Hacking Graphics and Sound?

[1980gamer]

I just re-watched the new star wars and was thinking of making a game based on star wars ( for the TI99 ).

 

As I was trying to come up with a game idea... Carnival came to mind.

 

What I am thinking:

Change the Bear graphics to AT-AT.

Change the Duck's to TI-Bombers

Change the BONUS graphic and related letters to FORCE Only have to change 4 of the 5 letters!

Change the other chars to TI Fighters / Vader's fighter. |-o-| (-o-)

 

The music..... Wow, I like this game and thankfully you can turn off the music, It is a nice little tune, but after several rounds.....

Change to the Star Was theme ( or random music from the series if possible? )

 

Now the question is, do any tools exist to view a rom and find graphics and music within the code?

 

Way back when, I would dump C64 games and edit the graphics and as long as I didn't change lengths, I could still use the game with no problem.

This also came in handy for those annoying games that would show a picture and you would have to look through the manual to find the correct code to start the game...

You could just change the JMP value to the start of the game... I think I may have been smarter back then? Gee, Maybe I did know everything! LOL.

 

Thanks for any info... Or if someone skilled would like to take a crack at this... go for it! I am certain many other things could be changed to make it more..."star wars" like.

Edited May 15, 2016 by 1980gamer

[ColecoFan1981]

I'm also thinking of doing this to the ColecoVision of Mr. Do! Namely. . .

 

Change main background music to the "Can-Can" song from the final arcade release.

Change round clear jingle to the "Charge!" fanfare.

Whenever a Treat is eaten, keep the playfield Light Red (09) as long as both Alphamonster and Munchers are on screen, to match arcade version. As to music, add short jingle from when it's eaten on a letter you've collected already.

Alphamonster and Munchers become extra Apples when hit.

Change color of the Badguy (official name: Mini-Dino) to Dark Red (06) and its Digger (Driller) sub-form to Dark Blue (04) to match the arcade version.

Change behavior pattern of the Munchers so they do not eat the cherries.

Change scoring threshold for Alphamonster appearance from every 10,000 to every 5,000 points (arcade version).

Change appearance of Alphamonster (both on EXTRA letter board and playfield) so he is Dark Blue on the inside with a yellow outline, his letter will flash yellow (arcade version).

Add onscreen point values in playfield for: treat collected; last cherry collected in string of eight (500); and whenever any enemy is hit with your Power Ball or by an Apple.

Add more detailed graphics for broken Apples.

Add an extended flourish for the high C note on last cherry (the 500 point bonus) if collected properly.

 

All color names and numbers taken from the TI TMS9918A/9928A/9929A Datasheet.

 

~Ben

Edited May 17, 2016 by ColecoFan1981

[+lawdawg710]

Is it possible to add a little more detail to mr do???? I am no programmer or hack so i am not familiar with the limitations relating to colors/sprites etc.

[phattyboombatty]

I've hacked Mr. Do to update some of the graphics. The monsters and munchers have the same sprites now as the arcade, but Mr. Do was difficult to improve. There was only 1 sprite designated for each of these characters, so they are mono-colored. I'll try to post the ROM when I get home.

 

EDIT: Attached is my ColecoVision Mr. Do! graphical hack. It has a date code in the filename, and as you can see, it's been a while! If anyone would like to contribute to more improvements, my permission is hereby granted!

 

As partially mentioned, the key changes are to the Munchers, the Alphamonsters, and to the apples. The animation is more similar to the arcade when it falls and splits.

Mr. Do! (USA) hack by phattyboombatty.zip

Edited May 17, 2016 by phattyboombatty

[Nebulon]

I'm also thinking of doing this to the ColecoVision of Mr. Do! Namely. . .

 

Change main background music to the "Can-Can" song from the final arcade release.

Change round clear jingle to the "Charge!" fanfare.

Whenever a Treat is eaten, keep the playfield Light Red (09) as long as both Alphamonster and Munchers are on screen, to match arcade version. As to music, add short jingle from when it's eaten on a letter you've collected already.

Alphamonster and Munchers become extra Apples when hit.

Change color of the Badguy (official name: Mini-Dino) to Dark Red (06) and its Digger (Driller) sub-form to Dark Blue (04) to match the arcade version.

Change behavior pattern of the Munchers so they do not eat the cherries.

Change scoring threshold for Alphamonster appearance from every 10,000 to every 5,000 points (arcade version).

Change appearance of Alphamonster (both on EXTRA letter board and playfield) so he is Dark Blue on the inside with a yellow outline, his letter will flash yellow (arcade version).

Add onscreen point values in playfield for: treat collected; last cherry collected in string of eight (500); and whenever any enemy is hit with your Power Ball or by an Apple.

Add more detailed graphics for broken Apples.

Add an extended flourish for the high C note on last cherry (the 500 point bonus) if collected properly.

 

All color names and numbers taken from the TI TMS9918A/9928A/9929A Datasheet.

 

~Ben

And more levels! Woot.

[Inky]

I'm curious .. what tools could one use to do this?

[phattyboombatty]

A great question, and I wish we'd had better documentation of the practice of hacking games for the ColecoVision. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy to decode hex sequences, and totally fun, like a puzzle!

 

I used a combination of tools, all on a Windows 7 machine.

• A good hex editor like HexEdit or HexFiend works great. I've heard great thinks about NotePad++ but haven't used it myself.
• Microsoft Paint (Window 7 edition aka 6.1 (7601)) - I find Paint is invaluable for editing sprites and tiles. I use it like scratch paper. The Windows 7 version
• BlueMSX - utterly invaluable emulator/tool
• A good tile editor <---- This is the key to manipulating characters and "hacking" sprites and tiles. I've found YY-CHR to be the best tool for me, but there are companion editors I like to try as well.
• TextEdit/Notepad for critical notes, copying-and-pasting
• Real lined notebook paper (a real notepad) and graph paper helped me tremendously

You begin to find patterns in the hex code... that's all I can really say. You'll see repeating patterns and you start to manipulate values. All of the 16 color codes for the TI video processor are need-to-know. These are at Drushel's website and posted here at AtariAge as well.

 

I've done a TON of hacking of CV games, and my exploration came to an abrupt stop a couple years ago. I never had time to document or post much of my work, but it's totally fun, and I'd love to see more community members beef up some games. I got to the point where I wanted to hand off my projects, because I just don't have time to carry on the work.

I did a mega-ton with CV Donkey Kong. Was totally fun for me, and a realized dream to see arcade characters come to life from existing code. I plan on sharing what I've got soon, but it would be nice to know of someone who is knowledgable, and who can take the ball and run.

[Ikrananka]

I used a combination of tools, all on a Windows 7 machine.

• A good hex editor like HexEdit or HexFiend works great. I've heard great thinks about NotePad++ but haven't used it myself.
• Microsoft Paint (Window 7 edition aka 6.1 (7601)) - I find Paint is invaluable for editing sprites and tiles. I use it like scratch paper. The Windows 7 version
• BlueMSX - utterly invaluable emulator/tool
• A good tile editor <---- This is the key to manipulating characters and "hacking" sprites and tiles. I've found YY-CHR to be the best tool for me, but there are companion editors I like to try as well.
• TextEdit/Notepad for critical notes, copying-and-pasting
• Real lined notebook paper (a real notepad) and graph paper helped me tremendously

You begin to find patterns in the hex code... that's all I can really say. You'll see repeating patterns and you start to manipulate values. All of the 16 color codes for the TI video processor are need-to-know. These are at Drushel's website and posted here at AtariAge as well.

 

Great tips there. I haven't done that much hacking but I did do most of the hacking to change Matt Patrol to the Moon Patrol that CollectorVision published. I used the following which in some cases matches that used by phattyboombatty:

 

• Hex Editor - I use Hex Editor Neo and love the features it has. I haven't tried those phattyboombatty listed and so can't comment on how they compare.
• Sprites and Tiles Locating and Editing - I actually developed some VBA code in Excel to scan through the binary file and show it graphically. The main code in the files would be shown as graphical nonsense, but the sprite and tile data would be clearly visible and that way I could easily see what location in the binary related to which graphic tiles and sprites (see images below).
• Yep - blueMSX and now CoolCV for emulation and testing.
• I'll give a big thumbs up to Notepad++. This is one I use a lot.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Ikrananka

[phattyboombatty]

That VBA code in Excel looks phenomenally helpful. Do share!

[Ikrananka]

That VBA code in Excel looks phenomenally helpful. Do share!

 

Give me a little time - I'll post it over the coming week. I'll need to knock together some rudimentary instructions. It's a bit messy and complex to use but as I was the only user it worked for me. I'll not make any changes to the Excel stuff - just a little explanation is needed for others to at least have a chance of using it with success.

[+Yurkie]

Damn nice job on the graphics hack Phattyboombatty! Both Q*bert and Mr. Do are impressive.

 

Anyway to replace the Wrongway that comes out on the right side of the screen with Ugg?