Topic: What annoys you the most when hacking/delving into CV games?

[TheouAegis]

Maybe there were issues with the console. Maybe there were issues with the programming. Maybe the spriter was on something when he drew up the sprites. Either way, what are some things you've encountered while trying to hack, sprite rip, or extrapolate values or mechanics from a Castlevania game, from whichever console? What has made you pull your hair, bang your head on the desk, or even induced fits of crying? Naturally, I'll start.

The NES has many limitations, so it takes some craftiness to create special visual effects while working within those limitations. But discovering those nifty tricks is, well, not something you necessarily want to ever accomplish. Case in point: Axe Knights from Dracula's Curse. While I was focusing on the placement of the axe at different stages of the throwing animation, something eventually caught my eye. At first I didn't notice it because it looked so natural, but then I remembered what I was working with. When the Axe Knight throws his axe while standing up, everything's hunky-dory, but when he kneels to throw his axe low, things go crazy -- his back foot gets amputated! It's actually a nifty trick because it gives the overall sprite much more depth, but if you're trying to rip sprites and don't notice it (which the compiler of the sprite sheet I'm using didn't) or recreate a game as closely to the original as you can, that little quirk can make you just drop your head in despair. It's a perfectly legal amputation -- a whole sprite (8x8px square) gets shifted one pixel back when he kneels and then shifted back into place when he throws his axe, giving the effect that he kicks off with his kneeling leg to put power behind his throw. More so than the popular pixel bob (which the Sword Skeleton uses to make its walking animation more, well, animated), I think this kind of spriting prowess is the most irksome.

Although there is the 15x16px+8x8px triple-decker spriting used in Bucky O'Hare that ranks up there as very annoying handiwork, but this is a CV forum so I won't go there.

[X]

What annoys me about hacking/developing? Not being able to do it no matter what I try, no matter how long I try. I just can't learn programming and even playing around with Game Maker yields no results... *Sigh!* Spriting on the other hand almost came naturally to me so I've got no real issues in that department. But I'm still a noob when it comes to making a completely original sprite.

[CastleToastM]

What annoys me about hacking/developing? Not being able to do it no matter what I try, no matter how long I try. I just can't learn programming and even playing around with Game Maker yields no results... *Sigh!* Spriting on the other hand almost came naturally to me so I've got no real issues in that department. But I'm still a noob when it comes to making a completely original sprite.

I think I'm in the same boat as you pal.

[Inccubus]

The way CV2 organizes it's stage data is down right retarded. I know they had to make it super compact in the original FDS version, but why the hell would you leave it that way for the NES version. Actually, come to think of it the way CV1&3 organize their room order is even worse, it's completely nonsensical to the point that it's never been fully cracked. And even shifting a single room around can be monumentally aggravating.

[Vlad III]

I tried hacking the original CV on the NES using Stake. I also had another program to change the sprites but when I open the sprite sheet it's just a jumbled mess of pixels. I can't see anything remotely familiar amongst it.

[TheouAegis]

Did you extract the ROM from the zip file first? Can't edit sprites until you do that. For editing sprites inside the ROM, you should use YY-CHR. It was made specifically for NES sprite and tile editing. It also does other systems such as SNES and Genesis and Gameboy and GameGear and so on and so on, but it was originally made specifically for NES. Then you Set the sprite order to one of the many options they have, such as NESx8, NESx16, 16x32, 32x32 (for tiles in some ROMs), 16x24, 32x48, or Vertical (for Master Blaster I think).

I used YY-CHR to help rip sprites from Urban Strike. Now THERE is something to bitch about! Those games take freaking forever to sprite edit.

[Inccubus]

Personally I find the interfaces in TileMolester & TileLayerPro to be more user friendly in that order.

[TheouAegis]

I hate Tile Molester.

And if I could figure out how to use TileGGD effectively, I could rip from other systems too. Although there ARE some features in TileMolester YY-CHR doesn't have that are useful or necessary, but none that I saw for NES or SNES, only Sega's systems. You pretty much NEED TileMolester and TileGGD for Saturn. (TM's usually enough, but the full-screen graphics need TileGGD to view and I have no freakin' clue how to even set it up, someone else did it for me.)

[Dracul]

Frustrates me i don't have the actual SDK, it was so much more powerful.