must run on the NES.

There is no grey area of -almost- an NES game. Fortunately this is one of those things that's black and white. If X game works on the NES... it is a valid game and emus will do everything in their power to support it. If not, it's not an NES game and emus shouldn't need to maintain support for it.


If it's playable on only certain emulators, the ROM hacker should definitely make this point clear, but their obligation ends there, especially after putting forth the creative effort to make the hack to start with.


That's certainly their option. But like I said, taking that option dumps all sorts of unnecessary baggage and problems onto emu authors and the hack audience.



Let's just not cripple others for the sake of ease or simplicity.



Let's just not cripple emu authors for the sake of adding 5 more colors to your palette. For christ's sake it's not like I'm demanding the world here -- just follow the freakin rules!

Originally posted by Bit-Blade
Now if I were a talented programmer and ASM writer, you know what I would do? I would create an emulator that would rape the hell out the nes. It would offer a sort of game maker's format, but it would probably require a lot of intimate knowledge of the game in question, as well as understanding sprite AI as well as sprite definitions (not how to edit them, but just how they behave).


Fortunately for every emu author on the planet -- no such thing has been made. Do you not SEE the mess that would cause? Anyway -- why would you even bother with an emu if you're planning on adding all that? Why not just make a game maker or sorts? Such a thing would actually be better all around since you wouldn't have any limitations at all -- I mean modern computers can do anything -- why would you keep ANY of the NES restrictions?

Although... were you actually to get serious about programming and sit down and make an emulator -- I'm actually pretty confident that not only would my points become more and more clear -- but that your tune would change... and that all those ideas which seem like a good idea now would just be problematic for an emulator.


As for your pics -- looks like you could just turn the contrast on your monitor down to get the same effects as the custom palette. Or hell.. just make an operable custom palette that's a little darker. I fail to see why you need to replace the extra blacks with colors, or replace those colors with different colors -- judging from those pics you really don't need to at all.
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Posted on 07-27-05 04:55 AM Link | Quote
Why the hell should I waste that god-given space like Nintendo did? More colors means more selection. Just an extra little dose. Even if I had kept the nes palette spaces and not used that black, that would be only, what... 52 colors out of 64? Screw that, I'll make use of what is given to me.

And I never did properly explain the purpose of Destroyer. The NES palette uses very bright and very vibrant colors (in other words, almost completely desaturated). There is also the fact that the nes palette is sorely lacking in darker shades of colors, which is something that goes well with dark themed games like Castlevania. So... Destroyer's colors are somewhat grayer than the nes, which makes it much easier to mix colors. The more saturated a color is the more easily it will blend with a color that would normally clash with it. Like 1A and 16, or 16 and 12. Complete color saturation is always gray, so over doing saturating your colors is a very BAD thing. If you look at those screens you'll notice that they aren't quite as vibrant as the nes palette.

And the reason I would make an emulator like that is because it would be relying more upon the nes engine and it's games for the bulk of it. Most of the NES code itself would be executing normally. The only real changes would be to the graphics and sound, yet still remain NES bound. See what I mean now? I could let the games do the work for me. But I will admit that -as far as my ambitions are concerned- my time would be better spent building my own game engine from scratch. Still... that kind of emulator would be a lot of fun if I ever developed it.

Edit: Beleive me, Resh, I've done worse than that. Congratulations on phrasing your sentiments on the matter so clearly. I had a great deal of trouble trying to explain myself. And I couldn't agree with you more. I'm just getting sick of dragging myself into this debate every time it crops up...


(edited by Bit-Blade on 07-26-05 08:01 PM)
(edited by Bit-Blade on 07-26-05 08:11 PM)
(edited by Bit-Blade on 07-26-05 08:12 PM)
Reshaper256

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Posted on 07-27-05 05:29 AM Link | Quote
Honestly I don't feel the need to reply to each and every statement made, because I agree with Disch on most of what he said. I'm not arguing that confusion is not created, nor am I arguing that things wouldn't be better off if everyone followed Disch's rules. But therein lies my problem:
Originally posted by Disch

If you can't hack within the boudaries of the system... choose another system.

My conflict is the 'my way or the highway' attitude. It's not like I'm demanding a lot by asking that people not be harassed for hacking outside of the boundaries of the system, as long as their hacks are playable in some way. The world will survive a few hacks that are only playable on certain emulators, and sure, it will create some confusion, but not to the extent that someone using custom palettes with their hack should be burnt at the stake.

Or maybe they should? Maybe we should uphold these rules of hacking perfection, and continue to flame/harass anyone who tries to hack without following all of them to the letter. Hopefully we won't run everyone off, and we'll get a few of those perfect hacks every year or so.
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Posted on 07-27-05 05:47 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Bit-Blade
Why the hell should I waste that god-given space like Nintendo did? More colors means more selection. Just an extra little dose.


I suppose then you'd want to put RAM at $0800-$1FFF to give hackers more RAM to work with too. When that break games which count on that being mirrored, I'll get a chuckle. You can't change an area of the system without breaking a game which relies on that behavior. By making your emulator play broken games, you're preventing your emulator from playing LEGIT games. It's a tradeoff. Like I said, were you to actually make an emulator you'd start to see that pretty quick.

I'd also like to know how you plan on replacing in game music with MP3s. That'd be a neat trick. At least the replaced graphics one is somewhat feasable (though still utterly stupid -- like I said in that txt file I linked to before someone recommended something like that on ZMD and I wanted to punch him in the face).



My conflict is the 'my way or the highway' attitude.


It's not "my way or the highway". It's "the system's way or another system's way". You can't change how the NES operates... try as you might. If you plan on making an NES hack, you WILL have to work within the boundaries of the NES system. That's just how it is.


Yes the world will survive these irresonsible hacks. I know I'm kind of making a mountain out of a mole-hill -- but it's the idea that you're trying to extend on something that can't be extended upon. I feel like I'm talking in circles at this point.

If you feel breaking the your game, limiting user emu selection, and causing emu authors grief is worth adding a whooping extra 5 colors to your palette -- then I guess nothing can stop you. But I'll shake my head in shame every time it's done. And I'll continue to try and get people away from it. Hacks like this do more harm than good.


and we'll get a few of those perfect hacks every year or so.


It doesn't take a genius to make a "perfect" hack. Like I said.. you have to actually MAKE A POINT to break a commerical game... since commercial games are already working.

99.99% of the hacks made are "perfect". Those handful that are broken are like the ugly grapejuice stain on the carpet of emulation.



EDIT

This whole argument kind of parallels another topic you guys might have a different opinion on.

This is really about standards. I'm saying... "The NES is the standard and people that want to work with the NES must adhere to its abilities". While you're all saying "Shortcommings of emulators offer an exploitable way to bypass the system's abilities, so why not take advantage?"

This reminded me of ANOTHER standards vs. do-whatever-the-hell-you-feel-like mentality once I saw the Firefox button in your layout, Reshaper. Do you condone web pages doing IE-specific tweaks and relying on IE's improper/nonstandard rendering behavior for their layout? I mean yes it will work fine for IE -- but now, since that webmaster (or 'webbastard' as I like to call them) ignored the standards, EVERY OTHER browser will either have to mimic improper behavior and ignore the standards -- or they'll have to lack support for that page. It can easily be said that such webpages are problematic and should be avoided.

Why is it any different with ROM hacks? Why are the standards so much harder to see? If anything they should be 10000x clearer... since there's 1 failsafe, consistent test you can run on any game to make sure it's up to the standard: running it on the real thing


(edited by Disch on 07-26-05 08:59 PM)
Reshaper256

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Posted on 07-27-05 06:04 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Disch
Yes the world will survive these irresonsible hacks. I know I'm kind of making a mountain out of a mole-hill -- but it's the idea that you're trying to extend on something that can't be extended upon. I feel like I'm talking in circles at this point.

That's because you are talking in circles, and you are making a mountain out of a mole-hill. I understood your point from the beginning, and I agree whole-heartedly that people should avoid making changes to a ROM that would make it not play correctly on an old NES, for compatiblity reasons. I just don't agree that they should be forced to avoid such changes or flamed for not doing so.

edit: It's just not worth doing that to a fellow hacker who's worked hard on their hack. Please don't say, 'But they cheated so they didn't work hard enough.' They did work hard, so give them some credit and respect.

By your own words:
Originally posted by Disch

99.99% of the hacks made are "perfect". Those handful that are broken are like the ugly grapejuice stain on the carpet of emulation.

So... 99.99% are made perfect, meaning that this entire arguement is about 00.01% of the hacks out there. My problem is what happened to this thread. This discussion shouldn't exist. It's not that big of a deal, and I've been trying to say that from the beginning.


(edited by Reshaper256 on 07-26-05 09:10 PM)
(edited by Reshaper256 on 07-26-05 09:12 PM)
(edited by Reshaper256 on 07-26-05 09:12 PM)
Dish

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Posted on 07-27-05 06:07 AM Link | Quote
you could say that by arguing I'm trying to prevent that 00.01% from getting any larger
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Posted on 07-27-05 06:23 AM Link | Quote
You see, Disch, I'm not TRYING to create a new system of new emulators. I'm not saying that every game needs to forcefully be translated into my palette. The only intentions I have are both playing and distrubing my hack while playing it in fce ultra myself. I wish you'd stop denouncing my hack as 'broken'. In terms of my choice of emulator and my own custom palette is completely functional. Everything (almost) just like the NES, sans any and all hardware. Included with my hack would be an faq on installing the palette and some warnings saying no one who intends on playing this game on the original NES should EVER burn these games to a cart. Yes, that would be alienating those who would play my hack if the palette were normal, but tough luck. If you are able to use a computer and post at this board then chances are you are just as capable of running FCE ulrta as I am. Unfair as it may be to force people to use an emulator they may not have or be able to run right, I don't have much sympathy. The chances that someone will be unable to play this hack are but a small minority by those who can. Even better if you just release two versions of a hack.

As for replacing game music, do you REALLY think I'm naive enough to beleive that I could litterly put mp3's into an NES rom? I think I deserve a bit more credit than that. The whole idea of the mp3 music feature would be to INTERUPT it rather than hack an mp3 quality song into the rom. The mp3s would be stored in either the same directory as the rom itself or some sub directory. The emulator would replace the music like this: it would execute the music commands while at the same time reading a config/command file telling the emulator where in the rom meant to switch to what mp3 track while disabling the NES music. Every time a track switches it would know exactly what mp3 to load (specified in the music config) no matter the event. Even sound effects. It would be like mapping out the functions and cues of the music data in the rom and then assgining the mp3s to them instead.

You're taking this way too seriously. As much as my ideas and ambitions may personally dismay you, I would very much apreciate it from this point forward that you don't say things like you'll shake your head in shame of me. Like I've said several times already, I consider this argument a very idiotic thing to take so vehemently and seriously. There's absolutely NO reason exagerrate such an inconsequential disagreement into something like this. I can only 'shake my head in shame' at the fact that you really ARE making a mountain of a molehill in such a way. And this is a dumb argument to get angry or worse at eachother. Oh yes, do keep condemning comments like that grapejuice metaphor to yourself, please. I respect your views, please respect mine.


Originally fiercely debated by Disch


I suppose then you'd want to put RAM at $0800-$1FFF to give hackers more RAM to work with too. When that break games which count on that being mirrored, I'll get a chuckle. You can't change an area of the system without breaking a game which relies on that behavior. By making your emulator play broken games, you're preventing your emulator from playing LEGIT games. It's a tradeoff. Like I said, were you to actually make an emulator you'd start to see that pretty quick.

I'd also like to know how you plan on replacing in game music with MP3s. That'd be a neat trick. At least the replaced graphics one is somewhat feasable (though still utterly stupid -- like I said in that txt file I linked to before someone recommended something like that on ZMD and I wanted to punch him in the face).

If you feel breaking the your game, limiting user emu selection, and causing emu authors grief is worth adding a whooping extra 5 colors to your palette -- then I guess nothing can stop you. But I'll shake my head in shame every time it's done. And I'll continue to try and get people away from it. Hacks like this do more harm than good.

99.99% of the hacks made are "perfect". Those handful that are broken are like the ugly grapejuice stain on the carpet of emulation.


EDIT: Hindsight sucks. What I meant about that music idea is that the emulator would both disable the music while at the same time reading it and comparing it with it's instruction/music cue config file and running that too. Unless I'm totally insane, that's a logical way to go about it. This is something where FCE Ultra XD's built in hex editor would come in handy.


(edited by Bit-Blade on 07-26-05 10:06 PM)
Tamarin Calanis

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Posted on 07-27-05 06:47 AM Link | Quote
Not only are you all making a mountain out of a molehill, to use the same cliche you all have been repeating, you're blowing the entire matter out of proportion.

Romhacking is a hobby. Nothing more. It is supposed to be fun. When people start bitching at other people about it, it is no longer fun. And when a hobby is not fun, it is not a hobby you should pursue.

No one is going to change their mind no matter what opinions are presented here, and I'm about ready to just close the damn thread since it's just spiralling into more assholery.
Reshaper256

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Posted on 07-27-05 06:48 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Disch
This whole argument kind of parallels another topic you guys might have a different opinion on.

This is really about standards. I'm saying... "The NES is the standard and people that want to work with the NES must adhere to its abilities". While you're all saying "Shortcommings of emulators offer an exploitable way to bypass the system's abilities, so why not take advantage?"

This reminded me of ANOTHER standards vs. do-whatever-the-hell-you-feel-like mentality once I saw the Firefox button in your layout, Reshaper. Do you condone web pages doing IE-specific tweaks and relying on IE's improper/nonstandard rendering behavior for their layout? I mean yes it will work fine for IE -- but now, since that webmaster (or 'webbastard' as I like to call them) ignored the standards, EVERY OTHER browser will either have to mimic improper behavior and ignore the standards -- or they'll have to lack support for that page. It can easily be said that such webpages are problematic and should be avoided.

Why is it any different with ROM hacks? Why are the standards so much harder to see? If anything they should be 10000x clearer... since there's 1 failsafe, consistent test you can run on any game to make sure it's up to the standard: running it on the real thing

Sorry, didn't see your edit. I'll answer now.

I think it's annoying yes. I wish that people would be more careful to not ignore the standard. But when I do encounter such a webpage, I simply click the little IE button at the bottom of my screen and copy and paste the url over. I think things would be better if every page could be view perfectly on every browser, however.

Similarly, when I encounter a ROM hack that only works with a certain emulator, I think it's annoying yes. I wish that people would be more careful to not ignore the standard. But when I do encounter such a ROM hack, I simply download the right emulator and if the hack works, I'm happy and play it, but if the emulator has been updated and the hack still doesn't work I don't get to play it. I get a little frustrated and I'm over it. And yes, I do think things would be better if every ROM hack could be played perfectly on every emulator, and the old NES.

But great ROM hacks are rare and great ROM hackers are rarer. Webpages and webmasters are a dime a dozen. I don't want to run any ROM hacker off, especially if they know enough about the code to work outside the limitations and change it to where it falls into that .01 percent, doing something special that only works on certain emulators. I don't think we should angrily suggest for them to 'go hack another system'. We should instead offer suggestions and see if the hacker would be willing to do the extra work required to make the hack compatible with all emulators, if that is possible. If they don't want to, that's their choice - we're lucky we're getting a hack at all. (Besides, not many of us have the means to test ROM hacks on the original system - we're going to usually use an emulator to start with.) As I stated before, it's not worth insulting or aggrivating a fellow hacker who is doing his or her best.


(edited by Reshaper256 on 07-26-05 09:53 PM)
Matrixz

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Posted on 07-27-05 07:09 AM Link | Quote
This is crazy. When did it go from custom palettes
to MP3 players and PNG displayers?
Emulation: You look at a computer monitor. (in this case)
The real thing: You look at a television

Let me ask you how any emulator designed for the PC can possibly
have perfect color emulation. I mean sure, it might use an
palette generation algorithm approved by Nintendo themselves, but youre
still looking at a PC monitor.
No matter what, that simple difference isnt unitable through emulation.
I belive what NES palette look "right" is a matter of personal taste,
that's why there's palettes like FX3's and BMF's out there for you.
There's never been a global opinion on this,
so might as well give people the freedom to choose a palette file.
Im not saying it as an excuse for using palettes that will make it
look horrible on the real thing, but that
as long as emulation's purpose is to simulate NES gaming experience
in all ways, it can never be perfect, becouse there's things
that just arent unitable, like TV / Monitor difference.

As for custom palettes,
who is to decide a global opinion on what the true purpose of
romhacking is? I understand well those who want to proove the best
under the NES' limits. But there's those who want to facelift
an old classic in whatever ways they can, and take advantage of
custom palettes.
You could take the source code of an emulator, enhance it specially
for your NES romhack so it uses the right palette, distributed
with the hack. (That's our solution right there, if we happen to
see the end of day for emulators with custom palette options)
Or you could re-program the classic game as a computer game.
But today we still have this nice thing called custom-palette
options. Now those who doesnt want to play a hack that's using
NES features it doesnt have, they dont need to play it.
But for those who want to see how the romhacker has managed
to touch up a great classic, with new levels, graphics, and colors,
all they need to do is load up the custom palette file.
So its funny its such a problem, and we should just let
be people who are actually trying to be creative in this
rather god-forsaken community
Dish

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Posted on 07-27-05 09:31 AM Link | Quote
My points go ignored

It's futile for me to continue. You all say the same thing while disregarding my reasons on why that thing is a problem. Matrixz even proposes to compound that problem by doing custom emu builds.

If ROM hackers have sunken so low that they need to target non-existent systems in order to make a playable hack -- then it's no wonder we see such a lack of quality hacks.
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