Basic Questions & Answers thread

Guys, what files do I need to load into Flex2 to load the last Sonic sprites? In the default configuration, loading the Sonic sprites, mapping and DPLC, the following sprites do not appear:
- Sonic from the "Continue" screen,
- Sonic at the end of the game;

I tried to insert the TOEI Sonic sprites made by Welber13 into the game Sonic 1, but they did not fit perfectly, and besides, there were no frames of Sonic running at 45º. So I fixed the frames that were necessary, readapted several of them and adjusted the collision problems due to the 8x8 tile limitation (which each frame has individually), so I'm almost done, I had to readapted a lot of things, but now it's great. It can be used in any game that uses the Sonic 1 frame scheme as an alternative version of the traditional Sonic.

So now I just need a few frames of Sonic to finish and have a truly functional TOEI Sonic sprite sheet and binary that works on Sonic 1.

I'm using Flex 2 and the HiveBrain disassembly, version 2005 (according to the Readme).

 

Both of these are separate objects with their own graphics.

 

Yes, I noticed this, I just couldn't identify which files to load to modify them, as I said. Do you know which ones they are?

 

I'm using the hivebrain disassembly here, and I'm trying to modify the hud sprites. Does anyone know what files are the mappings and palettes for it?

 

Hivebrain 2005 or 2022?
I'll provide answers for both regardless...
So first thing we need to note is that the HUD tiles are split up into 4 files. artnem/hud.bin (2005) or Graphics Nemesis/HUD.nem (2022) contains the lettering for SCOR, TIME, and RINGS. artnem/lifeicon.bin (2005) or Graphics Nemesis/HUD - Life Counter Icon.nem (2022) has Sonic's life icon and the text that reads Sonic X:. artunc/HUD.bin (2005) or Graphics/HUD Numbers.bin (2022) contains the E for the score text and the numbers used by the upper section of the HUD. Lastly, artunc/livescnt.bin (2005) or Graphics/Lives Counter Numbers.bin (2022) contains the numbers for Sonic's life counter. Make sure you load these graphics with the correct compression, Nemesis for the main HUD and life icon, and uncompressed for the numbers.
As for palette, it uses Sonic's palette and the stage's palette. And the mappings file will be _maps/obj21.asm (2005) or Objects/HUD Score, Time & Rings [Mappings].asm (2022).
Currently, Flex 2, the best sprite editor on offer, doesn't allow for loading multiple graphics files sigh, so you'll only partially be able to view the HUD in editor, but it should be enough that you can edit the layout at the very least.

 

@Kilo should've specified 2005, sorry. Thanks for the answers!

 

A while ago I tried to port an alt background for the tite screen, but seems that i broke all of it, how i can fix it?:

 

There's 3 possibilities I can gleam from just the screenshot
- You could have replaced the tile at tile 0 in VRAM with that checkerboard tile, it should be a blank tile, otherwise everything that should be blank will use that tile.
- Or you've shifted where the emblem is loaded in VRAM without adjusting it in SonPLN, or PlaneED or whatever tool you use, which assumes the tiles are loaded at tile $200 to adjust the tile IDs properly.
- Or you've improperly loaded something in code.
The only way to narrow it down is by providing more details, what does VRAM look like in a debugger, what did you intend for the title screen to look like, and what code did you change if any.

 

Got some questions for Sonic 1 Github. I'm working on a Bubsy over Sonic mod...thing, and I was wondering:
1. How can I make it so that the jump breaks enemies and monitors when it's not using the rolling animation?
2. How can I give the monitors, badniks and Eggman their own palettes?

Been mainly fiddling around with the first one, and I've even managed to disable rolling all together (will probably repurpose into a glide if I can figure it out)

 

1. Open _incObj/sub ReactToItem.asm, you want to find React_Monitor and React_Enemy and find these lines:

Code (Text):

1. .movingdown:
2.         cmpi.b    #id_Roll,obAnim(a0) ; is Sonic rolling/jumping?
3.         bne.s    .donothing
4.         neg.w    obVelY(a0)    ; reverse Sonic's y-motion
5.         addq.b    #2,obRoutine(a1) ; advance the monitor's routine counter

Code (Text):

1. React_Enemy:
2.         tst.b    (v_invinc).w    ; is Sonic invincible?
3.         bne.s    .donthurtsonic    ; if yes, branch
4.         cmpi.b    #id_Roll,obAnim(a0) ; is Sonic rolling/jumping?
5.         bne.w    React_ChkHurt    ; if not, branch

There are 2 approaches we can take since you're replicating Bubsy. The easy way is to just change the animation ID to the falling animation, assuming you've already imported that. Alternatively, you could also just check if the player is moving downward in general. For the monitor, you can just delete the cmpi and bne instructions, since it had already done a check to see if the player was moving downwards beforehand. For enemies, you'd have to replace the cmpi and bne with this:

Code (Text):

1.         tst.w    obVelY(a0)    ; is Sonic moving upwards?
2.         bmi.w    React_ChkHurt    ; if so, branch

Or you can combine them both and do a check for the falling animation and the player moving downwards if you wanted to be 500% sure.

2. Go to _incObj/26 Monitor.asm and find Mon_Main, you'll see

Code (Text):

1.         move.w    #make_art_tile(ArtTile_Monitor,0,0),obGfx(a0)

Change the 0 after 'ArtTile_Monitor' to the palette line you want to change it to. 1 is probably the best option for your situation, since it stays relatively the same throughout the game. You'll also want to make the same change in _incObj/2E Monitor Content Power-Up.asm since it sets its own palette line. And you will have to edit the art a little to work with palette line 1.

 

You are genuinely such a life savor, thank you so much. I assume this also applies to badniks and eggman too, I'll be sure to make these changes!

 

Hmmm... what?

 

4A54 is tst.w (a4)
6700 is beq.w

There's only one place in Sonic 1 where these two instructions exist together, and that's in the sprite building subroutine.

I suspect the longword data 4A546700 is being loaded from this subroutine address, and the longword is treated as an address by mistake.

Unfortunately, that's all the help we can give with limited information.

 

So, this is a trouble i tried to fix long time ago, and honestly, im still not able to fix it.
I tried to do this guide, but it brokes the game in another emulators (Kega, Clownmdemu, etc.)

(Image of Clownmdemu)
And also I tried to add this under "CheckSumCheck":

Code (Text):

1.  
2.        bra.s    CheckSumOk
3.  

But it has the same result.

Any help?

 

Should have posted this in the basic questions and answers thread, not to minimod. Regardless, I'll try my best to help. The checksum error has no direct connection to collision or scrolling code which seems to be giving you problems. It's only purpose to validate that all the bytes in the ROM are correct, and if not it locks up the game. It seems that there is something wrong with your ROM data and instead of trying to find the source of it, you've brute forced past the error and these are the concequences. The checksum check serves a purpose, do not remove it. Without knowing exactly what changes you've made before (Which you have a bad habit of leaving out, we can't fix your hack without info) my only educated guess is that the ROM header is misaligned. If you could share the area from StartOfRom: up until ErrorTrap: then we could verify if that is the case.

 

I cant find the "ErrorTrap:" line

But sure!

Code (Text):

1.  
2. StartOfRom:
3. Vectors:    dc.l v_systemstack&$FFFFFF    ; Initial stack pointer value
4.         dc.l EntryPoint            ; Start of program
5.         dc.l BusError            ; Bus error
6.         dc.l AddressError        ; Address error (4)
7.         dc.l IllegalInstr        ; Illegal instruction
8.         dc.l ZeroDivide            ; Division by zero
9.         dc.l ChkInstr            ; CHK exception
10.         dc.l TrapvInstr            ; TRAPV exception (8)
11.         dc.l PrivilegeViol        ; Privilege violation
12.         dc.l Trace                ; TRACE exception
13.         dc.l Line1010Emu        ; Line-A emulator
14.         dc.l Line1111Emu        ; Line-F emulator (12)
15.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
16.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
17.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
18.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved) (16)
19.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
20.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
21.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
22.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved) (20)
23.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
24.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
25.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved)
26.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Unused (reserved) (24)
27.         dc.l ErrorExcept        ; Spurious exception
28.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; IRQ level 1
29.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; IRQ level 2
30.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; IRQ level 3 (28)
31.         dc.l HBlank                ; IRQ level 4 (horizontal retrace interrupt)
32.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; IRQ level 5
33.         dc.l VBlank                ; IRQ level 6 (vertical retrace interrupt)
34.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; IRQ level 7 (32)
35.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #00 exception
36.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #01 exception
37.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #02 exception
38.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #03 exception (36)
39.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #04 exception
40.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #05 exception
41.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #06 exception
42.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #07 exception (40)
43.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #08 exception
44.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #09 exception
45.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #10 exception
46.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #11 exception (44)
47.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #12 exception
48.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #13 exception
49.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #14 exception
50.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; TRAP #15 exception (48)
51.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
52.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
53.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
54.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
55.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
56.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
57.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
58.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
59.     if Revision<>2
60.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
61.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
62.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
63.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
64.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
65.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
66.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
67.         dc.l ErrorTrap            ; Unused (reserved)
68.     else
69. loc_E0:
70.         ; Relocated code from Spik_Hurt. REVXB was a nasty hex-edit.
71.         move.l    obY(a0),d3
72.         move.w    obVelY(a0),d0
73.         ext.l    d0
74.         asl.l    #8,d0
75.         jmp    (loc_D5A2).l
76.  
77.         dc.w ErrorTrap
78.         dc.l ErrorTrap
79.         dc.l ErrorTrap
80.         dc.l ErrorTrap
81.     endif
82.         dc.b "SEGA MEGA DRIVE " ; Hardware system ID (Console name)
83.         dc.b "(C)SEGA 1991.APR" ; Copyright holder and release date (generally year)
84.         dc.b "Sonic: New Adventures (By PeanutNoceda)         " ; Domestic name
85.         dc.b "Sonic: New Adventures (By PeanutNoceda)         " ; International name
86.         if Revision=0
87.         dc.b "GM 00001009-00"   ; Serial/version number (Rev 0)
88.         else
89.             dc.b "GM 00004049-01" ; Serial/version number (Rev non-0)
90.         endif
91. Checksum:
92.         if Revision=0
93.         dc.w $264A    ; Hardcoded to make it easier to check for ROM correctness
94.         else
95.         dc.w $AFC7
96.         endif
97.         dc.b "J               " ; I/O support
98.         dc.l StartOfRom        ; Start address of ROM
99. RomEndLoc:    dc.l EndOfRom-1        ; End address of ROM
100.         dc.l $FF0000        ; Start address of RAM
101.         dc.l $FFFFFF        ; End address of RAM
102.         if EnableSRAM=1
103.         dc.b $52, $41, $A0+(BackupSRAM<<6)+(AddressSRAM<<3), $20 ; SRAM support
104.         else
105.         dc.l $20202020
106.         endif
107.         dc.l $20202020        ; SRAM start ($200001)
108.         dc.l $20202020        ; SRAM end ($20xxxx)
109.         dc.b "                                                    " ; Notes (unused, anything can be put in this space, but it has to be 52 bytes.)
110.         dc.b "JUE             " ; Region (Country code)
111. EndOfHeader:
112.  
113. ; ===========================================================================
114.  
115. EntryPoint:
116.         tst.l    (z80_port_1_control).l ; test port A & B control registers
117.         bne.s    PortA_Ok
118.         tst.w    (z80_expansion_control).l ; test port C control register
119.  
120. PortA_Ok:
121.         bne.s    SkipSetup ; Skip the VDP and Z80 setup code if port A, B or C is ok...?
122.         lea    SetupValues(pc),a5    ; Load setup values array address.
123.         movem.w    (a5)+,d5-d7
124.         movem.l    (a5)+,a0-a4
125.         move.b    -$10FF(a1),d0    ; get hardware version (from $A10001)
126.         andi.b    #$F,d0
127.         beq.s    SkipSecurity    ; If the console has no TMSS, skip the security stuff.
128.         move.l    #'SEGA',$2F00(a1) ; move "SEGA" to TMSS register ($A14000)
129.  
130. SkipSecurity:
131.         move.w    (a4),d0    ; clear write-pending flag in VDP to prevent issues if the 68k has been reset in the middle of writing a command long word to the VDP.
132.         moveq    #0,d0    ; clear d0
133.         movea.l    d0,a6    ; clear a6
134.         move.l    a6,usp    ; set usp to $0
135.  
136.         moveq    #$17,d1
137. VDPInitLoop:
138.         move.b    (a5)+,d5    ; add $8000 to value
139.         move.w    d5,(a4)        ; move value to    VDP register
140.         add.w    d7,d5        ; next register
141.         dbf    d1,VDPInitLoop
142.      
143.         move.l    (a5)+,(a4)
144.         move.w    d0,(a3)        ; clear    the VRAM
145.         move.w    d7,(a1)        ; stop the Z80
146.         move.w    d7,(a2)        ; reset    the Z80
147.  
148. WaitForZ80:
149.         btst    d0,(a1)        ; has the Z80 stopped?
150.         bne.s    WaitForZ80    ; if not, branch
151.  
152.         moveq    #$25,d2
153. Z80InitLoop:
154.         move.b    (a5)+,(a0)+
155.         dbf    d2,Z80InitLoop
156.      
157.         move.w    d0,(a2)
158.         move.w    d0,(a1)        ; start    the Z80
159.         move.w    d7,(a2)        ; reset    the Z80
160.  
161. ClrRAMLoop:
162.         move.l    d0,-(a6)    ; clear 4 bytes of RAM
163.         dbf    d6,ClrRAMLoop    ; repeat until the entire RAM is clear
164.         move.l    (a5)+,(a4)    ; set VDP display mode and increment mode
165.         move.l    (a5)+,(a4)    ; set VDP to CRAM write
166.  
167.         moveq    #$1F,d3    ; set repeat times
168. ClrCRAMLoop:
169.         move.l    d0,(a3)    ; clear 2 palettes
170.         dbf    d3,ClrCRAMLoop    ; repeat until the entire CRAM is clear
171.         move.l    (a5)+,(a4)    ; set VDP to VSRAM write
172.  
173.         moveq    #$13,d4
174. ClrVSRAMLoop:
175.         move.l    d0,(a3)    ; clear 4 bytes of VSRAM.
176.         dbf    d4,ClrVSRAMLoop    ; repeat until the entire VSRAM is clear
177.         moveq    #3,d5
178.  
179. PSGInitLoop:
180.         move.b    (a5)+,$11(a3)    ; reset    the PSG
181.         dbf    d5,PSGInitLoop    ; repeat for other channels
182.         move.w    d0,(a2)
183.         movem.l    (a6),d0-a6    ; clear all registers
184.         disable_ints
185.  
186. SkipSetup:
187.         bra.s    GameProgram    ; begin game

 

Not really sure where you moved ErrorTrap, but alright. Nothing seems wrong with the header. What were you doing before you removed the checksum? Ideally a list of multiple things too. And I strongly suggest making a GitHub page for your project and regularly backing it up if you haven't already so you can backtrack easily when these kinds of errors start occuring.

 

Weird...

Well, the checksum started to appear after adding the Sonic 3 art and the victory poses.

Oh? That problem started in the disasm that are in the github repositoty...

 

Someone know how I can port levels using Level Converter?
I tried to port Hydrocity into Sonic 1, but i have this as result

After adding the chunks and blocks files the game started to crash for some reason.
That was what happened.
Any help?

 

There's limited information in that screenshot.

The address error was very likely caused by word/long-word accessing 8(a1), because a1 is 01000077 and the address error is 0100007F, the instruction is wherever "CSI_MiniSonicLoop:" is located.

How a1 ended up with that value is unknown from that screenshot. Could be any reason, but a few to note, overflow from 00FFXXXX, or the few rare instances where the MSB byte has a non-0 value but is also used for addressing (like the main level load block list, where the Nemesis compressed art address holds a PLC index number in its MSB byte).

EDIT: I did a little further digging, this is the instruction in question:

Code (Text):

1. move.w   (a2)+,8(a1)

Under normal circumstances, a1 is a copy of a0, so a0 should have an identical value, or at the very least should hold a RAM address, specifically the object RAM. The only thing I can think of which could cause this would be an interrupt without register backup. But I feel like that's something you wouldn't touch (though it does say the caller is from Vblank (VBla_Music), did you touch anything here?).

Maybe a last dodge effort here, but do you have "even" under all of the incbin/binclude files for HCZ when you ported them over? (Not that I think it would cause this, but there's not much information to give you a clear answer).