PatSter21
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So, we already have a thread about Super Monkey Ball 1 (and practically pulled the entire game apart), why not have one about SMB2? 
So, first off, if you want to see some of my findings, see here on the wiki...
Some things I have NOT covered are the following:
Here is the old title screen found in early version of the game:
And here is the old logo, ripped straight from the ISO:
Feel free to contribute more!
Note: I do already know of / have taken pictures of the test level stages (lib 69 - 100), so don't waste your time photographing them
And I also do know of the other ones other than 69 - 100, will photograph those and upload them later |
gridatttack
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Great. I have some stuff too. When I was ripping the graphics, this particularly texture will always show, like if it is loaded every level. It seems some sort of city.
Ill post some more stuff later.
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PatSter21
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Originally posted by gridatttack
Great. I have some stuff too. When I was ripping the graphics, this particularly texture will always show, like if it is loaded every level. It seems some sort of city.
Ill post some more stuff later.
That appears to be New York City...
How do you rip the graphics? What software do you use?
I use GXGMA until I can find an alternative... |
gridatttack
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Originally posted by PatSter21
Originally posted by gridatttack
Great. I have some stuff too. When I was ripping the graphics, this particularly texture will always show, like if it is loaded every level. It seems some sort of city.
Ill post some more stuff later.
That appears to be New York City...
How do you rip the graphics? What software do you use?
I use GXGMA until I can find an alternative...
Dolphin has an option to rip graphics, and dump them in .TGA format.
Also, download here 3 unused songs in the game, courtesy by eternalyoshi. One is incomplete, the other seems like a credit theme, and the other a world map select.
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PatSter21
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Originally posted by gridatttack
Originally posted by PatSter21
Originally posted by gridatttack
Great. I have some stuff too. When I was ripping the graphics, this particularly texture will always show, like if it is loaded every level. It seems some sort of city.
Ill post some more stuff later.
That appears to be New York City...
How do you rip the graphics? What software do you use?
I use GXGMA until I can find an alternative...
Dolphin has an option to rip graphics, and dump them in .TGA format.
Also, download here 3 unused songs in the game, courtesy by eternalyoshi. One is incomplete, the other seems like a credit theme, and the other a world map select.
I didn't know that, thanks!
Also, along with those three ADX files, there's voice48a, voice48b, and voice48c (also the story mode select music)...
http://tcrf.net/images/1/18/Voice48a-monkeyball2.ogg
http://tcrf.net/images/8/8d/Voice48b-monkeyball2.ogg
http://tcrf.net/images/7/7f/Voice48c-monkeyball2.ogg
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gridatttack
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I have a couple of more textures that seems unused. I cant find the others...so here is another that gets loaded in every level, alongside the other textures. (ill search them and post them later)
This one is used in the unused levels that has a black BG, you know, the other levels that are an exact copy of existing levels, accessible only via the stage select debug menu.
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PatSter21
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| Posted on 07-24-12 11:55:36 PM (last edited by PatSter21 at 07-24-12 11:58:03 PM) |
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Here's the infamous test level messages; these are found in those odd test levels with branches that branch off to demo models of stages...
Translation:
Hope that there's
a texture map here
created from
a buffer. by JAMAD
(note: Jamad is Junichi Yamada, the stage design director for Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe)
Thank divingtheweirdo for the translation!
Also, I found more images like that city one; including a b/w picture of an earthworm, a satellite picture of a forest, no clue what the f**k these are used for  |
gridatttack
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There are plenty of those unused textures that say map. I think they were 3 odd levels with branches on them.
I know, it seems the developers were either trolling, or filling up space. Also, try to rip individual stages, they might have unused textures. I know there is an unused wooden checkered texture in the jungle stages, so they might be more unused in the other BG.
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Skylace
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| Posted on 10-07-12 06:09:26 PM (last edited by Skylace at 10-07-12 06:10:42 PM) |
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The "music48a" song is also found in Sonic Mega Collection and some various other SEGA games for the Gamecube and Dreamcast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfHJrLYTe0
It's apparently the background music of a codec testing video. Said video is in Sonic Mega Collection's files, perhaps it might be somewhere in SMB2 as well? |
gridatttack
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Originally posted by Skylace
The "music48a" song is also found in Sonic Mega Collection and some various other SEGA games for the Gamecube and Dreamcast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfHJrLYTe0
It's apparently the background music of a codec testing video. Said video is in Sonic Mega Collection's files, perhaps it might be somewhere in SMB2 as well?
Interesting. I thought the music was some kind of unused credits theme.
I don't know if the video might be there, but which games was released first? SMC, or SMB2? If SMB2 was released first, maybe the video wont be there.
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Vague Rant
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| The codec is external to Sega though (I haven't got either game, but Sega has used CRI's stuff since the Dreamcast). The test video presumably comes bundled with the encoder and stuff, so it's probably been around for as long as their codec, Sofdec, has. |
PatSter21
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| Posted on 02-18-13 12:33:44 AM (last edited by PatSter21 at 04-03-13 12:23:30 AM) |
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I found this arrow - it isn't loaded anywhere as far as I can see.
This screenshot for the debug menu is interesting - win/loss rates weren't implemented in the Monkey Ball series until Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.
EDIT: Actually, this appears to be a leftover from the Arcade version of Monkey Ball - you could access it through the TEST MENU on the arcade edition.
This appears to be a test stage. I can tell that it is from early in development - evident by the old button model (replaced by the A button model, found in the demo mode). The floor of the spawn area is extremely reflective. There are small paper-thin textures that have reflectiveness too. (These textures are as follows: the shape of AiAi's head, a banana, a checkerboard, a solid texture, and a font sheet). The buttons control the speed of random moving platforms and goals. The red, blue and green polygons visible morph from identical spehres to a streched out sphere, a egg and a sphere. There is a minature version of the Expert Extra stage "Free Throw", and the Master Extra stage "Spasmodic". Also there's a goal that spins - possibly a test of the goals in the Coin Slot stage?
These all seem to be early versions or tests of the Monkey Fight arenas. The third one appears to be a leftover from the first game.
A demo level. Appears to be the same version from Super Monkey Ball.
This level is in the style of the Extra stages from Super Monkey Ball 1. The music is the Boiling Pot music. Nothing special here.
Same as before, except it's in the style of the Water levels. The music is the Monkey Soccer (?) music.
Anyway, I have a small request: can anyone with a working Action Replay that can add codes attempt to load Level 186 in Super Monkey Ball 2? This level appears to be a test level but it crashes Dolphin on level load. A frame of it does appear and on extremely rare circumstances it will load the level (unfortunately crashing within a secnod). I have compiled all the textures that are loaded from said level in this archive:
http://tcrf.net/images/8/8d/GM2E8P-LIB186.rar
They appear to two Japanese characters, variations of the letter A, textures that self-describe their dimensions, and the textures for AiAi's model in monochrome with noise added.
I rendered the .GMA and .TPL files in a third-party application. The .TPL file reports corrupted, sadly, but the GMA model is intact. This is what it looks like. |
gridatttack
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Originally posted by PatSter21
I rendered the .GMA and .TPL files in a third-party application. The .TPL file reports corrupted, sadly, but the GMA model is intact. This is what it looks like.
I wonder, what did you used to render the .GMA files?
Also here is some other unused textures.
This time for the jungle levels. There isnt any checkered wooden texture in the game AFAIK.
There is also a smaller variation of that texture.
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commandhat
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| Posted on 05-11-13 05:03:45 AM (last edited by commandhat at 05-11-13 02:34:10 PM) |
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I disabled a lot of compatibility options to try and get speed for an unrelated reason, Dolphin is reporting an error (but is able to display several snapshots, some of them from the middle of the level) when I attempt to load level 186. Here's a screenshot of the whole level:
A screenshot from the middle:
If we can figure out how to get past this error message:
(pastebin of referenced text file: http://pastebin.com/Hm4d3Add )
... we'll probably have some success.
Something interesting to note is the wall of whateverthatis in the background have two panels in front of them, on the ground. One is completely dark, and the other is fully reflective (white noise, in this case, means reflective; I turned off a LOT of things that would make most games run into a wall and die) |
PatSter21
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| Posted on 05-15-13 12:14:31 AM (last edited by PatSter21 at 05-15-13 12:25:59 AM) |
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Well, I attempted loading this stage on a real GameCube to find out what happens.
Video
Oddly enough, it crashes here too. The stage doesn't render in Stage Select but it loads and begins to render. Sadly, before the ball hits the ground, the GameCube is brought to a hard freeze accompanied by a terribly annoying buzz.
Apologies for the poor quality of the video - it was recorded directly from the composite cable rather than using other methods.
I could also attempt to load this stage in the Japanese edition of Super Monkey Ball 2. However, I don't know if the NTSC code works for that version. Entering AR Codes on the GameCube is horribly tedious (the controller is über-sensitive). I also can't dump this version (rawdump gives disk error and friidump doesn't progress when looking for 'seeds') for Dolphin to test it. It does work fine on a NTSC-J GameCube, however.
@ CommandHat, thanks for the information / screenshots! What settings did you use, specifically?
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I've gotta say, I've grown rather fond of that "terribly annoying buzz". It's just not a Gamecube until it's had a hard crash  |
commandhat
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| Posted on 06-02-13 01:59:28 AM (last edited by commandhat at 06-02-13 02:00:21 AM) |
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I took pictures of all the settings I'm using for Super Monkey Ball 2. I have several settings configurations I swap out between games.
Like I said, most of the tabs can be summed up as "TURN OFF EVERYTHING."
General - http://i.imgur.com/hrwpCzh.png
Interface - http://i.imgur.com/fP0DF4c.png
Audio - http://i.imgur.com/gyAuxMS.png (I use HLE since I have Ivy bridge)
Graphics Config - http://i.imgur.com/69bwWCJ.png
Graphics Enhancements - http://i.imgur.com/VrdZAku.png
Graphics Hacks - http://i.imgur.com/QmO4aoI.png
Graphics Advanced - http://i.imgur.com/vUwgEf8.png
It's worth noting that if you disable EFB access, the menu runs slowly, sometimes freezes for a few seconds, and looks like a computer vomited all over the screen, but the rest of SMB2 runs SO MUCH SMOOTHER. |
PatSter21
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Originally posted by commandhat
I took pictures of all the settings I'm using for Super Monkey Ball 2. I have several settings configurations I swap out between games.
Like I said, most of the tabs can be summed up as "TURN OFF EVERYTHING."
General - http://i.imgur.com/hrwpCzh.png
Interface - http://i.imgur.com/fP0DF4c.png
Audio - http://i.imgur.com/gyAuxMS.png (I use HLE since I have Ivy bridge)
Graphics Config - http://i.imgur.com/69bwWCJ.png
Graphics Enhancements - http://i.imgur.com/VrdZAku.png
Graphics Hacks - http://i.imgur.com/QmO4aoI.png
Graphics Advanced - http://i.imgur.com/vUwgEf8.png
It's worth noting that if you disable EFB access, the menu runs slowly, sometimes freezes for a few seconds, and looks like a computer vomited all over the screen, but the rest of SMB2 runs SO MUCH SMOOTHER.
Thank you for the settings - I will try them soon. Dolphin, for some reason, seems to have broken the sound on all Super Monkey Ball engine games, but that's not too big of an issue.
Anyway, does anybody know how I can possibly convert the debug menu code from NTSC-U to NTSC-J? I have about zero experience with dealing with such things... |
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| @commandhat: Looks like you're using a really old Dolphin build, tried using one of the recent ones from dolphin-emu.org, yet? (make sure to use the correct url and not the inofficial website!) |
PatSter21
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| Posted on 06-27-13 05:47:56 PM (last edited by PatSter21 at 06-27-13 05:48:28 PM) |
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Thanks to Ralf helping me 'convert' the Debug Menu code, I've successfully created the Debug Menu code for Super Monkey Ball 2 (NTSC-J)!
Here it is:
13QN-UBG7-FKBHQ
NPDM-4XAU-005MD
3R7R-Z1KT-YGDFU
I will post findings as I discover them! |
