Graphics-hacking Aladdin (Hummer Team)

[Jedi QuestMaster]

I started this God knows how many years ago, and I finally want to come back to it.

So, many of us know that there is a pirate original release of Disney's (Capcom's) Aladdin for the Famicom, developed by Hummer Team.

Which is leagues ahead of Virgin's official European release.

To the Point:

Though the game plays well and looks beautiful for a pirated game, it could use polishing. For starters, here's the faces that appear in the password screen:



Up at the top are the SNES images, below are the NES, and in the middle are my own NES renderings. Easy stuff. But now the tricky part, the sprites:


Reason being, the tiles don't seem to be organized in any way that makes any sense. Regardless, I'm going to continue working on this. If anyone is willing to lend a hand, I'd appreciate it.

Here's the ips file of my progress so far (be sure to patch this to the version that says '1995 Copyright' not '1996':
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/820 ... din016.ips

Change list:
-edited faces on password screen
-replaced text: '1995 COPYRIGHT' to: '1993 CAPCOM' (probably should read '1995 HUMMER TEAM')
-replaced standing/jumping sprite
-faster 'glide' movement

[tokumaru]

Your edits are pretty good!

Back when I was starting to know the NES through emulation I used to really like these pirate games, because they proved that the platform could do more than was generally expected from it. Soon I realized that although impressive, these ports were very sloppy, but my fondness for good looking demakes remains.

[Drag]

It wouldn't surprise me if they had to copy the graphics off of a TV instead of having a raw CHR dump to look at.

[tepples]

Make him a bit shorter and give him a large white beret with spots on it.


Switched at birth?

[Macbee]

Excellent!
I also wanted to polish the graphics of this game (sort of what I'm doing to SMW on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfFmAOPr-kc) but never started. So I'm happy someone is doing it - and even happier to see it's being done right.

A question: I don't know how many different versions of this pirate Aladdin game exists but is your gfx mod compatible with the music hack (http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2107/)?
It would be perfect to apply both modifications to a single Rom. Thanks!

[Jedi QuestMaster]

Weren't you the one who did that New New New New New Mario Bros. hack? Anyway, I liked what you did with SMW. Would you like to help out? We can split the work.

As for the music hack, if I'm not mistaken, neither of the roms listed on that page are the '1995' version, which is what I'm working with. I don't know why Gigasoft chose the '1996' version, which has the music glitch. But I patched his hack on my hack and, aside from freezing once, it seems to work alright.

If the graphics hack can be patched to either version, then there shouldn't be a problem. I might make two versions of this patch, we'll see.

[FARID]

What is the difference between 1995 version and 1996 version?

Here it is :

Their PRG matches each other perfectly!

And here is the CHR difference :

Aladdin 4 (1995) (Unl) [!].nes


Aladdin 4 (1996) (Unl) [!].nes


In 1996 version they changed number "5" to "6" so that they made a new version for new year!

[OneCrudeDude]

You serious? As opposed to changing a single hexadecimal value? Talk about lazy!

[tepples]

The year in a copyright notice is supposed to represent the year of first publication. If it was originally planned for a 1995 release then pushed off to a 1996 release, they might not have wanted to destroy all their PRG ROMs.

[tokumaru]

they might not have wanted to destroy all their PRG ROMs.

So they opted to destroy all their CHR-ROMs instead?

[OneCrudeDude]

Also, I'd make a video demonstrating the music hack, but the game controls quite weird. Aladdin doesn't run at full speed immediately, meaning you'd have to make a 'running jump' on many short platforms, which can either make you fall off said platform, or jump when you're moving slowly, missing the platform entirely. Attacking and jumping seem to have been reversed, too.

[Sik]

The year in a copyright notice is supposed to represent the year of first publication. If it was originally planned for a 1995 release then pushed off to a 1996 release, they might not have wanted to destroy all their PRG ROMs.

Assuming they even had any remote idea of how copyright notices work in the first place...

[Jedi QuestMaster]

Aladdin 4 (1995) (Unl) [!].nes

I looked into that version, and that's not the one I have either!

Does GoodNES have this game listed? I can't find the specific version that I have.

the game controls quite weird. Aladdin doesn't run at full speed immediately, meaning you'd have to make a 'running jump' on many short platforms, which can either make you fall off said platform, or jump when you're moving slowly, missing the platform entirely. Attacking and jumping seem to have been reversed, too.

Apparently the 45-in-1 version (according to this page) reverses the controls.





I've found the next sprite tiles I want to change, and this is what I have to work with:

I'll be replacing it with this:

[OneCrudeDude]

It apparently also uses the Somari engine, which explains why Aladdin has to 'build up speed' before he moves at his intended speed. Perhaps you could make it so that he always moves at 'full speed', because it makes a lot of jumps annoying, and I'm certain Aladdin moved at a constant speed in the SNES game.

[Sik]

Or just make him accelerate fast enough that it isn't an issue anymore (and it feels smooth as a bonus).

Also probably "un"reversing the controls (so A = jump) would be nice, although I guess this is a CHR-ROM only hack?