Basic Questions and Answers Thread

Please, feel free to address the problems with the Blue Balls program, I am the one who programmed it. If you have any doubts on how to use it, or if there is any actual problem or bug, please let me know, and I'll see if there's something I overlooked.


By the way, dealing with the individual files for the 8 S&K stages is quite tricky, Blue Balls or not. Basically, it works like this. The data for them is indeed in Kosinski format, but they're saved all together. This means that if you extract the data from the S&K rom, you'll end up with a single binary file with Kosinski-compressed data, which can be extracted to a single binary file with uncompressed data, containing the 8 individual special stages juxtaposed one after the other. So, in order to put a custom special stage in S&K, you have to edit its individual data, reinsert it in the complete uncompressed binary file overwriting the previous data for that stage, recompress the complete file with Kosinski compression (good luck if it becomes bigger than before, since compression is unpredictable), and insert the new Kosinski-compressed file into the S&K rom.


Not exactly trivial.

 

Help me! i'am going to add super sonic in sonic 1, but  falls every time. What's going on??

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, "not exactly trivial" indeed. x'D ... still, I think it is worth another try. I will use the Sega Compressor and hex-edit the uncompressed binary "mish-mash" that results after converting the SK .bins. I will do it with the description you gave me (about the process) in mind. In terms of the unpredictability of the compression, I have an idea (and hope it works this way): Since the 8th Special Stage is basically unused/unseen in normal gameplay, if I turn them into just a bunch of zeros (or a 1 ball stage, if being "completable" is a requirement) maybe it won't surpass the default size. And even the 7th one (if a lot of zeros equals less space) could be a really empty/easy one, kinda like a bonus for the player... or something. x'P

Anyway, this week will be a little harsh on me, work-wise (working on weekends...) but I will get to this as soon as I have some free time. Oh, and I will try to recreate the "glitch" that happened with Blue Balls, for debugging purposes. And while I am at it, thank you for creating the program! It makes editing faster and more appealing. (My only complain would be the window height, but that's only because my monitor is 768p... ^_____^)

Cheers!

 

Can you please give more detail about your issue?

 

[sarcasm] i wrote "nop" over 9000 times and also i has the branch for non-existent label [/sarcasm] +1 to Ralakimus.

 

I don't quite get what you're meaning by "+1 to Ralakimus".

 

I think that your post is just good (I can't explain why), so you gained some positive rep. =P

 

What's the situation? I have a Super Sonic minus the Super Sonic Pallete cycle in my Sonic 1 hack.

and can someone tell me where i can setup the super sonic flag in my sonic 1 hack to where Buzz Bomber's Missles, Bomb batniks, rotating spikes in GHZ would go right through Super Sonic? I don't want to use the invincibility flag due to a bug where after getting invincibility monitor, then going super, timer is out, super animations minus invincibility. I fixed this bug with the spikes though.

 

You guys are quite the helpful bunch, aren't you?

You're going to have to give us more information, such as:

What disassembly you're using

What you did

What 'fails'. Does it build? Are you getting errors?

A basic outline of what you did to get to where you are (copied x and pasted it at y)

 

I'm having some issues with my hack. I added a second Object position index, which for the most part functions perfectly, but when I try to go through Labyrinth zone and Scrap Brain Zone, the game crashes at seemingly random places in the level. Secondly, and more importantly, the game also crashes right before the Star Light Zone boss. I've tried unsuccessfully to fix the crash at scrap brain, but I have no idea why it crashes at the Star Light Zone boss, which is the only crash I can't avoid through level editing (i've heard the other crashes are caused by specific objects).

 

You could be getting some sort of overflow. Is it specific objects?

 

I know for a fact that the spinning platforms in Scrap Brain and the spears in Labyrinth reference the object layouts for some odd reason. I just don't know why and how they do it, and more importantly, how to fix them. I don't think the Star light zone boss does, however, so I couldn't fix that if I tried.

 

From what I see, LZ and SBZ1 have another object related thing. You should apply this fix to both of your position indexes, maybe it helps.

 

I have two questions.

1. first off i've installed the MEGAPCM driver & have different music in different acts. I tried using Notepad++, when i accidently deleted some code (don't know which ones) I closed without saving & switch to Windows Notepad to make some edits that way. One day i used Notepad++, made changes, saved & come to find out, the code that was deleted from last time (I thought just like Windows Notepad changes wouldn't be saved if I chose not to save it. unfortunately) it stayed deleted & I corrupted the game. So I copy pasted overwritten with a backup which did not have the MEGAPCM driver nor different music in different acts. I made the changes & somehow now, when I pause, then unpause, it crashes. So i had to comment out the Pausegame code, leavint the label, a nop, & an rts to temporarily fix this bug. I can't pause now.

2. With my Super Sonic in Sonic 1, I'm not using the invincibility flag due to a bug where after - hit an invincibility monitor,  invincible, then go super, invincibility timer expires, & not-so-super. So i'm setting up flags to fix this bug. Now the bug is fixed, however. Badniks are still destroyed on contact, Spikes have no effect, but - Buzz Bomber's missle, GHZ's rotating spikes, lava & fire & whatnot still hurt Super Sonic. Do I need to setup flags everywhere, or just one location and if so, where?

 

Go here:


Touch_Enemy: ; XREF: Touch_ChkValue
tst.b ($FFFFFE2D).w ; is Sonic invincible?
bne.s loc_1AF40 ; if yes, branch
cmpi.b #2,$1C(a0) ; is Sonic rolling?
bne.w Touch_ChkHurt ; if not, branch

And change it to this:


Touch_Enemy: ; XREF: Touch_ChkValue
tst.b (super_sonic_flag_here).w ; Is Sonic in his Super form?
bne.s loc_1AF40 ; If yes, branch.
tst.b ($FFFFFE2D).w ; is Sonic invincible?
bne.s loc_1AF40 ; if yes, branch
cmpi.b #2,$1C(a0) ; is Sonic rolling?
bne.w Touch_ChkHurt ; if not, branch

Replace super_sonic_flag_here with your Super Sonic flag's address or equate name (depends on how you are referencing it).

I'm pretty sure the invincibility flag is mentioned somewhere else, but not outside of Sonic's code. Am looking into this right now.

EDIT: Found it again. Go to here:


Touch_ChkHurt: ; XREF: Touch_ChkValue
tst.b ($FFFFFE2D).w ; is Sonic invincible?
beq.s Touch_Hurt ; if not, branch

And change it to this:


Touch_ChkHurt: ; XREF: Touch_ChkValue
tst.b (super_sonic_flag_here).w ; Is Sonic in his Super form?
bne.s loc_1AFE6 ; If he is, branch.
tst.b ($FFFFFE2D).w ; is Sonic invincible?
beq.s Touch_Hurt ; if not, branch

Pretty sure that's the only other important point.

 

I'm not too sure, but I think it might have to do something with the encoding of the text. Notepad++ and Notepad use different character encoding and how it was encoded in Notepad may have done something to it. Again, I'm not too sure if I'm correct, correct me if I'm wrong. Instead of Notepad, use Wordpad, which supports the encoding that Notepad++ supports.

 

ThomasSpeedRunner i've done that already. Badniks are destroyed, can stand on spikes but missles, lava & fire (& other objects) still harm Super Sonic instead of passing on through

Ralakimus I think what Notepad++ picks up where one leaves off if not saved. which is why i stick to Windows Notepad. in case something like this happened. Good thing for that backup... somewhat. Due to another error (crash after unpausing)

 

There's an easier way to fix this. Go to Obj01_ChkInvin: and above

Code:

		tst.b	($FFFFF7AA).w	
		bne.w	Obj01_RmvInvin	; change to bne.w

add

Code:

		tst.b	(Your_SS_flag).w	; is Sonic Super?
		bne.w	Obj01_ChkShoes		; if yes, branch

So if you turn Super after getting invincibility, if the timer expires, SS still will be invincible.

 

Alright then, step two. If this line does not exist in your Super Sonic code, add it.


move.w #0,$32(a0) 
If you've equated invincibility time, then replace the $32 with whatever the equate name is.

This is essentially a second Super Sonic flag since the invincibility code checks for this, as shown here:


tst.w $32(a0) ; check time remaining for invinciblity
beq.s Obj01_ChkShoes ; if no time remains, branch

Thus, if Sonic is in his Super form, it skips subtracting 1 since it's already 0 and thus, invincibility should not be removed.

...and of course, someone posts before I can finish. Anywho, Painto's fix should work as well.

 

Painto. That worked. and Thomas I applied yours too to be on the safe side. Now there's only staying Normal after Hitting signpost. By the way, what is the piece of code for "is Sonic at the Signpost"?