Project Phoenix!

Non-MSU player should be working now (some screen transitions change music, so that's normal)

Awesome I'll check it out, first thing tommorow morning!

I'll hold off on dungeon 4 till you're done, plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

No worries, theres no deadline set in stone and I have about twenty more tasks to do myself before the alpha is ready!

Also you'll have to remind me - I remember seeing 3 agahnim rooms

You got 30% right! Here's the three agahnim boss fights and their correct room numbers

32 - That's the 1st one in the Gorona
13 - That's the 2nd one in the Tardis
12 - That's the superboss in the Church

Hard mode should apply to all three rooms if you're playing on hard mode ;-)

Okay so I couldn't get to sleep and instead tried that native music player! I was a bit septic you could pull this off for spc songs to be honest, so I had to see it into action!

Here's my testing results:



On overworlds and in Link's house tracks 1-14 plays fine, but in dungeons they naturally don't because a new song bank is being loaded there.

It could have helped if I given you the full native spc tracklist lol

Code:

Bank1 - Native Overworld
-01 Title screen
-02 World map
-03 Beginning
-04 Rabbit
-05 Forest
-06 Intro
-07 Town
-08 Warp SFX
-09 Dark World
-0A (10)Master Sword SFX
-0B (11)File Select & Dead Screen
-0C (12)Soldier
-0D (13)Mountain
-0E (14)Shop
-0F (15)Fanfare

Bank2 - Native Indoors
-10 (16)Castle
-11 (17)Palace
-12 (18)Cave
-13 (19)Clear
-14 (20)Church
-15 (21)Boss
-16 (22)Dungeon
-17 (23)Psychic
-18 (24)Secret way
-19 (25)Rescue
-1A (26)Crystal
-1B (27)Fountain
-1C (28)Pyramid
-1D (29)Kill Agah
-1E (30)Ganon room
-1F (31)Last boss

Bank3 - Ending Themes
-20 (32) Ending Screens
-21 (33) Credits rolling
-22 (34) The End

Anyhow I was able to test it further by editing that non msu-1 table in your asm file to test the dungeon songs ;-)



So I think you'd have to make two different lists for spc tracks, one that loads in overworlds in one in dungeons! Otherwise count me impress, its nice that players with normal emulators will get there share of fun and wont be left aside msu1 users!

ah but it was strange because some places (eg/ initial room) was using bank 1 tracks even though it's in "dungeon"

I need to figure out what the trigger is for different spc loads, definitely not the outside/inside indicator, shouldn't be too hard making 2 sets of spc list for overworld/dungeons once I suss out the trigger.

Though that being said I don't think i'll be looking forward to naming them. Maybe give out the clue in a room with this music playing in the background "Make ganon dance to this song!"

It could be my version (still using 797 version as base), but if you play with the tracks while in a overworld map without sound the music kinda stuffs up.

I need to figure out what the trigger is for different spc loads, definitely not the outside/inside indicator, shouldn't be too hard making 2 sets of spc list for overworld/dungeons once I suss out the trigger.

Found it!

My initial starting room had its music set to Bank1 -07 Town. So I tested this with my 1st dungeon... I've changed the castle music from bank2 into a song from bank 1 and I was able to play tracks 1-14 in the dungeon!



So if you select tracks 1-14 as the music that plays in an entrance, it will load that bank when you enter it.

If the entrance music is instead set to a bank2 song, it'll load that bank instead of bank1!

Though that being said I don't think i'll be looking forward to naming them. Maybe give out the clue in a room with this music playing in the background "Make ganon dance to this song!"

Neither do I look forward to finding names for them lol! Good idea with that background sound and text idea. I could probably expend this dialogue a bit:


Euclid: "Make ganon dance to this song!"

Conker: ''Uh but what track is that?''

Euclid: ''Oh that's track 26! He hates that song!''

Of course don't pick track 26 just yet, its an exemple lol

It could be my version (still using 797 version as base), but if you play with the tracks while in a overworld map without sound the music kinda stuffs up.

Yeah I noticed a few instances like this but only when I when I changed the track list to test out tracks 16-29.

Basically if I changed my tracks while I was the overworld into songs 16-29, all sounds would stop and when I enter entrances, the game would just stuck. So you'd have to make sure that the lists alternate correctly so make sure you cant select bank2 songs and vice versa when you're not supposed to!

Alright apparently qwertymodo gave me access to his google drive a couple days ago but just noticed this when going into my emails haha.

So I was able to test out the looped pcms 1-31!



In many areas of the overworld the music stops, but thats normal because not all songs are done and I haven't set my music tables in hex for the areas properly.

Just a video to give a taste of the new soundtrack that sounds quite different and more pleasing to the ears! Do note that 99% of the songs are free songs as well so not much copyright issues there! :-)

Non MSU music anywhere, any bank except the ending. I'm so tempted to change the heading to (a variation of, to avoid copyright) Spotify now.

I've taken out 0F (fanfare) - it doesn't play properly in both banks for some reason. HM doesn't seem to think there's a song there in my rom so that could be the reason XD

Known Issues (will fix)
- Conn's overworld music code is causing the music to stop on transition if you're on the wrong bank
- If you are playing bank 1 music when you go into a boss room, music will stop playing because the boss room music is in bank 2.

Both of the above you can restart the music by going into the menu. If you find any other cases where the music could stop or stops, let me know and I'll add some hooks.

EDIT: oh I forgot to mention - I can probably add extra SPC tracks which are exclusive to the music player assuming you have the data stashed somewhere in a bank... I'll see if i can whip up a demo tomorrow

Awesome, will check it out later in the day since I got two jobs interviews to attend to!

I think I removed that fanfare song, don't remember why :-P

You need space to fit another song

So I've managed to pull in the song bank from parallel worlds (had to copy a whole bunch of bytes, so not good as a .asm file) and I can get to the songs there fine with some programming

So basically if there's a zelda rom out there with spc songs you like, I can pull that in and play specific tracks from it and call it track 100.

Alright Euclid, as discussed by pms, here's an exemple of midi song I converted with zarby editor which uses three channels instead of only one for normal mml songs! Of course that was my first try and it sounds a bit off at places, so will try a couple more harder midi songs with more channels tommorow :-)

Alright couldn't get to sleep yet (must be the excitement from beta testing a new zelda 3 tool) so here's my first try with a more complex song lol



Basically the song could be improved slightly more since zarby teached me a bit more how to export the songs properly so the songs wouldn't sound choppy.

But hey it works, I'm impressed I can finally have my Frank Sinatra in spc form lol

It's done! Agahnim Pimping Patch!

In short
- Gorona Agahnim Normal - he's pretty similar to conker (no change)
- Gorona Agahnim Hard - faster and packs a surprise! (I've tuned it down already so i think players can get through him safely)
- Tardis Agahnim Normal - now comes in 2! Otherwise similar to conker
- Tardis Agahnim Hard - now also comes in 2! With the surprises it should still be beatable. I can't beat him with my skills but i'm pretty rusty.
- Super Agahnim Normal - not too much changes from conker's one, let me know if he's still laggy so i might put a speed buff to him which solves the laggy issue
- Super Agahnim Hard - I can't beat it.

If the hard mode super agahnim is too tough let me know. I can't beat it so.... maybe it'll need a tune down from the track change.

Code:


;
; XKAS module - Euclid 2019
;
; Phoenix Agahnim Omph
;

lorom

; hooks.

ORG $9EDB27
BRA $1A ; remove shooting ball shadow from agahnim (less lag), looks less pretty but meh.

ORG $9ED6EE
NOP
JSL AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_2
BCC $12
JSL AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS

ORG $9EDB9C
NOP
JSL BLUE_BALLS_NUMER_CHANGE

ORG $9EDBAB
JSL BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN

ORG $9EDBC3
JSL BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_LOCATION
NOP

ORG $2F842D
JSL TARDIS_AGAHNIM_BUFF

ORG $9ED4BF
JSL TARDIS_SPLIT_MOD

ORG $9ED52F
NOP
JSL SUPER_FAST_AGAHNIM

ORG $9EFF48
JSL FAST_BALLS


; programming location
ORG $45F000

AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_2:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $06
LDA $0E30,x
CMP #$02
RTL
SEC
RTL

AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS:
;CPU State envMXdizC
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_FOR_HARD_MODE
; original code
JSL $8DBA71 ; basically if this returns 0 = blue, 1 = bouncy.
RTL
AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_FOR_HARD_MODE:
JSL $8DBA71 ; ~25% bouncy
AND #$06  ; so we're comparing to a specific number
BEQ $03
LDA #$00 ; blue
RTL
LDA $7EF36E
CMP #$20
BCS DMAGIC2
LDA #$00
STA $7EF36E
LDA #$01 ; bouncy
RTL
DMAGIC2:
SEC
SBC #$20
STA $7EF36E
LDA #$01 ; bouncy
RTL




BLUE_BALLS_NUMER_CHANGE:
; CPU state envMXdizC
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_NUMBER_FOR_HARD_MODE
LDA #$05
BRA $02
AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_NUMBER_FOR_HARD_MODE:
LDA #$01
STA $0FB5
RTL

BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_FOR_HARD_MODE
LDA #$55
JSL $9DF65D
RTL
AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_FOR_HARD_MODE:
LDA #$BF
JSL $9DF65D
LDA #$26
STA $012F
RTL

BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_LOCATION:
ADC #$04
STA $0D00,y
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $01
RTL
LDA #$00
STA $0D00,y ; location change.
RTL

TARDIS_AGAHNIM_BUFF:
SEP #$20
LDA $A0
CMP #$0D
BEQ IS_TARDIS
RTL
IS_TARDIS:
LDA $0E51
CMP #$60
BEQ MYSTERY_4_END
LDA #$07
STA $0D80
LDA #$50
STA $0DF0
MYSTERY_4_END:
LDA $A0
RTL

TARDIS_SPLIT_MOD:
LDA $A0
CMP #$0D
BEQ TARDIS_SPLIT_LESS
NORMAL_SPLIT:
LDA #$7A
LDY #$02
RTL
TARDIS_SPLIT_LESS:
STZ $0FB5
LDA #$7A
LDY #$01
RTL

SUPER_FAST_AGAHNIM:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $06
ORIGINAL_CODE_AGAHNIM:
; original code
LDA #$FF
STA $0DF0,x
RTL
LDA $A0
CMP #$0C
BNE ORIGINAL_CODE_AGAHNIM
JSL $8DBA71 ; random interval
AND #$7F
ORA #$80 ; above 80
STA $0DF0,x
RTL

FAST_BALLS:
PHA
LDA $7EF32E
BNE NOT_FAST
LDA $A0
CMP #$0C
BEQ VERY_FAST
CMP #$0D
BEQ HALF_FAST
CMP #$20
BEQ HALF_FAST
NOT_FAST:
PLA
LSR A
LSR A
LSR A
LSR A
RTL
HALF_FAST:
LDA $1A
AND #$01
BEQ NOT_FAST
VERY_FAST:
PLA
LSR A
LSR A
LSR A
RTL



Next stop - Ganon re-pimping for hard mode.

Awesome thanks will go check it out right away. If you can't beat the last boss, its not a problem as I want the hard mode to be a challenge intended for speedrunners ;-P

If someone beats him during beta test, I'd leave it like that...otherwise you'll be free to tune it down!

Alternatively I could prepare a special rom with just that boss fight and have a few people try it in advance, to see if he's beatable lol

Alright just tested a couple of them:


Gorona Agahnim Hard:

It took me easily ten tries until I figured out the trick to beat him :-P
He's quite faster too with no lag at all and caught me off guards many times haha, good one. I'll go try the other ones!

Tardis Agahnim Normal:

Found it to be still pretty easy, so its good enought for normal players!

Tardis Agahnim Hard:

I Can't beat him either, but I'm playing with a keyboard and I haven't got the 1/2 and 1/4 magic upgrades yet, which could make the fight easier since I used that golden rod a lot to protect myself.

Super Agahnim Normal:

(need to try)

Super Agahnim Hard:

(need to try)

Here's my final check list, the end of the road as I call it!

Code:

=============================================

1- fix bosses palettes & gfx in underverse
2- fix sandcrab palettes in lvl5
3- restore conn message in his room +change music player dialogue unlocker into lardon message after you warp (the 1st one)

4- finish msu-1 pack for qwertymodo
5- repair star wars intro msu-1 track (spc plays there instead) it already hapenned before!

6- title screen hook change (so animated leaf screen is skipped)
7- disable galaxy book ''x button'' function

8- euclid last tasks to implement (bosses music player that deals damage, new bosses ai)
9- add new spc music for the music player

- Ending Credits ASM
- Readme TXT
- Betatest/Bug Fixes/Final Release!


================
totally optional
================

1- dungeon doors and animations graphic changes for all dungeons
2- anubis new dungeon walls gfx
3- animated discover deloz sign + snoop sprites


Since I'm going back to work next week, it marks the end of my enormous freetime! I've decided to stop adding or modifying anything else in the game after my list is finished/depleted, so it should be all done real soon!

7- disable galaxy book ''x button'' function

Completely forgot that - it should be a quick fix.

Reading this - does this mean you get the music player really early?

3- restore conn message in his room +change music player dialogue unlocker into lardon message after you warp (the 1st one)

Because if that's the case, i can actually use the music player to tone down the bosses and make them really crazy on default hard mode (of course players who want a challenge can still play them without the debuff)

Your assumptions are right, you'll indeed unlock the music player after the 1st dungeon!

Good idea with that toning down of bosses in dependance of the song played. This will probably be very useful for the 2nd and 3rd encounters of that agahnim boss on hard!







Leaving the diffculty like it is right now will probably surprise a few players lol. I'll add a clue about how some bosses can be affected by some music track somewhere in the game.

I'll have to think of the track numbers too. If you're planning to add music track 100-116 in spc, we could probably use those tracks for the msu-1 version too so in one of my clue text messages I'd be able to say something like: ''Dr Dorf really hates music track 112''....or ''strange things happens when pigs listen to track 102!''

Or what about alternative effects, for exemples:

play track 102 = disables lighning on all bosses with that ability
play track 107 = reduces all bosses speed
play track 114 = euclid's special effect!

P.S. That lifebelt does really strange things to the encounters lol

Completely forgot about asking you this:



Here's zarby's attempt:



This isn't necessary through, I'm fine with pressing my fast forward key between those transitions when I play myself lol

There's actually a trick as to why hard mode seems hard aside from things flying fast and the lack of balls

One of the tricks:

Also I can rename tracks very easily to match MSU.

So far I have - in terms of track ideas:
- half damage (hard mode only, easy mode has this built in)
- extreme durable magic consumption for ring (or cane), basically I'll slow the clock down for cape.
- See Ganon Shadow (or euclid special effect if you want to call this)

It's actually very hard to disable lightning on all bosses (eg/ Mothula) because in Mothula's case the lightning is actually a replacement for the spike sprite, it's much easier for a targeted effect.

Or maybe "Play 114 to face the true Dr Dorf, if you dare" (and I'll tune him down unless 114 is playing) - to make 3rd form beatable lol

Few things which can make 3rd form beatable:

Spoiler:

So far I have - in terms of track ideas:
- half damage (hard mode only, easy mode has this built in)
- extreme durable magic consumption for ring (or cane), basically I'll slow the clock down for cape.
- See Ganon Shadow (or euclid special effect if you want to call this)

These all seem good. I've also turned 'ON' the feature to get a quicker magic regeneration rate if you equip the book of mudora. This was disabled when we implemented MoN green magic refill, but was still present in the code, so I've reactivated it to make those fights a litte bit easier.

It's actually very hard to disable lightning on all bosses (eg/ Mothula) because in Mothula's case the lightning is actually a replacement for the spike sprite, it's much easier for a targeted effect.

Hmmm. If you can't disable them...what about an alternate effect...play song 114 so that lightning heals you instead of hurting you! lol

Or maybe "Play 114 to face the true Dr Dorf, if you dare" (and I'll tune him down unless 114 is playing) - to make 3rd form beatable lol

Yeah that could work too and whould probably piss less people!

Spoiler:

I don't know if it's any faster with the transitions (might just be a mental thing), give this code a shot..

0x012E5E 20 E4 C2 -> EA EA EA
0x0130E4 20 F6 C2 -> EA EA EA

Probably do need to do something about the palette DMA if you want it any faster. (during the black screen there's not too much which can be done because it's loading graphics)

I'm counting 5 seconds betweens each screen, so its the same as before I think aside the fade to black transitions without any pixels which is a nice change I think!



I don't know if this could help, but here's zarby original thought on this:

zarby89 wrote:well the transitions are well documented in disassembly i think no ?, you could probably speed up them by putting another INC/DEC to their routine

Obviously I don't know asm so I'm blind here, so its up to you if you want to do it and if its too long just forget it, like I said its not something that bother me much lol :-P

Ah yeah it is, it's just going to be a bit of work to rework the palette DMA which is causing the colors to go crazy in his gif when he tried to speed it up.

on a stranger note is fade to black really needed? I could restore the original lttp transitions except for particular transitions (like the ones just outside your house)

Now that you mention it, I've just checked and no, fade to black is not necessary everywhere.

You want me to tell you which screens areas should blank out like you did with PW? I could do that when I'm back from work tonight!

Alright I'm happy with Ganon for now, still want to do a few more things in hard mode on it though.

PS: I haven't done the music switcher yet.

Code:


;
; XKAS module - Euclid 2019
;
; Phoenix Boss Patch
; - Agahnim
; - Ganon
;



lorom

; hooks.

ORG $9EDB27
BRA $1A ; remove shooting ball shadow from agahnim (less lag), looks less pretty but meh.

ORG $9ED6EE
NOP
JSL AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_2
BCC $12
JSL AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS

ORG $9EDB9C
NOP
JSL BLUE_BALLS_NUMER_CHANGE

ORG $9EDBAB
JSL BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN

ORG $9EDBC3
JSL BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_LOCATION
NOP

ORG $2F842D
JSL TARDIS_AGAHNIM_BUFF

ORG $9ED4BF
JSL TARDIS_SPLIT_MOD

ORG $9ED52F
NOP
JSL SUPER_FAST_AGAHNIM

ORG $9EFF48
JSL FAST_BALLS

ORG $9DE971
JSL SUPER_FAST_GANON

ORG $9D9179
JSL GANON_BATS_HARD
NOP
NOP
NOP
NOP
NOP

; GANON Bats spawn
ORG $1D8E7E
LDY #$08

; ALL MODES: Ganon remove expanding bats.
ORG $9D9220
STZ $0DF0,x

; ALL MODES: Ganon bats move off screen quicker
ORG $9D9241
db $08, $10, $08, $40, $08, $20, $08


; HARD MODE; faster reaction
ORG $9D8E80
JSL GANON_FASTER_REACTION

; programming location
ORG $45F000

AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_2:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $06
LDA $0E30,x
CMP #$02
RTL
SEC
RTL

AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS:
;CPU State envMXdizC
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_FOR_HARD_MODE
; original code
JSL $8DBA71 ; basically if this returns 0 = blue, 1 = bouncy.
RTL
AGAHNIM_NOT_SO_RANDOM_BALLS_FOR_HARD_MODE:
JSL $8DBA71 ; ~25% bouncy
AND #$06  ; so we're comparing to a specific number
BEQ $03
LDA #$00 ; blue
RTL
LDA $7EF36E
CMP #$20
BCS DMAGIC2
LDA #$00
STA $7EF36E
LDA #$01 ; bouncy
RTL
DMAGIC2:
SEC
SBC #$20
STA $7EF36E
LDA #$01 ; bouncy
RTL




BLUE_BALLS_NUMER_CHANGE:
; CPU state envMXdizC
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_NUMBER_FOR_HARD_MODE
LDA #$05
BRA $02
AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_NUMBER_FOR_HARD_MODE:
LDA #$01
STA $0FB5
RTL

BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_FOR_HARD_MODE
LDA #$55
JSL $9DF65D
RTL
AGAHNIM_BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_FOR_HARD_MODE:
LDA #$BF
JSL $9DF65D
LDA #$26
STA $012F
RTL

BLUE_BALLS_SPAWN_LOCATION:
ADC #$04
STA $0D00,y
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $01
RTL
LDA #$00
STA $0D00,y ; location change.
RTL

TARDIS_AGAHNIM_BUFF:
SEP #$20
LDA $A0
CMP #$0D
BEQ IS_TARDIS
RTL
IS_TARDIS:
LDA $0E51
CMP #$60
BEQ MYSTERY_4_END
LDA #$07
STA $0D80
LDA #$50
STA $0DF0
MYSTERY_4_END:
LDA $A0
RTL

TARDIS_SPLIT_MOD:
LDA $A0
CMP #$0D
BEQ TARDIS_SPLIT_LESS
NORMAL_SPLIT:
LDA #$7A
LDY #$02
RTL
TARDIS_SPLIT_LESS:
STZ $0FB5
LDA #$7A
LDY #$01
RTL

SUPER_FAST_AGAHNIM:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $06
ORIGINAL_CODE_AGAHNIM:
; original code
LDA #$FF
STA $0DF0,x
RTL
LDA $A0
CMP #$0C
BNE ORIGINAL_CODE_AGAHNIM
JSL $8DBA71 ; random interval
AND #$7F
ORA #$80 ; above 80
STA $0DF0,x
RTL

FAST_BALLS:
PHA
LDA $7EF32E
BNE NOT_FAST
LDA $A0
CMP #$0C
BEQ VERY_FAST
CMP #$0D
BEQ HALF_FAST
CMP #$20
BEQ HALF_FAST
NOT_FAST:
PLA
LSR A
LSR A
LSR A
LSR A
RTL
HALF_FAST:
LDA $1A
AND #$01
BEQ NOT_FAST
VERY_FAST:
PLA
LSR A
LSR A
LSR A
RTL
SUPER_FAST_GANON:
PHA
LDA $7EF32E
BNE NOT_FAST
LDA $A0
CMP #$00
BEQ VERY_FAST
BRA NOT_FAST

GANON_BATS_HARD:
;envMXdiZC
LDA $0FB5
STA $0EC0,y
STA $0BA0,y
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $01
NORMAL_BATS:
RTL
LDA $0FB5
CMP #$03 ; tile break
BEQ BATS_HARD
CMP #$05 ; final form
BNE NORMAL_BATS
BATS_HARD:
JSL $8DBA71
AND #$03 ; ~25% code 2
BEQ BATS_CODE_2
LDA #$05
BRA $02
BATS_CODE_2:
LDA #$03
STA $0EC0,y
STA $0BA0,y
RTL

GANON_FASTER_REACTION:
LDA $7EF32E
BEQ $07
LDA #$C9
JSL $9DF65F
RTL
LDA #$C9
JSL $9DF65F
BMI $01
RTL
PHP ; save the minus flag
STZ $0DF0,x
PLP
RTL


Thanks I'll go try it and also provide you with the list of areas that should blank out over the weekend, as my new job burned the hell outta me lol and havent done any hacking in three days... :-P