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1 user currently in Rom Hacking:  hukka |
| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Rom Hacking - Megaman 4 Hack Released! |
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66  Posts: 442/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| Has anyone been looking forward to the Megaman 4 hack I've worked so hard at? True, I did get a lot of praise from the first screenshots, but nobody replied to the other screenshots I took... I worked and worked, and the result: Triumph. That's such a good feeling. My hack is DONE. I'd appreciate it if some of you will be interested in beta-testing, so here's the link to the download! Don't worry, it's an IPS file, not a Rom. http://www.geocities.com/schwawarrior/ If anyone is interested in seeing screenshots first, they're all in a thread that got buried a while back. PM me about any bugs you find, questions about gameplay, or suggestions. Thank you, I appreciate the help, and... enjoy! --Schwa |
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Googie Surarok Level: 39  Posts: 115/624 EXP: 380784 For next: 23987 Since: 03-15-04 From: Corona Queens New York Since last post: 3 hours Last activity: 3 hours |
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I'm gonna try this out right now, I'll get back to you later. Thanks Schwa for making the first MM4 hack.  |
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Jigglysaint Red Cheep-cheep Level: 24 Posts: 51/215 EXP: 76907 For next: 1218 Since: 03-17-04 Since last post: 7 days Last activity: 3 days |
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| You did an aswesome job. Of course I would have hidden bonuses all around, and made the wire and balloon much harder to find, but notwithstanding, this is definitly one of the best non-ASM megaman hacks out there. Of course this isn't your normal run and jump type of game, it will keep you thinking at places. I like how you made it so you need to pick the right order to advance. I should take a look and see if I can make the wire and balloon adaptors give you other things instead of those weapons. |
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Googie Surarok Level: 39 Posts: 116/624 EXP: 380784 For next: 23987 Since: 03-15-04 From: Corona Queens New York Since last post: 3 hours Last activity: 3 hours |
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| This is one of those Mega Man hacks that are really, really hot! Very original level designs & that challenge is there mos def. In this game you have to be really careful where you go. This is one of the hacks that if your'e a mega man fan or not, you'll enjoy this hack to the fullest. Thanks Schwa & I hope to see more MM hacks from you in the future. So for everybody else, PLAY THIS GAME! PLAY IT NOW! *Stamps the Corona Queens seal of approval* |
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Kagerato Goomba Level: 9 Posts: 1/25 EXP: 2655 For next: 507 Since: 08-08-04 Since last post: 382 days Last activity: 29 days |
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| Finished playing through the whole game. Well done. Level design was about equal quality to the original game, on the whole. Overall it was more challenging, sometimes in good ways (made you think a bit), other times in bad ways (ex: falling on spikes that you couldn't possibly avoid if you hadn't gone through the stage before). The wire and balloon were useful a great deal more than in the original levels, especially in the Cossack and Wily stages. In some places you absolutely required them, as far as I could tell. (Which means if you were out of energy, that life was pretty much guaranteed a goner.) I noticed a number of minor graphical glitches: When the switches on Drill Man's stage activate the new ground necessary to progress, the palette is still red (rather than green). Additionally, there were a bunch of places where the tip of the ladder was unusual (on one stage, the tops of many ladders were undergoing palette-swapping, like the background). Last thing I can remember is that the tiles for the Cossack logo on the first stage were replaced with something else. None of these bothered me significantly, but I couldn't help seeing them. The only major gameplay glitch I saw was the one the author pointed out personally: the first Cossack boss is very likely to kill you on entering (is it more likely on the first entry? not sure). It was nice having to use the rush marine for once. It's normally not required in any way, and sometimes even more of a hindrance than a help. These levels actually forced it into good use. I ran the normal boss sequence (Toad -> Bright -> Pharaoh -> Ring -> Dust -> Skull -> Dive -> Drill) without any problems, but I can see how doing some stages first would be pretty difficult, if not impossible. Dive was the most challenging stage for me. I thought parts of Dust's stage (where the floor blocks had intermixed colors) looked pretty weird. The last few screens of the stage were consistent and good-looking though, as was the section where the crunching pillars raise and lower the 'dust'. Skull's stage had a rather sudden change of background (sky) color. While it didn't look particularly ugly in any way, the effect would have been more impressive had it occurred gradually. An anomaly I'd like to point out in Ring's stage...should you die and restart at the mid-point, the sky will be bright blue again. Then it will suddenly change to black after causing the vertical scroll. Certain enemies taking more hits was fine, and even welcomed. However, seven hits for one of those weirdo cell-like creatures in Toad's stage is going overboard. Heh. Overall, good job Schwa. I look forward to future works from you. |
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Rockman Flurry Level: 26 Posts: 41/250 EXP: 96387 For next: 5888 Since: 03-17-04 Since last post: 18 days Last activity: 16 days |
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I just wanted to say that you did a great job! And I'm saying this by not even playing the hack yet, because I saw your other thread, and I can tell that you put a lot of work into this hack. Those screenshots in the other thread were great, and this is probably the best MM4 hack to date. I don't think there has been a complete MM4 hack before. When I have the time, I will try your hack out. Good work Schwa!  (edited by Rockman on 08-08-04 03:04 AM) |
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66 Posts: 448/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| To Kagerato: Wow, what a review. You just pointed out every bug I knew about. I truly apologize for the 1st Cossack Boss glitch, I honestly do NOT know how to fix it. I thought I did, but obviously it's still there... The tips of the ladders were changed color so I could determine where the tips were, but I forgot to change them back. The blob things in Toad Man's stage take 7 hits for a certain reason-- Actually, I designed the hack for Bright Man to be played FIRST, then once you have Flash Stopper you can freeze the blobs before they drop to the ground. Same with the mice in the waterfalls. Also, I designed it so you could play Drill Man very well with only Flash and Toad powers. Drill Bomb is a real privelage to have in this game as it's good at felling certain enemies in only a few hits (like The Crusher). That's why I made certain foes with more HP. I love your idea for Skull Man gradually changing color, and I'll probably include that in an update. The weird background for Ring Man is unavoidable-- I tried and tried to fix it, but couldn't do it. Meh. Anyway, thanks for the input! I need criticism if I want to improve my hack, so thanks for telling me what needs to be fixed. And thanks for playing my game, too! To everyone else: Thanks for the compliments, but Rockman, I don't like it too much when someone tells me the hack is cool when all they've seen is the screenshots. I mean yeah, the screenshots are great, but that doesn't even compare to the actual thing. Feel free to try it out whenever. |
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Rockman Flurry Level: 26 Posts: 44/250 EXP: 96387 For next: 5888 Since: 03-17-04 Since last post: 18 days Last activity: 16 days |
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| Sorry about that then. I'm sure the hack is good though. I just rarely have any extra free time because of my job. I try to work on my own hack when I have the chance. When I have a lot more free time I will give it a try. | |||
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66 Posts: 451/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| Yeah, I saw your hack on another thread. SMB3, was it? I used to hack that game, but had some problems. Hope yours turns out better than mine... I was thinking, after we got all the bugs worked out, I could try to get this hack on Acmlm's Rom Hack Domain. All we gotta do first is get him to update the site...  |
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KATW King Yoshi "If you stare at something long enough, it can be funny." Level: 86  Posts: 1573/3959 EXP: 6087979 For next: 54128 Since: 03-15-04 Since last post: 7 hours Last activity: 5 hours |
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| Back... only played Dust amn and Skull man... but Im liking what I am seeing. Everything looks like it could be in a real megaman game.. not much that is too glitchy. I only really noticed two things. 1: In Skull Man's level, there is a place near the end where the ground from one screen does not match up with the next, and if you fall back into that screen, you die  .2: I dont know how I did this, but I died when fighting skull man, and when I went to face him again, his GFX were all messed up  .Its a good hack overall.... now you just need to get the kinks out of it (edited by Kirby ATW on 08-08-04 03:34 PM) (edited by Kirby ATW on 08-08-04 04:09 PM) |
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Dylan Devil Trumpets and Angel Trombones ~ Level: 54  Posts: 581/1407 EXP: 1181697 For next: 52173 Since: 06-19-04 From: Ottawa, Canada. Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 6 hours |
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| Its fun, harder, and puzzling! Great work Schwa, this certainly is what I would call an major improvement of the original. 8) |
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66 Posts: 454/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| To Kirby ATW: Oh crud! I remember about the first glitch, which I carelessly forgot to fix, but now Skull Man the BOSS is glitching up too!? *sigh* Pharoah Man did the same thing at first. I think I know how to fix it, but I can't believe I missed a bug like that. Thank you so much for telling me! *whew* Edit: Okay, I fixed some of the glitches and bugs mentioned in the above posts. Hopefully Skull Man won't glitch out again, but I haven't tested it. The 1st Cossack boss can still kill you on entry, though, but the ladder tips are fixed along with the unaligned wall in Skull Man. Re-download the patch for the bug fixes. (edited by Schwa on 08-08-04 06:32 PM) |
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Aioria Boss Bass  Yes I will!! ;D  Middle Ages Warrior Level: 58 Posts: 643/1567 EXP: 1516086 For next: 61460 Since: 03-15-04 From: near the pneumon ultramicroscop icsilicovolcanoconiosis land Since last post: 19 days Last activity: 19 days |
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| I'll try this one later It has been ages since I dont play megaman |
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Kagerato Goomba Level: 9 Posts: 5/25 EXP: 2655 For next: 507 Since: 08-08-04 Since last post: 382 days Last activity: 29 days |
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| If you thought the first review was intense, watch out. I just finished playing through this excellent hack once again. (Replaying a hack...wow. There are some original games that I would never play more than once. Guess that's the best measure of how much I enjoyed it.) This time, I took the liberty of being inventive and/or random with my stage selection. The order was: Drill -> Toad -> Dive -> Skull -> Ring -> Pharaoh -> Bright -> Dust . Other than the part about the red-based colors used for drawing in the new landforms, Drill Man's stage also has another obscure graphical abnormality. When you die and restart at the mid-point, you should see that the graphics of those extremely-annoying shutter enemies has changed to something entirely different. Not very pretty. I liked Drill's stage more the second playthrough. The greenish rock hues are actually pretty nice, and the level, while deviating somewhat from the original scheme, keeps up the Capcom spirit of 'slightly difficult and unpredictable, but not impossible' (even though I had nothing but rush coil to assist! heh). Find a way to customize the colors used for the ground's fade-in effect, and the whole stage shall come together quite nicely. The interesting thing about Toad's level is that I died more times than I did on Drill (and I consider Drill a harder stage!). Three lives lost to mostly carelessness on Toad, versus two lives lost mostly to unpreparedness on Drill (had to figure out some things about succeeding in the stage without Skull and other items). Something I forgot to mention but did notice the first time around on Toad's stage; the second to last umbrella enemy (near the end of the rain section) appears in mid-air. Normally, those guys appear at the top of the screen and float down. I'm thinking this was intentional, and it does make it slightly more difficult to get by that part. Another thing: after getting past some of those cellular blob enemies, Megaman encounters three sewer rats in a row. The first two seem to be a bit glitchy or even stuck; they don't really come after the player as one would expect from their usual behavior. I think it's due to them being so close to that low ceiling. This time around I remembered to take written note of the fact that the first snail encounter has a left wall which apparently shares its palette with that of the snail itself. Therefore, when you hit it, the whole wall changes to white as well. Not particularly annoying or anything, but I can't seem to figure out why it would be necessary to have it that way. There is a similar effect by the second snail, but it only affects the section of floor blocks that are directly beneath Megaman. On the whole, I felt Toad's stage was challenging, but not as much as Drill's. If I had been more careful I could have made it through without losing any lives. But I suppose mistakes are to be expected when you're playing past 2 am. Next, we have Dive. Oh boy. I hate this stage for one reason and one reason only: it's immensely difficult. It's extremely fortunate that I did Toad before this one, cause I can only nail the necessary jumps 50% or less of the time (and without Rush Marine, there's no other way past). The very first section pits me against those **** jumping fish-like enemies, which always prove to annoy me. They hurt quite a bit, and in tight places are difficult to react to effectively (generally a charge shot is the only way to prevent a hit when backed in the corner). There is at least one screen (I found from experience) where if you don't scroll all the way to the right, when you drop to go to the next screen you'll most certainly die (the whole acts as a pit rather than a transition). That fortunately only caught me once (oddly I did not encounter it on the first playthrough). I believe it is after a horizontal section, and I *think* it was right before the screen darkened and the tube animation activated. Speaking of that sudden palette change, it's rather enjoyable. To see the tubes suddenly a-glow when they weren't before, especially against the darkened BG color, is rather surprising and almost fascinating at first. Know the place where the second whale appears? The spikes laid at the top of the screen there do a similar white palette swap along with the whale as it gets hit. I haven't found those spikes to be anything resembling a threat...though they look somewhat cool just sitting way up there. Heh. I could swear that there is a point in Dive's level where you meant to create some sort of secret side-path but then opted out of it. I believe it's directly at the beginning of a horizontal scrolling section (and I think just before that 'pit' which transforms into a next-screen transition only if you scroll far enough right). There are a number of spikes lining the bottom of the horizontal section, and far to the left there is a whole where only Rush Marine could reach. That would have been an interesting place to scroll onto a screen containing the Wire. There are two pieces to Dive's level that I find massively difficult (unless I get lucky). The first is where there is a hard hat sitting on a platform just beyond one of those weird swooping enemies which drops out of sight. With spikes lining the floor and ceiling, there are two choices: lure the hard hat off the platform, and then make a precise jump to where the hard hat used to be, or get hit somehow [possibly by the green swooping enemy] and do a jump off the spikes. Both are dangerous, and the former takes patience. Of course, the situation assumes that you don't have the rush marine .Second area is what I can only deem 'the long jump'. Rising and falling water levels (hard to call them tides) along with one of those ultra-annoying won't-suicide-itself-by-jumping-off-screen green swoopers create a rather limited window of opportunity for the jump to a distant platform. But that's not the worst part: if you do actually make the jump, you'll have to contend with a forward-moving (right towards you) enemy which is likely to knock Megaman into the pit unless he jumps immediately after landing. I'll say, it's quite the difficult task. I managed to pull it off twice out of quite a few attempts...Rush Marine am goal. Also, when moving onto the screen of one of the whales (I think it's the first one), the tile graphics from the previous screen garble as they're replaced in RAM with the ones needed to draw the whale. Not really anything that can be done about this. Changing the level drastically at this point is out of the question. Near the end of the stage, the spikes that are above water almost look like they're encased in strange blocks because the BG color of the tiles they're drawn in is different. It's not particularly bad or even that strange looking, but I'm curious as to why it occurs. You can probably guess why I had so many comments on Dive Man's level. I played it many, many times (part of the reason is that I didn't have Skull's weapon and was training myself to take him out with buster only). OK, on to Skull. There is still a spot on Skull's stage (it's precisely below the mid-point start location) where you can die because it's a pit and not a screen transition. Even if you use the ladder (I tried just to be absolutely certain), Megaman still dies. On the last screen of the stage before the gates, four (I counted, four) of those spiked wavering enemies spawn at once. Considering the two skulls also on that screen, I think it's overkill. Especially since the six + megaman all doing something together causes significant slowdown (NES limitation, I would think, more than anything else). As for Skull himself, I haven't seen him do anything unusual. Yet.  My new overview of Ring's stage is pretty short. I found the stage far, far, far easier when I had both Dive and Drill weapons available; as you probably recall my last order gave me neither of them at that point. The acid rain still proved useful, but it's nothing that couldn't be replaced by Dive. The spot where the energizer lays has some sort of invisible block to the right of it. I have no clue what it really is, but it's solid and it knocks Megaman back into the wide pit if he tries to jump towards it from the left (making it essentially impossible to get the energizer and survive if you don't have balloon yet). There's also a glaringly apparent graphical glitch. The hippos are drawn before they normally are in the original game, and only when they actually spawn by 'beaming down' are their noses drawn in. It's rather funny (both odd and humorous). Ah, Pharaoh. Great stage design; I especially love the three horizontal scrolling parts (and the last one most of all -- keeping the platform from getting too far ahead of you adds a whole new element to that section; especially noteworthy because the original design for that area was just a bunch of easy ups and downs). Having the quicksand at the beginning of the stage as pitfalls is devious, but not entirely unjustified. Curiosity killed the cat. The only problem I've encountered on that level is that the boss doors at the end of the stage do not animate. Improper alignment? The sound is fine, and then still function, but they're graphically inert. I like Bright Man's level even more than Pharaoh's. In fact, I think it's my favorite (I'll explain why when Dust comes around). No significant errors whatsoever on the stage -- only two minor things that no one in their right mind would care about. (If you're real curious: the large red machine-enemy which is on a screen by itself starts by facing the same way [left] as Megaman and therefore has to turn around [but it's AI makes it do that immediately, so no loss]. Secondly, a palette-change occurs a little bit after you've travelled to the right on the last horizontal scrolling section of the level, which results in the spikes turning from normal color to yellowish. Again, nothing significant or even really noteworthy.) Bright is somewhat difficult on the first time through, but probably the easiest of all the stages (I see why you recommended doing it first). I find myself preferring the stage after obtaining the Balloon; Rush Coil is a bit tedious by comparison. The double energizers is a truly awesome bonus for completing that section of the stage. [This level makes it much faster to fill up on Energizers for the Cossack and Wily fortresses.] Of course, I may be a bit biased -- Bright's stage also has great music. Last but certainly not least is Dust. While I still think this stage could use some aesthetic touch-ups, the level design itself is top-notch. In fact, now that I've been able to go through each stage several times, I consider this one the best. It's balanced: straight-forward without lacking diversity, and includes a number of tough but certainly not impossible spots, even without anything but a rush coil. While I'm biased for blue over green in my color preferences, you have managed to do good work with the green tiles as well. Again, that last one is somewhat leveraged by the fact that I consider Dust's stage to have the best single music track in the game. Phew...this post is getting enormous, and I haven't even covered the Cossack or Wily stages yet! Fortunately, my remaining comments are lesser in number and a bit more to the point. Cossack Stage 1 -- The first thing I notice here is your custom background. While a city out there is a welcome change from the complete wilderness we were previously accustomed to, I think it's a bit limited. More colors and an illusion of depth would add to the experience, and make anyone stop and gaze at it for a bit before continuing on. After the second vertical rise, there's a screen with an open section to the left. I'm wondering if you meant some secret to be there (in fact, I haven't thoroughly investigated it for that). There's also a slight graphical irregularity on this screen: part of several tiles which are clearly background are actually drawn in the foreground. That way they tend to cover Megaman's legs. I could have sworn I saw this behavior somewhere else as well, perhaps on an entirely different stage, but definitely did not see it again this time around (was it fixed in the update? possibly). Near the beginning of the second horizontal scrolling section, there are two small and funny-looking tiles. No idea myself. Are these sample tiles from the background, overwritten from the originals? I found it somewhat odd myself that after I had continued on this Cossack Level #1, when I returned to meet the boss it did not kill me immediately, even though it was the first entry. What changed when I continued? I don't get it. Of course, I already mentioned the Cossack logo is replaced with something else. It looks almost like a part of sky, or maybe fire? Cossack Stage 2 -- I scoured this stage pretty well for oddities, but found exactly zero. Excellent job on this one. I know the background snow already existed here, but you expanded on its use in good ways. Stage 2 is also a very welcome breather from that hell known as Cossack Stage 1. The difference in challenge is tangible. A good refill stage -- I spent so much time skilling skulls this go-around that I had nine lives before leaving the level. Of course, such circumstance resulted in the 1-up at the end of the stage being overkill. Cossack Stage 3 and 4 -- Nothing unusual to report. Good levels, and challenging precisely because you must ration your abilities' energy: otherwise you may have to die just to get usage of one back. Wily Stage 1 -- My advice: just don't play this one when you're about to fall over in your chair. Mistaking the Rush Coil for the Rush Marine is very, very bad. (I jumped directly into the spikes, and there was absolutely no avoiding it after I stepped on rush. lol) If there's any improvement to be made here, I think it would have to be in customizing the pop blocks pattern (further? I think it's the same as the original, though I could be mistaken). Wily Stages 2 and 3 -- Can't remember much to say about these. I was getting pretty groggy by this point. Stage 3, which revisits the robot masters, is pretty short and rather to the point as to be expected. It's a bit too similar to the original in that respect, perhaps. Final 'Stage' -- Not really much of a level because of the length. I like what you did to the graphical design, it totally knocks off the old patterns. Can't really do much to make Wily more difficult. Making him take more hits would just be annoying. And customizing his AI into something reasonably challenging for an experienced player of this game (the only type that would ask for such a thing) would have a rather low work-to-benefit ratio. Quite a post this became. If you can believe it, most of this information is just rephrasing stuff I wrote on yellow Post-Its while playing through. Great hack, and at this date and time I would even put it at #1 (best hack) for my 'played-and-completed' hacks list. I look forward to seeing future megaman works, or even new level designs for any game, from you. Perhaps you'll even come back to make another excellent megaman 4 hack, when you've finished with some other projects? (edited by Kagerato on 08-09-04 06:36 AM) |
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66 Posts: 457/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| You must take your job as a beta-tester more serious than anyone. Thanks for the bugs! Geez, I didn't have any clue as to how much work there was still to do. Okay, let's see.... The order I designed them to be played was either Dust or Bright first, then Toad (if you have Bright) or Skull (if you have Dust), then pretty much any order you want. Flash Stopper is the most useful power you can have in the first 8 levels. Drill can be played anytime after you have Rain Flush power; you're technically supposed to play him last, but I made it so you can play him first and use Drill in other levels (like the drastically hard Ring Man) as a special bonus. Sorry about the glitch in Ring Man with the invisible wall. I tried and tried and tried, but that was always there. To fix it, I put walls where the invisible wall was, but obviously put the walls in the wrong spot. I'll need to move that vertical barrier over to the right. In Drill Man, when the walls appear when hitting the switch, the colors are a little off, but I can't make it look the right way. The color swap is embedded in the code or hexes... I don't know how to use Hex editors... I know that each byte stands for a different thing, but I don't know which bytes stand for the colors the wall changes to. In Toad Man, the walls that flash when you hit the snail is not a problem in my opinion, but if it looks a little odd, maybe it would be better off changed. In the first snail fight, though, there's a waterslide on the floor, and I want it to come out of the pipe instead of out of the wall. I think that pipe should stay the way it is, at least. Okay, you had problems on Dive Man? You need to take Flash Stopper with you on the rising and falling water. I've beaten the level without using Rush Marine a single time, but not without using Flash. Yeah, there are those spots when you go up the ladder and come down again, and it's a bottomless pit. You have to be all the way on the left or right side for it to work, and sometimes that's impossible... The only exception is the Balloon room in Pharoah Man's level... going down the ladder again is a pit no matter what. It was the only way I could make the secret room work. Oh well... There are no off-road secrets in Cossack levels 1 and 2. 4 has a fork-in-the-road, if you fall down the pit by the Flying Shield enemies, you appear in a shortcut full of slinkies. I made 'em take 12 hits instead of 6 because you're supposed to use the Drill attack. I'll get around to fixing those other bugs once I have time. Thanks for the extra review, it's more useful than you think. (Although after a review like that, a 3rd one may be overboard...  ) |
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Kagerato Goomba Level: 9 Posts: 6/25 EXP: 2655 For next: 507 Since: 08-08-04 Since last post: 382 days Last activity: 29 days |
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| I may have some information which would be useful in fixing the Drill Man glow-in landforms. The NES, being a surprisingly limited machine, cannot change its own physical palette (simply put, the actual colors themselves are hardcoded). Which explains why *.pal files are necessary to acquire a new palette in emulators; they're cheating by emulating a different palette than the one the NES has. The PPU [picture processing unit; by analogy it's the video card of the NES] has an area of RAM often referred to just as the "palettes", but more specifically, it's two palettes: one for 'images' and one for sprites. The image palette begins at $3F00 and the sprite palette begins at $3F10 (addresses in PPU RAM, of course). As you can see, each palette is $10 (16 decimal) bytes long, and a byte is used for each color. Therefore there are 16 colors in each palette, for a total of 32 colors. However, $3F00 (the first color of the image palette) and $3F10 (the first color of the sprite palette) will always be the same, so in actuality there are only 31 colors to work with. As I mentioned earlier, it's impossible to re-define the original 64-color palette on the NES (except by method of false emulation). So what purpose does the palette data in RAM on the PPU serve? The function of the image+sprite palettes in the PPU's RAM is to define which of the 64 colors in the total NES palette are selected for actual use. In other words, the bytes there are indexes, not actual color (RGB) definitions. Now, how does this help you? Well, this information lets us track down where the palette indexes are originally selected in the ROM. Whenever an NES game (program) wants to change the colors available to draw on-screen, it has to write to that section of PPU RAM to define new indexes. PPU RAM, completely separate from regular NES work ram, can only be accessed by the program through registers (pre-determined addresses physically mapped by the hardware to perform a particular task -- the PPU registers are located in a section of the CPU memory map that would never normally be read or written to). Therefore, it is quite likely that a game such as Megaman 4 writes new indexes to PPU RAM for every stage (so that it can make use of whatever colors the developer felt like). The register for reading or writing to any part of of VRAM (synonymous with the PPU's onboard RAM) is $2007 [we don't need to worry about $2005 or $2006, which specify the address to read/write to/from, because we're not changing the location at all]. Now we're getting somewhere. Fortunately for us, wiser souls have already programmed tools called 'debuggers' -- essentially an emulator (or sometimes pseudo-emulator) which allows you to run through the program code (of say, Megaman 4) and see updates to memory and processor registers (such as A, X, and Y) as each instruction executes (commonly known as 'stepping through' or 'stepping into' a procedure). The best debugger currently available for NES, IMO, is FCEUd: http://desnet.fobby.net/index.php?page=utilities&id=18. And here's the good part: the greatest of these debuggers even let you specify breakpoints; particular addresses which, when read or written (or both), you want the debugger to stop running the code normally and let you see what's going on. By setting a write breakpoint on $2007, a person can quickly jump to the next point where PPU RAM is written. If we narrow such a search by only setting a write breakpoint just before Drill Man's stage is loaded, the likelihood of stopping on the very procedure that writes the palette indexes for his stage is high. Once the debugger is stopped by the breakpoint at the start of that procedure, we can see where exactly from PRG-ROM the new indexes are being loaded from. There will be a load operation, very likely a load into the accumulator (LDA). FCEUd tells you next to that instruction, with an @ sign, the address that the load ends up actually taking data from. Since the data being loaded must be in PRG-ROM at the time this procedure is executed, we can immediately go take a look at that address by the @ sign and see what's at it (use the Seek To capability of FCEUd). By writing down enough bytes from that address and immediately beyond it in sequence (essentially we are copying a short section of one of the PRG-ROM banks), it is possible to get a unique-enough string of data which will only occur once in the entire ROM. Usually ten or twelve bytes is enough, but to be on the safe side I'd go as far as eighteen or twenty. Once that data is available, it is a simple matter to do a find operation using a hex editor loaded on the ROM for the obtained string. If the string of bytes was unique enough (long enough), the results will list only one address. There's the palette indexes for the stage. When we know where the necessary data is, it's a pretty simple matter to modify it. Even trial and error will succeed within a short period of time. Essentially, it would just be figuring out which colors the fade-in of the cliffsides use to do their work, and replacing their indexes with the equivalent indexes for green colors. I'm sure all of that is quite confusing if you've never been introduced to it before. Feel free to ask me any questions. Also, rest assured -- the method I just described is actually several times, to tens of times, faster than any other methods once you understand how to do it. It would only take an experienced user of a 6502 debugger and a hex editor three or four minutes to locate the appropriate data. The fact of the matter is that modifying it sometimes takes longer than finding it (quite humorous, if you think about the relative simplicity of changing the data as compared to all that I had to describe just to find it). BTW, much of what I wrote here is just an extension or elaboration on things listed in TFG's short-and-useful tutorial: http://tfg.panicus.org/files/docs/nes_pal_fast.html. I used it as a reference (one of several) while writing this. Yoshi's NES comprehensive doc is also quite valuable. (edited by Kagerato on 08-09-04 04:40 PM) (edited by Kagerato on 08-09-04 04:43 PM) (edited by Kagerato on 08-09-04 04:44 PM) |
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66 Posts: 461/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| *shakes head, but long post still exists* *reads again* Okay, I THINK I understand. I actually had no idea what an emulator debugger was, but I did see one before. I'll be sure to use the debugger while hacking future Roms, to help me with the hex editing. Good thing, too, because I wanted to change Megaman's colors in Megaman 3... and his graphics... to make a game with Protoman as the star! If I wanted to change Megaman's colors, for example, I could use the same described method as above, only search for the sprite palettes instead, right? When a level is loaded and the level palettes are loaded into the PPU RAM, aren't the sprite palettes as well? Or would there be more complications in editing Megaman's origonal colors? I know that whenever you swap abilities, you change color, so the sprite data is probably reloaded every time you exit the weapons menu. That's my guess. |
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Kagerato Goomba Level: 9 Posts: 7/25 EXP: 2655 For next: 507 Since: 08-08-04 Since last post: 382 days Last activity: 29 days |
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| That part about Proto Man scared me. I had just been thinking of precisely the same idea (though applied to any Megaman game) just yesterday. Yes, you could change Megaman's colors with the given method. The sprite palettes (technically each palette is four colors) are right after the 'image' palettes (which cover just about everything else) in PPU RAM. $3F00 versus $3F10. However, I suggest you pick up yoshi's great doc from zophar and read all the sections concerning palettes (might want to look at the PPU registers too). There's some tricky stuff, for example: when you write to the 'image' palette, the changes automatically mirror inside the sprite palette. So in order to customize the sprite palette, you absolutely must write to it after the image palette. Which I suppose is logical thinking anyway, considering their order in PPU RAM. The sprite palette indexes don't need to be reloaded every time you change weapons as long as all the used indexes are available in the sprite palette. If that's the case, it is possible to switch colors on a sprite by manipulating another area of PPU RAM -- Sprite RAM (SPR-RAM). Sprite RAM is actually a subsection of the pattern tables, which themselves are of course also in PPU RAM. There's two bits in SPR-RAM which are used to form the full 4-bit color index. With only four possible variations there, this means that Megaman 4 likely does it a different way (either what you originally said, or by an entirely diffent kind of change). |
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Schwa Green Birdo The Embodyment of Good, infused with the Living Assets "Alpha Psibeam!" (echo effects) Level: 66 Posts: 469/2214 EXP: 2457091 For next: 4760 Since: 04-25-04 From: Spanaway, WA Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 13 hours |
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| One problem with making Megaman into Protoman: The shape of the sprites are different. Protoman uses a 3x3 tile square in the tile map (I have a Tile Editor for Roms) while Megaman uses from 2-4 tiles on each row, a very odd shape. I don't think that could be changed with a Hex Editor... or could it??? | |||
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Kagerato Goomba Level: 9 Posts: 9/25 EXP: 2655 For next: 507 Since: 08-08-04 Since last post: 382 days Last activity: 29 days |
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| Potentially. However, I do not think simple hex editing alone would be enough. Games like megaman are designed to use variable size sprites in their engines. However, those are always enemies, not the player. Enemies do not follow nearly the same rules or receive nearly the same kind and variety of inputs, so the code that handles them is entirely different. Example: collision detection. Many enemies in megaman do not even move, or move in very predictable, simple patterns. And some enemies have no collision detection at all! (if they're meant to harm Megaman, it is enough to detect when he collides with their location and entirely unnecessary to do the reverse) When you change the size of our player (whatever his name), the collision detection is going to have to change to some degree as well; proportional to the amount of size change. Other considerations...if the new player is taller and the cannon is positioned at a different height, the game needs a new shot procedure in order to spawn the bullets at the correct height. The routines that physically draw megaman should not be too different, if at all different, from the ones that draw enemies. Therefore, such a routine is already adapted to variable-sized sprites and shouldn't cause nearly as much a hassle as the rest. We hope. |
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