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Yoshi's Strange Quest (V1.4 in progress)

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I'll try out your latest patch, yoshifanatic. I can assure you that the chances of my finding any further bugs or spelling errors are rapidly approaching zero.

I would definitely think this hack would be a shoo-in for "SMWCentral Hall of Fame" status. It is the most well-thought-out, polished, and entertaining SMW hack I've ever played.

You've definitely set the bar rather high on us, son. Way to go!

#wario{:peace:}

Speaking of emojis, why on Earth do we not have any for Yoshi?!
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Hey guys, just wanted to announce that levelengine is doing a 2nd LP of YSQ, this time for V1.3.1 Beta 4.2, which you can see here: Link I'll be watching this LP as he uploads parts for it, so I can take note of any bugs he finds (like a pretty major one that he found by accident in the first episode that I have no idea how it slipped by...) and any levels that may need a bit of tweaking. I'll be looking forward to seeing the later parts in this LP. :)


Also, as a quick update on YSQ, I've made a few more changes:

- Removed a secret exit block in the intro that levelengine found by accident. I'm surprised nobody reported this sooner considering it's in a spot that can easily be touched.

- Fixed an oversight where Yoshi (YSQ Yoshi, who is sitting in the seat, not the movie Yoshi you're actually controlling)
doesn't appear as fat if he is fat
in Yoshi Theater.

- Moved the code that lets you close a message early to the start of the text upload code, meaning you can now close a skippable message box at any time once the message box begins drawing text as opposed to only being able to do it while the text is drawing. Because of this, the message box in Red Yoshi's Mansion now functions like any other message, where the text speed is set to the max and the message no longer advances on its own once it starts displaying infinite text.

- Made the VWF dialogues patch clear out the contents of all its RAM upon triggering a message to appear (why doesn't it do this by default? That's a pretty glaring oversight...). This allowed me to make some messages with lists skippable, so now the only messages that can't be closed early with start are cutscene messages (though they can be skipped if you view them a second time on the same .srm file) and certain messages where custom ASM code is run, which is maybe 3-5% of all the messages in YSQ.

- I removed the escalator slopes from all levels that had them, because I found out that Yoshi slides down them facing backwards for some reason, which looks really awkward.


Hey game code, you do realize you're supposed to turn Yoshi around when he's sliding down a slope so his belly is touching the slope, right?

I'll likely be releasing a beta 4.3 soon, but only if a few more bugs are found and I can fix them.
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
Holy hell, this hack is still in the works after almost two years of beta testing? Yoshifanatic, are you aiming for perfection here (no offense)?
Huh, sometime after my last post, I actually found another fairly large oversight similar to the "accidentally left a secret exit block in the intro" one that needed to be fixed right away. Guess what that means? Is it:

A. If you buy a lottery ticket today, you will win the jackpot!
B. Yoshifanatic will deny the existence of this oversight and go watch some Youtube videos while drinking lemon & lime Gatorade.
C. A new version of YSQ V1.3.1 will be released today
D. Whatever choice E is
E. All of the above, except D

If you answered C, you're correct!

YSQ V1.3.1 Beta 4.3

Anyway, here is the changelog for Beta 4.3. I've already mentioned most of these before, but I'm listing them all in this post so all the changes are listed in one place:

- Made the ground pound delay be 8 frames again and instead reduced the amount of time Yoshi takes to prepare the ground pound from 16 to 14 frames. This will allow the ground pound to come out in the same amount of time as before, but without reducing the initial delay.

- Made it so that a little contact graphic is shown when Yoshi pounds the ground, just like in Yoshi's Island.

- Slightly sped up the code where Yoshi spits out an object and removed some duplicate code.

- Fixed an oversight where Yoshi would not
show up as fat
in Yoshi Theater (the Yoshi in the seats) while watching the movie.

- Removed many of the escalator slopes used in some castles because apparently, Yoshi slides down them backwards, which looks odd due to Yoshi's "on slope" sliding frame.

- Made it so that any message that is allowed to be closed early with the start button can now be closed at any time instead of only when the text is being drawn.

- The first message in Red Yoshi's Mansion now functions like any other message box while displaying the infinite text, since Start can be pressed to close it at any time now.

- Forced the VWF dialogues to clear all its RAM upon a message initially being set to be displayed. This change allows me to make some messages with lists skippable, like the tutorial message and the music list.

- Updated the credits, both in game and in Credits.txt

- Changed the color of the names in the credits from blue to yellow so that they would stand out better against the blue background.

- Updated the second year shown on the title screen to 2016.

- Made the final part of Slimy Cave easier, by adding more vines and increasing the size of some platforms. Also, added an egg block at the start.

- Added a small easter egg in Yoshi Theater if you wait on the title screen for a while. After about 10-15 seconds, Yoshi will have a ? over his head, wondering when the movie will start. If you continue to wait for about a minute, Yoshi will turn to face you with an annoyed look on his face as if to say "Come on, press up already so Yoshi can watch the movie!"


I have to wonder how many people would actually notice this detail without me telling them about it? This isn't even the only minor detail I've implemented that the average player likely won't notice. :P

- Removed an ON/OFF block from the room with the boss door in
Bowser's 2nd Castle
that I forgot to remove when testing the midpoint in that room. (Fun fact, that midpoint is set to kill Yoshi if you somehow glitch Yoshi past the blocks surrounding it while they're solid. Also, the floor under the boss door is not solid when the blocks around the door are solid. This is to prevent the player from skipping the entire level if they're able to glitch past the blocks. I likely put an ON/OFF block in this room to test this behavior, but forgot to remove it).

- Removed the invisible solid block that was placed where Yoshi spawns when entering the first door in Wacky Land. Apparently, it was a custom block that had its ASM code removed at one point, and I forgot to remove it after its function was handled elsewhere. (If you're curious, it was a block that would set the RAM address holding the number of exits you've gotten so it would display in the status bar.)

Originally posted by Undertaker
Holy hell, this hack is still in the works after almost two years of beta testing? Yoshifanatic, are you aiming for perfection here (no offense)?


Pretty much. XD In all seriousness, I'm kind of a perfectionist, and I want YSQ (and all my future hacks) to be the best it can be! :)

Also, technically, YSQ was finished back in December 2014, but I'm still working on it because I felt it needed more polish. This is mainly due to Virus610's stream of V1.3, which showed me that YSQ was not as polished as I thought (my beta testers in general didn't do a good enough job of telling me what needed to be fixed and some never even bothered to give any feedback). At this point V1.3.1 is so much more polished compared to V1.3, that it makes V1.3 look like a beta. XD
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
Hey guys, after watching levelengine's LP of YSQ and finding quite a few things to adjust, I've decided to post yet another update for V1.3.1 Beta 4 of YSQ:

YSQ V1.3.1 Beta 4.4

Unless you're either levelengine or you've been struggling with any of the levels that have been toned down, this update isn't too important to get.

Anyway, here is the changelog:

- Added pupils to the porcu-puffer's eyes much like I did for my next hack.

- Made Butter Bridge slightly easier in the area around the midpoint.

- Slowed down the soda bottle in Soda Warehouse a bit. It's X speed is now 44 instead of 48.

- Added an extra bit to the first message in Soda Warehouse clarifying what I meant when I suggested you hold the R button for a few seconds. I thought the R button's function was obvious, but after seeing levelengine somehow misinterpret this message box's tip, I'm not taking any chances.

- Fixed a bug where Yoshi sometimes can't enter large entryways when standing in certain spots. This is because the original door block has "gaps" if you place them next to each other, so I created a custom door block that can be entered from a wider range specifically to fill in these gaps.

- Inverted the colors of the keyhole graphic in the status screen so it looks better.

- Fixed a bug where it was possible to enter the doors that can only be entered on certain ON/OFF states can be entered in the air. I noticed this was possible when I created the wide door to fix the previous bug, which had its code copied from the ON Door block.

- Made the spikes used in the Key Plains tileset lighter to make them easier to see.

- Fixed a typo in the second Key Plains message. Specifically, I changed "me" to "him", as that message is written in third person.

- Fixed a major oversight in the Orange Switch that allowed you to skip a good chunk of the level.

- Fixed an oversight in
Evil Yoshifanatic's Lair
introduced in Beta 4.3, where I accidentally made a jump impossible to do without taking damage due to removing the escalators.

- Toned down the difficulty of the second half of Ruined Castle. There are fewer spikes in some spots now.

- Reduced the number of rows of blocks that need to be broken through in the tap-tap's room by 1, so that battle doesn't take quite as long now.

- Added an egg block at the start of Elite Koopa Zone.

- Made the invisible 1-up in Ahh! Brambles! easier to trigger

- Replaced the awkwardly colored dark blue pipes in the second half of Ahh! Brambles! with different colored pipes.
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
If Nintendo were to use the same level of dedication you've shown, toward its games, then they would be the number-one game company on Earth, by far. No one could touch them.

However, that's just a PIPE dream. You've fulfilled that dream, Yoshifanatic. Your insistence on achieving a level of excellence never achieved even by Nintendo's best games of all time is astounding.

You've done more than grasp that brass ring. You yanked it off the ceiling, dipped it in 24 karat gold, and encrusted it with diamonds.

That's what I like about you. You're never satisfied. You always find ways to achieve an even greater level of...greatness than before.

Keep it up. And yes, you're probably going to post that I'm making you blush again. Give into that bashful pride, son! ^w^
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
This V1.3.1 Beta 4.4 version is so perfect that I can download it and try it out.
Who is your favourite player?

"Cristo Ronaldo, Suey!" - iShowSpeed
Forgot I could post here too.

In response to this:
Originally posted by yoshifanatic
- Added an extra bit to the first message in Soda Warehouse clarifying what I meant when I suggested you hold the R button for a few seconds. I thought the R button's function was obvious, but after seeing levelengine somehow misinterpret this message box's tip, I'm not taking any chances.


I thought you were supposed to use the screen scrolling because as the screen scrolls, the game pauses for half a second to get the screen oriented, and that with that half a second you could look at what's in front of you.

Originally posted by yoshifanatic
- Toned down the difficulty of the second half of Ruined Castle. There are fewer spikes in some spots now.

Good to hear. Having Ruined Castle be 2 levels would have also helped. If the midpoints don't save, then single level tiles shouldn't be longer than 20-25 minutes (assuming a blind playthrough).

And yes, Nintendo should take notes from you.
Originally posted by xirtamehtsitahw
If Nintendo were to use the same level of dedication you've shown, toward its games, then they would be the number-one game company on Earth, by far. No one could touch them.

However, that's just a PIPE dream. You've fulfilled that dream, Yoshifanatic. Your insistence on achieving a level of excellence never achieved even by Nintendo's best games of all time is astounding.

You've done more than grasp that brass ring. You yanked it off the ceiling, dipped it in 24 karat gold, and encrusted it with diamonds.

That's what I like about you. You're never satisfied. You always find ways to achieve an even greater level of...greatness than before.

Keep it up. And yes, you're probably going to post that I'm making you blush again. Give into that bashful pride, son! ^w^



I honestly have no idea how to respond to that. You've left me speechless. XD

Originally posted by ForthRightMC
This V1.3.1 Beta 4.4 version is so perfect that I can download it and try it out.


Thanks! :) Tell me what you think of YSQ, if you want to.

Originally posted by levelengine
Forgot I could post here too.

In response to this:
Originally posted by yoshifanatic
- Added an extra bit to the first message in Soda Warehouse clarifying what I meant when I suggested you hold the R button for a few seconds. I thought the R button's function was obvious, but after seeing levelengine somehow misinterpret this message box's tip, I'm not taking any chances.


I thought you were supposed to use the screen scrolling because as the screen scrolls, the game pauses for half a second to get the screen oriented, and that with that half a second you could look at what's in front of you.

Originally posted by yoshifanatic
- Toned down the difficulty of the second half of Ruined Castle. There are fewer spikes in some spots now.

Good to hear. Having Ruined Castle be 2 levels would have also helped. If the midpoints don't save, then single level tiles shouldn't be longer than 20-25 minutes (assuming a blind playthrough).

And yes, Nintendo should take notes from you.


Regarding the Soda Warehouse bit, I was surprised when I saw you misinterpreted the tip I gave. Now, if this tip had something to do with a YSQ specific mechanic or something not really intuitive, then I'd assume that I probably didn't make the tip clear enough. But, the ability to scroll the screen with L and R is a SMW mechanic, and one that you've used plenty of times in the past for its intended purpose. I thought that the R button's function was obvious to anyone who has played SMW (and even if it wasn't, the player would see that holding the R button like the tip suggested would make the screen scroll so you could see further ahead). But, outside of this incident, you haven't had much issue with any of the other tips I've given in game, so I don't know what happened here. XD

As for Ruined Castle's length, I kind of don't want to make any more big changes to YSQ at this point. The most I can do is make these levels easier so it's not quite as bad if one gets a game over on these stages. However, as I said in a comment, the number of levels that have more than 2 midpoints are pretty rare. Interestingly, Wacky Land is arguably the longest level in YSQ, yet it didn't take you three parts to get the secret exit. I'm guessing that Ruined Castle was simply a lot harder or something?


Also, it's kind of a shame you weren't able to finish the YSQ LP before C3 started, but I can wait.
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
Hey guys, I'm releasing a new version of YSQ today, mainly because levelengine got stuck in his YSQ LP due to a level being too difficult. The majority of the changes this update brings are level design tweaks to the late game levels to make them a bit easier.

Anyway, you guys probably know the drill by know. Here is the link:

YSQ V1.3.1 Beta 4.5


And here is the changelog:

- Fixed a bug where Yoshi could move around during the cutscene in Stone Tower Temple where
Red Yoshi steals Yoshi's egg
. This was due to the odd way this cutscene was handled in order to get
Red Yoshi
to appear without the screen fading to black (I did this to save ROM space and to shorten this cutscene a bit). I apparently forgot to disable a few things.
- Made the spikes in the sewer parts of Chuck's Locker room easier to see.
- Lowered the bullet bill shooter in
Bowser's bathroom
by 1 tile to make it easier to grab the bullets.
- Made the second half of Ahh! Brambles a bit easier.
- Made some sections of Mirror Ghost House 2 easier.
- Added a single red shelless koopa to the secret exit path in Reverse Cavern, to make it possible to grab some of the green coins if you don't have eggs.
- Darkened most of the background during the first half of Space Voyage 2 in order to make the BG less distracting.


If you're wondering, this BG was as bright as the FG previously. I sometimes wonder both how I manage to miss stuff like this and why nobody thought to report this sooner.

- Made parts of Space Voyage 2 easier.
- Tweaked the part in
Evil Yoshifanatic's Lair
where the koopa kicks a shell into an ON/OFF block to account for the fact that the player may have scrolled the screen. If you scrolled the screen to the right here previously, then you'd make the koopa spawn earlier than intended, which could catch you off guard.
- Made parts of
Evil Yoshifanatic's Lair
easier, particularly the 3 rooms you have to play during the second half.
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
I'm about to attempt a crazy, cheat-assisted speed run of your game using the latest patch you just released, Yoshifanatic.

I've got a partial speedrun going on a slightly older version (4.2), and have acquired 40 exits (and all associated Yoshi Coins) in just over 80 minutes.

I wonder if it's possible to eventually shave down the total gameplay time (from fresh start to all exits, all Yoshi Coins) to under 3 hours...?
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
I've actually looked at all 3 of those rooms in the editor to see what I was up against (when I beat 1F8 from JUMP, that wasn't blind but still took like 5 hours), to make the let's play go by quicker. It's gotta be finished soon because I've been leaving Roberto hanging and I'm only 2 exits away from 100.

Just a quick heads up, lock your hacks before you release them publicly.
I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone steal this.I'd hate to see someone
Originally posted by xirtamehtsitahw
I'm about to attempt a crazy, cheat-assisted speed run of your game using the latest patch you just released, Yoshifanatic.

I've got a partial speedrun going on a slightly older version (4.2), and have acquired 40 exits (and all associated Yoshi Coins) in just over 80 minutes.

I wonder if it's possible to eventually shave down the total gameplay time (from fresh start to all exits, all Yoshi Coins) to under 3 hours...?


How has that speedrun gone since you started it?

Also, I'm curious about how long YSQ would take in a speedrun? I know that YSQ takes roughly 20-30 hours to get 100 exits on one's first playthrough, but it definitely should take a lot less on a repeat playthrough. I'd say 3 hours would be about right for a 100% speedrun.

Originally posted by levelengine
I've actually looked at all 3 of those rooms in the editor to see what I was up against (when I beat 1F8 from JUMP, that wasn't blind but still took like 5 hours), to make the let's play go by quicker. It's gotta be finished soon because I've been leaving Roberto hanging and I'm only 2 exits away from 100.

Just a quick heads up, lock your hacks before you release them publicly.


Alright. I look forward to seeing you attempt to finish those rooms, along with the final verdict video.

By the way, there is another section I'd like you to check out, but you don't have to if you don't want to. There is a secret area in one level with a rather interesting gimmick that you only learn the existence of when you have 100% Yoshi coins, but you can access at any time once you have access to the level its found in. If you'd like to check it out,
go to Ice Desert Entrance and jump into a hole in the ceiling where a clappin' chuck falls from.
As for how you find this normally,
When you have 100% Yoshi coins, talking to Red Yoshi in Yoshi's House will cause him to give you a password and then tells you that there is a password room hidden somewhere in the icy desert. Also, if you remember, Yoshi tells you about the existence of a hidden path in Ice Desert Entrance, and mentions that it was by the only brown switch block in the level. If you're curious enough to look near the area Yoshi hinted at, you'll find the hidden path that leads to the password room.
. If you'd rather try to find this hidden area on your own, but don't want to get 100% Yoshi coins, I can send you my save file.

Also, I don't think locking my hack would make much of a difference. Anyone that really wants to steal YSQ wouldn't be stopped by whatever method I use to lock it. However, I don't think it'd be that easy for someone else to claim YSQ as their own. Not only is my username mentioned several times throughout YSQ (often in places that would be hard to edit), but YSQ also does some things that would help point towards me as the creator.
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
holy moley, this hacks been going for 5 years eh? Do you ever go back to the start of this thread to watch yourself grow as a hacker?

I haven't gotten to check out the hack yet, but from your screens and
.gifs
I gotta say I'm into it! Definitely a worthy homage to Yoshi's Island. I especially love that dancing number above your HUD. This is definitely a hack with style~
ask me if i give a f*ck...
Actually, using the following set of cheats and patches, one should easily be able to complete YSQ within 3 to 4 hours:

Patches:

DisableDeath.asm
TeleOrDie.asm

Cheat Codes:

Infinite HP
Infinite Eggs
Invulnerability (can walk through enemies/on spikes, etc.)
Moon Jump
Stop Timer
Disable Swimming
Press (button combo) for 4 Yoshi Coins

Basically, the only problems you'd have with a "perfect" speedrun would involve the various auto-scrolling and maze-type levels. As well as those featuring sometimes aggravating puzzles. Oh, and it IS possible to get "stuck" (such as behind a wall during an auto-scrolling level or ground-pounding into a pit or lava). In that case, just reset the game (hopefully you remembered to save often! #wario{;)})
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Hey guys! :) It sure has been a while since I last posted in this thread, hasn't it? Well, I've got a little surprise for you guys. In between working on my homebrew level editor and my next hack, I've made a few changes to YSQ. Here is a new version:

YSQ V1.3.1 Beta 4.6

With this version, I made a few more adjustments, re-balanced the difficulty for hard mode and removed a beloved mechanic that I'm sure brought a lot of you guys joy in previous versions.

- Removed the knockback from when Yoshi takes damage. Yoshi still gets knocked back during the intro to prevent it from desynching and when Yoshi takes damage when he has less than 4 HP (where you lose control of Yoshi anyway).


Yoshi can now take hits like a man! ...err dinosaur. No more of that wimpy knockback stuff.

- Holding the B button while Yoshi is stunned from knockback will cause Yoshi to flutter jump as soon as his stun period ends, making it less likely that Yoshi will be knocked into pits if hit while near or above a pit (this change was made before I decided to remove the knockback. Yoshi also won't cancel his flutter jump if he takes damage now)
- Made a few more minor optimizations to the code to make it run faster:
+ Yoshi's tongue collision with blocks code now runs in FastROM mode.
+ Got rid of some CLCs in the Yoshi ASM by making a nearby REP opcode clear the carry flag in addition to changing A to 16-bit.
+ Made a few comparisons slightly quicker (using BMI/BPL rather than AND #$80 BEQ/BNE)
- Made the DKC barrels rotate at a slower speed to make it easier to shoot in the correct direction (You now have a 16 frame window to shoot in X direction instead of an 8 frame window).
- Added a watermelon to the room with the Emerald switch that can only be reached if you bring the springboard with you into this room.
- Added a small easter egg in the bomb error message room, where if you wait on that screen for 1 minute, Yoshi will die and an explosion sound will play due to the bomb actually going off.
- Put some more spikes by the pitchin' chuck in the second half of Rainbow Road to discourage the player from jumping over to the visible used block and getting stuck.
- On Normal difficulty, you now start with 10 lives and on hard, you start with 5.
- Reduced Purple Yoshi's speed from $18/$E8 to $10,$F0 in Yoshi Race. It now takes him 185 seconds to reach the finish line instead of 121 seconds.
- Made the patch a BPS patch and converted the IPS for the original version of V1.3.1 into a BPS patch as well.
- Fixed a bug where at the end of the secret exit path of www.level.com, the red X blocks didn't fade out.
- Added a note in the readme regarding which site I'm most active on (Youtube). This is meant to tell the reader where I'm most likely to get their message if they need to ask me something.
- Hard mode has been rebalanced. This is what hard mode did in the previous version:

1). Doubles Yoshi's knockback when he gets hit, up to V1.2 levels.
2). Increases the damage Yoshi takes from 5 to 10.
3). Caps the maximum health Yoshi can have to 20 instead of 30.
4). Midpoint tapes become useless (they'll still be present; they just won't do anything)
5). Starts you off with 2 lives instead of 5.

This is what it does now:
1). Start you off with 5 lives instead of 10, either when starting a new game or after a game over.
2). Caps the maximum health Yoshi can have to 5 instead of 30.

Essentially, this means that hard mode now handles the health system similar to SMW, where you can only survive a maximum of 1 hit from full health. Yoshi also takes double knockback in hard mode, but that only can be seen when Yoshi has died.


Also, I noticed that YSQ was reviewed in the Featured Hacks subforum a couple months ago, but it was rejected.

Link to the thread

I'm disappointed that it wasn't featured, but I can understand why it wasn't. V1.3 is the version in the hack section, and it's got a lot of issues that V1.3.1 addresses or fixes. Maybe V1.3.1 will have a better shot at being featured once I decide to update the version on the hack's page? Anyway, since I can't post in that thread, I'm going to reply to the reviews posted there in this post:

For Wakana's review, I'm assuming that (s)he was playing V1.3, since that's the version in the hack section. Here is my responses to some of the stuff said in the review:

Quote
The savestates spam starts right on world 2,


I'm not surprised if that was the case. I've already mentioned that V1.3 suffered from terrible play testing.

Quote
- Energy coins are too rare. If I recall correctly, the old demo worked so that even normal coins would refill your health: I think 5 normal coins gave you +1HP. I also think the SM64 hp system was used. That was a very good way of handling HP (forgive me if I'm confusing with another hack here!), but yeah... the health system in this version isn't "organized" well. For example, there are places where you can get 4 green coins (not even a full HP point, since each hit takes away 5 HP points), that are so hard to pass that you'll probably die by trying to just get past it. Considering how long the overall level is, you'll probably ignore these paths and that such coins exist in this hack. Again, they exist, but they're too rare in my opinion.


The green coins are distributed similarly to how they would be if they were standard power ups, but I guess I could increase the amount of them, at least in the first few worlds. Also, I've been using the same health system in YSQ since the beginning, so you were thinking of a different hack when you were thinking about that SM64 health system.

Quote
- Sloppy controls, mainly the flutter jump: you see, when you jump and keep the button held, you normally flutter. Keeping the button pressed while jumping also grants you a much better boost than the one you get if you just press and relase the button. The thing is that the flutter jump doesn't work when you jump off enemies, or vines, or any non-solid elements. In order to make it work, in these cases, you have to double press the jump button, which compared to just holding it, makes stuff very annoying to deal with. I should be more worried about how to make the flutter jump succesfully rather than looking at the ambience and enemies around me. That's not very pleasing.


I agree about the controls, which is why I made a bunch of improvements to them in V1.3.1. Yoshi handles a lot better in V1.3.1 and the player is less likely to die because Yoshi didn't flutter jump when they wanted or they pressed down while over a hole.

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I said "controls", but the only other thing that bugs me (other than the flutter jump) is the fact that ducking stops you completely, even if you're walking. This is minor though, and it's understandable, since you probably didn't want players be able to slide. Yet, it wasn't a very comfy thing to add. I'm aware that I could've get accustomed with it by playing the hack more, but again, overall difficulty doesn't make a good work at welcoming you


I didn't actually add that. That was part of the Yoshi Player patch by default. I just designed my hack in a way where it shouldn't matter than Yoshi doesn't slide when ducking (unless he is on a slope).

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I believe the tutorial level isn't enough. If I was you, I'd probably have made atleast 2 worlds that put the player at ease with the new controls.


If all the changes I've made to V1.3.1 (including the changes I've made in the latest patch) are enough, then the player should get the hang of the controls by world 6, where things start getting particularly hard, in my opinion (ignoring the two secret worlds, if accessed earlier). There might still be some levels that will give people trouble early on, but it's not quite as bad as before.

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- Knock-back. I hope I don't have to explain why this is an issue. Gotta love all dem huge pits with enemies that hit you and make you fall down and die, even if you had all the HP possible.


After much consideration, I've decided to remove the knockback. This change alone should significantly reduce the difficulty.



For niko's review, I'm also assuming that he was playing V1.3. In which case, he would be happy to know that V1.3.1 is a lot easier than V1.3, and that I decided to nerf the level he specifically mentioned (Yoshi Race) in the latest patch.



For Daizo's review, I don't think he actually played YSQ, but he does state that he watched levelengine's LP of it (which was of V1.3.1).

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His goal is to exterminate all Yoshis, and the eggs are stolen because.... unexplained reasons?


It's stated in YSQ that
EYF lives to torment Yoshis
. So, what better way to do that than by taking away a Yoshi's kids and forcing them to go on a dangerous and difficult quest to get them back? In addition,
EYF also stole YSQ Yoshi's eggs because he believed that YSQ Yoshi was one of the famous green Yoshis like the one from YI. But, YSQ Yoshi isn't that Yoshi. Of course, when YSQ Yoshi points that out to EYF, he doesn't care since he made a Yoshi suffer anyway.


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From World 2 and onward, you will encounter at "that one level" a bunch of times due to one very annoying feature in the game: the forced knockback. Believe it or not, it was worse when v1.3 was out when the knockback didn't allow any movement (alas Ninja Gaiden/Castlevania), meaning if you were next to a pit AT ALL, it was instant death despite your health. Recently it was nerfed a little, but you still can't control your movements for a quarter of a second, so it's only a 50/50 chance that you'll actually save yourself. Because of this irksome mechanic, it almost makes the green coins irrelevant


As I mentioned earlier in this post, I've decided to remove the knockback entirely. It seems that no matter what I do to improve it, someone is always complaining about it, so I decided that it wasn't worth keeping. Now, Yoshi's movement is not affected at all when he takes damage unless Yoshi takes damage when he can't survive taking another hit or he takes damage during the title screen demo.

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That's probably 50% of the problems in this hack, but a good 15% of the game is ruined by it's very crude humour. Now, the hack DOES have good humour...... 30% of the time. The remaining 75% is either random, poop/piss jokes, or fat/yoshi fetishes.


Ignoring the fact that 30% + 75% = 105%, when coming up with all the goofy things in YSQ, I wanted to try to provide a variety of jokes so that there would be something for everyone. You may not like the toilet/random humor, but you did like 30% of YSQ's jokes. That has to count for something, right? I can't please everyone, and for every joke I made that you liked, there is a good chance that someone else hated it and vice versa.

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Getting back to the fat fetishes,
you play a good portion of the game as fat yoshi after the World 6 castle... and you can't get out of this form until after you beat Bowser's Castle for the first time.


So, I made a game about a dinosaur that is known to eat stuff as one of his main abilities,
I decide to make him fat at one point (in addition to mentioning fatness throughout the game on occasion)
, and I call my game Yoshi's Strange Quest. And people find this surprising? I wonder what would happen if I replaced every mention of fatness with, I don't know... hats, and made it so that
Yoshi's alt sprites show him wearing a hat instead of him being extremely fat.
Would people accuse me of having a hat fetish or would they see it as some quirky aspect of YSQ? :P

In all seriousness, I'll admit, I do have an interest in this sort of thing, but even if I didn't, I still would have made fat references in YSQ. Why? Because Yoshis are big eaters. The fact that they eat stuff is their main ability in many of the games Yoshis appear in. So, what happens when someone eats too much? They get fat. Shocking, isn't it? Now that you know that, can you see why I'd do things like make a level where Yoshi has to avoid eating the nearby food, or else he becomes fat, make it so that
Yoshi doesn't mind being fat after he becomes fat
, etc.?

Also, I named my hack "Yoshi's STRANGE Quest". Every weird and quirky element I put into YSQ, regardless of whether I intended it to be funny or not, was put there to add to YSQ's strange theme. Having Yoshi
suddenly become fat and having to play as fat Yoshi for the next 2 worlds afterwards at minimum
adds to YSQ's strange theme. If you don't like it though, that's fine.

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And the Post Post Game Final Boss is
Fat Evil Yoshifinatic
.... actually not really, Yoshifinatic apparently suggests that the final form of
EYF is a giant P-balloon Yoshi sprite detailed.
Har har har, you think we believe that after
BEING a Fat Yoshi for a good part of the game?



You're right, Daizo. These two sprites have nothing in common. But, this EYF sprite sure does have a lot in common with Yoshi's standing sprite. I guess I should have said that it was based off of that!


In all seriousness, you misunderstood what I said in the comment I posted on part 47 of levelengine's YSQ V1.3.1 LP. For reference, this is what I said:

"Fun fact: This pose is based off the P-balloon frame is based off of Yoshi's unused P-balloon frame."

First things first, after going to that video to go get this comment, I just now noticed that I accidentally repeated myself in that comment (it should read: "Fun fact: This pose is based off of Yoshi's unused P-balloon frame."). But anyway, what I meant by that comment was that
EYF's
image for that fight was made by using Yoshi's unused P-Balloon sprite as a base. Heck, I have a sprite sheet that has the backups I made of his graphics as I was making them, showing a little bit of how I went from a resized P-balloon frame to the final graphics. I never said that
EYF
was in a P-balloon state during that fight.

Link to the sprite sheet

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Unless you can handle hacks like Bits and Pieces, JDCGames Collaboration, and even SMW Central Production without save states, you are going to have a bad time.


That might not be the case now, since I've removed the biggest issue that people were having regarding the difficulty in the latest version. Maybe the average player will be able to at least get to Bowser without too much issue now?



Originally posted by Hobz
holy moley, this hacks been going for 5 years eh? Do you ever go back to the start of this thread to watch yourself grow as a hacker?

I haven't gotten to check out the hack yet, but from your screens and I gotta say I'm into it! Definitely a worthy homage to Yoshi's Island. I especially love that dancing number above your HUD. This is definitely a hack with style~


Yep, it still is. XD Also, no, I haven't skimmed though this thread yet, but I can imagine that it documents my growth as a hacker pretty well.

Also, did you check out YSQ yet? If so, what did you think?

Originally posted by xirtamehtsitahw
Actually, using the following set of cheats and patches, one should easily be able to complete YSQ within 3 to 4 hours:

Patches:

DisableDeath.asm
TeleOrDie.asm

Cheat Codes:

Infinite HP
Infinite Eggs
Invulnerability (can walk through enemies/on spikes, etc.)
Moon Jump
Stop Timer
Disable Swimming
Press (button combo) for 4 Yoshi Coins

Basically, the only problems you'd have with a "perfect" speedrun would involve the various auto-scrolling and maze-type levels. As well as those featuring sometimes aggravating puzzles. Oh, and it IS possible to get "stuck" (such as behind a wall during an auto-scrolling level or ground-pounding into a pit or lava). In that case, just reset the game (hopefully you remembered to save often! #wario{;)})


Neat. How well did your speed run go?
My Hacks:
Mario's Strange Quest V1.6
Yoshi's Strange Quest V1.3 / V1.3.1 Beta 4.6
Mario & Yoshi's Strange Quests (2/10/2023 Build)

Other stuff:
My SMW/SMAS/SMAS+W disassembly
Yoshifanatic's Discord Server: A place for fans of my stuff and/or Yoshi to chat with others.
Originally posted by yoshifanatic


I've always wondered what causes those brief pauses between death/level completion... I have seen quite a few hacks with that.
what is a lunar magic and can i eat it
Originally posted by ASuperMarioWiggler
I've always wondered what causes those brief pauses between death/level completion... I have seen quite a few hacks with that.


That's because they're using local songs on these things. AMK needs to upload the song and sample data to ARAM and it takes some time to upload these data. This doesn't happen with global songs, though.
In a way this hack reminds me of Conker's Bad Fur Day, but with Yoshi and not as much swearing.

That's just based on the constant fourth-wall breaking, references to other games
(like M&L Superstar Saga, DKC2&3 and even SMW itself, to name a few)
and even pop-culture
(hello, Rocko's Modern Life)
, and crude humor
(Chuck's Locker Room, for example)
. Even frustratingly hard at times
(Mirror Ghost House)
, but I was laughing at all the funny parts!

Although, I feel like perhaps Yoshi should have encountered the Cavemen from the SMW animated TV series.
i hope will be Yoshi's Strange Quest 2

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