Posts by Vellidragon

Hi everyone,

The problem: If Mario tries to jump while his base is overlapping a slope tile (any except 16E/191 and 17D/182) but he's not already standing on it, he will suddenly stand on the slope and won't jump. This looks odd and isn't very intuitive.

Is there a fix available for this behaviour, or maybe a custom slope block that doesn't have this quirk?

Works like a charm! Thanks so much!

I had found the slope pass fix before, but I never thought to apply it since the description mentions a different problem. It looks like the behaviour was changed as a side effect of making the intended bug fix work, so it's not advertised as fixing it in the patch section.

Hi,

I've been investigating an extremely strange and specific bug in my hack. To sum it up, having a tile with ExAnimation in a certain spot in an extremely tall horizontal level breaks the goal circle animation in a completely different sub-level, turning it into a mess of black lines. It's bizarre, so I'm just going to list what I could narrow it down to after a lot of experimentation and hope that somebody has an idea of how to approach this:

- The hack is SA-1 (haven't tested without).
- The bug happens if there is a tile using level-specific ExAnimation on screen 1D at location 7,16 (decimal, I just counted the blocks) on layer 2. Yes, this is how specific it gets.
-- It doesn't happen if the tile is on layer 1.
-- It doesn't happen if the tile isn't using ExAnimation, though the specific tile doesn't matter.
-- I can have instances of the same tile literally everywhere else in the entire level except in this one spot.
- The level uses Horizontal Level Mode 19. The SMW Level Mode is 1F (translucent layer 2), but it doesn't seem to matter as long as there's a layer 2.
- Layer 2 scrolling speed doesn't matter.
- Mario's entrance position doesn't matter.
- Happens with and without HDMA effects.
- The level number doesn't matter.
- The level and location of the goal don't matter. Once Mario has been in this level, the goal animation will henceforth be broken when he touches a goal anywhere. This happens consistently.

It's by far the strangest thing I've encountered yet. Does anyone have any ideas on what it could be related to, or what to do next to help pinpoint it?


EDIT: Further testing:

- I couldn't replicate the problem in a regular base rom.
- This happens even after deleting everything from the level apart from the one layer 2 tile and a way to get to the next sub-level.
- It happens in other horizontal level modes that stack screens on top of one another, with the requirement always being for the animated tile to be at the same specific spot on the final sub-screen.

It's probably hopeless looking for an answer to this, given the narrow requirements and not being able to do it in a base rom. It just drives me crazy that I can replicate it consistently in my rom when it seems like there should be no correlation between what I'm doing and what it breaks.

All I can think of is some weird obscure bug between Lunar Magic's screen-stacking level modes and SA-1 that's causing the animated tile to overwrite something it shouldn't, but I don't know how I would find out.

Unfortunately, I'm also having trouble replicating it in another rom. I don't want to share my hack at this point, and I don't know what the key difference may be that enables this behaviour. I never changed the goal circle in my hack and the patch to disable fade-to-black didn't do the trick, so it's bound to be something totally unrelated. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing what a needle is.

I suppose I could port everything to a new rom, but since I don't know what patch or resource may have gotten me here and I haven't done anything weird (to my knowledge) since I ported to SA-1, it would likely just show up again once things have been re-applied. :/

Hi,

I'm trying to use the "Tides, high and low" with advanced Layer 3 bypass active in Lunar Magic (for the CGADSUB setting). However, the bypass disables their movement, and while the horizontal scroll is easy to fix, all the vertical scroll settings seem to go in one direction only.

Is there a way to have the tides rise & sink like they normally do?

EDIT: I seem to have solved this by setting the CGADSUB in a UberASM instead of using Lunar Magic's bypass, but it would have still been interesting to know if there's any way to have the bypass active and get the default rising & sinking behaviour. The code I used was this:

Hi,

I'm using the "all Yoshi coins collected" flag for something else in my hack and saving it for each level via BW-RAM Plus patch. I'm also using the overworld marker that shows a coin for levels where the flag has been set.

This is all working fine, except there's a level that uses actual Yoshi coins for a coin gate, and if the flag has been set, those Yoshi coins naturally won't appear. I'd like to force them to appear whether or not the flag is set, but it seems that the address in the ROM Map that's supposed to do this (3 bytes at $00F354 to EAEAEA) merely prevents them from setting the flag in the first place and has nothing to do with their spawn behaviour. Using Map16 is also not an option, because then the coins respawn on re-entering the room.

Does anyone know how to make the Yoshi coins spawn regardless of the flag being active?

Thanks!

Thanks so much! I wonder why that address didn't come up when searching for "dragon coin" in the ROM map.

In fact, it still doesn't! I can search it up in various ways, up to "ragon Coin creation routine", but as soon as the search term starts with "Dragon ", it no longer comes up as a result. (Try it, it's easy to reproduce.) I think someone should look into that.

Hi,

I've been curious about ways to shorten the delay before a Dino Torch breathes fire for the first time after spawning, but I'm quite confused where this timer is initially set.

Looking at the documented Dino Torch code in Bank03, it seems to use $1540 (which is usually a stun timer) both for the duration of breathing fire and the delay until the next time it does so. At ROM $039D4B, it stores #$40 in the timer as it finishes up the attack, which indeed changes how long it takes to breathe fire again.

But what I don't know is how it determines when to breathe fire for the first time. It seems like it should initialise the $1540 timer to something when it spawns, like the Sumo Bro., but if that's the case, I don't know where this happens. The Init code in Bank01 only sets $151C, which is the flame length.

I feel like I'm missing something crucial. Does $1540 have a default value for every sprite that spawns, so the Dino never sets it?

Ah yes, I see how it works now. Thanks! The documentation says this is the number of frames before the Bob-Omb explodes, but it's actually the time before it stuns itself. Really puts into perspective how sluggish the Dino Torch is to attack.

May need to try the hijack.

Not sure... Going by files I can find, the oldest SMW hack seems to be the original Demo World (not TLC) tied with something called "Super Mario Challenge" from 2002. Following those is some nonsense that's not very good before eventually moving to things like SMW+ and The Second Reality Project.

First non-SMW hack is harder to say, but I downloaded an SMB3 editor called Mario Improvement 3 before I even knew anything about emulation, so it's quite possible that the first "hack" I played was my own attempt at editing that game.

Darkwing Duck is a horizontal (and sometimes vertical) scrolling action game. You control the character "Darkwing Duck" using your TurboPad Controller. Play is based on the "damage" system. Each time you defeat an enemy, you score points.

https://bin.smwcentral.net/u/39974/Darkwing%2BDuck%2BTurboGrafx16%2B-%2BStage%2BTheme.spc

EDIT: Preliminary text file if anyone wants to use or tinker with this monstrosity, probably not so well optimised.

I was on Acmlm's Board regularly way back as a young teenager, but I never had an account or anything. I would usually lurk on forums as a guest and keep up with things without ever joining or posting, for multiple reasons, mostly social. Of course, I'm barely on this site either.

That said, Aioria definitely rings a bell for me.

This is an assortment of unsampled AddMusicK ports I've done over the years. I never submitted these to the music section because I'm not sure if they're up to standards, but I wanted to share them eventually, so I figured this was a good opportunity.

They're not very exciting and I'm no expert on music porting, but there's quite a bunch of them, so here goes.


LEMONS - This is LEMONS.MID from Multimedia Fusion/Clickteam Fusion, heard in games like Noseman. This was my first attempt at a port and was all done by hand following Wakana's tutorial. Weird cellos are used to replicate the iconic cuicas from the song, which are on their own channel and can be silenced easily. There are two versions, one that loops seamlessly and one that's more accurate to the midi (with silence between loops).

Mega Man II GB - Metal Man -- Metal Man's stage theme from the Game Boy Mega Man II, which has a new soundtrack that's different from the NES version. There were no accurate midis, so I made my own by exporting and comparing to the individual sound channels. Not too happy with this one.

Mega Man II GB - Wood Man -- Wood Man's stage theme from the Game Boy Mega Man II. Mostly based on the VGMusic midi but with inaccuracies fixed, especially the drums.

Mega Man II GB - Air Man -- Air Man's stage theme from the Game Boy Mega Man II. Again from a heavily fixed version of the VGMusic midi. Probably my favourite of the Mega Man II ports, went with a more loose instrumentation since I'm not quite sure what to do with Game Boy ports otherwise.

Commander Keen 5 - Snooping -- "Just Snoopin' Around", the jazzy theme from the Gravitational Damping Hub in Commander Keen 5 - The Armageddon Machine. This one had no official midi, so it's based on one made by XkyRauh. It's mostly unchanged from that but with an attempt to fix the drum interlude, which was clearly incomplete and not accurate to the in-game one.

Commander Keen 6 - To the Future -- "Into the Future" (to-the-future.mid) from Commander Keen 6 - Aliens Ate My Babysitter! Plays in Bloogton Tower, BASA, and Blooglab Space Station. Converted straight from the official midi by Bobby Prince.

Commander Keen 4 - A World of Wonderment -- "In a Land of Wonderment and Awe" (a-world-of-wonderment.mid) from Commander Keen 4 - Secret of the Oracle and Commander Keen 6 - Aliens Ate My Babysitter! Plays in the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket stage and also when rescuing a council member in Keen 4. Converted straight from the official midi by Bobby Prince.

Rayman Advance - The Musician's Song -- The lonely song that plays in the first part of Mr. Stone's Peaks in Rayman Advance (other ports have no special music for the section). A slightly remixed version appears in the fangame Rayman Redemption, but this is the original. Recreated as a MIDI by ear, then converted.

Amazin' SPISPOPD - Happy Fields -- The standard game mode theme from Amazin' SPISPOPD, ported by ear by listening to the WAV file. This is an odd one since the original is deliberately simple and low-quality, and what little is there in drums is almost inaudible. Probably not very useful.

Jack Flash - Industrial Stage 1 -- The first Industrial stage theme from an obscure DOS platformer, Jack Flash and the Mutiny of Things (Jack Flash und der Aufstand der Dinge). Recreated as a MIDI by ear, then converted.

Sinaria - Stage 1 -- The first stage theme from another obscure DOS platformer, Sinaria: Lost in Space. This one's very repetitive. Recreated as a MIDI by ear, then converted.

Bonk's Adventure - Boss 1 -- The generic boss theme from Bonk's Adventure and Bonk's Revenge. Ported by ear by listening to each channel of the vgm.

Smurfs 2, The - Mysterious Jungle -- Jungle stage theme from The Smurfs Travel the World on the SNES. Ported by ear by listening to each channel of the SPC.

Smurfs 2, The - Crystal Clear! -- Stage clear theme from The Smurfs Travel the World on the SNES. A short jingle that doesn't loop and can be used as a goal song.

Inspector Gadget - Incan Ruins -- Song that plays in the Inca ruins in the Inspector Gadget game on SNES. Ported by ear by listening to each channel of the SPC. Noise cymbal sounds a bit dodgy.

Bart's Nightmare - Itchy & Scratchy -- Itchy & Scratchy stage theme from The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare. Ported by ear by listening to each channel of the SPC.

Commander Keen 8 - Water in the Desert -- "Water in the Desert" from the unofficial mod Commander Keen 8 - Dead in the Desert, itself based on a track from Hocus Pocus. Plays in The Dusty Dunes and Cactus Forest. Converted straight from the midi found on KeenWiki, presumably the original by Mr.M.

Adventures of MicroMan - Crazy Computers -- The stage theme from the classic Windows 3.1 platformer Micro Man. Ported by hand from a MIDI recreation by James Paddock, known as Micromidi.mid. Uses a lot of channels due to chords.


Text file-wise, there are a bunch of different approaches as I was figuring things out, so not everything has the best readability and maybe optimisation. Feel free to let me know what should be improved, and what may pass approval for the music section (I'm not so well acquainted with the quality standards but they seem quite tight).

Wow, that's a lot of feedback here. Thanks, everyone!



Thanks! That's funny because I personally thought it was the worst of the Keen ports. I actually considered not sharing because I wasn't happy with it. I guess it shows there's a lot of subjectivity with this sort of thing.



Thanks! He didn't originally compose this one though, did he...? It felt like a fairly straight recreation from the Microman game, where it's credited to John Ames, though I may need to check again how different it is.



I was fearing the volumes were a bit inconsistent. I've tweaked them a lot, but audio mixing is the bane of my musical ventures and the SMW instruments all having different base volumes doesn't make it any easier. Itchy & Scratchy is muddy and muffled in the source game, but I guess I made it too loud when porting. I should probably also listen to them in the SMW game more to better tune the volume.



There are definitely some obscure ones here. I like finding good/memorable music in lesser known games and a lot of these were fun to port. I also tried doing the a stage theme from Santa Claus Saves the Earth but I didn't really like it anymore, lol.

Thanks all, I don't share things here very often and I'm glad I did now, really appreciating the replies!

Sounds awesome. More than one ASM per level in the list.txt was much needed, since the one "slot" is often taken up by the HDMA. I never even bothered with the library and awkwardly fused the effect code to the other ASM instead, heh.

Neat. Can't say I fully grasp this on a conceptual level, but it's always good to see enemies that are just there to be weird (and maybe not even a threat).

The counterplay of "interrupting" the shooting ones in all these various ways seems interesting, but I'm mainly hoping to see the regular Boogies just being there in a stage or two for no big reason. SMW usually makes sure everything has a purpose, but things that don't can add a lot of wonder to a level (like Batamon). Or maybe they do, and you just have to resist bothering them so they give you something nice...

Fun idea, nice and easy, I enjoyed this. The blue coins could stand to be explained; I didn't make the connection that they were needed for a medal and was surprised when I got one. But maybe there was an explanation and I just missed it.

In the big section, Cape Mario can fly up and fall into some of the ceilings from above, which looks weird and you can't get out anymore if you get into the ceiling in the far left section. Minor since you can exit the level at any time, just something I thought I'd point out.

I also thought it was odd that the blue block resets the P-Switch duration when you hit it again, but not the P-Switch music if it's already playing. I initially thought hitting it again didn't reset it at all because of this. It may also be useful to have something like a used block nearby that shows it's a P-Switch, so you can tell even with the sound turned off (since there's no feedback otherwise).

For the boss, there is a patch that lets you set the big Reznor fireballs for it, if you want those.

Overall this felt quite nice, I liked the nighttime setting and the vanilla-based graphics work well.

The bubble sprite is so cool. It seems like a lot of platformers have this "floating upwards until you touch something" mechanic for some reason and it always has potential for some devious level design.

I also really like the thunder cloud for some reason, even though it's "simple". The moving one reminds me of the Electric Gabyoalls in Mega Man 3, though it looks like it never turns around, so it would be more of a temporary hazard where you just have to time it once.

Probably because the previous coin snakes can be missed, so if they're going to explain it, they need to so in every room where you might see one for the first time.

This is quite exciting. Mario 3 Improvement might have been my first exposure to rom hacking, was wondering what was happening with SMB3 hacking nowadays. I remember people being very excited about the e-reader additions and tinkering with stuff in a hex editor, nice to see a proper editor being made after so many years.