King Zenith

Well, I don't know if I have too many tips.  Maybe just a quick overview of what you can do with VBA:  To rip your own stuff, you can use Visual Boy Advance's numerous debug tools. Here are some examples taken from DWM2 GBC (Cobi version):

Here is the screen from which I wanted to grab tiles:



If you want to see the scene without any sprites, you can use the Debug tool "Map Viewer". Here is the result:



You can go a bit further and view only the tilesets for this screen by using the Debug Tool "Tile Viewer". Results:



You can also apply any available palette to a given tileset through the same tool. Example:



If you don't mind piecing together the individual tiles, they are broken up for you and made available individually from the "OAM Viewer" tool. Example of the upper left portion of Cobi's Sprite:



That's just scratching the surface, but should be enough for most rip jobs.  Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for letting me know. Maybe some day I will have enough courage to download the emulator and roms . I have fear of viruses

 

If you let me know what you want, I can package everything up for you and send it to you along with a virus scan report. 

I found that GGsrk from GameFAQs forums had uploaded memory cards with everything unlocked in Code Breaker and Max Drive format.  I converted these to PCSX2 memory cards and was off to the races.

Exciting update time! I have not only finished the Real World tileset map, but I have also produced the hybrid real-world / undersea map.  Here are the two finished maps:

 

 

 

 

I am pretty damn happy with how they turned out.  I do have a few questions about people's preference for the hybrid map:

 

- I have left the overworld shoals visible since I think it gives good context on where you need to go undersea and where you can just sail on the ocean surface.  Does it look ok with these shoals visible or do they clash too badly with the undersea shoals?

 

- There are a few important places in the undersea map that are obstructed by overworld features.  For example, the undersea cave under Somnia castle and the undersea passage that takes you to the Chateau de Sass are both hidden (or partially hidden).  I could try to partially mitigate this by blending the overworld and undersea map layers together using a partial transparency of the overworld layer just in those spots.  Maybe there are better solutions.  Ideas?

 

- It's a little strange to me in areas where there are bridges because it isn't completely obvious whether an undersea vessel could pass underneath.

 

In any case, I am ecstatic to be done with the real world map.  It was a lot more work than I anticipated.  Now I will move on to the Dream World Overworld Tileset and try to polish that off so I can get back to my DQ8 playthrough and cut-scene ripping project.

Well, Monsters with the "Steady Recovery" trait can do this.  For Skills, Reheal is one that will achieve this as well I believe.

Well, at least the new mod system is working.  Got that topic closed down now.  Just need Woodus to come back and drop the hammer again.

 

I don't mind Woodus giving people a second chance.  Unfortunately, you were certainly right in this case.

Ok, I just gave it a test and it seemed to work.  I hid my DQ6DS Tileset map topic, and then restored it again.  Let me know if you want to test more extensively.

I am not sure if the ROM for this game has been dumped yet, but I think it is a moot point so far unless some strides have been made at unpacking them.  The only 3DS music rips I have seen have been "line-out" dumps which aren't usually the best quality.

 

While the music may well be a rehash of the Symphonic Suite, I like to have the tracks ripped directly so we don't need to have two or three pieces melded together into a single track.  I also have heard that some of the looping was a bit different in the 3DS version.  All subtle stuff of course, but if I can find a way to rip it, I will.

With the Dragon Quest IV maps out of the way, I have started work on the DQV DS tileset maps now.  Here is the plan of attack:

1) Faerie Realm Map (Spring Version)
2) Nadiria Map
3) Faerie Realm Map (Winter Version)
4) Overworld map

Since the first maps in the queue are relatively small, I have already finished the first one.  Here it is:




Next up, Nadiria!

It's funny, everyone keeps drawing the comparison to the DWM2 keys, but if I understand their function properly, it is slightly more similar to the color orb system in Caravan Heart.

For those who aren't familiar with it, in DQM3: Caravan Heart, you use a combination of 1 - 4 colored orbs to give rise to a new random dungeon / tower where you can battle strong enemies, and fight bonus bosses for special rewards.  The size of dungeon, type of dungeon and the boss at the end is directly related to how you combine the orbs on the pedestals.

I am assuming that the bonus shard system in DQ7 will also require a combination of shards (possibly of different types?) to give rise to a new random dungeon.  This is different from the key system in DQM2, since that only requires a single key.  It's also different from the grotto system in DQ9 since that requires only a single grotto map.

I would guess that these bonus shards will be found around the DQ7 world in random dungeons (similar to the grotto dungeon system of DQ9 and the monster lair dungeon system of DQM3 Caravan Heart).  Then, once you have collected enough random shards to fill a bonus pedestal, you can use it to access the new bonus shard dungeon.

Anyway, all of this is wildly speculative since we don't have sufficient details yet to understand how it would work.  I think this is how I would like to work though, but beggars can't be choosers and I will be happy with whatever we may get.


PS. It would be awesome if the bonus shard dungeons had the Caravan Heart Spirits as bosses.  A guy can dream...

Wrong about calling DQIV a port of the PSX version.  While graphically they look similiar, they are pretty different.  Different maps.  I'm not entirely sure they're even on the same engine, to be honest.

That's interesting to hear.  I know that the Pioneer town is different (at least in terms of how you get Pioneers).  Outside of that, this is the first I have heard of anything being different, be it graphically or otherwise.  I have ripped maps from both versions to compare and I can say that the Overworld map is identical (pixel to pixel matching while creating the tileset maps).  I also have ripped the bestiary from both and the sprites are identical (though the DS ones are animated, while the PSX ones only animate when they are attacking...).  Additionally, the character and monster stats and data are identical between the two versions.

Which maps are different? Would it just be some dungeon maps?

Out of curiosity, how similar does something have to be for it to be considered a "port" versus a remake?  If the only difference between these two versions was that monster sprites were animated, would that still be considered a port, or is that sufficient grounds to call it a remake?

Still crunching away on this project.  I am getting pretty close to finishing it now (well the DQ4DS map anyway).  See the first post above for the current progress.  I just need to finish the World Tree continent, add the continent that has Dire Palace (Diabolic Hall), and then add in the Gottside (Azimuth) stuff.  I will do the Azimuth as a separate map I guess because that's how it appears in game.

Here are some interesting facts about this map:

1) The size of this map is 4096x4096 which is exactly the same size as the NES map.  if you overlay the two, everything lines up as it should.  I wasn't expecting this because I thought I had heard that the scale or aspect ratio of the map changed in this version.

2) The graphics for the map in the DS version are exactly the same as the graphics for the PSX version of this game.  I spliced in some areas from the PSX version to see if I could see any difference, and I couldn't tell at all.  I expected the colors to be slightly different and the resolution to be a bit grainier on the PSX, but that was not the case.

3) In addition to the ocean being a dynamic layer (which I will edit in later as a single consistent pattern), even the forest, mountains some grasslands are dynamic too.  You need to snap them on the same frame or they will be off by a pixel.  The desert pixels are not dynamic though.

4) There are currently 515 layers spliced together to make the map in its current form.  Probably looking at another 75 - 100 before it's done.  It's hard not to burn out on a project like this.  DQ6 DS is going to be murder with it's two complete overworlds...

Anyway, I expect this map will be fully done in the next week or two.  After that, I will probably go back to doing some more DQ8 cut-scenes before starting on the DQ5 DS maps.

Ha ha.  No puff-puff questions yet.  I will probably just try to avoid that scenario.  If a monster Puff-Puff's us, I'll just make something up that sounds innocent enough.

They haven't been playing this much lately since they are hooked on Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure at the moment.  Pretty fun game and good for the kids.  They're favorite thing to do in that is to level up their various Skylanders and upgrade their skills.  *sniff* makes me so proud.

I wonder if they're going to stick with "God," or as they'd more likely call him, The Allmighty, or go with the Goddess this time around...

Looks like they are going to call him Numen.  Google tells me it means godhead or divinity.  I can't help but think of the Seinfeld character when I say that name though.

I have played it and beat it, only once though.  I would love to play it again.  Making it portable is a big plus for me since I have a lot more time on the go than I do at home.