Erock's Dungeon Designs 2008 - 2014

zack wrote:Hey, Erock. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with email the past few weeks. I've been busy, stressed out at work, and haven't thought about the project at all. I know things are going to clear up soon, but for now, there's no way I can think about Zelda3C.

I can't even begin to think of a project for you right now. My head's just "not in the game" currently. I hate to waste this 3 week opportunity you have; if I do think of anything, I'll tell you.

My inbox is flooded with other emails; I didn't see any other block puzzles on the first page of messages, but I did look at the ones you just sent. I like the patterns you're using and how, at first glance, they don't seem solvable. Most of them are actually pretty easy, especially the one shaped like a key. (gee, I wonder what's in that chest, lol!) The hardest one was in the bottom left corner -- I actually had to stop and study it before I saw its solution.

Someone offered me an ASM hack that would let Link open chests from ANY side, instead of just the front, but you've made me realize that some hacks are not such great ideas.

erock wrote:I am attaching a non-puzzle submission. Yeah, I don't usually do that but I got really inspired by looking at a photo of an old key online and came up with the design. I colored the stairs green instead of the default blue so it would match.

The room has like a stair case either going up or down and there is a nice big chest waiting to be opened. I thought the end result was worth sending to you.

Take care.

erock wrote:Hey, I haven't talked with you in a while.

You might be interested in this.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29210231/Zelda%20Dissasembly.txt

apparently its a complete dissasembly of Zelda 3

http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=56393

Anyway, i look forward to hearing your response from this news.

zack wrote:Hey Erock! I was watching a movie when you called, and now we're going out for food and shopping.
I look forward to reading about the disassembly -- I definitely need to get serious about the project again.
Thanks!!

erock wrote:Hey, I haven't heard from you in a while. How are things going? How are your kids? Well, I'm nearing the end of my BS degree and I'm working on going to grad school. Boy it has been awhile. By the way, I hope that you are still thinking about making your Zelda 3 hack.

Take care.

zack wrote:Hey, Erock. I don't have any good news for you, but I thought I'd reply. I still plan on making Zelda3C someday, but life keeps getting busier than it was before. Sorry for the postponement, you've always been one of the most avid voices for this project. I've been wanting to make a diary update, letting people know it's on hold, but I just haven't done it yet. Congrats on your upcoming BS degree! Things are fine here, the wife & kids are great, and they take up most of my time. Good to hear from you!

erock wrote:OK, I had 3 Zelda submissions that literally came out of nowhere. Here they are. One is this crazy Gannon face. Absolutely wicked. Its getting down to the point where I might just have to make my own game if you don't get to crackin' that whip. Yeeeehaaaa. All the way from Texas. (by the way, I don't normally say that.)

erock wrote:I found theses images while randomly surfing the internet one day a while ago. I thought I'd send them your way as you might be able to use them. So what do you think of them? I really like the pyramid/brick slopes maybe they could find a way into Z3C. Oh, and I see you updated your page. Yeah, the problem with making these great hacks is that your just a one man team. Normally while making games, you have entire teams who work on them. Not only that, but those people are getting paid for it. It's their job to make a game. While in your case its not a job nor are you getting paid. I really think though that your hack could possibly go down as being one of the greatest Zelda 3 hacks ever. So special time and care needs to given to this hack. At least you can say, Quest for Calatia was never a rushed project.......lol.

I know that I've asked you time and time again with what else I can help you with and I know that I haven't been able to work on much, but I will say this. If you want progress to be made then to might actually have me collaborate with you on some things. If years go by with little progress then how can this game ever be completed? Think about it.

erock wrote:I was chatting on some message boards and came across a pixel artist that works with SNES and Sega games.

I was wondering, we still need mountain edge graphics correct? Well, if you give me the specifics of the mountain edges like all the mountain tile graphics, colors one can use, ect. I might actually just hire this guy for a small job and see how it goes of course provided that it doesn't cost too much.

Anyway, what do you think?

zack wrote:Mountain edges are just half of mountain graphics, so they would need to match whatever the mountains themselves look like. There are quite a few great pixel artists out there who would love to contribute for free, so no need to pay for it. And as I have noted, they must remain uncomplex to allow them being compressed into the game.

Sorry for not reading and responding to your other emails. I have never been so slammed with stuff to do in my life. We should talk on the phone soon so I can explain what is really going on...

zack wrote:It won't be today, of course, with Halloween going on. When is the best time to call?

erock wrote:
oops i sent you a GRE link lol anyway you can call me anytime

erock wrote:Hey didn't you say you were going to be me a call.

Merry Christmas and I hope you and your family are doing well.

Happy hacking!

zack wrote:Oh, yeah! I kept not having time, and then forgot. I'll make a reminder on my desktop. Sorry!

EROCK wrote: Christmas Phone Call (Sad)

Dear Santa.

I want Zack to give me a Christmas phone call.

Thank you Santa I hope you can make it happen as I've been a good boy this year.

zack wrote:Christmas Phone Call (Happy)

Ho ho ho!

Erock my boy, you have been a good boy this year -- though I was afraid you'd gotten too old to believe in me!  I contacted Zack and learned that he actually has your phone call on his vacation checklist.  However, as he's been almost as busy as I have, he wasn't sure if New Years Eve was an appropriate time to call.  I've let him know that he can call tomorrow -- hopefully he will!

Sorry for the delayed response, but you know I'm a night person!  I hope you enjoyed the candy and video games I brought you!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Santa Claus
Experience the Season:
http://www.claus.com/

erock wrote:But how could you forget Santa? I told you that I wanted this present when I took my picture with you at the Mall and what about the milk and cookies that I made that you just drank and ate and then just left? I know that rom hacking is a legal gray area, but that shouldn't warrant putting me on the naughty list!

Haha

zack wrote:Oh, that wasn't the real Santa -- you can't trust those phonies at the mall to relay messages! As for the cookies, Santa must eat those without thinking twice about it...

Erock wrote:
Congrats on being a father to your family! Hope all is good.

I see that you updated your questforcalatia site and I see that you were quite sick there. What the heck did you get infected with???

Anyways... so I see that the Quest for Calatia project, one that I've been following and contributed to has come to basically a complete halt.

I know that hacking a game this BIG is crazy for one person, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to help in the first place. In fact doing that entire hack is literally crazy and is a heavy investment!

I also know that you have been working on this project for like 10 years or more. That's a long time considering that an average persons life time is less than 100 years and its not even done yet.

So if I may ask... will the hack be done in another 10 years? 20 years?? 30??? .... NEVER!!?!?!?!

Anyway I'm afraid that this period of no progression on Quest for Calatia has to come to an end if you ever wish to get this hack finished.

My suggestion is to simply TEAM UP with the current Zelda 3 hacking community an order to progress back on track.

http://lpu-devs-hideout.openphpbb.com/

That link above is a private Zelda 3 hacking forum.

My advice is to go onto that message board and simply post your progress and what is stumping you on the hack.

There are plenty of very knowledgeable people on that board and I'm sure that they are more than willing to help you out on whatever you are working on.

All I know is that working TOGETHER is better in this situation than working ALONE.

Also I wouldn't be e-mailing you suggesting this if you were making regular progress on the hack, but its been like 2 years with almost no progress!!!??? And because of that I'm saying that you are going to have to do SOMETHING or I'm afraid that Quest for Calatia will NEVER be completed until you probably RETIRE from your JOB when your like 60 or 70 years old and then all of the people who grew up playing this game that would appreciate a Zelda 3 hack will be DEAD and your hack will fade off into non existence.

COME ON ZACK I KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

erock wrote:Zack, if you have not logged onto the zeldix message board, then you are falling way behind in Zelda 3 hacking. Brand new ASM hacks are being created everyday. Seriously you need to be there.

zack wrote:Others have told me this too -- thanks for reminding me. Things have been even more chaotic than usual. With my brother having moved out, I hope to settle into hacking again before too much longer.

erock & zack wrote:

"Now, as far as Zeldix goes, all you need really is a few minutes of free time to check out the message boards. In other words, by the time you finished reading this e-mail that I'm writing that's enough time to go on there and at least make a post saying Hi as well as just looking the various topics that exist."

I have created a Zeldix account now; I'm just waiting for a moderator to approve it.

"Now, this is a PRIVATE Zelda 3 hacking forum, which means that only the members of that forum can see the posts so it's not available for the public to see. Almost all of the greatest and knowledgeable Zelda 3 hackers are there."

I'll play it by ear, regarding how much I'm willing to reveal in there.

"For example, we just got a pretty new member named Conn and he was the one who worked on getting the Zelda 3 Ancient Stone Tablets that you played a while back. Conn is a ASM wizard!"

I actually never played AST -- it was only BSZelda that I played, and that was just the first four dungeons. Thanks for reminding me about this gem!

"Some of the ASM hacks that have been made that are on there are outstanding! Which include:"

Smashing pots with a sword -- Every modern Zelda game has this, and it's so much more convenient then the two-step lift/throw process.

Ice Rod freezing shallow water that is walkable on -- That's a neat effect. I can't think of any practical purpose, other than allowing pushable blocks and water-fearing enemies to cross.

Pushable bricks that can be moved an infinite amount of times -- That's awesome!!

No annoying beeping when your heats are low -- I would like to have just a few warning beeps when you initially get that low...

Plus tons more!

Most of these are icing on the cake, which won't be my priority until I can actually get the cake baked. As I've said, I always work on the hardest & most critical stuff first, since the other stuff is pointless unless I can make the main hack work. Sadly, this also has the effect of discouraging me, especially when time is so limited, so sometimes it's good to look at the icing for motivation.

My life has been such that there was NO WAY I could work on Zelda3C, for a while. There were huge things happening that made spare time impossible. I lost sight of the game because there was no seeing it, for a while. However, a lot has changed and I've started finding time to myself again lately. Thanks for all your endless patience -- I'll make sure it pays off!

"One last thing, it was agreed on Zeldix that a single person doing a complete Zelda 3 rom hack on their own is just down right crazy and too much for one person to handle. The only way Quest for Calatia will be completed is if we do this as a team and this team exists on Zeldix. Seph, Euclid, Puzzledude, Conn, Potentialing, Mathonnapkins and pretty much everyone else there are absolute experts on this game and have invaluable knowledge which will help Quest for Calatia succeed. "

It's very good to hear that so many people have forged an alliance. I know that Zelda3C can't be completed alone -- however, I still stand on my premise that those things are graphics, music, and ASM hacking -- all things that I can't do on my own. (Actually, I'm not too bad at pixel art, but I shouldn't be putting my time into that.) The actual adventure, including story, overworld and dungeons, are still mine to create; if I can't do those on my own, there's no point in my creating the game. I'm open to ideas and puzzle concepts, of course, but their final implementation is for me to decide.

"Teaming up on Zeldix will clearly be beneficial to Quest for Calatia and is the most logic choice here. Why would anyone turn down the most valuable assistance you could ever wish for?"

"So what are you waiting for? The decision is clear. Don't waist anymore time fumbling around with Hyrule Magic and the rom by yourself."

I was already planning to join Zeldix when Seph and others invited me earlier.

"All you have to do is click the link below and type in your user name and password! If you do not have a user name or password then e-mail Seph or I notify Seph him for you!"

Yes, I'm registered now as GameMakr24. Thanks for giving me that final push!

It will be the BEST decision you have ever made!

Woohoo! Maybe they can help me with the story-based ASM issues I was having when last I worked on it!