I took a screenshot from the dither.gen ROM to show how the effect looks like without a filter. If anyone else is going to use the ROM then do the level select code to get to Labyrinth Zone quicker. Once in the zone press start to make the water appear. To raise or lower the water level press up or down respectively. Here’s a larger sized version of the image in case anyone wants a better look at it: https://archive.ph/bm7Gi/d8443fbb16b07b3f427ec56d9c5fe3cf5a48d452.png The information originally came from Yasushi Yamaguchi (Judy Totoya) in a 2018 fan published magazine titled “ファンタシースター 〜31年目の原点〜 ” which translated is “Phantasy Star ~The Origin of the 31st Year~” A thread by @Gryson shares this information here: https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/origins-of-the-sonic-1-water-effect-revealed.40037/ I found a PDF sample of the magazine containing some pages but unfortunately it doesn’t include the section where the water effect is mentioned. http://www.space-harrier.com/ps/samp.pdf The sample does include a page where there’s an image of Naoto Ohshima, Yamaguchi, and Izuho Numata (Ippo) so it is useful in seeing that at least. As a bonus here’s some signatures all three did for the interviewer including character sketches which I think look nice. https://archive.vn/YYa6b/5dbdc79dbca24a6a6e19543ea82bb3acbef18368.jpg Source: https://xcancel.com/Va_HARA/status/1367133793673388034 https://archive.vn/YYa6b I remember a thread you made asking if there was any information about how developers would consciously make sprites in a certain way in order for them to be properly displayed through composite video and @Gryson provided translated information sourced from that same Phantasy Star fan published magazine interview in regards to that. https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sega-genesis-and-composite-video.40262/#post-983262
Back again with another necrobump. I promise this is super interesting. Around the time the prototype released, drx mentioned in the Hidden Palace Discord that there was a lives counter system that worked with a set of 16x16 blocks instead of a typical counter. Today I finally found this function and restored it. Considering it uses the window plane for this, It's likely the whole HUD itself was just on the window plane at the bottom of the screen. The way it works is it draws each icon directly onto the nametable's location, even accounting for the row shift in VRAM. I already added this to TCRF today, and I also have just been going through TCRF's page to update things and provide elaboration on specific subjects. I feel like it might be worth a glance or two for anyone trying to keep track of all this stuff. I've also been working on a comprehensive disassembly of the prototype as well. I've spent hours combing through code and labeling literally everything and I hope to get that released soon as well, since I'm also pretty much finished with it and I just need to work on actually splitting data up. There's still some things left I need to look into, but I feel the prototype is nearly completely documented in some capacity.
This is awesome, thanks for sharing! Out of curiosity, when you say "restored", how much of that required some guesswork on your part, compared to stuff you actually found in the ROM? The idea of seeing decades-old code in action is so cool to me.
Besides changing the tile IDs it writes, all I did was activate the window plane and clear that area of VRAM for it. Without those changes it was kind of confusing to tell what was what. Here's with only the window being activated and no VRAM changes: (represented by those invincibility sparkles in the same corner)
Am I to take from this that Sonic the Hedgehog was going to have a status bar at the bottom of the screen, like Thunder Force, Moonwalker, and lots of other games?
