Ninja Gaiden II (working version please)

[dlfrsilver]

nope prowler, it's the one where in the video you have 2 characters on screen with pink tones.

[prowler]

Then why doesn't Codetapper's sdi.iff look like this?

[lesta_smsc]

I recall playing this game on nintendo rip-off console... great fun!

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by prowler

Could someone let me know at what offset in the executable "change address $186f0 to $60" occurs, please? Then I'll be able to patch it directly in the relevant data block in the disk image.

It's at offset $4180 in the NinjaGaidenII executable. I'll let you do the rest.

[prowler]

Thanks, demoniac!

[prowler]

I am about to upload to The Zone a second set of ADF images based on the original "CSL" release with minimal changes.

This set uses the compressed 'page6.raw' file produced by CodeTapper's NG2 compressor tool and has the byte at offset $4180 in the NinjaGaidenII executable changed from $67 to $60, as suggested by clenched.

The slime amimation in Act 7 is now smooth.

Originally Posted by hipoonios

I think there is more problems with this game. Sometimes the game asks for wrong disk. Also some of the cut scenes are broken.

I have noticed that the cut scenes don't render completely sometimes, but when I try the same thing again later in another session they are okay once more.

I will try the game using just one disk drive in future to see if I can reproduce a wrong disk prompt. There's a fair bit of empty space on each disk, so it should be possible to minimize these events by duplicating some files, as with those of Act3 implemented by mai.

[mai]

...still not the final one?

[prowler]

Not yet (hence 'WIP2'). Still more testing required, methinks...

[clenched]

This picture is the result of shifting plane 2 around enough to bring all planes into alignment. Data are moved around but not changed. Plane 2 good data were misaligned by over 300 bytes. The damage is in the top row of tiles.

In the game:
The slime section is plagued by blue bands and noise on the floors. Besides that animation looks the same. If the upper left block is filled in black, the later stages look good.

EDIT: Change two bytes in suspected original page6.raw to correctly unpack the Amiga tiles without a blemish on them. This new picture shows the whole 21 columns unretouched in any way.

C:\>fc /b page6.raw page6.new
Comparing files page6.raw and PAGE6.NEW
00001F25: 3E 95
00003CBF: 3E 96

C:\>dir page6*
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 00E9-A282

 Directory of C:\
12/27/2012  08:32 PM            33,454 page6.new
12/27/2012  08:32 PM            33,454 page6.raw

If Blitz2 is handy, paste this code into the editor for a simple page6 viewer rather than boot game. Page6.raw should be in Blitz2 drawer. View before and after changing.

WBStartup
DEFTYPE.b r,g,b
DEFTYPE.w c,ax
DEFTYPE.l bm,sz
BitMap 0,336,200,5 ;***** tiles

For j=0 To 31 ;***** create main game palette
Read c
r=c/256 AND 15:g=c/16 AND 15:b=c AND 15
PalRGB 0,j,r,g,b
Next j

Data.w   $0000,$0520,$0730,$0842,$0A64,$0C87,$082B,$0A2B
Data.w   $0B29,$0000,$0433,$0654,$0876,$0888,$0AA9,$0CCC
Data.w   $0008,$0229,$044A,$088D,$0342,$0450,$0673,$0993
Data.w   $0722,$0B11,$0E22,$0E83,$0DC0,$0EE0,$0088,$0EEE

InitCopList 0,44,200,$5,8,32,0
DisplayAdjust 0,2,-8,0,-16,0 ;***** overscan for extra column
DisplayPalette 0,0
DisplayBitMap 0,0
BLITZ
CreateDisplay 0

bm=Peek.l (Addr BitMap(0)+8)
If ReadFile (0,"page6.raw") = True
FileInput 0
While NOT Eof (0)
ax=Asc(Inkey$)+1
If ax<129
  bx$=(Inkey$(ax)):Poke$ bm+sz,bx$:sz=sz+ax
Else
  ax=258-ax:bx$=(Inkey$(1)):Poke$ bm+sz,String$(bx$,ax):sz=sz+ax
EndIf
Wend
CloseFile 0
EndIf
MouseWait
End

[prowler]

Thanks for your dogged determination to get to the bottom of this tile corruption, clenched. You should have posted again to bump the thread and I would have noted your latest achievement sooner.

I'll try what you suggest tomorrow if I have time.

Meanwhile (and this is the reason I noticed the progress here), I have found a 'fixed' version of the [cr CSL](Disk 1 of 2) image online, and I'll be having a look at that tomorrow too.

Edit: It's identical to the disk image mai uploaded to The Zone .

It has been given the filename:
Ninja_Gaiden_II_-_The_Dark_Sword_of_Chaos_(1991)(Gametek)(Disk_1_of_2)[cr_CSL]_(fixed).adf

[prowler]

I can confirm that the 2-byte edit to the original page6.raw file suggested by clenched following his astonishing feat of digital wizardry completely restores the Act 7 tileset!

I have produced an updated [WIP3] set of disks, which is now available in The Zone for download and testing.

As with the previous [WIP2] set, the original [cr CSL] TOSEC version diskset has been used as the basis, with only the minimum necessary changes:

Disk 2 is identical to the [cr CSL](Disk 2 of 2) TOSEC version with the byte at offset $BD in Disk Block 1315 (the 17th page6.raw data block) changed from $3E to $95 and the byte at offset $1BF in Disk Block 1300 (the 32nd page6.raw data block) changed from $3E to $96 before recalculating the checksums.

Disk 1 is identical to the [cr CSL](Disk 1 of 2) TOSEC version with the Act 3 related files cloned from Disk 2 and the disk creation and last write access date and time stamps afterwards restored. Disk 1 also has the byte at offset $C8 in Disk Block 1517 (the 35th NinjaGaidenII data block) changed from $67 to $60, as previously suggested by clenched to make the Act 7 slime animation run smoothly, before recalculating the checksum.

[Codetapper]

Well done guys!

Just curious, how do the tiles compare from clenched's fixed version to the tiles-ripped-from-pc version? Were they identical, almost the same or quite different?

If this is the final version, I will create a final WHDLoad install soon and release it, including the install script to copy the correct file no matter what set of disks was used.

[clenched]

Well I didn't bump it because the difference is negligible. I did a file compare with PPaint raw dumps of Codetappers's re mastered IFF and these Amiga tiles. The difference pattern goes like this: [$A92] 2 consecutive bytes, skip 42,up to 16 times, next plane, repeat 4 more times. It's clear to me the yellow box is the only difference. The total was 154 of 42000 bytes different. A totally different tile would have made a 160 byte (2bytes x 16lines x 5planes) difference. I'm sure no mistake was made making the DOS tiles because the series of numbers was created by a program then copy/paste to avoid typos.

EDIT: Codetapper IFF cropped at 200 height, saved RAW on left and Amiga tiles on right. That yellow block must be a placeholder because I don't see myself missing anything that glaring in the game. The best news is since the tiles are the same, hipoonios won't have to make a new video.

Comparing files 1ctraw and C:\2RDRAW
00000A92: BA FF	 00002B62: 26 00  00004C32: C1 FF 00006D02: 18 FF 00008DD2: 00 FF
00000A93: 2E FF	 00002B63: 93 00  00004C33: 40 FF 00006D03: 00 FF 00008DD3: 00 FF
00000ABC: 44 FF	 00002B8C: DD 00  00004C5C: 22 FF 00006D2C: 00 FF 00008DFC: 00 FF
00000ABD: FB FF	 00002B8D: 46 00  00004C5D: 00 FF 00006D2D: 00 FF 00008DFD: 00 FF
00000AE6: FD FF	 00002BB6: 2E 00  00004C86: 10 FF 00006D56: C1 FF 00008E26: 00 FF
00000AE7: D3 FF	 00002BB7: 2E 00  00004C87: 00 FF 00006D57: 10 FF 00008E27: 00 FF
00000B10: D1 FF	 00002BE0: 32 00  00004CB0: 0C FF 00006D80: C8 FF 00008E50: 08 FF
00000B11: 75 FF	 00002BE1: 8E 00  00004CB1: 00 FF 00006D81: 01 FF 00008E51: 00 FF
00000B3A: BC FF	 00002C0A: 49 00  00004CDA: 06 FF 00006DAA: 84 FF 00008E7A: 04 FF
00000B3B: C3 FF	 00002C0B: 74 00  00004CDB: 08 FF 00006DAB: 01 FF 00008E7B: 00 FF
00000B64: 7D FF	 00002C34: C5 00  00004D04: 02 FF 00006DD4: 32 FF 00008EA4: 02 FF
00000B65: 17 FF	 00002C35: D8 00  00004D05: 20 FF 00006DD5: 03 FF 00008EA5: 00 FF
00000B8E: BB FF	 00002C5E: C6 00  00004D2E: 01 FF 00006DFE: 18 FF 00008ECE: 00 FF
00000BB8: 35 FF	 00002C5F: A8 00  00004D2F: 10 FF 00006DFF: 03 FF 00008ECF: 00 FF
00000BB9: 13 FF	 00002C88: 4B 00  00004D58: 80 FF 00006E28: 00 FF 00008EF8: 00 FF
00000BE2: 96 FF	 00002C89: B4 00  00004D59: 48 FF 00006E29: 03 FF 00008EF9: 00 FF
00000BE3: 33 FF	 00002CB2: 31 00  00004D82: C8 FF 00006E52: 02 FF 00008F22: 00 FF
00000C0D: BF FF	 00002CB3: 4C 00  00004D83: 80 FF 00006E53: 03 FF 00008F23: 00 FF
00000C36: 9F FF	 00002CDC: A8 00  00004DAC: 10 FF 00006E7C: 02 FF 00008F4C: 00 FF
00000C37: 7F FF	 00002CDD: C4 00  00004DAD: 00 FF 00006E7D: 19 FF 00008F4D: 00 FF
00000C60: C6 FF	 00002D06: 51 00  00004DD6: 20 FF 00006EA6: 84 FF 00008F76: 00 FF
00000C61: BF FF	 00002D07: C4 00  00004DD7: 00 FF 00006EA7: 31 FF 00008F77: 00 FF
00000C8A: 7D FF	 00002D30: 73 00  00004E00: 08 FF 00006ED0: 80 FF 00008FA0: 00 FF
00000C8B: 93 FF	 00002D31: 4C 00  00004E01: 00 FF 00006ED1: 01 FF 00008FA1: 00 FF
00000CB4: DB FF	 00002D5A: 8A 00  00004E2A: 04 FF 00006EFA: 40 FF 00008FCA: 00 FF
00000CB5: B7 FF	 00002D5B: 74 00  00004E2B: 08 FF 00006EFB: 81 FF 00008FCB: 00 FF
00000CDE: BC FF	 00002D84: 24 00  00004E54: 02 FF 00006F24: 90 FF 00008FF4: 00 FF
00000CDF: 8F FF	 00002D85: 68 00  00004E55: 10 FF 00006F25: 83 FF 00008FF5: 00 FF
		 00002DAE: 42 00  00004E7E: 01 FF 00006F4E: 18 FF 0000901E: 00 FF
		 00002DAF: 90 00  00004E7F: 60 FF 00006F4F: 07 FF 0000901F: 00 FF
				  00004EA8: 00 FF 00006F78: 3C FF 00009048: 00 FF
				  00004EA9: 00 FF 00006F79: 1F FF 00009049: 00 FF

[prowler]

Originally Posted by clenched

On act 4 there are some flames and a different value in the long word that is tested. It is also jerky with authentic Amiga tiles. When the value remains 0 such as the waterfall animation, it remains smooth.

Do you think this could be fixed with another patch to the executable?

Originally Posted by clenched

I never noticed trouble skipping forward through the levels but going backward from 7 to 3 caused the game to fall into an endless loop.

If that "bug" can only be triggered by skipping back more than one level, then it's not worth fixing, IMHO.

It looks as if I'll be shovelling snow tomorrow, but I'll try to run through the game again this weekend using the WIP3 disks one at a time. If I find nothing else, then I'm ready to accept what we have as the final version, unless a fix for the Act 4 flames animation can be found.

[clenched]

The first patch affects the flames already. The tiles cycle at a steady rate. I don't know the best way to deal with it. I agree the slime animation runs too fast at the beginning but when the screen starts to scroll and more enemies appear on the screen the graphics slow down. This makes the slime more believable to me.

Here are a few more quirks in the game. There is a trainer already activated in the game. Is this original? Added? Left activated on purpose? K=kill enemies H=full health.
Is this the reason the game quits to WB or CLI when final boss is defeated? (I've seen games for example that wouldn't display hi-scores if you cheated). Remember it is possible to TAB all the way to "THE END" screen.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by clenched

The first patch affects the flames already. The tiles cycle at a steady rate. I don't know the best way to deal with it. I agree the slime animation runs too fast at the beginning but when the screen starts to scroll and more enemies appear on the screen the graphics slow down. This makes the slime more believable to me.

I hadn't realized that the first patch affected the flames. Nevertheless, I had intended to have a good look at them today and, having done so, I can say that the improvement is such that you wouldn't notice anything amiss if your attention hadn't already been drawn to them. The tile cycling appears smooth enough, but there is some flickering which actually looks quite realistic, so I would say it's intended. The flames in the background are a little blocky and out of focus, but I suppose that's to add depth - and it works quite well if you squint a bit.

The slime animation too is now such that a newcomer to the game wouldn't see any problem with it and, really, when you consider how it's being done, it's amazing that it's even that good!

Originally Posted by clenched

Here are a few more quirks in the game. There is a trainer already activated in the game. Is this original? Added? Left activated on purpose? K=kill enemies H=full health.

That's news to me as well. Responding to reports about the game asking for the wrong disk, I have been trying to play the game with one disk at a time inserted. I've not yet been asked for the wrong disk, but I have found it's prone to hanging; either immediately - even with the right disk inserted - or later when it notices the other disk has been removed! On one occasion, following a successful diskchange, I pressed the H key to continue (only because it's near the centre of the keyboard ), but didn't notice any change. So either I wasn't looking, it's case-sensitive or it doesn't apply when the game is waiting for a keypress after a diskchange.

I've decided that my next attempt to run the game will be on a real machine.

Originally Posted by clenched

Is this the reason the game quits to WB or CLI when final boss is defeated? (I've seen games for example that wouldn't display hi-scores if you cheated). Remember it is possible to TAB all the way to "THE END" screen.

Final boss? I'd rather use the TAB key!

[Galahad/FLT]

Well done guys, great work

[CodyJarrett]

Thanks everyone! I've updated the HOL screens and added level maps:

http://hol.abime.net/979/screenshot
http://hol.abime.net/979/gamemap

[prowler]

Originally Posted by CodyJarrett

http://hol.abime.net/979/screenshot
http://hol.abime.net/979/gamemap

You've been busy! Thanks Cody!

[mai]

still no final?