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Posts by xirtamehtsitahw

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Here is a list of difficulty enhancements I will pack into my newest hack submission:

1. Enemies move at triple their normal speed.

2. The timer will count down at twice its normal speed.

3. The Goal Tape will be frozen at the bottom of the goal.

4. The Bonus Game will be disabled.

5. Powerups (besides the P-Balloon) do NOTHING.

6. Chaining enemy stomps or shell strikes will not earn you extra lives.

7. 1up mushrooms*, 100 coins, and 3up moons will not give you extra lives. *The mushroom at the end of Fishin' Lakitu's pole still gives you 1up.

8. Midway gates will not give you a mushroom.

9. The ONLY way (besides Fishin' Lakitu) to earn extra lives will be by collecting five or more Dragon Coins in the levels which have them. Do I need to tell you to collect them at all costs? I thought not.

10. Perhaps the biggest difficulty enhancer of them all: THE D-PAD DIRECTIONS WILL BE REVERSED!

Mew, the protagonist in this game, will only have two abilities--swinging her tail and spin-jumping through bricks. She will die in ONE hit at ALL times. She can float, but it won't be nearly as easy to "escape" and fly over levels this time around.

This hack takes advantage of the psychological tendencies of the human brain to normally expect pressing in a direction to make your character go in that direction.

Since the directions on the D-pad have been reversed, expect to lose LOTS of lives to this one factor alone!

You have been warned.

Even I, the maker of this hack, will have great difficulty completing the entire game. I highly suggest you become good friends with Mr. Save State. You'll be spending a LOT of time together on this one.

*Insert Kefka Laugh here* #fim{>:O}
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
While the levels will remain relatively untouched (Yoshi coins will be removed, and Fishin' Lakitu will be replaced with a regular Lakitu), expect HUGE gameplay changes.

1. Enemies (where possible) will move at three times their normal speed.

2. Chucks will only be able to be killed by a tail whip.

3. The timer will count down at double speed.

4. Low gravity and slick physics apply in all "dry" levels.

5. ALL powerups have been replaced with Koopa shells.

6. Dry Bones will revive almost immediately upon being crushed.

7. All Yoshi Coins will be removed.

8. Fishin' Lakitu will be replaced with a normal Lakitu.

9. There is absolutely NO way to earn extra lives, whatsoever. This includes the Bonus Game, Goal Tape 50, 1up mushrooms, 3up moons, 100 coins, stomp/shell/Starman chains, and the Silver P-switch (which does diddly).

10. Save-enabled levels still work, as does the start+select bail-out command.

11. Mew will die in one hit at all times.

12. Death = GAME OVER at all times.

Don't think that Mew is completely helpless; she can swing her tail "Tail Whip" and kill certain enemies/break bricks with her spin-jump "Pound" move.

13. I will leave Yoshi in this game, but don't expect a lot of help from him (except for his primary-color cousins): you will still DIE if you are hit while riding Yoshi!

Finally, I highly suggest you make friends with Mr. Save State. Otherwise, you will NOT get very far in this hack, despite it being basically the same layout as the original game...just jacked up to an insane level of difficulty!

You have been warned.

*Inseart Kefka Laugh here* #fim{>:O}
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
I want to try to make a hack with Giratina's Origin Forme as the protagonist. Anybody know a place where I could find some good 32x32 sprites?
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
I need to know, because I finally broke down and built a vastly improved Mewtwo spritesheet, which includes both small and big versions of Mewtwo. It was NOT easy, and there are some small scale errors (his tail looks more like a chubby dino tail in some poses), but I only had 512 pixels in total per big sprite to work with, and that didn't give me a lot of room.

However, I am somewhat pleased with the outcome, especially considering the numerous hours I spent trying to create a "big" Mewtwo sprite set, using Birdo as a base. (Credit goes to Gussprint for providing the original spritesheet included with Pieguy's Birdo patch).

For the "small" Mewtwo sprites, I used a Mew spritesheet as the base (credits to Doownayr, the creator of Pokemon Darkness).

"It's ALIIIVE!" *Cue maniacal mad-scientist cackling*

I will submit the spritesheet as soon as I am notified where to submit it.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Thanks, Merc. There are a few small issues with the spritesheet, though: the big Mewtwo climbing sprites show no animation (kind of looks like he's sliding up the vine when "climbing" LOL). Also, when going down a pipe as big Mewtwo, his head looks a little large, but it's due to the foreshortening factor.

When he picks up a shell, he briefly ducks, then stands back up. It's kind of like he's bending down to pick the shell up. I even included a looking-up animation for when he's big, and when he uses fireballs, his mouth opens, indicating that he spits them. After all, Mewtwo is capable of learning Flamethrower in the Pokemon games, so why not make him able to "breathe" fire?

His P-Balloon sprites are the cutest of the entire spritesheet, in my opinion--whether he's big or small when picking up a Balloon, he gets a cute, goofy grin on his face, as if it tickles to be inflated like a balloon. #w{=P}

Well, Mewtwo is a bit of a weird Pokemon after all, so why not incorporate a little weirdness into his spritesheet? #fim{;)}
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
What's up with the stupid "bad token" error? Who else has gotten this error? It seems to only appear when I try to edit my posts.

Anyway, I want to build a SMB1-redux hack, where the original levels of that game are included, but additional features, such as Yoshi/Yoshi Coins, Feathers, level replay, and free horizontal scrolling (being able to go backward!) will be included. Also, there will be extra bonus rooms scattered throughout the levels, to add even more content.

A couple of enemies will need to be replaced, due to a lack of them in the SMW graphics: Bloopers will be replaced by Rip Van Fish, and Hammer Brothers will be replaced by the Amazing Flyin' variety and Pitchin' Chucks, where applicable.

The protagonist will be changed, as well: Mewtwo will be the character you play as, and the powerups will change because of it. Fireballs will have a straight trajectory, and you will be able to fire up to ten at a time, and they will have a psychic effect, being able to go through solid objects.

Feathers will give Mewtwo the ability to swing his tail to defeat enemies, as well as slow his descent whilst holding the jump button.

Actual "cape" flight will be disabled, and all levels, true to SMB1 form, will be only one screen high, but will contain numerous bonus rooms and sublevels, reached solely by pipe (there were no doors used in the original SMB1).
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
I've looked through both the ROM and RAM addresses found so far on this site, using "lava", "death", and "contact" as search queries, but NONE of them seem to point to what I'm looking for--the specific addresses dealing with Mario's interaction with lava tiles (or vice-versa).

There is already a "disable death flag" ASM patch, but I don't know how to find the Freeram number assigned to the actual death routine, or what that even means.

I know how to assign freespace in both asar and xkas patches, but what do I do with Freeram? I don't even know what Freeram is, besides the fact that it obviously deals with the RAM portion of the SMW ROM.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Is it possible to make it so lava tiles make the player character "bounce" off of it like with Note Blocks? Either that, or make it act like something my player character is already "immune" to, such as Munchers (they make him bounce off of him, and cause him to flash as if taking a hit).

I wouldn't need a BTSD block to do that, either--the Munchers' properties are already encoded in the game, and the "invincible with knockback" patch has already been safely edited to eliminate any glitches it had caused in the past. Those glitches/game-freeze errors were caused by using PC-address freespace assignment, rather than LoROM addresses.

Anyway, thanks for the tip, Mercury! You've been a big help during my brief tenure here (since November 2013). #fim{;)}
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
As for creepiest, the Wart tune from Super Mario Bros. 2. 'Nuff said.

As for strangest, the jury's still out on that one, IMO. However, a good qualifier (IMO) would be "Looking through a Glass Onion" by The Beatles.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Let me just say that my college experience while earning my AA degree was much more benign, and the teachers more understanding, than when I was in high school.

In high school, the teachers usually took the side of the bullies, and I was usually the only one punished for each incident. Ironically, the anti-bully policy radically changed the year after I graduated.

While attending classes at Northwest Florida State College, there was no bullying problem to speak of. I don't even recall a single incident where another student bullied me in any manner whatsoever. If only my high-school years had been that way...
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
This BTSD program you keep hinting at seems to be able to squeeze more variety out of preexisting blocks, sprites and tiles than what Lunar Magic is capable of.

However, I've seen some posts where certain members complain about how complicated it is to use (too many buttons, not easy to tell them apart, et cetera).

Is BTSD actually complicated to use, and if so, is there a more up-to-date program with easier-to-read buttons, or a more efficient GUI?
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Overall, I find this xkas patch quite useful, as it takes away the need to edit a particular ROM address to use a "sissy" version of invincibility (disabling passive enemy collisions).

However, during the Iggy/Larry boss battles, the orange balls they roll at you will sometimes cause you to teleport wildly around the screen, and on occasion cause a seemingly random insta-death.

I believe this is due to being randomly teleported INTO the Koopaling himself, which the game will treat as if you were to be crushed by a moving wall or spike.

It seems to be how the game deals with enemy/player overlap, where the enemy sprite has a higher priority than the player sprite, causing the player sprite's death. That's my theory, anyway.

Also, on a side note: do NOT apply this patch or kirbyjump.asm using asar! They will cause graphical glitches in the Iggy/Larry and Reznor battles. Using xkas doesn't cause these glitches.

One final note: decreasing the knockback amount tends to decrease the amount of teleportation that occurs during the Iggy/Larry battles, and thus decreases the likelihood of a random clipping-related death.

Just thought you guys should know... #fim{;)}
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Is there possibly an ASM file you're leaving out, or maybe the ExAnimation file is supposed to be inserted via ExGFX files?

Just a couple of suggestions; just trying to help (please ignore those suggestions if they turn out to be wrong).

As for me, I wouldn't mind Yoshi's mini-stars not counting down if he took a hit. The knockback itself is enough for me, IMO.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
You know how your player sprite flashes briefly, immediately following being bumped into by an enemy?

Is there a way to completely turn it off? I tried setting the post-hit invincibility flag to 00, but it still shows a bit of flashing and sprite non-interaction. I want to make it so that my character (in this case, Mewtwo) be able to bounce off enemies at all times (no flashing "ghost" invincibility).

Is there a way to do this? It would give the perfect "pinball" effect that both Mew and Mewtwo are known for (as in their "First Movie").

I'll look through the ROM map again, and see if there's any other invincibility flags hidden in there somewhere.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
While it may not qualify as an actual song, the creepiest laugh ever, in my opinion, belongs to Kefka Palazzo, the Final Fantasy III (US)/VI (J) main villain. To get .wavs of his laugh, just google "Kefka Laugh".

As for creepiest voice, I'd have to say that of the Jigsaw Puppet, plain and simple.

"Hello, (insert name). I would like to play a game." and "Oh, yes. There will be blood. Yours." are two of the freakiest lines ever spoken in any horror movie, period.

If you can name an even creepier horror-movie voice, tell me, and I'll see if it meets my own criteria (there is no right or wrong, here--I'll just state my opinion, and you're left to decide for yourself).
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
For years, video game developers have wanted to do things in their games that proved impossible or at least horrendously difficult and deadline- and budget-destroying to accomplish at the time.

For example, did you know that the NES was originally scheduled to debut as a 16-bit system? The technology was already there in 1983, but was still extremely expensive. Each 16-bit NES would've probably cost nearly $1,000 (in 1983 dollars, mind you!). Instead, the 16-bit idea was put on hold for seven years, and the 8-bit NES proved to be the very console that resurrected the video game market.

Or try this one: the Sony Playstaion was originally going to be a CD-based peripheral for the SNES system called the NINTENDO Playstation! However, a copyright dispute arose between Sony and Nintendo, and the rest is history--the two have been rivals ever since.

Nintendo was planning on the GameBoy Advance's successor to be called the GameBoy Revolution, but then the name became the codeword for the Wii, and we got the DS, then the 3DS/2DS as a "booby prize".

Note I placed the words "booby prize" in quotes, to indicate the obvious irony of the phrase--the DS and now the 3DS are Nintendo's cash cows--they've made the Big N the number-one handheld seller in the world. Of course, only Sony is providing weak competition with its Vita handheld.

Sure, the Vita looks sleek (like a PSP 3000 on steroids), and has lots of graphical processing power than can put the 3DS/2DS to shame, but the 3DS has been far more firmly established as the go-to handheld for nearly two years longer than the Vita. The Vita now suffers from "Johnny-come-lately" syndrome--it's basically resigned to its fate as an also-ran.

One final note about Atari's E.T.: it was produced and shipped out in only SIX WEEKS! That would mark it as one of the fastest-produced games in history, poor quality or not.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
I like that challenge-room idea, but I do agree with the poster above me, in that an intro room, or at least a message-box prompt warning you of an unusually short time frame or other situation (row of crushing spikes that you have to outrun, for example) should accompany at least some of the challenge rooms (such as in the early parts of the game).

As for submitting hacks of my own, I'm afraid that I won't be able to pursue such endeavors in the foreseeable future (due to having found a source of income). However, I can at least test others' hacks, and submit reviews (where accepted).

I might even offer suggestions on hack ideas that haven't been tried or at least not fully realized. Here are a few to get started:

1. Female protagonist. Almost all hacks on this site feature a male protagonist (usually Mario, but not always). I suggest using Zelda, Mew, Midna or Samus (as their sprites may either be available or easily made).

2. Hacks optimized specifically for speed runs. Some skill should still be required to actually achieve respectable speed runs, but also don't make the hack only speed-runnable through obscure methods or tool-assists. These methods can still be employed, but should not be required.

3. Use quotas of various types as requirements for finishing levels. Examples would be scoring a certain number of points, collecting all 5 Dragon Coins, collecting a set number of coins, and killing all enemies in the level. To aid in completing the quota, if the quota is not met upon reaching the Goal Tape/Keyhole, you'll be warped to the start of the level, or to the Midway Gate if it had been passed previously. Of course, the timer is optional (it may make meeting quotas a bit problematic in some situations).

4. Make it so that you have to find the Goal Sphere in addition to the Key and Goal Tape in certain levels (some levels would have THREE exits).

5. Make hacks with upside-down or inverted gravity.

6. Make hacks with "Spider-Man" style physics--jump into a wall and you can climb it, and you can even climb on ceilings. Basically, just take the run-up-the-wall/pipe effect and expand upon it.

7. Has anyone ever considered the concepts of telekinesis and teleportation in their hacks?

I see telekinesis working much like holding a shell, but you could use it even on live enemies (not just shells/toppled Goombas), and toss them from a distance, taking out any enemies immediately behind them. This would look awesome coupled with the likes of Mewtwo and Mew (it would fit them to a tee!)

Teleportation would probably be fairly simple to implement as well--you'd probably have to use a Tanooki-suit type of button command (Down and B), then, while still holding B, you could move freely around the level for a brief time (maybe 3 seconds or so). When the teleport time runs out, or you release B, you reappear where the protagonist's silhouette ended up.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Telekinesis would involve hijacking the shell-carrying routine so you could do so from a distance. This would give the effect of the player character "Force-grabbing" the object. I wonder if the shell-carrying routine could also be edited to allow for the grabbing of live Koopas and Goombas from a distance...

Teleportation would involve hijacking the pre-existing debug "free movement" routine, so it is only accessible after pressing a certain button sequence, and only lasts for maybe five seconds or so.
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
I've always wondered why they never made a sequel to Super Mario Bros. 2. The game had a decent story, cool gameplay mechanics (especially in Super Mario Advance--a point system was finally added!), and we heard Birdo speak for the first time!

Why not make a sequel by hacking Super Mario World into a Subcon-based overworld, and, of course, greatly expand on the original game's rather paltry 20 levels (at least double it in size).

And, have everyone's favorite gender-confused, egg-spitting dinosaur as the protagonist!

It would be called Super Mario Bros. 2B: Birdo's Betrayal.

The story would be that Wart is revived by Kamek (seems that demented Magikoopa can go ANYWHERE!), and the giant toad once again retakes Subcon. Birdo, having had some sense knocked into her by the original SMB2 crew, decides to do something about it--she defects from Wart's army, and strikes out on her own, and attempts to undermine Wart's grandiose plans for Subcon domination.

Birdo's abilities would be a cross between those of SMB2's Luigi and the original SMB2 Birdo. She can spit eggs and flutter-jump, but wouldn't be able to run very fast (she has rather short, stubby legs), and couldn't pick up items very quickly (she has small arms).

Also, she would be unique amongst SMB2 protagonists, in that she could not charge up a super jump (she already jumps pretty high as it is). In fact, she cannot duck, period.

Wart was revived by Kamek, as per a pre-existing deal between the two villains: should Wart be defeated, Kamek would revive him. Should Kamek be defeated, Wart would revive the Magikoopa. We all know how that turned out... #tb{:p}
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.
Could someone please provide the password for the 7th Annual Vanilla Level Design Collab project zip file? I've already downloaded it, but cannot extract it without knowing the password.

Why is there even a password on it to begin with?

Please respond ASAP! :(

P.S. I've already checked the Vanilla Design-related posts for any reference to such a password (or even its very existence). There is none. Why?
The meaning of life is 42 because potato.

I don't feed trolls. I feed THEM to Cthulhu. He finds them DELICIOUS.