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05-08-24 05:51 PM |
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| Main - Posts by DurfarC |
| DurfarC |
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 Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 41/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
I thank you all for your nice comments. 
Posted by TrinitronityIndeed, I love these things, there are so many opportunities to create cool pizzles with them.  I did the Mega Man 10 type though, which is more predictable since it doesn't decide randomly when to move.
Posted by TrinitronityI must admit that I'm pretty much unable to do anything without heavy documentation on the game I'm working on. For Mega Man 4, there's Matrixz' really detailed document, and based on that, learning what most of the different commands do wasn't that hard. I wouldn't be able to program lots of new features and such though, at least not without spending way too much time on it. For the last week I have pretty much had absolutely no life already, so I guess I shouldn't try to learn more just yet. 
Personally I just started out by disassembling some enemy AI, and learned from there, since then I could associate the code with what happens in the game. I guess it's not exactly how one should learn stuff, but it made me able to change most of what I wanted to change anyway. I also used this site to help me out on what the different codes mean: www.6502.org/tutorials/6502opcodes.html If you're going to hack MM2-5 (minus 4), there's not so much documentation out there for the ROMs, so you'll have to figure out much on your own. The links RetroRain mentioned should be of great help though. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 42/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
When I make songs for the hack, I first compose a melody by simply thinking it out or playing randomly on my piano with audio recording turned on. Then I write down the melody in Cubase 6.5, the software I use when making music otherwise, and support it with some harmony (2nd channel) a bass and the drums (noise). Finally, when the musical contents of the song are done, I write the song into the ROM. I usually decide there what sounds and effects to use (square, saw etc.).
I could think out a song and write it directly into the ROM, but I think it's a good idea to write it in a proper way first (aka in music software), so that you quickly get an idea of how it will sound like and don't suddenly forget "how the melody was" because you used too long time on entering the hex data into the ROM. Famitracker or any other music software or even a simple midi sequencer can do that job of course. I just don't like Famitracker, as the way you write songs there is based on steps instead of notes and lengths, which in my opinion makes writing music way more complicated than it really is. The only good specific reason to use Famitracker would be if you want to have the instruments, sound effects etc. decided from the beginning, instead of deciding them when you input music data into the ROM. However, what you make in Famitracker will never sound 100% similar in the ROM anyway. I wouldn't call myself a pro, I suppose. I do have a few releases on very small labels in various EDM genres, but that's all. However, since 1995 I have played 3 different music instruments and made music on my computer frequently - and I also happen to be one of the 0,01% of the people in the world with absolute pitch, which helps a lot I suppose. The latter fact is pure luck of course, I'm really grateful for that. In short, I guess I have the musical skills kinda in place, although I lack patience, creativity, playing skills and technical skills (mastering, making my own sounds etc.) to make something really spectacular out of it. For NES music, these limitations aren't a problem, luckily.
Knowing music is indeed required to compose music I'm afraid, no matter if it's for a ROM hack or for a friday night jazz club in New York. As for composing music, the only advice I really have is learning the normal way - that is, learning notes, some basic chords and chord progressions and some basic musical terms and rules. Having a piano or a synth or just a simple USB keyboard (you can probably get one for just 50-100$ or so) will definitely help you out. And, as I already implied, don't let Famitracker be the first software you try to learn in.  I don't know any particular readings, but thanks to the possibilities of the internet, I'm sure you can find something on Youtube or maybe even with a simple Google search. Reading sheet music is also recommended - if you use a sequencer like I do which has a piano roll based interface (which is common in professional audio software and midi sequencers), the concept is the same. Sheet music is also the explanation to why notes are called quarter notes, half notes etc., which is useful to know.
In the meantime, if you have a decent singing voice, you could always try to sing a melody you have in your head (maybe even the harmonies and such sung separately if you have these as well), record it and ask someone to put it down in notes for you. If you do that, I'd be glad to help you out and put the notes down for you in a midi file, so that it's ready to be remade into a ROM. Of course I'd be able to put it in a ROM too, but that would require knowing exactly what game you're going to hack and where in the game it will be stored, as well as having enough space for it in the ROM. Besides, transforming the music into hex data is ultra boring in my opinion. But yeah, if you have a song idea and can sing it, then let me know! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask as well.
Thanks for the nice comments otherwise, hopefully you will be able to continue on your own hack as well - there can never be too many ROM hacks of Mega Man games! |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 43/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by Gavzilla1000Wow - had I just known about this one before starting to learn, it would have made things so much easier. It's written in a way that's much more understandable for people who have zero 6502 knowledge initially (like I had), compared to most of the tutorials I managed to find otherwise. To be honest, I never got what the PHA and PLA commands did, but by reading this I instantly got it (it's actually really simple, haha). Thanks for the link! |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 44/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by amarcum81Thank you very much for these nice words. Some dude just wrote in my video that my music sucks in Spanish (4 times, so I deleted it), so I'm glad to have it confirmed that he doesn't speak for everyone.
As for my old hacks, I won't touch the MM2 hack again, as it wasn't very good in terms of level design (I didn't know difficult mode was the actual, normal difficulty in the Japanese version of the game, and didn't even play through that mode in the original game or my own hack until way later). I could revise the MM3 hacks with a hard mode or so, but I think it's more likely that I'll start on something new after this one, like I usually do. Probably it'll be either MM5, or maybe even MM3 for the third time - although this time with some ASM changes put in. We'll see, I still have a lot of work to do with this one after all. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 45/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by ZynkChoose "Config" on the top menu and change the "TSA Table Block Resolution" to "Small 8x32 (Aligned collumns)". |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 46/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by NARFNraIt does, although what you mentioned is a logical OR (ORA). Exclusive OR (EOR) works a bit different.
For each bit: If both values are 0 or both values are 1, the result is 0. If one value is 0 and the other one is 1, the result is 1. Example 00101101 10011100 ------------- 10110001 I agree with the fact that there are very few ASM tutorials out there that explain things properly. http://www.obelisk.demon.co.uk/6502/algorithms.html This one isn't that bad though, it explains AND, ORA, EOR and some other things in a much more welcoming way. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 47/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Yes, that's it, nice, simple way to sum it up. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 48/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Small update: Programming new stuff seems to go pretty nicely, so I've made quite a few new enemies and stage gimmicks since last time. Here are some of them, first a video, then some screens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkZz-LyHBA4    
I'm also planning to make weapon switching possible with the select button, although since that involves graphics loading I'm not sure if I have enough skills to do that just yet. Posted by amarcum81Good to hear, especially from a fellow musician. 20 years is a long time for sure, you must have quite some experience then. I'm also glad to see another Cubase user out there, most people I know use Fruity Loops, and 90% of them do that because it's easy to crack, lolz. I get what you mean with real life, we're all getting older, and the younger people aren't going to replace us since they grew up with more recent console generations. Except for now, I haven't done any ROM hacking at all ever since I released the last one, there just isn't enough time to keep it up like before and there are lots of other things we want to/have to do as we get older. But hey, glad to see that some of us still hang around and make/play hacks now and then.
I remember long ago, when you asked me to do a level for a hack you were making - I did actually start on it, but then I suddenly lost interest in Mega Man for a while, totally forgot about it and never got back to you. I guess that's how it goes when people have way too much other things to do. I did that to some others as well, I even forgot to reply to some PMs which had just some basic questions in them. Oh well, I'm a few years too late now. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 49/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Thanks, glad you like what you see/hear! I use a combination of my keyboard/synth and my brain when trying to come up with new melodies, then I write the melody down in Cubase (music software), supply it with harmony, bass and drums and then enter hex data into the ROM in a hex editor. The latter is kinda tedious, but it's the only way. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 50/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by RetroRainWell, thanks for the heads up, I guess.Posted by DurfarCHard to believe that you can create all of these new enemies and very nice new features, and yet you wouldn't be able to do the graphics loading thing you mentioned. I did actually manage to create it now, after some 20 hours of data logging, trial and error - and lots of frustration In the process I was also able to make Rush Marine not disappear if you pause your game and then unpause again with RM still being selected. Making the latter function was an easy task gameplay wise, but of course there had to be graphics loading involved here as well. |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 51/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
I would say yes, it's practical. Even though there's already Matrixz' document for Mega Man 4, which mentions all large areas with unused data, I decided to do a full code/data log of it anyway. I made sure to let every song play, lose some lives in different ways, get game over once, use an E-tank and every weapon at least once etc. It's really useful for finding small sections of unused data here and there. As NARFNra said, that includes instruments - in MM4s case there were (at least) two unused instruments, for example, that I can now edit and use without expanding the instrument table (although I do know how to do that). Same for unused sprite graphics (maybe there are two instances of the exact same tile(s), for example) and level graphics, found some stuff there as well.
Depending on what game we're talking about, I guess you can't always count on it 100% - personally I make sure to create a backup every time I overwrite anything I don't know what is. In my case, I saved both the ROM with unused data AND the ROM with used data, just to be sure. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 52/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
If the unused spaces consist of 00s or FFs it's very easy to find out indeed, but in the ROMs I've looked at so far that wasn't always the case. Sometimes the data might be totally random numbers (not thinking of graphics, obviously they will look random), or maybe even some unused code or a copy of an actual code left twice in the ROM for no reason. Rather than scanning the ROM for potential JMPs and JSRs to different places and such, I would rather just play through the whole game. It might take some longer time, depending on which game we're talking about, but hey, at least you get to play your favourite game once again!
When I data logged MM3 and MM4, I sped up the emulator to 150% speed - that made it all go even quicker. However, many games are longer than the MM games, and some titles require some careful timing and precision in later levels (even SMB1 comes to mind with its sluggish movement and long jumps in world 8, especially since you can only do one or two mistakes before you die and have to redo the level) - I guess it's all about personal preference, really. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 53/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Very nice! As I already said somewhere else, it's your first song in a hack, and it still sounds like you've been doing this for a long time already! Can't wait to see what song is coming up next |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 54/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by TrinitronityHe's a member here and still around sometimes. As for Mega Man 2, a lot of things work differently than it did in later Mega Man games - adding support for that game in MegaFLE X would require a lot of work. Level data, for example, is totally different. As for editors, you should fire up DOSbox and use Visine, which has more features than rock5easily's editor. It's a tiny bit buggy, so be sure to save and make backups often, but otherwise it's really good and easy to use. Assuming you're talking about sprite graphics for each scroll map position, then yes - you can change that in this editor too. Be sure to look at the readme file for hotkeys and such - some features can only be accessed by those. Additionally, there's a help file available, though it's not included in the download and it's in the old Windows Help format. You can get it here. |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 55/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by ChaobomrThat would work just as fine, yes. Not everyone has access to that though, and personally I would find it more annoying to run a VMM than firing up DOSbox. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 56/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Posted by TrinitronityPretty much everything else will be easier to use as reference, as the way you write songs in Famitracker is based on steps instead of notes and lengths, which in my opinion makes writing music way more complicated than it really is. If you're a musician you should know what I mean already.Posted by NARFNra Capcom's sound engine (and probably the others too) also use the principle of notes and lengths, it's just that instead of looking at notes you're looking at numbers representing them.
For people without any musical knowledge, Fami might actually be a bit easier to use since it clearly shows which notes and octaves we are dealing with in letters and numbers. However, I'm afraid people who don't know any music at all will generally have a really, really hard time with editing music in NES ROMs. Sorry if that sounds harsh and heartbreaking, but that's just how it is. Posted by DrakonIn the beginning, perhaps yes - but after just one or two songs you will get the hang of it. Now that I've done this for a while, I only use 1-2 hours on each song maybe, and most of that time is used on loop and break commands. But as I said, if you don't have any real music knowledge, it's going to be much harder because the numbers will basically just look like random data almost impossible to understand. |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 57/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Ahhh this is nice! I didn't see this thread back when it was made (I was not into hacking at all for a year) - it looks really good! I especially like the most recent title screen, and the story and stage select pics clearly show that this will be something major. The stage design that I saw so far looks very interesting too. Looking forward to it! |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 58/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Edit: See kuja killer's post below |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 59/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
Anandastoon (author of Mega Man 5 Indonesian Artifact) made a patch that lets you do this. I didn't try it myself, but based on how cool the parallax scrolling sections in his hack were, I'm sure you can get the results you want with his patch.
See here (and the rest of the thread, it is talked about throughout the thread): http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/thread.php?pid=153351#153351 Download link is in the linked post. It's really, really nice of him to share his knowledge like that. Big thanks to him! |
| DurfarC |
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Shyguy Level: 24 Posts: 60/97 EXP: 71978 Next: 6147 Since: 10-23-08 From: Norway Last post: 1969 days Last view: 367 days |
I have to agree with Zieldak on this one, though if you're going to carry on anyway, at least make sure that you tried to reach the authors through every single possible channel, that they've been gone for many, many years and that you specify that your modifications are not official upon releasing them to the public. |
| Main - Posts by DurfarC |
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