Author Topic: The Immortal (NES)  (Read 34112 times)

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Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #15 on: April 06, 2013, 02:33:39 pm »
Here's the fourth level. This one took even longer than usual thanks to having to locate a bunch of traps and an item hidden by the lower walls of two rooms that must be navigated with a magic carpet that punishes you with horrible controls.

Next stop, level 5 which features another deadly room where I'll have to spend lots of time mapping out the narrow safe path through it.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2013, 09:42:19 pm by TerraEsperZ »
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
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Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #16 on: April 09, 2013, 09:48:39 pm »
Here's the fifth level with that frustrating room I mentioned in my last post, the red one. You're normally supposed to navigate it using the worm sensor, an item that emits (for a rather short time) a tone whose pitch rises the nearer you get to an area where a giant worm will pop out of the ground and eat you, but you get to meet the developers of the game if you avoid using the sensor ;). That must have been quite a challenge at the time.

Only two rather short stages remain. Normally there would be an extra spider level right after this one, but it was cut from the NES version.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2013, 09:49:55 pm by TerraEsperZ »
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2013, 07:41:13 pm »
Level 6's finished with only one more to go. I wish I could map the original Apple IIgs version since I feel it's the best looking version of the game even if it's not the most complete (it's pretty close to all the other version except the NES one which is a bit of a special port). Combats are resolved on the main map with a few sword swings while most subsequent versions feature separate closeup view, enemies with a lot more endurance and some pretty gory fatalities when you kill them. However, I fear this might require means I do not presently master such as a working Apple IIgs emulator with savestates whose memory I can successfully edit with Cheat Engine.

Anyway, I've realized that the "Noteworthy rooms" sections in the "Secrets & Traps" versions are pretty arbitrary and I stand by that. I've included all the truly deadly traps and the secrets but only included strategies for the more difficult puzzles and enemies. There has to be some challenge left for players after all, such as which item is used where for most part.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2013, 07:49:21 pm by TerraEsperZ »
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #18 on: April 17, 2013, 09:01:46 pm »
Here are the maps for the last level, Level 7. And I'm finally done!

Considering how old and relatively obscure this game is, I don't expect many people here to be familiar with it, but all the same, I'd appreciate some comments or criticism before submitting the maps to the site.
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #19 on: April 19, 2013, 03:34:47 pm »
Since I'll be gone all weekend, I've decided to submit these as they are, and if anyone notices a spelling mistake or a graphic error, then I'll simply correct it then.
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
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-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
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Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #20 on: April 24, 2013, 10:03:46 pm »
I know I'm most likely the only person who still cares so much about this game, but I recently started poking around the original Apple IIGS version to try and test the feasibility of mapping it.

Simply emulating the game was difficult enough (the controls are buggy as hell with the character always moving downward and left despite no key being pressed, no savestates, etc) and I have no doubt that giving this version the same treatment as I gave to the NES version would be very demanding. But I've already managed to hack the camera using Cheat Engine. It's far from perfect as it doesn't update the memory often enough, jumping at random from the camera's normal position to the chosen coordinates for a split second every few seconds or so, so I have to be really quick with the screen capture. But it's allowed me to capture the full "empty" maps for the first few stages, meaning you see the outline of all the normal rooms without their interior, as well as various inaccessible rooms scattered all around for decoration. Or so I thought...

Below, you can see the full map for Level 1 (in green), which also happens to contain all of Level 2 (in red) as well! There is a lonely unused room on the bottom right whose purpose I haven't been able to determine. Better emulation tools might help there but are unlikely to ever become available given the age of the platform. Also, Levels 3 and 4 are on the same map together, as are Levels 5, 6 and 7, with Level 8 standing all alone.



Another neat thing I noticed is this version uses more capital letters than the NES one with its limited tile memory. Thinking back to the letters I had to "improvise", I decided to try and see just how far off the mark my attempt had been. Kegs32, the emulator I was using, is pretty barebone so there was no way to see the graphics in memory, and I quickly gave up on ripping the font from the game's files which use a proprietary format in addition to being packed in disk image files.

I *did* use an hexadecimal editor on the disk image (which was uncompressed) to search for and replace the very first lines of dialog of the game (thankfully stored in plain text) by all the letters and numbers so that I could *then* capture that while playing.

Turns out the official capital letters are somewhat close to what I came up on my own. You can see the comparison below, with my original letters in the first row and the real letters right below.



I don't know if I'll actually try to map the Apple IIGS version given how difficult it is to simply move around, not to mention edit the game's memory, but I'm always itching for a challenge...
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline Maxim

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #21 on: April 25, 2013, 02:24:34 pm »
Challenge: finish your existing projects first! :-)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #22 on: April 25, 2013, 02:58:52 pm »
I can do both! In fact, it's actually better for me to do what I've been doing for the last few months, which is to work on more than one project at a time. I typically spend time advancing older projects toward some semblance of completion (which can be tiring) while at the same time recharging my batteries by playing around with newer, less serious projects. I've found that spending all my time on a single game tends to result in me dropping everything after a couple months, either out of frustration or because I'm just sick of seeing the same game constantly.

As I'm speaking now, I've also been making some real progress in two other unrevealed games. I just want to be farther along that I am before showing anything.
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline Will

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #23 on: April 26, 2013, 01:27:15 am »
I must say those improvised letters you did for the NES version were very good. The Apple II version of Immortal does have a richer colour scheme and a smoother animation. Go for it.

Offline StarFighters76

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Re: The Immortal (NES)
« Reply #24 on: May 31, 2013, 01:28:17 pm »
Not bad! I was gonna try and map out the game myself, but I couldn't figure out how to even play the game in order to do it lol.
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