Turrican 3.5 Final Mission

[Shoonay]

Łukasz Maniewski released a new levelpack for T2002, based roughly on Turrican 3.

Grab it here: http://www.turricanforever.de/setalevelbase

See it in action: [ Show youtube player ]

[Amiga1992]

This game looks interesting, thanks for sharing.
Shame it only runs in PCs, would be awesome in the Caanoo or Pandora (unless I missed mentions of a port...)

[Shoonay]

It also runs on GBA

[Amiga1992]

Really?! Damn I didn't look enough. That should do it! Let's try it :")
How do you put these levels in the GBA version? Is that possible?

[msantos]

waoooo...nice!!!

[Shoonay]

Originally Posted by Akira

How do you put these levels in the GBA version? Is that possible?

Oh yeah, adding those could prove very difficult... no idea how you, erm, hack, inside GBA roms, but there is only a slight chance the directory structure or the file formats will match.
Guess if there would be enough people interested they would think about making it possible.

[Conundrum]

This needs to be open sourced and ported to other systems.

[lilalurl]

It all depends on how people at Pekaro Software did the GBA version, which was made available only recently (perhaps there was a beta version before? I don't remember):
http://www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/

If it uses data files from the PC version, it may be possible to simply replace the files, which is basically what the level packs for the PC version do if I understand correctly.


I am pretty sure I have seen some GBA homebrews which came with sources and a make.exe.
So if the people at Pekaro Soft. share the sources and it is can be compiled easily, then there is a chance to use the level packs.

I have not tried the GBA version yet, but I suppose there have been trade-offs to make a portable version.

I suppose that custom graphics would need to be resized/reworked to be put in a GBA version.
Perhaps only replacing the level files in the sources would work, letting you play the custom levels with the original graphics (not sure what would become of sounds and musics).


I know there are some tools to explore NDS roms and extract some assets and even replace them. Not sure if that is the case for the GBA.

So I believe that unless the sources are released there is little chance to play custom levels on the GBA. At least, there is the original T2002 to play.



Edit: I just tried the GBA version with not much luck.
I don't own a GBA but I tried:
- on a DS (lite using WoodR4 which normally runs GBA games and homebrews fine). The game starts but get stuck at the GBA logo screen (with the Nintendo logo garbled).
- on the gPSP emulator. The game runs very slowly. Perhaps there are some settings to tweak but I highly doubt there will be a massive change.

Checking the readme, it mentions:

2) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

T2002 GBA runs on Game Boy Advance emulators, such as Visual Boy Advance (http://vba.ngemu.com).

No mention of an actual GBA. So I wonder if the game is actually playable on a real GBA. Perhaps it needed too much power, with emulators being the only platforms able to run it a full speed, which would explain why it was not released until recently.

Anyway, if someone can manage to make it work at a playable speed on a GBA, I'd be very interested to know.

[Amiga1992]

That's sad. I will give it a test today and let you know, I gotta find my GBA flash cart.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

No mention of an actual GBA. So I wonder if the game is actually playable on a real GBA. Perhaps it needed too much power, with emulators being the only platforms able to run it a full speed, which would explain why it was not released until recently.

Anyway, if someone can manage to make it work at a playable speed on a GBA, I'd be very interested to know.

I'm 99% certain that it can also run on Flashcards. GBA emulators didn't emulate the hardware out of specifics, so if it's playable on there, you can also play it on a real GBA.

The only things excluding it from working on a real GBA might be specific flashcards incompatibilities (rare, but they do exist) or some programming mistake that only happens on real hardware but not on emulators

[Amiga1992]

I have tried to write the GBA image to my flashcard repeatedly to no avail. It seems like this thing is not made properly. Perhaps it has a faulty or missing header?

[lilalurl]

I have sent a mail to the Pekaro team address pointing them here explaining the issues we are having at running the GBA version.

I have also asked them about how feasible it would be to use custom levels with the GBA version (supposing we can get it to work ).


I'll post here if I get a personal reply. Otherwise I invited them to register, in which case they will probably post soon.

[Amiga1992]

The levels seem to be many MB long. I doubt that data can fit in a GBA cart.
In any case, I tried putting the ROM underneath a multigame menu too, and it didn't work either. Neither the ROM on its own or under a menu is being recognized as a valid GBA ROM so I suspect it might be a header issue.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by Akira

Neither the ROM on its own or under a menu is being recognized as a valid GBA ROM so I suspect it might be a header issue.

You are correct. I just fixed the header with GBA header-tool (by deixu) and it works on the DS. I still need to try on gpSP to see if it fixes the slowness.

Here is the fixed ROM if someone is interested (with Circle of the Moon header ).


I have found a small issue. Some power ups from power up blocks "jump" into non accessible areas. For instance, I had some power ups appear in the rock on the left when shooting the power up block located on the left of the first area you have to fall into in level 1 (a bit before your first encounter with a dragon head).

[Coagulus]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

You are correct. I just fixed the header with GBA header-tool (by deixu) and it works on the DS. I still need to try on gpSP to see if it fixes the slowness.

Here is the fixed ROM if someone is interested (with Circle of the Moon header ).


I have found a small issue. Some power ups from power up blocks "jump" into non accessible areas. For instance, I had some power ups appear in the rock on the left when shooting the power up block located on the left of the first area you have to fall into in level 1 (a bit before your first encounter with a dragon head).

Yep, that works on my CycloDS with EZflash! Shame there's no up for jump. Will take some getting used to!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

You are correct. I just fixed the header with GBA header-tool (by deixu) and it works on the DS. I still need to try on gpSP to see if it fixes the slowness.

That's awesome! I am glad we got to fix this problem together
You should notify the author

[lilalurl]

So, after a few mails back and forth with the author (Karsten, who gave me permission to quote his mails here):

- He is aware of the issue on real hardware. No header was put because of copyright reason (Nintendo logo in the header). So, officially , T2002 for GBA is for emulators only.

- About custom levels:

This is much more difficult because the GBA is limited in graphics and memory. That is why I had a lot of work in order to adapt the original levels and tile sets to the GBA. I do not think that it is possible to use any custom levels without a large rework. Also the GBA and T2002 have no file system. The levels are included in the source code and have to be compiled too.

- About my issue (powerups in wall) and Coagulus' complaint:

- Power ups in the wall - not very nice, I know...
- Jump Button - is GBA / DS / console standard. (Please give it a try. Trust me, you will like it soon.)

- I also told him I had noticed that when you are in the option menu, music 5 does not play. Apparently this is normal because:

There is no music in level 5. (Sorry for that in the option menu.)

PS: Akira, you managed to lose 2 lives so early in the game?
Well, I must admit that the enemies seem to be harder to shake off compared to the original games, so energy drains very quickly.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

PS: Akira, you managed to lose 2 lives so early in the game?

Haha!
I was focused on taking a pic and also, I found the controls a bit odd, specially with jumping. The smaller screen is no help too, I am too used to AMiga's T2

Thanks for all this data! I guess we should make do with what we have It's a nice little one to have around when playing on the road!

[clauddio]

Originally Posted by Shoonay

It also runs on GBA

Turrican 3.5 doesn't run on gba
T2002 just was done for gba and is very buggy I just tested it

on the other way Turrican 3.5 is fantastic
I just downloaded it.....asks for a file named bass.dll which I downloaded from the web....then worked fine
The music is awesome style of chris H and the levels are really intelligent and well done

btw, the game looks a bit pixelated it runs on a 640x480 screen cause it uses the T2002 engine

I will suggest the author to add a filter like 2x sai or scale2x or scale 3x to make the game nicest

[Qube]

This is good stuff!

Has anybody else had an issue where the 2nd level just shows only the sprite and no level detail etc (unplayable)? I've used T-Starter to launch the levelpack but can't progress...

Cheers,

Q;