Jump to content
IGNORED

Space Venture


TIX

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

 

I'm between project right now, so I decided to try hacking a colecovision game !

I will turn good ol' Winky into a robot trying to clean an infestation on the mother-ship 'Venture'

I have given him individual frames for each direction, and since we don't have animation frames for walking, I gave him a wheel :P

It seems I can use yellow from the arrow to brighten him up a little, will see.

Also I tried to keep him centered, because Winky's movement was erratic especially in tight spaces !

Later I will change all monsters into various aliens, and maybe change the names of the rooms..

 

new robot comparison with Winky, check him out (he doesn't have a name yet)

post-65-0-80889500-1555228023.gif

post-65-0-56859900-1555228031.gif

Edited by TIX
  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks man !

 

this game is very hacker friendly, everything is laid out beautifully.. it should be fast ;)

Unfortunately the creature that comes at you when you spent more time in a room, has only two frames of animation..

So there

post-65-0-12118000-1555263974.gif

Edited by TIX
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your sprites are great, and I like "Space Venture" just fine as a name. Maybe "Venture 2019" since we are living in the future.

 

Do you have plans to change out the music, too? It would be neat to have little snippets of well known themes. The eyeball guy belongs in the room with moving walls, like the garbage masher in Star Wars.

 

What form will the treasures take? Maybe "data tapes" and laser swords?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys !

 

I really love drawing little creatures, and coming from the Atari 800, to have 16 pixels wide sprites to stretch your legs, is liberating :P :P

too bad the main character doesn't have walking frames, not many things can be done with him.. but he is cute and I grow to love him !

The treasures, I had the idea to make them survivors that Robby (?) have to rescue, but I really cant draw 12 different people and I hate to make them all the same..

so I settled on making them items that will be useful in space, batteries, access cards, spacesuit, ... that kind of staff.

 

As for the names,

Space Venture is pretty much fixed as a title, I'm searching a name for the little service robot with the big task ahead of him..

 

Music.. I wish :( unfortunately my experience in hacking is strictly in sprite editing..

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Music.. I wish :( unfortunately my experience in hacking is strictly in sprite editing..

Might I suggest replacing in-level music with creepy ambient sounds against an otherwise silent setting? Think of how creepy certain sounds were when playing Atari 2600 games, and they rarely had music. Think of the sound ET's neck makes; think of the pulsing, humming buzz in Yars' Revenge; think of the enemy robots' lasers in Berzerk; think of pretty much the entire sound library in China Syndrome. Experimenting with a MIDI keyboard and square/triangle wave effects will yield surprisingly effective results. As for the little 3-4 second tunes in between? Look to games like Metroid (NES) or Gorf for inspiration.

 

I love your sprites, by the way. This looks like it'll be a fun hack.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys !

 

All great suggestions, but as I said earlier, I don't know the first thing about music (either creating or hacking it..)

I wish a more experienced hacker will step up and handle the sound department ;)

 

On another subject, do you (anyone) know how to edit the text in the game ??

I'm working with hack-o-matic and I don't see anything editable !?!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How to change the sprites at the first place?

 

It's easy to view the sprites by looking at, and decoding (for want of a better word), the value of the bytes in the games binary rom file. I did this to hack Matt Patrol into Moon Patrol using Excel. However, hacking anything other than graphics which are easy to identify, is very difficult. For example, the various non-sprite colour changes I implemented between Matt Patrol and Moon Patrol was achieved completely through trial and error. I have no clue how anyone could hack the music - I'd imagine if it was possible that it would be an enormous amount of work. You'd likely be much better off disassembling the rom, and reprogramming it, rather than trying to hack the binary.

 

By way of examples for the graphics/sprites, the first image attached is how a sprite is assembled from the hex value of individual bytes, while the second image shows reversing that process to visualise the graphics found in the Moon Patrol binary rom "decoded" from the hex value of individual bytes.

post-5757-0-17822400-1555682395.png

post-5757-0-46698100-1555682402_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Which text specifically?

 

For example

 

The game title: Exidy presents Space Venture

The rooms names : instead of Spider Room --> Facehugger infestation

Level names: instead of Level 1 --> Deck 1

 

or something like that !!

 

 

oh and a toothy blob attached ;) you were right, he was too cute !

post-65-0-02665600-1555691720.gif

Edited by TIX
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

For example

 

The game title: Exidy presents Space Venture

The rooms names : instead of Spider Room --> Facehugger infestation

Level names: instead of Level 1 --> Deck 1

 

or something like that !!

 

 

oh and a toothy blob attached ;) you were right, he was too cute !

 

The problem you're going to have is that you can't change the length of each text piece when simply hacking the binary. If you do want to change their length, e.g. going from "VENTURE" to "SPACE VENTURE" then you're going to have to disassemble the binary, edit it, and then reassemble. That said, venture is actually 9 characters long as it includes the "TM" so the title could be hacked to something with 9 characters. Spider, could be hacked to Hugger (looks like SPIDER has a few spaces after it so you might be able to name the rooms with up to 8 characters).

 

Regardless, the location in the binary that each of the above text pieces starts is:

 

VENTURETM = 0024

SPIDER = 39E8

LEVEL = 39AD

 

Hope this helps.

post-5757-0-20033800-1555697218.png

post-5757-0-44638000-1555697228.png

post-5757-0-78351100-1555697236.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...