Plextona SNES

A place where you can keep others updated about your SNES-related projects through screenshots, videos or information in general.

Moderator: Moderators

Erockbrox
Posts: 397
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:16 pm

Plextona SNES

Post by Erockbrox »

Hi, guys I just wanted to show you what I've been working on recently. This is a game for the SNES which I have named Plextona. In the game you control a ninja who explores dungeons and is on an adventure. The will progress similar to how Doom on the SNES works. Once you complete a level you move onto another area not being able to return to the previous area.

Image

Now, believe it or not this is actually a Super Mario World rom hack. Keep in mind that while I would like to create homebrew SNES games, I lack the knowledge to create an SNES game from scratch. I consider myself a game designer rather than a programmer, however I will be working towards being more proficient in programming as I continue to work on the project.

I like the idea & challenge of turning a 2D platforming game into an overhead style Zelda like game. Also all of the artwork seen in the gif is original and not lifted from other games. Since it cost money to hire artists for new artwork I am considering taking donations to help fund the project.

So if you would like to see more progress on this game and support this project donations can be made by my palpay e-mail erockbrox(at)yahoo(dot)com. The game will be released as a patch and will be free to play by anyone.
User avatar
dougeff
Posts: 3079
Joined: Fri May 08, 2015 7:17 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by dougeff »

I was excited until I read "Super Mario World rom hack"... Like, hey someone new programming SNES games...oh never mind. Cool though.

I've played around with Lunar Magic, but I agree... looking at the SMW disassembly is like looking at Chinese...or maybe Russian, since I know what the basic ASM symbols mean.
nesdoug.com -- blog/tutorial on programming for the NES
niconii
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:56 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by niconii »

Erockbrox wrote:Now, believe it or not this is actually a Super Mario World rom hack. Keep in mind that while I would like to create homebrew SNES games, I lack the knowledge to create an SNES game from scratch.
I mean, it's probably way less work than you think, if it's this radically different from SMW already. How much SMW code are you actually using?
User avatar
tokumaru
Posts: 12427
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:43 pm
Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by tokumaru »

I've always found that reverse engineering other people's code and coming up with ways to modify it and have it do things it wasn't originally designed to do was much harder than just designing what I actually wanted from the ground up.
creaothceann
Posts: 611
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:47 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by creaothceann »

Why not using Zelda? (Genuinely curious, don't know the difference in tools/docs availability for SMW and Zelda)
My current setup:
Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-GPM-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10
User avatar
HihiDanni
Posts: 186
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:25 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by HihiDanni »

I'm starting to sound like a broken record at this point, but this is what I mean when I say we need more engines and tools for homebrew dev. In any case, don't sweat it too much. If you keep your code separate from the underlying SMW base you should be able to more easily port your game over to an original base, if you decide to do so. Either way, we could always use more homebrew.
SNES NTSC 2/1/3 1CHIP | serial number UN318588627
User avatar
Drew Sebastino
Formerly Espozo
Posts: 3496
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2014 4:35 pm
Location: Richmond, Virginia

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by Drew Sebastino »

dougeff wrote:I was excited until I read "Super Mario World rom hack"... Like, hey someone new programming SNES games...oh never mind. Cool though.
Agreed. :|
HihiDanni wrote:this is what I mean when I say we need more engines and tools for homebrew dev.
I'm still (sort of) trying to work on it. :lol:
tepples
Posts: 22708
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by tepples »

Once you get it playable, one of us might help you port it to an original codebase.

This isn't intended as an insult, but the graphics you have look NES. It's fine to prototype your game on a more powerful platform even if you'll be underusing its graphics. But don't be surprised if someone offers to demake it for the actual release losing little or nothing. That's how STREEMERZ from the first Action 53 was made: Mr. Podunkian prototyped it in some environment that compiles to Flash and then thefox ported it to NES.
User avatar
HihiDanni
Posts: 186
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:25 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by HihiDanni »

I quite like the graphics myself. I don't suspect it would take a lot of effort to add one or two more shades. I think they're at a pretty good starting point.
SNES NTSC 2/1/3 1CHIP | serial number UN318588627
psycopathicteen
Posts: 3140
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 6:12 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by psycopathicteen »

What's hilarious about smwcentral is how much they are afraid of slowdown when none of the stuff they do is CPU intense in the first place.
User avatar
nicklausw
Posts: 376
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:58 pm
Location: ...
Contact:

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by nicklausw »

dougeff wrote:I was excited until I read "Super Mario World rom hack"... Like, hey someone new programming SNES games...oh never mind. Cool though.
Can't say I agree with you on that, I think modifying the internals of an existing platformer game engine to make a top-down game is very impressive and certainly counts as programming a SNES game. It's arguably more work than starting from scratch, depending on the resources you have.
User avatar
HihiDanni
Posts: 186
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:25 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by HihiDanni »

psycopathicteen wrote:What's hilarious about smwcentral is how much they are afraid of slowdown when none of the stuff they do is CPU intense in the first place.
It really depends on how much work you're already doing each frame. I was told once that the score counter can lag the game because it's updated every frame even when the vast majority of frames the counter isn't going to change as a result of it.

That might be misleading - it's not the score counter itself that is the sole cause of lag, but the cumulative processing of many small or large things every frame that reduces the amount of available CPU time enough that a few cheap operations are enough to break the camel's back.

In any case I imagine a lot of this stuff can be optimized or just removed entirely.
SNES NTSC 2/1/3 1CHIP | serial number UN318588627
User avatar
Myask
Posts: 965
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 3:04 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by Myask »

SMW's specifically converting the score, lives, and coins from binary to decimal, I infer (as ones digits don't matter…and the score lacks a ones digit); this is why zeros in it tend to lag the game less.

I don't know how, specifically, the game calculates the iris-to-black, but I expect it's the major expense that makes the comparatively minor alterable one of B2D go over the "lag-frame" time threshold.
User avatar
HihiDanni
Posts: 186
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:25 pm

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by HihiDanni »

The source seems to indicate that this is mostly a result of the score counter calculation and fadeout transition occurring simultaneously (at least in the vanilla game?). Shaped fades seem to lag a lot of games simply on the basis of having to calculate hundreds of values per frame. This is actually one of the areas I'd like to investigate with homebrew: implementing an HDMA window circle fade effect and trying to see how efficient I can make it.
SNES NTSC 2/1/3 1CHIP | serial number UN318588627
strat
Posts: 409
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:08 pm
Location: Missouri

Re: Plextona SNES

Post by strat »

believe it or not this is actually a Super Mario World rom hack
I've seen several SMW hacks and this has me scratching my head. Even hacks with new mechanics like Brutal Mario still keep the basic gameplay intact.
Post Reply