/vr/ - Retro Games

>>5632342
>Debuggers
np2debug for debugging PC98 games.

>>5632342
I wish Parallel Worlds was less brutal. Every time i've tried it i love it to death until i start getting butt fucked from every direction and get completely stuck for hours in certain spots wonder what the hell im supposed to do or if i need to pull off some crazy stunt. I'm pretty damn good at ALttP, but i'm not THAT good.

I'd try the dumbed down version, but i hear it's bad.

Translate more psx dating sims, please.

Any recommendations for improvement hacks that make original games pretty much obsolete? As in, anything that would be recommended even to someone who hasn't played the original thing?

Zelda: Trial of Courage is pretty good.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4522/

>>5632342
based thread

Any good MM romhacks lately?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrrPm5dwyrc

>>5632831
The "remake" is the same, only with large chunks cut out to make it easier. No effort was made to make it polished, just stuff removed to make it easier. It's almost like the guy said "Too hard for you retards? Fine, enjoy your fucking empty rooms!"

>>5635047
Actually i just checked the page of the original and saw that it had been updated since i last tried it... maybe i'll give it another go.

>>5632990
I already posted the list I made a few times, look up previous RHG threads.

>>5635384
Are you really gonna be that guy? It would take less effort to just post the list than for that guy to go find it again.

>>5632342
Where's all the SMT randomizers at?

>Finding Variables With Cheat Search for FCEUX: A Primer

See animated image for a rundown of the Cheat Search window.

One way to find where data is stored in RAM is with the Cheat Search. The Cheat search works by making a list of every ram location and the value in that address at that point in time, then paring it down based on how that value changes.

So to start play the game until the variable you want to track down is sure to be loaded and hit the "Reset" button (on the Cheat Search Window!) That will populate the list on the right with every address in ram. Now start playing a bit of the game, then narrowing down the results.
If you think you know the exact value, you can put it in the box next to the "Known Value" button and hit the button.
If you know the value hasn't changed, use the "Equal" button.
"Not Equal", "Greater Than", and "Less Than" are as they say, but if you know exactly how much the value has changed by, you can put that in the box next to the button, and check the check box between them, to specify the parameters for that search.

This way you can easily narrow down the possible addresses to a few locations. If you mess up, or don't find it, just hit "Reset" and start over.

Some things to note:
1) This can only do 8bit values, anything that goes higher than 255 will be stored among two or more bytes and this cheat search will be of less help.
2) The value may not be kept as straightforward as you think. It may be stored in an unpacked Binary Coded Decimal format, or based on the display tile, or maybe the value is calculated as needed whenever called for.
3) The search only acts on the values in the results of the previous search. "Reset" will start the search over with the current ram. Keep this in mind if the game happens to briefly swap chunks of memory around at regular intervals. Notice the option at the bottom of the window.

>Introducing the FCEUX Debugger

See animated image for a rundown of the Debugger window.

The Debugger allows you to examine the state of the NES at any given time and view the code as it is executing. 6502 Assembly and the NES architecture in general is beyond the scope of this post, but resources are available online that describe these topics in detail.

When a game is running, if you just pause the emulation as it speeds through frame after frame, there is no telling where it will stop, so we use breakpoints to stop the program where we want it to. The breakpoints are a trap you set on a certain address (or range of addresses) that will pause the program when it tries to do something to that address, such as read from, write to, or execute and instruction on that address (or any combination thereof.) Conditions can also be specified ie: only break when you write 0x05 or higher to this address.

Once the breakpoint has triggered, the code the will display in the left window. To the right you will find all the different sections of the processor, such as what the current stack looks like, the contents of the registers and so on. By clicking the buttons near the top of that section, you can step through the code and watch it execute. "Run" simply continues running the program as normal. "Step Into" executes only one line of code and will follow into any subroutines that may get called. "Step Over" executes the next line of code but will do a subroutine before breaking again on the line after it returns. "Step Out" runs until the next RTS command, useful for getting out of a function and getting to the code that called it. "Run Line" will execute as much code as would be done in the time it takes to complete one scanline. "128 Lines" does the same but for about half a screen worth of scanlines.

Bookmarks can help you identify locations in the code.

Hint: Double clicking a breakpoint will toggle it on and off, and hex editor will highlight recently changed values.

>Introducing the Code Data Logger

The Code Data Logger is a simple but useful tool. It is helpful in developing a proper disassembly.

See, the only thing a computer can deal in is binary, ones and zeros. That's it. What those bits mean is determined by how it is interpreted. Is it a number, or a letter? Maybe it's an instruction or a pointer to somewhere else in memory. You can't actually know what some chunk of bits in memory are based only on the bits themselves. However the computer doesn't care. You just give it a starting point and it goes off on it's own. It will take the first byte and assume it is an instruction, then load the next zero or more bytes (however much as that particular command needs) as an operand, executes it, then does the very next byte.

So to disassemble machine code back into code, you could start at the beginning and sort of unzip your way through the file, except for the fact that you can change which byte is the next byte to execute via jumps, branches, straight up stack manipulation, or maybe even witchcraft (self modifying code.) These factors make such an approach...

complicated.

Doing a complete job would end up requiring you to emulate the entire system. But hey! You're doing that anyways when you play a ROM on the emulator! This is where the Code Data Logger comes in. You start the logger and it will keep track of every byte in the entire file and watches as the instructions are executed. It will mark each byte as having been used as Code (instructions to the processor) or Data (used by the processor to do the command). You can then play the game until you've done everything the game can do, and by then you'll have marked up the entire file. A disassembler can then use this file to help it create accurate source code which, should, recompile into back into the same game you started with.

Now if you don't understand why anyone would get excited to have the source code for a game, don't worry, this tool just isn't for you.

>>5635809
>you should put in even more effort to spoonfeed this guy even though you already compiled the list to begin with
I don't see your lazy ass recommending anything or giving him the list. And you wanna complain I'm not putting enough effort in? Go fuck yourself. Lazy cunts like you is why I don't do that shit for /vr/ anymore.

>>5637042
>>5632990 here, found it. Many thanks.

>>5637015
>>5637010
>>5637006
nice

>>5632990
I keep an updated folder of personally curated pre-patched improvement romhacks and english translations, plus a few extra that I personally like.

something something don't spoonfeed, fuck you I do what I want and I'd rather have someone enjoy the fruits of my labor than keep it all to myself. But to each their own

https://mega.nz/#F!jpMxlQyZ!oCwbRyPFaMcZl3gOF5mvSg

>>5638886
Good, next time someone asks I'll just demand you show up and post the link.

>>5638995
I don't have to do what you say

>>5638886
Nice, I'll look into it. Thanks

>>5638995
Don't be a fag

>>5638886
you da real mvp

what are the best dmg gb romhacks

Has anyone ever done an improvement patch for this game?
As much as I like it, it would benefit a lot from a few small fixes here and there like increasing the pathetic range of Zero's sword, being able to skip the boatloads of slow dialogue scenes or even just having the Maverick portraits properly fade out when you beat their stages.

Been working on an Alleyway to GameBoy Color hack. This is the title screen so far. I was going for that classic NES game vibe.

>>5641046
I can do nothing but look forward to it.

>>5637541
Thanks!

>>5638886
Just got done searching google and plebbit for a google drive / mega of rom hacks and ended up just patching a bunch of these myself, all the same thanks for sharing, gonna help myself to some of em!

I really wish someone would colorize Kid Dracula GB, or do some fixes on the FC version.

>>5640486
Someone was working on one for the first game I think, coloring in all the bosses to be more than just two colors and intent on improving little things, but abandoned the project.

Aside from the music patch for FFVI on GBA, is there anything else I'm missing for it?

Man, I'd love a romhack for ALttP to add more options for magic and casting spells.

>>5641863
yes, not playing that version in the first place

>>5641046
>colored alleyway
AWW YIS

>>5641935
Like the Link between worlds where magic is ammo for everything?

In Pokemon Yellow, there's a sequence where Oak catches a Pikachu for you and makes that your starter Pokemon. Is it possible to port this sequence to Red and Blue? I've had an idea for a shitmon only hack of RB, and I would force the player to have a Rattata or some other shitmon as their starter, and in addition making any remotely powerful Pokemon like Pidgeot impossible to find.

>>5644302
why not hack pokemon yellow

Anybody got a copy of this romhack by chance?
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2595/
>Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Another Story Name Fixer
it was taken down from RHDN, unfortunately.

>>5644720
I've got what I'm pretty sure is a pre-patched ROM for that: https://mega.nz/#!6sZkACJS!NnBA92f86NY0S2v6jZ1sYNuvgYTpqDvp_AyGpXjbMMs

>>5639193
>gets butthurt I didn't dig around archives for link
>BUT I DON'T HAVE TO DO WHAT YOU SAY
You are a hypocrite, stop demanding shit of other people you wouldn't do yourself.
>>5639443
>you're acting like a fag since you don't do shit people demand of you on the internet
I'd love to hear your logic on that one.

Once again, this is why I don't do shit of value for /vr/ anymore. Everyone here is a demanding faggot who will only demand more, and offer nothing in return.

>>5645168
>>5637332 Here. On second thought, you're a bit of a fag

https://pastebin.com/97q8kT7y here's the list I looked for. I thought I'd help a little.

>>5645168
neck yourself as soon as possible, its your only chance to escape the misery of your existence, poor /vr/poster

>>5645168
Keep crying bitch nigga. You're getting your feelings hurt over nothing

>>5645168
I only reupload ROM hacks to archive.org. Don't expect anyone in this to be helpful.
"Recommended hack" lists are for fags.

Ah, now this is the quality /rhg/ I was expecting.

So, I demand that you not do what I ask you to do! I ask that you pick out a random ronhack, try it and report back here if it was worth playing.

>>5646964
It would be a nice idea to have something like the /vr/ gauntlet for romhacks (taking in account only reasonable romhacks, not just palette swaps or really minor bug fixes)

>>5645079
based thx

>>5644720
>>5645079
Heads up on this, it was taken down because there seems to be a more extensive version out for it now: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/4654/

Why has no one patched the whores back into this game?

>>5641046
Looks pretty fucking sick, dude.

>>5647808
even better!

>>5648559
Is it compressed?
That usually keeps people from trying such things.

Star Ocean: Blue Sphere just got fully translated... in spanish? HUH?

I had to do a double take to confirm this wasn't just a retranslation of an already released english project, but it seems even though an english project did exist it never went anywhere. What the fuck!

>>5653801
Actually not that uncommon, pretty sure the english translation is coming soon.

Was wondering if theres any hacks for this to set the 5th block on but still have level 1 speed for vs mode. If not how much of a hassle would it be to start on this?

>>5644571
Isn't Yellow less documented than RB and has its own share of issues that makes it less desired for hacking? There's probably a reason why Pokemon Brown was a hack of RB and not Yellow.

>>5653801
Based on the French fan translation from years ago.
The English translators spent more time nitpicking on flaws in the FR version, but finally made some progress like actual vwf

>>5652392
Most snes games are by necessity.
however Konami's format is known and only gfx offsets for each game are needed at this point

>>5638886
Hi anon it looks like you're missing Lufia II in your curated list. Just a tip and I'll not charge anything for it!

So, let's say I had a SNES rom that I wanted to completely disassemble, breaking up chunks of assembly by their jumps so I could view the assembly as 'functions' with 'labels' instead instead of a wall of straight up assembly or raw data.

How would I be able to go about this?

any worthwhile jRPG editors?

is no$sns the best snes debugger?

I did a small text edit to banjo kazooie but the rom wont work on my everdrive 64 because it is pal version. Does anyone know how to make it work? It looks like this and flashes between that and a black screen.

I found out about Banjos backpack and did it there but the rom it makes has no audio in P64. Anyone know why?

>>5656373
No idea why the audio was gone but got it all fixed now by just redoing it.

>>5655626
Okay so, expanding on this question by adding the idea I have so far;
I'm thinking I can take the source code of a emulator that already has debugging features in it (bsnes-plus in this case) and make it log the instructions it executes and where, then play through the entirety of the game in question so it can log as much code as reasonably possible.
Then at the end of it all, have it output the log into some kind of custom format, splitting the assembly code into different files based off the code location, and splitting the code within those files by 'labels'. Perhaps even make it log how many times a set of code is executed and when it was in the run so I have a general idea of where it might be used (Though I'd still mostly be running blind anyway).

From there, write a program to reinterpret all of those files back into the rom.

The glaring obvious issue here is that I may not ever have the game hit every bit of assembly even if I'm running through it myself. So there's still a good chunk of the game that doesn't get split into files this way. So there'd be kind of a 'junk' file.
I'd also have to figure out what to do with other media within the rom such as images or sound.


I'm probably going to try doing this, but I thought I'd say here in case someone can see any huge flaws with this idea, besides the obvious potential slowdown and instability of modifying a emulator to log absolutely everything and the 'junk' file thing I just mentioned.
Anyone see any issues with this or a potential better way of doing it?

Is there some way to download all of a users hacks at once on RHDN?

>>5656572
Wouldn't you have to do a complete run-through of the game in question though? You'd have to do everything there is to do too. Just to make sure you run all the executed code.
I would've thought it would be easier to run through it and find which data is being executed and which is being loaded into VRAM or something.
As for labels, you would have to manually give them meaningful names but there probably is a disassembler that spits out some random ones (eg. jmp label_213).

>>5656886
>Wouldn't you have to do a complete run-through of the game in question though?
Yep. Though the game in question (Brainlord) I happen to know well enough that I can casually speedrun it in a few hours. Add on a bit more time to try and make sure I do everything I can possibly do in the game of course, but it's not that big of a deal to me.
Though like I said in my other post, I would no doubt end up with some assembly still not processed in used in some way, even if it's just a little bit.

As for the image data, yeah you're right, I've been thinking about it more and I think I can separate media types by how the emulator runs it, like audio and images. Something gets processed by the SMP, treat it as audio and store it away in some meaningful way. Something gets processed into VRAM, store it as a sprite. Bonus points if I can figure out the image format myself and convert it into pngs and have the 'recompiler' (lack of a better term) convert it back into the games format.

As for labels, I have a few ideas but for the most part it'll be assigned according to their location. The large majority of the work I think would be from me having to go through and try to relabel things manually as I tinker with them and figure out what exactly they do and document them from there.

I've also been thinking I could potentially create a separate program to visually 'map' the 'functions' in a scrollable/zoomable chart, as a large overview of what's going on. This mixed with somehow incorporating timestamps when something gets processed, and I think it could give me a clear indication on what's going on with the big picture of the game.


The longer I think about this, the more I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it.
I'll probably release this whole thing as a kit for anyone to use. It wouldn't be game specific, so this as a tool could help a lot of rom hackers get a good general overview of a rom instead of having to spend hours tearing through unbroken lines of assembly.

>>5656947
I've never done anything like this, but I think I would do a code/data logger where there would be a text file and each line would correspond to a byte in the rom, and you could fill the line with tags. Some tags could be code or data, jsr landing points, exit points, suggested label names, frequency of use (no ideas how to calculate that one), chunks to externalize as binary files, and anything else that might help. This way you can do multiple sessions to collect data and not depend on getting everything in one go. Once the entire game is covered, you can use the metadata file to disassemble the rom.

>>5656619
no

>>5658424
that would be a nice feature

>>5658463
I don't know, it sounds like work to me. Why develop features when you can just paywall a couple of forum sections and then not do anything at all, ever?

How the fuck do you compile a MSU-1 playlist together, much less figure out which track is which in a game without documentation? Kind of want to use the MSU-1 inclusion in Secret of Mana Turbo to put in remastered tracks to both free up loading and not have the music interrupted by sounds all the time.

Though i'm also curious how difficult some character palette editing would be, given pic related tweaked the character sprite colors in its cover/book stuff and it would be kinda interesting to use that in game for some variety.

>>5659910
well I was retarded and the author kept track of all the songs in the readme, so i made some minor progress with early game songs, but not knowing how to properly loop some of these has led to manual editing and ending of things that I probably shouldn't be doing.

Hey.

A lot of DQ players are wanting to play DQ4, but don't want the inferior NES version when every other game is on SNES or later. Currently, the PSX version of DQ4 is untranslated, and the DS version removed the party chat feature, which leads most people to recommend the mobile version which is pretty shit imo.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any interest in working on either the PSX version of the game, or copying party chat from the mobile game to the DS version (info here http://boards.4channel.org/vg/thread/256381154#p256409473)? The latter seems to be more practical than a full translation or transplanting the DS script into the PSX version, but I'm no expert.

>>5632342
A lot of DQ players are wanting to play DQ4, but don't want the inferior NES version when every other game is on SNES or later. Currently, the PSX version of DQ4 is untranslated, and the DS version removed the party chat feature, which leads most people to recommend the mobile version which is pretty shit imo.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any interest in working on either the PSX version of the game, or copying party chat from the mobile game to the DS version (info here >>>/vg/256409473 )? The latter seems to be more practical than a full translation or transplanting the DS script into the PSX version, but I'm no expert.

>>5661563
dq4 on the nes is the better version. infact dq 1-4 on the nes are the best versions because they're more challenging, especially dq2

>>5662030
DQ3 on nes us the easiezt version due to the parry glitch though.

Even then the advancements in presentation and music makes the snes versions much better still.

>>5661563
Not exactly what you're looking for but someone has made a patch that makes it so the ds version has the script of the nes version. This obviously doesn't have party chat and doesn't apply to the postgame as neither of those were in that version but still.

>>5655551
Got you covered kouhai. There were a couple good looking options, so I included both. I also included Lufia 1

>>5664404
God bless anon. The recommended romhacks in this thread are in need of an update, yours is a bit of fresh air

Id like to hack some ultima games, where to begin?

>>5664610
Well, first thing is to look for any freebies, search rhdn, datacrystal, and google for any documentation or tools that has been done up already.
Second, start your own notes and poke around a bit. See if the graphics are uncompressed and note the address of where it is located, make a table file and look for text. Skim the rom through in a hex editor and take note of anything noticeable (chunks of blank space, repeating patterns, suspicious runs of similar numbers.) You may get lucky and stumble across enemy data tables, map data, menu layouts, or whatever. Don't spend too much time on this blind search, you're just looking for any obvious stuff.
Then start considering what you want to change and focus on that. Identify the locations of character stats with a cheat search, use those locations as breakpoints to find functions. Corrupt chunks of the rom to try and stumble across map data.
Find data then figure out how it works, then make the changes you want to do.

I've got a question about snes9x. Why do messages never disappear and get erased by screen movement in the standard tv mode but not the s/composite/rgb versions? It's really fucking annoying but I would rather play with standard than blurry shit.

are there good modern tools to translate PSX games, or is it still very complicated? haven't looked into it for a couple years

>>5666267
Do you think it might be worth it just to rewrite it? I mean its not a very graphically advanced game, maybe apart from the dungeons. The gameboy might be a nice fit, what with it having scrolling support

>>5667508
what

>>5644302
>Is it possible to port this sequence to Red and Blue?
Late reply but if you're using the disassemblies, you definitely can. All the code related to that battle is related to BATTLE_TYPE_PIKACHU in pokeyellow, so you'd need to add an extra battle type to pokered and then port every check for if it's that battle type from pokeyellow to pokered. Honestly it seems feasible to me, since all the code is formatted the same between both disassemblies.

Have any of you played Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth? I've been playing with the idea of making a balance hack for it, since it's an otherwise cool game. I've done some basic tests and I can write some asm hacks and found some free space to put it.

I'm just looking for ideas for those who've played it regarding the main things you'd want a patch to contain. This would be for the PSX version, while the DS port is cool it doesn't address the balance issues and it's harder for me to edit.

decided to have a go at snes romhacking, by displaying gear stats on the equip menu for the Sin of Mana hack so you dont have to constantly check the xml while playing.
Still not fully functional but im happy with the result

>>5635047
in all honesty, my only really big gripe with the original parallel worlds is that nearly the entire set of 'dark world' dungeons are fucking lamp lit only. If pretty much the entire game were regularly lit, then I'd find it a lot better.

>>5668440
If you have what it takes to make a game from scratch, doing that will always offer much more flexibility and control. Hacking is about figuring out how to change what's there into something else. I suppose you may want to decide what it is you want and what you'd rather do achieve it. Both directions have their own challenges.

>>5669286
based