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11-02-05 12:59 PM
Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Parasyte
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Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 06:42 AM, in Peer's Snes9x Tracer Mark 6 Released Link
YES!!
Been waiting several months for this.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 06:49 AM, in NES Metroid - AutoMap hack released Link
The patch can be applied to any Metroid hack with just a few exceptions: The ROM must not be expanded, and the area used for the routine must not already be used by the hack. So whether the hack is just getting started, or is already complete, apply the patch and it should work fine. It's only the *really* advanced hacks you will have to be careful about. (Probably aren't any of those around, yet)
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 08:49 AM, in NES Metroid - AutoMap hack released Link
The bit-masking idea isn't too bad. I actually had the same exact thought for creating a "visited room" hack, which would allow the game to keep track of where Samus has been, and where she still needs to go.
But, there could still be some problems with scrolling issues, even if only displaying the current area. For example, the default Brinstar map spans the entire 30-room length of the world. It's not unlikely that a hack may end up with an area that spens the entire 30-room height of the world. That would require scrolling, again.
Then there's alsways the thing about rebuilding the bitmasks every time you change the world layout.

As for the special item hacks ... I know there is a GameGenie code that allows you to actually space jump. It would only be a trivial matter of hard-coding it and/or adding checks to ensure the "space jump" item has been collected. (And maybe 'bug fixing' it) For the spiderball, you would mostly be dealing with bypassing all of the gravity routines. The game already has code to "lock" certain enemies onto walls. I don't see why that could not be edited to do the same to Samus.
Now, a few more difficult ones would be wall-jumping and homing missiles. ;D
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 06:20 PM, in Delphi 5 or Visual Basic 6? Link
Delphi is a pretty easy-to-learn language, I suppose, and Dan does have a point about it being compiled to nearly-native code. But if you really want to get into C later on, be careful with Delphi or the like. The structure and syntax are usually vastly different from language-to-language, and could become confusing later on.

I mostly taught myself C by starting with JavaScript. The languages are similar syntax-wise, so I had no problems switching over to C when I was ready for it. But, for example, switching to C from VB is not the best strategy. I assume going from Delphi to C will be equally frustrating. Having to unlearn the "Variable := 1;" stuff in favor of "Variable = 1;" or even worse, going from "if Variable = True" to "if (Variable == TRUE)" ...

Personally I believe that the whole "C is difficult" thing is just a myth. It may give you some less-restricted access directly to the hardware, but power doesn't necessarily come from great difficulty.
So uhh, if you've got the will, C is the way. ;D
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 06:36 PM, in NES Metroid - AutoMap hack released Link
Originally posted by Jigglysaint
Perhaps another suggestion could be to have an object that when passed over, would switch between horizontal and vertical movement. It would be 2 strips that cover the entire length and width of the room, and basically act like doors, except it doesn't actually scroll you anywhere, only lock/unlocks the screen. Good for having secret passages in odd places. Also cool would be floor/celing doors, that all they do is just act like a room transition, nothing else(if I remember, a certain door object has a horizontal/horizontal transition).


I intend to remove the scroll limitations altogether in favor of 8-way scrolling. I have a massive rewrite of the scroll system to do anyway, thanks to the status bar. So while I'm rewriting the scroll engine to accomodate the status bar, I'll also be gettnig it to scroll in any direction with no transitional periods.
Floor and ceiling doors would be an improvement, yes. But that would also require Samus to shoot downward. (Well, it would not require it, doors in the floor could be 'unlockable' once you aquire bombs, for example. But shooting downward has other advantages which make it a must, anyway!)

And power bomb doors ... why replace 10-missile doors with them? Just create a new door type!
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 07:38 PM, in Working on a YI Editor Link
Encouragement isn't always enough. You have to remember that it does take a lot of time to develop a full-featureed editor. Without free time, this project may wind up on the back burner.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-12-04 07:58 PM, in NotSo Fatso update Link
You CAN click "Next" 5,000 times. Have a look: http://parasyte.panicus.org/stuff/notso.png
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-13-04 09:01 AM, in Delphi 5 or Visual Basic 6? Link
MathOnNapkins, The '=' assignment is perfectly fine, and even mostly preferred. In algebra, they teach that '=' is often used for assignment. For example: "a = 1" or long-hand, "Let 'a' equal 1" ...
If it's good enough for a mathematician, it should be good enough for everyone.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-13-04 09:04 AM, in Resident Evil Meets Mega Man Link
Blood? Could have fooled me! I figured you just screwed up the palette and got too lazy to change it. In other words, that looks like absolute shit.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-13-04 11:08 PM, in Delphi 5 or Visual Basic 6? Link
What's good about VB:
-Very easy to read someone else's code, to see WTF it does.


Same can be said of all languages, given you know the language, and the variable and finction names are not screwed up. Comments help, but are not always required.


-CASE-INSENSITIVE! If you declare a variable named SomeVar and then type SOMEVAR later, not only will it work, the GUI will correct it. (This comes in very handy for checking spelling. Declare all variables with at least one capital, and when using them, type in lowercase. If you spell it right, it automatically gets changed to match the capitalization of the declaration.)

BAD! BAD! BAD! BAD! BAD!
I can't imagine why anyone would want to submit themselves to being such lazy asses. If you type "MyVar" once, you better have the ability to type it again and again. Subsequently typing "myvar" afterward is a VERY bad habit. Either type it one way and stick with it, or don't program at all.


-The IDE will warn you about bugs as they occurr in execution, so you know exactly what's wrong.

Oh yeah, I hated that. Usually the stupid message would show up while I was in the middle of typing a line, when I decided to go up and fix a previous line. Say I typed, "i =" and then used the up arrows (or the mouse) to get to another line in order to fix something before forgetting. "DONK!" says VB6 through my speakers, and up comes this stupid message saying "HEY IDIOT! You didn't finish typing this line!" And I'm all like, "NO SHIT! I am fully aware of this fact. Hey! Since you're so good at explaining the blatantly obvious, think you can tell me how I can disable you?"
So yeah, it's it was never able to answer my question, or help me even remotely. Pathetic.


-It's generally smart, IE it knows the difference between 'var = 4' and 'if var = 4'.

Programmers don't need smart compilers. Programmers need smart brains. If the programmer can't decern between 'var = 4' and 'if var = 4' then there is a major problem.
The thing about a 'single-equal' in a C if-statement is that it can be used for assignment within that if-statement. One of my favorite uses of this, for example:
u8 *buffer;
if (!(buffer = (u8*)malloc(1024))) {
printf("Unable to allocate 1024 bytes of memory!\n");
return 1;
}
buffer[0] = 1;

Something of that sort. It just saves me the trouble of placing the malloc() call on a previous line, THEN testing the return value in the 'buffer' pointer.




Bad stuff about VB:
-It's COM-based, which makes multithreading an INCREDIBLE pain!


Multi-threading processes in VB isn't so bad. What are you talking about? It's mostly the same process with all languages. You just tell windows to create a new thread, and WHAMO! A new thread is launched.




Bad stuff about C:

-It's a LOT harder to learn, especially Win32! (Creating a window = ARGH! )

No, C is not a lot harder to learn. The basics are just as easy to learn as with most any language. Using the language properly may be "tough" because everything is based around the same principles. And as neotransotaku stated, Win32 is just an API -- it's a part of Windows, not the C language.
You can use the Win32 API in Delphi or VB if you like. And in fact, there are some things you MUST use the API for in both languages.


-GUIs need to be generated from code, AFAIK.

Wrong again. You CAN create your Win32 user interfaces using code if you like, but generally it's not required. All Dialog-based apps use dialog resources, which can be built in a dialog editor, just like the one VB6 has. Window-based apps (Windows != Dialogs) will have to be put together through code, because of the way Windows OS works. This is not a limitation of C, but a direct "feature" of Windows OS.


-Often you need to either use a crappy compiler or an expensive one. Even if they have an IDE, your program is generally run separately, so debugging is a major pain.

I thoroughly disagree. GCC is not a crappy compiler. It is actually one of the best. Not only is it free, with a million different distributions to choose from, but it's also available ON and FOR many, many, many, many, MANY architectures. You can't build GBA ROMs using Microsoft Visual Studio or Borland's Compiler ... But with devkit advance, you can! Devkit advance is a gcc cross-compiler for ARM-based processors available on windows, linux, etc.
And if you can't live without an IDE, there are many Windows-based IDEa available just for people like you. Imagine that, you actually have a choice over which IDE you want to use.
(See below, regarding debugging C programs.)


-Working with strings and arrays can be a nightmare.

No, it's a blessing. Under C, a "string" and an array are exactly the same. As I said earlier, everything is based on the same principles. After you are able to comprehend this, it's not so bad working with strings in C. I do it on a daily basis, and wouldn't have it any other way. In this way, you're more in touch with the hardware as a programmer, rather than relying on the language to do EVERYTHING for you.


-There's generally a lot less debugging tools available.

Funny, the GNU Free Software Foundation's GDB is one of many debugging tools available for C\C++ -based programs. And I can't even count how many times it's saved my ass. I find bugs in my programs using it all the time. Not knowing how to use GDB, and not using it at all are two different things, and neither of those constitute to "not having any debugging tools."


-You need to do everything yourself, it's not just a matter of declaring something.

I almost agree with this! It's what makes C so great. If you understand the hardware you are working with, why not work a little bit closer to it? Take for example, strings... With VB, you define a string and set it to some crap. What the program actually does is allocate memory for the string, then it copies the string data to that memory. That is exactly what is done in C to create a string; allocate some memory: "char string[256];" Then copy the string data to it: "strcpy(string, "Hello World!");"
Of course, you need to understand that C (being based on the same principles through-out) handles strings as pointers. So "Hello World!" would be compiled as a pointer to that string data. That's just some more getting-in-touch with the hardware you are using.


-The code can be very hard to read at times, especially when done by messy programmers.

Same can be said of all languages. Well, unless the 'IDE' won't allow stupid use of whitespace and such.
I hate non-tabbed code as much as the next programmer, but it's really up to the programmer to write his code the way he likes. It's not a decision that you are I can make for him. And it's certainly not a decision that the damn IDE should make. Screw that.



Good stuff about ASM:
-It's the lowest level (besides raw hex) there is, so you can really optimize your code. If you're really good, you can do such crazy things as using instructions as data, or in some rare cases, even jumping partway into a multi-byte instruction, giving you a whole new series of instructions. (Example: On GB/Z80, the hex for 'ld hl,$23C3; ld bc,$0021' is '21 C3 23 01 21 00'. If you jump straight to the C3, you get 'jp $0123; ld bc,0' (but the second instruction doesn't get executed, because the first is a direct jump).)


Ah, yes. The good ol' disassembler-confusion code. Doing stupid things like that are really only applicable for software protection code. A good reverse engineer won't be fooled, but the silly hacker-wannabe's will.


-Generally, the syntax is very straightforward.

I would call it more 'strict' rather than straight-forward.


-Once you learn the basic instructions, it's very easy to use.

Again, same can be said of all languages!


-All you really need to write it are a hex editor and instruction sheet (or you can even just memorize the instruction set). I've done it like this on a Gameboy before (I used a Codebreaker's memory editor to write the code, and hooked into the game with a code to run it), somewhat entertaining.

Or do it the proper way and use an assembler.




There... And I mostly agree with the rest of what you said.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-13-04 11:17 PM, in NES Metroid - AutoMap hack released Link
VL-Tone, I had a huge reply written for you last night, but my power went out before I was finished writing it. Blah!
Basically, I was explaining how that wall jump code should be improved by checking a lot more variables, and not slowing the decent any. But I suppose it's a good start. (I would never use it in a hack, personally...)

HyperHacker, that would not only require more tiles, but also more code to handle it properly. But would a 16x16 tile map be big enough? Sounds a bit small.


EDIT: I've rewritten all of the Wall Jump code I had before the power went out. (I'd say this version is much better, anyway.) It assembles to just 38 bytes, and makes it not-so-simple to wall jump. You must be near a wall, holding the direction away from it, in a spin jump, at the peak of the jump in a slow decent, and when you press A it will perform a wall jump.
If anyone needs a NEStopia movie file, I can create one to show you how wall jumps are done with the hack. The range can be changed so you're given a larger window of oppertunity to perform the jump, if you feel it's too tight. But I personally like it the way it is. It's not too difficult, and not too easy.
Download: http://parasyte.panicus.org/projects/met-map/walljump.zip (Again, source code is included.)

P.S. This routine can be modified very easily for space jump.


(edited by Parasyte on 06-13-04 03:53 PM)
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-14-04 01:03 AM, in Working on a YI Editor Link
It's "Forget It" ... not "Forge Tit"
ForgetIt-IRC-Network
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-14-04 07:05 AM, in NES Metroid - AutoMap hack released Link
I only made it up to address ~$CC00 in SnowBro's source when I found the 192-byte routine that could be removed. Other than some small optimizations before that location, there is not much else which could be removed. However, I've only searched less than 1/4 of the hardwired PRG bank. There could very well be more free space in there somewhere.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-14-04 07:11 AM, in Resident Evil Meets Mega Man Link
I always figured the point of the score was for the "Clear Points" that shows up before each level begins. The maximum value is 90000, which is roughly 90000 / 500 = 180 kills. I guess you can't pass the level if you don't top the Clear Points score? I really never could understand the point of the thing, anyway.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-14-04 08:23 AM, in NotSo Fatso update Link
The NSF Shadow thing is really quite wonderfully wonderful and excellent, but also wonderful at the same time!
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-15-04 01:15 AM, in Working on a YI Editor Link
Because it's "ForgetIt", that's the difference!
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-18-04 05:30 AM, in Um... SNES9XW can link to others? Link
There would be is snes9x supported kaillera. But it obviously doesn't.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-18-04 05:50 AM, in Working on a YI Editor Link
I wouldn't call it fake as much much as I would call it non-existent. In other words, the project has been started, it just hasn't even gone through the first step to making an editor.
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-18-04 07:24 AM, in Surprise: Red Coin Quest: Public demo release! Link
Originally posted by DahrkDaiz
...
And thanks to Parasyte for fixing a few bugs
...



You are kindly welcome! Though you haven't included the pallete fade bug fix.
Also, I noticed a bug when Luigi changes form near a hidden red coin. The block that is hiding it will flash with fugly graphics! (a good place to test this is the level where you need to bounce on the buzzy beetles to get across the spike pit. (I hate that part so much. Never have made it through there without touching the spikes.)
Another bug is if you let the para beetles fly all the way to the right side of the stage. The tiles for the giant ?-block will get screwed until they leave the screen. (I've also seen something similar with the one moving lift in the stage. The one which moves to the right when you jump on it. That's what I'm talking about. I Don't know what caused it to get screwy, byut I remember jumping (to get off the damn thing) when it happened. *shrug*
Parasyte

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Posted on 06-18-04 07:48 AM, in Is the creation of Lunar Magic a good thing? Link
There always were and always will be bad hacks and bad hackers.
I only speak for myself when I say this, but I'm immediately turned down by programs which are "too easy" to use. I feel belittled by programs like AIM which have to litterally guide you through the process of using the bitch of a program. It's rather pathetic.
That said, Lunar Magic is not really one of these "too esy to use" programs that everyone is making it out to be, but instead just brings some ease to editing a game.

Unfortunately, going back to my opening sentence, bad hackers come along and just make a bunch of bad hacks. They swarm in numbers, you know. And the really sad part is that there's only one or two hacks available which actually rival the original game. Everything else is a step in the wrong direction.

So since only one person knows anything at all about using the program, I'm going to call it a bad thing. Until all of you clowns learn how to use the editor, stop releasing hacks. Thanks.


(edited by Parasyte on 06-17-04 10:50 PM)
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