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NES Play Design Info


jstout

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So, I'm obviously not the only person who knows this, but you can get additional offensive play slots starting @4bf8 (5c) until the last one @4df2 (73), so 73-5b= 24 additional slots.  These can be run as pass plays at least because that's what I'm working on.  That's all I know though.

 

I'm attaching a spreadsheet the maps the offensive pointer sequence locations.  It also gives/generates pointers when you type the location in the cell below.  You have to cut and paste the equation in cell b13 (and in b3, etc. for the special teams stuff) to the cell above the location itself; otherwise the file gets too large initially.  This covers from play slots 00 to 73 (I forget how many that is).  There are rows that help orient you by player names that you're recognize (SF's starters) every four play slots:  yellow is for run plays and purple is for pass.  There are also tabs for the original pointers, but I've toyed with those some.

 

I can't really vouch for the formations tab because I was trying to do something.

 

Offensive Pointers.xlsx

Edited by quince3800
adding a spreadsheet (needed to fix a mistake)
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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm wondering:  given that you can add additional play slots, is there any way to add actual play command space?  I'm thinking the answer is "no" because I've tried a few open locations at various times, but it messes the game up.  But, there is extra space that's been located or added to roms. Does anyone know the answer about getting more space beyond 9fff/49fff and bfff/4bfff?

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If you're asking about adding individual player command space, then the answer is yes, there IS free space, unless you've already added something else there.  In the original TSB, the free player command space starts at x9f88 and ends at xa00f.  I've used all that free space up, and then when I needed more, went back and overwrote unused player command lines, like for the WR1 and/or WR2 lines for some of the reverse runs that I effectively removed from the game.

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1 hour ago, quince3800 said:

I'm wondering:  given that you can add additional play slots, is there any way to add actual play command space?  I'm thinking the answer is "no" because I've tried a few open locations at various times, but it messes the game up.  But, there is extra space that's been located or added to roms. Does anyone know the answer about getting more space beyond 9fff/49fff and bfff/4bfff?

 

It's possible but it takes some hacking. Are you still only wanting 64 plays but just extra play command space? 

 

You have to mess with the routine that loads the play commands bank like the 3-4,4-3 defense hack does. 

 

This is the default  routine for loading the command bank thats at 0x2802B in the rom.  Do do what you want is kind of tricky. You have to intercept the play call at the point where you know if it's a "expanded section" play or not then set a variable somewhere to indicate that you are running an expanded section play. 

 

Then in the default routine below you'd add a check for that variable and adjust the bank accordingly but only for offensive play commands.  

 

LDY #$08                            ; LOAD POSITION ID
LDA ($AE),Y                         ;
EOR $70                             ; SET BANK TO USE FOR PLAY COMMANDS BASED ON PLAYER IS ON OFFENSE OR DEFENSE
ROL                                 ; = OFFENSE =0, DEFENSE =1 + BANK OFFSET
LDA #$00                            ;
ADC #$04                            ; = BANK 4(OFFENSE) OR BANK 5(DEFENSE)
TAX                                 ;
JSR $D8E3                           ; SWAP A000-BFFF BANK (X= BANK TO SWAP IN)

 

 

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1 hour ago, bruddog said:

It's possible but it takes some hacking. Are you still only wanting 64 plays but just extra play command space?

 

Your reply is over my head a bit.  I understand the words you're saying, but not what's required in order to get it done.  I'll have to sift around to see what I can find out. 

 

As for the number of plays, it's however many I can legitimately get in right now.  There are 115 play slots available, which means hot routes on blitzes, etc.  (Apparently there are more on defense too, but I haven't tested it).  Does is make a huge difference if I have more than 64 plays?  I probably will actually have towards that number, but I haven't finished planning yet. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I wanted to ask before I got too far into this:  Is it possible to move the play command sections to @a8000 and @b8000 respectively and then just have basically all of the space you want?  In a previous post (in the HP as diving topic) Bruddog said:

 

 "NES MMC3 mapper can only have two banks loaded at a time

 

The bank this hack is in runs from 0x28010  to 0x2C010 on the acutal ROM file. Also for JSR's the only valid ranges are 0x8000 to 0xBFFF. 

 

0xC000 -0xFFFF is the fixed bank in memory."

 

I'm thinking that if all banks are 4000 bytes long, then the logic of what I'm thinking is off because if you wrote too much code, then it'd no longer fit into the prescribed bank.  Writing a variable for a play to jump to another area seems way too complicated; simplying having a lot of extra space (if possible) would get the same thing done, no?  I'm starting to read some things on ASM commands and bank switching, but it seems that what I thought (@a8000/b8000) maybe isn't doable.  Also, I'm looking at the trace material from a 4-3/3-4 rom, but referring to offensive commands.

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banks are actually 0x2000 long =8192 bytes.  

 

You'd have to have a third variable that switched to different banks depending on the play called. The other option is to completely wipe the original play sections and write all your own plays/defenses from scratch. 

 

 

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