Noob wants to change Art

Hello.


I'm a total beginner, and am about to start my first hack. I have been reading lots of posts in this forum, and found some answers - but don't know some basics.


All I want to do for my first hack is change characters' designs. Basically, Sonic 1: change sonic and robotnik to my own character designs.


I read 'chimpo's' guides over at sonicretro, which gave me some info - but many questions.


Simply:


What software do I need to change the characters?


What is a sprite sheet?


I haven't written code before, will I need to do this?


I have the Sonic 1 ROM, but how do I assemble a new ROM when I have created & changed the characters?


If you could point me to some suitable tuts and/or software links, I would be very appreciative.

 

Not trying to be rude or anything, but it doesn't seem like you are looking very far. But seems your a noob, i'll help you. SonicRetro is like google, find most sonic utilities there. If you just want to edit the characters, then you can get sonikSprite from retro.(look in utilities section) If you have split your rom,(Qjimbo's guide on retro) then use SonMapED, then use Qjimbo's guide to build a new rom with your new art.(Also on Sonicretro) Hope that helps, have fun with your first hack! Note: if you are using sonikSprite, the pallet of your character must be the same as sonic's. And it must be within the size outlined for each sprite. And well a sprite sheet, is practically a sheet of sprites. Go to themysticforestzone to see what i mean. Also you shouldn't need coding for editing sprites this way.

 

What software do I need to change the characters?


No software needed. Only a text editor which can open the sonic1.asm


What is a sprite sheet?


A sprite sheet is a page with plenty of sprites


I haven't written code before, will I need to do this?


It depends on how you change the characters


I have the Sonic 1 ROM, but how do I assemble a new ROM when I have created & changed the characters?


Its easy, just take a sonic 1 ROM and rename it to s1.bin then hit spilit.bat then when you want to build your process, click build.bat and a ROM called S1BUILT.bin will apear.


http://info.sonicretro.org/SonMapEd


Use that to edit the sprites (open the tiles from either artunc or artnem, nem is nemesis and unc is uncompressed)


http://info.sonicretro.org/Disassemblies


Download the sonic 1 disassembly from there, I suggest you to download the ASM68K version.

 

Thanks for the help. I think I was overloaded with info and wasn't sure where to look.


It seems that if I simply want to change sonic, then sonik sprite is all I need. The colour choices are limited though. For more colours I assume I would need to use SonMapEd, am I right? This looks a lot more complicated to use though. But Robotnik isn't in the sprite list, why?

 

Use sonmaped, its better than sonik sprite. Just open the art (tile graphics) from either artnem or either artunc, then open mappings. If the art was from artunc, open the dplc's. Then open the palette (either zones palette or either sonic's palette, depends on the sprite you are opening) Then export the sprite you want, edit it, and import it back.

 

The colour choices are limited though. For more colours I assume I would need to use SonMapEd, am I right?


This is the palette of Sonic. Every palette is limited, but you can change the colors it by using programs like SonED2 (for Zones) or SonMapEd by clicking on a color and picking a new one.


But Robotnik isn't in the sprite list, why?


Robotnik is in the artnem folder. There are multiple types of him: His layout in a Ship or when he stands. I just now the ship layout: bossmain.bin

 

So I downloaded SonMapEd, and the disassembly. I disassembled my ROM, as per the instructions, and all was going well. I followed Chimpo's guide to editing in SonMapEd (http://info.sonicretro.org/SCHG_How-to:Use_SonMapEd/Part_1)


but my SonMapEd seems to be corrupted. I tried both the current 1.05 version and the older 1.02 version. All the tiles are a jumble of pixels. What is going on?

 

Steps for SonMapED: Did you check the guide on retro properly? well if you want to load sonic, you go to load tile graphichs, load the sonic.bin in artunc.


Then you go to load sprite mappings, sonic.asm in maps folder.


Then you go to load sprite pattern cues, and loadd sonic dynamic pattern load cues.asm in the inc folder. Make sure to put he game settings for sonic 1 if your hack sonic 1.


For eggman's main ship load tile graphics bossmain.bin in the artnem_u(uncompressed folder)


Load sprite mappings, eggman.asm in maps folder, and there you should have eggman. Export the sprite you want to edit, import it back in. Then save tile graphics


mappings, and then use 'the sega data compressor' (download from retro) to compress your uncompressd art (artnem_u) to a compressed art use for the game.(to Artnem)


Eggman doesn't need pattern load cues, but sonic does. You only need to compress art data when you are editing an uncompressed data from artnem_u. I hope that solves


Solves it.

 

I followed it to a T, but already after loading sonic.bin from artunc, I end up with this mess. When I first open SonMapED, it only has three areas. It doesn't show the fourth large area where all the tiles are listed until I have loaded sonic.bin. I have tried both versions on two computers, with two ROMs. I even tried converting a ROM to a bin first with Esrael, then disassembling - but the disassembly didn't work...


Er...

SonMapED.bmp

 

Go to SonAR (Google it). Scroll down to the table of contents and select the "Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive" link. Use one of these instead. ( I'd give you a direct link, but I think it is against the rules. If I can then I will.) Not sure if it'll work though, they are in .gen format.

 

Hm.... you can sometimes get this when you load from rom.I mean you have the tile graphics, a little screwed up but its there , try a clean sonic 1 rom. Split the new rom (un edited) and perhaps get the mappings and sprite mappings again from the qjimbo gude on retro and try again. Other tan that... i'm stomped because i have never had this problem before.

 

Thanks guys, got this working.