------------------------------------- -= LEGEND OF THE BLOB BROS. 2 (v1.1) =- ------------------------------------- A Graphics/Text Hack of SMB2 by BMF54123 New graphics (C)1999 by BMF54123, original graphics/game program (C)1988 by Nintendo Thanks! ------- Thank you for downloading this hack! I've been working hard for several months to finish this hack, sacrificing sleep and family activities just so I could get it done. My goal was to make a hack that would change the look and feel of the entire game, to make it feel like a completely different story. I think I've done that to a pretty good extent... Ah, enough babble, on to the important stuff! (WARNING: this file is kinda long.) What was used to make this thing? --------------------------------- X-Late 3.0 and XTree Gold for code hacking, minor text hacking, and graphic swapping/copying, NESticle and Tile Layer for the actual tile editing, and Thingy for the opening story. What you need ------------- - The patch. (BlobBro2.ips) - The included .IPS patching utility (IPS.EXE), or another utility of your choice. - A Super Mario Bros. 2 NES ROM. (don't ask me where to find it) - A decent NES emulator, such as NESticle, fwNES, or loopyNES. I would recommend using loopyNES, the latest beta seems to be the most accurate in terms of sound/color emulation as of this writing. If it doesn't work for you, then go with NESticle. All the best and worst NES emulators can be found at Zophar's Domain: http://zophar.net How to apply the gosh-darned thing ---------------------------------- *************************** * BACK UP YOUR ROM FIRST! * *************************** At the command prompt, type: IPS MARIO2.NES BLOBBRO2.IPS (If your ROM isn't named MARIO2.NES, just put the correct filename in place of MARIO2.NES) New in this release... ---------------------- v1.1 ---- I found the sprite/background tile mappings! A few new additions made possible by this discovery: - Hoppers now have 2 frames of animation - The stopwatch is no longer mirrored left-right - Spittle is a little more expressive when he's hit - Added a small detail to the logs There's a few more than that, see what you can find. =) Completely changed the ending scene. No more Mario! Two new bosses, yay! Say hello to Jettison and Macrobot...try to guess who I replaced. =) Did a few sprite overhauls, some minor, some major. Seems my drawing abilities have improved since the first release (been working on this way too much), so I fixed up/totally changed a few of the funkier-looking characters/items. Minor fixes to player graphics. Other assorted fixes/additions. Side note... ------------ Like the font I made for the opening story? Wanna use it in your own hack? It's included with this archive. Just open BLOBFONT.CHR in your favorite tile editor, and cut n' paste. But please give me credit for the font if you release your hack to the public. Still in progress... -------------------- Some graphics still need a little more touching up. One boss left to change, however, I don't think I'll change him anytime soon. He's OK as is. The levels are getting very redundant and boring after play-testing them so much. I'm currently trying to decode the level layout, so I can possibly spice things up a bit. It may not happen anytime soon, though. Previous versions ----------------- v1.0 v0.2 FINAL BETA (last beta release) v0.1 BETA (first public release) Things of interest to fellow hackers ------------------------------------ OK, after working on LotBB2 for so long, I've uncovered some interesting things about the game... Background/sprite graphics are shared. I didn't think this was possible, but they did it. A good example is the mushroom blocks. When you pick one up, it becomes a sprite, but when you set it down, it becomes a part of the background, and the exact same tiles are used in both cases. That's what has me stumped. Maybe I just don't have a good enough knowledge of how NES sprites work. Many graphics in the game that weren't animated actually reside in the "animated" section of the pattern tables. Meaning they *are* animated, but all 7 frames are the same. Typical NES programming. I used this to my advantage, and animated some things that originally weren't, like the doors. Another interesting fact: each world may have the same basic enemies, but they used separate pattern tables anyway. Wasteful! I used this to my advantage, too, and made different enemies for each world. The animated patterns are supposed to have 8 frames each; you can see the "lost" patterns in any NES tile editor, below the 7 that are active. Why they weren't used, I'll never know. Probably just a bug. But I'm gonna find out how to re-enable them if it's the last thing I do... You can see the graphics from the original Japanese version of the game, Doki Doki Panic! They're residing in the pattern tables for the "victory" scene. There's a magic lamp, a heart, and some other stuff, like "$015". Special thanks to... -------------------- My cousin Craig, whose keen eyes spotted any stupid graphical glitches I made, and advised me on how I could fix them. He also gave me some ideas for things to change/include in this hack...thanks a million, Scoutboy! (Craig's webpage is located at http://www.icehouse.net/triplett/index.html) Everyone at ZD's ROM Hack Board that gave me compliments on my graphics work (way back when I posted the first screenshots, and also after I released the first beta version). Everyone at the CTC board for their support. All my friends on ICQ and the RuSteD Message Base, for just being there. The authors of the programs I used to hack this thing. Nintendo, for hacking another company's crappy game and making it one of the weirdest Mario games to date. You guys really are l33t h4x0rz! Anyone else I didn't mention! You know who you are. =) Contact me, BMF54123 -------------------- My e-mail address: bmf54123@hotmail.com My website: RuSteD ROM Hacks http://members.tripod.com/rlogic/hacks Other releases -------------- Super Mario Bros. 1.5 (SMB with SMB2J graphics, wooo) Star Soldier US Alternate Graphics Patch Future releases...? ------------------- - Mario Bobble (hack of Bubble Bobble) - Legend of the Blob Bros. 1 (I've decided to do this one after all) - Legend of the Blob Bros. 3 (this one will be harder, but will have level hacking courtesy of Mario 3 Improvement!) - Dr. Blob (hack of Dr. Mario) - Doki Doki Panic NES (more on this later...) And if I have the time and/or interest: - The Mega Blob series (hacks of Mega Man games) Disclaimer ---------- I will not be held responsible for any damages caused by using this patch and/or the program(s) included with it. You use the patch/program(s) at your own risk. Don't worry too much, I've tested everything thoroughly, and my computer hasn't blown up . . . . . . . . . . yet. =) Quote of the release -------------------- "Geez, the programmers must've been on crack or something when they were making this!" - Me, after fiddling with odd sprite glitches and weird programming That's all ---------- Go play have fun now!