Author Topic: Battletoads (NES)  (Read 75944 times)

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Offline Maxim

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #30 on: September 20, 2007, 02:56:56 am »
I like it when a British-made game has local references, like the Sooty references in Lemmings level names.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #31 on: September 20, 2007, 03:51:45 pm »
Cool! I've always wondered why they used such a weird name :)



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline marioman

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #32 on: September 20, 2007, 05:59:51 pm »
I figured that it had something to with Chewbacca.  Shows you what I know.  >_<

Offline JonLeung

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #33 on: October 18, 2007, 09:00:58 am »
I guess Terra's still in France.



Kinda excited to see this one when it's finished.  :)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #34 on: October 20, 2007, 08:06:08 pm »
I came back tonight (and will post more tomorrow), but I have 4 sections completed out of 6 for Turbo Tunnel. So far, the fourth is 15816 pixels long, and I think the remaining two will actually beat that...



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
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: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #35 on: October 26, 2007, 11:45:40 am »
Progress on this is unfortunately postponed until I can either recover my hard drive data or I've finally bought a new computer which *won't* fry my HD every month or so...



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline JonLeung

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #36 on: November 13, 2007, 12:36:18 pm »
Now that you do have a new computer, what's the status on this?

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #37 on: November 13, 2007, 01:28:25 pm »
I should resume this in a few days. I've been wanting to play without mapping (for once) for a long time and I've been indulging in it for the last few days. I'm also getting used to my new mouse, keyboard and Windows; the mouse doesn't feel the same as before and I'm so used to specific keyboard strokes to do most stuff that I keep stumbling in Vista.



That, plus the fact that my new keyboard has a totally retarded arrangement of the Home/End/Page Up/Page Down/Insert/Delete keys, with which I keep deleting texts when I'm just trying to bring the cursor to the beginning or end of a line.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline marioman

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #38 on: November 13, 2007, 06:14:15 pm »
By the way, have you seen the <url=http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/>new mac commercials</url>?  They are really bashing Vista.  My favorite quote from them is, "Ask not what Vista can to for you, but what you can but for Vista".  Just a little chuckle for those who find Vista a little irritating.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #39 on: December 04, 2007, 10:10:25 pm »
Despite all appearances, this isn't dead at all. Having a new computer just gave me the urge to actually *play* some games instead of just mapping  them. And after discovering the Mega Man Zero series, well I'm taking a little detour mapping its first game, and will be back to Battletoads once I'm finished.



So say... about 2 weeks.



*Promised*



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
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: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #40 on: March 29, 2010, 08:44:37 pm »
Yeah, so I messed up on my promise over two years ago, but seeing Battletoads maps submitted to the site kinda hurt what little pride I have, so I really feel the need to restart this and finally finish it. I'll see about fixing the first post as soon as possible but for now, I'll simply say that I've managed to fully map Level 11 - Clinger-Winger including accurately mapping all the offscreen areas thanks to some rather clever memory hacking (well, clever for me at least...).

Anyway, here's the full map which I'll comment right after:



You'll notice two things:

1) The upper-left area is finally complete. By searching the memory for changing values while moving vertically, I quickly found the relevant address for the player's vertical position. However, the address being 8-bit (0 to 255) meant that it could not possibly cover the whole range of positions for the map which is 1536 pixels high. So I searched for another value that combined with the first one would make a 16-bit address, which I did by searching for values that changed by 1 whenever the first value went beyond either 00 or FF. Anyway, I found that value and I started playing with both only to discover that whenever I placed the player outside of the screen, the screen wouldn't scroll vertically to center itself on him.

Not being an experienced hacker like Maxim, I had to get around the screen update routine anyway I could. So instead I simply moved the player at the top of the screen but still visible right at the start of the stage, then I let the screen scroll up to it, then moved it again just the right amount until I got to the top of the map. And since the toad kept walking slowly forward without ever reaching the wheel, I finally captured all the missing area that had eluded me until then.

2) Right below the starting point, I previously showed nothing because I simply couldn't reach the area at all. Well, on the finished map I'll still show nothing but for a good reason: as you can see on this image, this is where the map for Level 13 - Armageddon is located, albeit with the colour palettes of Level 11. Cool little find right?
« Last Edit: March 29, 2010, 09:26:14 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: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #41 on: March 30, 2010, 10:53:45 pm »
Nothing new to offer right now, but I'm currently working on turning the Level 6 - Karnath's Lair maps (the ones with the snakes) into animated PNG files. Even though the format isn't officially recognized, it's supported by browser such as Firefox and Opera and doesn't screw with the palette like the GIF format does (though I haven't found a way to optimize these APNG files so they're quite a bit larger than GIFs).

(But seriously, the main reason is that I remember having a hard time finding a free program that could make animated GIFs *and* didn't mangle them in the process)

Me discovering how to make APNGs has re-opened the possibility of making an animated 32 frames map of Level 12 - The Revolution. Of course, I'll have to find a way to optimize the calculations required for the horizontal placement of all the objects at every angle for every frame, so I expect at least a couple of hours of brain torture. But hey, if the end result looks good, it'll be all worth it :)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2010, 10:55:39 pm by TerraEsperZ »
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline Revned

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Re: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #42 on: March 31, 2010, 12:59:41 am »
I'm looking forward to seeing it. I really like those test maps I made for Mega Man 3.

I never really looked into the different tools for creating APNGs, but as long as they don't recompress the frames you should be able to optimize the individual frames before combining them. In theory all that happens is the main data chunks from each PNG are directly copied into the APNG along with some extra headers for timing information.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #43 on: March 31, 2010, 06:09:59 am »
The tool I've been using (APNG Anime Maker) produces a 24-bit colour file and ignores any bit rate optimization done to the frames prior to combining them, though I haven't checked if it's because it isn't consistent throughout (the 1st frame is 8 bit while all the others are 4 bit). I'll take a look at other available programs and post some more tonight.
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline Revned

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Re: Battletoads (NES)
« Reply #44 on: March 31, 2010, 08:36:10 am »
Hmm, I guess I wasn't thinking about bit-depths. According to the specification, each frame has to have the same bit-depth and palette. I don't know if you can force PNGOUT or similar not to mess with the colors.