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Player stats/abilities for Bad News Baseball


pmeth

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Hey Guys,

I'm new around here so not sure if you talk about Bad News Baseball at all. Someone asked me to build an editor for it so he could change player names, abilities, stats, etc.

I was able to figure out player names and several of the stats from looking at the hex, but there are a few things I couldn't find.

I was wondering if someone has a listing of what all the stats/abilities are and where to find them in the ROM.

Thanks

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Bad News Baseball doesn't get much love around here. I used to have a doc somewhere with more info.

What do you have?

What are you looking for?

I'll see what I can dig up.

Looks like the batters start at 0x411B and each batter is 16 bytes. The breakdown for each nibble I could figure out so far is:

0-11: Player Name (1 byte for each character)

12: Blank

13-15: Unknown

16: Arm Strength (Gets 1 added to it)

17: Running Ability (Gets divided by 2 and 1 gets added to it)

18: Catching Ability (0-3="-", 4-7="C", 8-B="B", C-F="A")

19: 2nd Base Ability (0-3="-", 4-7="C", 8-B="B", C-F="A")

20: Shortstop Ability (0-3="-", 4-7="C", 8-B="B", C-F="A")

21: Outfield Ability (0-3="-", 4-7="C", 8-B="B", C-F="A")

22-23: Unknown

24-27: Batting Average (26-27 is the first number, 24-25 is the last 2 numbers)

28-29: Homeruns

30-31: Blank

So, I couldn't figure out where 1st & 3rd base abilities are or what the unknown fields are from above. It seems logical that 2 of those unknown fields would somehow be for 1st & 3rd but I the numbers didn't add up so I'm not too sure how that works. I'm also guessing the batting ability is recorded someplace unless it is somehow figured out from the average and homeruns.

I haven't looked at pitchers data yet.

Edited by pmeth
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  • 3 months later...

I know in Baseball Simulator, the Byte adjacent to the name controls both what position the player plays as well as how they bat/throw. I've looked in the Bad News Baseball rom; $4126 is #$0A; $4146 is #$07 and $4166 is #$19. It looks like the first bit of each corresponding byte is either a 1 or a 0, suggesting it may be throwing arm. I'll investigate a bit more when i get some time.


 


Disregard this message; its wrong.


Edited by keithisgood
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Disregard my previous message. I was confusing bits and bytes. I've taken a better look at the hex and what I found corresponds (for the most part) with what you found. All the Examples come from the San Francisco team


 


 


It looks like the 1st 6 bytes are player name.


 


Byte 7 relates to a players fielding position: all pitchers have 01. Will and T.J. get #$02 and they're both catchers. Steve gets a #$08 and he's center field, and George gets #$09 and he's Right field, so I'm pretty confident on this one.


 


Byte 8 seems like some sort of power modifier. Edward and Bobby, both homerun hitters, have high values (#$DC and #$BB); where lesser hitters like Jerry and T.J. have very low values (#$23 and #$22)


 


Byte 9 is indeed 1 bit for Arm strength and 1 bit for Running speed.


 


Byte 10 controls a player's infieild ability. Bit 1 controls Catching and 1st Base. Bit 2 controls 2nd base and 3rd base ability. Certain values in each bit give ability to just one position, while other values in the bit give ability to both positions. You'll have to play around with it to get the exact values.


 


Byte 11 is split, the first bit being Shortstop and the second bit being Outfield. 


 


Byte 12 I am still uncertain of. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between a hitters' style and the value here. I tried swapping out various values and batting with Steve, but I didn't notice any changes. Other baseball games use a bit or byte to subtract from a hitter's power when they don't hit the ball cleanly. Perhaps that's the use of byte 12? I'm unsure.


 


The rest you have spot on.


 


The only other thing I can think of is that I can't seem to find a player's batting/throwing arm in the hex. Steve bats left and Don bats right, but I couldn't make Steve switch to the other side of the plate for the life of me. 


 


Hope that helps.


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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I can't for the life of me track down pitching data.  Any ideas based on how it's stored in other baseball games?  It's definitely in another section, but not related to the name of the pitcher (you can't just find the pitcher's name again elsewhere in the rom).


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Here is a rom if people need it.


This rom has the Girls hack applied


At the Title screen, if you hit the "Select" button, your icon will turn into a heart and the girls team will be activated.


 


If I'm following correctly, the names are mapped to PPU 


 


9fb9ea93c9.png


 


 


13 14 05 16 05 00 = S T E V E _ 


 


The last player is located at 5F0A - Toronto Pitcher "BECKY"


 


 


BTW...I have zero idea how this game actually works


Bad News Baseball (U).nes

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I don't think anyone has found ERA info yet.


Unsurprisingly, it's under the player data


 


f4d7864e7f.png


 


BTW, the blue indicates that this is data accessed on pulling up this screen. You can make this happen with the Code Data logger in FCEUX


 It would make sense the other blue items are also pitching attributes.  I'm done for today...hope this gets someone else jump started.


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Heyo, checking in here...


 


In every baseball game I've worked with thusfar, ERA is stored as two bytes IN REVERSE ORDER. For example, the number 335 translated to hex would be 163. The two bytes for a 3.35 ERA are usually (usually!) stored in rom memory as 63 01. I haven't dug into Bad news baseball to double check, so I'm not 100 percent certain this is the case here. Hope that helps.


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Heyo, checking in here...

 

In every baseball game I've worked with thusfar, ERA is stored as two bytes IN REVERSE ORDER. For example, the number 335 translated to hex would be 163. The two bytes for a 3.35 ERA are usually (usually!) stored in rom memory as 63 01. I haven't dug into Bad news baseball to double check, so I'm not 100 percent certain this is the case here. Hope that helps.

 

I'm pretty sure my post clearly indicates that the ERA display is stored in decimal format immediately after the batting attributes.  Really the only question is what are the other attributes stored here.

I wonder if Tecmo took the time to code two baseball games in 1989 or if this one was put together by a different company. I don't recall the internals of Tecmo Baseball to verify the theory that it would be tough for one company to put together two games like this in a year.

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I don't know exactly what T, STamina? and RLF stand for, but these are also controlled here


 


Here are the pitching attributes for San Fran


 


B7 67 F3 15 01 B4 AB E3 36 02 92 DA C3 58 03 92 19 D3 72 02 58 62 D2 85 03 38 E3 E1 99 02


 


 


d4b32261ab.png


 


1st Byte


 


First bit - Stamina and Pitching Arm


0 or 1 = 60


2 or 3 = 80


4 or 5 = 100


6 or 7 = 170


8 or 9 = 190


A or B = 210


C or D = 230


E or F = 250


 


Even Number = Right handed 


Odd Number = Left Handed


 


Second Bit - T


0, 4, 8, C  = RO


1, 5, 9, D = RS


2, 6, A, E = LO


3, 7, B, F = LS


 


If I knew what T meant, I might know why there are 4 different versions.


 


2nd Byte


RLF


 


3rd and 4th Byte


 


1st Bit - ??


 


2-4th Bit - ERA


 


5th Byte


??


 


Do the pitchers have various throwing styles? That might be one of these attributes.


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The only other thing I can think of is that I can't seem to find a player's batting/throwing arm in the hex. Steve bats left and Don bats right, but I couldn't make Steve switch to the other side of the plate for the life of me. 

 

If it's like pitching, then it's possible it's an odd/even thing somewhere

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Knobbe, brilliant!  Thanks so much!  I'll start taking a look at this.  The 'T' is just for STamina (my patched version spells the word out to avoid confusion).  RLF is indeed Right, Left, Forkball.  I've always felt the forkball was cheap as you can't know whether it's a slow pitch that you can hit or a forkball that you can't (unless someone knows something I don't).


 


I have a 'night-mode' version of this game that darkens the colors of the field and sky which makes playing the game on modern bright televisions much more bearable.  I've also changed some team logos and colors to improve them.  Most importantly I've optimized the lineups for each team, making the default lineup better than the original without modifying player data.  This was always annoying to me as there are obvious roster changes I'd have to make every time I played.  Now it's setup with the best players, in a logical batting order.  I've made other tweaks to colors, icons, etc.


 


With this input, I think we've mapped almost all the player data.  Only data I still can't find is batter's handedness (R or L) and what makes a player an 'all-star' on the default all-star rosters.


 


 


Also, 'T' stands for 'throws'.  The four styles are Righty-Overhand, Lefty-Overhand, Righty-Sidearm, Lefty-Sidearm.


Edited by wilef
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3rd bit = Right Curve / Forkball (with 4th bit acting as a modifier, and 'x' meaning N/A or can't throw a Forkball)

0 = 0 / x (if 4th bit is 0-7)

0 = 1 / x (if 4th bit is 8-f)

1 = 2 / x (if 4th bit is 0-7)

1 = 3 / x (if 4th bit is 8-f)

2 = 4 / x (if 4th bit is 0-7)

2 = 5 / x (if 4th bit is 8-f)

3 = 6 / x (if 4th bit is 0-7)

3 = 7 / x (if 4th bit is 8-f)

4 = 0 / c (if 4th bit is 0-7)

4 = 1 / c (if 4th bit is 8-f)

5 = 2 / c (if 4th bit is 0-7)

5 = 3 / c (if 4th bit is 8-f)

6 = 4 / c (if 4th bit is 0-7)

6 = 5 / c (if 4th bit is 8-f)

7 = 6 / c (if 4th bit is 0-7)

7 = 7 / c (if 4th bit is 8-f)

8 = 0 / b (if 4th bit is 0-7)

8 = 1 / b (if 4th bit is 8-f)

9 = 2 / b (if 4th bit is 0-7)

9 = 3 / b (if 4th bit is 8-f)

a = 4 / b (if 4th bit is 0-7)

a = 5 / b (if 4th bit is 8-f)

b = 6 / b (if 4th bit is 0-7)

b = 7 / b (if 4th bit is 8-f)

c = 0 / a (if 4th bit is 0-7)

c = 1 / a (if 4th bit is 8-f)

d = 2 / a (if 4th bit is 0-7)

d = 3 / a (if 4th bit is 8-f)

e = 4 / a (if 4th bit is 0-7)

e = 5 / a (if 4th bit is 8-f)

f = 6 / a (if 4th bit is 0-7)

f = 7 / a (if 4th bit is 8-f)

 


4th bit is Left Curve:


 


0,8 = N/A (this doesn't exist in the game but if you change the bit to 0 or 8 you get an N/A for the curve, though it seems to be the same as a '1' curve in reality)


1,9 = 1


2,a = 2


3,b = 3


4,c = 4


5,d = 5


6,e = 6


7,f = 7


 


So the best a pitcher can have theoretically is a 'FF' byte which is 7/7/A.


Edited by wilef
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  • 9 months later...

mack8, with this new information, I've toyed with a couple player stats to see what would happen.  Haven't done anything too extensively, but for instance, giving a player an AVG of .999 and HRs of 99 does not mean they will always gets hits or HRs.  I'm not sure what to do with the stats as of yet, but a few ideas I had:


 


1. Give all pitchers more stamina (It's very easy to run low on pitching in a single game despite the fact that you're supposed to have 3-4 starters and 2-3 relievers on a roster).


2. Remove Forkball ability altogether (It's a cheap pitch that is unhittable and indistinguishable from a changeup)


3. Lower running ability (Runners with an 8 running will always beat a catcher with an 8 arm to second base, meaning free bases guaranteed)


4. Create a version with real player names/stats/abilities


 


If you're interested in my latest version of Night-Mode, I'll send it over, just PM me your email.  I've updated quite a bit in the game including uniform colors, team logos, text fixes, and of course darkening the field of play for a night game.  In my opinion it looks way better than the eye-searing colors of the original NES version.


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mack8, with this new information, I've toyed with a couple player stats to see what would happen.  Haven't done anything too extensively, but for instance, giving a player an AVG of .999 and HRs of 99 does not mean they will always gets hits or HRs.  I'm not sure what to do with the stats as of yet, but a few ideas I had:

 

1. Give all pitchers more stamina (It's very easy to run low on pitching in a single game despite the fact that you're supposed to have 3-4 starters and 2-3 relievers on a roster).

2. Remove Forkball ability altogether (It's a cheap pitch that is unhittable and indistinguishable from a changeup)

3. Lower running ability (Runners with an 8 running will always beat a catcher with an 8 arm to second base, meaning free bases guaranteed)

4. Create a version with real player names/stats/abilities

 

If you're interested in my latest version of Night-Mode, I'll send it over, just PM me your email.  I've updated quite a bit in the game including uniform colors, team logos, text fixes, and of course darkening the field of play for a night game.  In my opinion it looks way better than the eye-searing colors of the original NES version.

Yo dude! Post your ROM here and I'l get it into the download section.

 

I would love to see it.

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Sure thing.  I have a few 'forked' versions with varying differences, but my latest version is here.  If anyone tries it, I believe there may be a few cutscenes that still need color changes for grass/dirt/sky.  Each cut scene is rendered differently, so for instance there are multiple scenes for close plays at second (safe/out sliding into second, safe/out going back to second, etc.).  Anyway, would love some feedback on the changes!


 


Sorry if I put the rom in the wrong place, I didn't see a non-football area to put the rom!


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mack8, 


 


I'd love to see one, but I don't really know the first thing about rom editors.  pmeth, who started this topic talked of making one.  I don't know if he still has interest.  Is there a primer on making rom editors?  Can the Tecmo Super Bowl editor be used as a template for editing any rom if the right mapping was done?


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