Perhaps it uses a proprietary control set-up to further combat the possibility of illegally obtaining the ROM. Like maybe he made it so that it actually uses a power pad to be controlled, as that has a load of buttons.
The best option would be to stick the controller reading right in the midde of the code, and make sure the entire 16KB bank filled, and then make the controller reading two custom registers via emu and then just do two LDA/STA's. Leaving a completely in tact controller reading code in the game would take any hacker who isn't retarded 10 minutes to hack up to work with a normal controller.
I'd love to get a crack at that as it looks fun to see the old NES game that never was. I'm not so sure I'd buy the big game, but at $10 it's not like it's a wallet killer either but I could never even attempt to hack up a copy of the 8bit title annoyingly.
You know, looking at RCR and then a majority of the NES library, it's easy to see that not many NES games were honestly very good. Most were either 5 minutes in total length and had (justly) archaic design choices, such as the oddball 1-hour game not having any method of keeping track of progress (Mario 3, anyone?).
Additionally, while impressive, it would've been neat if it was a %45 accurate port, such as being able to have that gorilla running through cars or those very nice looking tanks. Of course, the WiiWare game looks very cluttered in how everything is laid out, so you cut down the objects to a more logical number.
Essentially, most of the good things about the game while dropping most of the redundant stuff. Honestly, I could care less about the arcade or the cameos from overrated indie games such as Meat Boy or Minecraft Steve, much less playing Bit Runner. Oh, and the title screen is really nice looking in RCR, so maybe that too.
Some guy tried to run it in FCEUX, but all they got was blocky rectangles for graphics. So it seems they've already extracted the PRG data. Next they need to find the CHR data, which shouldn't be very hard. Obviously, alternate input registers or a scrambled PPU would make a half-assed attempt at copy protection; the NES unisystem used those methods and BunnyBoy "fixed" the ROMs back so they'd play on a real repro cart with DIP switches. Anybody know what mapper the prototype ROM used? I'd imagine MMC3 would be a good choice as many of the best games in the NES library were MMC3 games.
I remember that this used an MMC5, which explains the more detailed background graphics. Additionally, MMC5 allowed for much more in memory, though it's still not very much (8 Megabits, or 1 Megabyte, give or take).
^How many NES games do I have that I've paid more than ten bucks for and have never played?
Tons
True, but when I walk into my game room and see a wall full of games, I remember I have them and can play them. When I turned on my wii, I had games downloaded I did not even remember downloading or playing.
Guess it goes back to that whole physical cart vs. virtual download debate. If I see it daily, I remember it.
Welp, figured it out, you do NOT need the steam version for this to work, PC download works fine also. So now I got all this steam crap, that I will never use for no reason, ug.
Also, The buttons are not a problem, the controls were just different, select took the place of one of the 4 buttons on my joystick.
I will see if I can get it to work on a powerpak tomorrow!
^I'm sure it's awesome, I just have hundreds of other games on my backlog! I prefer console gaming, for Retro City Rampage, it's one of the few exceptions
Terraria is great but I put Retro City Rampage over Terraria if for nothing more than the lack of DRM. Running steam is needless and it pings back and forth constantly. Ugh.
I bought a copy earlier, love the game. I suggest everyone buys it direct from the devs site vs steam or GOG.
Ok, so, someone ripped the proto rom already and here's what I've heard;
1. No sound
2. Uses MMC5 (expensive donor / rare at times)
3. Limited gameplay, consists of driving around / shooting stuff.
4. Misc. graphics problems when entering / exiting cars
For the record I don't have the rom, won't name who does, and will never put this on a cart. If the dev signs a deal with RetroUSB, put me down for at LEAST 2 copies.
However I advise anyone interested in making a cart out of this to not do it. It will work on powerpak if you take the time to buy the game and find the method of extraction, it'll work within reason.
However out of respect for the author I request you play it in game on the emulator and just email them encouraging a legacy release in time.
No sound sucks. The soundtrack to this game is awesome btw. I'll definitely be getting this on Wii and PS3. Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, here's the million dollar question: Is the prototype ROM actually worth playing?
Definitely would rather play this, than say... Urban Champion.
Pretty cool that it could be pulled off on NES hardware. I don't think the rom is worth playing within the PC version of RetroCityRampage.
When I'm playing my NES however, and have the urge to run people over and shoot stuff up, I might pop in my powerpak to play it. (provided I get it to work on the powerpak). ... So I think it is worth playing on a NES just for the cool factor.
I'd agree with Taco on all those points, the graphics glitch, if there is one, didn't seem too troublesome to me.
Lack of sound is a huge downer. Not sure why he didn't put it in there, seeing how he already had it done?
Lack of sound is a huge downer. Not sure why he didn't put it in there, seeing how he already had it done?
Who said there was ever sound in the NES prototype?
Unless you mean "already had it done" for RCR, in which case, you can't just drag and drop music into a NES game like it's an MP3 file. Playing music eats up a lot of memory that might be otherwise used for the frankly miraculous tricks the prototype is already pulling off.
He basically said he never got around to adding the sound in
Yeah, sorry, I didn't explain very well, I just wanted to make it clear (as any developer here would surely be able to tell you) that it's really not a trivial matter to just pop it in there. Converting it to a format that the NES can play is the easiest part, actually getting it to play while the game is doing all of the crazy stuff it's already doing is the hard part. That playback eats up a lot of memory. I wouldn't be surprised if Brian could pull it off, but I'm sure he left it out for a good reason.
He basically said he never got around to adding the sound in
Yeah, sorry, I didn't explain very well, I just wanted to make it clear (as any developer here would surely be able to tell you) that it's really not a trivial matter to just pop it in there. Converting it to a format that the NES can play is the easiest part, actually getting it to play while the game is doing all of the crazy stuff it's already doing is the hard part. That playback eats up a lot of memory. I wouldn't be surprised if Brian could pull it off, but I'm sure he left it out for a good reason.
If by memory you mean ram, thats not even that big of a deal. It's mostly that it eats into game logic time, and considering the game was already running a low frame rate, he probably didnt have that much.
On top of that, the tunes in the full release seem to use a lot of dpcm, which would've cost a lot of rom memory, and probably wouldn't have been composed like that if the target system was stil nes. (altough technically yes, those tunes are fully possible to play on nes)
I wonder if there will be a "derivative" homebrew of Retro City Rampage that incorporates most of the feasible ideas, similar to how "I wanna soar to the Skies", or whatever it is called, is derived from "VVVVVV" or how "Battle Kid" is derived from "I wanna be the Guy"? Then again, RCR is essentially a spiritual successor to the GBC GTA games, only gimmick it really has is the "muh 80's culture" throwback theme.
I just got this for the DS, and I love it. It is a great playing game, with tons of 80s/90s references. I wish someone would make a nes repro of it.
It's been done already. There is a prototype ROM of retrocity Rampage floating around, MMC5 but with no sound, and the awesome chiptunes are totally absent. The game engine was so powerful there was no room left in the ROM or RAM to continue development or add audio. It started off as an NES homebrew, then the game got too big and it went mainstream. Nintendo barred the developer from releasing the NES version and the original blog site was pulled from the internet. You may be able to stil find it on archive.org. Either way there was a real proto ROM at some point, burned onto a real NES cart, that either got dumped or leaked. You can play it as an easter egg on the Wii version or search the internetz.
I have no idea if it runs on currently available PowerPak mappers. MMC5 support is spotty at best. To date it's the ony homebrew I know of that uses MMC5.
Completely wrong, there is tons of ROM and plenty of spare CPU left in the demo. He just realized a modern game would be a paycheck instead of a hobby.
And yes it does run on the PowerPak, bripro tested it before the release
It's kind of make your own when it comes to getting it on cart.
Off limits to actually sell, since the author never really distributed the rom or gave the ok, (he embedded it into the game and people pirated/extracted it out)
Comments
It uses more than the A and B button, so I'm not quite sure how you would play it on a NES hypothetically.
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,15982.msg236798.html#msg236798
I went with GOG, so am not sure I can still get the steam version which is required for that particular extraction method.
If anyone gets this to work, let me know
Additionally, while impressive, it would've been neat if it was a %45 accurate port, such as being able to have that gorilla running through cars or those very nice looking tanks. Of course, the WiiWare game looks very cluttered in how everything is laid out, so you cut down the objects to a more logical number.
Essentially, most of the good things about the game while dropping most of the redundant stuff. Honestly, I could care less about the arcade or the cameos from overrated indie games such as Meat Boy or Minecraft Steve, much less playing Bit Runner. Oh, and the title screen is really nice looking in RCR, so maybe that too.
Someone over at ROMHacking has detailed how to extract the ROM and run it in an emulator. I have no idea if this works though...
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,15982.m...
Some guy tried to run it in FCEUX, but all they got was blocky rectangles for graphics. So it seems they've already extracted the PRG data. Next they need to find the CHR data, which shouldn't be very hard. Obviously, alternate input registers or a scrambled PPU would make a half-assed attempt at copy protection; the NES unisystem used those methods and BunnyBoy "fixed" the ROMs back so they'd play on a real repro cart with DIP switches. Anybody know what mapper the prototype ROM used? I'd imagine MMC3 would be a good choice as many of the best games in the NES library were MMC3 games.
(I heard reports it works on a powerpak with loopy's unfinished mmc5 mapper)
Originally posted by: JD
^How many NES games do I have that I've paid more than ten bucks for and have never played?
Tons
True, but when I walk into my game room and see a wall full of games, I remember I have them and can play them. When I turned on my wii, I had games downloaded I did not even remember downloading or playing.
Guess it goes back to that whole physical cart vs. virtual download debate. If I see it daily, I remember it.
Also, The buttons are not a problem, the controls were just different, select took the place of one of the 4 buttons on my joystick.
I will see if I can get it to work on a powerpak tomorrow!
I bought a copy earlier, love the game. I suggest everyone buys it direct from the devs site vs steam or GOG.
Ok, so, someone ripped the proto rom already and here's what I've heard;
1. No sound
2. Uses MMC5 (expensive donor / rare at times)
3. Limited gameplay, consists of driving around / shooting stuff.
4. Misc. graphics problems when entering / exiting cars
For the record I don't have the rom, won't name who does, and will never put this on a cart. If the dev signs a deal with RetroUSB, put me down for at LEAST 2 copies.
However I advise anyone interested in making a cart out of this to not do it. It will work on powerpak if you take the time to buy the game and find the method of extraction, it'll work within reason.
However out of respect for the author I request you play it in game on the emulator and just email them encouraging a legacy release in time.
As a fun little demo that showcases the game's history and a fun little oddity - yes
It's not really a game though, so for actually playing - no
Pretty cool that it could be pulled off on NES hardware. I don't think the rom is worth playing within the PC version of RetroCityRampage.
When I'm playing my NES however, and have the urge to run people over and shoot stuff up, I might pop in my powerpak to play it. (provided I get it to work on the powerpak). ... So I think it is worth playing on a NES just for the cool factor.
I'd agree with Taco on all those points, the graphics glitch, if there is one, didn't seem too troublesome to me.
Lack of sound is a huge downer. Not sure why he didn't put it in there, seeing how he already had it done?
Originally posted by: JD
Lack of sound is a huge downer. Not sure why he didn't put it in there, seeing how he already had it done?
Who said there was ever sound in the NES prototype?
Unless you mean "already had it done" for RCR, in which case, you can't just drag and drop music into a NES game like it's an MP3 file. Playing music eats up a lot of memory that might be otherwise used for the frankly miraculous tricks the prototype is already pulling off.
He basically said he never got around to adding the sound in
Originally posted by: JD
^ He converted it to NES sound in the video
He basically said he never got around to adding the sound in
Yeah, sorry, I didn't explain very well, I just wanted to make it clear (as any developer here would surely be able to tell you) that it's really not a trivial matter to just pop it in there. Converting it to a format that the NES can play is the easiest part, actually getting it to play while the game is doing all of the crazy stuff it's already doing is the hard part. That playback eats up a lot of memory. I wouldn't be surprised if Brian could pull it off, but I'm sure he left it out for a good reason.
Started with the 1.35b2 mappers, added in loopys mappers, then added the experimental MMC5 mapper.
Originally posted by: TheRedEye
Originally posted by: JD
^ He converted it to NES sound in the video
He basically said he never got around to adding the sound in
Yeah, sorry, I didn't explain very well, I just wanted to make it clear (as any developer here would surely be able to tell you) that it's really not a trivial matter to just pop it in there. Converting it to a format that the NES can play is the easiest part, actually getting it to play while the game is doing all of the crazy stuff it's already doing is the hard part. That playback eats up a lot of memory. I wouldn't be surprised if Brian could pull it off, but I'm sure he left it out for a good reason.
If by memory you mean ram, thats not even that big of a deal. It's mostly that it eats into game logic time, and considering the game was already running a low frame rate, he probably didnt have that much.
On top of that, the tunes in the full release seem to use a lot of dpcm, which would've cost a lot of rom memory, and probably wouldn't have been composed like that if the target system was stil nes. (altough technically yes, those tunes are fully possible to play on nes)
^^^^^^^^^^But i love cats!!!!^^^^^^^^^^
I just got this for the DS, and I love it. It is a great playing game, with tons of 80s/90s references. I wish someone would make a nes repro of it.
Originally posted by: MrWunderful
^^^^^^^^^^But i love cats!!!!^^^^^^^^^^
I just got this for the DS, and I love it. It is a great playing game, with tons of 80s/90s references. I wish someone would make a nes repro of it.
It's been done already. There is a prototype ROM of retrocity Rampage floating around, MMC5 but with no sound, and the awesome chiptunes are totally absent. The game engine was so powerful there was no room left in the ROM or RAM to continue development or add audio. It started off as an NES homebrew, then the game got too big and it went mainstream. Nintendo barred the developer from releasing the NES version and the original blog site was pulled from the internet. You may be able to stil find it on archive.org. Either way there was a real proto ROM at some point, burned onto a real NES cart, that either got dumped or leaked. You can play it as an easter egg on the Wii version or search the internetz.
I have no idea if it runs on currently available PowerPak mappers. MMC5 support is spotty at best. To date it's the ony homebrew I know of that uses MMC5.
And yes it does run on the PowerPak, bripro tested it before the release
Off limits to actually sell, since the author never really distributed the rom or gave the ok, (he embedded it into the game and people pirated/extracted it out)