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  • Gradius III: Vaporized Released

    You can follow clymax’s projects via FFVC or YouTube.

    The Gradius III: Vaporized mod for the SNES has been released courtesy of clymax.

    It belongs to the lineup of clymax’s “RPG/leveling” mods.

    A release build for Romhack Plaza is being considered, or you can get early access to the dev build on Game Jolt.1 Our sister Discord for arcade gaming2 is available for support.

    1. Itch.io has a twenty-listing limit and does not allow multiple untiered entries in a single listing, so no listing there for now. ↩︎
    2. clymax’s magical arcade Discord here. ↩︎

    Development Build: Features

    Grind your ship into an epic destroyer! Earn score-ups to level up your ship. Your progress carries across runs and resets!

    Hi-score display has been replaced with Level display.

    Save-file support has been added. Ship level is autosaved in the save file.

    Requires the SA-1 v1.7 Origin patch from VitorVilela7 on Github to be applied first—more info here.

    Each level improves your weapon power. Minimum level is zero. Max level is 99.

    To reset your ship level, change Sound Mode to Monaural in the Option menu without needing to exit the menu.

    In 2P mode, both players will share and contribute toward the same level.

    Continues increased from three to unlimited.

    Reduce-type shields can now stack to shield more hits than you can count!

    Each weapon loadout now has its own level. All custom loadouts are represented by a fifth level.

    A new death mechanic has arrived!

    Want to see more of the mod in action?

    So, what do you think? Where does Gradius III stand compared to the other entries in the series? Do you think the arcade version or the SNES port is superior? Do you prefer the SA-1 Root or Origin patch?

    This post has been viewed 145 time(s).

  • Leveling-1CC Pilot

    Update: unless otherwise specified, this pilot has been replaced by the Whirlwind Fiesta event, which you can access here.

    For the Rando-Speedrun Pilot, click here.

    Preserving Arcade Culture: Promoting 1CC Attempts

    Under a new pilot program, players are eligible to request an early-access build of an “RPG/leveling” mod by clymax, at no charge, provided that the player will use the build to submit a run to the relevant one-credit-clear (1CC) leaderboard (actual leaderboard WIP1)for verification.

    1. The player is required to have at least one verified run on a recognized scoring leaderboard at the time of making the request. A link to the run page must be provided.
    2. The verified run must be in a game of the same genre as the mod being requested. E.g., STG, fighting game, run-n-gun, etc.
    3. The player will be asked to prove that he or she is indeed the same user as the one on the scoring leaderboard.
    4. The player will be expected to submit a run within three months of receiving the build.
    5. The run itself does not necessarily need to be a 1CC. E.g., 2CC, 3CC, etc., as long as it is a bona fide attempt at a 1CC.
    6. The video of the run must be uploaded to YouTube and must be a listed video.
    7. FFV Central and the pilot host are permitted to use the game footage to promote the site, mod, pilot, etc.
    8. No rom will be provided; only a patch file will be provided.
    9. Once your run is verified, you can repeat the process if you wish. There is currently no limit to the number of builds you can request under this pilot.
    10. A global monthly redemption quota across all pilots may apply, and a redemption waitlist can be maintained.
    11. Acceptance of a player into the pilot is at the discretion of the pilot host and/or mod author. A player can be declined entry into the pilot for any reason or for no reason.
    12. To avoid competing with similar events being hosted, this pilot is suspended during such events. The pilot can also end at any time at the discretion of the pilot host and/or mod author, so sign up today!

    Interested players, please make a redemption post in the help channel of our sister Discord, clymax’s magical arcade here.

    1. cyberscore was also looked into but doesn’t allow mods or emulation. ↩︎

    This post has been viewed 66 time(s).

  • Porting NES Games to SNES

    By Rumbleminze on April 15, 2024. Reproduced with permission.

    Rumbleminze, a fan of all things retro tech, is co-author of the Kid Icarus Randomizer romhack and whose recent work includes porting NES games to run natively on the SNES. You can follow these and other projects via Rumbleminze’s IA, Github, YouTube, or Ko-Fi.

    Intro

    This [post] is going to go over the process I use to port NES games to the Super Nintendo. Something to keep in mind while we go through this process: I’m by no means an expert on all these things. But I do know what’s worked for me. If you have ideas on ways to improve it, I’d love to hear them! Please reach out to me on Bsky.

    Why though?

    The most frequent question I get is “why?”. There are a lot of great reasons for porting games from the NES to the SNES. Here’s a few:

    1. eliminate slowdown
    2. eliminate sprite flicker
    3. allow for MSU-1 enhancements like CD quality music and videos
    4. Take advantage of FastROM cartridge chips
    5. Up-rez-ing the sprites to 16-bit
    6. better video output on SNES instead of NES
    7. Much, much more room for romhacks/enhancements
    8. Most importantly, it’s fun!! Finding ways to port these games is, to me, like solving a big puzzle.

    The Overall Process

    To accomplish my ports, I follow this general approach:

    1. Take the original NES ROM, and break it up into it’s requisite memory banks by creating .asm files for each bank.
    2. Use a buildable SNES game skeleton, with the NES games memory banks mapped to various convienent banks in the SNES game.
    3. Hook up the SNES skeleton to jump to the NES initialization/nmi at the proper times
    4. Slowly replace routines of the NES byte code with decompiled assembly, aquired from running the NES game in Mesen2.
    5. Find and modify the NES specific logic and tile graphics to work on the nes. Especially things like:
      • All writes to Video Memory
      • Deal with differences in screen resolution / BG size / Mirroring
      • Update audio to use Membler’s 2A03 emulator
      • Properly handle bank switching

    [Editor’s note: for the remainder of this post, covering tools, goals, and limitations, please visit Rumbleminze’s blog.]

    This post has been viewed 34 time(s).

  • Lufia: Fortified Released

    You can follow clymax’s projects via FFVC or YouTube.

    The Lufia & the Fortress of Doom: Fortified mod has been released courtesy of clymax.

    Like all of clymax’s rando mods, it’s a self-randomizer, so just simply reset the game to play a new seed.

    A release build for Romhack Plaza is being considered, or you can get early access to the dev build on Game Jolt.

    Release Build: Features

    No more random encounters.

    Development Build: Features

    Chest items have been randomized. Seeding not yet supported.

    Random encounters can now be triggered by holding down the A button.

    So, what do you think? What sets Lufia apart from other JRPGs on the SNES? What other part of the game would you like to see randomized?

    This post has been viewed 47 time(s).