Posted: 11/23/2005 4:45 AM
Post subject: SMB2j - 8 stars
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
First, if this is in the wrong forum, I apologize in advance. Okay, now that you guys are officially doing (certain) hacks, I'm wondering about possibilities for SMB2j. I would love to see a movie of levels A-D. Normally this requires playing through without warps. BUT, if you have 8 stars on the title screen, you need only to hold A and press start to begin on A-1. So, I guess my questions are: A) Do any of you know if there a ROM exists that is hacked to have 8 stars on the title screen at start up? B) If not, do any of you have (or think you have) the expertize to hack a ROM to find the one value that needs to be changed to accomplish this? C) Would such a hack be worthy of consideration for publication on this site? Thanks for any responses.
Posted: 11/23/2005 5:23 AM
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Phil
Active player (411)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
Plz read: http://tasvideos.org/Rules.html#hacked_and_homebrew_games_are_not_allowed_
Posted: 11/23/2005 5:45 AM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Thank you for the link to the FDS patch. I assumed that since there was no movie of A-D, it hadn't been discussed yet. One more question. Do you know either who created that patch, or what website that patch is borrowed from? I'm asking because I'd like to see if there is a patch available for the ROM version that has been hacked to work properly on a real NES, so I can update my cart.
Posted: 11/23/2005 2:12 PM
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Dr. Morbis wrote:
One more question. Do you know either who created that patch, or what website that patch is borrowed from?
I created it.
Posted: 11/24/2005 6:58 AM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Bisqwit wrote:
Dr. Morbis wrote:
One more question. Do you know either who created that patch, or what website that patch is borrowed from?
I created it.
Alright, is there any chance I could convince you to make a patch for the NES version? Or would that be too time consuming?
Posted: 11/24/2005 7:42 AM
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
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Dr. Morbis wrote:
Alright, is there any chance I could convince you to make a patch for the NES version? Or would that be too time consuming?
What NES version?
Posted: 11/24/2005 7:51 AM
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Makou
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 104
There exists a ROM dump of SMB2j that's in the .nes file format.
Posted: 11/24/2005 8:27 AM
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
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Location: Arzareth
It's a hack. The game was modified so that it approximately (but not quite) works without FDS. I'm not supporting it.
Posted: 11/24/2005 5:17 PM
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univbee
Joined: 7/28/2005
Posts: 83
Location: Montreal, Canada
The original "Famicom" version of the game was FDS-only; no cartridge was ever officially made (excluding Super Mario Collection/All-Stars' Lost Levels and the more recent GBA cart). I do own a physical pirated cart of SMB2j and while for the most part the game works as intended, it does have at least one difference from the FDS version: selecting a "Luigi Game" still displays Mario's name above the score. It's also unquestionably a pirate; it's in a beige US NES-sized cartridge. I scored it from a friend for free because it didn't work; after opening the cart I discovered it was the board of a small-size cart (like the Japanese famicom and popular bootleg cartridges) with a pin-converter board (also from bootleg fame), and they had come apart somehow. A quick shove and the game worked excluding the above "Luigi-Mario" bug. I also have no idea if it saved, as I've never beaten the thing on a real cart. Apparently another pirated version displays Rambo as a name instead of Mario. Short version: run the FDS with the IPS patch or the SNES Lost Levels if it has a similar "warp to World A" routine.
Posted: 11/24/2005 7:06 PM
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Inzult
Active player (434)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
NES TAS of 2021
Dr. Morbis wrote:
Alright, is there any chance I could convince you to make a patch for the NES version? Or would that be too time consuming?
In both of my pirated nes cart & my pirated fami cart of this game, if you hold a direction and the a or b button (I forget which) and then press start, it warps you to a different level. You might want to give it a try.
Posted: 11/25/2005 2:39 AM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Bisqwit wrote:
It's a hack. The game was modified so that it approximately (but not quite) works without FDS. I'm not supporting it.
I'm not asking if you will support it for the purposes of making a TAS on this site. I'm asking you if you would be kind enough to use your expertise to create a patch for the .nes version so that the NES reproduction community will be able to have a cart with 8+ stars at start up. As for the other comments, thank you for the info but I'm well aware of all the pirate/hack issues (including the non-working wind problem that is frequent with pirates but was not mentioned in this thread). I don't own a pirate cart. I have a cartridge of the FDS version that has had it's ROM hacked to work perfectly on a real NES. The CHR and PRG were then burned onto chips and placed on the PCB. Mario and Luigi are different, wind works, etc. My problem is that there is no way to save the star count when the power is off. There are only two workarounds: A) make the cart a battery backup, or B) find a nice person who has the knowledge/expertise to make a patch for the .nes version and will be kind enough to make one for those of us who enjoy playing this game on NES hardware. That is where I stand. Can anybody help?
Posted: 11/25/2005 3:30 AM
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hanzou
Player (21)
Joined: 10/14/2005
Posts: 317
I typed this at the command prompt: C:\>comp smb2j.fds smb2j_patch.fds Comparing smb2j.fds and smb2j_patch.fds... Compare error at OFFSET CC3C file1 = 0 file2 = 18 Compare error at OFFSET CC3D file1 = 0 file2 = E9 Compare more files (Y/N) ? ^C In other words, the patch changes only two bytes, and the first one is 0x18 or hex for 24, and I'd assume that refers to 24 stars. Looking in a hex editor, this part occurs eight bytes after the word SM2SAVE (in ASCII). The word SM2SAVE also occurs in smb2j.nes, so the first thing I'd suggest trying would be to edit the corresponding two bytes in that .nes file. The reason I haven't tested this is... well, I don't know much about how to play this game. After you turn it on is there a quick way to see how many stars you have or to directly play world 9/A/B/C/D? edit: Well I don't see any stars on the title screen, but this .nes version allows me to play the alphabet worlds as is. If I hold A while pressing start I land in A-1, and I can go to the other worlds by holding a direction with A. Your version doesn't do this? edit: I didn't read some of the previous replies until now, but it looks to me like the version I'm using is the one Inzult mentioned. Sorry if this is of no help to you. -hanzou
Posted: 11/25/2005 7:05 AM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Thank you for that hex information. I was able to find SM2SAVE in ASCII in the .nes file. It starts at 8750. However, after manipulating all of the values around that spot, nothing worked. Changing one value to 18 is obvious, but what is the E9 for?
Posted: 11/25/2005 8:24 AM
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Dr. Morbis wrote:
Changing one value to 18 is obvious, but what is the E9 for?
I can't remember. I started creating the patch by saving a clean copy of SMB2j disk image and then comparing it to the disk image after the game has been completed once (and more). Then I just experimented by modifying the changed area until the results were satisfactory. (Yes, FDS games are disk images, not ROMs. FDS = Famicom Disk System.)
Posted: 11/25/2005 1:50 PM
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hanzou
Player (21)
Joined: 10/14/2005
Posts: 317
Morbis, is there any way you could identify the image on your cartridge? Might it be any of the following: - Super Mario Bros 2 (J) (Kaiser Pirate) [p1] - Super Mario Bros 2 (J) [p1] - Super Mario Bros 2 (LF36) (J) [p1] If none of us have seen this version and this particular ROM hasn't ever been dumped, then I'm afraid it would be very difficult for us to help you. -hanzou
Posted: 11/26/2005 1:05 AM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
The ROM on my cart won't be on any major ROM sites because it was modified especially to work on real hardware, whereas most people seeking the ROM just need it to function with an emulator. I will find out from the guy who I buy repros from and get back to you with the ROM image. FYI, here's where I've gotten most of my repros from: http://www.nesreproductions.com/ This site is run by Leonk, a fellow Canadian that I highly recommend. SMB2j is down near the bottom of the page. I will ask him to send me the ROM he's currently using to make SMB2j carts. The only other site I know of that sells repros is this one (but I have never dealt with him): http://www.gamereproductions.com/ ^This one seems to be "Down for repairs" right now.
Posted: 11/26/2005 4:55 AM
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LocalH
Joined: 10/3/2004
Posts: 138
I'd be happy to take a look at the ROM you mention, with the goal of making it start up with 8 stars. I assume that it doesn't crash when the game tries to update the star count after beating it? If you know exactly how it was hacked compared to the original FDS, that can help immensely. Of course, with the disk version, it wasn't that hard to make such a hack - beat the game once, then do a compare (I don't remember finding but the one difference, and it was indeed in the SM2SAVE file). With the ROM, something similar could be done, but with savestates, in order to determine where in RAM the game stores the star count, and then the ROM can be hacked to write the correct value to that particular RAM address.
Sonic Retro
Posted: 11/26/2005 5:37 PM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Thanks for the offer LocalH. I put the file on some site called bigupload.com. You should be able to download it here: [URL=http://tasvideos.org/forum/t/4]forum rules[/URL] (Available without waiting!). It looks nothing like the .FDS version because it was so heavily modified. And it's much larger (128k). I can only hope that it writes the number of stars into RAM at startup rather than just leaving it blank and waiting for you to finish the game once before changing the value. Worst case scenario would be to make it give you 8+ stars after beating the game once rather than only one. But hopefully it doesn't come to that. [Edited by Bisqwit]
Posted: 11/26/2005 5:55 PM
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hanzou
Player (21)
Joined: 10/14/2005
Posts: 317
Here. I've created an .ips file to convert Super Mario Bros 2 (J) [p1].nes into the good version. I'll leave it up to LocalH to take a look at this. -hanzou
Posted: 11/26/2005 11:15 PM
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LocalH
Joined: 10/3/2004
Posts: 138
Yeah, I didn't mean to actually post the ROM here, that can be handled by other communcation methods that don't involve public availability on Bisqwit's forum =P
Sonic Retro
Posted: 11/27/2005 6:16 AM
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Dr._Morbis
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Let me know if hanzou's patch works for you. If not, I can email the ROM to you (or anyone else who wants it, just ask).
Posted: 11/27/2005 6:21 AM
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Phil
Active player (411)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
What is this ROM so special? Why not original FDS?