Rocket Knight Adventures Hacking

Discussion in 'Showroom' started by StephenUK, Nov 2, 2016.

  1. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

    Joined:
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    For anyone who has been in the Discord recently, you will probably be aware that I have been working on disassembling and documenting the EU version of Rocket Knight Adventures, with some much needed assistance from Clownacy in the tool making and sound driver departments. In this topic, I will be documenting my findings so that people may be able to make edits via hex for the time being, until I can get the disassembly finished and released. As this is very much a work in progress, I will be constantly updating this post with new findings and also may be correcting things if I find that something I've posted is misrepresented. For that reason, I do not want the information in this topic to be posted anywhere outside of SSRG, at least for the time being. I haven't got the time or the desire to track down where this may have been posted to correct mistakes and such, so until it is complete and well documented, I want it to stay here.

    So, onto the meat of the topic. The first thing I'm going to post about are the palettes, which aren't stored as people may be familiar with in the Sonic titles. Rather than being stored as full palettes in a block, they are stored as individual lines of 16 colours which are called up and pieced together to form a palette as required. This means that some lines may be used across multiple levels, or in multiple screens so this must be taken into account editing the palettes. Below I will list the palette lines, described by where they are first used. Later, I will add to this to provide a breakdown on exactly where each line is used, so you will be able to see what your modifications will also affect. As always, they are stored in a 0BGR format, one word per colour (32 bytes per line).

    NOTE: Again, everything in this topic applies to the EU version of the ROM. The addresses are in different places in the US and J ROMs and so the following locations will not apply. I do plan to locate data in the other versions at some point, but for now I'm sticking with the EU version.

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    PALETTE LOCATIONS (INCOMPLETE)
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    LEVEL SPECIFIC
    Sparkster Main Line = $6123A - (Line 0 everywhere except in heat situations and Konami Screen)
    Sparkster Heat Castle = $30888 - (Line 0 during S1 Castle heat scene)
    Sparkster Heat Final Boss= $3F7D4 - (Line 0 during final boss heat scene)
    Common Enemies = $5DD1E - (Line 1 in S1, S2, S3 Cave and S5 Flight)
    Stage 1 Field Line 1 = $731F4 - (Line 2 in S1 Fields and S4 Cutscene 1)
    Stage 1 Field Line 2 = $731D4 - (Line 3 in S1 Fields, Lines 1 and 3 in S4 Cutscene 1)
    Stage 1 Red Enemies = $5D13E - (Line 1 in S1 Fields during red enemies scene)
    Stage 1 Waterfall Line = $73214 - (Line 2 during S1 Waterfall scene and Flight section)
    Stage 1 Castle Line 1 = $73234 - (Line 2 in S1 Castle and S2 Cutscene)
    Stage 1 Castle Line 2 = $73254 - (Line 3 in S1 Castle)
    Stage 1 Castle Heat Line = $308A8 - (Line 2 in S1 Castle heat section)
    Stage 2 Mountains Line 1 = $7DFFC - (Line 2 in S2)
    Stage 2 Mountains Line 2 = $7E01C - (Line 3 in S2)
    Stage 3 Crystal Cave Line 1 = $86A36 (Line 1 in S3)
    Stage 3 Crystal Cave Line 2 = $86B36 - (Line 2 in S3 Crystal Cave)
    Stage 3 Crystal Cave Line 3 = $86A56 - (Line 3 in S3 Crystal Cave)
    Stage 3 Cave Line 1 = $86A96 - (Line 2 in S3 Cave)
    Stage 3 Cave Line 2 = $86A76 - (Line 3 in S3 Cave)
    Stage 3 Boss Line = $86B76 - (Line 1 during S3 Boss)
    Stage 4 Main Line 1 = $73274 - (Line 1 in S4, S7, S2 Cutscene, S4 Cutscene 2, S5 Cutscene and S6 Cutscene. Line 2 in S5 Boss)
    Stage 4 Main Line 2 = $90CFC - (Line 2 in S4, S4 Cutscene 2 and S5 Cutscene)
    Stage 4 Main Line 3 = $90CDC - (Line 3 in S4, S2 Cutscene and S4 Cutscene 2)
    Stage 5 Flight Line 1 = $9EDB2 - (Line 2 in S5 Flight section)
    Stage 5 Flight Line 2 = $9ED92 - (Line 3 in S5 Flight section)
    Stage 5 Factory Line 1 = $9EDD2 - (Line 1 in S5 Factory section, Line 2 in S6 Cutscene)
    Stage 5 Factory Line 2 = $9EDF2 - (Line 2 in S5 Factory section)
    Stage 5 Factory Line 3 = $9EE12 - (Line 3 in S5 Factory section)
    Stage 6 Main Line 1 = $AACEC - (Line 1 in S6)
    Stage 6 Main Line 2 = $AAD0C - (Line 2 in S6)
    Stage 6 Main Line 3 = $AAD4C - (Line 3 in S6)
    Stage 7 Main Line 1 = $B78E6 - (Line 2 in S7, S7 Cutscene and Final Boss)
    Stage 7 Main Line 2 = $C8AAC - (Line 3 in S7, S7 Cutscene and Final Boss)
    Final Boss Heat Line 1 = $B7926 - (Lines 1 and 2 in Final Boss heat section)
    Final Boss Heat Line 2 = $B7946 - (Line 3 in Final Boss heat section)


    SCREEN SPECIFIC
    Sega Logo = $CD444 - (Line 1 on Sega Screen)
    Konami Logo Line 1 = $52E8C - (Line 0 on Konami Screen)
    Konami Logo Line 2 = $52EAC - (Line 1 on Konami Screen)
    Konami Logo Line 3 = $52ECC - (Line 2 on Konami Screen)
    Konami Logo Line 4 = $52EEC - (Line 3 on Konami Screen)
    Title Screen Line 1 = $57D36 - (Line 1 on Title Screen)
    Title Screen Line 2 = $57D56 - (Line 2 on Title Screen)
    Options Screen Line 1 = $57D76 - (Line 1 on Options Screen)
    Options Screen Line 2 = $57D96 - (Line 2 on Options Screen and Stage End Screen)
    Stage Start Screen Line 1 = $5B16E - (Line 1 in Stage Screen)
    Stage Start Screen Line 2 = $5B26E - (Line 2 in Stage Screen)
    Stage Start Screen Line 3 = $5B1AE - (Line 3 in Stage Screen)
    Stage End Screen Line 1 = $57DB6 - (Line 1 in Stage End Screen)


    CUTSCENE SPECIFIC
    Intro Line 1 = $C8A6C - (Line 1 in Intro cutscene)
    Intro Line 2 = $CD88E - (Line 2 in Intro cutscene)
    Intro Line 3 = $CD8AE - (Line 3 in Intro cutscene)
    Stage 5 Cutscene Line = $C8A8C - (Line 3 in S5 Cutscene and S6 Cutscene)
    Stage 7 Cutscene Line = $B7906 - (Line 1 in S7 Cutscene and Final Boss)


    CYCLING PALETTES
    Sega Logo Cycle = $CD464
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Again, this is a WIP so while this may seem like a small amount of info to start with, this post will be expanding as I get around to posting my findings. There is a lot more I have documented to post, I just don't have time to post it all in one hit.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2016
    EMK-20218, redhotsonic, Pacca and 7 others like this.
  2. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

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    [​IMG]

    First palette edit, just to see what I could do with the first section. I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out, considering it was just a quick job. Excuse the blue on the ground art, the joys of colours being shared between the clouds and ground.

    Doesn't seem like much to be honest at this point, but I suppose we have to start somewhere. I'll put up the rest of the palette data possibly tomorrow, and then I'll start trying to list the art locations and get Clownacy's decompressor uploaded so art editing will be possible.
     
    Cooljerk, pixelcat, ArcaniaCQ and 5 others like this.
  3. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

    Joined:
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    Updated the OP to add more palette entries. There are still 23 palette lines I've found but not yet identified, although I get the feeling they could be palette lines used for rotating palettes or for fading.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2016
  4. ProRunner

    ProRunner Newcomer Member

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    Jul 8, 2011
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    Wow this looks good. Can't wait to see what more you can do with this. Huge rocket knight fan, especially the first game.