Posts by FPI

I have a question which bothered me since a while, about one of the tips on the main page: "Don't use secret exits in vertical levels". I did that at least one time and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that, so... why? What "can" happen?

---

Actually, using the INIT more than once screws up the hack. So, yeah use it only one time, and after that you can insert music as often you like.

---

Hm, I never saw putting tinymml the >/<'s right. They are always wrong for me. The only thing I noticed besides that is that tinymml sometimes put them in places where no octave change is needed at all.

---

If yo start for example in level 105, go into a pipe to level 1c5, and put the message boxes in level 1c5, you still have to put the text for the box to appear in level 105.

---

I'm not quite sure, but wouldn't it be the right time to start to give credit to the ones who made the Midis in the first place? I mean, creating a midi-file like the ones on vgmusic is surely more work than using a SPC-to-Midi-converter and most of the tracks are done from scratch anyway, I would say. And since this particular remix doesn't appear in any game, I would either not use it at all or definetely start giving credit to the ones who did the midis in the first place. At least that's how I think about it. :p

edit: Btw, I noticed that the links to the Pumpkin Zone & Cloudy Park Map-txt-files are broken (because they seem to be incomplete).

---

Wow, nice find. Now that you say it, there's indeed a long phase where's the screen just black after the HDMA-logo fades out. Never noticed that before. So I guess I will enable it again. At first, I don't wanted that, because I thought that would only make the intro longer and more annoying, but since that isn't the case anyway, I think of bringing it back to the hack.

It would be still nice to get rid of the HDMA-intro.

Btw, I've never heard that BMF made a kit, too, what's the difference? Doesn't it have that much effect possibilities (since d4s kit seems much more popular) - so far I've noticed that the HDMA in Carol's hack get's disabled/enabled by going to different areas, which isn't possible with d4's kit, which I've found somewhat annoying. I know there's a custom block which can disable HDMA-effects, but not a block for enabling it again. So, If you set up 105 with a certain effect and warp to Level 1C5 for example it doesn't really matter if you want a different effect in 1C5, it will be the 105-effect unless the level is over and you go back to the overworld. Weird thing about that, that in the HDMA-text-file which comes with the kit you have the chance to set up effects in levels which aren't accessable directly from the overworld, but they won't work anyway, or I'm missing something?

---

@Supertails: That's indeed a nice progress. But I would prefer if you would use more than one channel for your arrangements. I mean, even the NES was capable of doing more, so it's seems like a downgrade. But for a start, it's definetely nice. I've started with easy and short songs as well, since they are easier to figure out, what is what and so on. ;)


Btw, I've updated my Rudra no Hihou-spc a little bit. The spc for itself sounds identical, but I've noticed after inserting it in a level that I've had to rearrange the channels a bit, because some of the sound effects had a bad effect on the channels containing the melody. Now, it's changed/rearranged, and I've already tested it (in a underwater level, since it's the most fitting) and it works excellent i would say. So, here it is:

Rudra no Hihou - Underwater City (txt)
Rudra no Hihou - Underwater City (spc)

---

Yes. There are also some other problems with the pipes. For example, if you take an item or an enemy through a pipe in a level with HDMA-enabled, the sprite and part of Mario will go invisible. Besides that, non-line-guided grinders will go behind the BG in a level with HDMA enabled, same goes for the Layer3-Smash-Thing and the Torpedo Teds during their launching sequence (and probably some other things as well).

I'm using HDMA as well at the moment, but frankly I rarely use it, because most of the levels would have glitches because of that. :p

---

But you could use one of the normal shooter sprites. They exist in different versions, also with no smoke, and it's also possible to change the sound effect, so I guess it's also possible to disable it.

---

I don't know what exactly Sparx is talking about, but yeah, I worked with the Locked Door-blocks some time ago, it was in the first version of "Hotel Horror" in TSRP2, but I get rid of it after the first release, because the whole thing was somewhat buggy for whatever reason, sometimes it worked and sometimes it worked not.

Besides that, instead of take a key to the locked door, I just set the unlock-block up to act like a coin and used the key's GFX, so that you could collect the key, after that you could go back to the door and open it. I have no idea how the locked doors could work in combination with the "real" key-sprite, maybe someone else did this, but I don't know.

---

Set it to 00. You have made a standart horizontal level out of the boss room. You will see garbled graphics and the Iggy Sprite. If you want to place some fireballs there, place them on the highest part of the screen. (You can look at Lemmy's battle how it was done by Nintendo) Make sure that sprite buoyancy is enabled and it should work. (And don't forget to change the level mode back to the exact setting it had before - there are several settings for several bosses, so choose the right one)

---

In that case read it loud, so you can hear your own voice.
Just joking, but I can't see how we could help you if it doesn't help if you read something. But you can take a look on YouTube, I'm very sure there are some tutorial-videos up there. But I really don't know how helpful these kind of videos are, I never needed or watched them. But if visuals could help you, you could give it a try.

---

The first one is enough. If it still don't work, I would suggest to set Lemmy's Boss room to 00 and take a look on how Nintendo placed the fireballs. I did it this way, and it worked fine for me, so I can't see, why it shouldn't work.

---

I made a new track today, which all of you know for sure:
Donkey Kong Land - Aquatic Ambiance (txt)
Donkey Kong Land - Aquatic Ambiance (spc)

I remember that S.N.N: was saying that DKC's "Aquatic Ambiance" would be impossible because of some special effects, so I just did the next logical thing and used the Gameboy-version as a base. DKL's awesome soundtrack contained mostly original tracks, but this particular one is a remixed track from DKC. The special effect stuff is obviously missing here, because the Game boy isn't capable of doing all that stuff. To cover that they included some drums and a bassline to make the whole thing more upbeat. So, overall, it's not DKC's "Aquatic Ambiance" - it's DKL's "Aquatic Ambiance". Should work, too.

On a side note, I would have liked to use instrument 2 instead of 3 in the first half, but in the end of the first half the whole thing goes up to octave 6, and that just sounded awful with instrument 2, but it is fine with 3. So, enjoy!

---

It depends on the track. But on the other hand, I tried to convert NES, Game Gear, Genesis and SNES tracks, and so far, SPC2Midi makes the worst results of all of them. It's still possible to do something with it, but only with a lot of work and some tools which let you edit the Midi more easily. So, for a starter, I wouldn't recommend it.

---

If you haven't started your hack yet, there's no problem with starting with a hack which have already custom music inserted. Just insert some filler tracks for a start, you can replace them later.

If you have started the hack already, you can do what I certainly will do: transferring everything. I already did it with my last hack several times for various reasons, and it never was a big problem. You just need to keep track on all the things you've applied/inserted to the hack and such things.

---

That's not true, the one you already did is indeed the K.Rool boss music from DKC2. ;)

Edit: Btw, your YI cave theme doesn't loop properly. It seems you forgot to set the intro part with "/".
There's another thing which is bothering me, not that I want to complain about your tracks or something, I like most of them a lot, especially your original work for your upcoming hack. But what bothers me is that your choice of instruments hardly has anything to do with the original track. For example, to stay with the Yoshi's Island Cave theme, why not choose a flute where a flute comes up in the original track? And why not strings insteed of the steel drums which seems to be the main instrument in all of your tracks.

I hope that doesn't sound to harsh, as I mentioned before, I don't think that all this stuff is a big problem or something, since everything besides the instrument choice is well done, but it was just bothering me. Your work is still much appreciated, I know how timeconsuming the whole thing can be.

---

Go to the overworld editor. Make sure the messages for the switch palaces aren't switched to level 0. If one of them is switched to level 0, the intro level will indeed loop forever.

---

Very nice, and yes, it sounds indeed much better than before. It seems you are expecially great when it comes to drums. For a whole song, it still sounds a bit empty, but overall it's really very nice!

---