SMILE request

[Fx3]

Actually, it's possible to change the planet area to begin the game. Could you add a way to start in a specific screen of this area? Like... starting exactly where Metroid 1 starts... near the MorphBall. ;)

Plus, is possible to reduce the time when Samus cross a door and a new room is "being loaded"? It's a huge time if compared with Zero Mission as example.<img src=smilies/puke.gif>

[Murray]

My request is for SMILE to stop fucking up room 796BA for no reason!

What happened the first time:game freezes when trying to leave room when first arrived on Zebes.

What happened the second time:game freezes when trying to leave room or die during escape sequence.

[king killa]

> My request is for SMILE to stop fucking up room 796BA for
> no reason!

Your an ass. Go find a program that is anywhere near as in depth as SMILE that doesn't have any bugs, oh, and SMILE is still in production, you ass.

Quit blaming everyone else for your problems and take measures to fix them yourself.

[JadussD]

> Your an ass. Go find a program that is anywhere near as in
> depth as SMILE that doesn't have any bugs, oh, and SMILE is
> still in production, you ass.

> Quit blaming everyone else for your problems and take
> measures to fix them yourself.

What the fucking hell? Lose the goddamn l33t attitude.. All he did was suggest a bug-fix, ass. Consider this a warning, I guess?<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by JadussD on 06/12/05 11:23 AM.</FONT></P>

[Fx3]

zSNES keeps displaying "wrong checksum". Is possible to fix the ROM's checksum after you edit anything?

[king killa]

> What the fucking hell? Lose the goddamn l33t attitude.. All
> he did was suggest a bug-fix, ass. Consider this a warning,
> I guess?
>

have your read this guys posts? his very first post was bitching about ZD giving him viruses, suggesting a bug fix is one thing, but he was just flat out complaining. All he needed to do was back up his rom and he wouldn't have had a problem.

[Ugly Joe]

> zSNES keeps displaying "wrong checksum". Is possible to fix
> the ROM's checksum after you edit anything?

The checksum is something that is calculated using the data in the rom file. There is no way of "setting" a checksum for a file.

ZSNES keeps a list of roms and checksums. When you load a rom, it checks its checksum to see which rom it is. If it doesn't find a match, it will read the rom's header to find out which game it is. If it then finds that this rom is in its list, it will inform you that the checksum is wrong.

It does this to inform you that the rom that you have loaded is claiming to be a game that it is not (that is, a hacked Super Metroid is not the same thing as Super Metroid).

edit: If you change the name of the game found in the header of the hacked rom, ZSNES might stop yelling at you since that name won't be in its list. Don't have my roms with me to verify this, though.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Ugly Joe on 06/12/05 12:59 PM.</FONT></P>

[Jathys]

> My request is for SMILE to stop fucking up room 796BA for
> no reason!

1) It's not fucking up the room for no reason . . . I guarantee you that a PLM got fucked up for no reason, which is why it SEEMS that room is fucked up for no reason.
2) Open the room in SMILE and look for something that is WRONG. You're going to find a PLM with a ? on it that was not there before (you can verify this by openning a fresh rom and re-openning the same room).
3) If you want a quick fix... Open the room in a "good" rom... Without closing SMILE, open your "fucked" rom... Without re-openning the room, SAVE the room . . . This saves the "good" data over the "fucked" data.

The PLM issue has been mentioned in my bug list for a long time. It's very rare and difficult to duplicate. It is incredibly easy to fix though.

From "Read Me.rtf":
SMILE is a teenager. It is undisciplined and slow. If you try making a hack with this, I strongly recommend making back-ups of your ROM, often. I am starting my official hack with the program now. I guarantee you I'll be making plenty of back-ups. I also guarantee that I'll find and kill lots of bugs in the process.

[Jathys]

> Actually, it's possible to change the planet area to begin
> the game. Could you add a way to start in a specific screen
> of this area? Like... starting exactly where Metroid 1
> starts... near the MorphBall. ;)

This is possible, but not added yet for a reason. This will actually be put in once SMILE supports save/load areas completely . . . Not going to put it into GameBehaviors, just to change it to something else later. This is coming soon though.

> Plus, is possible to reduce the time when Samus cross a door
> and a new room is "being loaded"?

Yes, but I'm not 100% sure. I've already made an ASM code that prevents the fade altogether, but the time is the same. I plan on finding the "timer" to add into my code at some point. When I do, you can be sure that this'll find its way into SMILE.

[CROcOp]

> Your an ass. Go find a program that is anywhere near as in
> depth as SMILE that doesn't have any bugs, oh, and SMILE is
> still in production, you ass.

I am tired of these guys on Zophar killing every guy that comes with a stupid post/reply. I am sure that Murray didn't mean anything bad, he just suggested a bugfix.

[king killa]

ok, let's make a little list of Murray quotes:
"It was NOT my incompetence, you MORON!"
"It is NOT my fault!"
"How DARE you put Adware and Trojans on my PC!"
"Why don't YOU piss off! The problem IS on your side somewhere."

and now he posted " My request is for SMILE to stop fucking up room 796BA for no reason! "

sorry, but I thought that was a little rude of him to word it like that, and to show NO appreciation whatsoever to Jathys for putting so much work into this project. He didn't say "it's a great program, but it is doing blah blah, is there a way of correcting this?".
He needs to show some respect, and some maturity.

[Jathys]

The thing no one seems to accept is that I *don't care* if someone likes/dislikes, respects/disrespects the program . . . The only reason I made the program is because I want to see new metroid games. Now, the only reason I continue the program is because I want to make my metroid game(s). Whether or not one person likes the program make no real difference to me, as some good hacks are on their way (and appear to be working towards similar release dates?!!)

Let's not turn this into a flame thread. It's really not worth it.

[The 9th Sage]

> The checksum is something that is calculated using the data
> in the rom file. There is no way of "setting" a checksum
> for a file.

I thought this was something read from the header...hm, I wonder why groups like DeJap talk of fixing the checksums then? Like with ToP I believe, they made it so that if you applied the patch to a bad ROM it would have a bad checksum, but with a proper ROM it'd be fine.

[Ugly Joe]

> I thought this was something read from the header...hm, I
> wonder why groups like DeJap talk of fixing the checksums
> then? Like with ToP I believe, they made it so that if you
> applied the patch to a bad ROM it would have a bad checksum,
> but with a proper ROM it'd be fine.

You know, I regret having wrote that post. I grabbed an snes rom and messed with it later, and realized that I'm most likely wrong. First of all, the checksum seems to be somewhere in the smc header. I can't find it myself, and I haven't managed to find a specification for the header (which, if anyone has, I'd appreciate a link), but this tool I grabbed (smc filechecker by KAJA) seems to have an expected checksum and a calculated checksum. This tells me it's in the header somewhere.

Second of all, I was thinking of a crc and not a checksum. A checksum is just addition, so you can alter a few bites and get the proper one. That is, if your checksum is 18 greater than the expected one, you can subtract 18 from a useless byte in the rom and the checksum will verify.

Third, the whole rom/checksum list thing being in Zsnes is most likely completely wrong. I'm not sure why I typed that. It would make sense, but I have no idea how it actually checks these things and shouldn't have put it in there.

[Murray]

Hear me, oh Powers of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla;
turn now king killa into an Exbelua!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Murray on 06/12/05 11:52 PM.</FONT></P>

[MonsieurSirhan]

> Third, the whole rom/checksum list thing being in Zsnes is
> most likely completely wrong. I'm not sure why I typed
> that. It would make sense, but I have no idea how it
> actually checks these things and shouldn't have put it in
> there.

It's likely that it is both "posted" in the header AND calculated, just to verify they match, and if they do, it's an integral rom (that is, unhacked).

[Murray]

I've tired to copy over good data, but it didn't make a difference. Still crashes.

I don't remember what I did that got it screwed up the second time, but the first time, all I did was change the Cacattacks in the room before Crocomire into Baby Crocomires.

One more thing, I have been actively making a back-up this time, but the glitch got in there as well.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Murray on 06/12/05 11:56 PM.</FONT></P>

[Chill Penguin]

If it's a bad version of the rom (such as what I had whenever I started making my hack), the PLMs will completely mess up when changed. Trust me, I know. I can't remember what the version was, but I think it was either a bad dump or an alternate dump (not a (JU) [!]).

SMILE works best with the (JU) [!] version. I'm just glad I could copy and paste the room elements to a good version.

[Chill Penguin]

> This is possible, but not added yet for a reason. This will
> actually be put in once SMILE supports save/load areas
> completely . . . Not going to put it into GameBehaviors,
> just to change it to something else later. This is coming
> soon though.

Hey Jathys, didn't I already figure that out (Eh, some stuff through SABS and a hex editor)? Too bad I lost the picture of it landing in the morphing ball room.

The part that I remember being hard is determining coordinates within a room where it lands (currently, it's x=5, y=5). Did you figure out how to change that yet? Seems like you were having a difficutlt time last time I checked.

[Murray]

I'm pretty sure that my ROM is good.

[CROcOp]

I guess you have a point about that. The best thing the moderators of this forum could do is to delete his account. But his idea about trojans was very funny...Congratulations on being stupid, Murray. I guess your mom succeded.<img src=smilies/thumb.gif>

[CROcOp]

> Let's not turn this into a flame thread. It's really not
> worth it.
>
Peace.

[taloon]

WinHex a program by bongo repairs headers.
stealth.romhack.net

[Ugly Joe]

> WinHex a program by bongo repairs headers.
> stealth.romhack.net
>
Oh, so it does. So the rom does store the checksum and its compliment in the header, but it stores them in opposite byte order (little-endian). Can't believe I didn't think to check that <img src=smilies/retard.gif>

[The 9th Sage]

> Hear me, oh Powers of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla;
> turn now king killa into an Exbelua!

Um, yeah...summon powers don't quite work here Kreskin...kinks in the board software.

[The 9th Sage]

> I'm pretty sure that my ROM is good.

You ought to verify it to be sure.

[Jathys]

> One more thing, I have been actively making a back-up this
> time, but the glitch got in there as well.

Then you should have a back-up that works correctly, with one immediately after it that doesn't . . . Make an IPS of each and send them to me. I can use SMILE's file comparer to find what's being changed that shouldn't be getting changed, then fix it.

[Jathys]

> The part that I remember being hard is determining
> coordinates within a room where it lands (currently, it's
> x=5, y=5). Did you figure out how to change that yet? Seems
> like you were having a difficutlt time last time I checked.

In all honesty, I never really looked into it all that much. I imagine the coordinates are figured in one of two ways:
1) x/y of the ship in pixels, not screens
2) x remains a constant value, but y has two values... a starting point and an ending point

My guess would be #1, because starting point is probably just 0

[Jathys]

Why do so many people care about headers?
1) The emulator *ignores* the header. As long as its size is correct, there's nothing to be fixed.
2) The data on the cartridge doesn't even have a header... It is made up by the tool that rips the ROM.
3) Most emulators also ignore the checksum.

[Fx3]

Well... you can take it out of 'to-do list'... Really.

[Ugly Joe]

> Why do so many people care about headers?
> 1) The emulator *ignores* the header. As long as its size
> is correct, there's nothing to be fixed.

Zsnes does, I guess (you'd have a better idea than me).

I'm used to NES emulation, where it does refer to the header if it needs to and will refuse to play the game if the rom is unkown (like a hack) and there's bad data in there (such as giving it a bogus mapper number).

[Lenophis]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

2) The data on the cartridge doesn't even have a header... It is made up by the tool that rips the ROM.

<hr></blockquote>
As is the case with the NES roms. Without the headers, NES roms don't work. I'd wonder why the same isn't true for the SNES roms. I guess that's what happens when stuff is ripped differently.

[Lillymon]

> As is the case with the NES roms. Without the headers, NES
> roms don't work. I'd wonder why the same isn't true for the
> SNES roms. I guess that's what happens when stuff is ripped
> differently.

Isn't that something to do with detecting what mapper a game needs?

[Evil Peer]

> Isn't that something to do with detecting what mapper a game
> needs?

As I understand it, all of the NES "mappers" are essentially different hardware. This is the reason SNES emulation is (and probably always will be) at a better state than NES emulation. The SNES only has one primary item to emulate, while the NES has a couple hundred. The closest comparisons that can be made for the SNES are the special chip games (except every mapper is a "special chip").

The NES rom data contains no information to describe the cartridge and the hardware it contains, so external "header" information is essential to emulation. The SNES rom data has all the information an emulator needs; the SNES external headers are for copier use only and can be safely discarded if not being used for that purpose.

---T.Geiger

[The 9th Sage]

> Isn't that something to do with detecting what mapper a game
> needs?

Not to get horribly off topic, but for some reason when I read your posts I imagine it sounding like Aeka from the english dub of Tenchi Muyo. O_o I don't know why this is exactly. :P

[The 9th Sage]

> Zsnes does, I guess (you'd have a better idea than me).

Not entirely true...it does now check for special NSRT data in the header...this allows auto activating of stuff like the SNES mouse, or Super Scope.

[Jathys]

> Not entirely true...it does now check for special NSRT data
> in the header...this allows auto activating of stuff like
> the SNES mouse, or Super Scope.

Well, I'm glad Super Metroid doesn't use Super Scope then . . . Actually!!! No, that would take too long to code. LOL.

[Fx3]

> Not to get horribly off topic, but for some reason when I
> read your posts I imagine it sounding like Aeka from the
> english dub of Tenchi Muyo. O_o I don't know why this is
> exactly. :P

Yes... Something very similar to AYBABTU :P
That's a "natural" english writting when not the mother-language.

[Isildur]

> That's a "natural" english writting when not the
> mother-language.
>

Is that intentionally ironic?

[Fx3]

> > That's a "natural" english writting when not the
> > mother-language.
> >
>
> Is that intentionally ironic?

Nope. Mine is portuguese and I have some grammatical errors... sometimes...

[Lillymon]

> Not to get horribly off topic, but for some reason when I
> read your posts I imagine it sounding like Aeka from the
> english dub of Tenchi Muyo. O_o I don't know why this is
> exactly. :P

Great, now it's going to sound like that when I read my own posts...

[Murray]

There seems to be a glitch correlation between rooms 792FD and 796BA. I have mainly had problems during the escape sequence(regardless of it being normal or Glitch Beam)though I did have Early 796BA glitch once as well. Don't know what I did then but experiments with a fresh ROM revealed the correlation.