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Skrybe Staff
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 1610
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:39 pm Post subject: "Dog version" of Virus dumped! |
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As I mentioned earlier, I recently purchased the three Virus/Dr. Mario protos that had been up on eBay for a while. It took a little time, but I've dumped and documented the lot of them, and as promised, all three are posted below for everyone to try:
Virus (1989)
Download
Scans & tech info at NesCartDB
This is the earliest build of the game, and it shows a snapshot from a time when the viruses weren't given center stage, replacing them instead with a sick cartoon dog. The core gameplay is there, but the presentation is still rough. There's no music, and minimal animation.
Interestingly, this version of the game is on a bare-bones NROM board. All later versions of the game use more full-featured MMC1 hardware.
Virus (1990)
Download
NesCartDB
Similar to the above version, but with a bit more polish added. This is most visible in the viruses, which are now animated.
Dr. Mario (Proto)
Download
NesCartDB
This version is very close to the final game, but still retains the early design of Mario seen in the PC10 proto of Virus. This includes some images of him that aren't in the PC10 version, like the title screen sprite.
Enjoy, everyone! And Xkeeper, I'll be watching TCRF, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to dig up in these! |
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Evan
Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Posts: 948
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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Great to see the different stages of development for the game. Not many Nintendo games where this is available. |
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billscat-socks
Joined: 17 Oct 2008 Posts: 50
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:18 am Post subject: |
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Not often we see first-party stuff like this. Thanks for sharing what must have been a ridiculously expensive purchase. |
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RahanAkero
Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 18
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:07 am Post subject: |
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This is how I feel, as expressed by what may well be an unused sprite from within the proto itself. Thanks, man! |
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Ballz Staff
Joined: 03 Sep 2003 Posts: 610 Location: st. petersburg, florida
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:32 am Post subject: |
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This is great, I still can't believe you scored these, Skrybe. Along with kap's PC-10 proto from a few months ago, it's a unique look at the evolution of a classic NES game. I also can't wait for TCRF to dive into these.
Edit: Is it safe to assume that in the chronology of these things, kap's PC-10 proto predates the third and final of Skryrbe's protos?
Edit 2: Derp, of course that's how it'd fit, given the third Skrybe proto is under the name Dr. Mario and not Virus. |
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BMF54123 Staff
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 743 Location: Henderson, NV
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:56 am Post subject: |
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Well, that's interesting...aside from the text changes on the title and menu screens, the two Virus protos have identical PRG. That means the MMC1 code was already in place in the NROM version, it just wasn't doing anything.
[edit]
The sound engine is just a sped-up version of the one in Tetris. You can even poke $6F5 with a track number to play the original Tetris music! |
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sebmal
Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 152 Location: Somewhere!!
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:57 am Post subject: |
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BADASS |
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I am Christina Aguilera
Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 159
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:29 am Post subject: |
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BMF54123 wrote: | [edit]
The sound engine is just a sped-up version of the one in Tetris. You can even poke $6F5 with a track number to play the original Tetris music! |
I'd figured! I wonder to what extent the game was ultimately built on top of the Tetris gameplay engine as well. What few sounds are present in the Virus protos are definitely all straight from NES/Nintendo Tetris. |
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BMF54123 Staff
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 743 Location: Henderson, NV
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:06 am Post subject: |
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I am Christina Aguilera wrote: | I wonder to what extent the game was ultimately built on top of the Tetris gameplay engine as well. |
Well, the game as a whole was definitely built on top of Tetris. The startup and NMI routines are the same, right down to the RAM addresses used.
[edit]
More fun stuff:
$723: set to a non-zero value to disable periodic speedups. This is stored with the rest of the pre-game option values and was probably configurable at one point. This works in the final game, too!
$724: set to a non-zero value to disable "FALL DOWN" (extra pieces dropping when you clear a line). This is configurable in Virus, but I'm noting it here because it also works in the final game.
$726: set this to 01 to enable HARD mode. This completely disables the pill-throwing animation, so they immediately appear at the top of the bottle. |
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MathUser2929
Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 203
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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Interesting proto. |
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BMF54123 Staff
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 743 Location: Henderson, NV
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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There are six unused sprites defined in the game: two that point to blanked-out tiles (some kind of animation), and the words COLOR, ONE, TWO, and ATACK. The words would have appeared on the pre-game menu screen, possibly in one of the two blanked-out options. Aside from the aforementioned RAM values, though, I wasn't able to find any functional dummied-out options.
Unfortunately, it seems the "happy dog" sprite isn't actually defined anywhere. :\ |
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ICEknight
Joined: 15 Dec 2003 Posts: 569
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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This is amazing, thank you for releasing these! |
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RahanAkero
Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 18
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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BMF54123 wrote: |
Unfortunately, it seems the "happy dog" sprite isn't actually defined anywhere. :\ |
He's defined. His sprite data has pointers... Right in my heart.
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etabeta
Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 70 Location: Italy
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 5:02 pm Post subject: Re: "Dog version" of Virus dumped! |
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Skrybe wrote: | This version is very close to the final game, but still retains the early design of Mario seen in the PC10 proto of Virus. This includes some images of him that aren't in the PC10 version, like the title screen sprite. |
speaking of the PC-10 version, any hope about taking some nice pcb picture and dumping the instruction rom (typically at u3) so that we can add it to MAME as well (with proper credits, of course)? |
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kap Minister of Paranoia
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 2103 Location: I hate you.
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 8:13 pm Post subject: Re: "Dog version" of Virus dumped! |
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etabeta wrote: | speaking of the PC-10 version, any hope about taking some nice pcb picture and dumping the instruction rom (typically at u3) so that we can add it to MAME as well (with proper credits, of course)? |
Hey, already dumped actually, pictures available somewhere too. Pemdawg and I talked about giving the dump to whomever a while back, don't know the current situation. Send him or me a pm, can get it to you. |
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TheRedEye The Internet's Frank Cifaldi
Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 4192 Location: Oakland, CA
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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There is no instruction ROM, right? |
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kap Minister of Paranoia
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 2103 Location: I hate you.
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Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:57 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, no instructions on either that or Bases Loaded. |
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etabeta
Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 70 Location: Italy
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Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:53 am Post subject: |
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Both Playchoice-10 dumps have been added to MAME (they will be in next update, because I was slow and we missed yesterday release...)
Many thanks to kap for the patience, and to all the people involved in preserving these
The Virus PC-10 board might not be as exciting as the earlier 'dog version' that Skrybe released in this thread, but I'm quite happy to have both preserved |
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hiroshi
Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 50
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Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:24 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Skrybe for sharing! I've been playing with "FALL DOWN" mode off in Virus, it's a refreshing new challenge. And I'm fascinated that it's there at all, like there was some debate whether the extra pieces should fall or not.
BMF54123 wrote: | $724: set to a non-zero value to disable "FALL DOWN" (extra pieces dropping when you clear a line). This is configurable in Virus, but I'm noting it here because it also works in the final game. :D |
Thanks for this! It inspired me to make Game Genie codes for the retail versions of Dr. Mario.
SEUEEKSX (RTM)
SEKEEKSX (REV A)
Tested it on real hardware, also found out I needed to make one for REV A :) |
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Skrybe Staff
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 1610
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Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:19 am Post subject: |
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hiroshi wrote: | It inspired me to make Game Genie codes for the retail versions of Dr. Mario. |
Oh, nice! Gotta try this out on real hardware myself! |
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