Trip'n Slip ~ Editor Usage

This section of the help file details the operation of the main editor window. It is through the main editor window that you have access to the many editing features of Trip'n Slip. So, out of all the help pages that you could read, it is highly recommended that you read this page.

When you first start Trip'n Slip you will be greeted by an empty dialog which will look like the following:

There are several ways to load a ROM at this point. You could open the Open ROM dialog (accessible through the toolbar, and the 'File' menu), and select your ROM from there. You could also drag and drop a Rush'n Attack ROM from Windows Explorer, onto the Trip'n Slip window which will also open the ROM. If you have already opened a ROM in another session of Trip'n Slip, you can access the same ROM through the Recent menu that is located in the 'File' menu. Finally, back-tracking a step before you even opened the Trip'n Slip editor, you can pass the ROM name through the command-line (see Command-line section for more details).

Menus

I will now describe the various menu and toolbar options that are contained within Trip'n Slip's main window.

File Menu:

The File menu contains a series of items that allow you to open, save, close your Rush'n Attack ROMs.

Open ROM: Allows you to open a ROM in the editor. See the 'Open Dialog' page for more information on the dialog that appears when you click this item.
Save ROM: Allows you to save the currently opened ROM. Disabled if you have no ROM opened in Trip'n Slip.
Close ROM: Closes the currently opened ROM. If you have made changes to your ROM, clicking this prompts you whether or not you want to save those changes.
Save As IPS: This (providing you have set it up correctly in the preferences dialog), allows you to create an IPS patch of your hack. This uses the same code as Lunar IPS, so the patch creation is quite reliable.
Preferences: Allows you to configure Trip'n Slip's various options. See the Preferences dialog help file for more information.
Properties: Displays a list of properties about your ROM. See the 'Properties' page for more information on the dialog that appears when you click this item.
Launch {Selected Emulator }: Depending on what your selected emulator is, this menu item slighty changes to match the filename of your emulator. If you have an emulator associated with Trip'n Slip (configurable through the Preferences dialog)
Exit: This exits the program. If you have an opened ROM with changes you will also get a prompt about whether you wish to save the changes that you have made.

Edit Menu:

The Edit menu allows you to select between the various modes of editing the level.

Map Editing Mode: Allows you to edit the actual background tiles of the level.
Object Editing Mode: Allows you to edit the objects that are in a level. These currently contain only the enemies, but I believe there is not much else to edit, object-wise.
Add New Enemy: Adds a new enemy to the current screen. If you are on screen 0, this will be disabled, as you are not allowed to have any enemies on the first screen.

View Menu:

The View menu allows you to toggle certain viewing options on and off. You can also jump quickly to certain levels in the ROM, through an option in this menu.

Gridlines: Toggles whether or not to view gridlines on the level.
Enemies: Toggles whether enemies are shown in the editor.
Jump To: This allows you to bring up a dialog to quickly jump to another level. See 'Jump To' help page for more information.

Tools Menu:

The Tools menu allows you access to some of Trip'n Slip's other editors, such as the TSA editor and the palette editor.

Palette Editor: This allows you to edit the palette that is used within the level. See 'Palette Editor' page for more information.
TSA Editor: This allows you to edit the individual 32x32 blocks that make up a level. See 'TSA editor' page for more details.
ROM Properties: This allows you to edit various ROM properties such as lives, etc. See 'ROM properties' for more details.

Help Menu:

The Help menu allows you to find out more information about Trip'n Slip.

About: This displays information about Trip'n Slip.

Editor Usage:

The following section tells you how to use Trip'n Slip's main window for editing.

Basic Operation:

To move left and right screens in the level, click the arrow buttons which appear under the main window.
To go to the next level, press the 'Page Up' key.
To go to the previous level, press the 'Page Down' key.

Map Editing Mode:

This section tells you what buttons to use when you are in Map Editing Mode.

Left Mouse Button: Edits the level with the tile selected for the left mouse button.
Left Mouse Button + Shift: Edits the level with the tile selected for the middle mouse button.
Middle Mouse Button: Edits the level with the tile selected for the middle mouse button.
Right Mouse Button: Maps the tile under the mouse to the left mouse button.
Right Mouse Button + Shift: Maps the tile under the mouse to the middle mouse button.

Enemy Editing Mode:

Left Mouse Button: Click and hold on an enemy to move it around the screen. The middle panel of the statusbar at the bottom of the window, will display the enemy name.
Left Mouse Button + Ctrl: Click and hold on an enemy to move it around the screen by 1 pixel.
Middle Mouse Button:Click this on an enemy to increment its ID by $10.
Right Mouse Button: Click on an enemy to increment its ID by 1.
Right Mouse Button + Shift: Brings up a dialog that allows you to manually set the enemy ID.
Right Mouse Button + Ctrl: Click this on an enemy to delete it.