Erockbrox's Zelda3C Thread

Nov 22, 2009 at 11:53 PM
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Sorry I haven’t posted anything new in a long time guys. I’ve been pretty busy with school and work. But even though I haven’t posted anything new on the message boards I do think about Zelda3C a lot. One of the reasons why I haven’t made any progress on the game recently is because I really don’t know what needs to be done. I don’t know what Gamemakr24’s needs are. In a previous post I made a while back I talked about how I made lots of progress with the game and I believe that I did. I tried to accomplish as much as I could by just using Hyrule Magic, by making puzzles and testing out concepts. While Hyrule Magic gave me lots of freedom creating I feel now that I’ve reached a dead end with the program because of its limitations.

I’m actually trying to learn ASM, although I don’t know for sure if I’ll ever get it down. I’m just attempting to learn it. I’ve been talking with programmers in a chat room on www.romhacking.net and I have learned a few new things but it is a very slow process.

Like for example if you have this.

$1FFF

I learned that the $ sign indicates that this is an address. The 1FFFF is a hexadecimal number. So the entire thing is called a hex address.

But then what if you did this.

#$FF

Because there is a # sign in front of it, it would mean that it is the literal value of $FF

Also I know a few of these things.

lda = Load accumulator with value

sta = Store accumulator to address

pea = Push effective address

pla = Pop to accumulator

clc (Clear carry flag)

Again progress is extremely slow. I can’t make any promises if I’ll ever do coding for Zelda3C but if I ever want to see some of my ideas come alive in this game, I’ll need to be able to do it.

Here is something to be excited about. That’s right Math on Napkins has released the first version of his Zelda3 editor, Black Magic 0.09 alpha

http://www.arc-nova.org/

blackmagic.jpg


Although I haven’t been able to master it yet, I’m really excited because it might give Gamemakr24 more freedom while creating Zelda3C.

I’m going to try really hard to try and make some more progress on this game over the winter holiday. I will be off from school and while I may work I will have some time to get something done. What I’m going to do right now is e-mail Gamemakr24 and ask him to give me some assignments to work on, or a checklist of some sort. I can only make progress though if I know what needs to be done.

Now I’m not discrediting Gamemakr24 at all, I know he is very busy with work and family, its just sometimes it takes a long time to get some feedback from him. I’ve sent him videos of my Zelda3C ideas and even though he has been very nice and has given feedback on the older ones I’ve submitted, there are still many videos that are over a half-year-old, which I have not received feedback on yet. So Gamemakr24 if you are reading this post, the deadline is up, you need to give me some feedback on those videos. LOL (of course I’m joking) But whole point I’m trying to make here is that this game is going to take a long time to make. I know everyone following this game has been very patient. And the same holds true for me as well. I have to learn to be patient too. This is just the nature of the project.

And now I’m off to go e-mail Gamemakr24!

Have a good holiday season everyone.
 
Nov 27, 2009 at 7:14 PM
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I for one can't wait to see to full potential of this game. I mean... Quest For Calatia is the reason I started hacking afterall. I simply couldn't wait for it to release that I eventually started hacking... Well anyway, on topic.. you never know but you still might learn a thing or two from these ''Almightly Older-Then-Man-Himself ASM Teachings for NEONswift by Euclid'' back in the day when NEONswift started learning ASM he asked Euclid lots of questions and then compiled them into that simple help file for beginners :p

http://web2.wku.edu/~james.martin2/resh/z3data.html

I've tried following into Euclid's footsteps but ASM simply wasn't the same thing as editing graphics, to each it's own.
 
Nov 29, 2009 at 8:15 AM
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I'm still working on familiarizing myself with the 65816 and the SNES. I bookmarked that website, because it has some good information about the SNES architecture. http://www.65xx.com/wdc/w65c816s-chip.cfm has a lot of documentation for just the 65816 processor including a Datasheet PDF which contains all the technical data. The 65816 isn't the only chip in the SNES, so there are other commands that need to be known as well such as DRM, video, etc.

It's slow going, because I have to finish the assignment I spent 2 days working on. About to finish that in the next hour though. I really didn't expect it to be so long. My LAST homework assignment of the semester and winter break is 2 weeks away.
 
Nov 29, 2009 at 9:56 AM
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Once in a while, i find myself back to this website, checking for some progress, hoping for a release.

If you want to learn ASM, I'd recommend the following very vague steps:
1. the first thing you should do is something simple with the memory editor in snes9x debug. Try restoring your hearts/magic/bombs/arrows (should involve just changing a single value in there), or even give yourself the "wheat sword":)
2. now that you know that everything is stored in this giant memory map, next thing to do is to get your head around the whole concept that all the code in the rom writes and reads from that memory. How does the code know to write to this memory address or read from it? It's due to 65816 asm (perform a trace log and go find some STA -- those commands stores information into memory). Read up on 65816 asm and do some simple mods such as branching code out and say give yourself max magic when starting the game.
3. Once you have your head around this you should get curious as to how the game reads from ROM and how does the code get stored in memory, at this point you should be able read some of those SNES hardware documents and understand them (avoid the GPUs, interrupts and sound processing ala $2xxx-$4xxx addresses). Once you have a good understanding of this you should be able to do all of the things I did for PW.
4. finally going on from the above point, read up on snes GPU and sound processing. This is pretty much required if you say want to change instruments and/or how the graphics are loaded etc.
5. Last but not least, look at interrupts if you plan to homebrew

Regarding the last diary entry:

I do not believe any hack being a waste of time. Me and Seph surely have spent a good couple of years on Parallel Worlds, I don't think it's wasted time at all even though people can conquer it in about 5 hours.

I'll check zelda3c, once a month of so, and will patiently wait until it's done.
 
Nov 30, 2009 at 12:32 AM
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In my opinion, "for fun" ASM hacks can take longer than what modern studios develop in some derivative of C. To edit an existing game all in ASM requires the team to know the instruction set of the components, the computer's architecture, as well as understand the existing structure of the game. To top it off, life always manages to get in the way of creating "for fun" things. A smart person would never call these things a waste of time though, because you can learn a lot and practice problem solving skills.
 
Dec 1, 2009 at 5:31 AM
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It's getting rather surreal to think that I started following this project back in about 8th grade, followed it through high school, am now over halfway through my undergraduate degree, and anticipate continuing to follow it well into the future. At this point, I'm willing to wait as long as it takes. ;)
 
Dec 3, 2009 at 2:39 AM
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Cacophony;82720 said:
It's getting rather surreal to think that I started following this project back in about 8th grade, followed it through high school, am now over halfway through my undergraduate degree, and anticipate continuing to follow it well into the future. At this point, I'm willing to wait as long as it takes. ;)

Lol, I know what you mean. I remember discovering the Challenge-Games site and this hack back in my Freshman or Sophomore year of high school, and now I'm finishing my first semester of Grad school. It's trippy.
 
Dec 18, 2009 at 10:20 PM
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diph.php

We tried to change the game to not drop hearts after a boss dies, but the 0x2F14C address is not correct. There is no D0 04 to change. If anybody has any information, please help.
 
Dec 18, 2009 at 11:35 PM
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Checked 2EF40? your rom looks headered
 
Jan 5, 2010 at 6:31 AM
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Never thought this topic would come up again. >_>

Essentially the "Kill Boss Again" tag doesn't actually stop heart containers from appearing. What it does do is reactivate the menus after the boss is defeated, otherwise you'll get locked out of them as the game thinks the level is complete and you should be getting the pendant/crystal.

Q: So if it's not the "Kill Boss Again" tag that stops the heart containers from appearing, why do the 3 mini-bosses in Zelda 3 not drop heart containers?

A: All 3 minibosses in Zelda 3 are located in Ganon's Tower, so the game actually checks to see if you're in that dungeon, then refuses to create a heart container for you. The heart container's creation depends on the dungeon you're in, not the "Kill Boss Again" tag.

Apparently it's been nearly 5 years ago since Euclid and I had this debate/argument on Acmlm's. :p

I've attached an ASM patch (minibosscheck.txt) I created way back then. (You may want to rename it to minibosscheck.asm, I had to change the file extension for it to upload.)

To edit the patch to suit your needs, open it in a text editor and simply follow the instructions in the comments labeled *IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ IF YOU NEED TO EDIT ROOMS*. If you have any more questions just email me.

I've also included a short how-to on using xkas v0.06
 
Jan 27, 2010 at 8:00 PM
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Hey everybody!

I just created an account here and wanted to give my profound thanks for everyone working on this project. I discovered Outlands a few years ago and never knew about Calatia. I picked up Outlands again since now I can play it on my phone (hooray for nesoid and snesoid!) and started poking around the tubes to see what the challenge team was up to these days. I LOVE Outlands.

Link to the Past was by far my favorite Zelda game and I'm elated that you guys are out there working on a hack of the same scope.

I'm sorry that I can't offer much in contributions to help the progress of this game's development but I have enthusiasm to spare. One idea that occurred to me to increase notoriety would be to see Outlands featured in the next inevitable Zelda marathon put on by ExtraLives.org. I've already contacted those guys about the idea though I doubt we'll see another Zelda marathon for a few months at the very least.

Keep up the good work you guys. You all rock.
 
Feb 16, 2010 at 7:00 PM
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Indeed keep up the good work because it truly means alot to us. :D
 
Mar 3, 2010 at 9:06 AM
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My entire life has changed over the years, and I still check this website every day.
 
Mar 7, 2010 at 11:46 PM
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After seeing the update, I felt like I should register to say that I, too, check this page every day or so, and have for years. I'm not even really sure why, since the blog's updated only every few months, but I always hope there's something new. Anyway, just wanted to let the author know that no matter how long it takes, I at least will be waiting.
 
Mar 8, 2010 at 7:27 AM
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hey gm. sry ive been quiet for th last couple months. ive just had a load of stuff ive had to deal with. ive had some new games to play (i recently bought a ps3 and a new tv), ive been messing around with my guitar a lot. and ive had to deal with my friend attempting suicide. because of all that i havnt gotten any new graphics done or anything. ive still been checkin the site every few days, but as you can see my plate has been pretty full as well. i am really looking forward to everything getting back to normal, but the way things are looking now, i dont think itll happen for a while.

btw, gm do u have xbox live? if u do, send me a friend request. my gamertag is Darkprince909.
 
Mar 8, 2010 at 9:04 AM
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Yeah. I also check this site regularly to check for updates. GM, congrats on yer daughter! Hope everything works out with the flood problem.

Please don't be discouraged, Lots of ppl still support your work and eagerly await what will be the greatest snes hack ever :)
 
Mar 8, 2010 at 10:49 AM
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Really sucks with the flood in the basement and such. Really congrats on your daugther however! The family is obviously a lot more important than the game, which everyone should also understand.

I have been checking the site nearly every for a long time, so I'm obviously very eager on seeing this being completed one day. But you shouldn't work on the project just because you feel that "ou have to, but instead feel like you really want to, like you mentioned in the last update.

There are many people supporting you on this, even if they don't write anything about it here. Take the time you need to finish this and we all know that the result will be pure awesome!
 
Apr 4, 2010 at 12:38 AM
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I really appreciate all the work you are doing. I bought 2 carts from y'all when you were at the MGC. I love Zelda Outlands. Keep up the work on the Z3C, I am excited!
-tony
 
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