- Code is Art
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- Posts: 37
- Joined: 27-May 13
- Gender:Not Telling
- Project:MaSS1VE: The Master System Sonic 1 Visual Editor
00
Don't get ahead of me! 
It's taken several months already to get where I am, and I've had to do practically everything from scratch -- including teaching myself Z80 and programming a new UI set. There was some ROM documentation, which made this whole project possible in the first place, but it was full of holes and errors. I've practically rewritten the SCHG page several times already! 
It's hard to understand unless you undertake such a project yourself (though most here do undertake incredible projects all the time!) just how big, complex, and difficult such a thing is as writing an editor. I'm at a "proof of concept" stage at the moment (I proved it was possible to read the ROM's data, modify it, and write back a working ROM -- something I didn't even know was possible in the beginning). As far as editing goes, I don't have much to show yet (literally, painting floor tiles and that's it), but all this time has been spent doing a crap-tonne of research and groundwork.
My plans are big. Many editing tools just twiddle the bits in place, and don't really let you explore designs much beyond the already existing level structures and game progression. I believe that creativity can only flourish with a blank canvas and so I am putting in all the extra work required to bust the game completely apart and allow making a total conversion (new art / levels / sound / gameplay) from scratch -- with the one app. Of course, that necessitates a full disassembly which alone is an insane undertaking for someone who didn't even know Z80 until a few weeks ago!
MaSS1VE is a several year project. I have planned thoroughly; I have pages of design briefs beating out the next year or more of UI work. I have spent months alone on turning a piece of code for testing the ability to extract the ROM's data into a 'product'. I believe in "release early, release often" so I have put in automatic updates so that once people start using it I can iterate quickly towards a real tool that people want to use for creative things.
Therefore, because MaSS1VE will be so innately tuned to the inner workings of Sonic 1, right down to the assembly, I can't say that it will ever handle the sequels -- it's just not within scope. I started this project because it stunned me that no editor for S1 existed, not even partially. There are already editors and disassemblies for the sequels and I didn't want to do something that already existed. If you want better editors for the sequels, you need to contribute to those projects or start a new one!
It's taken several months already to get where I am, and I've had to do practically everything from scratch -- including teaching myself Z80 and programming a new UI set. There was some ROM documentation, which made this whole project possible in the first place, but it was full of holes and errors. I've practically rewritten the SCHG page several times already! It's hard to understand unless you undertake such a project yourself (though most here do undertake incredible projects all the time!) just how big, complex, and difficult such a thing is as writing an editor. I'm at a "proof of concept" stage at the moment (I proved it was possible to read the ROM's data, modify it, and write back a working ROM -- something I didn't even know was possible in the beginning). As far as editing goes, I don't have much to show yet (literally, painting floor tiles and that's it), but all this time has been spent doing a crap-tonne of research and groundwork.
My plans are big. Many editing tools just twiddle the bits in place, and don't really let you explore designs much beyond the already existing level structures and game progression. I believe that creativity can only flourish with a blank canvas and so I am putting in all the extra work required to bust the game completely apart and allow making a total conversion (new art / levels / sound / gameplay) from scratch -- with the one app. Of course, that necessitates a full disassembly which alone is an insane undertaking for someone who didn't even know Z80 until a few weeks ago!
MaSS1VE is a several year project. I have planned thoroughly; I have pages of design briefs beating out the next year or more of UI work. I have spent months alone on turning a piece of code for testing the ability to extract the ROM's data into a 'product'. I believe in "release early, release often" so I have put in automatic updates so that once people start using it I can iterate quickly towards a real tool that people want to use for creative things.
Therefore, because MaSS1VE will be so innately tuned to the inner workings of Sonic 1, right down to the assembly, I can't say that it will ever handle the sequels -- it's just not within scope. I started this project because it stunned me that no editor for S1 existed, not even partially. There are already editors and disassemblies for the sequels and I didn't want to do something that already existed. If you want better editors for the sequels, you need to contribute to those projects or start a new one!