Two graphic mods for Sourceforge projects.

First off, these aren't my games, I just tweaked them to fit my preferences, and I do not intended to use these for a profit, and I'm giving full credit to the original authors of the games themselves. Both are old forgotten Windows puzzle games remade, one I mentioned in a previous post. So let's not dally on and get right into the first game:

First up is a mod for mblaine's Diamonds open-source remake; which gives it a fresh coat of paint. All the block and ball graphics have been entirely cleaned up, modified to resemble the pseudo-sequel Diamonds for Kids, which was aimed at a younger audience and has much easier levels than the original. The space background of the original is now a generic clouds background, the "Death Block" is remade into a "Vortex Block", yellow replaces brown, and a few of the sound effects have been tweaked to make them feel more enjoyable. Sadly this game doesn't have a graphic editor built in like the original, so it's a little harder to make levels yourself, but it's possible. Plus, this is the only version of said game that works on advanced operating systems.

Get it here.


What we have here is a graphic mod for Brandshaw Creations' PYKye++, bundling the level sets from both PYKye and PYKye++ into a single package without downloading them individually, and gives the game more of a classic Kye feel. Some of the graphics (like the enemies) were borrowed from Xye, while the many other tiles originating from Chip's Challenge are edited to fit the rest of the theme.

Download here.

More Kye, If you didn't get enough of green balls pushing down things

UPDATE: Though minor, there are versions that I've discovered following the post's creation, such as Running Cheetah Kye, and Scott's Kye for Palm OS.


Big post lying ahead full of nerdom.

If you recall around September of last year, I made a post based on an excessively unknown PC puzzle game under the name Kye, originally released in 1992 by Colin Garbutt. It was a puzzle game that played similarly to Boulder Dash and Eggerland (the later known as Adventures of Lolo outside Japan), putting you in control of a small green sphere, the Kye, and you must obtain every diamond present in the level by moving blocks; some which obey gravity in a particular direction, and dodging trapping yourself, a diamond, or one of the game's five beasts that pursue you through the many labyrinths. And by many I mean 15.

When Kye first saw release, it was originally bundled with 10 levels, five additional ones were added not long after, bring in a few new objects. The first level was easy; just move right and you win. Pretty hard, huh? Well the difficulty takes a huge leap upwards right on the second level, and goes even higher on the third. People that got a chance to play this game and learn it's complexity were also given an offer to register by donating 20 bucks to "Save the Children" a charity. People that did must have been so darn pleased. Because now they were given additional levels, back then only 20 would be added as separate level packs, later this registered expansion would grow to be 400+ levels, though many of them were difficult alike the main game so I guarantee one'd never see beyond the first few levels unless they spent a lot of trial and error.

The first time I, myself ever laid my eyes on Kye was receiving from my grandfather one of those shareware discs they always distributed "lite" versions of many titles on; which also had Aquanoid, Jumpman LIVES!, and roughly the entire CHAMP series save for CHAMP Invaders. Back then I found Kye to be very interesting, though I could never get past the second level, and even if I did, the third level got me stuck to no end. Sadly I wasn't aware you could restart levels or make/change level sets because pretty much all the games on the disc were the limited free versions, and because these games often omitted extra functions like later levels and if featured, the editor unless the full version was bought and installed, I thought Kye only allowed one to play the normal levels only. Of course I still got a kick out of it as a child, even if it meant toying around with the first level.

Now fast forward to late 2011. I reinstall the disc onto an old computer of mine that I've used for some time, and finally challenge Kye once more. Not only do I beat the second and third levels with little to no trouble, but I also defeat Levels 4-6, and figured out how the level editor worked. So afterwards I searched up Kye online and found a fan-remake that is a grand upgrade from the original; Vexorian's Xye. And since I've gave many suggestions to the game's development and supported it to death, soon the following January distributing my own set of Xye levels. And from there I learnt much more about Kye's history and the many releases it got, both official and from the fans, found all the registered Kye levels and many more; and since then, I was determined to compile every version's levels and features to be playable in Xye.

Among these came our first subject, Christmas Kye. Released as two versions, Christmas Kye and Christmas Kye Jr; this was to be simple a massive re-skin of Kye to make it holiday-themed, coloring the walls teal green (brighter in Jr. in comparison to the original), changing the playing objects; blocks, enemies (Each one replaces a specific enemy species), etc. to a Christmas theme. It also features background music and a Christmas themed background that has nothing to do with Kye.

Christmas Kye features 25 levels, 24 of them taken from already-created levels from the registered version of Kye, re-arranged in almost no particular order, change only the title of each level to wherever number in the game they appear as, and splattered on the screen. The only level that was created exclusively for Christmas Kye was the first one, where they place your diamonds, now presents, in a simple area for you to nab them. Kye Jr. on the other hand, has three previously unseen levels and one slightly modified level, the first one resembling a house in a snowstorm. Those that are taken from other sets have their name, hint message, and level conclusion message changed to fit the Christmas theme. These two versions are very hard to locate, but Vexorian has posted a download for Christmas Kye Jr, while I scouted out a copy of Christmas for Windows which contained Christmas Kye. And yes, I bought an entire CD just for one game. The disc was called "Christmas for Windows" and it can be bought online on sites like Amazon, though if you want to save money, I can just give you Christmas Kye for no profit.

If that wasn't enough, another version of Kye was released, known as Dr. Floyd's Kye. This version is yet another re-skin but this time, it goes back to the theme of classic Kye, even sporting a new background image that at least resembles Kye. It has 24 levels, some of which were in the Christmas Kye games, others are new. This one is even harder to find and obtain, sites do have coverage on it, but remotely no download is available online. However I've heard Youtuber junker15 has the entire disc, including Dr. Floyd's Kye, so I PM'd him about it to see if he could put it up for download. He has yet to reply.

Though through some speculation, I assume Dr Floyd's Kye's levels can be obtained via an alternative source, A standard .Kye file that can be downloaded from Robert Phipps' Kye page. This file is known as "sampler.kye", and via careful research, the first level of this file and a low-res screenshot I found match one another perfectly, and the titles of the final levels "Wild Goose Chase" also match word-for word. While I still want to own Dr. Floyd's Kye for authentic reasons (whatever that means), sampler.kye will do until then, and besides, I'd like to rip the BG graphic in HD.

Somewhare around the same time, a 2.5D sequel Kye Deluxe was in production, mentioned in the help files of Christmas and (I assume) Dr. Floyd's Kye. It would have included 200 Nintendo hard levels, new graphic upgrades, difficulty selection, scoreboards, sounds and music, a better editor, and most of all new objects and enemies. Sadly though it went on a date with the trash can and never came back, as Kinesoft, the team responsible for Deluxe, put the project on indefinite hold. It's almost no matter, as Xye (aside from sound and graphics) already accomplishes some of the promises made.

Then years later there was Amazing Kye, a new sequel that went back to basics  but only included a fraction of objects from the original Kye. It has 50 levels, the rest you had to get by registering, but to be fair, the collection itself is nothing special (IMO), For one thing, while there are new never-seen puzzles, a few of these descend from the original Kye's registered version. Secondly, I don't find the new graphics appealing, and the "classic" skin barely matches the original. Thankfully they can be edited so you can rip graphics from screens of Kye, crop them into Amazing Kye's spritesheet, and there you go. But what you can't edit are levels. Somehow this passed off as being a sequel and yet the biggest thing keeping the series alive was tossed aside. What? Where they afraid people'd recreate levels in the registered version with the editor? Were it's very unlikely something like that would happen, and I can't do anything about it. :|

Also, if you like Fortune Street's "Out to Lunch" feature, you'll love Amazing Kye. Watch as the levels solve themselves and it counts towards completion whenever or not a human or a computer beats a level.

The latest official version is Python Kye for Linux. Just features new graphics (the first duller/darker version with faceless Kye is the one I prefer) and levels that are compatible with the original Kye. It has a better editor and it can also record replays of levels. Moving on.

Afterwards, there have not been any official versions worth mentioning since then, so let me move on to what the fans made. I'll start with PYKye from Bradshaw Creations. It's graphics may not seem too faithful to the original game, and it's not very user-friendly; as I have not found any graphic editor nor additional level sets for it. It features not only the usual stuff, but different terrain like water, ice, lava, arrow panels that force Kye or any object in a specific path (the ones in Xye do not launch the player), tiles only Kye or blocks may cross over, attribute modifiers the null the effects of water, lava, ice, and arrow tiles, making them normal ground to Kye, step switches that raise/lower walls and clocker, a-cloker, and reverse tiles embedded in the ground. There's many more obstacles than I can hopefully describe, so you'll have to try it for yourself.

Then there's Philipp Klaus' Cye, a port for not some form of computer or OS, but a video game console, in this case the Colecovision. It has a set of original levels meant to be tutorials, but the biggest feature by far is Cye's two-player co-op puzzles. In the same vein of Portal 2, the second player is necessary to finish a level, as they cannot be accomplished alone. Player 2's Kye is slightly darker than the main Kye, but with the palette of the Colecovision, it's difficult to tell. The game overall is much slower than standard Kye, black holes "swallow" objects at a slower rate, but it does have sounds and music when a level is loaded.

It may interest one to know that there are two versions. One is a demo that only has the tutorial and two-player levels, the other contains levels from standard Kye. Thankfully I have these levels as a .kye file officially loaned to me from Philipp himself. The two-player levels are impassable because no version other than Cye supports two-player.

Kye 3.0 (designed I believe by Luke-jr and Niver) was an attempt at a sequel that replicated the original game down to the last detail. Same graphics, Same gameplay, etc. But it had two new features. For one, the boundaries of the level may no longer carry walls but now serve the "warp-around" feature you saw in many old-school arcade titles where you can travel to the other side in the flash of a pixel, and to keep the subject of teleportation, there are now teleporters that resemble arrows that you can align together and use them- do I really need to explain any more? You just warp to the other one. Of course if there are no tele porters in the same row of one facing horizontally, or the same column of one facing vertically, it's just a normal block and won't work as intended unless they are aligned back together.

One thing that was altered was now the hostile creatures that patrolled the maze now have to step on you to kill you, whereas in the official games, they have to touch you from an adjacent tile (not dingily). This allowed Kye to get into areas he's not intended to be that were normally guarded by enemies attached to magnets, like a vicious dog on a chain, requiring the player to send in something else to do the job. Much like Amazing Kye, it has no editor, and only one level was made to utilize the new features. After the one level is the default Kye levels all over again. But at least you can create levels with a text editor and load in custom levels, but considering how three quarters of you will not be able tp play this for whatever reason, it's more worth passing on.

Finally, Skye from Jim Babcock. It has not only old levels but new levels that weren't as large as normal Kye and called in two new obstacles, which were gaps in the floor that became normal ground when something fell in, and best of all "!" blocks that are actually explosives. Have one collide with an arrow block and watch the madness at work. And when you're done being a demolition expert, it even sports an editor, one that actually allows one to select a group of objects simultaneously.

Then it comes down to what it was made on. Texas Instruments calculators. Besides there being a good number of people that don't have graphic calculators that can connect to a computer, now you can sneak in and play some Kye at school or collage and show those teachers you can kick butt at one of the most challenging puzzlers and they attempt it and don't know what they're doing.

Xye is by far the most advanced and faithful recreation of the original game, but that's not to say you shouldn't try the others. So otherwise I've wanted to port all these levels and the new features they bring upon into Xye, as well as the different graphic sets/skins, which part of it has been already done. Not sure how it'll all do in the next few months or even years, but aside from pink, cyan, and orange blocks, I'd love to see Kye as a whole get bigger and bigger, like every other indie project I support.


Most of the above info came from Vexorian's own timeline/coverage of the series.

RC Rally: "Physics are for losers!"

Hey fellas. As a lot of you probably know by now; I own a PlayStation 3, but have mostly been doing it for Playstation Home, whenever it's trying out their free titles or blowing $300 on virtual crap (when I'm not playing adventure for free items), I always find something there to do. I've play many games there, some I fell in love with and were eager to see updated (Novus Prime and Sodium 2: Project Velocity), others I tried once or twice and immediately ditched it (No Man's Land; gotta love limited movement). One of the games I want to discuss is a little gem from Heavy Water known simply as RC Rally.

On the surface, it's a racer with a simple simple premise: Take one of 12 vehicles (4 models in 3 colors each), tweak them to improve their performance, and race them on three different tracks built in an empty/abandoned lot. The game features objectives that when completed, earn the player the ability to race on tracks 2 and 3, parts to upgrade the vehicle of the player's choosing, and in few cases, a few Playstation Home rewards, mostly companion versions of the different vehicles you can race, some harder to obtain than others. For someone that loved the heck out of Hot Wheels as a wee young lad, it's not surprising.

Each track features five main objectives, all of which deal with the presence of cups on the course. Besides completing two laps on each course under a preset time, you also have objectives on each course: avoid all the cups, knock over all and only the cups of a certain color (must be done thrice, with colors, red, yellow, and blue) and knock over every cup. Finishing all these will get you to the next track a few more parts, and a personal item. Once you get the equipment, you can re-race the courses to get better times and unlock more rewards via "Advanced Challenges", and also race with up to three others online (when will they find local multiplayer needs to be something in Home?).

However, RC Rally seems untested at times, as the collision detection when it comes to inclines, walls, etc. is god awful. Touching most walls, no matter what speed you're going, will cause your vehicle to either spaz out and lose much desired time, or even suffer a crash. Thankfully you do respawn, but the crash will respawn you so much further back from where you initially crashed, making some parts of the game stupid hard. You could make the argument that RC vehicles in real life are very sturdy and can wipe out easily, but these seem like every other thing you try to do is prone to making the poor truck commit suicide through the scenery. And while minor, the sound the vehicle makes when it accelerates is just a series of clicks, not a constant battery motor running like it is in real life. If you're also playing of a SD/non-widescreen TV, the font in next to unreadable, and in multiplayer, the opponents lag terribly.

Aside from friendlier collision detection, better controls, respawn points being closer together, a "quick respawn" button to quickly save oneself from crashes, more lifelike physics, a few more tracks (like six additional ones, one I have plans for showing off), and a few premium items, vehicles, colors, parts, and tracks to purchase/unlock with cash, RC Rally could be one of the better games of PSH. But where it stands currently, it's only mediocre and decent at best, though I'd still play it because I love racing games.

Itadaki Street NES/Famicom Gamerip Download

After I did Kanshakudama Nage Kantarou no Toukaidou Gojuusan Tsugi, you only expected me to return with another video game OST. Well darn right I do. Today I have an OST that's only slightly less obscure, but still relatively unknown to most: Itadaki Street: Watashi no Omise ni Yottette.



This is the grandaddy of the Itadaki Street series, being put out for the Famicom in March 1991. It was Enix's (before merging with Square to create Square Enix) one breakaway title from the Dragon Quest series, and it became a big hit in Japan. Unlike recent installments which were crossovers with either Final Fantasy or Super Mario (the most recent one, Fortune Street, being the first released nationwide), this game uses an all original cast, which carried over into the two sequels it got in later years; one on the SNES/SFC and another on the Playstation 2. Special became the first to begin the trend of crossovers, though Itadaki Street for Smartphone does have original characters much like the original trilogy that took about a decade to complete. I'm not going to play teacher with you and just give you the download.


Download


I'll probably get one more OST up of something you wouldn't think I'd do in the next few days.

A Trip

Already said something along the lines over at my deviantART, but stating from this afternoon, July 2nd to be more precise, I will be leaving to go to upstate New York, high up in the mountains. I will not be back until sometime Friday.


Before then I have worked on finalizing the projects I would bring along with me so they'd all be up to date when I return. These include Bleach Pac-Man (still not done, unfortunately) and my custom level set for Aquanoid.


The post I made on deviantART in my journal fully explains everything about the situation, though I will add; I'm not big into abandoning my home for any time period whatsoever, as leaving behind all my nicknacks gets me worried and stressed easily; plus I won't have access to Wi-Fi over where I'm staying, preventing me from being able to communicate with my friends and followers (not like anyone reads this blog, though). Of course I will be bringing along a 3DS, an iPod Touch, and an iPad, and not to mention a Toshiba laptop, all making sure they're charged up nice and good for the 4.5 hour road trip, though I am bringing along the chargers for each system. I'm also considering bringing along a sketchpad and pencil case; see if I can come up with some designs for Aozora's Adventure while I'm gone.


So yeah that's all I have to say. When I come back Friday, I'll be full throttle with art, games, and stuff.

Kanshakudama Nage Kantarou no Toukaidou Gojuusan Tsugi OGR now available

And just when you thought I was done for the month... BOOM. I'm back, baby!

Well my birthday has come to a close, despite there still being one item I've yet to receive (Snowboard/Snobow Kids Plus), but for the most part, I certainly enjoyed it, though was a bit depressed throughout. Thankfully I've gotten over it, and I'm seeing if I can work it together with those involved.

But of you remember, allow me to recap that I'm very into video game soundtracks, but half the games I've played don't have a good and complete soundtrack download in zips, or for the matter soundtracks/game rips at all. So some of these I had to record myself, one of these being the relatively unknown but rather complicated NES platformer from Sunsoft; Kanshakudama Nage Kantarou no Toukaidou Gojuusan Tsugi (or one of it's many alternative titles).

Yes it never made it to the states nor Europe probably since it was "too Japanese", but it had a good soundtrack, for 1986 standards, so I downloaded the game's NSF file offline and recorded every major tune in the game. Below is the result:

Download

P.S. I forgot the "i" in the album's name in "Tsugi" in the download, but at least I got every other word complete.

If you must know more about the game, what a shock, Wikipedia. But if you'd rather know if I'll be doing any more of these, there is a good chance I will. Though many of the soundtracks that I've ripped are incomplete, some more oh so than others. Ponta to Hinako no Chindouchuu: Yuutou Hen on the Game Boy, for example only has the first three (of five) levels, plus the first boss theme. I didn't rip the good ending's music since I never got it the first time I ran through it. Tazmanian Devil: Munching Madness on the Game Boy Color is more complete, having the themes of every level and event recorded, but the ending, which I've never gotten (that is if it does exist). Feng Shen Bang (the Chinese bootleg) on the NES is also an example of a more-complete soundtrack, which currently has everything up to the fifth chapter except the battle theme. I could go on for hours, but I'll stop there.

I might want to post this soundtrack on FFShrine, though not at the moment.

More Mari0

Because otherwise some of you'd think I'd be a freak.


Well Easter 2012 is (way) over, and I got a new PSVita and (to top it off) a rather painful visit to the dentists'. Don't you just love the feeling of some guy ripping through your gums to defeat the evil plaque that rests underneath? Sure it's for my own good but I ended up afterwards with sore gums that are still continuing to this day, but thankfully it ended quickly.


Then comes the good stuff. Thanks to a custom tileset I created for Mari0, I've gained a bit of a positive reputation agmonst the forum members of Stabyourself, mainly for how many different alternative colors the sheet provides, including non-portable grey SMB-styled tiles that don't feel out of place when placed with other SMB graphics, unlike the default Portal tilesets included in Mari0. At this time, I know of three map packs that utilitize my tileset, and I betcha more will eventually come out after I write this.


Speaking of Mari0; one of the issues I have with Mari0 itself is the difficulty adding additional content (and I have to agree in some ways, but in others not so much) to make it better and more interesting. Many of the problems seem to come from the harsh limitations of Löve, the engine used to develop Mari0, but even there a game constructed with an engine should take it to the extreme by experimenting with Löve's boundaries. There are loads of free, open source titles potentially built on fan-creations, and by the near future, someone could approach Mari0 and give fans the ability to create great levels and entities, without having someone say "no this feature will not be in for no reason other than it was not in the first Super Mario Bros. (ignoring Lost Levels, Special, and Deluxe, official modifications to the original game to add new features and make for an interesting experience.) or either Portal game." mainly for adding in content that's not a tileset, nor make it easy to add background images or music for levels. There's more, but I'll jump on something else in the meantime.


By the many "problems" this game has, they are more along missed or misused features. Based on the million hacks of Super Mario Bros. hacks I have played since late 2010, here are the scenarios I have found.


Now keep in mind I'm not trying to be too critical and demanding here. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, my sincerest apologies. Also I tried to come up with ideas that would actually be beneficial and keep the players happy with new objects to allow for more challenging puzzles. I love Mari0 to death, as it passes off the limits of many editors for the original Super Mario Bros, mainly SMB Utility. I know the game is open source and with a lot of creativity and knowledge of Löve, one could insert these into the game themselves. However I should point out I'm not into programing at this time in my life, and except for a sound-effect mod, I couldn't run any mods created for Mari0, even with Löve installed on my PC. Plus I'm not saying if god forbid these suggestions get into some version  of Mari0 that Maurice has to do all the programing work; just include the data of co/fan-developers in a future version of Mari0, without having to load up another executable file if possible (and hey, even if an "advanced" version of Mari0 with a more detailed editor had to be made for the true designers at heart).


*Pipe entrences and exits are excessively limited when two different pipe exits in the same sublevel lead to one main level (or vice versa), you could end up very well being sent back to the beginning of that level. That and the pipe entrance and exit entities should be overlapable, so you can exit into or enter from a single pipe, or have exits from two different sublevels lead into the same pipe, without it looking awkward having Mario come out of the left side of the pipe. Firebars should also be overlapable as certain ROM hacks of Super Mario Bros (such as Paper Sai) have dual fire balls.


*The properties of certain enemies and objects are missused. When bopping an enemy with a shell from below with either a brick or "?" block, normally they'd flip upside down in their shell, and be knocked back a small width (same with a mushroom, however the shell is not mobile unless kicked) Here, shelled enemies die instantly when striked from below. Enemies can also stand on top of one another, and kicked shells do not lose speed when they drop, easily noticeable in Mari0's Lost Levels DLC pack, where a kicked Red Koopa shell flies over an area where it is supposed to drop and kill a series of enemies; enough to score an 1UP. Lakitus are effected by Mario's movement, where in the actual SMB, they are only affected by the screen scrolling. Koopa/Buzzy Beetles are meant to come out after being in their shells for sixteen in-game seconds (this could be a toggle on/off feature), and their shells can also be canceled out in methods they shouldn't be able to, like striking an enemy that is off screen by four or five blocks, even if it is not a moving shell. Koopa and Buzzy Beetle shells can also harm you if one is hanging over an edge and you try to kick it with a quick jump up. If you use a portal that is placed on a pipe where a Pirana Plant resides, there is a very good chance (99%) that you will take a hit, even if the Pirana Plant is not outside it's pipe.


*In underwater levels, no enemy should be stompable, and on overworld levels with flying Bloopers present, they should be stompable. Anyone that has played Lost Levels should know this.


*Any enemy sporting a shell immediately retracts and gets back up after 16 in-game seconds of being still. Allowing the shell-based enemy to recover from sliding resets the timer.


*Collecting a Star shows no point value nor plays the "Power Up" sound effect.


*The castle theme does not start at the proper time, starting about 20 milliseconds later. The overworld theme also ends early, and does not loop correctly.


*When a mushroom (Either Super or 1UP) moves into a hit "?" or brick block, it does not bounce back like it should. It only bounces if it is ontop the hit brick, and not both ways. Same goes for hitting Paratroopas with a block.


*Mari0 lacks an entity that allows for brick blocks with only a single coin hidden inside. I doubt this was actually in the original game(s) but it could help somehow. Speaking of, in the current version of Mari0, if an invisible brick is assigned to be an multi-coin block, it will remain invisible until it is done coughing up money.


*Allow invisible 1UP Mushroom blocks to be placed as a separate entity without requiring the player to place a 1UP Mushroom on an invisible coin block.


*You seem to be able to net out way too many coins from a multi-coin block. Adding a delay of 40 milliseconds/centiseconds between each hit/coin may do the trick.


*The color palettes of underwater "?" and brick blocks (plus pre-hit "?" blocks in castle levels) are incorrect. You need to open up a utility for hacking the original Super Mario Bros ROM (such as SMB Utility) and add a "?" block and a brick block to an underwater level (2-2 or 7-2, for instance) to see the proper palette for those blocks. Other tiles are missing their alternative colors normally not seen in an unmodified SMB ROM, like the red J pipe or the orange trees. Just mess around in SMB Utility for hours until you find everything (and I repeat, everything) possible, and if you place an "hex edit map block" somewhere along the bottom, you may be able to find additional color palettes; like light blue or lava red.


This tileset I whooped up includes every non-mobile color palette pulled from SMB Utility. I am aware there are others (like for characters, "?" blocks, and coins) but these are for the normal solid/background tiles. There are some differences with the colors here compared to Mari0, as they appear a lot brighter in SMB Utility. The one that goes in contrast with Mari0's color scheme(s) can be found below.



*There is nothing in the game that prevents the player from being able to jump over large walls or other boundaries built with no ceiling by simply going up to the top of the screen, where the editor cannot place additional objects. Even Hello's Super Mario Engine for Game Maker has a tool that can be placed to prevent the player from bypassing parts of the level by leaping over stuff off-screen.

*A minor complaint, but in Portal 2, Light Bridges make a sound when the player jumps off them. Red Lasers do not kill the player instantly in the same game, only after several collisions, with each one simply shooting Chell back a few steps until she falls from first-degree burns. In Mari0, collision with a laser is instant death, even if you've collected a Mushroom and achieved Super size, or even worse, invincible thanks to the Starman. Collision with a laser in Mari0 should simply fling the player back and after three touches, Mario takes damage like he normally would, then after another three collisions, he dies. Energy balls, not present in Mari0 nor Portal 2 but in Portal, are instant killing hazards.


*With proper use of portals and self-canceling them out (and in some cases not canceling them out; Mario and enemies can get into areas they shouldn't be able to reach. This seems to happen most often when one portal is placed horizontally and the other is placed vertically.


*In single player, the camera should always be centered on Mario with two other keys being used to look further in either direction. The camera as it is at the time I'm writing this makes it hard to see ahead; brutal for some puzzle-based levels, especially if the player has to head left.


*In my opinion, there are too many on-screen Bowser fires at once. Portaling ahead can make you almost accidently run into a Bowser fire and get hit. Speaking of the flames, if Bowser's flames do not come on early, he will never spew fireballs unless the "Fire Start" entity is placed alongside the Bowser entity, which the later triggers when he appears.


*If moving/falling platforms are aligned with a solid tile(s) or another platform, the player's position gets extremely wonky and can lead to the player getting stuck inside solid ground or ultimately fall to their death.


*The different Gel verities seem to be too blotched together in a stream after exiting a portal, adding better collision when sideways-traveling gel goes through a horizontal portal and also adding a bit of a "fountain" or "spray" effect on gel after going through a portal will do the trick.


*Allow Orange Gel to boost the player's speed in underwater levels, as it can in any other level.


*Fix a glitch regarding levels loading up the wrong background (i.e. one of the current level's sublevels).


*Portal 2 has a feature where if the players runs into a blotch of Blue gel after gaining speed with the Orange Gel, the player will auto-jump. Speaking of, jumping while standing on a surface Blue gel propels you a little higher than you can jump normally, and there is a minimum jump height with the Blue gel.


*If Bowser is on a flat surface, every solid tile (including the one in the space to the lower-left of the axe, which represents the rope) placed between and under (not above) the Bowser and Axe entities should collapse, just like basic bridge and rope tiles. And I say solid tiles only because it'd be weird if the lava drained below Bowser as the bridge collapses.


*In underwater levels, if a portal is placed as high as possible on the ceiling on the top row, and another anywhere else, Mario cannot enter through it.


*In levels with looping mazes, Portal-based entities (Companion Cubes, Doors, Buttons, Lazers) can appear in odd places when an area of the level loops, either too early or too late, where they can somehow obstruct the level's path and make in unsolvable.




So those are the flubs I were able to find; Now comes the suggested improvements. A lot of people have suggested features to make Mari0 more enjoyable, only to have them rejected because well, I'll just say anyone's game, whenever or not it's meant to load in custom stuff easier or allow for more complex and/or better level design. (Note: A few of these may be listed above)


Original:



*Allow players to map portal aiming controls to the keyboard. Just unlock them for keyboard use and add the option to set sensitivity. Two easy steps; I dunno why it shouldn't be done, but maybe it's because it'd make the game a little complicated for keyboard-only players, plus the possibility of programing issues. So scrap that if it's too complex.
*With pipe entrances and exits, there can be more than one separate destination pipe entrances and exits within only two areas, a main level and a sub level. Here is a thread with more detailed info.
*If the player grabs a 1UP mushroom, goes to another screen, comes back, and tries to release the same 1UP mushroom again, it should be (toggle On/Off) replaced with a single coin. Same for multi-coin blocks.
*Platforms that are solid only from above.
*The player should be able to adjust the world when the princess appears. It'd be cool if one could add a few additional worlds (9, A-D/10-13) either as bonus, sometimes secret worlds (ala Lost Levels) or worlds you do right after the others. On top if that, the ability to extend a normal world up to eight stages would be a cool feature, plus adjust how many levels a world should have, so you don't go into blank levels.
*Red Paratroopas can be set to fly horizontaly.
*Have of all thing a copy/paste feature, where you drag a box around what you want to copy, click somewhere else, press the right mouse button (or maybe Alt or Shift), select Paste, and there you go. Plus a quick erase button by holding Backspace/delete and dragging with the mouse to remove tiles on the level.
*Items other than Coins can be placed outside without hiding them inside blocks, however they will be immobile.
*Via toggle, ?, brick, invisible blocks, coins, and enemies in looping mazes do not respawn untouched if the player hits/collects them in any way on a previous lap.
*Modification of enemy speeds, up to 5x. Green Paratroopas, Hammer Bros, and Bowser's vertical speed cannot be changed.
*Enemies that do not set off moving platforms/lifts via toggle.
*Bullet Bills that you place anywhere on non-solid/blank tiles that fire only once in that location once it's spawn point is on screen.
*Cheep cheeps with a movement pattern similar to Podoboos, can be stomped.
*The option to pick the background color with RGB sliders.
*Change the speed of firebars between normal, x1.5, x3, or even x5.
*Climbable ropes/ladders. It's possible to do this in the original game with anything but a vine, but it's super buggy, and you need to open a utility to make it happen.
*One-way tiles that act as walls if the player touches them from the side the arrow points to.
*A faster method of linking Portal's "light paths" which illuminate orange when something is triggered or turned on.
*Allow players to view the movements and placements of moving platforms and lifts while in editor mode, can be toggled on or off.
*Better Podoboo customization, like where in the lava will it spawn, and also the strength of it's jump.
*Additional gate numbers for looping maze levels.
*The Spike Tops from Super Mario Bros. Crossover, but they can be knocked upside-down from below and kicked, alike Spinies, the only difference with them is they are immune to fireballs. 


Lost Levels:
*By toggle, the game can be set to give a free 1UP when both coin digits and the ones digit in the timer are the same and the player touches any section of the flagpole.
*Poison Mushrooms designed like the original SMB, not Lost Levels. (they are just mushrooms with the pallette of a Goomba; a brown mushroom with black spots and normal skin color for the bottom). If the player is under the power of the Star, the Poison Mushroom has no effect.
*Red pirana plants that come out if the player is standing next to their pipe, but not when he/she stands directly on them.
*Upside-down pipes and pirana plants. However downward pipes use the same pipe end/tip sprites as pipes facing upwards; same for pipes facing right, they use the standard horizontal pipe end sprites.
*Wind that blows either right, left, or alternates between thew two directions.
*Stomping on enemies sends you higher, can be toggled between the normal stomp launch hight and the one in Lost Levels.
*Green super springs that launch you very high.
*False Bowsers with a teal-green palette (identical colors to Green Koopas in underground levels).


Special:
*Add each and every one of Super Mario Bros. Special's exclusive enemies and items. As sucky I know that game's controls (both versions) are in contrast to the original, that one at least had level designs incapable on the NES or Famicom, such as mixing two themes together (both overworld and underwater tiles in one room/level, underwater levels at night, etc). Wario Bros. of The Mario Fan Games Galaxy site has an interesting rip of these.


*The special items are:
 *The Hachisuke, or the now-deflunct Hudson's personal logo. Simply boosts your score by 8,000 points, which is the maximum an enemy can give you if you hit a big killstreak before the 1UPs come into play.
 *The Wing, it simply gives you 60 in-game seconds to "swim" in mid-air, and Mario flashes when the effect is about to die. You can still stomp enemies though, unlike in underwater levels. There should also be a variant that lasts indefinitely until the player dies or enters a new level/room.
 *The Hammer, functions just like the Hammers from Donkey Kong, and can wipe out anything the Fire Flower could only dream of killing, like Buzzy Beetles, Podoboos, and such. It can also be considered an alternative to the Star/Starman, but only protects from the front (where Mario is facing) and right above. It also lasts thrice as much as the Star.
 *The Lucky Star, a powerful item that resembles an atom. Pick it up, and it'll wipe out all enemies on the current screen and one screen behind and ahead, 100 pints for each kill.
 *The Clock, which resembles a miniature desktop clock. Collect it, and it'll award 100 additional seconds to the game's timer.


*The new enemies are:
 *Barrels, a cross between Buzzy Bettles and Spinies: cannot be stomped, or fired. The only way to kill these are with Stars or Hammers. They also move slightly slower.
 *Sidesteppers, crabs that are Spinies with an extra hitpoint. Hit it once (either from below or with a Fireball) and it becomes enraged, speeding up in the process. Hit it again to kill it.
 *Fighter Flies, or Goombas that hop a short distance, and pause in place after every jump for half a second, then jumps again. Trickier to eliminate from below with a brick or ? block.
*Icicles, which hang from the celling until the player travels underneath, at which they fall at a great speed. Can be set to grow back after it falls or not.
*Firebugs/Trouble Bugs, don't really know of an exact definition, they seem to be just Barrels with a different skin. Immune to everything except the hammer and the Star.


Deluxe:


*Separate Challenge mode. Find five hidden Red Coins and the well-hidden Yoshi egg, and aim for a top score. One life per attempt at an level, no checkpoints, 1UPs award points.
*A splitscreen/network versus racing mode (get the flag or axe first, use face blocks to enhance your progress or halt the other player(s) with new maps, if time runs out, the one with the most coins wins. Has its own dedicated thread on the Mari0 forums. Each level can also be attempted solo, where the player races against a ghost/hologram of themselves.


ROM Hacks of SMB:


Note, use these ROMs to get the ideas, incase me making a list below isn't enough.


*Spikes that harm Mario if he comes into contact with the pointed side. Any other side of the spike will simply act as a non-portable solid wall.
*Arrow platforms that moves anything that stands on it to the left or right, like a conveyor belt.
*Slippery surfaces, which reduces traction when on land.
"!" blocks, which turn outlined blocks solid and vice versa. It alternates between two sets, red and blue, with red enabled by default. Aside from the basic solid blocks, there are also arrow tiles that are triggered by "!" blocks. You can pass through them, and they propel/launch you in the direction shown.
*Entities that start or stop auto-scrolling stages, at three speeds.
*A hourglass item that adds 30 seconds to the ingame timer.
*Black Pirana Plants uninfected by Mario standing position and is very speedy when it comes out of its pipe.
*Swinging spike-balls, they work like Roto-discs from SMB3.
*Foreground waterfalls that nullify or badly affect your jump height.
*The Hammer Suit. All it does is change your colors into a grey hat and a dark grey hair. and allows you to throw hammers through solid tiles alike SMB3.
*Spinies that can be knocked over by a hit from below and kicked like a shell.
*Bouncy platforms that look like two wires. They work like moving platforms, except they can also be set to remain still.
*White outline tiles that basically represent and act like an invisible tile; they basically are meant to show the location of a invisible block.
*Climbable ropes that cause the player to automatically slide upwards or downwards when on them, like a moving chain.
*"Poisoned" levels that reverse your left/right movement controls, identified with a purple overlay. You can still aim the Portal Gun normally.
*Special rooms that re arrange themselves by destroying solid blocks in a sequence once all the enemies are eliminated from the screen. With off-screen Bullet Bills, they have 20 seconds to do their thing before they are forced to stop and allow the level to adjust itself.


Portal & Portal 2:


*Amongst ones suggested often (often rejected for programing purposes) like excursion funnels (not that difficult to program, just look Mario in position within the center of it and use left/ and right to escape vertical ones and up/jump and down to escape horizontal ones.
*Decent-drawn turrets. You get hit by one bullet, a small pixel of blood escapes from you, after you take seven to ten bullets without taking cover, you take damage or die.
*Edgeless Safety Cubes, or spheres that are similar to cubes, but are rounded, so therefore they roll if they are dropped while the player is moving. There could also be buttons that would only accept either cube or sphere blocks.
*Gel entities that only drop one large blob of gel at a time rather than a whole pack.
*Gel launchers that can be enabled as well as disabled with buttons, without having to rely on doors.
*Doors that are open at the start, then close when a button is pressed.
*Grey platforms that fold out from the background when a button is pressed, They can also move around, or raise/lower at a certain speed up to a certain height after being in a fixed position prior to hitting the button, examples including the Unstationary Scaffold and Victory Lifts.
*Grates. Blocks/walls you can't shoot portals on but through it, and you can't place gel on it, lasers and light bridges can go through it, and so can the bullets from a turret. However it's solid to anything else.
*Glass walls/tiles that you can shoot portals and guide lasers and light tunnels through, but the bullets from a turret cannot go through it, plus it is solid to everything else, including gel.
*Water that removes gels on surfaces it touches.
*Dunno of it's too complicated with rotating sprites, but the unused violet-colored Adhension gel (search it on Youtube) would be an interesting concept for some levels; it basically sticks Mario (well, almost anything) feet-first onto any wall or celling the gel is applied to, with it being possible to make wall-jumps or jumps to the celling with it.
*Gel can be applied to both enemies and Cubes, just like in Portal 2. On Cubes, blue makes the cube bounce uncontrollably, orange makes it slippery, white does nothing, and violet allows it to stick to walls for whatever purpose. Most enemies also follow a similar, though not exact ruleset.




The Great Giana Sisters(!):


*The only one I have from this game is an boulder entity that can be placed inside brick blocks. When the brick block it is inside is broken, the boulder falls from it and becomes a solid tile (but via toggle, portals can go through it, be grey and non-portable, and so forth). It cannot crush Mario should the boulder hit him, but it can squash enemies, and travel through portals, locking into the nearest tile. Boulders can also be placed outside brick blocks.




I think that should be enough for one day. (-.-¡)

Mari-Hole, thinking with Port-Holes

Ah, Classic Mario, Why do you never stop appearing on this blog?

Hey everyone. We're (well, I'm) back with our first post for April of this year, and I'm trying out the new Blogger post writer (or whatever you want to call it). It looks decent enough, but what I'm not really happy with was that they took off some of the old font colors for the user interference. But that's fine, i can live with it.

Now for me personally, March has been one hell of a year. And I'm not saying that to be anywhere positive, it has been nothing but a literal hell. Between the death of famous flash animator Edd Gould of Eddsworld, the removal of the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator, the possibly of Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel meeting it's untimely demise and being released in an incomplete form, and (not important) the drop of my once large fanbase (even to the point where my recent shite goes un-noticed). C'mon, do I really need to bring out fanservice?


And before you ask, no, that short sentence about my diminishing fanbase or it's viewers is not intended to be an attack, It's just making a point. Maybe if some people gave a honest crud about my art even if I prefer to self-teach myself and only listen to certain criticism from the people that I want following me, then I wouldn't have to take drastic measures.


Sadly it's true. I want to somehow find a way I can impress big-(not huge) time artists with my art. And to try and avoid any further damage, I desire these artists to remain anonymous in this post to try not to stir up trouble to the people reading and get a (possible) bad reputation, as if half of these artists don't already dislike me somewhat just for saying stuff I should never have said, even if said "knowledge" about the existence of fanservice and the presence of many people that envy it (like myself) is solely an opinion.


Why I changed it from me assuming it to be a fact is because let me ask you this; ever heard of the slogan "Sex Sells?" Well that can sort of apply here.


To put it simple, I'm not here to make myself or anyone else look like a dolt. I just haven't been having as much pleasure as I once had, sometimes making me ever regret starting a deviantART account.

Enough with that. Otherwise, school has also been really getting to me over the past few weeks, and it doesn't help that my English class has been demanded to read a novel titled We All Fall Down, and after reading 80 or so pages of it, I potentially don't have any interest in it whatsoever. And I know that everyone has their own opinions, and me personally, it tries way too hard to open up to readers that it ends up falling flat. There are too many branching storylines (two or three at once is okay, but five or six is just insane, however I've heard it does get better later on) and genres (begins as a mystery story, and opens up to many others, mostly murder and to a lesser extent slice-of-life), but the main seal on the bottle is that the characters are uninteresting thanks to the novel building up most of, if not all of them as smokers, drinkers, drug addicts, and murders, with little positive emotions and reasons for us to care about and sympathize with them. Even with my own series, the characters do end up performing bad tasks later on in their lives, but even before then the protagonists do positive things and give viewers a reason to like them. By the time We All Fall Down gives the characters good emotions, it's too late. And it doesn't help that they call one of the characters "The Avenger" rather than try to come up with a less inspiring name. Of course being 100% original isn't required, but it will help tremendously and make him somewhat a likable character until he murders a member of his family later on. Maybe.

Alright, that's all the pointless ramble. Onto the better news.

Once again, I go bull-istic over anything that has to do with 1985 classic Super Mario Bros because it's such a great game and a lot of interesting hacks and mods have been made for it over the course of multiple years. This one however combines the original game with a new twist: Valve's Portal series.

Mari0 is the talented effort of Maurice Guégan of StabYourself to cross Mario with the world of Portal.  Well it's more along the lines of "Mario with a Portal Gun" but it does have a graphic set that alludes to the Portal games, and even contains a level set that features test chambers, where the goal is to get from Part A to Part B without touching a red laser, falling offscreen, or (in some chambers) running out of time. There's next to no Mario enemies in these test chamber levels, but that is not always true.


Mari0's current release contains two official level sets, one that is a recreation of the original Super Mario Bros, but with the addition of a Portal Gun to enjoy the game further by doing pointless actions with the portal gun, and if you're lucky to have controllers and/or gamepads, you can invite up to three friends to kick bum in the Mushroom Kingdom. Then you have the Portal levels, the puzzle-orientated part of the game, where you use your Portal Gun to solve test chambers, with companion cubes and gel *squee!*.


The controls are a little complicated thanks to aiming and using the Portal Gun, and will take some time to adjust to, but when you do, it's awesome. With a physical controller, you might have better luck maneuvering Mario, but I've yet to try it out as I do not wish to connect any gamepads or controllers to my Windows 7 computer. It's also on Mac but Windows is more of a gaming system than a Mac; Macs are more of "art" computers, which was why I got one in the first place. You know how they say "I went Mac and I never went back"? Well not true with me. Do macs by default play Rosenkreuzstilette? Or run other millions of applications designed by (a) Windows user(s) for Windows users? Heck no.


Back on topic, Mari0 does have a lot of customization which allows you to change the color pallette of Mario and his two portal colors (the later feature being exclusive to multiplayer, in solo your portals are the default blue and orange). And for you inner game designers, there's also a full-fledged level editor to make the Mario level of your dreams, with PORTALS! *cough* It also allows you to import custom tilesets (level graphics) and music, though the methods of doing so are much more complex than Mario Builder, in which you have to put the .png or .mp3 files in the folder of your mappack, then re-title then accordingly. But that's not all; there's a few special rules for importing tilesets, so you can't just pop in a tileset and be good to go, you have to add another line and column to each tile and add in additional pixels based on the properties of each desired tile. It's that complex, but it will make you feel good inside in the end.


Now if you'll excuse me, I have to set other things straight, with science.

NONE PIECE

If One Piece was your son, then None Piece is the abandoned twin on drugs to the point of brain meltdowns.

Done by purpleeyeswtf, None Piece is a fandub of One Piece that abridges it and opts an emphasis on comedy than actual plot. And trust me, it works. The voices are grand and fit with the characters, and I love the random gun and explosion sound effects and whatnot crammed in. It currently spans 4 episodes at the time I'm writing this, visible below:

I just <3 Luffy's voice and actions. Sounds like something I'd make one of my characters do. And no that is not a form of negative speech, just giving out my thoughts. ;)

In my eyes, a Dragon will rush in the fields.

Back already fellahs, and hello St. Patrick's Day. I hope none of you got drunk and wasted to the point where you passed out trying to have a "mouth evacuation" at the toilet.

But anyways, the subject of this post will be about an obscure Chinese clone of a particular speedy game with a blue hedgehog and a two-tailed fox. And that is Speedy Dragon. I know it's also referred to on some occasions as Sonic Dragon but I dun see no Sonics. And sadly it's even rarer than most bootleg games because for one, it came out on a system only released in China (the Super A'Chan, released in 1995 with like only 12 games released for the system), and the console in question never got it's own emulator (there is MESS but I'm not going to suffocate myself trying to get it to run, let alone find the stinking ROM.)

And questioning from the title, you'd think this'd feature a dragon as the main character. Ernt wrong. You actually play as an asian teenager with an attitude (a trademark of Sonic) and super speed. Unlike Sonic, you actually are armed with a weapon; a green baseball bat that you whack enemies with rather than jumping on/into them. Your character actually never enters "ball mode" unless traveling through tubes or cannons, and picks up baseballs instead of rings (you lose 10 per hit as apposed to all possessed, but you cannot pick up dropped baseballs). Special Stages also exist in the form of ones seen from the Game Gear title Sonic Blast.

Here's gameplay footage from dhgHunter, where you get to see our casually-clad hero murder the Mighty Eagle and get assaulted by millions of stones:

So where the hell did I get the concept to do this post? Dig this:

This is a modified version of the main protagonist in Speedy Dragon (yes the modification is by me, who else would like and take him to the next level) that makes his colors less eye-grating with darker pants and hair, brighter skin, a wristband and small finger-bands, and exchange his green bat for a steel one for maximum damage (and to prove this isn't kiddy stuff, blood stains.) I also gave him the name De Lun because duperty do: Dragon begins with D.

I'm also thinking of inserting him into my OC series Aozora's Adventure as a guest character and playable in the spinoff titles. His planned inclusion will be like Anizawa Meito's if I ever can get the rights for him from Animate to be a major side-character, though De Lun would be more of a friend to Aozora than a rival character that likes Aozora with a vengeance (not in a sexual way, pervs). I'm guessing AV Artisan (the team behind Speedy Dragon) is now defunct so if I tried to insert my enhanced De Lun, I shouldn't be met with an unfair cease and desist, even if I'm not using him for any profit, like I've said a million times by now.

I should also mention that I am encountering some issues with finalizing Bleach Pac-Man, so all I ask for all you followers is just to continue being patient. Otherwise, I bid you farewell.

The one fangame you'd like to see but never will

...Well, until I figure out programing and s@it.

If this doesn't look like anything to you, here's the ever-so-popular Kingdom Hearts (stripped of all Disney and non-original characters) crossed with Capcom's well-loved but now suffering series Mega Man. It's an idea I had on me for quite some time (true story) and it follows a fan-created story-line (and as such, is not connected to the main Kingdom Hearts canon).

It's pretty much just a Mega Man clone with Kingdom Hearts characters slapped on it. Here you're seeing a mockup stage select built from Mega Man 6's, but colored violet and with different names (obvious) for the Masters, in this case, eight of the Organization XIII members (my favorite of the characters, tied with Demyx and Axel). The "X" in their names are custom, and so is the "ï" in Saïx's name.

Gameplay wise, it's still identical to Mega Man's, but with some liberties taken with clever level design and enemy/boss programing, similarly to the Mega Man clone I've previously talked about focusing on my own set of characters. I plan to create both games in future years, granted I can find a good team of spriters and programers (yes I plan to assemble a team). Back on topic, it will still feature the weakness system, but will have two different weakness "paths", or otherwise known as "suggested orders"; one that would be taken with Xigbar, Xaldin, Saïx, Marluxia, and Larxene, and the other with Vexen, Axel, and Demyx. I'm going to give every boss clever and/or fast tactics, so you won't find any easy bosses performing like Toad Man that can be taken down with little to no effort at all. They will all utilitize semi-random patterns to keep players on their toes and help with providing real difficulty and challenge.

Enjoy what you get fellas. And if any of you give a flying fluck about Bleach Pac-Man, keep in mind that v1.2 of the hack will be put up (hopefully) in the next few days. I'd say whenever because I can't keep a constant schedule (even if I promised it), so it'll be "when I feel like it".

Next time.

Bleach Pac-Man

*description from Readme*

This is v1.1 of a modification to a homebrew Atari 7800 port of the arcade game "Jr. Pac-Man". It modifies most of the graphics and text, as well as adding in a new set of eight levels to replace the originals. 

New reversions in this version include:  

*Slightly edited mazes and maze palettes 

*Minor graphic and text updates 

 The hack is based on the 2000's manga and anime series "Bleach" by Tite Kubo, and tries to be as accurate as possible to the source material. Not everything desired could be implemented into the hack due to the limitations of the original unmodified ROM and the editor utility used to create the hack.  

The original unmodified Jr. Pac-Man ROM (required to be patched with an IPS patching utility, such as Lunar IPS) is located here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/140371-hi-question-about-the-atari-jr-pac-man-discovered/page__view__findpost__p__1740840  

The utility, the Pac-Man Construction Set, is here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/149672-how-to-create-custom-7800-pacman-hacks/

Download the hack here.