Jul -- The Cutting Room Floor: Weird Discoveries

Foxhack
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Posted on 05-04-13 07:56:27 PM (last edited by Foxhack at 05-05-13 12:53:57 AM)

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Originally posted by omega59
Alright, but it's easier to edit instead of make entirely with all of the info.

But that's not a good idea for me. If I start editing something I'll either finish it all in one shot, or get distracted by other stuff.

Case in point!

You REALLY don't want to get me overly distracted!

Edit: I also just found out that the game was not released on the Xbox 360 - but the episodes have 360 button graphics. I'm not sure if the PC release supports the pad or not, so they may be used. There's PS3 buttons in there so they may have just used the same assets between versions, like Sanctum of Slime did.

Edit:
Well, the PS3 version uses a different texture format. I wonder if there's some sort of standard? The other PS3 games I've checked out also use different formats than their PC counterparts (except for Sanctum of Slime, but that game's all weird as it is.)

Also, the script files have COMMENTS! Lots of funny comments!

The PS3 has system-specific asset files so it may have different files.

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BMF54123

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Posted on 05-05-13 03:46:14 AM

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The grey palette is used when Tanooki Mario turns into a statue, and the green Raccoon Leaf is just a result of changing the sprite's palette index to point to the green palette (also used by green Koopas, Piranha Plants, 1-up Mushrooms, etc.). Nothing special, I'm afraid.

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Mezmorize
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Posted on 05-05-13 09:01:57 AM (last edited by Mezmorize at 05-05-13 09:31:43 AM)

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Damn your right.
With the Mario Is Gray code on, as Tanooki Mario he's not gray when you turn into a statue, oh well.

But here's something else for the NES that might be worth looking into.
I made a few Game Genie codes that deal with the menu shown when you press the select button.
One of them shows Japanese characters in place of where the enemies are, and English characters where apples are.

Select Button Shows Where Objects Are
ENOAUPEI

The next code removes the apples and enemies from the screen when you leave the select button menu.

Select Button Removes Enemies And Apples
EYOAUZEI

And here's the other more worthless codes I came up with, but I don't remember a give up menu being there:

Select Button Shows Both Characters In 1P Mode
EYXEVPEI

Select Button Shows Give Up Menu
ENSASPEI

Select Button Instantly Shows Give Up Menu
ESKESPEY

Edit:
Guess it would be helpful to name the game =P
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (U) [!]

Edit 2:
Well, it appears only the first code is needed, it shows the items and freezes enemies all in one.
Think it's also showing items that are inside of boxes, which I had made a code for:

X-Ray Vision (Items Visible Thru Boxes)
ENKESLEI

X-Ray Vision (alt)
ENSEXLEI

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BMF54123

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Posted on 05-05-13 03:08:05 PM

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Originally posted by Mezmorize
And here's the other more worthless codes I came up with, but I don't remember a give up menu being there

GIVE UP? is shown if you press several controller buttons at once (I don't remember which ones). It's supposed to be used in case you get trapped somewhere, since the game does not have a timer. Super Mario Bros. 2 has a similar feature.

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Mezmorize
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Posted on 05-05-13 10:12:38 PM

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Originally posted by BMF54123

GIVE UP? is shown if you press several controller buttons at once (I don't remember which ones). It's supposed to be used in case you get trapped somewhere, since the game does not have a timer. Super Mario Bros. 2 has a similar feature.

Alright, thanks for the info. Figured I would post a couple images to kinda clarify what I was talking about, shouldn't have posted the stuff about give up and such.

With this code on:
PEOAXOGA

When you press select, characters like this are shown:

The Japanese characters represent where an enemy is on the screen, when you press select again to leave this black menu. The white characters represent apples. And the red non-Japanese characters represent items that are inside of boxes/invisible.

Here's an image after pressing select again to leave this menu:

In that instance the enemies/apples didn't get removed from gameplay like it does sometimes. Instead it freezes the enemies in place and you can walk thru them without being damaged. Also it (sometimes) turns on x-ray vision so you can see where the items are that are normally invisible or inside of boxes.

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http://oldgamehacking.com/

Foxhack
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Posted on 05-05-13 11:02:26 PM

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I finished Back to the Future tonight and I think I'm gonna have to go around the series of articles a different way.

All episodes have separate resource files, but several of the textures are in all the archives, even if they're not directly referenced or used (for example, the inside of a room that can only be accessed in one episode is in the files for five of them.) There'd be no point in mentioning them all several times.

I may just make one -main- article with subpages for every episode.

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omega59
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Posted on 05-06-13 01:21:51 AM

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Originally posted by Foxhack
I finished Back to the Future tonight and I think I'm gonna have to go around the series of articles a different way.

All episodes have separate resource files, but several of the textures are in all the archives, even if they're not directly referenced or used (for example, the inside of a room that can only be accessed in one episode is in the files for five of them.) There'd be no point in mentioning them all several times.

I may just make one -main- article with subpages for every episode.

They are after all just parts of the game. I consider the whole thing kind of just one entire game anyway. That's pretty interesting though. I wonder if you were going to return to some of those places... I'll see if there's an editor to mess with and see if there's any differences between the files.

Aeonic Butterfly
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Posted on 05-06-13 01:24:56 AM (last edited by Aeonic Butterfly at 05-06-13 01:34:24 AM)

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Originally posted by Mezmorize
Originally posted by BMF54123

GIVE UP? is shown if you press several controller buttons at once (I don't remember which ones). It's supposed to be used in case you get trapped somewhere, since the game does not have a timer. Super Mario Bros. 2 has a similar feature.

Alright, thanks for the info. Figured I would post a couple images to kinda clarify what I was talking about, shouldn't have posted the stuff about give up and such.

With this code on:
PEOAXOGA

When you press select, characters like this are shown:

The Japanese characters represent where an enemy is on the screen, when you press select again to leave this black menu. The white characters represent apples. And the red non-Japanese characters represent items that are inside of boxes/invisible.

Here's an image after pressing select again to leave this menu:

In that instance the enemies/apples didn't get removed from gameplay like it does sometimes. Instead it freezes the enemies in place and you can walk thru them without being damaged. Also it (sometimes) turns on x-ray vision so you can see where the items are that are normally invisible or inside of boxes.

I'm a little leery on Game Genie codes, since they can manipulate the game any way they want, and using them to do funky effects has been around since the 90's. Not necessarily everything revealed by them is unused, as some codes can make it seem like the ROM is corrupted, certainly not an intended feature.

This is relatively minor: a few years ago, I was playing around with a tile editor and Super Mario Bros. I think the waveforms are stored as plain graphics, as I edited one and it changed the sound of one of the pulse channels. Is this well known and I'm slow?

Foxhack
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Posted on 05-06-13 08:46:42 AM (last edited by Foxhack at 05-06-13 08:48:26 AM)

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Originally posted by omega59
They are after all just parts of the game. I consider the whole thing kind of just one entire game anyway. That's pretty interesting though. I wonder if you were going to return to some of those places... I'll see if there's an editor to mess with and see if there's any differences between the files.

Well, you -do- return to some of those places. You visit 1931 and 1985 at a few different dates. You just can't go into most places again as the story progresses, and of course the days go by as you play (you start in the morning, then evening, and night.)

There's a file browser, TelltaleExplorer, but there's no outright editor. Which sucks... because there's debug files in there.

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BMF54123

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Posted on 05-07-13 02:49:45 AM

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Originally posted by Aeonic Butterfly
I'm a little leery on Game Genie codes, since they can manipulate the game any way they want, and using them to do funky effects has been around since the 90's. Not necessarily everything revealed by them is unused, as some codes can make it seem like the ROM is corrupted, certainly not an intended feature.

Yeah, I am 100% sure the codes he posted are not activating debugging features, as I did a complete code/data log of the game and didn't find any interesting routines (aside from some old demo recording code). They're still kinda neat, though.

Originally posted by Aeonic Butterfly
This is relatively minor: a few years ago, I was playing around with a tile editor and Super Mario Bros. I think the waveforms are stored as plain graphics, as I edited one and it changed the sound of one of the pulse channels. Is this well known and I'm slow?

Uhh...I know the brick-breaking sound is somehow tied to the title screen data stored in CHR ROM, but I'm not aware of any tiles that affect the pulse channels. Do you remember which ones you edited?

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Aeonic Butterfly
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Posted on 05-08-13 11:10:17 PM (last edited by Aeonic Butterfly at 05-09-13 12:01:29 AM)

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Originally posted by BMF54123
Originally posted by Aeonic Butterfly
I'm a little leery on Game Genie codes, since they can manipulate the game any way they want, and using them to do funky effects has been around since the 90's. Not necessarily everything revealed by them is unused, as some codes can make it seem like the ROM is corrupted, certainly not an intended feature.

Yeah, I am 100% sure the codes he posted are not activating debugging features, as I did a complete code/data log of the game and didn't find any interesting routines (aside from some old demo recording code). They're still kinda neat, though.

Originally posted by Aeonic Butterfly
This is relatively minor: a few years ago, I was playing around with a tile editor and Super Mario Bros. I think the waveforms are stored as plain graphics, as I edited one and it changed the sound of one of the pulse channels. Is this well known and I'm slow?

Uhh...I know the brick-breaking sound is somehow tied to the title screen data stored in CHR ROM, but I'm not aware of any tiles that affect the pulse channels. Do you remember which ones you edited?

Nope, this was years ago. I still have the OGG recordings from that experiment, at least. Somewhere. I'll go look into it shortly.

Edit: I found it. It took me a bit, but then I remembered it was just near Mario's tiles. I'll upload a picture to the one I edited. It seems to only affect the sound when using the green part of the pallet; no other colors seem to affect it. It isn't stored as a waveform that I recognize, but this is of interest, anyways XD;; Unless someone wants to explain to me what happened.

Also, editing the tiles to the left of that one seem to affect sound, as well. The one directly left still messes with the Pulse, I think the first Pulse, and the second to the left seems to make the sound skip. Maybe not waveforms, again, just.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/152/smbshot1.jpg

Specifically, Green seems to affect the arping on the Pulse channels, Blue the Duty. I think I figured out what this button does.

Basically, you can edit all from the one two to the left of the tile I outlined in that pic, and up to the last two before Mario's head appears. Editing the last two seems to cause a CPU crash, so yeah, don't do that.

MUGEN-tan
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Posted on 05-09-13 04:41:06 AM

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Hi everyone.
I have a PS2 fighting game, which I wanted to look into myself, since the only sprite rips are mere limbs.
While playing on my emulator, I noticed that parts of some stages flashed black.
Because of that, I think that the stages are not 3D models, but in fact have multiple layers.
The question is now: How do I disable said layers?

MUGEN-tan
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Posted on 05-09-13 07:39:44 AM

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Originally posted by Sik
The PS2 doesn't have layers, those are just triangles being rendered. Don't assume the GPU can only do 3D graphics, it can do 2D graphics too (the last major console to feature dedicated 2D layers was the Saturn, handhelds aside).

The upside is that most likely you can attempt to rip the 2D graphics as textures.

No wait, how can I DISABLE these textures?
And I never assumed that the GPU cannot do 2D graphics.

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Posted on 05-09-13 07:05:17 PM

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I doubt you can, they wouldn't be any different from any other textures. The best you could do is hunt down those textures (either in the game files or a savestate) and then replace them with something that'd be effectively like blanking them. Kind of hackish but should give you the same result as disabling them.

May want to leave the background fully opaque though. You probably don't want trails from the sprites getting drawn over whatever was before in the framebuffer.

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