Open Hatch

Archive for the ‘Video Games’ Category

The following video explores my 3D visualization of the first scenes from the classic text adventure, ZORK.

Here are a few screen captures from a CCS64 emulator run of the game, showing what I derived this art from, as well as why I still consider this game a classic (the game’s response to a command to hit a table with a knife, for example).

The house was modeled by myself this weekend, with furnishings and weapons from the Google 3D Warehouse. As the version number implies, this is unfinished. This animation was exported from Sketchup (using the lagarith lossless codec, then converted to .avi encoded with Xvid, using VirtualDub).

[This was drafted many months ago, and never posted. Not sure why.. I've decided it's worthy.]

I wouldn’t post this if this were about hacking the XBox live arcade version of this game; because that would provide information which people could abuse to cheat on the game’s global list of high scorers (leaderboards). I hope I’m not mistaken, but first looking at this game on the PC, I don’t think there’s any kind of global high score boards.

I’ve been taking video capture of this game as part of a video portfolio, and found myself messing around with a funny bug I found, and.. otherwise exploring the game.

I’ve figured out how to hack the save files for this game (the PC version) to change the number of items in resource piles. Here’s an example:

• While playing the game, find a resource pile and identify how many of that resources are in it. For this example I found a pile of 139 Carved wood.
• Second, find your savefile. Mine is named:
  

  C:\Program Files\NinjaBee\AKingdomForKeflings\Saved\S0000030272500Xf50000L9IHXvmr9a.kef

  Back up that save file.

• Using a hex editor like hexedit, open your save file and search for that pile of 139 carved wood thusly (click the thumbnail image for a larger detail):



• Unless you happen to know how to translate decimal to hex quickly or in your head, open Windows Calculator. Click the view menu->Scientific. Punch in 139, then click the “hex” radio button. This will display 139 in hexadecimal which is (8B).
• In hexedit, click the edit->find menu, then in the popup dialog click the “hex” tab. Type in:
  

  01010000[the hex value you are looking for, in my case 8B]

  - so that you are searching for

  010100008B

  and click “Find Next”. You may need to search from the beginning if prompted.

• Using Windows Calculator, figure out hex for a much larger number, say, erm.. 16,777,215, or FFFFFF Starting at the offset in your savefile where you found 8B (which is followed by 0000), type that right into hex edit, then save the file (I had to tell hexedit yes, I want to change to write mode).
• Load up your game and go examine this hex-modified resource pile. It may look something like the following: (click the thumbnail image for a larger detail)

I’ve sometimes been playing a few old video games with my son (using emulators on a PC). I thought I’d capture some video of the game play along the way. These are both scaled up to HD (viewable up to 720p resolution) but preserving the “pixelated” style of the originals.

Hard Hat Mack on the Commodore 64, playing to level 5 (10 minutes). Run from the CCS64 emulator:

A Boy and His Blob, on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Includes the odd game ending (3 minutes). Run from the NESticle emulator (what an awful name).

For the curious, I got the latter looking like it does by using an ffvdub filter (Resize and Aspect, with the Point luma method for scaling up), via VirtualDub. The former was scaled up to x720 in the emulator during play.

This can alternately be watched in High Definition @ the YouTube site via this link.

A silly rhythmic clip. Game developed by NinjaBee. The critters’ voices in this game are my voice acting, and I did other sound and particle effects work.

I find track 06 from this old Nintendo game uniquely interesting and cool.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(download mp3, ~2.39 MB, 2:44)

Also track 26, though maybe it gets older faster (still, it’s really a crime against my hardcore Nintendo music roots to even suggest that any such music could be redundant).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(download mp3, ~2.04 MB, 2:44)

I’d pick and choose other cool tracks to post here, but I’d be uploading half the game’s music. Or all of it.

I’m far overdue posting how to rip these tracks to mp3 files for those interested

But this wouldn’t be complete without the games’ title/screen/opening.. anthem?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(download mp3, ~1.94 MB, 2:44)

I’ve been playing through an old favorite of mine, the game EARTHBOUND, with my very young son, reading everything to him (and he likes the game very much). As I’ve been playing I’ve grabbed screen shots of what reminds me why I love the game. This is a gallery of those screen grabs.

[svgallery name="EARTHBOUND-screens-I"]

What I love about the game:

• It is the story of four children who conquer Giygas, the Cosmic Destroyer.
• Japanese wackiness. As you can see from the gallery, it is full of good-natured, daffy characters.
• It is incredibly musically versatile, prolific, expressive, and in my opinion, beautiful. Here is the track for your home.

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• The ultimate, world-saving weapon in the game is prayer. This is combined with the work of knocking back into their senses anyone or anything that has gone wild or insane (such as a Rowdy Mouse or Insane Cultist). Or, if they are a mortal enemy (such as a lil’ UFO, Spinning Robo, or Starman), destroying them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.0MB)

See my description and the YouTube upload here.

This screen grab is straight from the source. Well. Loaded in an emulator.

What? You don’t know what this is? Put down the x-box controller and look it up!

Every room and scene in this text adventure painted clear, vivid images in my head.

I will paint them. Starting with this.

After I do other things..

Re the previous two gag promos here and here.

Made by the folks at Ninjabee. I did sound and particle effects work for the promoted game.

[Update: this music has been revised and re-posted]

In reference to Pilcrow’s prescient request, I now present a remix of title in subject from the Nintendo 8-bit era of glory. The overlaying melody on this thing (I argue) makes the work substantially different enough from the original that this is a new work, which I provide for your download.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(Download mp3, ~2.5MB)

This combines work done in Melodyne and Cakewalk with a nintendo sound font.

For an idea of this game (or a strange nostalgic glimpse), here are several YouTube videos -

I don’t like the weird video intro for this one, but it’s the only thing I find that gives the game title sequence (without a painfully elaborate or nerdy uber-over-narration) from which this title remix was built:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hTl1gTTOFNA

Level 1 play-through:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wakyt-KtoBU

For the excellent finale music and sequence, skip to 2:44 in this one:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ct1Ins6oZY8

Re a game I helped create, and re this first gag promo. (Also, as you see from the subject, that’s me in this silly short film.)

There’s this tune from the game Mother (the original Nintendo version of what later became the brilliant EARTHBOUND on Super Nintendo), evidently this is the music when you die. (Or that’s what the track ripper says; “Game Over”: I wouldn’t know because I never played the original. Also, the music when you die in EARTHBOUND is different but equally cool.) One day I was listening to this tune and I heard and started singing a high harmony melody. I’ve now re-rendered the music to include that melody, also altering the bass line enough that I can call this an original – if blatantly ripped off and extended – work, without conscience – so you can download it.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(Download mp3, ~1.7MB)

How I made this was tricky – and yet produced results far faster than if I’d figured and re-did all the notes by hand. I’m kinda proud of it. I’ve mentioned Melodyne, which changes pitches very well. I used a Winamp plugin called NotSoFatso that lets you mute tracks in an .nsf (emulated nintendo music) file. I rendered each part (or instrument or harmony) to different wave files via Winamp’s wave writer – bass, lead, and lead echo. That was easier with NotSoFatso allowing me to “shadow” or list one of so many songs in the .nsf (right-click the song listing, click “file info”, then click “shadow->Winamp). I moved the notes of the bass wave file around a bit in Melodyne, and also copied it to another track and divided and moved around the notes and overtones (formants) to make this higher lead part (several of the notes were barely audible until I moved the formants).

Bingo.

Melodyne gave it a sing-song quality, if it is still very much a “nintendo” instrument – because Melodyne is designed to emulate the formants of the human voice in particular. It also made it too “clean” to be a “nintendo” instrument, so I processed the result in Audio Mulch using a “DigiGrunge” distortion decimator simulating a bit depth of 8. Then I mixed it all back together in Guitar Tracks Pro 3, and converted it to .mp3 with foobar2000′s “convert to same directory” right-click option.

Ah, EARTHBOUND.  Here’s a favorite capture from this Super Nintendo classic.  Clicking the medium thumbnail opens a full size image (which has been processed to look better at a very large size).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.6MB)

Update: I slightly revised and expanded this song.

I composed and rendered in a Nintendo sound font the following tune.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(Download mp3, ~3MB)

This is from that game they might have made, and which you should have won, but you didn’t, because they might not have made it. But it might have involved a hero running through fields defeating the forces of evil, solving puzzles pertaining to the salvation of the world, acquiring mysterious relics, conversing with wizards and sorcerers and friendly beasts, and advancing in skill and stages toward defeating the ultimate foe.

You are free to download, copy and use this song for any purpose (see the license in the tag), and I request a link to this page in any redistributions. I don’t demand credit but request it in any commercial re-use.