TIX Posted April 14, 2019 Share Posted April 14, 2019 (edited) Hey guys, I'm between project right now, so I decided to try hacking a colecovision game ! I will turn good ol' Winky into a robot trying to clean an infestation on the mother-ship 'Venture' I have given him individual frames for each direction, and since we don't have animation frames for walking, I gave him a wheel It seems I can use yellow from the arrow to brighten him up a little, will see. Also I tried to keep him centered, because Winky's movement was erratic especially in tight spaces ! Later I will change all monsters into various aliens, and maybe change the names of the rooms.. new robot comparison with Winky, check him out (he doesn't have a name yet) Edited April 14, 2019 by TIX 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 ..and a slimy alien creature running around ! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serguei2 Posted April 14, 2019 Share Posted April 14, 2019 It's a hack, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 a hack of venture ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
info_paradox Posted April 14, 2019 Share Posted April 14, 2019 Looks cool! Venture is one of my favourites on the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 (edited) Thanks man ! this game is very hacker friendly, everything is laid out beautifully.. it should be fast Unfortunately the creature that comes at you when you spent more time in a room, has only two frames of animation.. So there Edited April 14, 2019 by TIX 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 Check out the new robot in action in the following Betta Still looking for a name.. Venture (USA, Europe).zip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 (edited) Work in progress, some of the slimy creatures, and the xenomorph that tracks you down.. any suggestions are welcomed ! Edited April 16, 2019 by TIX 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sodarun Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 xenophobe + venture = Xenture ? Venophobe ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Work in progress, some of the slimy creatures, and the xenomorph that tracks you down.. any suggestions are welcomed ! Wow - you certainly have a talent for great animated sprites. These look awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Your sprites are great, and I like "Space Venture" just fine as a name. Maybe "Venture 2019" since we are living in the future. Do you have plans to change out the music, too? It would be neat to have little snippets of well known themes. The eyeball guy belongs in the room with moving walls, like the garbage masher in Star Wars. What form will the treasures take? Maybe "data tapes" and laser swords? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 Thanks guys ! I really love drawing little creatures, and coming from the Atari 800, to have 16 pixels wide sprites to stretch your legs, is liberating :P too bad the main character doesn't have walking frames, not many things can be done with him.. but he is cute and I grow to love him ! The treasures, I had the idea to make them survivors that Robby (?) have to rescue, but I really cant draw 12 different people and I hate to make them all the same.. so I settled on making them items that will be useful in space, batteries, access cards, spacesuit, ... that kind of staff. As for the names, Space Venture is pretty much fixed as a title, I'm searching a name for the little service robot with the big task ahead of him.. Music.. I wish unfortunately my experience in hacking is strictly in sprite editing.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 18, 2019 Author Share Posted April 18, 2019 (edited) four more creepy crawlies hmmm the blob needs something more.. Edited April 18, 2019 by TIX 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Fantastic sprites yet again How about some teeth for the blob? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 18, 2019 Author Share Posted April 18, 2019 Yeah something like that ! Also we need a spider/facehugger type thingy.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadcolorsTV Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Music.. I wish unfortunately my experience in hacking is strictly in sprite editing.. Might I suggest replacing in-level music with creepy ambient sounds against an otherwise silent setting? Think of how creepy certain sounds were when playing Atari 2600 games, and they rarely had music. Think of the sound ET's neck makes; think of the pulsing, humming buzz in Yars' Revenge; think of the enemy robots' lasers in Berzerk; think of pretty much the entire sound library in China Syndrome. Experimenting with a MIDI keyboard and square/triangle wave effects will yield surprisingly effective results. As for the little 3-4 second tunes in between? Look to games like Metroid (NES) or Gorf for inspiration. I love your sprites, by the way. This looks like it'll be a fun hack. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 Thanks guys ! All great suggestions, but as I said earlier, I don't know the first thing about music (either creating or hacking it..) I wish a more experienced hacker will step up and handle the sound department On another subject, do you (anyone) know how to edit the text in the game ?? I'm working with hack-o-matic and I don't see anything editable !?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serguei2 Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 How to change the sprites at the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 How to change the sprites at the first place? It's easy to view the sprites by looking at, and decoding (for want of a better word), the value of the bytes in the games binary rom file. I did this to hack Matt Patrol into Moon Patrol using Excel. However, hacking anything other than graphics which are easy to identify, is very difficult. For example, the various non-sprite colour changes I implemented between Matt Patrol and Moon Patrol was achieved completely through trial and error. I have no clue how anyone could hack the music - I'd imagine if it was possible that it would be an enormous amount of work. You'd likely be much better off disassembling the rom, and reprogramming it, rather than trying to hack the binary. By way of examples for the graphics/sprites, the first image attached is how a sprite is assembled from the hex value of individual bytes, while the second image shows reversing that process to visualise the graphics found in the Moon Patrol binary rom "decoded" from the hex value of individual bytes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 On another subject, do you (anyone) know how to edit the text in the game ?? Which text specifically? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 (edited) Which text specifically? For example The game title: Exidy presents Space Venture The rooms names : instead of Spider Room --> Facehugger infestation Level names: instead of Level 1 --> Deck 1 or something like that !! oh and a toothy blob attached you were right, he was too cute ! Edited April 19, 2019 by TIX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 He almost looks like KC Munchkin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 He almost looks like KC Munchkin Except much scarier 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 For example The game title: Exidy presents Space Venture The rooms names : instead of Spider Room --> Facehugger infestation Level names: instead of Level 1 --> Deck 1 or something like that !! oh and a toothy blob attached you were right, he was too cute ! The problem you're going to have is that you can't change the length of each text piece when simply hacking the binary. If you do want to change their length, e.g. going from "VENTURE" to "SPACE VENTURE" then you're going to have to disassemble the binary, edit it, and then reassemble. That said, venture is actually 9 characters long as it includes the "TM" so the title could be hacked to something with 9 characters. Spider, could be hacked to Hugger (looks like SPIDER has a few spaces after it so you might be able to name the rooms with up to 8 characters). Regardless, the location in the binary that each of the above text pieces starts is: VENTURETM = 0024 SPIDER = 39E8 LEVEL = 39AD Hope this helps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIX Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 Yes I understand ! thanks for the explanation. I just discovered that hack-o-matic actually has a text editor.. I will mess around to see what I can come by Which program are you using ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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