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Topic: New to romhacking, couple of "newbie" questions about SMB (Read 2 times)
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RetroHacker
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« on: January 18, 2009, 12:14:48 pm » |
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I stumbled across various amazing hacks of Super Mario Bros, and I've been enjoying playing with them. "Strange Mario Bros" is great fun, and "Extra Mario Bros." is amazing.
This has, of course, introduced me to .ips files. Now, patch files and patch utilities I understand, but .ips doesn't seem to do any sort of "checking" of the target file before it patches it. Couple that with the fact that there are dozens of dumps of Super Mario Bros. out there, and you get some weird stuff.
I first tried "Super Mario Bros. (E)", which I assumed to be "English", but it really must be "European". It runs too fast, must be meant for 50hz PAL. Patches don't work at all well.
"Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG0) [!]", seems to have worked the best of the ones I found, but both Extra Mario Bros. and Strange Mario Bros. exhibit strange glitches in the beginning. Strange Mario Bros' title screen is messed up, while the game plays OK, with occasional glitches. Extra Mario Bros. seems to work just fine, but the music on the first stage, first life is wrong. Die, and it plays fine on your next life.
So, before I start trying to do some hacking of my own, is there a "One true dump", of SMB1 out there that people are starting from? The MD5 of the one I have had the most success with is:
MD5 (Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG0) [!].nes) = 811b027eaf99c2def7b933c5208636de
I even burned Strange Mario Bros. to EPROMs and put them in a cartridge, the title screen corruption and such are not emulator artifacts.
Here's my MD5 of Extra Mario Bros. after patching:
MD5 (extramario.nes) = 08dc4066f8df3ce25d3b907f84bfc0ba
Can anyone compare these and let me know if they are correct or not?
Thanks!
-Ian
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Black_Phantom
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« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2009, 12:28:23 pm » |
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I don't know for sure here but it's usually safe to assume that if it's got a (U) or a (UE) and maybe a '[!]' in the title somewhere then it's alright. Unless there's a readme saying otherwise or it's a translation or something.
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InVerse
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« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2009, 12:38:19 pm » |
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I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but you might also want to try "Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG1).nes". As I understand it, PRG is the ROM that contains the actual code for the game (as opposed to CHR which contains the graphics). The higher the number, the more recent the revisions to the PRG, newer versions presumably fixing bugs. (I'm pretty sure I patched Extra Mario Bros to the PRG1 version and didn't notice any problems.)
(E) does stand for European, (U) is for United States and (J) is for Japan. This signifies which region the game was originally released in and doesn't necessarily correspond with the language the game is in. The [!] means that it is a confirmed dump, that someone with a copier redumped a game and it matched up to the ROM previous available. I don't seem to have a confirmed dump of the PRG1 version of SMB but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist, seeing as how I haven't audited my NES files for a few years. (also, would mean bad dump, so stay away from those.)
As for which one to start with, I don't believe there is any one standard, I would either use the confirmed PRG0 dump or the PRG1 dump and make sure to note it in the documentation for any hack you might release.
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Dr. Floppy
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« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2009, 09:48:35 pm » |
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Wasn't there something awry with the SMB1 game loading routine that limited certain emulators to some weird underwater dungeon level?
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Lindblum
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« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2009, 09:38:54 am » |
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Indeed, Dr.
I have to re-download most of my patches and re-build my SMB hacks because of that. It's a pain. There's a utility that converts one ROM version to the other, I might have to use that too.
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GenoBlast
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« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2009, 12:09:30 pm » |
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There are about 896 bad Super Mario Bros. roms.
I think the correct one is "Super Mario Bros. (JU) [!].nes".
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RetroHacker
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« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2009, 05:38:26 pm » |
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by "messed up title screen" do you mean this for strange mario bros? that bit in the middle?: http://img166.imageshack....trangemariobros001ga3.png because i think that's how it's supposed to be. i've never seen a version without that. Yeah, that's the one I mean. But the screenshot on the RomHacking download page shows it without that: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/nes/images/titles/14StrangeMarioBros1.pngand I can't help but believe that this is how it is supposed to be. What bothers me more is that there are a couple 'glitches' in the game, and I don't know if they are intentional (for example, the Starman in the first level will jump out of the box, into the air, and get stuck in the blocks above. Similarly odd, if you hit two boxes containing "stuff", a mushroom, 1up, whatever, in succession, the previous item disappears.). Now, these could very well be there because of the hacked nature of the game, intentional to make the game harder, or whatnot - but I want to be sure that I have a good dump and a good patch before I solder EPROMs to a cartridge board to make up a cart. Similarly, the beginning of Extra Mario Bros. bothers me. I love the game, but the first screen plays some weird tune and then remains with no music. This can't possibly be right. I have tried at least four different dumps of SMB that I've found, with more or less similar outcomes. I'd really love to find out exactly which dump I should be using - and it's MD5sum. Anyone have a working ROM of Extra Mario Bros. or better yet, the SMB rom you created it from, that can post the MD5sum of? That'll help a lot. I would have thought that starting from the same ROM would be an important thing - but I've yet to see a readme file include the MD5 of the dump they started with. -Ian |
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GenoBlast
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« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2009, 07:13:03 pm » |
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Now here's a unique situation: I can't find a single rom that can be correctly patched with Strange Mario Bros. I have, however, obtained a pre-patched rom that works perfectly. So... should I use this rom to create a new patch against the clean rom, and submit it to the site, or what? Edit:Here's the .ips patch: http://killa-b.freehostia.com/_retarded_stuff/strange-mario-bros.ipsMade against the following file: 811b027eaf99c2def7b933c5208636de Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG0) [!].nes |
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« Last Edit: January 19, 2009, 07:38:11 pm by Killa B »
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RetroHacker
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« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2009, 08:07:00 pm » |
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Now here's a unique situation: I can't find a single rom that can be correctly patched with Strange Mario Bros. I have, however, obtained a pre-patched rom that works perfectly. But wait, it gets weirder! I dowloaded the IPS file and patched it onto a copy of the SMB rom with the same MD5 as you listed. It works, the title screen is correct... but... The game is totally different! It starts off in a world zero, and plays through three levels... and then the game crashes when you complete level 0-3. I'm even more confused than I was before. Try out Extra Mario Bros, and see what you make of that one. The game seems to play perfectly, but the music on the first level is wrong when you first start. If you die, it's correct. -Ian |
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GenoBlast
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« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2009, 08:19:25 pm » |
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But wait, it gets weirder!
I dowloaded the IPS file and patched it onto a copy of the SMB rom with the same MD5 as you listed. It works, the title screen is correct... but... The game is totally different! It starts off in a world zero, and plays through three levels... and then the game crashes when you complete level 0-3.
I'm even more confused than I was before.
Sorry, I should have checked that out. It seems the pre-patched rom was wrong, too (it just had the correct titlescreen, which I assumed meant it was good.) Try out Extra Mario Bros, and see what you make of that one. The game seems to play perfectly, but the music on the first level is wrong when you first start. If you die, it's correct.
Yeah, I have the same problem. Maybe I should try it out on the "Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG1).nes" rom InVerse mentioned. |
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RetroHacker
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« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2009, 08:26:31 pm » |
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Sorry, I should have checked that out. It seems the pre-patched rom was wrong, too (it just had the correct titlescreen, which I assumed meant it was good.) Ok, that makes sense now. At least this means that UIPS is doing a passable job of patching files. Try out Extra Mario Bros, and see what you make of that one. The game seems to play perfectly, but the music on the first level is wrong when you first start. If you die, it's correct. Yeah, I have the same problem. Maybe I should try it out on the "Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG1).nes" rom InVerse mentioned. OK, good to know that I'm not crazy. At least, if I am, I'm not the only one  I've tried both these hacks on a couple different dumps of Mario that I've found, incuding the JU PRG1 one. Similar effects all around, the only one that crashes spectacularly is [E], and for good reason... I really appreciate your help! -Ian |
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GenoBlast
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« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2009, 08:34:17 pm » |
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I tried the other rom, too; the same thing happens. The "weird tune" seems to be the death music. I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to help you (other than proving you aren't crazy). Ok, that makes sense now. At least this means that UIPS is doing a passable job of patching files. Or maybe it isn't, and that's why we're both having these problems.  \ It hasn't once failed me in the past several months of use, though, so I don't think it's the problem. One last thing: I've confirmed that the same stuff happens in both FCEUX and Nestopia, so it's not an emulator problem. |
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KingMike
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« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2009, 08:51:17 pm » |
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Sadly, many SMB ROM hacks were made with a bad/pirate ROM that had a blank title (since it was the most commonly-distributed version). Though the title screen should have been a dead giveaway it was corrupt, I guess in Nesticle days most people didn't care since it still played.
(As I recall it works on Nesticle but not better emulators because Nesticle zeros the RAM whereas more accurate emulators will initialize RAM with random data or at least patterns of non-zero data.)
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RetroHacker
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« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2009, 09:37:55 pm » |
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Sadly, many SMB ROM hacks were made with a bad/pirate ROM that had a blank title (since it was the most commonly-distributed version). Though the title screen should have been a dead giveaway it was corrupt, I guess in Nesticle days most people didn't care since it still played. This might actually explain the Strange Mario Bros. behavior. I have a copy of a blank-title pirate rom that starts at world 0 instead of 1, and when I patch Strange Mario Bros. onto it, I get the right title screen, but the game is only playable for three levels then it crashes. Maybe there is another out there with no title but with the proper level order. I tried using this one with Extra Mario Bros, and while the game still plays OK (starts in the right place), the starting music is still wrong. What I don't understand, is how this can possibly be the correct behavior. Extra Mario Bros. is the most complete, complicated hack I've ever seen done to Super Mario Bros. It's amazing, and it's a great game. I _know_ that there has to be a ROM out there that works 100% with this hack. Does anyone have a completely working copy of Extra Mario Bros? it has to exist. Here's the thing - I really like Extra Mario Bros, and I want to be able to play it on the NES with a real controller. I plan to make a cartridge, but until I can find a good copy of the ROM/IPS, I don't want to go soldering EPROMs to a board... -Ian |
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