SwordQuest EarthWorld Tribute (Playoff Contest)

[Asaki]

"This is not the SwordQuest EarthWorld Playoff Contest. No. This is just a Tribute."

 

So am I just not looking hard enough, or has no one ever made a ROM hack replica of the Playoff cart? Am I the first?

John-Michael Battaglia had planned on having his original cart dumped, but since his death in 2016, it's uncertain whether this will ever happen.

So here is a tribute to him.

 

I'm not very good at ASM, but I made some changes to Omegamatrix's disassembly of the NTSC EarthWorld, and I've played through a few times in Stella and it seems to work correctly. It's actually almost fun.

I took some inspiration from the PAL release, mostly to see how the "ending" works, but I did not copy all of the changes it made to the game.

Interestingly, the PAL's Level 5 page still shows dagger and food. Weird. I chose not to replicate that.

 

If you are one of the eight people who downloaded this before, we fixed a "bug" where Levels 7 and 9 could be completed at any time, and I'm also including a new hack of the PAL ROM.

 

Anyway, the playoff rules/clues are included in the readme, if one does not already have them (you will need them). Like I said, my ASM is not very good, so let me know if any issues are found

sqewt_20230607.zip

And the very ugly source code...sorry!

SwordQuest EarthWorld Tribute.asm

 

Edit: And here is a hack of the NTSC Beta/Prototype ROM!
As far as I'm concerned, this is as close as you can get to the Real Thing (until the Real Thing gets dumped, that is).

SwordQuest EarthWorld Tribute (Beta).bin

SwordQuest EarthWorld Tribute.txt

 

 

Sparked from this thread:

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Asaki

[Rom Hunter]

AFAIK you're the only one who tried to recreate the EarthWorld contest cart, but IMHO if you do a tribute to the contest version, you should really stick to NTSC only.

Also, I think someone should double-check your ASM to make sure everything is correct.

BTW: although Battaglia's cart is the only one known to exist (if it still exists), I believe there must be other EarthWorld contest carts collecting dust somewhere.

I don't think the contestants were given the contest carts they were playing after the contest was done, right?

Edited June 8, 2023 by Rom Hunter

[Asaki]

2 hours ago, Rom Hunter said:

...IMHO if you do a tribute to the contest version, you should really stick to NTSC only.

Too late
It was super easy to do, and I suspect that the PAL was very similar to the Playoff cart.

 "When you do so, a number will flash in the center of the screen to indicate the Level of game play you have just mastered, and you will hear a portion of the ATARI theme song music."
^ From the game rules, sounds like the PAL version. Not to mention, the item clues are almost exactly the same. I think some of the interviews mentioned similarities as well.

I was looking into converting the PAL to NTSC, but that might be above my skill level. Maybe someone else can try, I did a search and I can't find if anyone has before.
Also, PAL slowdown makes the trap rooms a little easier
 

2 hours ago, Rom Hunter said:

Also, I think someone should double-check your ASM to make sure everything is correct.

Probably. That's really the only reason I uploaded the source.
Everything I tested seems to work okay, though.

  

2 hours ago, Rom Hunter said:

BTW: although Battaglia's cart is the only one known to exist (if it still exists), I believe there must be other EarthWorld contest carts collecting dust somewhere.

I don't think the contestants were given the contest carts they were playing after the contest was done, right?

Of course There's always a hope that something will come out some day, but this will fill the void until then. Super grateful that he released all of the docs, or else none of this would have been possible.

I'd have to re-read the interviews, I don't remember if anyone took carts home from that one.

[MrTrust]

Well, if we're going to have that, maybe we should create a new tribute comic?  I'd be hopeless at trying to draw it myself, but I might take a stab at scripting it in case anyone wants to run with that.

 

It's amusing that that face plant of a thread is actually generating something useful.

[Asaki]

Okay, I was poking around yesterday and I think I've got the PAL game converted to NTSC, but I've never done this sort of thing before, so I'm not certain.

It works fine in Stella, but I don't have a way to test on real hardware. I will need some experts to chime in.
 

        PAL     NTSC
0x0442: E0      C0      - player movement speed!
0x07CA: 04      05      - slow down the music
0x0EE6: D8      B9      - speed of first Leo waterfall
0x0EE7: E0      C0      - speed of second waterfall
0x0EE8: E6      C9      - third
0x0EE9: F3      D0      - fourth
0x0EEA: FD      D9      - fifth

0x1135: 36      2c      - raises the entire screen (changes to NTSC[?])
0x11FB: 12      02      - raises the position of the items in inventory
0x1209: 14      02      - raises the bottom of the inventory bar
0x1216: 2B      23      - removes seven extra lines
0x1546: 2D      0A      - raises position of copyright text
0x1B81: 28      04      - raises position of "clue" 10

COLOR LOCATIONS:
0x0182:         - top row of Aquarius rafts
0x022E:         - Sagittarius spears
0x0544:         - top wall in Leo waterfall
0x0584:         - bottom wall in Leo waterfall
0x060D:         - horns in Taurus
0x0EB1-0EBC:    - room colors
0x0ED3-0EDA:    - Aquarius rafts (first color seems to be overwritten by 0x0182)
0x0F03-0FAC:    - player (skin, shirt, pants, shoes)
0x11F4:         - inventory bar
0x1419:         - title screen logo
0x1489:         - title screen sword hilt
0x154e:         - copyright text
0x1B7B:         - "clue" 10
0x1F6C-1F77:    - room colors for item screens and hallways


CHANGE PAL TO "TRIBUTE"
        PAL     NTSC
0x19A8: 0A      01      - room required for clue 1
0x19B7: 09      02      - room for clue 2
0x1A5F-1A71:            - items for clues 3-11
        PAL: 0E 0A 0B 03 08 02 0B 09 0F 00 07 0D 05 06 04 01 08 05 0C
       NTSC: 0E 0A 0A 03 03 02 02 09 09 00 0B 0D 05 06 04 01 08 05 0C
0x1A72-1A84:            - rooms for clues 3-11
        PAL: 05 0A 0A 07 08 02 02 01 02 04 04 03 00 09 0B 0B 0B 0B 06
       NTSC: 00 09 09 08 08 03 03 01 01 05 05 00 03 09 07 07 07 07 06

 

I need to go through the game(s) again and check on clue 10 (the one that shows up on the title screen), but I think I got everything else?

I'm not sure if the clue screens need fixing, they actually make the PAL version look like it was broken.

 

Edit: I just figured out you can press ALT+L and see how many vertical lines the game is running, and it was still 269 vs. 262, so I went to check out a suspicious byte that I had been eyeballing before (0x1216) and that seems to have done the trick!

One thing I really like about Atari ROM hacking is you can search for a value, and it only shows up about four times, so it's easy to just check every single one instead of tracing through the debugger o_O

Also the PAL version wasn't adjusted for slowdown, as far as I can tell, so that's a huge relief. ...or maybe it was...hmm...

 

Edit 2: I found a location for changing the player's movement speed, and another for changing the waterfall speeds. The raft/horn/spear speeds are already the same as NTSC! I'm not sure if anything else needs changing? If the clue music is playing too fast, I'm not sure if there's a way to know. None of the other sound effects seem to have been altered?

 

SwordQuest - Earthworld (PAL-NTSC brown pants).bin

SwordQuest - Earthworld (PAL-NTSC yellow pants).bin

 

This is the base PAL ROM, no "Tribute" changes added yet.

"brown pants" is an approximation of the PAL colors into the NTSC palette, so for example, 6F gets changed to 4F, etc. It's...interesting...

"yellow pants" just replaces every color with the values from the US release. Boring

Edited June 23, 2023 by Asaki

[Asaki]

I think I'm done trying to convert the PAL back to NTSC

I did find the location to slow down the music, and I noted that down, but I'm not going to bother updating the ROMs again.

I'm checking out the beta from Tempest, and it seems to be an NTSC version of the PAL release!

 

I haven't checked extensively to see if everything works, as there are quite a few differences from the PAL ROM, but I think I'm going to add the Tribute changes to it and upload it to the original post.

 

CHANGE BETA TO "TRIBUTE"
        BETA    TRIBUTE
0x19A2: 0A      01      - room required for clue 1
0x19B1: 09      02      - room for clue 2
0x1A59-1A6B:            - items for clues 3-11
       BETA: 0E 0A 0B 03 08 02 0B 09 0F 00 07 0D 05 06 04 01 08 05 0C
    TRIBUTE: 0E 0A 0A 03 03 02 02 09 09 00 0B 0D 05 06 04 01 08 05 0C
0x1A6C-1A7E:            - rooms for clues 3-11
       BETA: 05 0A 0A 07 08 02 02 01 02 04 04 03 00 09 0B 0B 0B 0B 06
    TRIBUTE: 00 09 09 08 08 03 03 01 01 05 05 00 03 09 07 07 07 07 06

 

[Asaki]

Also, I just did a little sleuthing...maybe some of the older fans already figured this one out, but it's a little before my time:

From the playoff rules: "you will hear a portion of the ATARI theme song music"

The song in the Beta/PAL sure sounds a lot like "Have You Played Atari Today?"

 

 

...this song is going to be stuck in my head now...

Edited June 23, 2023 by Asaki

[grimlick]

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this tribute version of the game.  I only found it just recently, after the Airworld game was released on the Atari anniversary collection, and I wanted to go through the first three games before tackling that one.  I think your version is what the original games should have been like if they had put more thought and effort into them. I love how the poems are a guide, encouraging the completion of the game, rather than making it so ridiculously complex that there will hardly be anyone to claim the physical prizes.  Which is the only reason I can think of for them to make the game so impossible.

Anyway, I'm not a coder by any means, so most of this conversation went over my head, but I just wanted to say that your effort here is greatly appreciated and it makes me wonder at the possibilities that would make the other two games more enjoyable in the same manner.

Thanks again!

[Asaki]

Thanks!
Did you grab the Beta version too? It's not included with the other ZIP. Maybe I should fix that, because the main ZIP has a LOT more downloads...
 

12 hours ago, grimlick said:

I think your version is what the original games should have been like if they had put more thought and effort into them. I love how the poems are a guide, encouraging the completion of the game, rather than making it so ridiculously complex that there will hardly be anyone to claim the physical prizes.  Which is the only reason I can think of for them to make the game so impossible.

I agree, it's so much more playable, and almost enjoyable.
It would've never been possible without all of the information provided by John-Michael Battaglia.
It's crazy that they made the original game literally impossible to complete, and the only reason they got ANY contestants was because they guessed at the words in the comic.
Allegedly they learned their lesson and toned down the rest of the games, but I haven't gotten around to trying them yet.

We do have a playoff cart for Fireworld, BTW, but the clue sheet hasn't shown up yet.

Playing through it, I can see now how the game was the precursor for the "fetch quest" mechanics in games like Zelda and Paper Mario.

[grimlick]

10 hours ago, Asaki said:

Did you grab the Beta version too? It's not included with the other ZIP. Maybe I should fix that, because the main ZIP has a LOT more downloads...

Yep, I played through the 4 versions of Earthworld (NTSC, PAL, BETA and Tribute), the 3 versions of Fireworld (NTSC, PAL and Tournament), and the only Waterworld version that there seems to be.  Plus, just for fun I played the games in 'fried' mode, which was very interesting.  In fried Earthworld, all the items, including the warriors sword, start out in Virgo, and for some reason the Aquarius, Taurus and Sagittarius challenges are a lot easier.  In fried Fireworld, all the items start out in room 'J' (the diamond room), but the game can't be completed because you are unable to shoot bullets (or whatever they are ) in the snake challenges. Weird.  In fried Waterworld, all the items start out in room I. But after you get the first clue, the game resets and everything is back where it's supposed to be.

All in all, they are a fun little set of games, providing you have the solutions to them ahead of time. Airworld kind of did what your Tribute version did and provide clues for completing the game right there in the manual, so that made it a nice finale to the series.