No Life - No Time

Submission Details

Name:	No Life - No Time
Author:	Nitrocell Inc.
Added:	2023-03-10 07:19:32 AM
Tool:	Asar
Requires Free Space:	No
Bug Fix:	No
Featured:	No
Description:	"No Life - No Time" will let player to continue playing level even after Time reaches 0, but will take one life (decrease for 0) and add extra 50 seconds to the Time. This process repeats every time if player has more than 1 life. IF player has 1 life, next Time = 0 will kill Mario and proceed to Game Over. For more info, see readme.txt.
Tags:	extra-time lives lorom sa-1 time time-up
Comments:	2 (jump to comments)

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Comments (2)

Nitrocell Inc. Author 2023-03-13 10:34:43 PM Link

Glad it's accepted. Sure I will update it sooner

Maarfy 2023-03-10 07:20:22 AM Link

This patch definitely requires some designing around, but it can make for an interesting risk/reward setup if used thoughtfully. If you ever care to update this patch, it would be nice to give the user more control over how much time is restored, though I realize that the way SMW's timer is handled doesn't make that trivial to do.

Some Notes on Optimization: Show/Hide

This patch can be optimized a fair bit despite its small size.

Firstly, if you only need to check whether a value is zero or non-zero, then CMP.b #$00 is redundant and may be omitted completely.

Second, it's possible to decrement a RAM address directly if the address is not long (i.e. six digits, like $7F837B). A sequence like this -

Code

LDA.w $0DBE|!addr
SEC
SBC.b #$01
STA.w $0DBE|!addr

- can be replaced with a single command:

Code

DEC $0DBE|!addr

Next, you may omit the STZ $0F33|!addr, since this address must always be zero to run your code in the first place given your hijack location.

Finally, whenever you invoke a long ROM address in your code (such as JSL $02ACE5 or JML $00F606), adding a FastROM mirror will grant a minor performance boost for users using FastROM. For this patch, that would mean adding a |!bank modifier to your call of the death routine, as JSL $00F606|!bank.

It's something of an intermediate-level optimization, but you can also wring out a byte and a few more cycles by capitalizing on the nature of RTL. For the branch of your code that kills the player, you can replace JSL $00F606 : RTL with JML $00F606. It may look strange to JSL to your code without ending it with RTL, but in practice you'd be using the death routine's RTL to return from your hijack for you. Just as a JSL can jump to anywhere, RTL can return from anywhere, no matter where it is.

Obviously your patch was accepted, so none of the above are deal-breakers. Just some tips and tricks to keep in mind as you continue to learn ASM.

Tested with Asar 1.81, Lunar Magic 3.33, SA-1 1.40, Snes9x 1.59.2, BSNES Accuracy 0.7.1.