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Offline Aceearly1993

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https://www.speedrun.com/castlevania_chronicles/run/yjxedj3z

Recently I watched one of speedrun submissions and I noticed in the revision this person uses, every damage only takes one unit of life bar.
But in the revision I played earlier, Simon loses two units of life bar at loop 1, stage 1.
In CV Chronicles original mode, Simon loses two units of life bar at loop 1, stage 1.


What happened??!!???

I cost a few days to make some research, then I actually found the one-unit-damage version as a revision in rom sites.


Now I want somebody who actually knows the history of CV X68k to proof if the one-unit-damage version is actually released as a valid product, or is it simply a hacked rom?
« Last Edit: February 17, 2023, 03:16:30 AM by Aceearly1993 »
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Offline theplottwist

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Re: A question about Akumajo Dracula X68000. Revision difference or hack rom?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2023, 09:06:13 AM »
0
I will not claim to be an expert or an authority on this subject but, relatively recently, I ALSO had to find the answer to this subject and arrived at a conclusion.

X68K roms where Simon is taking ANYTHING different from 2 bars damage in Stage 1, Loop 1, are hacked, and there are numerous ROMs with different damage numbers across different stages. To get to this conclusion, I watched gameplays done on real hardware, and someone on the Shmup forums fired up their own factory-protected copy of the game and also made sure to check that Simon is supposed to take 2 bars damage. This is what they concluded from playing their copy:

Stage 1 = -2 HP
Stage 2 = -3 HP
Stage 3 = -4 HP
Stage 4 = -4 HP

The stage 3 damage count onwards aligns with this playthrough found on Youtube, which the user claims to have captured on real hardware. Here's another on NicoNico whose user also claims to have captured on real hardware where the damage on Stage 3 onwards also aligns. Here's one more video on Youtube where you can see the ACTUAL hardware itself hooked to a TV, and you can see the player taking damage on earlier levels confirming Stage 1, 2 and 3 damage scales.

Again, I'm not an authority and this was kind of a quick research at the time. But this all seems to align with the actual original mode on Castlevania Chronicles. Since I could not confirm if other revisions of the game were released, and since a more recent revision should be the basis for Chronicles' original mode but there seems to be no difference between it and the ones played on real hardware, I concluded those must be romhacks.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2023, 10:42:23 AM by theplottwist »
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Offline LuxKiller65

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Re: A question about Akumajo Dracula X68000. Revision difference or hack rom?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2023, 06:53:34 PM »
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Shameful! Thanks for the research.

Offline Aceearly1993

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Re: A question about Akumajo Dracula X68000. Revision difference or hack rom?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2023, 05:58:59 PM »
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Good. These points seems pretty much valid.
Until the day somebody actually digged the 1-hp-damage version in one possible official release, I have no choice but to detect such "revision" as romhacks.
Still pretty fun to tank through. Reminds me the easy difficulty in Chronicles Arranged mode.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2023, 06:02:20 PM by Aceearly1993 »
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And he can't find who caused this."

Offline zangetsu468

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Re: A question about Akumajo Dracula X68000. Revision difference or hack rom?
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2023, 02:55:54 PM »
0
Good. These points seems pretty much valid.
Until the day somebody actually digged the 1-hp-damage version in one possible official release, I have no choice but to detect such "revision" as romhacks.
Still pretty fun to tank through. Reminds me the easy difficulty in Chronicles Arranged mode.

Plottwist: Every game is a romhack…..

Pun intended
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<[Judgement]>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                              
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                                 ^      l   v  ^    +<<<<<<<BE
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                                 ^      l   v  ^    v     BE>>> VK<**   
                                 ^      l   v  ^    v     ^          ^   
            +<<<<<Legends>HC>OOS>LOD>64       ^
            v                           l              ^                ^
            v                           l     BE>> * <<<BE    RE
            v                           l      ^               ^       ^
LOI>CVIII>COD>AR>BR>CVC>CVII>HOD>ROB>SOTN>OOE>BL>POR>AOS>DOS>>>KD
                                                                          v
                                                                         BE>*  
BE=Bad Ending
RE=Richter Ending

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