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| Jul - Posts by Abaxa |
| Pages: 1 2 3 |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14     Posts: 21/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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I believe I've finally reconstructed the entire background for some screens in Zio's Tower and Ladea Tower for Phantasy Star 4. The tilemap used in Ladea Tower is simply wrong and omits part of the image resulting in a background that doesn't tile smoothly like it should. I had to pull it from memory from the walkway in Zio's Tower and fiddle with it in Photoshop because there doesn't seem to be any point where the whole thing is laid out without wrapping around. While going through old savestates practicing sprite and tile reconstruction in GSavestate I loaded up a state next to Miles at the end of the game.  I hadn't thought to wander into either blocked off building before using the debug menu so I went ahead and peeked inside. The buildings with closed doors have no teleports to other maps but the item shop and this house do. The item shop is unchanged and still works.  There are more dead people inside - a duplicate of the old man blocking the door outside. When you try to talk to either of them the game doesn't use the line all the other corpses has and instead produces the following glitch:  Walking through the glitched mess makes the game lag horribly. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 22/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| I've got 4 screens from PS4 today that are already on the wiki. (scroll up for the other 2.) |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 23/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Thanks folks, I appreciate it. I'll add it to the wiki soon-ish after doing some ability/enemy hacking. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 24/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| If the template is supposed to insert images will things like text readers for the visually impaired be able to understand the sequence? |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 25/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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 M.I.J.E.T.'s English translation of Langrisser 2 apparently broke this specific message. (Resulting in some serious glitching and overruns.) |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 26/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| That BoF screenshot looks like the terrain map pulled up left over Japanese characters instead of the regular graphics. It is common to find that because the English character set is usually smaller then the Japanese one so any tiles that aren't needed are just left as-is. I did a little more testing of Langrisser 2 based on GlitterBerri's translation and it appears the game has a text checker that compares any name input against the names of the major characters in an effort to prevent the player from naming themselves the same thing. The name input has to be exact, however, so it would be trivial to get around. The M.I.J.E.T. translation probably still has the default pointers. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 27/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Documenting development history seems outside the main scope of the wiki but I don't perceive any reason individual users would not be able to do their own write-ups as Notes or in a similar style as RationalWiki essays. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 28/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| I dumped all the plain text I could find from Vandal Hearts today. Blog entry. I did the same for Beyond the Beyond awhile back. Blog entry |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 29/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| With documenting prototypes some development history is inevitable. Documenting reasons why things were changed would fit in, in that sense. EDIT: Well I guess that should have gone in the thread Teflon dedicated to the issue. Oh well, I'll say no more on the subject here. In on-topic news, I've been doing some savestate hacking for Dark Wizard since last night. It's been slow and the multiple processors means the game uses some of the same variables in multiple places where a game on the Genesis would just use one address. Behold, my non-leetness in Armer IX temporarily morphed into a dragon type he can't summon:  So far nothing out of the ordinary has turned up but if it does I'll edit again. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 30/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Well I managed to locate where spells and inventory are stored in RAM - the main storage point (the entire block of data is duplicated for use in battle menus and towns). I haven't tackled inventory yet but the domain spell list has already yielded several glitchy spells that aren't used by any of the rulers. All the spells have translated menu names although Beast Voice somehow ended up as Beast Talk. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 31/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| I've got some other stuff to take care of this weekend so I posted my notes thus far for Dark Wizard. It's mostly shorthand but a savestate is included for download that's seen Armer and Marie's spell lists hacked to include the glitchy spells I've been testing. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 32/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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I briefly played around with the Control Enemies code in SFCD last night. The following screenshot is Dava from Book 4. She's not on screen because she was flashing. The two spells she knows are Dava Aura and Dava Breath. Like the Torch Eye in SF1 and the Prism/Demon Lasers in SF2 her Dava Beam attack isn't a spell but a specially-programed exception. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 33/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Sega games of that era seemed to have a thing about referencing other Sega games. Well, at least the English versions did. In Phantasy Star 4 the book shelves in the Krup school house have references to Golden Axe, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Ecco the Dolphin. In Shining Force 2 one of the options that can be randomly chosen for a character hit by Muddle 2 is "{NAME} is playing Game Gear. Shining Force GG is a great game!" |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 34/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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I worked some more on Dark Wizard. The game actually has a goat character for battle scenes that it doesn't use. It has no attack animation so eventually attacking or casting a spell will crash the game. The defensive animation is complete and works just fine. The sprites pulled are determined by class so there's no way this could have worked with the way the game is currently programmed. The goat class has a fully functioning walk cycle (also unused because polymorphed characters stop moving and even going frame by frame when the computer moves them their sprites didn't appear to change) and cannot gain levels because the experience required per level is 0. I did decipher a character table for one set of text. It doesn't help much except in viewing character names and decompressed town talk* but its... uh, something? The notes entry linked above has been updated to include all this stuff. I also horsed around with PAR codes in PS4. I got a warp code partially functioning based on information from the debug menu. I say partially because the game may set Y scroll to 0 or warp into a wall or warp point from which there is no escape. It's FFEC29:##. For example FFEC29:10 warps to Piata and FFEC29:02 warps to the Rykros overworld. You must initiate a screen transition (like walking out of a town) to trigger the warp. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 35/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Well I've done a primarily test run of my warp code for Phantasy Star 4. It severely messes up the Motavia and Dezolis overworld while on (due to issues with the way their tilemaps loop) but otherwise works at a basic level. By my count the location index goes all the way up to 416, 63 of which outright crashed for me. There's some sneaky code doing some tilemap swaps though so I can't be entirely sure. For example value $160 in a new game puts me at the exterior of Gumbious temple but if I do the same warp with an end-game save I get dumped in Gumbious B2 and can take the stairs up to B1, which should technically be destroyed by that point in the game. This hallway is identical to location $164 and connects to a plot-critical room which the developers probably wanted more to happen with earlier in the story but didn't get to programming so they just blocked it off with NPCs. Now if I warp to $164 in a new game then head up stairs it again puts me at the staircase down in B1. If I head back downstairs and look in the debug menu to see what location I'm in it tells me I've gone back to $164. However, if I do the same warp with my end-game savestate it puts me in the same hallway but going up the staircase kicks me out to the Dezolis overworld like it's supposed to. Oh you silly game. Other highlights include: A 2nd copy of the first room of the Valley Maze (the tunnel leading to Tonoe) that uses a different palette and has warps to the overworld, bypassing the cavern exterior screen, and the rest of the actual cave. Battles default to ON but the formation data isn't valid and the game crashes as soon as a random encounter is triggered. DF2 is programmed not to appear in Garuberk Tower if it's been defeated. The same cannot be said for the Bio-Plant which has multiple copies of Professor Holt and a non-talkative copy of Rika when neither should be there. The Air Castle is technically two dungeons one right after another as far as the dungeon numbers are concerned. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 36/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| A quick note. A Lufia & The Fortress of Doom SRAM guide was released today for anyone interested in that game. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 37/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Well I had a quick look at the Shining Force 2 prototypes over at Hidden Palace and they are English localization prototypes. Of the 3 the two from June are fairly unremarkable so far but the April version is from before the localization team shifted a bunch of stuff around. The Caravan can't find half of what it normally would. The translation is still in an early stage and is good for a laugh. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 38/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| Holy thread resurrection Batman! Nah, I just have some new stuff specifically for this game. One of the things that's been bothering me is how to handle all the stuff that exists in areas but is out of sight. There is a ton of it. For a good example here's the inner sanctuary map for the Esper Mansion, ground floor. The full thing is 1023x1024 pixels so this is just a thumbnail. This was assembled using KEGA savestates, GSaveState and Photoshop so it should be accurate in size and palette. I can scale these down if need be.  In game the player is confined to the room in the center so they'd never see the incomplete arch to the north. There is an NPC inside but I had sprites hidden in GSaveState so the character I was moving around in game wouldn't be passed along to the bitmap dumps. I'll probably go back and fix this.  The Soldier's Temple interior map is 1023x1020 (the black space at the bottom is part of the map). The water and the scrambled-looking tiles at the bottom are animated and although the player is never able to leave the interior walls collision outside is mostly in place.   The first is the unused copy of Valley Maze room 1, map $2d. Again, the black space is part of the map. For comparison is the used Valley Maze room 1 with the darker final palette, map $9b. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 39/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| I use a yahoo address and it worked for me - just got sent to my spam folder as I expected. So, at the very least, yahoo's cooperating. |
| Abaxa Member Level: 14 Posts: 40/45 EXP: 11818 For next: 1253 Since: 08-05-10 Since last post: 1287 days Last activity: 1271 days |
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| No worries. I've been working on the page for several months now and I'm in no rush. It will get done when it gets done. EDIT: Got to more maps assembled tonight. These are, again, thumbnails because the full things are huge and sprites are hidden.  First is the Piata Dormitory. I'm not sure what's supposed to be casting the shadow in the west. Maybe the town wall or the academy itself? Anyway the scrambled mess in the lower right is an NPC sprite being drawn and repeated as a background tile.  The other map is the item shop in Tyler. It's one of the more visually boring interior maps on Dezolis but it's a good demonstration of just how much these things are padded with empty space and little details like that picket fence that are impossible to see in game due to camera restraints. |
| Pages: 1 2 3 |
| Jul - Posts by Abaxa |
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Acmlmboard - 07/23/2013 b378.03 ©2000-2013 Acmlm, Xkeeper, Inuyasha, et al. |
| Query execution time: | 0.025173 seconds |
| Script execution time: | 0.074711 seconds |
| Total render time: | 0.099884 seconds |
