Hi everyone! Time for a bit of a serious discussion.
It's now 2018, which means this year will see my third anniversary of FF6 hacking! I don't know yet whether I will release a new Anniversary Pack as I have done the past two anniversaries, mainly because I've only released four new patches since my most recent anniversary (five if you include Count Monsters for FF5). But I'm not here to anticipate or look ahead; this is instead a time for reflection. My FF6 hacking portfolio shows that I have made a total of 70 patches, and out of those all 70 are applicable to the SNES version, 68 are applicable to the SFC version, 26 to the GBA version and 14 to the PS1 version! I have to say I'm very proud of myself for all the work I've done so far and I am so grateful to my supporters and contributors for all the help you've given me! Thank you all very much!
On a more serious note, however, I anticipate that I will be much less active this year because I have to focus hard on school and work, and I will have little to no time available for hacking. To give some context, I just finished making a small but important update to Dead in the Air, which in turn affected Soul Saved, and I decided that it would be a convenient opportunity to port those two patches to GBA as well. It ended up being a successful and positive accomplishment, but far from convenient. I wanted to have the ports finished before New Year's, but it took me two weeks longer than I expected.
GBA hacking is much different than SNES hacking when it comes to this game. While the GBA version does its best to align its RAM in the same manner as the SNES version to maintain some semblance of recognition and similarity, the ARM Thumb assembly language that makes up the code of the GBA version is entirely different than the SNES assembly language. It requires multiple ARM instructions to simulate one SNES instruction, making GBA hacking much more arduous and time-consuming. To give some perspective, the non-headered SNES fix patch for Dead in the Air is 504 bytes; its US GBA equivalent is a staggering 2.43 kilobytes!
I would love to port as many of my patches to GBA as possible this year, but unfortunately I can only do as much as my busy schedule will allow. Don't be surprised this year to experience gaps between updates that are several months long. If a flaw exists in one of my already-existing patches, you may still feel free to send me a message and I will fix it ASAP, but as far as my own agenda goes, it's going to be a long and slow climb to that higher peak. Here are some of my patches that I would most love to port as soon as I get the opportunity:
Caravaggio- Game Over
Half KnifeImp's CallImp's RetortItem/Magic CounterStone ZombieThrowback- Ultimate Damage Fix
If anyone feels like helping me out with these ports, I will be so thankful to you and I will continue to appreciate every bit of support and assistance that comes my way! Here's to a successful and enjoyable 2018!
We have EVEN MORE themes now, but some old ones are gone...
Show Posts
Added GBA port!
Same thing goes for the other patches on the above list.