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| Jul - The Cutting Room Floor - Cleaning Up the Game Boy Categories |  -  -  |
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Rachel Mae Creature of Chaos Level: 141      Posts: 5388/5929 EXP: 33568277 For next: 551737 Since: 07-03-07 Pronouns: she/her From: Foxglen Since last post: 9 days Last activity: 2 hours |
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| nensondubois seek help please Level: 49  Posts: 471/551 EXP: 852455 For next: 31428 Since: 05-30-10 Since last post: 7.8 years Last activity: 7.8 years |
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| My proposed idea on IRC would be to have three tables (well, there are variations either way) of the non-game specific function packet listings along with the games that contain the listings in the Super Game Boy notes page with an explanation of the commands at the beginning. Feel like I'm missing a small detail. EDIT: I forgot to mention that what I meant was when I mentioned ''game specific functions'' I mean games that actually have small distinct features not directly related to the command listings. A few examples would be the ICON_EN 00 bit in Madden 97. The Donkey Kong commands and so fourth. My initial idea was to leave these alone. ____________________ #1 in Game enhancer codes - GSCentral.org (and news) tcrf.net/User:Nensondubois Youtube.com/user/nensondubois |
| andlabs Member Level: 38  Posts: 81/309 EXP: 360986 For next: 9461 Since: 03-19-10 From: United States Since last post: 1.1 years Last activity: 126 days |
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| I originally thought we need to explain what the packets actually are, but it looks like that's nt going to be feasible. So... These unused packets description appear to be the result of static analysis. I don't think this is gong to be workable: we are going to need to disassemble the SGB handling code and figure out what packets are used and where, and where the packets are in the ROM. Then, we could potentially figure out the purpose of each unused packet. Until then, we should keep the packets all on one TODO page, removing them over time as an analysis is completed, then maybe at some point move a game's packets to the Notes page or similar and drop a TODO at the beginning of the main page... |
| nensondubois seek help please Level: 49 Posts: 472/551 EXP: 852455 For next: 31428 Since: 05-30-10 Since last post: 7.8 years Last activity: 7.8 years |
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Originally posted by andlabs They can be explained. Also, working on the the dissassembly, just that there are other projects. The only thing that isn't specific are the elusive OBJ_TRN command and the DATA_SND bank mapping registers. Everything else can be easily explained. ____________________ #1 in Game enhancer codes - GSCentral.org (and news) tcrf.net/User:Nensondubois Youtube.com/user/nensondubois |
| Rena I had one (1) message in Discord deleted and proceeded to make a huge, huge mess about how it was a violation of free speech and how moderators are supposed to be spam janitors and nobody should have the right to tell me not to talk about school shootings Level: 135 Posts: 5046/5390 EXP: 29044579 For next: 290426 Since: 07-22-07 Pronouns: he/him/whatever From: RSP Segment 6 Since last post: 330 days Last activity: 330 days |
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Post #5046 · Thu 130725 225632
A lot of games just seem to list the same "here's a big list of packets left over from a devkit", so I'd agree with just listing those in the Super Game Boy article. There are also quite a few that just say "this game contains a Super GB packet 0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF OBJ_BLAH" - most of these don't explain much if anything about what this means, other than occasionally some speculation. I'd say first off, examine the code and make sure these are actually SGB packets that never get used, and not just some random graphic data, and if all you can find is one or two stray packets, just list them in the SGB article itself. I'd only mention them in the game's article if there's actually substantial functionality (e.g an actual intact border, code to play sound effects in certain situations that never get played), especially if it can be re-enabled.To provide examples, A Bug's Life has a page worth of text describing what certain commands do, but almost nothing describing what these would have actually done in the game, where they might have been used, or even if they're really in the game at all - the provided codes look more like they're patching existing commands to do different things than actually restoring any unused functionality. At best, these unused commands are apparently no-ops and probably are just leftover init code from an SDK routine, or they might even just be some data from the game and not ever meant to be used as SGB commands. Adventures of Lolo is another example of an article that's primarily just a hex dump and technical description of a command sequence that appears in several games, likely as part of an SDK test function, never intended to be used in the game itself - these games should just be listed in the SGB article. There's no more sense making individual articles for these than there is for the compiler strings found in nearly every modern game. Akazukin Chacha has actual unused border images, which can be loaded with a simple patch code. This is the kind of thing worth documenting in the game's article. These are clearly not just SDK boilerplate, but actual unused content that was once planned to appear in the game. However, it also notes a no-op sound command (who cares? just init boilerplate code) and something about ATTR_CHR with a patch code and no real explanation as to what the hell it actually does. (Does it enable an unused palette, or just patch a command to load some junk data as a palette, or what?) If these actually do anything interesting, they should be reworded to explain what they do, otherwise just get rid of them. ____________________ |
| nensondubois seek help please Level: 49 Posts: 479/551 EXP: 852455 For next: 31428 Since: 05-30-10 Since last post: 7.8 years Last activity: 7.8 years |
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Originally posted by Rena The commands need to be explained. I have examined the code of all the games that have small listings of specific functions and attempted to restore them as much as possible. I'd still like game specific functions to be covered. Some of the articles for games that don't have much else aside from the two or so SGB commands may not have been looked into either way regardless to see if they have debug menus, music or graphics or not. I exclude attribute commands because it is impossible to restore them. Some things can't be restored unfortunately. Specified palette settings for specific areas of the screen will never be known. This is because they are removed or never implemented for any number of reasons. I wouldn't say a page worth, but yes, they need to be trimmed down within reason. Most of the commands affects on the game are almost always self-implied. Unless I'm mistaken, the only one that can't be explained because it ties in with game specific control would be the JUMP command. I still don't know what Olympic Summer Games does to be honest. Since JUMP is loaded on hardware without causing the SGB BIOS to lose control, it likely was the original command used to transfer sound code to the SNES's ARAM and was hacked to work as a last-minute decision to use SOU_TRN, whereas the other games do not have the command fully implemented. I'll probably look more into this next week to determine the cause. LOLO does not need the DATA_SND commands and it was removed. The SOUND command is not really boilerplate code. I thought I explained what the codes did. I guess ATTR_CHR should be explained but since it is used to replace an unused command, I figured why bother. ____________________ #1 in Game enhancer codes - GSCentral.org (and news) tcrf.net/User:Nensondubois Youtube.com/user/nensondubois |
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| Jul - The Cutting Room Floor - Cleaning Up the Game Boy Categories | - - |
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