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31
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Dimensional Vortex maps [Extract]
« on: January 23, 2022, 02:25:31 am »
In the DS version, maps are in the PS_BIN\MapTable directory. Each one directly corresponds to the same numbered packet in the SNES version.
(I now own a copy of the Steam version, but I haven't looked at the internals yet.)
I did a test by extracting a map file, then compressing it into the SNES ROM and changing a map data pointer to it.
(This is map 667, if you want to try it yourself).
I'm trying to find if there's any file I can directly point to for the additional locations' data (tileset, pallete, etc.) So far I only have a memory address (Japanese version) for all the location data (2059E34).
Edit:
In the Steam version, each location's data is in a separate mapinfo_xxx.dat file. I observed from the DS version that starting with location index 532 (0x214), event packet and map packet are the same as the index. (The indices before that point are probably debug or filler events.)
(I now own a copy of the Steam version, but I haven't looked at the internals yet.)
I did a test by extracting a map file, then compressing it into the SNES ROM and changing a map data pointer to it.
(This is map 667, if you want to try it yourself).
I'm trying to find if there's any file I can directly point to for the additional locations' data (tileset, pallete, etc.) So far I only have a memory address (Japanese version) for all the location data (2059E34).
Edit:
In the Steam version, each location's data is in a separate mapinfo_xxx.dat file. I observed from the DS version that starting with location index 532 (0x214), event packet and map packet are the same as the index. (The indices before that point are probably debug or filler events.)
32
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: 8th Playable Character Possible?! (Updating!)
« on: January 19, 2022, 02:18:26 pm »
I did some experiments with memory hacking on the Japanese DS version last night. I didn't find the memory address for the active party at first, so my first experiments were done by editing the loaded location events to add the 8th character to the party. I've attached an image of what it looks like without any other adjustments.
For reference, memory addresses in no$gba's debugger:
~207293B: Character stats, starting with Crono. 0x60 bytes each, possible differences in layout to SNES.
21C2000 Location event data
21D0980: Active party
- Name is Epoch
- Default stats are zeros
- Sprite in menus is Crono's menu portrait
- Save portrait and menu icon are palette-swaps of Crono
- Blank, black full portrait in menu
For reference, memory addresses in no$gba's debugger:
~207293B: Character stats, starting with Crono. 0x60 bytes each, possible differences in layout to SNES.
21C2000 Location event data
21D0980: Active party
33
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Crimson Echoes Plus
« on: July 08, 2021, 12:14:44 pm »
I said it already in the Chrono Vendian thread: the sheet is an extension of a spriteset already in the ROM. I checked The Glenn Thread where the additional sprites were originally developed, and it didn't look like the subject of the discrepancy between his original sprite depiction and the PS1 anime cutscene ever came up.
34
Chrono Vendian / Re: Chrono Vendian Updates & Progress
« on: June 15, 2021, 01:31:59 am »
Well, there is an official sprite of his face, since the unofficial sheet was an expansion of the small original one from an alternate ending, as was sort of mentioned before.
35
News Submissions / Brief appearance of Chrono Trigger in 1995 Close-up Gendai Plus episode
« on: June 10, 2021, 08:26:40 pm »
Originally found via https://twitter.com/JohnAndersen21/status/1390433130889220107
Focuses on the systems of the workplace, so don't expect much if anything on the game itself.
The Magus Castle exterior scene can be briefly seen on Tokita's screen before he opens up a communication on proposed game titles.
Some of my bad attempts at transcriptions of parts of what can be seen, translated by Google:
Quote from: John Andersen
1995: Inside Square Soft's former Shibuya, Tokyo office from a Japanese TV documentary about game designers.https://youtu.be/FEAJZ_Z0nrM?t=1240
@Takashi_Tokita is interviewed and is seen stamping his timecard. He had just finished directing Chrono Trigger here for the SFC/SNES. Via kukun:
Focuses on the systems of the workplace, so don't expect much if anything on the game itself.
The Magus Castle exterior scene can be briefly seen on Tokita's screen before he opens up a communication on proposed game titles.
Some of my bad attempts at transcriptions of parts of what can be seen, translated by Google:
- Dragon Fantasy (ドラゴン・ファンタジー)
- Final Quest (ファイナル・クエスト
- Earth Trial (アーストライアル)
- Chronomancer (クロノマンサー)
- Chrono Venture (クロノ・ベンチャー)
- Prime Time (プライム・タイム)
36
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Preview from Nintendo Power #68
« on: June 09, 2021, 07:32:14 pm »
That's one of the images on the Prism Cards. Don't know if I've seen it in any of the magazines.
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/CTCP:Character_Cards.html#Robo
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/CTCP:Character_Cards.html#Robo
37
Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: I feel like if Toei Animation did a Chrono Trigger anime for Netflix...
« on: April 13, 2021, 09:04:41 pm »
I think that's the story side of Chrono Symphonic.
Yeah, prehistory got cut entirely. In fact, a lot of story got skipped and replaced/merged with other parts of the story, like the first trip to 600 A.D (replaced with a trip to the ruined future).
Yeah, prehistory got cut entirely. In fact, a lot of story got skipped and replaced/merged with other parts of the story, like the first trip to 600 A.D (replaced with a trip to the ruined future).
38
The Great To-Do List / Re: [1000] Successfully rip "To Faraway Times" in PSF
« on: April 08, 2021, 12:04:17 am »
I've been investigating the music format of the PS1 version lately. Mainly documenting instruments, with some (very little) trying to figure out the note data. But not seeing the right data in the expected place for this track made me look into it.
The sequence data for To Far Away Times/Outskirts Times is far bigger than the other tracks.
The ripper failed to copy all the data, so it glitches whenever it tries to play from a missing portion.
Additionally, to fit all its data, its sequence data is placed at an earlier spot of memory than other tracks in regular gameplay (the extras music selection always uses this earlier spot). I haven't found the origin point for the toggle to read sequence data from this spot instead of the normal position. I think there are a bunch of things in memory past the regular position for the data that would overwrite the music data if it goes that far.
I don't know yet whether I can make a minipsf to integrate with the existing collection, or if it'll have to be a separate PSF file, possibly with some nasty hacks to force it to start reading data from the right place.
There are also some unused variants on To Far Away times in the music data that I'm looking into, some of which behave differently when placed at the regular memory address.
Also, while they've never been listed here as missing, I could also rip the variants from the extras music player (i.e. full-length Chrono Trigger theme and Frog's Theme with intro).
Edit:
While I already made a separate PSF with hacked code, I'd prefer to do better or see if it's possible to do that and make it a minipsf before posting it. For now, here's a minipsf of one of the versions of the track (might not be the one used in-game), still glitched, but not as much. Place it with the other files in the set to listen.
The sequence data for To Far Away Times/Outskirts Times is far bigger than the other tracks.
The ripper failed to copy all the data, so it glitches whenever it tries to play from a missing portion.
Additionally, to fit all its data, its sequence data is placed at an earlier spot of memory than other tracks in regular gameplay (the extras music selection always uses this earlier spot). I haven't found the origin point for the toggle to read sequence data from this spot instead of the normal position. I think there are a bunch of things in memory past the regular position for the data that would overwrite the music data if it goes that far.
I don't know yet whether I can make a minipsf to integrate with the existing collection, or if it'll have to be a separate PSF file, possibly with some nasty hacks to force it to start reading data from the right place.
There are also some unused variants on To Far Away times in the music data that I'm looking into, some of which behave differently when placed at the regular memory address.
Also, while they've never been listed here as missing, I could also rip the variants from the extras music player (i.e. full-length Chrono Trigger theme and Frog's Theme with intro).
Edit:
While I already made a separate PSF with hacked code, I'd prefer to do better or see if it's possible to do that and make it a minipsf before posting it. For now, here's a minipsf of one of the versions of the track (might not be the one used in-game), still glitched, but not as much. Place it with the other files in the set to listen.
39
The Great To-Do List / Re: [5000] Place all Chrono Cross lines in the script accurately
« on: March 31, 2021, 04:12:04 pm »
Regarding the poem, it's called from a debug object that only appears if a certain debugging flag is set.
So, with the debug mode code also active, add this code:
300E5921 0040
Warp to map 295 with parameter 0, then "talk" to the fire and choose the third option, "Pos". A test of some of Kid's choreography for the regular scene will play out, with her saying the poem.
I can tell from doing a search on "Ind. Menu Start" that this flag will enable debug objects in many other locations, but I don't exactly have the skills to just look at a set of coordinates and determine where it is in the location. Sometimes, it might be placed in a prominent object, other times not so much. For example, there's one in Doc's clinic (Home) right in the wall beneath the door to the other room. But all this is much less relevant than the stuff for the regular scope of the game.
Code: [Select]
---------------------------
| Entity 11 INIT
---------------------------
0x05EC: SET_POSITION_UNSIGNED(-47, -318, 0)
0x05F4: op8D(0x00)
0x05F6: RECT_SIZE(60, 60)
0x05FB: JUMP 0x0604 IF VAR_BIT[Ind. Menu Start] CLEAR
0x0601: JUMP(0x0607)
0x0604: SET_CHARACTER_VIEWABLE(0x00, THIS)
0x0607: STOP()Quote
NO. 00 : $1800 + 0-15"Ind. Menu Start" is a flag stored in one of the high bits of a variable/set of flags at 0x180 of the event variables/flags, or 0x800E5920 in memory.
(...)
14. Ind. Menu Start
So, with the debug mode code also active, add this code:
300E5921 0040
Warp to map 295 with parameter 0, then "talk" to the fire and choose the third option, "Pos". A test of some of Kid's choreography for the regular scene will play out, with her saying the poem.
I can tell from doing a search on "Ind. Menu Start" that this flag will enable debug objects in many other locations, but I don't exactly have the skills to just look at a set of coordinates and determine where it is in the location. Sometimes, it might be placed in a prominent object, other times not so much. For example, there's one in Doc's clinic (Home) right in the wall beneath the door to the other room. But all this is much less relevant than the stuff for the regular scope of the game.
40
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 15, 2021, 12:26:46 am »
Those codes for the elder's house are listed there, just under "Misc events".
41
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 15, 2021, 12:14:50 am »
Yeah, almost all the dialogue in Medina, except for Melchior/Bosch IIRC, is misaligned in the prototype ROM. I once made a patch to adjust all the stringbanks for the area based on what was the "correct" string index for obvious lines like the innkeeper. That's where the attributions in the translated pre-release script come from.
42
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: February 16, 2021, 02:29:54 am »There's some interesting stuff in there. On page 3 there's a shot of King Guardia, Queen Leene, and a soldier in what I believe to be an early version of the cathedral boss room. It's a tiny room compared to the final version, but I think it's the only room that uses the open version of those windows.More like an early version of the room next to the secret room with the Magus statue. The quote's almost exactly the same with only minor punctuation differences.
43
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: February 14, 2021, 03:44:45 am »
That reminds me, in the V-Jump March issue, there's a tiny inset of the 600 A.D. map.
https://www.chronocompendium.com/images/wiki/2/21/Frank_deWindt_II_V-Jump_March_1995_07.jpg
The exact extent of the desert area is different, and the house is further down.
https://www.chronocompendium.com/images/wiki/2/21/Frank_deWindt_II_V-Jump_March_1995_07.jpg
The exact extent of the desert area is different, and the house is further down.
Definitely not news to me, but it might be the first time I've seen it explicitly acknowledged in print that the screenshot and artwork are depicting the same thing.There's certainly a tendency to pair the artwork with images from Death Peak.
44
The Great To-Do List / Re: [6000] Chrono Cross sound pack?
« on: January 09, 2021, 07:45:27 pm »
The short answer is you shouldn't run those tools on BIN disc images (2352 bytes/sector). They don't know to ignore the ECC data/whatever between sectors, so they misinterpret that data as part of the image/sound. Run them instead on an ISO (2048 bytes/sector) or on the extracted files.
45
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Frog's Theme Intro Recreated
« on: January 05, 2021, 04:12:12 pm »Complicated SPC work seemed to be one of those final frontiers utunnels was working on when everyone faded away.A short recap.
Back in 2008, as a result of looking into the mods created by the Japanese Romancing SaGa community, I learned about their ability to create custom music in another game using a slight variation on the music format. I introduced the tool they used.
utunnels then made his own command-line partial reimplentation of the Music Macro Language importer, but I don't think it ever got widespread use for any of the Square games it could support. (Checking the FF6 Hacking fansite today, there may be some tools of their own now.)
Not being a composer, I stuck to using MIDI-to-MML converters when I wasn't developing and/or modifying programs to dump music from other Square games.
I believe in the early post-C&D days, somebody started working on an Impulse Tracker (IT) to mml converter, the idea being you could compose and listen to a piece in the tracker beforehand.