SMW2+4 and Golden Yoshi Returns Again

Four-level demo of my new Yoshi's Island hack, SMW2+4, has been released.









Video

Not sure about the future of this hack. My ROM is severely fucked up for some reason. Think it may have something to do with the fact that I'm using SMW2+2 as a base, which was created with EggVine, and now I'm using Golden Egg. I could be completely wrong.

Notes/Known Issues:
-Title screen/level icons are the same as SMW2+2. They'll be done at a later time if I fix the issues with my ROM and continue the hack
-Text on Game Over screen is glitched. No idea why.

Download Demo

Lol WHAT?
That was like the most unexpected thing ever.
I know you've been away from SMWC numerous times now but before you left last time you seemed so pissed, I already thought you were scared off forever now, so welcome back!
Anyway, what I can see from the screenshots, the level design is interesting, solid and fun as always and I'm looking forward to playing these four levels.

As for the ROM being f***ed up... That's partly Golden Egg's merit.
Your chances would be a lot greater if you used a clean ROM instead of a used one, because of level relocation it's likely there's already junk data and free space gaps too small to fit a level into them.
In case you plan to make a mini-hack, fine, you can do it with Golden Egg, but if you're planning to create a "full" hack, it's very likely your levels will be messed up, because Golden Egg will merge levels together, since it doesn't leave two bytes (one byte if Screen Exits are used) of free space between level data.
Aside from that, Golden Egg seems limitless, which is dangerous for a full hack. Since you never see how many bytes are used for levels, you're abet to use as many objects/sprites as you wish, which is likely making you generous and build larger levels. But one time, Golden Egg will say "No free space in ROM found." and then you're screwed.

*Edit*
I might be able to tell you how to fix the Game Over screen once I see it in the ROM.

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31

Eh that blows.

I figured it had to do something with the fact that I was using SMW2+2 as a base.

Not quite sure what my next step should be...but thank you for the insight.

By the way my motivation to start this hack came from playing New Yoshi's Island. It was very good.

Wow, thank you, it means quite a bit to me to see you writing this.
(raocow is LPing it at the moment and I believe he fears Secret 6 a lot. Was it very hard for you to make it?)

Also, in order to fix the thing with the Game Over screen, change the two bytes at 0x8606B [86 49] to [80 47]. I've noticed that the text section in the ROM is very messed up, so there might be more issues like that.

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31

Thanks, that fixed the issue.

Not sure what to do with the rest of the hack, though. Seems like the more I use it, the more levels get overlapped by one another.

You'd need to rescue what can be rescued. In order to continue it, you need to extract the level data from the ROM and insert it into a clean ROM (this, of course will revert all ASM, GFX and other non-level changes). I can do that for you in case you want to continue the hack.
As for Golden Egg, I'd recommend using a backup ROM for changes for design levels, then porting them intelligently to the "real" ROM for the hack, so Golden Egg cannot mess your levels up. This way, you can have the advantages of Golden Egg for editing, but none of its disadvantages. Using EggVine still is the safest method, though, but since it's user-unfriendly and it takes longer to create levels using EggVine you might not want to use EggVine anymore.

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31

Well thanks for that offer, I will have to think about it.

After being spoiled by Golden Egg, I really don't want to go back to EggVine. As for graphics, I don't think I edited anything other than the SMW2+2 graphics which were already in there. As for ASM, I think all I applied was the No Intro patch. I suppose all other hex edits would need to be redone as well. I also edited some sprite sets with YIPES.

Yes, all the Hex-changes are reverted as well.
Sprite Sets can be ported easily, though, it's way easier than porting levels, actually.
As for the graphics, simply keep the AllGFX.bin file of SMW2+2 and apply it to the fresh ROM. You might need to port the tilemaps of the Title Screen as well, since it's likely they've been altered as well (Mattrizzle did that for you, afair). Then, some other things, like Palette Edits, the 16 Yoshi colors and of course, text and message box pointers.
Patches can be re-applied easily.

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31

Alright, I guess the only thing I would need help with is porting my levels to a clean ROM. The rest I could probably figure out.

Well anyway, I feel I should say something relevant to the demo itself. I tried to make these levels challenging, because people seems to like challenging levels over easy ones. And as mentioned before, I also made some new sprite sets. Other than that, it's pretty standard Yoshi's Island hack fare.

Firstly, I am thrilled to see you returning, Jacob. I actually missed you quite a lot in your absence and I like Yoshis Fan I was afraid you weren't going to come back. But I don't have to worry any more, so welcome back!

Secondly, the screenshots look amazing! I love the header settings you've used in your levels, and the design looks very interesting and fun to play! I can't wait to see more of this hack!

Jacob, I have extracted the level data and re-inserted them into a clean ROM:



You are using 11 rooms right now (not counting 1-5) and you've used 4,678 bytes more space than the original game did use for these rooms. If that continues, you will need 94,411 bytes of free space for the full hack, which is close to the border of not being affordable anymore.

I have inserted your level data into the space starting from 0x11554A. They are grouped closely together, you can't add any more objects/sprites in these levels anymore without relocating them.

What's done:
-Levels inserted (rooms 0x00, 0x01, 0x03, 0x36, 0x3A, 0x3B, 0x3C, 0x3E, 0x6E, 0x82, 0x99)
-Entrance Data was ported (only for 1-1 to 1-4)
-Midring Data was ported (only for 1-1 to 1-4)
-Sprite Sets were ported
-16 Yoshi colors are available + Palettes from SMW2+2 were ported
-Intro Cinema sequence and Intro Level are disabled

What's not done:
-No custom graphics
-No ASM patches
-No messages


I have made a patch for you with all these changes:
SMW2+4 Bowdlerized Edition

In case you don't want the levels to be inserted in the free space starting from 0x11554A, you can also download this:
RAW levels.zip

Then, overwrite the space from 0x11554A to 0x1201FF with [FF]-bytes.
The content of these files can be inserted into the ROM, then all you need to do is changing the corresponding pointer.

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31

Thank you for your efforts, they're appreciated.

I was originally planning on making it another 5-world hack like SMW2+2, not sure if that factored into your calculations. I have been using a lot up in my levels so far. When you play the demo, you'll notice the levels have an assload of decorations in them.

Yes, I have seen and played the levels and they are very tricky for being so early levels. From what my feeling about it is, this hack tends more to be Kamek's Revenge-style than SMW2+2-style. Of course Kamek's Revenge has had some weird and experimental design, which wasn't evident in this hack to me, but the difficulty and design style remove themselves from the SMW2+2 feel, which is not a judgment, but simply a state descripition.
As for making the hack a 5-world hack, I have not made it possible to play Secret levels, so you must do that tweak yourself. As for my calculations, I have counted the number of rooms, and Yoshi's Island has 222 of them. So my calculation was:
(222 / 11) * 4,678 bytes = Estimated amount of Free Space being used.
Thus, the number of levels doesn't matter, since I assumed you'd use all 222 rooms for the hack.

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31

So yeah, nice to meet you again here... Jacob (Golden Yoshi)

As for some reason, you can increase enemy boss's health. Or even make the boss battle harder. Just like Yoshis Fan did. You may also make level in early world easily, while in late world start up harder.

EDIT: L-L-LEVEL UP!!

Hey! I just wanted to say I'm very excited that you're making a new YI hack. I really liked SMW2+3. I just hope you don't take the deadly save-state difficulty route, because SMW2+3 can actually be played on the Wii emu without using save-states, which is one of the reasons why I like it so much, and I would love to be a able to play this there as well.

I have the same problem as you when it comes to Golden egg, only my 2nd world seems to keep opening up after I beat 1-2 for some reason. I want to preserve my couple of levels as well. I'll talk to Yoshi's fan about it later and see if he can help me like he helped you.

Anyways, not to go off topic, but keep it up, and I looking forward to more progress.

Probably the SMW+ hacks.

Decided to follow in Yoshis Fan footsteps and create an insanely difficult level like Secret 6 in New Yoshi's Island.

Golden Yoshi Returns Again

Another section of Golden Yoshi Returns Again:

Looks nice, which level is that? 1-8?
I'm looking forward to playing more levels of this hack.
(Also, be careful not to overuse those spikeball-throwing enemies, since each of them spikeballs costs 1 SuperFX slot and you can follow them, meaning one can abuse them to provoke SuperFX overload.)

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NEW! SMW2 Yoshi's Island is done!
Last update: 2012-12-31