pceDev16

21 days ago

Over the years, I've noticed Parodius Da! on the PCE has some weird color choices in some places. And in some other specific areas, color choices look kinda poor. Not something I would have expected from Konami. But hey.. maybe it had to do something with their compression scheme they use for the graphics, right? I mean, reducing detail does make stuff compress better. But I took a closer look today.. and found something very different. There are colors there.. that you cannot see. And I don't mean RGB vs YUV. I mean that they literally just repeated a color in an entry. For one, that's extremely wasteful. And it definitely doesn't help you out in compression (because the detail is still there.. because of 4bpp indice pixels). So they either had a bad conversion script - color sorting their stuff or maybe even color matching, some sort of conversion error, or the artist just fumbled hard haha. Here's an example of what I mean. Left is the original game, right is the same.. but I just tweaked the duplicate entries in the palette loaded in CRAM.. so that duplicate entries have unique colors. Granted, the entire game doesn't suffer from this - at least to this extent, but you can find instances of it everywhere. So left is original, right actually puts the duplicate entries to use.

turboxray's tweet photo. Over the years, I've noticed Parodius Da! on the PCE has some weird color choices in some places. And in some other specific areas, color choices look kinda poor. Not something I would have expected from Konami. But hey.. maybe it had to do something with their compression scheme they use for the graphics, right? I mean, reducing detail does make stuff compress better. But I took a closer look today.. and found something very different. There are colors there.. that you cannot see. And I don't mean RGB vs YUV. I mean that they literally just repeated a color in an entry.

For one, that's extremely wasteful. And it definitely doesn't help you out in compression (because the detail is still there.. because of 4bpp indice pixels). So they either had a bad conversion script - color sorting their stuff or maybe even color matching, some sort of conversion error, or the artist just fumbled hard haha.

Here's an example of what I mean. Left is the original game, right is the same.. but I just tweaked the duplicate entries in the palette loaded in CRAM.. so that duplicate entries have unique colors. Granted, the entire game doesn't suffer from this - at least to this extent, but you can find instances of it everywhere. So left is original, right actually puts the duplicate entries to use.

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PceDev16 retweeted

Mostly PC Engine and PC-FX reverse-engineering and development. I also contribute to MiSTer FPGA cores and a Mednafen fork. (hobby)

3 months ago

Patch for Saint Dragon on PC Engine to remove the crazy loud white noise of the dragons cannon so you can actually hear all the other music and sound effects https://t.co/yyFMz9FQlW

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Who to follow

David Shadoff

@Shadoff_d

Chris Covell

@covell_chris

Chris M. Covell https://t.co/yGXZKhomRH I'll be posting tech & retro dev stuff here, so watch out.

NEC PC-FX

@fx_nec

The premiere NEC PC-FX Twitter account 🎮 Japanese 32-Bit game console released by NEC in 1994 🇯🇵 Keeping the legacy alive! 📺

PceDev16 retweeted

regis.g.galland @GallandRegis

5 months ago

Prototype du mod RGB ultime pour la Pc-Engine. Il respecte les couleurs du composite NTSC! #pcengine #nec #retrogaming #polykubos

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PceDev16 retweeted

ルンピニーลุมพินี @ab2g2N2GQ13auMh

6 months ago

＃12月８日は何の日？「PCエンジンスーパーグラフィックス」発売日（11月30日？）発売予定だった大型コントローラー（約６万円、計約10万円）に合わせたデザインとサイズを持つPCE上位互換機高い定価、少ない専用ソフト、旧CD−ROM²系にそのまま接続不可と…デザイン性にも実用性にも疑問が…😅

ab2g2N2GQ13auMh's tweet photo. ＃12月８日は何の日？
「PCエンジンスーパーグラフィックス」発売日（11月30日？）

発売予定だった大型コントローラー（約６万円、計約10万円）に合わせたデザインとサイズを持つPCE上位互換機

高い定価、少ない専用ソフト、旧CD−ROM²系にそのまま接続不可と…デザイン性にも実用性にも疑問が…😅 https://t.co/2ZjRAEjiCX

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PceDev16 retweeted

8 months ago

SGX/PC-SG Ghouls 'n Ghost hack update. Left original, right has replacement assets from the arcade. Getting a system down for loading the replacement sprite assets.

turboxray's tweet photo. SGX/PC-SG Ghouls 'n Ghost hack update. Left original, right has replacement assets from the arcade. Getting a system down for loading the replacement sprite assets. https://t.co/TkfkxcmXvH

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PceDev16 retweeted

8 months ago

It feels like the right time to start giving the SuperGrafx some love. We've got Mister, emulators, SHD3Pro addon (that gives SGX support to regular systems), etc - the available audience is larger now. There's probably more owners of the SGX original hardware now too. With that, I'm gonna kick off a public repo for hacking Ghouls n Ghosts. Anybody will be able to follow (and contribute too). First update: full 384x240 resolution with arcade pixel perfect PAR. Tested on the real system, and in Mesen 2 emulator. It's pretty amazing. Second update: upgraded the rom to use SF2 mapper. So far, just upgraded to 2.5megabytes (although the mapper supports up to 8.5megabytes). If this goes well, probably adapt this into an arcade card CD option too - for those of your that rock a tricked out SGX+ACD system. Third update: As a proof of concept, for the SF2 mapper, took the arcade "reaper" assets 1:1 and replaced the ones in the original game (using a fast load routine rom the expanded rom area). Why? Because in order to fit ALL the frames and details into the original hucard, they compressed the hell out of the graphics. 99% of sprites use 3bit color (7 colors). Tiles for the foreground use 3bit color (7 colors) and even some 2bit color (3 colors) tiles. And the far BG layer? That's almost exclusively 2bit color (4 colors this time). The thing is, that saved on rom space.. but when put into VRAM? It takes up the SAME space as 4bit pixels (15 or 16 colors) in vram regardless. I think most down-colored assets look fine in the original game, but some are hurt by this. The game goes out of its way to include tons of frames of animation - it's kind of impressive. But what would be more impressive? Using the full 4bit color for those cells. And taking assets from CPS-1 arcade game, to replace these assets.. is easy! Because they didn't rescale the graphics - sprites are 1:1 to the arcade. Here's a few pics. Reaper test compare: left is the original, right is my test replacement assets loaded from expanded memory. Second pic shows off the 384px wide screen with arcade PAR (grave stone palette is messed up because I didn't update the asset for the palette change)

turboxray's tweet photo. It feels like the right time to start giving the SuperGrafx some love. We've got Mister, emulators, SHD3Pro addon (that gives SGX support to regular systems), etc - the available audience is larger now. There's probably more owners of the SGX original hardware now too.

With that, I'm gonna kick off a public repo for hacking Ghouls n Ghosts. Anybody will be able to follow (and contribute too).

First update: full 384x240 resolution with arcade pixel perfect PAR. Tested on the real system, and in Mesen 2 emulator. It's pretty amazing.

Second update: upgraded the rom to use SF2 mapper. So far, just upgraded to 2.5megabytes (although the mapper supports up to 8.5megabytes). If this goes well, probably adapt this into an arcade card CD option too - for those of your that rock a tricked out SGX+ACD system.

Third update: As a proof of concept, for the SF2 mapper, took the arcade "reaper" assets 1:1 and replaced the ones in the original game (using a fast load routine rom the expanded rom area).
Why? Because in order to fit ALL the frames and details into the original hucard, they compressed the hell out of the graphics. 99% of sprites use 3bit color (7 colors). Tiles for the foreground use 3bit color (7 colors) and even some 2bit color (3 colors) tiles. And the far BG layer? That's almost exclusively 2bit color (4 colors this time).
The thing is, that saved on rom space.. but when put into VRAM? It takes up the SAME space as 4bit pixels (15 or 16 colors) in vram regardless. I think most down-colored assets look fine in the original game, but some are hurt by this.
The game goes out of its way to include tons of frames of animation - it's kind of impressive. But what would be more impressive? Using the full 4bit color for those cells. And taking assets from CPS-1 arcade game, to replace these assets.. is easy! Because they didn't rescale the graphics - sprites are 1:1 to the arcade.

Here's a few pics. Reaper test compare: left is the original, right is my test replacement assets loaded from expanded memory. Second pic shows off the 384px wide screen with arcade PAR (grave stone palette is messed up because I didn't update the asset for the palette change)

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PceDev16 retweeted

8 months ago

For years now.. I've been trying to figure out why Darius Alpha, the all-boss special promotional hucard, advertised "PC-SG" on the packaging, but I never saw it enable SGX stuff. Turns out, my rom is patched to bypass using SGX completely. And I've had to re-download sets over the years (from different sites) - because I've checked on this in the past and came to the same conclusion that it didn't enable SGX support. So that means I kept getting the same rom. Anyway, this looks deliberate. Fixing the bypass, obviously fixes the rom (one opcode change from BRA to BNE at the start of the rom). I also found "Seil's Emulator Site" in the header of the rom. I bet this was patched back when SGX emulation was iffy or non-existent - way back. BTW, I saw RndStranger did an episode talking about the "Alpha" version also being SGX "enhanced", but apparently he was using the same patched rom hahah. You can easily tell, because the "PCE" patched version - the bosses flicker even on SGX. Apparently RND got Seil'd too. Seil.. you bastard!

turboxray's tweet photo. For years now.. I've been trying to figure out why Darius Alpha, the all-boss special promotional hucard, advertised "PC-SG" on the packaging, but I never saw it enable SGX stuff.

Turns out, my rom is patched to bypass using SGX completely. And I've had to re-download sets over the years (from different sites) - because I've checked on this in the past and came to the same conclusion that it didn't enable SGX support. So that means I kept getting the same rom.

Anyway, this looks deliberate. Fixing the bypass, obviously fixes the rom (one opcode change from BRA to BNE at the start of the rom). I also found "Seil's Emulator Site" in the header of the rom. I bet this was patched back when SGX emulation was iffy or non-existent - way back.

BTW, I saw RndStranger did an episode talking about the "Alpha" version also being SGX "enhanced", but apparently he was using the same patched rom hahah. You can easily tell, because the "PCE" patched version - the bosses flicker even on SGX. Apparently RND got Seil'd too. Seil.. you bastard!

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PceDev16 retweeted

8 months ago

I created a patch for US version of R-Type that not only restores the full sprite line bandwidth (the US version has wait states on vram unlike the Japanese PC-Engine hucards). But I also modded the game to show 368 pixels horizontally; 368x224 res. Not that difficult of a hack since the port uses the arcades dimensions and logic. I need to find a place to host the IPS patch.

turboxray's tweet photo. I created a patch for US version of R-Type that not only restores the full sprite line bandwidth (the US version has wait states on vram unlike the Japanese PC-Engine hucards). But I also modded the game to show 368 pixels horizontally; 368x224 res.

Not that difficult of a hack since the port uses the arcades dimensions and logic. I need to find a place to host the IPS patch.

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PceDev16 retweeted

9 months ago

New build of HuCC for PC Engine development is up on GitHub. #PCEngine #TurboGrafx #TurboDuo #gamedev #homebrew #IndieGameDev https://t.co/Vsqc7Nrzlb And here's a description of the update:

Paranoia_Dragon's tweet photo. New build of HuCC for PC Engine development is up on GitHub.

#PCEngine #TurboGrafx #TurboDuo #gamedev #homebrew #IndieGameDev

https://t.co/Vsqc7Nrzlb

And here's a description of the update: https://t.co/HApbv75BcY

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PceDev16 retweeted

9 months ago

New version of HuCC, fixes a MAJOR BUG in the old HuC-compatible scrolling routines. Also, developers can now create up 16KBytes of C `const` data (which includes anonymous C string constants), a significant boost up from the previous 8KByte limit. https://t.co/Vsqc7Nrzlb

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PceDev16 retweeted

lunoka retrodev🎨👨‍💻🎹🕹️ @lunokaretro

10 months ago

There's a new HuCC build available that fixes a bad bug in HuCC's optimizer that was breaking "+= <constant>" on an unsigned char array. #PCEngine #TurboGrafx #TurboDuo #NEC #HudsonSoft #HuCC #gamedev #IndieGameDev #homebrew https://t.co/MK3yopHScA

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PceDev16 retweeted

10 months ago

As a reminder, here is my last retro project for 8/16 bit consoles 😄, you can download it for free on my itchio page (in bio), have fun and don't hesitate to comment! 😎 Focused on SMS, PCE ,MD & SNes for the future🔥🔥 #homebrew #retrogaming https://t.co/YhqdGETaIx

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PceDev16 retweeted