Gradius III FastROM hack slightly broken: can't access Arcade mode

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93143
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2014 9:31 pm

Gradius III FastROM hack slightly broken: can't access Arcade mode

Post by 93143 »

I've been checking out a WIP FastROM hack of Gradius III that reduces slowdown without using the SA-1 (so it works on a Super Everdrive). I believe it's slidelljohn's hack with contributions by psycopathicteen and others. It's really quite nice; large swaths of the game seem to be slowdown-free, and the gameplay is substantially more hectic (Crystal Core seems to run at at 60 fps if you're far enough below full power, and it's pretty nuts).

The thing is, when you beat Hard mode, it tells you to press A 16 times a second in the options menu to enable Arcade mode. In the original game it's not that tough, but it doesn't seem to work in the hack.

This appears to be due to slowdown in the options menu. In the hack, the scrolling stars and blinking text are twice as fast as in the original game. As a result, it seems you have to actually be Takahashi Meijin to activate Arcade mode. Perhaps a workaround might be in order...
93143
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2014 9:31 pm

Re: Gradius III FastROM hack slightly broken: can't access Arcade mode

Post by 93143 »

It appears there is at least one actual bug, beyond what I describe above. The Force Field powerup doesn't work properly - it seems to just take phantom hits until it's gone. This happens fairly quickly (on the order of a second or so), making the powerup entirely useless.

I know this hack is a work in progress, but I think this stuff should be known by the maintainers. I don't personally have the time right now to familiarize myself with the codebase and figure out what's going on here.

Should I be reporting this on romhacking.net?
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