Megaman PCE thread

[NightWolve]

Oh, I see. It's another general flash cart. I didn't think we'd see more after Turbo Everdrive. If it's a single-game-per-load type, like Gameofyou's, then he's just preloading your Megaman ROM port onto it, throwing the sticker on, and selling it like that.  , he is still boosting the value off your work though, but yeah, I guess it's kinda iffy here...



Hmm.

[TurboXray]

As far as I know, he's not selling the Megaman one in the pic. That's his personal copy. As long as he's not selling a preloaded Megaman+label (which I'm ~pretty~ sure he isn't, from looking at the forum) - then I'm fine with it. People can make their own personal repros. People can make repro's for other people too, as long as there's no profit involved (including community pressings of anything I release for free. Do as you want, just don't pull a profit from it). As long as there's no profit involved, you can do whatever you want with said free stuffs/works.

[FraGMarE]

Damn, Tom, that hi-color Megaman player sprite is some hot shit!  Who pixeled that???  ;)

[PukeSter]

Damn, Tom, that hi-color Megaman player sprite is some hot shit!  Who pixeled that???  ;)

Word.

I would gladly pay for a PCE Megaman port with that quality.

[TurboXray]

Damn, Tom, that hi-color Megaman player sprite is some hot shit!  Who pixeled that???  ;)

Word.

I would gladly pay for a PCE Megaman port with that quality.

No need to pay; it's free. In all honesty, I was supposed to be working on an original megaman clone for the PCE. Something that could be pressed to CD or to hucard. And something that I could sell as well. But I'm just having too much fun hacking this old game

Damn, Tom, that hi-color Megaman player sprite is some hot shit!  Who pixeled that???  ;)

Hey! I just mentioned you Your sprite work looks great. Up for redoing the enemies? Haha.

[FraGMarE]

Damn, Tom, that hi-color Megaman player sprite is some hot shit!  Who pixeled that???  ;)

Hey! I just mentioned you Your sprite work looks great. Up for redoing the enemies? Haha.

Hell yea i am! 

[TurboXray]

Create an account over at http://forum.pcedev.net . I have a private board for MM Turbo. I'll set you up with access once you create an account.

[saturndual32]

You are gonna improve the rest of the sprites, the backgrounds, and add a bit of parallax too?!, plus the cd soundtrack, no slowdown, and the most imoprtant thing, the NES versions gameplay/timeing ...this is so gonna kick the crap out of the Rockman 1 found on the Sega Genesis.  I hate that version so much, mainly due to the broken gameplay.
You rock Bonknuts!!!

[Tatsujin]

Saw this today: http://www.casimages.com/img.php?i=140131020139627363.jpg

 Pretty cool looking

yeah saw that too on FB somewhere. whats all about it?

[Tatsujin]

ok. dont bother, already got it

[deubeul]

As far as I know, he's not selling the Megaman one in the pic. That's his personal copy. As long as he's not selling a preloaded Megaman+label (which I'm ~pretty~ sure he isn't, from looking at the forum) - then I'm fine with it. People can make their own personal repros. People can make repro's for other people too, as long as there's no profit involved (including community pressings of anything I release for free. Do as you want, just don't pull a profit from it). As long as there's no profit involved, you can do whatever you want with said free stuffs/works.

I'm a member of this forum, the blank hucard has been created recently by someone who wants to put a french translated Neutopia on it. The member who did the Megaman hucard is a long long time cartmodder on many hardwares, and being able to make hucards was an old dream came true for him. Selling it is not his purpose and is even a joking subject in the thread.

[CrackTiger]

[deubeul]

What do you mean?

[FraGMarE]

Was dicking around with hi-color megaman tiles this morning and came up with this

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

[saturndual32]

Was dicking around with hi-color megaman tiles this morning and came up with this

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

That looks so sweet!!
I love all the improvements that are going to take place, but there is something, that maybe isnt necesary at all, but i will just throw it out there: Mega Man chiptunes taking advantage of the awesome PCE soundchip. Maybe having an option between CD tracks or the chiptunes. I know its a lot of extra work, hehe, but i have curiosity about how good they could sound.
This project is awesome!

[esteban]

Was dicking around with hi-color megaman tiles this morning and came up with this

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

That looks so sweet!!
I love all the improvements that are going to take place, but there is something, that maybe isnt necesary at all, but i will just throw it out there: Mega Man chiptunes taking advantage of the awesome PCE soundchip. Maybe having an option between CD tracks or the chiptunes. I know its a lot of extra work, hehe, but i have curiosity about how good they could sound.
This project is awesome!

Yes, I think many folks would love have both PSG and Red Book options...but I'll take whatever is given to me  .

[TurboXray]

Was dicking around with hi-color megaman tiles this morning and came up with this

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

That looks so sweet!!
I love all the improvements that are going to take place, but there is something, that maybe isnt necesary at all, but i will just throw it out there: Mega Man chiptunes taking advantage of the awesome PCE soundchip. Maybe having an option between CD tracks or the chiptunes. I know its a lot of extra work, hehe, but i have curiosity about how good they could sound.
This project is awesome!

That is on my option list. Especially since this is going to be both a hucard and SuperCD version (possibly ACD version as well, for cutting down on loading). I'll be replacing the NES music engine with a PCE one. But that's probably one of the last things I'll be working on. I'll need a chiptune artist, but I can't really go looking for one until I ready/at that point. Mostly, because I want to modify/design the sound engine around what the chiptune artist wants, feature wise.



 Fragmare, nice work. I'll be extending the number of 'tile' available for the BG. So more unique tiles. I also want to extend the length of the stages as bit. Also, did you log into the forums yet? I'm working on the enemies for Cutman's stage. I have one left to do (boss door guardian). They're just place holders for now, though. I'll post the place holder graphics on the site, so you have an idea of what I'm working on.


deubeul: That's what I gathered, from reading the forum (though french->english translators aren't the greatest yet). I love the white silk mark over the whole hucard - makes it look all fancy


 Off topic; I noticed that Megaman has a few bugs in the sprite handling routine. That is to say, some frames are not being shown in game - but the graphics are there. The 'Flea' enemy has three frames of animation in vram, but only two are shown via the sprite handler. The Wily Wars port shows all three. Like wise, some enemies have more frames of animation - but they don't exist in vram - so they point to redundant frames. I've been toying with the idea of adding a few extra frames here and there to enemies.

[OldRover]

I have an idea for chip music:

-Get a NSF rip of the original music
-Get nsf2midi and convert the tracks to MIDI
-Get 3MLE and convert the MIDI to MML
-Squirrelize it

I don't know if that would work but hey, it was an idea.

[FraGMarE]

Fragmare, nice work. I'll be extending the number of 'tile' available for the BG. So more unique tiles. I also want to extend the length of the stages as bit. Also, did you log into the forums yet? I'm working on the enemies for Cutman's stage. I have one left to do (boss door guardian). They're just place holders for now, though. I'll post the place holder graphics on the site, so you have an idea of what I'm working on.

Yea, I'm on the forums now.  Username fragmare.

As for extra tiles and extended stages, go for it.  I'm down to draw new ones.    Though, I'd say get the tile map 1:1 with the NES version first, then go from there.

Here's a little comparison pic btw.  left = NES, middle = Wily Wars, right = PC-Engine:

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02b.gif

Dare I say it?  The PCE version looks as good, if not better than, Wily Wars, while remaining more faithful to the NES original.

Edit: Tweaked sky/cloud colors for MAX NOSTALGIA  haha

[OldRover]

Yeah, I think it looks a bit better than Wily Wars. It's close, but better.

[esteban]

Yeah, I think it looks a bit better than Wily Wars. It's close, but better.

Agreed! 

[saturndual32]

Great idea to put them side by side, fragmare.

Judging from those pics, i like your sprite better than the Sega one. I particulary dont like the ears on the Sega sprite.

Having parallax was cool on Wily Wars, but i prefer the colors and artwork on your version, overall.
Man, it looks so much better than the NES version, its not even funny. Make me wonder what a Rockman game, written from scratch to take full advantage of the PCE, would look like.

As it is, you guys sure are kicking ass!. Keep it up!

[NightWolve]

Here's a little comparison pic btw.  left = NES, middle = Wily Wars, right = PC-Engine:
fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02b.gif

Dare I say it?  The PCE version looks as good, if not better than, Wily Wars, while remaining more faithful to the NES original.

Hey, that's fantastic! I might just have to give the game a whole playthrough when you guys are finished. I think the CD version is the most appealing. It's nice to know a HuCard version will be available though if one wanted to play it on a TurboExpress with TurboEverdrive, etc.

[FraGMarE]

One thing I'll say about the Wily Wars version of the Cutman stage... IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE INDOORS!  At least i never got that impression playing the original NES game.  I made mine outdoors, the way it should be! 

[OldMan]

Very nice, Tom. I've been using the old build to test the Ab cards; maybe it's time to upgrade (BTW, I suck at the game.) Does it still fit in 512K?

For those of you asking about cards, get together and make a plan. The circuit layout is dead easy, getting the physical boards made isn't too expensive, and the EPROM chips are about $5 each (you need parallel ones). Find people who can solder small chips, and a few folks with eeprom programmers (yes, I have one), and we could do it. Just need someone to oversee it all.

Tom: Sorry to hear about the concussion.  I'm like that when I don't get enough sleep. Here's hoping work doesn't interfere quite so much until you get done with this

Keep up the good work. We're rooting for your.
Saw your post on the ipl palette problems. I had to laugh at that - it's almost as bad as the one in the irq routine [save A,X,Y and restore them. But not the flags register? What if the irq occurs in the middle of a cmp / branch pair? ]

[TurboXray]

I have an idea for chip music:

-Get a NSF rip of the original music
-Get nsf2midi and convert the tracks to MIDI
-Get 3MLE and convert the MIDI to MML
-Squirrelize it

I don't know if that would work but hey, it was an idea.

I didn't know they had nsf2midi. When the time comes, I'll take a look at Squirrel. I need to see the foot print size of it (rom, ram, and cpu resource). I'll be doing DDA sample playback too. Will I have to tack that on myself?

One thing I'll say about the Wily Wars version of the Cutman stage... IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE INDOORS!  At least i never got that impression playing the original NES game.  I made mine outdoors, the way it should be! 

That kind of bug'd me too, about Cutman's level in Wily Wars. I can understand maybe a section or two, but not the whole level. I like the PCE pic you posted. Them clouds is gonna scroll parallax style (they'll be sprites). If I have enough cpu resource (which I should now, games even faster with the new larger sprites), I'm gonna do BG color #0 gradients too. Not enough TG/PCE games do that (Magical Chase might be the only one).

 

Very nice, Tom. I've been using the old build to test the Ab cards; maybe it's time to upgrade (BTW, I suck at the game.) Does it still fit in 512K?

For those of you asking about cards, get together and make a plan. The circuit layout is dead easy, getting the physical boards made isn't too expensive, and the EPROM chips are about $5 each (you need parallel ones). Find people who can solder small chips, and a few folks with eeprom programmers (yes, I have one), and we could do it. Just need someone to oversee it all.

Tom: Sorry to hear about the concussion.  I'm like that when I don't get enough sleep. Here's hoping work doesn't interfere quite so much until you get done with this

Keep up the good work. We're rooting for your.
Saw your post on the ipl palette problems. I had to laugh at that - it's almost as bad as the one in the irq routine [save A,X,Y and restore them. But not the flags register? What if the irq occurs in the middle of a cmp / branch pair? ]

Hah! That's cool. Yeah, the new hucard version out (has easy mode), should be 512k (I padded it to that, it's actually closer to 300k).

 I've been bugging my brother to make a 3 piece hucard mold. He's keeps buying all this new equipment for his machine shop, but I have yet to receive any mold :/ I had no plans to mass produce any hucards, but I did want to make a few by hand (plastic injection mold). If only to say, Hey - I made a hucard. Lol. I forget off hand, but I think the PCB needed to be 0.30 of an inch thick, along with a surface mount low profile eeprom, to be glued onto the plastic (though I'm sure that's a major patent infringement on the original hucard). Something like that. Tooling is usually expensive. At least that part I can get for free. It's low priority though; I have nothing to sell/put out on hucard at the moment. I am just stoked to see others making hucards though.

 Yeah, concussions suck. Never had one with side effects that lasted a couple of days. There's first time for everything. Technically, we (myself and the other trades) should be wearing hard hats, but you know how that goes. Of course, we should be wearing harness straps too, for the lifts. OSHA would have field, if they ever visited some of these construction jobs.

 Yeah, that IPL bug tripped me up. Makes me wonder what other bugs are in the system card lib >_>

[FraGMarE]

If I have enough cpu resource (which I should now, games even faster with the new larger sprites), I'm gonna do BG color #0 gradients too. Not enough TG/PCE games do that (Magical Chase might be the only one).

Updated the GIF to show a bg color 0 gradient    Is this something like what you had in mind?

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

[Nando]

If I have enough cpu resource (which I should now, games even faster with the new larger sprites), I'm gonna do BG color #0 gradients too. Not enough TG/PCE games do that (Magical Chase might be the only one).

Updated the GIF to show a bg color 0 gradient    Is this something like what you had in mind?

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

my Cross Wiber is getting jealous! Love the MM sprite!

[TurboXray]

I want to add two more Robot masters/levels in the game. And no, I don't want to add the ones from Powered Up. This is Megaman: Turbo'd Up - we need specific new robot masters to the turbo version ;)

[Nando]

This is Megaman: Turbo'd Up - we need specific new robot masters to the turbo version ;)

That would be DOPE!

[ParanoiaDragon]

One thing I'll say about the Wily Wars version of the Cutman stage... IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE INDOORS!  At least i never got that impression playing the original NES game.  I made mine outdoors, the way it should be! 

YES YES YES!  The indoors thing always irritated me, let Mega Man breathe dammit!

[GohanX]

For those of you asking about cards, get together and make a plan. The circuit layout is dead easy, getting the physical boards made isn't too expensive, and the EPROM chips are about $5 each (you need parallel ones). Find people who can solder small chips, and a few folks with eeprom programmers (yes, I have one), and we could do it. Just need someone to oversee it all.

What kind of eprom would this take? If it works with my burner I could crank some out.

[PukeSter]

A little far ahead, but some questions.

1. Would the HuCard version be Japan region or US region? Hopefully Japan?
2. Any idea of cost?
3. If successful, would future projects like up-porting Megaman 2 or Contra be possible?

[esteban]

This is Megaman: Turbo'd Up - we need specific new robot masters to the turbo version ;)

That would be DOPE!

Well, to pay respect (homage) to the legacy of TG-16/PCE bastards, we could borrow the mighty HuMAN from Wonderboy (a la Turbo) as a possible boss.

Then, of course, we go with a game that is completely exclusive to the PCE/TG-16 library:

GOMOLA MAN
JAGU MAN
PAC MAN
ROM RAM

[NightWolve]

Well, to pay respect (homage) to the legacy of TG-16/PCE bastards, we could borrow the mighty HuMAN from Wonderboy (a la Turbo) as a possible boss.

Then, of course, we go with a game that is completely exclusive to the PCE/TG-16 library:

GOMOLA MAN
JAGU MAN
PAC MAN
ROM RAM

We need a basic, Facebook-similar "Like" feature for posts just like these.

[Nando]

RondoMAN! lol

[megatron-uk]

Bonk-man?
Soldier-man?

[Nando]

Beraboh-Man ;)

[spenoza]

CD-ROMROM Man. He could be a little Metal Man-ish and throw CDs with 8-way aiming. Bomberman with a CD for a head.

[Psycho Punch]

I'm not sure why we're having trouble getting someone to do HuCards of the game, wasn't Arkhan making some for his Deep Blue II game? I think he's the best option right now?

[Keith Courage]

In my opinion the CD music sounds better anyways. No need for a hucard.

[TurboXray]

In my opinion the CD music sounds better anyways. No need for a hucard.

Some people refuse to play CD-Rs on their systems. And unless there's a community pressing for this (non-profit), I don't see any way around that.

[Psycho Punch]

Besides, what kind of shady operation would let you press a disc without showing a shit ton of copyright related documents for the data + each audio track anyway?

I still don't know how they pressed those 1:1 copies of Sapphire.

[NightWolve]

In my opinion the CD music sounds better anyways. No need for a hucard.

There is a benefit to others (besides novelty to the producer), you'd be able to play MegaMan on your TurboExpress with it or a flashcart (TurboEverdrive). Since he also ported Contra, Castlevania, etc. those would also be purty cool to fire up on the ole Express some time.

[ParanoiaDragon]

2 obvious ones:
Bomber Man
Shock Man

Some others:
(Impossa)Mole Man
Bro' Man
(Bloody) Wolf Man
Proto Man(not Turbo related, but worth mentioning!)-his power could provide a shield?
Chew Man (Fu)
Kabuki Man

[TurboXray]

2 obvious ones:
Bomber Man
Shock Man

Some others:
(Impossa)Mole Man
Bro' Man
(Bloody) Wolf Man
Proto Man(not Turbo related, but worth mentioning!)-his power could provide a shield?
Chew Man (Fu)
Kabuki Man

Lol, he'll throw a boomerang at you and disable your gun arm. You'll have to knife fight it out!

[esteban]

KNIFE FIGHT!

[OldMan]

I'll take a look at Squirrel. I need to see the foot print size of it (rom, ram, and cpu resource).

Squirrel is just the compiler. The asm stuff is a lightly modified version of the cd bios player (so we can test it on card images). 8K for code, 2x8K for music.  You could shrink the bios code by 1/2 with a little thought - it repeats entire sections for sound effects. IIRC, that's one of the first checks it does, and then calls one of two versions of practically the same code. Never understood why, but it works.
BTW: if your player uses the mml codes that bios uses (as listed in the psg driver section of the docs), then squirrel should be able to convert for you. Though it would need modified to support additional codes for DDA, etc. I think there are a few left open.

What kind of eprom would this take?

Don't remember off hand the chip number, but it's a 512K byte parallel 90ms chip that we use. You might be able to go 1Mbyte, but I'm not sure; possibly it may cause bus conflicts.
Trick is, you need a way to burn smd chips - which in most cases means some kind of adapter.
They are easy to make, but finding the socket for a HuCard is a pain. Been watching the progress on
reproducing the socket (the guy making the converter is doing it), so it should be possible.
FWIW: we burn the cards after assembly. Easier than trying to handle the small chip.

Would the HuCard version be Japan region or US region? Hopefully Japan?

Depends on how it's burned. Easy to flip the bits in the image to run on a Japaneese system.
Cost would depend on how many were made; money would be needed up-front to buy parts.

I'm not sure why we're having trouble getting someone to do HuCards of the game, wasn't Arkhan making some for his Deep Blue II game?

We still are. But we are not taking the risk of releasing a hacked game still under copyright.
Might consider selling empty cards, though. But not in mass quantities - they are too much of a pain to assemble.

Honestly, though, if you can live with the exposed chip, that card design would be easier to produce. Use thick pc board, solder on a chip, round the corners and bevel the front edge and  there it is. And if you don't like the exposed chip, design/make a cover for it. Won't look like a real HuCard, but it would work.

+1 for bomber man as a boss. He can use the cut-man logic, and throw bombs instead of boomerangs

[touko]

Updated the GIF to show a bg color 0 gradient    Is this something like what you had in mind?

fragmare.mindrec.com/megaman02.gif

wahoo, this pic is beautiful, i like it,the original in comparison looks washed out.

[Nando]

Um BOMBER-MAN!!!