Trouble hacking Maze Craze

[Lauren Tyler]

OK, I admit I didn't look carefully enough, but now I have to wonder if it's possible to alter the player sprites at all so they look like stick figures or something, or would I have to alter the size of the walls a little for that? (How I'd do that I dunno!)

Edited October 5, 2006 by LarcenTyler

[Pac Munchkin]

Oh wow yes I can see it now a little running man!!

 

Wade

 

Great idea!

[Pac Munchkin]

The only thing I just thought of, I tried doing just that for Adventure, and could not find the square sprite for the player. It turned out to be the Atari Ball object that can not be changed; so this may be the same for Maze Craze.

 

Wade

[atwwong]

It is possible to substitute the ball graphic for a sprite, as was done with Adventure II on the Flashback 2, even though it still looks like the ball. However, you'll have to dig into the assembly to make the changes, which is beyond what simple graphic hack programs can do.

[Lauren Tyler]

Well, I gave it a try. I am thinking of downloading Game Maker though, since I've heard about how it was done as a school project for students or something, and it's apparently freeware. Maybe I can write a remake of Maze Craze in that?

[Nukey Shay]

The problem with Maze Craze is that the kernal doesn't allow complex animations. There is a static object for the player sprites...with many blank lines above and below it (so all the program needs to do is alter their vertical pointers to build the addresses of where the sprites load from).

 

Simple 2-frame animation w/left & right only can be done by doing the following:

 

* free half a page of romspace

* copy that sprite area...to create an additional one

* alter the gfx in that alternate sprite table

* use the program's frame counter to swap between the 2 sprite tables

* add a couple lines to set the sprite reflect registers (REFP0/REFP1) in the joystick routine when one of the side directions is pressed

 

That would give you simple Atari PacMan-type animation and still fit within 4k.

The question would be "is it worth it?" though, because game replay value is very low for Maze Craze

[Nukey Shay]

It is possible to substitute the ball graphic for a sprite, as was done with Adventure II on the Flashback 2, even though it still looks like the ball. However, you'll have to dig into the assembly to make the changes, which is beyond what simple graphic hack programs can do.

 

...not without introducing sprite flicker coding, because up to all 5 sprites are used in the game variations that feature computer-controlled objects.

[supercat]

...not without introducing sprite flicker coding, because up to all 5 sprites are used in the game variations that feature computer-controlled objects.

 

Actually, I think there's already sprite flicker coding for the five-cops games, isn't there?

 

BTW, speaking of flicker coding, am I the only person who thinks Space War could be much improved with 30Hz flicker? If one accepts using the Playfield for the sun (or else getting rid of it entirely) the game could allow both players to have four shots each, with 30Hz flicker on everything. The biggest annoyance would be that hardware collision detection would require that players be the color opposite their shots, though checking whether single-pixel shots collided with 8x8 bitmaps shouldn't be too hard even without using hardware detection.

 

Does anyone like the idea of four-shot-per-player SpaceWar?

[Lauren Tyler]

I didn't mean for animated sprites, I just meant making the sprites look more like people in general.

[Pac Munchkin]

I didn't mean for animated sprites, I just meant making the sprites look more like people in general.

 

Use Hack-O-Matic III

 

Scroll down to location 005c to 005f that is the player in Maze Craze, I was trying to see how much it could be changed, but it is pretty limited it does not even turn right and left, So you can't have a man facing right to go right and one facing left to go left.

 

But go for it see what you can make?

 

Have fun that is why I hack for the fun of seeing what I can make.

 

Wade

[Pac Munchkin]

OK, I admit I didn't look carefully enough, but now I have to wonder if it's possible to alter the player sprites at all so they look like stick figures or something, or would I have to alter the size of the walls a little for that? (How I'd do that I dunno!)

 

 

 

Here is Maze Craze with Smilies.

 

Wade

 

PS I didn't bother to rename this hack so if you download it maybe rename it before putting it in your roms or it may replace the original.

MAZECRZ.BIN

Edited October 18, 2006 by Pac Munchkin

[Pac Munchkin]

OK, I admit I didn't look carefully enough, but now I have to wonder if it's possible to alter the player sprites at all so they look like stick figures or something, or would I have to alter the size of the walls a little for that? (How I'd do that I dunno!)

 

 

 

Here is Maze Craze with Smilies.

 

Wade

 

PS I didn't bother to rename this hack so if you download it maybe rename it before putting it in your roms or it may replace the original.

 

 

Maze Craze with simple Stick Men

 

Wade

MAZECRZ.BIN

[keilbaca]

OK, I admit I didn't look carefully enough, but now I have to wonder if it's possible to alter the player sprites at all so they look like stick figures or something, or would I have to alter the size of the walls a little for that? (How I'd do that I dunno!)

 

 

 

Here is Maze Craze with Smilies.

 

Wade

 

PS I didn't bother to rename this hack so if you download it maybe rename it before putting it in your roms or it may replace the original.

 

 

Maze Craze with simple Stick Men

 

Wade

 

10x better than simple blocks. Awesome work

[Pac Munchkin]

10x better than simple blocks. Awesome work

 

Thank you

I am not sure what to say, I spend weeks hacking Tom Boy into Tarsan's Rescue my best hack I had yet made and I get no coment I spend a few seconds hacking Maze Craze and get a complement. lol

 

Really anyone with Hack-O-Matic III could do as good or better in a matter of seconds.

 

Have you seen my hack Extreme Monster Tag, that is my latest hack?

 

Here is a list of my hacks if you would like.

 

Pac Munchkin (Pac Man hack) (my first hack)

ET's Candy Bars (Pac Man hack)(my second hack)

Tank Patrol (Tanks but no tanks hack) (my third hack)

Hot Munchkin (Alien hack) (my forth hack highly influenced by PacMan plus's Alien-Pac)

Hot Pac'em (Alien hack) (this was actually my hack of Alien-Pac I wanted to fix an error and change the graphics to be a little more like Pac Man) (my fifth hack)

Mad Max (my sixth hack partnered with Neo to improve and finish) (fast food hack)

Astro Man in Psychedelic World (unfinished hack) (Alien hack)

WC Munchkin (hack of Nuckey's 8k Pac Man) Unfinished

I was working on a Robot Tank hack to be more like arcade Battle Zone, highly unfinished and very experimental.

My crowning achievement hack Tarsan's Rescue Mission (Tom Boy hack)

My Latest hack Extreme Monster Tag (Malagai hack)

Now this Maze Craze which seriously I do not even consider a hack it took me a few seconds to make both versions.

 

Those are my hacks, so if this impresses you, please check out the hacks I spent a lot of time on.

 

Wade

Edited October 19, 2006 by Pac Munchkin