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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by stardust4ever |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt                Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| I have dabbled around for some time now on the subject of ROM hacking, including my own garden variety of SMB1 hacks, but none of them were really worth submitting.
I also once used a hacking document to break the encoding scheme of the Namco version of Mrs PacMan, discovered eight hidden maze levels that were excluded from the final game, and created custom Game Genie Codes to unlock them. I appologize for not having any "evidence" of this, as my data backup archives are at home. However, after following the 70+ threads on VL-Tone's proposed "Super Mario 64" level editor, I have become convinced that I want to contribute to the effort. For Example, in his Mario 64 hacking document, he gave details to great lenths upon the format of the object [x24] command, but there was little or no information on what objects were associated with what definitions. After playing around for a little while in a hex editor, I managed to change Toad into a Boo, and then later on wrote a simple tut on how to do this: http://www.7th-stardust.net/geek/ROMhacking/BooHack.html I sincerely hope that this is evidence enough to show that I only want to contribute to the cause, and that I know what I am talking about. This is the only way that people's efforts will ever grow to bear fruit, is that people collaborate and share what they have learned with each other. Thanks for considering me. |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Greetings good people; this is my first post, but I have been following this thread for a long time.
I believe that one of the main stumbling blocks in creating new hacks of Mario 64 (with the looming absence of a real level editor) is not having the proper object definitions available or knowing what they are/mean. I have created a tutorial that involves a simple how-to on converting one object to another - in this case, one of the castle Toads into a Boo. All in all, it only requires changing two or three bytes per instance in the entire ROM file: http://www.7th-stardust.net/geek/ROMhacking/BooHack.html The [x24] comand, basically defines an/any object, as can be noted by VL-Tone's Mario64 hacking document. Byte #4 defines what the object actually is, which is what I am focused on. These values tend to change between one area and another, meaning that it may or may not be possible to copy an object from one area and put it into another level (ex. hovering Bowser's Sub in front of the castle, or replacing the Bob-omb King with Bowser), or at least not without reassigning a whole bunch of unknown or undocumented parameters elsewhere in the ROM. I started with "Inside the Castle" because it is a simpler area than "Bob-omb World" #DD defines one of the Castle Toads #65 defines a Boo. Currently, there is only one, this is the one that flies away towards the courtyard. #36 is the two stone pillars #d0, d1, 90, 91 are elements of the red/blue fires in the basement #66 is the Likatu, as seen behind Mario only in the mirror room. #64 is the infamous bunny, however replacing the Toad with either the bunny or Likatu will appear maimed and disfigured. Replacing the bunny with Toad seemingly will make it invisible. Let's see, #25, D5, and a couple of others are doors. I forgot the function of 37, 38, and 39 There are also a very large number of #00 objects, not only in the castle, but everywhere. I am not positive, but I believe that these include all of the objects that Mario cannot interact with, level props, etc. At this point I do not know how the game recognizes what these objects are, but I believe they may be defined within the "extra parameters" as defined by VL-Tone's Mario64 hacking document. Although I have not yet attempted modifying the behavioral parameters, the object definition simply defines the geometry, but the behavior parameters define what it actually does and how it behaves, meaning that if I change Toad into a Boo, it will still act like a Toad! This is completely different from let's say, SMB1 sprites, whereas #01 might be a Goomba, #02 a Koopa, and so on (btw, those are not the real values; and I am not in the mood to look those up either) - The Object and the behavior are totally separate!!! Come on, people, this is the meat of what ROM hacking is all about. If somebody wants to change the Thwomp on "Whomp's Fortress" into a chain chomp, but they do not/ cannot figure out the correct behaviors/ object definitions, then they are completely stuck. I encourage EVERYBODY who has created IPS patches, or just hacks of SM64 in general, to explain the individual parameters uses to define/ change the objects. Only then will progress really start to move foreword. Just posting screenshots/ videos of triple flying chain-chomps in Whomp's Fortress, or 15 giant goombas and a twirling "Key" in Bob-omb Land, or a warp pipe to who-knows-where on top of the castle where yoshi sits, is nice and cool to play/ look at, but until people start to explain exactly how they achieved these feats, other potential hackers will not learn much of anything, except by trial and error. That right there is probably one of the major reasons why VL-Tone has not yet finished his level-editor, bcause there are still many undiscovered naks and kinks in the game, such as the hidden "beta" yoshi egg. |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| In the past, I have bought several items from Lik-Sang.com
The first item I ever ordered from them was an N64 Gameshark Pro for $30 - I chose Lik-Sang b/c they had a surplus - it would have been fifty in the US. Although it had great hacking software, my Game Shark was very finiky, and finally died after about six months - when I was saving the code "Mario 64 Everything Cap", my TV screen garbled up and when I reset all was dead 
I had also ordered a portable famicom (3rd party crap), of which I had to stuff a piece of cardboard between the cartrige to keep it from resetting. Oh, and their "Global Priority" mail system was sooo sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooww....... Once I waited like 4 months for a product to get there, although I was being cheap with postage. I ordered two items a month apart and a month and a half later, both arrived on the same day. But I did get my hands on a special little gem  of a GBA cart:
Famicom Mini Series #21: FDS Super Mario 2j Known in the USA as the lost levels, I got about as far on it as my fiance did on SMB1 - which is "not very" 
I believe the day that it finally arrived at my doorstep, made it all the more worth it in the end  |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Okay simple question folks, it's about the ride, not about the horsepower here, m'kay???
MS Xbox 360 = Gates' Empire military transport truck Sony PS3 = 18 Wheeler (Trailer loaded with DRM'd goods) Nintendo Wii = Nice Luxury Sedan w/ V6 and loaded with features Both the Xbox and the PS3 have way more horse power. The PS3 can haul more goods, but the Xbox can take a heaftier beating. You are only taking yourself, your significant other (or family), and a couple of suitcases for a gentle cruise on the countryside. With the Wii, you'll get a much more enjoyable ride, superior handling, CVS transmission, stellar acceleration, great fuel economy, AC, a passenger seat that really tilts back, full surround sound, movies for the kids, etc. So if you just want to haul a bunch of stuff and  your horn, then get a PS3 or Xbox.
But if you want a quality experience on the highway, get the Wii. Case closed.  |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt  Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| I am surprized that nobody has yet mentioned SMW2: Yoshi's Island. This game really goes back to Mario & Luigi's roots, LOL! Yoshi has to "rescue" baby Mario and baby Luigi. Which brings us to the recent DS game "Mario and Luigi" Partners in Time, WTF? I recently ordered it from Amazon but have yet to play it, but you have 4 characters at play here, Mario, baby Mario, Luigi, baby Luigi, which infers maybe possible love affairs with Peach and Daisy!!! <---PS, you didn't just hear that, at least not from me, LOL!!!
Anyway, other notables where Peach is kidnapped by Bowser include the original Paper Mario (in which Luigi sits around like a bump on a log the whole game, how lame), New Super Mario Bros (Awesome game, like a totally remixed and updated 1 & 3), Peach is kidnapped by baby Bowser in Super Mario Sunshine, which starts off as a peaceful vacation gone wrong, but we don't find that out until <<  ). Mario Galaxy is as of yet unconfirmed if Bowser is responsible or not, but Outerspace, come on?
Ahem! Anywhoo, Peach is kidnapped by the X-Nauts in the 2nd Paper Mario (and << Let's see, ah yes, the SML/WL gameboy series - Wario and Mario were rivals from day one, and yes, Wario does get to keep Mario's old Castle from SML2 - Please note that the SML series was NOT a creation of Myamoto, but who couldn't love the greedy, misunderstood Wario? The only reason for Daisy's resurrection and WaLuigi's conception was so that Peach and Wario would have partners in Party/ Sports games. You'd think as I did that WaLuigi is a most retarded name, until you learn as I did that "walui" in Japanese means "evil". By default, sports, kart, party, smash games, while they totally all kick butt, have no plot and don't belong on the timeline. Following is a list of all of the garden variety "Peach gets kidnapped; Mario to the rescue" type that I OWN AND HAVE PLAYED THROUGH. Donkey Kong (Big ugly ape steals former girlfriend Pauline) - 1980 SMB1 - 1985 SMB2j aka "Lost Levels" - 1986 SMB3 - 1989 SMW1 - 1991 SML (gameboy, Daisy) - 1989 All Stars - 1993 SMW2, Yoshi's Island (not really, but belongs at the beginning of the timeline) Mario 64 - 1996 Paper Mario (RPG) - 2001 Mario Sunshine - 2001 Paper Mario TTYD (not by Bowser, RPG game) - 2004 Mario Galaxy (Pending) (edited by stardust4ever on 11-02-06 08:19 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt  Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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Originally posted by Zepper I would seriously love to know the code that you used to do this - Hopefully, the American version, right??? Also, Techokami, those screens of Paper Mario are freaking sweet! Somebody once said in the Mario64 hacking forum that Sunshine is much easier to level-hack than Mario 64, because the GC games use an on-disk file system structure for the game levels. If the game content files (separate file formats for geometries, level data, textures, asm scripts, etc) could be extracted from ISOs, then IPS patches could be created on a per-file basis, then the file system could be recompiled back into an ISO. Technically, if somebody did a fully blown hack for the entire game, provided that levels were made totally from scratch, a person could download the whole level with instructions on how to/ where to insert the level into the filesystem. In this way, de-compressed ROMS could also take up more than 1.5 Gigabytes and the game would be playable. But for that to happen, somebody first has to write an emulator that can handle (a) iso files, (b) game discs, if said drive is actually capable of reading it, and (c) game data that has been extracted into directories. Broadband will have to expand to the extent that it is feasable to transfere files. So far, few people have even managed to create playable demos 
Furthermore, sadly I believe, GC/ DS will mark the end to the hackers/ emulators riegn forever, b/c the Wii will support DRM, and I think all the data on liscensed games will be encrypted. If they really wanted to give the EMU/ hacking/ cheating community a headache, they could design future consoles such that it would refuse to read/ play any type of unencrypted/ decompressed/ unauthorized data. Any attempts at creating cheating, hacking, or otherwise GPL software for the system would then be in direct violation of software patents. This would also cripple any efforts at the emulation of future consoles, because reverse-assembly will be impossible without the original source files. So scratch the idea from ye heads of playing "Super Demo World" on the Wii; as I doubt they will allow, hacks or devgames to happen. Let's hopethat it never reaches this point, but sadly, I think it will - such is the future. Thank you evil Sony/ Mocrosoft/ RIAA/ (yes, even Nintendo, too for that matter) etc for pushing to make this a reality - no offence meant towards Xbox/ Playstation fans, I am only referring to the policies these companies have taken, not the consoles. I could ramble on more, but that will only make me late for my 8:00 Physics (yes, college 1st) (edited by FreeDOS + on 11-02-06 06:03 PM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt  Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| I was just wondering:
The original Nintendo 64 console was limited to 4 Mb of RAM. Despite that some later games overcame a lot of limitations, truth be told that on Mario 64, most objects, with the notable exception of terrains, red coins, and stars, disappear when Mario gets further away from them. This is especially problematic while attemptimg the "100 coins" star in Bob-omb land, as when Mario flies through the air, the coin rings do not apear until Mario is very close to them, at at this point, I am typically not at the optimium orientation to pick them up. The expansion pak upgraded the RAM on the 64 to 8 megs, but that did little to prevent items from "vanishing". Although later games such as Donkey Kong 64 worked around this limitation by fading objects, the problem still remains. I really had given this a lot of thought because at one time as I was making (big) 1152x864 pixel screenshots of various areas, such as the metal cap "beneath the waterfall" level, the detail on the textures (even at great distances) was incredibly exquisit, but items such as the one up box were totally missing. Since most newer video cards have far more RAM than is nessesary (in fact enough to render perhaps every single area in the whole game all at once), I was wondering if there was a way for an emulator to load all of the items in a level when you first enter an area, and to keep them loaded until you leave, using the limits of the video hardware rather than succum to the limited memory of the N64. In other words, still be able to draw objects even if Mario is very far away??? I use Mario as an example, but in theory this could really could apply to any N64 or PS1 game. Extremely old (~10yrs) PC games that are runnable under XP do not exibit this behavior, so why do N64 games have to be limited to 4 Mb??? (edited by stardust4ever on 11-02-06 04:46 PM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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Okay, so I added 11 pixels to the face , plus two lines and a circle.
Okay, maybe I went a little overboard with the circle, but still??? Stardust desparately tries his dead-level best to do something to make this item more interesting... |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt  Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Space World 2000
I know nothing about "Space World 2000", except that this was a cancelled Zelda game for Game Cube, and it was the first usable thing that Google search "Zelda S" spit back out: http://cube.gamespy.com/gamecube/the-legend-of-zelda-space-world-2000/ (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 01:29 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt  Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| 718 = (7^3) *2 + 2^5 | |||
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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Bungie Jumping |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| #101x - Tell him that n00bs are taking over the planet, and are holding this thread and all of its members hostage by invading their brains and infecting them with a nasty computer virus, that will, if leaked into cyberspace, spell doom for all the good little children of the world who don't bother posting in threads about random topics on Acmlm.org
(50)
(100)
BTW, what does mean anyway???(edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 02:03 AM) (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 02:04 AM) (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 02:05 AM) (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 02:05 AM) (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 02:06 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Yes, I do use sav states. I, as many typical gamers, am very prone to stupid errors.
One game though, in which I really could have kicked myself in the butt, was Sumari (an NES pirate hack of sonic 1 that used mario as the main character instead). What made the game especially difficult was that even though Somari (Sonic/Mario) could carry up to 99 rings just like on the Genisis, the hardawre/ sprite limitations of the NES only allowed a maximum of 3 rings (sprites) to escape, causing me to instantly drop to almost nothing whenever I got hit. While I finally made it to the Boss without losing even a single ring, and only after about 35 minutes of F5 (save) & F7 (resume), I forgot to change the "state slot" on JNES from "default" to some other number (0-9) before I entered the Robotnik fight. Whenever I dodged getting hit by the "swinging ball", or after making a hit, I hit F5 to save. Right after the second hit on Robotnik (3 strikes he's out), I landed on the ground, hit F5 (save), and then immediately got smacked by the ball and died a quarter of a second later. I think I hit F7 (resume) like a dozen times after that, only to rewatch Somari "die" every time. Since the twirly thingy (level progress) either didn't work or was just for plain show in this pirate game, I was forced to start over from level 1 beginning, and I just said F*** it , and gave up.
So sometimes the save/resume feature can really come back to haunt you if you use them carelessly, hit wrong button, etc. |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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Originally posted by Lysol Pionex Yes, good show! He really is trapped inside the castle walls. The main reason why I did that tutorial was so that people would have an example to follow - showing how hacking things get done
By the way, I was thinking about doing a text-based hack of Super Mario 64, as a kind of scavenger hunt. Each clue will be a type of riddle, either on some obscure sign post, something a particular enemy says/ does, or prompted by an event that occurs sometime during the game. Meant to be something fun for seasoned players who have been through the game many times, each clue is a riddle that provides a hint about where to find the next one, but to be fair, the clues will be numbered and have to be solved in order. In other words, if you are looking for clue #7 and somehow stumble accross clue #23, you still have to go and find 8-23 first. It is like a scavenger hunt, only instead of searching for actual "things", you will be searching for the next clue. I don't know how many clues I will add, but there will probably be at least 30 for the first release. When the level editor is finally released, I could hack some kind of "Easter Egg" into the game to reward the player for finding the final clue. Maybe you will have to jump down a pit into a secret warp, or do something else that would otherwise be retarded... (No, it won't be "get gulped by the giant fish" as something like that would be too obvious!) (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 05:22 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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Originally posted by richyawyingtmvOriginally posted by NSNickOriginally posted by KP9000 Okay, this is going to sound really stupid, but didn't RARE also produce all the Donkey Kong Games for N64 and GameCube? The RARE logo is plastered all over their games - WTF? (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 07:14 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Once I spent 3 days in the pen because of a stupid internet-revenge plot against an ex-girlfriend of mine. Not good at all - it is actually possible to get in loads of trouble for silly pranks online. Computer tampering is a felony and cyberstalking is a misdemeanor. Fortunately, after about six months of going to court, the D.A. finally dropped the case.
Now for the stupid things to do part: Severe ADHD and boredom had gotten the better of me. My cell was on a 2nd level near a corner, and there was a long, strait stairway that lead from in front of my cell to the floor. At mealtimes, they would unlock the cells, and we would come down single file to get our food. My matress was in a plastic "boat", and I had this crazy idea that next time they unlocked the cells, I would lay on my matress, and my cellmate would give me a boost out the cell door, and I would ride my bed head-first down the stairs like a tobbogan, until I wiped out at the bottom, captising the table that held up all of the food trays and crashing - about ten feet away from the Deputy's station. However, I think that fear of corporal punishment (which, although long since banned in public schools is still legal in prison) and denial of bail (thank you mommy) was the only thing that kept me from attempting to pull off such a stunt! (edited by stardust4ever on 11-04-06 08:03 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Never heard of Yoshi's Safari - Sounds fun? What system wa it originally?
I personally believed and hoped for years after they released the DS that they would remake at least some of the old games, like Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley (I own both for the NES, and a working Zapper, too - DO NOT EMULATE! - zapper funtionality is terrible with a mouse, even the shiny new red lazer ones). The DS could have released a "Duck Hunt" game, perfect for use with the stylus, original graphics on the bottom screen and cool updated 3D closeup effects on the top screen. Yeah, they'd better release "Duck Hunt" in USA or I will be PO'ed, though generally, Nintendo use their own Japanese market as "guinea pigs" to text concepts before shipping overseas - The fact that DS and Wii released first in US makes me very happy
The problem with using the WiiMote as a "gun" is that all four corners of the screen will need to be defined for perfect accuracy, and even then many TV's sometimes truncate the edges, etc. Nearly FPS games use a bulls-eye or "target" to shoot the enemy; although it is very possible that a cursor could be added to the VC console at a later date to add emulated "Zapper Support", some older gamers might sneer at it  - it could perhaps be turned on/off, but without some type of an aiming device, you are literally "shooting the wind"
BTW, please don't flame me for "bumping" as I am only trying to stimulate discussion |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Just thought about this: There could be two, maybe three methods.
The simplist and safest woud be to create a boot disc that contains all nessesary software and drivers (usb support for keyboard, mouse, usbhdd, ethernet, universal controllers, plus biult-in support for wifi, internet, SD storage for files, downloads, roms, etc) - just boot disc and it loads the OS into the RAM! Reset the console, and your files and stuff saved to the SD card are still intact, and the complete Wii functionality remains uncompromised. The second method, albeit less safe, provided that booting from Wii-Linux disc either don't work or doesn't provide root access, would be to utilise a back-door entry method such as a boot-loader on the main SD memory, with a simple menu choice of whether to load the Wii OS or boot into Linux. This could have some negative implications, though, as it would be invisible neither to Wii OS or Nintendo Corp, and could possibly result in a ban (remember what happened when they tried it with Xbox?), or future updates could possibly render one or both OS corrupt. The third, and most riskiest, borderline-illegal, automatic-void-your-warranty method would involve a complete modchip and lead to disaster if the user did not know what they were doing (stuff like not knowing how to use a soldering iron)... Not recommended. It is only a matter of time, so how long you think it will take  (edited by stardust4ever on 11-07-06 12:13 AM) |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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Well, apparently, there are some people already working on it
http://www.wii-linux.com/ BTW, I just found that link a few minutes ago; it's not like I knew beforehand, LOL! |
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stardust4ever Bronto Burt Since: 10-27-06 From: Northern LA Last post: 6368 days Last view: 6325 days |
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| Me personally, I am looking folward to playing Exite Truck (and getting that new-fangled 3rd party "wheel" extention for my controller).
I never really much got into the Zelda series, and although I definitely am looking folward to playing Super mario Galaxy, something about it seems a little fruity. My biggest beef about Super Smash Brothers Brawl is that it seems to have been done in 2.5D just like the others. C'mon, really - they need to update! It really should have been done in true 3D with one good flexible camera that always shows the action from the best possible angle... |
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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by stardust4ever |
