Posts by Maarfy - SMW Central

Greetings to you all, SMW Central. After actively lurking about for the better part of nine years, I believe I'm ready to find my voice, if but in a small way.

To that end I've been studying ASM for quite some time now, and while I certainly don't stand among the masters, I'd like to share the fruit of my efforts with you all nonetheless. In the spirit of C3, I humbly present my first submission here:

The YOSHI EXPANSION KIT!

This patch allows Yoshi to function properly in all 8 sprite palettes, thus doubling the number of usable colors of Yoshi. Moreover, this patch moves a huge number of Yoshi's various functional parameters into easy-to-edit defines while simultaneously splitting them up on a per-Yoshi-color basis. Want green Yoshi to have a tongue that only stretches half as far as yellow Yoshi's? Want blue Yoshi to run away twice as fast as red Yoshi? It can all be easily done, with no ASM knowledge required whatsoever.

If you are familiar with ASM, however, then this patch provides a smörgåsbord of tidy hijacks to let your imagination run wild. Yoshi's tongue gets longer as it eats berries? Yoshi does not run away if you have all 5 Dragon Coins? The sky is the limit. Heck, with enough free RAM and some palette trickery, one could make a 90 level hack with a totally unique Yoshi in each stage.

This patch utilizes Lunar Magic's extra bit setting for non-custom sprites, allowing the new Yoshi palettes to be inserted into the level without requiring any custom sprites; .s16 and .ssc files are included to ensure proper sprite display in the editor. There are no included palette files, meaning it's up to you as the user to make your Yoshis look good and keep them consistent across different levels. It should also be noted that, unfortunately, the patch is not currently compatible with SA-1.

This patch's functions don't translate well to pictures, but I think you can get the gist:

Thank you all so very much, for checking out my work and for making this community everything it is today. I look forward to getting to know a bit better these names, these people whose posts I've been reading for the lion's share of a decade. Cheers!

...

-----------------------------------------------------------

I'm going to sing this next one in the key of X, if you don't mind:

"I looked sideways, thinking of the dog-man. Now, I noticed a man identified similarities between dogs, as well as how to eat dog meat. I've seen our big dog, he often ate food. Men are like dogs, stabbed surprisingly strong and sharp. Once he is eating, shooting all the bites in all directions, then suddenly he is like a dog biting a person stronger. Since there are no additional cuts to my chin, I was looking quite comfortable - he worked with who I am, but he seemed to be a dog in every detail. In a place where all of them are fast, he could have been eating everything they ate. Was Teacher very upset? All bets are consistent with reason, but this person would confuse the tourism sector.

It is sufficient to be part of the dog at all,
but this enough to become part of all the dogs."

My sincere thanks everyone, for all the kind words and warm welcomes - I expected nothing less from you all.

Originally posted by Eminus

This is amazing! I looked into the patch, and as someone who has very little asm knowledge I still find it very clear and easy to customize.

This is exactly the feedback I was hoping for, thank you. I tried to keep the usage as simple as possible, but after refining the config files so many times it became all but impossible to see things from a fresh perspective - glad it wasn't too overwrought.

Originally posted by WhiteYoshiEgg

I'd like to say welcome but you've been here for nine years, so, uh... welcome to the club of non-lurkers!

Your patch is definitely no small feat - it looks really polished and well thought out, and it's something that makes you wonder why nobody else has made it yet.

Thank you kindly! I too would've thought that something like this would've been made years ago. I suppose the real "eureka!" moment was learning that the main Yoshi palette RAM address is only read and written to once each - after that, the patch's direction became quite clear.

Quote

(now to make sense of that footnote)

It only seemed fair to establish early on that I am not to be trusted.

To everyone else who responded, you have my thanks - I'm thrilled to receive such a positive response (I'm still anxiously awaiting some major bug I missed to come wriggling out). I will continue to support this patch as long as I'm able, so by all means let me know of any problems that arise or any features you'd like to see in the future.

I always enjoy it when this project turns back up, because something incredible is always right around the corner. Your team is committed to presenting a polished, coherent experience, and your individual talents bring out the best in one another's work (as any good team's should) - I respect your efforts immensely, and I'll be watching for what happens next.

By the by, there hasn't been a tech demo of sorts for this game yet, has there? Even just the "finished enough" characters in a simple room to let people get a feel for the current controls/physics? As one who also works with per-character physics changes, I worry that even if everything is laboriously tuned to my liking, people might still balk at the feel of the controls simply because they're different than those used in the 50 other hacks they've played. I'm curious if you've given any thought to/have any opinions on this uncanny tendency to evaluate a SMW ROM hack as one of many SMW ROM hacks rather than as its own game, even following highly extensive changes (doubly so for using SMW-esque assets).

I'm also going to go ahead and echo the praise on the boss work - truly fluid stuff, right there.

And for what it's worth, the "best hack ever" claim doesn't read as particularly arrogant to me, personally. I hear it more as a friendly challenge - "You think you could make an even better hack? Then do it! Bring your absolute best, 'cause that's what we aim to do!" (Feel free to reign me in if I'm way off the mark on this one.)

As a fan of the inscrutable, I support this... experience?

I'm curious as to what manner of trauma the game code must suffer to turn into this kind of thing without crashing outright. How much time was spent engineering the "correct" level of chaos? Was it an undertaking of some measure, or did you just sort of hit it with a hammer a few times?

At any rate, kudos for hitting the "functional enough" vibe that leaves the players with just enough sanity to appreciate everything they've lost.

Originally posted by Ten

I think, in time, it will capture attention.

If you do what you love and love what you do, the rest will follow. If I may speak frankly out of respect for your project, I don't see this being the kind of hack that everyone will have heard of; that said, I absolutely see this hack as being well-liked by the vast majority of folks who give it a try. A sleeper hit, if you will. And hey, word of your work can only keep spreading, so who knows? This project is bound up in a charming earnestness, I'm sure it'll find its way.

As far as content, I'm a fan of your powerup system, visually and conceptually. The Sword of Soaring in particular is a very creative interpretation of the old cape feather that ends up working extremely well. If you find yourself in need of some help in realizing your final vision for your powerups, feel free to drop me a message - I'd like to see where this goes.

Ah, now this is good stuff. As a fellow oldster, I must say I've always been a fan of your style - it's great to see that you're back!

Your graphics are supreme, simple as that. Your overworld is immaculate save for the SMW clouds and smoke puffs, which contrast rather starkly. I'm fairly certain they're placeholders, though.

The player character is most charming, simple but distinct. A question, though - on the wall run pose, am I correct that Eszett is bearing her teeth, the black pixel representing her missing tooth? I was trying to figure out what her expression was supposed to be until I happened upon the victory pose, which made tooth thing clear (nice detail, by the way). On the subject of the victory pose, will there be any sort of transition frame(s)? In my head, snapping to and from that pose to the neutral standing pose looks a little abrupt, though perhaps it's smoother in practice.

The only graphic I don't care for, and boy is it minor, is the "9" in the status bar font. I totally see it now, but the tail seems "pinched" in a weird way that threw me at first glance. I have a feeling that changing one pixel would make all the difference. Also, the bag graphic in the status bar seems to go behind some layers, though I can't imagine you didn't notice.

So, do you have any idea what sort of gameplay you're after? Exploration, puzzles, gold old-fashioned platforming? Are there abilities or physics changes in the works, or will it be classic Super Mario World with a few hundred coats of gorgeous paint? I look forward to seeing where this project of yours goes, best of luck to you.

Huh... There's an intriguing little something about this project, can't quite put my finger on it.

Originally posted by 1UPdudes

... I really like your style you have with your artwork and your way of design as a whole.

The game looks really vibrant which I like. Lots of strong colours and unique looking characters.

Probably something to this effect. That, and how the game about the cute bunny promises to eat my face off in terms of difficulty.

Are you in a position to describe any game mechanics? I'm assuming by way of referring to Paper Mario that there are to be action commands or some other sort of real-time element in battles. What sort of stats govern how battles play out? I spot a reference to "physical damage" - are things strictly physical/non-physical, or are there elements to consider? Is there a level up system of sorts? Concrete or in the works, I'm curious how you'd like this thing to play. Achieving good RPG design sounds maddening.

Also very curious, and hopefully not off-topic, about what role you as a designer think that the RNG should play in an RPG such as this. Are you aiming more for a Paper Mario spin, with battles being very straight-forward with very mild random effects, or full-on Pokémon style in which earning the ire of the RNG is an automatic GAME OVER?

In any event, I wish you the best of things. Keep at it!

Originally posted by KingKoopshi64

One question?
Wouldn't these palettes (below) glitch up on the Overworld due to its palette not registered to the Overworlds Palette?
Palette 8 = Gold
Palette 9 = Grey
Palette E = Varies
Palette F = Varies

Ordinarily yes, those four Yoshi palettes pull garbage data if taken to the overworld. While this patch does not set up any kind of custom overworld Yoshi sprites, it does allow the user to pick which one of the default four colors to assign to each Yoshi. If you decided to turn the Palette F Yoshi into, say, an orange Yoshi, you could set it to appear as red or yellow on the map (or blue or green, but that'd be silly).

Quote

Also is it possible to have a Yoshi have their own dialogue when you first save them like in Super Mario Advance 2?

Possible with this patch, no; possible in general, absolutely. You'd probably have to borrow some message slots from levels to accomplish that, but I imagine that wouldn't be a big deal.

My thanks again to everyone for taking the time to post your kind words, I'm supremely happy to have had the opportunity to provide a resource of this caliber.

Originally posted by Ultima

I hope you enjoy your time as a non lurker now

I most certainly intend to, thanks!

Originally posted by Eminus

It's called the Komposite Koopa! Obviously it was inspired by the classic Skeleton-Snake-Dragon-Head-From-The-Wall from Castlevania.

I quite enjoy enemies like this. It's crazy looking and kind of intimidating at first, but it really doesn't seem too domineering a threat by itself - which of course lends itself well to a series of increasingly difficult setups when mixed with other hazards. I look forward to seeing how this critter will be utilized in a level proper.

(I also look forward to a Dry Bones version to bring the Castlevania homage full circle, hint hint.)

~~Now find a way to anchor one of these bad boys to your sprite-carrying goombas.~~

Ahhh yes, this is still looking so very looks-so-good. I'm curious how long it takes one to attain pixel-wizardry of this caliber. I'm afraid my complete artistic ineptitude precludes any critique of the visuals besides "they're really good," so that'll have to serve for now. (I will reiterate that those clouds on the northwest of your map could do with a teeny bit of texture, though I understand it's a recycled image.)

Gameplay-wise, I'm liking what I'm seeing. Might that be MarioE's walljump patch, or is it a custom creation? Is Eszett able to jump off of the same wall multiple times? The super jump seems to charge quickly enough to avoid chopping up the action, which is a good thing. Looking at the camera-scrolling image, though, I have to ask if any thought has been given to the fact that ducking is seemingly used both to charge the jump and to scroll the camera - will these functions be decoupled later? Leaving them shared gets doubly tricky, as the super jump wants to move you very upwards while the camera is now very downwards.

I'm not totally clear on the "change into a spinjump in midair" mechanic - is that something the player does at will to bounce on the special block, or does the block itself bounce the player while spinning them?

At any rate, I'm glad you're gaining ground on this project of yours. I quite look forward to what's to come.

Originally posted by Ondore's Lies

Request: A patch that runs a defined amount of time off the timer when the player uses Select to make an item drop from the reserve box.

The timer should never be reduced below the defined amount of time.

For instance, if the defined time (x) is 50 seconds, pressing Select would dispense the item and 50 seconds are removed from the timer. If pressing Select would the player has 50-100 seconds (If the timer is <x*2), the player gets the item and the timer is reduced to 50 seconds). If the player has less than 50 seconds left, the player should be given the item with no penalty and no change to the clock.

Hm, this was good practice.

Enjoy!

Originally posted by zacmario

This is hard for me to explain. Installing the raccoon patch and ersanio's p meter patch may help understand better.

Anyway when I fly up, then I'm coming back down. As Im falling I can make the p-meter fill up again. I only want it to be able to fill up while on the ground. Like in smb3. I'm sorry this is a piss poor way of explaining it, but I can't think of any other way

Edit:
I figured out the problem, but I don't know how to fix it.
After flying has worn of mario should begin to fall like he is coming down from a jump. But he instead keeps his flying pose. Can anyone help me make mario begin to fall normal after flight is over.

A quick search turns up at least three different raccoon patches - which one in particular might you be using?

In the meantime, though, educated guess suggests your problem is RAM address $72 - finding a way to set it to #$24 after flight is over would probably fix your issue. Normally it gets set to #$0C when jumping from a full sprint (as one must do to fly), which allows the player to accelerate in midair until landing.

I can't imagine how long it took to set all this up, but it was well worth it - this is one quality intro sequence! It sets the mood fairly decisively, but there's a decent amount of subtlety at play, too. I like in particular how the word-flood intensifies with no input from the player before starkly transitioning to a still room, player now in control. I imagine most first-time players would probably sit there for a moment before realizing they're even in control now, which would only add to the effect. And don't think I didn't spy that painting of a ship looming over the player from the get-go!

Also, kudos for making your house look like a house, that has house-y things inside of it. I've seen plenty of hacks over the years that have tried to bill a lamp and a sheet on some crates as a house, so I appreciate your going the extra mile.

If I might pick a few nits, first thing would be the text. I personally think the font itself is fine, but the colors could use some tweaking. I don't know how much freedom you have palette-wise, but I'd give some higher text/background contrast a try. Next is the "GO AWAY" right before the end of the first wave of text. The G being half-sunk in the rest of the letters made me misread the phrase as "OKAY" the first couple of times, though that may just be the consequence of .gif choppiness.

The words seem to be loosely organized into two columns - was this deliberate, or a limitation? It's not super jarring, but the extra degree of organization is at odds with the chaotic "panic" vibe I think you're reaching for. Also, I believe your status bar has just been painted the same color as your background - one can see the text sliding under the numbers on Layer 3 by looking carefully at the top of the screen.

Work in progress though it may be, it's still looking very well executed. Truly fine work!

I still haven't gotten around to trying the demo proper as of yet... Better feedback to be provided [eventually] -

Originally posted by zacmario

Thanks for the reply, And sorry for the late response. I'm using the "much better raccoon patch" I think you are right. Not sure where I need to be to fix this.

link to the code.I put the code up here so it doesn't need to be downloaded.
Hm the patch is a arse load of hex edits so I need a way to check for falling and And set to #$24? . Not sure where to look to edit that in the game. Anyone know?

That patch is just a slightly hex-edited version of the vanilla gravity + cape flight routine, and that turns out to be something of a problem. I had coincidentally been studying that routine for my own needs and I made an earnest effort to come up with a fix for you, but everything I tried bugged out something else due to how the base code is structured. It can most certainly be done, it's just considerably more complicated than I expected (or it really isn't and I'm just not seeing it). I'm disinclined to keep playing with it, but I'll be sure to let you know if I happen upon anything useful in the future.

Originally posted by Ondore's Lies

Name: No Power Up Waste

Type: Patch?

Description: If you collect a powerup which you cannot use (because you already have that power and you also have another one in your reserve box) it gives you a 1UP instead of nothing.

I took a crack at this one as it seemed fairly simple - and it was, though I sure made a mess of it. I hope you don't mind if I post it here, as the code is on the smaller side:

Code

if read1($00FFD5) == $23

sa1rom
	!addr = $6000
	!long = $000000

else

lorom
	!addr = $0000
	!long = $800000

endif

!0DC2	= $0DC2|!addr
!1DFC	= $1DFC|!addr

;--------------------------------------

org $01C545
	autoclean JML TouchPowerup
	NOP


freecode

TouchPowerup:

	CMP !0DC2		; Check item to be placed in reserve against item already in reserve
	BEQ ++			; Run another check if item is a duplicate
	BRA +			; 

	.SetReserve
	TYA			; Retrieve ID of item to store to reserve
	TXY			; Restore index to powerup table
	PLX			; Retrieve index to touched powerup sprite

	+
	STA !0DC2		; Store item to reserve if different
	LDA #$0B		; 
	STA !1DFC		; Play sound
	JML $01C54D|!long	; Return to grant powerup as usual

	++
	PHX			; Preserve index to touched powerup sprite
	TYX			; Place index to powerup reward table in X
	TAY			; Save ID of item to (potentially) be placed in reserve
	LDA $01C524|!long,x	; Check if touched powerup would change player powerup status
	DEC			; 
	BNE .SetReserve		; Set reserve item if powerup status is changing
	PLX			; Retrieve index to touched powerup sprite if not
	JML $01C5FE|!long	; Jump to routine to give player a 1-UP

Tested, and seems to work fine in the context of vanilla Super Mario World; I don't know what other changes you've made to the powerup system, however, so if something isn't behaving properly, just let me know.

(restricted)

File Name:	Powerup Instead of 1-up
Added:	2011-05-13 06:55:24 PM
Authors:	wiiqwertyuiop
Tool:	xkas
Requires Free Space:	Yes
Bug Fix:	No
Featured:	No
Description:	This patch will give you a powerup when you get 100 coins instead of a 1-up.
Download:	Download Backup - 536 bytes

Merged with Star When 100 Coins, also by wiiqwertyuiop, and submitted as an update to the latter. Both patches were nearly identical.