/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.10281356]

anyone up for a maria thread?

[Anonymous No.10281362]

What is that sprite?

[Anonymous No.10281365]

>>10281362
an edit to make her look closer to her cutscene design

[Anonymous No.10281379]

>>10281365
Are you the guy who was doing the harem outfit from a while back? Those threads had promise.

[Anonymous No.10281381]

>>10281356
>>10281365
Not bad actually, is it in game?

[Anonymous No.10281386]

while i'm at it, can i have good quality official rondo maria artwork? i need reference material for something and i don't trust art quality from wikis
>>10281379
no i'm a different guy from that thread. i recently updated my cutscene design maria sprite in anticipation of another replay of rondo on halloween
>>10281381
sadly no, i don't have the technical skills for a mod

[Anonymous No.10281951]

>>10281379

[Anonymous No.10282098]

I unironically prefer the SNES designs

[Anonymous No.10282104]

>>10282098
annette i'll give you that, but maria definitely isn't
on a sidenote i still don't understand what maria is doing here

[Anonymous No.10282106]

>>10281356
I haven't played Castlevania in a while. Was mostly just playing Bloodlines over and over, started Chronicles but never finished, and still haven't started Symphony of the Night after probably over a year of planning to play it

[Anonymous No.10282773]

[Anonymous No.10282783]

>>10282104
Richter and Annette are about to kiss each other and Maria is shy about these things, but she still want to watch.

[Anonymous No.10282787]

>>10282106
Chronicles is one of the hardest Castlevanias. A good game, but probably not a good starting point.

[Anonymous No.10282790]

>>10282106
>still haven't started Symphony of the Night after probably over a year of planning to play it
I started SotN like 5 times and gave up an hour in every time

[Anonymous No.10282791]

>>10282787
Chronicles Original mode/X68k is definitely THE hardest Castlevania game. Next is Dracula X and then 3US

[Anonymous No.10283441]

>>10282104

and the other endings of that same videogame?

[Anonymous No.10283454]

>>10282098
Love the artstyle, it's like a goth manga

[Anonymous No.10284314]

>>10282787
Arrange Mode is easy as fuck
t. shitter

[Anonymous No.10284319]

>>10281356

[Anonymous No.10284328]

>>10282791
Chronicles (ps1) is harder but for the very wrong reasons.

[Anonymous No.10284838]

what happened to the anons from the old thread?

[Anonymous No.10285896]

>>10284838
I remember that thread. I think the artist said life obligations got in the way.

[Anonymous No.10285916]

>>10282773
Damn, 12 year olds look like THAT?!

[Anonymous No.10285931]

>>10282791
from the ones I played it's:

III > SOTN Maria > I > SOTN Richter > II > SOTN Alucard

[Anonymous No.10285961]

>>10284314
That's the point. It's literally loser mode. That's why Simon looks like a clown. It's meant to make you feel like a fag. Like how the easy mode they added to the Nicalis version of Cave Story makes you feel like an idiot, or how Konami games tended not to give you the real endings unless you played on hard.

[Anonymous No.10285963]

>>10285931
>SOTN Maria
Which one?

[Anonymous No.10285970]

>>10285963
Saturn. wdym?

[Anonymous No.10285971]

>>10284838
>>10285896
that was a mockup anyways sadly, and it seemed to much of a project anyways.

[Anonymous No.10285973]

>>10285971
even if it was too much of a project to be made, some good art and ideas still came out of it, so it's alright.

[Anonymous No.10285992]

>>10285970
There's two versions of SOTN Maria since she didn't exist in playable/boss form in the original release. The Saturn version is loosely based on unseen assets for the cut bad-end boss dubbed "Black Maria". When IGA revisted Symphony of the Night for the unlockable port in The Dracula X Chronicles, by popular demand, he made his own version of Maria from scratch that acts more like her Rondo self, which is also in the Requiem compilation.
SatMaria is a LOT better as a boss per her roots, but PSP/PS4Maria actually plays more like you'd expect, so both have a place in the game's history.

[Anonymous No.10286303]

>>10285992
is this connected to the unused final boss or is it just a play on that red mage outfit she wears when you put in the combo?
i hope we get a resource dump of some sort of sotn- at least in a future castlevania complation. im very curious if the saturn ver was accurate in the theme of what was supposed to be below the starting area.

[Anonymous No.10286364]

>>10286303
>im very curious if the saturn ver was accurate in the theme of what was supposed to be below the starting area.
One of the previous threads a while back theorized that the original idea was that the trap door was just a shortcut to the underground. Seen very crudely in this image, the PlayStation version pf the passage lines up with the leftmost point of the waterfall area. It's also possible that this was replaced with the connecting point for the entrance area that was used. The garden and prison areas were not originally planned.

[Anonymous No.10286401]

>>10282790
SotN is the game for people who hate Castlevania.

[Anonymous No.10286403]

>>10282787
The werewolf boss battle is a coin toss. The rest of the game can be mastered.

[Anonymous No.10286432]

>>10286364
i figured it was a proper location and the succubus was its designated boss since the underground cavern already features the snake lady making that the only area to feature 2 fights. also the inverted version only has 1 battle for that area. then again technically the marble gallery and starting areas dont have bosses either so who knows.

[Anonymous No.10286442]

>>10286303
>is this connected to the unused final boss or is it just a play on that red mage outfit she wears when you put in the combo?
Unused final boss. That's probably why her battle is much harder on Saturn than PSP/PS4. I don't know about a red combo outfit. You mean her Guardian Knuckle move?

[Anonymous No.10286448]

oh its a purp jabroni outfit. idk why i remember it as a classic final fantasy red mage

[Anonymous No.10286453]

>>10282104

[Anonymous No.10286454]

>>10286448
The Dracula X Chronicles changed up the design in the 3D remake and Symphony ports, ans for some reason the former looks a lot like what you're thinking of.

[Anonymous No.10287091]

[Anonymous No.10287634]

>>10281356
>>10286454
Can I talk for a moment about my love/hate relationship with Noctirne Maria?
>uses the crappy DXC design that was just made for simplified 3D
>>admittedly makes sense because her personality wouldn't fit the usual "innocent" designs
>Maria's parents aren't nobles, which might've been an interesting angle to have on the show
>>we actually see her parents and Speaker/Church union is also an interesting take
>I guess Shaft was too dull to adapt as-is
>>WAIT, what the FUCK is Alucard doing here?!
>As for the Belmonts, Juste was a good choice, as was the item crash / flame whip explanation
>>Why the HELL doesn't Juste talk about Simon?!

[Anonymous No.10287675]

>>10287634
tell me more about netflix maria? how bad did they butcher her?

[Anonymous No.10287749]

>>10287634
Nocturne Maria isn't at all like Rondo Maria. She's closer to Symphony Maria, but she's really more like Sypha if she were more like a kid sister than a love interest.
In the games, Maria's parents were local nobles killed by Dracula, and Maria herself was captured by Shaft. Richter (optionally) saves her and meets her for the first time. Her latent powers were unlocked when Shaft was doing that ritual on her, and it's not really clear if that was intentional on Shaft's part to make her a minion or if he was just intending to sacrifice her as one of the maidens. Rondo Maria has that childlike personality not just because she's a preteen there, but because she was sheltered all her life, making her "pure."
IN NOCTURNE, Maria is NOT a preteen like in Rondo, but rather, is MUCH closer in age to her Symphony self (why they didn't just use that design, I don't know). She lives with her mom and Richter, who's only three years older than her here. She has a different upbringing which makes her somewhat more uncouth than she normally is. Her mom ("Tera" - yeah, like one of the maidens) is basically a peasant and taught her magic. Maria is also enamoured with the ideals of the French Revolution, and is sort of a pint-sized orator (note that Richter sailed in from Boston, so it does make a little more sense he'd be there and it plants the seeds for the Belmonts' American relatives, but again, you could've told a more interesting story if Maria wasn't staunchly anti-aristocrat from the start). It's revealed midway through that her dad (which I'll call NotShaft because his real name is forgettable) is alive and one of the high-ranking members of the Church allied with the vampire-crossing nobility, who helped Tera out when she fled from the East. Oh, and Alucard shows up to save Richter after he saves Maria, cliffhanger.

The only constant is that her family is distantly related to the Belmonts, and therefore she's got vampire hunting in her blood.

[Anonymous No.10287752]

>>10287749
i'm gonna bomb netflix hq

[Anonymous No.10287756]

>>10287675
She’s a strong independent sassy neurodivergent trans autistic vegan negro Muslim woman who hates capitalism and fights the patriarchy

[Anonymous No.10287772]

>>10287634
>crappy DXC design

[Anonymous No.10287826]

>>10286448
>>10286454
Also, it's a Jojo reference, with adult Maria version subtly changed to double as a Darkstalkers reference. I..don't know what they were thinking with the oneshot "red mage" version ngl
>>10287634
>crappy DXC design
At least Richter looks okay as a blend of his existing designs, was a little worried we wouldn't get the iconic OG headband but at least it's not the DXC ascot.

[Anonymous No.10287831]

>>10282104
She was gonna make the cunnlingus sign over her mouth but got confused and put it over her eye.

[Anonymous No.10287893]

>>10282098
We all know Richter gave up on saving his prewallhitting 17 year old gf and started fucking her fertile sister.

[Anonymous No.10287913]

>>10282098
Oh no Richter Belmont's going to get cancelled

[Anonymous No.10287967]

>>10282098
I always thought it was funny that Iga mogged her SNES design right down to the "hey she can be a boss" idea, but say, have you folks met Netflix Annette?
In fairness, Anette barely has character in the games, but if they were gonna basically do a new character like NotShaft then the least they could've done was give her another name too.

[Anonymous No.10288256]

>>10287749
And Orlox is a globohomo

[Anonymous No.10288257]

>>10287749
Now tell them about Annette

[Anonymous No.10288446]

>>10287967
>>10288257

[Anonymous No.10288628]

>>10287749
The scripts to these shows are mass-produced and then get retrofitted into whatever franchise a show is being commissioned for. There's no better way to me to explain why these shows are so shit and completely off the mark. It's basically just a generic fantasy story with Castlevania skin on top

[Anonymous No.10288672]

>>10287967
>that Tolkien quote about how evil can only destroy

[Anonymous No.10288716]

>>10288628
its hardly anything new anon

[Anonymous No.10288764]

>>10287749
>another "le chrch iz ebul" story
i mean they are but c'mon you already told this story

[Anonymous No.10288801]

>>10287967

[Anonymous No.10288893]

>>10287749

made by netflix? that is not good

[Anonymous No.10288930]

Just beat Rondo of Blood. I was a bit disappointed that they gave Dracula exactly the same attack pattern as in CV1, I was expecting him to go 3rd phase after his monster form. That Satan Dracula in SNES is much harder

[Anonymous No.10288949]

>>10288930
>I was expecting him to go 3rd phase after his monster form.
The best thing -The. Best. Thing.- about Dracula X Chronicles is that it adds three bosses to the game that feel like they could've been in the original game: Lesser Vampire Annette, Hydra, and a third-form Dracula.
Man, I wish there was a ROM hack that added them, and Maria boss to PlayStation Symphony.

[Anonymous No.10288961]

>>10288628
Sometimes scripts are retrofitted, but more often the writers just don't give a single fuck. No one working on these video game adaptation shows cares about the source material at all, period, no matter what they say in interviews. They don't care. They care about getting it done, and they care about writing the shows so that women will watch them, and that's it.

[Anonymous No.10288972]

>>10288930
the classic CV games are all little more than updated reskins

[Anonymous No.10289000]

>>10288930
cant teach an old drac new tricks

[Anonymous No.10289208]

DID SOMEBODY SAY MARIA

[Anonymous No.10289220]

Whats the best way to play this game?

[Anonymous No.10289239]

>>10287749
"Who the Hell is Dracula?" - a phrase that she, herself, may have said.

[Anonymous No.10289247]

>>10289239
"Dracula my Balls"

[Anonymous No.10289254]

>>10289220
Any is fine. Rondo in Dracula X Chronicles and Requiem collection has the cutscene audio out of sync, and for some reason they really shipped the game like that and didn't fix it the second time around. I'd say Requiem collection is the weakest way, because it doesn't come with the 3D remake to compensate for emulation shortcomings like that.
As for Symphony, I really like the fan-translation, despite a few minor quibbles with a few names deviating from the GBA/DS version, but that's nothing compared to how much the official version arbitrarily changes.

[Anonymous No.10289273]

>>10281356
When will that romhack finish?

[Anonymous No.10289275]

>>10282773
I remember this.
You get a secret tech item that basically do unique screen nukes at bosses. All of them had different skimpy poses.

Konami was fucking wild back then.

[Anonymous No.10289279]

>>10287634
>Netflixvania
Anything new

[Anonymous No.10289286]

>>10289254
Those are some huge breasts

[Anonymous No.10289290]

test

[Anonymous No.10289334]

>>10289286
You just noticed? Maria's got a good set of knockers.

[Anonymous No.10289514]

>>10289239
i like this creative approach to the projection. a lifeless puppet

[Anonymous No.10289521]

>>10287675
She and Richter turned out to be better than expected. And by that better than Trevor and Alucard in the original series.

If you hated the original anime because of its disrespect towards the source material, stay away from the new anime.

But if you're willing to interpret it as its own original universe, disconnected from the games, it's decent.

[Anonymous No.10289919]

>>10289334
i blame maria for my oppai loli fetish

[Anonymous No.10290157]

>>10287749
>is sort of a pint-sized orator
Tell me she's not a fucking Greta Thurnberg analogue. This sucks.

[Anonymous No.10290906]

>>10289334
Funny thing is, each redesign seems to gradually shrink her boobs over time, or at least, put her in tighter clothing. Up until Ayami Kojima embraced the original design (in her art style). Maybe that's why Netflix crew likes her newer design? Even though it still looks like something a noble's daughter would wear?
>>10290157
Oh, don't be ridiculous but now that you mention it, maybe.
Well at least it's arguably more Castlevania than that Lords of Shadow experiment?

[Anonymous No.10290909]

>>10290157

If she appears in netflix, she for sure will be turned into a feminist and a vegan.

[Anonymous No.10290930]

>>10290906
pretty sure she didnt embrace shit. they didnt want to redo her sprites. was probably even frustrating for her
>ok we are doing a remake of rondo so you can finally make young maria consistent with the SOTN version you created years prior
>ok now just copy the original artist

[Anonymous No.10290937]

>>10290906
pretty sure she didnt embrace shit. they didnt want to redo her sprites. was probably even frustrating for her
>ok we are doing a remake of rondo so you can finally make young maria consistent with the SOTN version you created years prior
>ok now just copy the original artist
its been the same artist since sotn right? outside of the ds games

[Anonymous No.10291007]

>>10290937
Didn't stop Symphony of the Night Richter/Dracula or Harmony of Despair Simon.

[Anonymous No.10291078]

>>10284838
since the original thread (>>8855971), mesen-2 came out which has a lot more debug functionality for pce than mednafen or bizhawk. using the debug features, i discovered that maria's tileset gets loaded into the cd-rom unit's ram when levels load and is kept there for when the sprites need to be used. maria's level sprites start at $8000 in the CD-ROM RAM (which is $C000 as a CPU address in the code) pic related. we can see that at this point, the data is uncompressed, unlike how it's stored on the disc itself. using this known location of the sprites, i found a subroutine that writes to CD-ROM RAM $8000. it starts at $EA79 in the game's code. based on what's written in the CD-ROM section of TurboGrafx-16 Hardware Notes by Charles MacDonald aka pcetech.txt, i'm pretty sure this subroutine reads data from the disc and also writes data to RAM, sometimes to CD-ROM RAM $8000 when a level is loading. i haven't reverse engineered this subroutine to see exactly what it does yet. i can't confirm whether this subroutine is responsible for decompression or if it just loads data to CD-ROM RAM and another subroutine handles decompression, but i'm pretty sure it's this subroutine. with the decompression algorithm reverse engineered, the data on disc could be in theory modified to be a compressed version of modified sprites and we could have, at the very least, that. i've only spent a little time looking at this stuff but i haven't given up yet.

[Anonymous No.10291085]

>>10291078
.....interesting. could it be possible to have 2 maria sprite sheets for the game among with extra enemies and the level? Dunno about the original dude but i could try.

[Anonymous No.10291164]

>>10289334
It's a real phenomenon and a real problem for young girls who develop early. A 12 year old will have a large chest and suddenly start getting attention from much older men despite being still mentally very much a kid.

[Anonymous No.10291171]

>>10282098
SNES Anette is pure sex

[Anonymous No.10291178]

>>10291085
I think the plan was something like that. The hack would add functionality to that weird door in the ship level where it sends Maria to a new area specifically designed for her abilities and after completing it unlocks her harem costume which makes her even more of a glass canon.

[Anonymous No.10291325]

>>10287749
I can't get over the fact that Castlevania has a wealth of fantastic monster designs but for the Netflix show scraps them all in favor of some Aaaah! Real Monsters! looking nonsense.

[Anonymous No.10291461]

>>10291178
I like that idea.

[Anonymous No.10291578]

[Anonymous No.10291602]

>>10287675
It's Lisa Simpson with super powers and swearing

[Anonymous No.10292274]

Maria is the Robin to Richter's Batman, trying to make her edgy and cool is plain dumb

[Anonymous No.10292307]

>>10281356
Why is the pixel art in retro games so much more charming and pleasant to look at and analyse than those of modern times?

[Anonymous No.10292717]

>>10292274
>>10291602
To be fair to the show, there's some precedent in the games. RoB Maria and SOTN Maria are effectively two entirely different people. There's no rationalizing the radical personality change. They basically just made her 12 year old version consistent with her 17 year old self. I'm not saying I like that, mind you. Just that it's not totally out of left field.

[Anonymous No.10292758]

>>10282098
>>10282104
Same.

[Anonymous No.10292765]

>>10286448
gracias doctor

[Anonymous No.10292808]

>>10292717
She's 16 in the show, which is technically a Maria age we hadn't seen before, meanwhile Richter is Rondo age.

[Anonymous No.10292864]

>>10292717
>There's no rationalizing the radical personality change
SotN Maria just takes things more seriously once she understands what the stakes are, which makes sense for an older person to do. She's still Rondo Maria-like in that she doesn't really seem too concerned about what's going on at first, like running around in Dracula's Castle and teasing Alucard is just another fun adventure. It's only when she learns that Richter has been brainwashed that she gets really worried.

[Anonymous No.10293015]

>>10287826
Funny thing about Richter is that they gave him cool martial arts moves (besides the backflip) starting with Symphony, yet the OG Rondo design is still the closest to looking like a martial artist. I don't know why every redesign goes further away from that. It's almost like Symphony devs went, "hey, his sprite kind of looks like Ryu, wouldn't it be fun if we added all this ass-kicking shit to his moveset?" And that became half the fun with him, like I can believe Rondo Richter can pull off all those sick moves, Symphony Richter is just sort of wearing a "lord of the castle" outfit, but X Chronicles Richter doesn't strike me as that kind of guy. I also think it was a missed opportunity for Rondo's 3D Remake to capitalize on the expanded moveset, like at least have it unlockable.

[Anonymous No.10293119]

>>10292758

never knew medieval Europe looked like wakanda.

[Anonymous No.10293137]

>>10293119
She's not European in the show. It's an entirely different character who just happens to share the same name. Actually, perhaps it's a spoiler, but Richter isn't European either, technically...

[Anonymous No.10293142]

>>10293119
>1790s
>Medieval
Anon...

[Anonymous No.10293148]

>>10293015
It's because Rondo is fundamentally a shonen anime, which is stylistically alien compared to the rest of the franchise. Nobody seems interested in bridging that gap so they just pretend it never happened, which is why Dracula X Chronicles completely changed the tone.

[Anonymous No.10293153]

>>10293015
I've always felt like SotN Richter's extra moves were meant to facilitate Richter Mode in that game. Like, "how is he supposed to traverse the castle without double jump or Bat Form?" and the fighting game moves were their answer

[Anonymous No.10293706]

>>10292808
Needs the Nose Demon

[Anonymous No.10293727]

>>10291178
>>10291461
https://easyupload.io/3vjfir

A good anon injected the image into a PC-Engine rom as proof of concept. I think the idea was you'd be able to reach the hidden door with Maria and pressing up by it would go inside into a magical looking stage. You'd play through the stage as Maria and at the end she'd obtain the harem costume and you'd see the image here indicating she changed outfits. You'd be able to select between her costumes on the character select screen afterwards. The harem costume halved her defense but makes her attacks a bit stronger and her slide do damage if it hits an enemy. Then I think if you beat Dracula with that costume she unlocks a third version which ditches the pants. This is the same as the regular one except you lose all the benefits so it becomes mega challenge mode to use it. Then (I know it's getting complicated but it was the highest level of goals) if you beat Dracula with the pantsless version it unlocks a brown recolor for Richter which is a retro mode that halves his defense and removes his ability to item crash.

[Anonymous No.10294484]

>>10287634
i propose we call her maria retard

[Anonymous No.10294873]

>>10282773
Can someone explain to me what the origin is of this image? I see it like every other thread. Was it the fishnet thing?

[Anonymous No.10294920]

>>10294873
It's a fanmade image by Pepi

[Anonymous No.10294923]

>>10294873
It's a pretty recent thing. A guy called shinpepi drew it. He posted a recording of it here:
https://kemono.party/fanbox/user/16237395/post/1740321

[Anonymous No.10295639]

>>10294923
No furry leak site posting!

[Anonymous No.10295897]

>>10287749
>>10287967
Lmfao

[Anonymous No.10295928]

>>10291325
kek wtf is this?

[Anonymous No.10296271]

>>10289919
>oppai

maria oppai? what a joke.

if you look for oppai you have Laura, now thats waifu material.

[Anonymous No.10296275]

>>10294873
>Of course I wanted to give her a whip, and fishnet tights, and a mask...
Hagiwara Sensei has wanted this for thirty years, drawfags get on it, This Is Not A Drill.

[Anonymous No.10296649]

>>10296275
>the turtle shell was tacky as fuck but goofy and useful.

[Anonymous No.10297028]

>>10296271
hag
>>10296275
>maria was planned to save the stage 3' rat as well

[Anonymous No.10297050]

>>10297028
>>maria was planned to save the stage 3' rat as well

which one?

[Anonymous No.10297068]

>>10297050
the rat in the room before dogether
i assume the rat that was removed from her ending cg is the same one as it is the only rat in the game

[Anonymous No.10297840]

>>10297068
Never seen that in game.

[Anonymous No.10297846]

>>10297840
https://youtu.be/1prNeDxaJ0M?t=93

[Anonymous No.10298140]

>>10295928
That's either a shoop or a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

[Anonymous No.10298319]

>>10295928
T H I C C

[Anonymous No.10299006]

>>10291078
What would be doable with this?

[Anonymous No.10299010]

>>10297068
He drops 5 hearts but I can never bring myself to kill him

[Anonymous No.10299060]

>>10299010
Based

[Anonymous No.10299078]

Maria doesn't have big boobs, she just stores her animals in there.

[Anonymous No.10299093]

>>10285961
You sound deeply insecure, bro. Hope you get those issues worked out.

[Anonymous No.10299096]

>>10286401
I love Castlevania and I love SOTN. I guess I just defeated your retarded logic. Huh, that was hard, eh!

[Anonymous No.10299101]

>>10287634
No, because Netflix garbage doesn't belong on this board.

[Anonymous No.10299121]

>>10299101
I am glad he affirmed my desire to ever watch it, not that I ever had such a desire after hearing about the alucard buttrape scene

[Anonymous No.10299260]

>>10299121
It wasn't rape. He wanted it.

[Anonymous No.10299919]

>>10299260
Even worse

[Anonymous No.10299920]

>>10299006
pretty much just replacing character sprites. it's possible cutscene sprites are stored similarly. adding anything to the game would require both disc space (although i think the game data is on the disc twice) and more in-depth assembly reverse engineering. aside from disc space concerns, i can't think of any reason why >>10293727 this scenario would be impossible, but it would probably be tricky to modify the character selection. changing the existing code to add stuff presents the problem that the existing code would have to be shuffled around. that could break the code. maybe some unused space could be used. i dunno.

[Anonymous No.10299930]

>>10294873
>18 is old
Those wacky Japs.

[Anonymous No.10300320]

>>10299920
Insanely competent fanhacks like Mega Man X3's Zero Project make these ideas seem like small potatoes. Not saying it's easy, just that I don't think it'd be impossible. I think the bigger hurdle is that so few people seem interested in PC-Engine hacking at all so the resources and knowledge base may not be there even among people who are already decent programmers.

[Anonymous No.10300396]

>>10300320
>>10299920
I hope it happens.

[Anonymous No.10300596]

>>10300320
i suspect that something about the game being disc-based would make it harder

[Anonymous No.10300612]

>>10300396
I think the secret Maria stage should ape Stage X's graphics. It looks suitably whimsical like what you'd see on the other side of a magic doorway where Maria gets a magic harem costume.

[Anonymous No.10300620]

>>10300596
I don't know about that. The Turbo CD is rudimentary compared to most other CD add-ons. Its mostly just a format change. Like a very large Hucard with some extra RAM. But I'm not expert so take this with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous No.10300636]

>>10300612
peke maria has no right being so cute

[Anonymous No.10301525]

>>10291078
alright. i investigated further. the good news is that maria's sprites aren't compressed. they look like they are when you view them in the data on disc, but they aren't actually. the bad news is that i wasted a year and a half thinking that they were. anyway, all the subroutine in question does is loads the sprite data from the disc and stores it into CD-ROM RAM. it's just a simple loop that transfers it right over. the only other thing it does is checks the status of the CD-ROM until it likes what it sees and then decrements the X register a couple times for no apparent reason. i suspect it's waiting for the data to be read from the disc into the buffer it's reading from. now, the reason the sprites don't appear in the disc data the way they do when loaded into the CD-ROM RAM is because there's some extra data on the disc amidst the sprite data that isn't read. here's how it works: the subroutine transfers 2048 bytes of data to CD-ROM RAM, then it fucks around with the status and the X register, then continues transferring data but now 304 bytes ahead of where it was before. on the disc, in between every 2048 bytes of maria sprite data there's 304 bytes of what looks like random garbage. it doesn't look like graphics, it's not code, i don't know if it does anything. it alternates back and forth. for reference, one sprite tile is 128 bytes long. so it's 16 tiles, then the garbage, then 16 more tiles. now, since 304 doesn't divide evenly into 128, if you're viewing all the data in a tile viewer (i use YYCHR), it won't look right because the data's not all aligned with the rest. some of it is, some of it isn't. knowing this, it's possible to line up a tile you want to edit, edit it, and save it as a new version of the game. to prove that this works, i made a small edit to a tile and booted it up in mesen-2. pic related. i changed it so that when she's on her tippy toes, maria's legs are the same color gold as her dress hem.

[Anonymous No.10301538]

>>10301525
pic related are all of maria's level sprites. if you want to see the data on the disc, you can use YYCHR to open the game's .bin file and then choose the 4BBP PCE(SG) format. the data starts (aligned) at location 9D71A0.
https://files.catbox.moe/3zxcvm.pal
here's an RGB palette you can use to get the colors right. as previously mentioned, this means the sprites can be edited to whatever. i can put them in the game now and you can too. as long as it uses the same palette. that would be the next order of business.

[Anonymous No.10301854]

>>10301525
>>10301538
That's great news. I guess we're lucky that NEC wasn't thinking too hard back in 1988 or whenever they made the PC-Engine CD. The sheer size of CD-ROM back then must have seemed so breathtakingly huge that they didn't bother to do all of the little space saving tricks that had become commonplace elsewhere.

>>10293727
The proof of concept rom with the image embedded must respect palette limits of the system, right? That said, it doesn't look like there's a ton of new colors anyway. The veil and pants are the same pink as her dress. The earrings are so small they can safely be ignored on the sprite so it looks like the green on the bracelets and...bra?...is the only new color. What do you think about the pants being transparent though? Would dithering work on a sprite?

[Anonymous No.10301870]

>>10291078
>>/vr/thread/S8855971

This is the thread you tried to link, by the way. Something in there might be useful.

[Anonymous No.10301874]

>>10301870
Fuck, sorry for wasting posts. Here's another, even older thread:

>>/vr/thread/S8806369

[Anonymous No.10302736]

>>10301538
can the way sprites are assembled be changed too?

[Anonymous No.10302848]

>>10293137
Therefore crap writer

[Anonymous No.10302891]

>>10302848
Would have been better had they gone the distance and gave Richter a thick Boston accent. Just Mark Wahlberg the shit out of him. "I gatta hant these damn vaampiyas when I jast wanna watch da Sox!"

[Anonymous No.10303121]

>>10294873
>>10291164
>>10291325
Well?

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/6732915?q=castlevania

[Anonymous No.10303246]

>>10301538

I made a rough edit on the 3 tiles at the top left to put her in an alt outfit, following your specifications. Would these theoretically work?

[Anonymous No.10304096]

>>10303246
Would be happy to test but I'd need a tutorial of how to put this in the rip to use in an emulator

[Anonymous No.10304186]

>>10301854
according to some forum post on rhdn, the cutscenes are compressed, but i can't confirm that
the rom that displays an image uses its own palettes

>>10302736
in theory but that would be in another part of the code

>>10303246
yeah that would work

[Anonymous No.10304221]

>>10304096
here's what to do:
>start with the game in bin+cue format
>open the .bin file in YY_CHR.NET
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/958/
>under the Format: drop-down pick 4BPP PCE(SG)
>at the top pick Palette then Open RGB Palette (*.pal)...
here's an updated maria palette to use that matches what mesen-2 uses
https://files.catbox.moe/3h82wa.pal
>click the red button that says Input Address...
>the address where maria's sprites starts is 9D71A0
that's for the first 16 tiles. the next row of 16 starts 0x930 bytes after that, so 9D7AD0. you can use the windows calculator in programming mode to calculate the rest
>make sure that YYCHR is in RGB Palette mode on the right, not RGB Paletter + Table
>now the selected tile can be modified in the window on the right. use left click to put down a color, right click to pick a color (or use the palette)
>when finished, pick File at the top then Save As... to save a modified copy of the game
>to play the modified copy, you need the .cue file. you can edit this in notepad or any text editor to match the name of the modified copy
or just keep the same name and save the modified copy somewhere else. if you keep the same name, mesen's save states will work on the modified game
to prove that all this works, here's the modification i just made as a patch to the .bin file (made with Lunar IPS)
https://files.catbox.moe/h21m1u.ips

[Anonymous No.10304227]

>>10304221
hell, here's all of the addresses:
9D71A0
9D7AD0
9D8400
9D8D30
9D9660
9D9F90
9DA8C0
9DB1F0
9DBB20
9DC450
9DCD80
9DD6B0
9DDFE0
9DE910

[Anonymous No.10304652]

>>10304186
Glad it worked! What outfit would people prefer for her? I can't promise I'll focus on it but I can try filling out the whole sheet

[Anonymous No.10304796]

>>10304652
I think the consensus is getting this in the game:
>>10282773
>>10293727

[Anonymous No.10304801]

>>10304652
If you need more ideas a few anons were fiddling with new sprites in the older threads, too.

>>10301870
>>10301874

[Anonymous No.10304979]

This thread made me want to replay Rondo. Is Mednafen the best way to play it? I don't think it supports CHD though.

[Anonymous No.10305163]

>>10304979
Retroarch does CHD and its Beetle-PCE core is identical to mednafen. Don't use the (PCE FAST) version unless you're on a raspberry pi.

[Anonymous No.10306074]

>>10304227
If we have someone who can read the code, could it be possible to search for unused code pertaining to the level 5 door? to know what it was supposed to be

[Anonymous No.10306329]

>>10306074
I'd be curious if there's any code left that might've told us what the other playable characters might've been like, as well as remnants of the game's "harder demo" or what the deal is with that unused dragon enemy.
I always thought the door was either the way to unlock one of these playable characters or the perhaps the original 5' entrance, or was the location of a removed maiden was.

[Anonymous No.10307581]

>>10306329
that's assuming they even started implementing them. speaking of that unused dragon, how in the fuck was it never reused in sotn or the dsvanias?

[Anonymous No.10308540]

bump

[Anonymous No.10308989]

does anyone itt have a completed save file for rondo? i don't think which emulator matters

[Anonymous No.10309007]

>>10308989
nevermind, i just remembered X-X!V''Q

[Anonymous No.10309009]

>>10309007
that's luck mode in SotN

[Anonymous No.10309029]

>>10309009
it also unlocks all the stages in rondo

[Anonymous No.10309582]

>>10291164
How many fucking times have you posted that dude? Weirdest pasta.

[Anonymous No.10309589]

>>10292758
OHHHHHH Netflix.

[Anonymous No.10309710]

>>10309029
No it doesnt, right?

[Anonymous No.10310029]

Are you in this thread Shinpepi?

[Anonymous No.10310126]

>>10291164
This was not a "problem" until very modern feminism started demonizing normal male sexuality

[Anonymous No.10310157]

>>10292758
Not sure if this is a hot take, but i like black annete.
Would definitely bleach.

[Anonymous No.10310183]

>>10310157
Would you turn her into a vampire first? DXC Annette became better when she did.

[Anonymous No.10310194]

>>10288949
Dracula in DXC looked fucking baller as hell. Great of Ayami Kojima to try and depict a younger more classic looking version of Dracula instead of the white haired sexy Drac from SOTN

[Anonymous No.10310381]

>>10306329
I have a hunch that Tera & Iris were either the original playable characters or were what the concept evolved into. Maybe that's why they give special abilities in the 3D remake. Annette could've been either added later in development or she was always the bad/good ending trigger.
Or Tera, Iris and Annette were all playable, and it was MARIA added later to just consolidate the extra playables into one girl.
Crazyland Spitballing.

[Anonymous No.10310383]

>>10310381
>maria had a chest from the very beginning

[Anonymous No.10310419]

>>10310194
I fucking love the art for DXC in general. Kojima's young Richter is the most styling motherfucker in the entire franchise.

[Anonymous No.10310629]

>>10292758
How brave of them to show what Skeleton Ape looked like before death, and a main character at that

[Anonymous No.10310847]

>>10309710
it does. none of the girls are rescued, though

[Anonymous No.10311706]

>>10310381
>IRSU

[Anonymous No.10311857]

>>10290937
Grimoire of Souls is in a 3D style and they went back to the source sprites for characters and even monster designs (well except Vampire Annette), which lends credence to the theory that the PSP redesigns were in part due to some handheld limitations.
>>10297028
>>10310419
There's also THIS outfit that Richter wears for the opening shot of the game. Artwork has him with the headband, but the in-game version removes it to look more like civilian clothes. We unfortunately don't see the full thing, but it looks a lot like what the Symphony art was based on.
Richter's among the snazzier of the Belmonts.

[Anonymous No.10312484]

>>10311857
You figure the family would have been pretty well off by the end of the 18th century after a history of saving Europe a bunch of times. Especially in this case since Juste got sandwiched in there between Simon and Richter, putting it in all in recent memory.

[Anonymous No.10312581]

>>10311857
i like it more with the headband, even in civilian clothes the fighter autism cannot be contained
about that was the ryu resemblance on purpose?

[Anonymous No.10312945]

[Anonymous No.10313649]

Best CV girl.

[Anonymous No.10313784]

>>10312945
KEKLEvania

[Anonymous No.10313863]

>>10292758
And people ate this netflix shit up. I hope youre ready for a new canon

[Anonymous No.10314501]

>>10310381
I just noticed how weird it is that Maria's the only one with a last name, and how distracting it is that Annet's Rondo design is barefoot like her TDXC vampire form for no reason.
>>10310183
I think they're using OC Eduoard as a stand-in for transformed Annet.

[Anonymous No.10314578]

>>10310629
Dong extend into 16bit!

[Anonymous No.10314591]

>>10289521
Not anime.

[Anonymous No.10314681]

alright, i think i have the palette stuff figured out. since each palette is 16 colors (including transparent) and each color is 9 pixels, in GGGRRRBBB format, a palette occupies 18 bytes on disc. (even though colors are sent to the VCE two bytes at a time. there's a subroutine that handles this.) in rondo's case, on the disc palettes are stored as follows: first byte is the first bit of the first 8 colors, bytes two through nine are the other 8 bits of the first 8 colors, tenth byte is the first bit of the 9th through 16th colors, eleventh through eighteenth byte are the other 8 bits for the 8th through 16th colors. maria's default palette is as follows:
0C 00 10 92 DB 24 FF 07 58
61 FA 7B BD 6A BA FA A8 38
note that in the second half, FA appears twice. maria's palette actually has a duplicate color which is used for different pixels. i don't know why but whatever. this is the palette that's located at 9D1793 and applied to maria's sprites at the start of every stage, after getting hit, after every respawn, at the start of every boss area, and during item crashes. knowing the format of the palette and its location lets you change it to whatever you want. this is great except that 9D1793 isn't the only location that this palette appears. it's on the disc no less than 36 times, not accounting for the fact that the game data is on the disc twice. most of these palettes appear to be unused, but some of them actually are used. for whatever reason, going through a door in some stages loads an identical palette from a different location. here are those palette locations and their uses.
stage 2 D37825
stage 1 BA3482
stage 2' E019C4
stage 3 ECBB9E
stage 3' F95D35
stage 4 105FF87
stage 4' 112A20A
and i think the rest are unused

[Anonymous No.10314701]

but wait, there's more! maria uses additional palettes other than her main palette. they are:
the hurt palette at 9D182B
04 00 10 61 AA F3 BE 1C 28
20 78 F9 3B 28 79 B9 60 B8

the red palette that flashes briefly when you're dealt a fatal blow at 9D1818
00 00 10 20 28 30 38 18 28
00 38 38 38 28 38 38 20 38

the dead palette at 9D183E
04 00 08 51 9A E3 BE 07 58
61 AB 35 BD 69 B9 FA AA 3B

the two palettes that alternate when you're hit by fire at 9D17B9 and 9D17CC
0C 00 18 B8 F8 79 FC 32 28
65 B8 38 FA 39 B8 39 B8 38

46 00 38 98 B8 F8 79 FC A9
12 68 B8 B8 39 A9 B8 BB B0

and the item crash palette at 9D1805
3D 00 9A 24 6D B6 FF DF 2B
EF 7C BD FE FB 3C 7D 32 BC

i haven't actually tried changing these but i'm 90% sure it would work because these palettes only show up once in the game data. by combining the modifications of palette data and sprite data i was able to change the first three sprites to pic related. on the left is a screenshot from PCEjin which i think uses the pc engine's RGB palette. on the right is a screenshot from mesen which i think uses the luma palette.

[Anonymous No.10314714]

and here's an implementation of another mockup sprite. i had to slightly modify the cutscene-inspired sprite so it would fit within the sprite tiles and the harem sprite so it would only use 15 colors. other errata i noticed while testing: if you use the X-X!V''Q name and start the game on stage 2, the bird death sfx and bridge lowering are messed up. this occurs on the vanilla version, so it's not a corruption because of any mod. it's fixed if you reset. also in stage 4' i managed to clip under the bridge as maria after getting hit. i couldn't replicate it but speedrunners take note that it's possible. also while i was testing palette modifications, some fishman death explosions were the wrong color. i'm not sure if this is because of a mod or more X-X!V''Q shenanigans but i couldn't reproduce the error and it doesn't really matter.

[Anonymous No.10314719]

>>10314714
turns out speedrunners already know about the bridge clip. oh well

[Anonymous No.10314752]

>>10314719
i never liked speedruners.

[Anonymous No.10314834]

>>10314714
It's finally happening

[Anonymous No.10314887]

>>10314714
I respect your autism, Anon.

[Anonymous No.10314969]

>>10314714
kind of think a bit, maybe the harem sprite needs redesign, besides the main idle was just a mockup, but nice to see you got the original sprite.

[Anonymous No.10314978]

>>10314701
Wow, that's pretty neat. I'm surprised at how different the two palettes look.

[Anonymous No.10314983]

>>10314714
That's an amazing sprite edit. Just one clarification though since it's not clear from some of the images, she's supposed to be barefoot with matching ankle bracelets like she has around her wrists. A minor thing but it's worth mentioning, I think.

[Anonymous No.10315030]

>>10314752
They're good for gaining info on games, sometimes if I can't figure out how a certain boss works I'll look up a speedrun and they usually have some kind of solution.

[Anonymous No.10315043]

>>10314701
that's incredible, i never thought they would be ported in-game when i made this thread
as a sidenote, i updated them with a pinker palette the other day

[Anonymous No.10315089]

>>10314714
That's beautiful. It only needs the changes that >>10314983 mentioned and it will be perfect.

[Anonymous No.10315094]

>>10315030
>They're good for gaining info on games, sometimes if I can't figure out how a certain boss works I'll look up a speedrun and they usually have some kind of solution.
guh their boss fights are so lame. I hate watching speed runners exploit stupid bugs. Maybe its cool to see the first time, but after that one time its pretty lame. The only fun way is to figure out the pattern. Sometimes thats fucking hard though.

[Anonymous No.10315108]

[Anonymous No.10315113]

>>10315089
how about this?

[Anonymous No.10315119]

[Anonymous No.10315123]

What will the birds be replaced by with dancer Maria?

[Anonymous No.10315135]

>>10315113
It looks great, just maybe the skin tone should be lighter? At least to me it looks too dark compared to how she looks in this pic: >>10314983

[Anonymous No.10315148]

>>10315113
Love it

[Anonymous No.10315159]

>>10282787
Haunted Castle is harder

[Anonymous No.10315184]

What boss would be in the new special stage?

[Anonymous No.10315216]

>>10314701
>>10315043
i forgot to ask, do you want animation frames for that costume? i'd gladly animate her if you wanted her for the new default costume in the dancer maria hack.

[Anonymous No.10315236]

>>10315113
She looks fantastic, thank you for making this!

[Anonymous No.10315538]

>this fucking thread

[Anonymous No.10315747]

>>10313863
Just don’t.

[Anonymous No.10315938]

>>10315216
Show your best

[Anonymous No.10316353]

>>10282773
>>10289275
Did that pic appear in Rondo?

[Anonymous No.10316354]

>>10316353
Not yet

[Anonymous No.10316378]

>>10315184
Seems like a perfect opportunity to incorporate the cut dragon thing. Not sure if there's any programming left for it's functionality but the graphics are there. >>10307581

I'm imagining the area conveying a pocket dimension of sorts. Really the more cutesy it looks the better if the boss is that giant lizard. Gives the impression that Dracula's power tainted it and Maria has to slay the beast to restore it to it's former glory and earns the whimsical harem costume as a reward. It gives it a slight magical girl vibe.

[Anonymous No.10316597]

>>10314701
oh yeah, there's also an all blue palette for being in water

[Anonymous No.10316714]

what should i look into next? cutscene graphics? music? level data? green door functionality? actually adding stuff instead of just replacement? i'm thinking cutscene graphics

[Anonymous No.10317134]

>>10316714
I wouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves. If this is going to happen we should probably focus on one thing at a time.

That said, I think the priority should be something like this:

A) Harem costume implementation
B) Cutscene implementation of >>10282773
C) Magic doorway stage + boss
D) Redrawing existing cutscenes to account for the new costume.

I suppose figuring out how to add a stage is going to be one of the bigger challenges. Since the doorway is the entrance it doesn't have to show up on the stage select or anything but the actual layout and stuff would need some thought put into it.

[Anonymous No.10317146]

https://youtu.be/k_XgmtVSPDg?si=hDk7cMwT-ENzC0l3

This is a cut song from Rondo that could be a good choice for the secret stage.

[Anonymous No.10317148]

>>10310029
He can't post in 4chan since he got permabanned last year due to mod seething at him, but you can find him on 8moe

[Anonymous No.10317410]

>>10317146
If they make it a cutesy stage (minus the lizard), it wouldnt fit.

[Anonymous No.10317412]

>>10282773
>>10317134
This would be twice as mich work but, would it be fine if we redesigb the costume, to tone it down a little?

[Anonymous No.10317454]

>>10317412
Fuck off.

[Anonymous No.10317485]

>>10317412
fuck off jupiterclimb this hack won't be streamable

[Anonymous No.10317490]

>>10317410
It's obviously not up to me but my suggestion would be palette shifted Stage X graphics to make it look like it's a happy place that's been overtaken by evil. Beating the lizard would "save" the land.

[Anonymous No.10317491]

>>10317412

[Anonymous No.10317493]

>>10317412
You're free to make your own if you don't like it.

[Anonymous No.10317515]

>>10317485
>jupiterclimb

Who the hell is that guy?

[Anonymous No.10317524]

>>10317515
Speedrunner tranny who plays every Castlevania mod on earth

[Anonymous No.10317595]

>>10317490
I am fine with that.

[Anonymous No.10318449]

[Anonymous No.10318461]

[Anonymous No.10318478]

Gentlemen, we are now one step closer to BANGING the BRAINS out of BEST BROAD

[Anonymous No.10318542]

Carrie mod too?

[Anonymous No.10318626]

Is this thread autosaging? Might have to make a new one soon.

[Anonymous No.10318775]

>>10317412
an alternate version of the mod wouldn't change the fact that you're a faggot

[Anonymous No.10318801]

Rump bump

[Anonymous No.10318814]

>>10317412
i want a nude mod stat

[Anonymous No.10318820]

>>10318814
maria jiggle physics...

[Anonymous No.10318823]

>>10318820

[Anonymous No.10318904]

>>10318626
Yeah, typical jannie stuff, after a week or so it autodies

And even so if we make another so soon, it autosages too, its bullshit.

[Anonymous No.10319038]

>>10318542
How Alucard respond?

[Anonymous No.10319041]

>>10319038
>I'm interested in this

[Anonymous No.10319116]

>>10317134
cutscenes next it is

[Anonymous No.10319160]

>>10318904
New image, new OP text. Link old thread in the second post, not the first.

[Anonymous No.10319167]

>>10319116
Some of that work was done already if that helps: >>10293727

Maybe when the image pops up you hear Maria's "Yatta!" from the character select screen? Just to give it more life than a silent pic.

[Anonymous No.10319748]

>>10318542
Whore

[Anonymous No.10319751]

>>10317412
No and you're not getting clicks on it either.