Jump to content

Cascadia Effin' Tecmo - How It's Done (and How you could do it too)


kamphuna8

Recommended Posts

This is more of a nerd and history post since I don't want to include this stuff on every new CFT season post. Our history will be updated here as well. Admins (of which I am one) I only post this in Live Tourneys because there isn't a Live League section.

 

THE REST OF THIS POST IS HIGHLY TECHNICAL AND NERDY. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK...

 

Visions for the future: This will continue to be a  major summer event going forward with added seasons sprinkled in Fall like CFT 3 in November or CFT RNG could randomly pop up like it did in January. Eventually I would like to grow this to be a 16 game season. This could be done over one weekend (2 days or 3) or spread over over more time (1 day on consecutive weekends or something like that) With still around 12 players I could still do it in my garage and we could do a 16 game season where each team plays each of the other 5 same conference teams twice and the opposite conference teams once 5x2 + 6 = 16. I know thats a lot of tecmo to play in a short time, so we'll see how that develops. Joey B's spot has proven to be a major addition to the PNW host venues and there's hope that Manyo's Camp David (Hand Down the BEST spot for live tecmo) will be back in the mix in the not so distant future.  I also hope to get some non PNW KampBuddies out to future CFT seasons. I envision pairs of tecmo brethren from around the same region could take a tecmocation out here to the PNW where it's pretty much great weather once you get past July 4th, and usually before hand as well. Like my Chicago chaffeurs to Madison @modeezie and @toolie, B&G Vets @stalltalk and @MattyD, NTF brethren @chiefsjr83 and @redskinsfan1124 , and @arncoem and @baxterbear12 .

Other considerations include making this a regional event, holding part or whole seasons in different PNW locales and providing time to take in the scenery wherever it may be, and perhaps some local haunts. Another potential for the future is to carry forward with the goal of having a dynasty type season setup starting in the 60s like Manyo planned (or perhaps the 20s like my nerdy ass would want) and do a few short seasons a year during the Feb to Jun or July months (like Manyo planned originally for dates on the 3rd Saturday of each month). 

 

Hacks included on Rom: The goal is to have these hacks (mostly for stat purposes) while not affecting any change in the actual game play itself when compared to playing a TSB Season on an actual TSB Cart and NES console. 

 

Tapmeter - Counts and displays taps in man grapples. 

 

Play Preseason Games in Season-Mode - Allows us to play in preseason yet still have stats kept, and use the Season Mode space for the other hacks we need (if I'm not mistaken).  

 

Injuries in ALL Modes - Toggles injuries for our set up playing our games as Preseason Games in Season Mode

 

No Fumbles in End Zone - To prevent loss of stats. This may be adjusted if it's possible to hack the game to allow End Zone fumbles (cuz the feeling of forcing one is SO DELICIOUS) without losing the stats. Still waiting for an answer to that question. 

 

Keep Quarter Scores Intact if game goes to OT - If this hack is not included, then the scoreboard on the recap page does not accurately display the scores in each quarter, as you can see here in these epic (and only) OT contests from Season 1 involving @invader_star64 . Here vs @DT.  http://www.pnw.puretecmo.com/main/dsp_recap.php?gID=40 and then here in an elimination game vs @Tick http://www.pnw.puretecmo.com/main/dsp_recap.php?gID=46

 

Track Fumbles - Shows each teams number of fumbles and fumbles lost in the recap. 

 

Track Time of Possession - Allows us to see Time of Possession for each team in the recap. We found a bug in this one because it uses space that we are using that online leagues do not, which causes BUF QB1 (John Elway in our Season 1 rom tests) to accumulate weird stats when not even playing any games, like lots of passes and 100% completion rate of those passes for very minimal yards and TDs and a TON of INTS. So the set commands will be a little different for our league. Will update when fixed. edit: it's been fixed but there's not code posted about it.

 

Recording Tackles - Tackle stats on recap and stat pages. 

 

Player 2 Conditions Fix - Fixes the display of attributes to match the conditions for P2. 

 

Randomize Sound Loop Used for Each Play - Randomizes the sound or music for each play. Playoff music can occur on any play.

 

Other potential hacks are in the works, however none are meant to affect gameplay. Mostly they will be for additional stats. I'm hoping to be able to track some other things like JJs, CCs, picked plays, Yards after Catch,  maybe individual player's fumble stats, JJ ints thrown and caught, Passes Defensed. Forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Not sure how much we can fit and logistically do before this season, but hopefully we get a good deal of them.

 

How this will work: First of all a lot of thanks and gratitude must go out to the Godfather @Knobbe and @davefmurray for their contributions in ensuring this site meets the needs of all our tecmo brethren. Much thanks also to all those who share how to hack this in such a way we can enjoy it in this fashion. @jstout has shared so much (and was always very helpful when I would bug him about stuff a couple years back) and @bruddog for basically being the shining beacon of hope that allows us to not only approach doing this, but get the support to troubleshoot and basically provide so much of his time and resources so generously. Much thanks and praises also to @brookstonfowler for his help with our CFT Phile. 

 

Getting Started with the Regular Season: The way we are able to do this is through using the rom created with aforementioned hacks on an Everdrive. We start by using the initial rom on all the Everdrives SD cards for week 1 and playing in preseason. I'm not sure if we need to set Team Control for each team to Man in the Season Game menu for our regular season games, but we will have to for the playoffs. After each game, a state is taken from the Everdrive and the ED's SD card is pulled. From the SD card, the state is saved to the CPU, then run through an Everdrive State Converter (linked below) which converts the state to a Nestopia like state which can then be uploaded to our Website (CFT Phile). Each Save State from Week 1 (in its Everdrive form I believe) is then merged with the other Save States from Week 1, one at a time (to the previously merged save state) using a tool Bruddog "whipped up" and the final version (Rom aka Save State) after all the Week 1 states are merged will be labeled as our Week 2 rom, and then copied to the ED's SD cards to be used for Week 2's games. This process will be used all the way through the completion of the regular season. Regular season stats and standings will be available to peruse on the rom and cartridge itself, as well as on the CFT Phile website, which will be updated with each game uploaded right after completion. There were some logistical concerns and flat out problems in our efforts for season 1 that will inform how we make season 2 and beyond happen. Problem number 1 was that we were unable to get the merges to work properly and consistently during the first season and the reasons included a lack of familiarity with best practices for making saves visible on the SD card and then trying to make a lot of this stuff work without allowing enough time to test it out before Game Day. Luckily we were able to manage to get the saves to show on the SD card using the knowledge we had (basically, after saving the state with a Select and Start button push, the state saved would not actually be saved on the SD card itself until a different rom was loaded). The end result was that we essentially played every game in season 1 with the same rom, but for each game, the rom's name was changed to include the week number and teams involved in order to ensure each file was named to clearly describe what it held. I also used a protocol for saving and converting these states for upload that included the creation of file folders for each week and game, and in each game's folder was an extra folder for the actual converted to nestopia state format since the names of both pre and post converted states were identical. Long story short, I was creating a lot of the folders while also going forward with the conversions and uploads and there was a lot of wait time for everyone else before the next set of games could be played. My plan to improve the logistics include having all the folders created for each week before hand, as well as to have extra SD cards so that when, for instance, the first 3 or 4 games of a given week are played, those SD cards can be pulled from the Everdrives and be replaced with other SD cards that have the rom for the rest of that week's games on them while the work to convert, upload and merge is being done. I'll also try to incorporate more help from guys there so it doesn't have to be just me doing the file work. @invader_star64 helped out a lot last season, and I think we can get a crack team to make it as efficient as possible and minimizing wait times between weeks. 

 

Everdrive State Converter - Converts Everdrive state to one that matches Nestopia states and thus can be read and uploaded to our Phile. 

 

Merge Tool - I don't have a link for this but we use it to be able to carry conditions and injuries over from week to week as well as be able to see the complete season stats with the Rom on the Everdrive in the NES itself. 

 

PLAYOFFS??!?!? - For the playoffs, the final rom save after all the final week's mergers are done will be hacked to put the teams in their respective places in the Playoff Bracket that Tecmo Super Bowl console seasons utilize. I saw this in action yesterday and about flipped my lid. In this case the Team Control in Season Game menu needs to have all the playoff teams set to Man. Once this rom is loaded, no changes need to be added to it. The two potential logistical issues I foresee and want to get in front of are: 1. How can we ensure that we are able to get a state that we can upload from the end of each playoff game? and 1A. If we do pull the SD card to convert and upload the playoff save state after each playoff game, how can we do this without making the wait in between games too long? I know there is a way to create files on the Everdrive that can serve as placeholders (and using efficient nomenclature) for save states so that one can choose which file on the SD Card to save the current SRAM to. I'm hesitant to trust this method without ensuring we have a good save to upload before moving on to the next playoff game. I guess my thinking is we can save that SRAM to the file and pull it out quick, copy it to another SD card and use the next SD card for the next game while we work on converting and uploading the state for the just completed playoff game. (Having the actual SD card not being used by the current playoff game being played will make it easier to pop the card (in its Everdrive) in to the NES and "push" the save to the SD card, using the methodology from season 1. I apologize for this last bit of rambling (stream of consciousness) We will work it out. 

 

 

Cascadia Tournament Historical Links:

PNW Honbasho 1 Behind the Woodshed 1/26/19 1st DT, 2nd Gripsmoke, 3rd kamphuna8, 4th PTitteri

CFT RNG 1  Sammamish Smshmth   12.30/18   1st Invader, 2nd kamphuna, 3rd and 4th DT and Stu (lost in Conf Championships)

CFT Season 3 GrgeDys Revsted 11/10/18  1st kamphuna8, 2nd Stu, 3rd and 4th Tick and Randy (lost in Conf Championships)

CFT Season 2 Grit City Tecmo   7/28/18  1st Randy, 2nd kamphuna8, 3rd and 4th DT and Stu (lost in Conf championships)

Portland Tecmo 2 JJ's Birden   1/27/18   1st kamphuna8, 2nd Gripsmoke, 3rd Tick, 4th DT (Greats rom side tourney 1st Gripsmoke, 2nd kamphuna8

Seattle  Pimpin' Ain't Easley       9/3/17      1st Ptitteri, 2nd Mort, 3rd DT, 4th Invaderstar (Consolation Champ  Tailback King)

CFT Season 1  Tacoma              7/8/17      1st kamphuna8, 2nd DT, 3rd XtraLargent, 4th Invaderstar

CFT Season 0 Centralia             3/11/17    1st Tick, 2nd kamphuna8, 3rd DT, 4th Manyo

3Portland 1  JJ in the Beaver     1/28/17     1st Invaderstar, 2nd Gripsmoke, 3rd Manyo  (Consolation Champ 1991Huskies #shoottheJ)

Pac Rim 3  Seattle                     9/4/16        1st Moonwalk, 2nd kamphuna8, 3rd jim jensen, 4th DT (Bottom Bracket Winner Boogiewithstu  over gripsmoke)

PNWTC 5   Centralia                 7/2/16         1st Gripsmoke, 2nd SirTed, 3rd Tick, 4th Manyo

Mayhem 5  Centralia "Dick"     8/29/15       1st kamphuna8, 2nd Invaderstar, 3rd Gripsmoke, 4th Manyo

PNWTC 4    Centralia               7/11/15          1st DT, 2nd Gripsmoke, 3rd SirTed, 4th kamphuna8

Mayhem 4  Centralia "play 2"   1/2/15         1st kamphuna8, 2nd manyo, 3rd grip ( Night mayhem 1st kamp, 2nd manyo, 3rd TailbackKing)

PNWTC 3  Centralia                    6/21/14       1st gripsmoke, 2nd Invaderstar, 3rd Sir Ted, 4th Randy F Mr. GiGGles

PAC RIM II  Seattle                      4/12/14       1st Invaderstar, 2nd Gripsmoke, 3rd Sir Ted, 4th Stanley?

Mayhem 3  Tacoma Trailer Tecmo  4/4/14  1st kamphuna8   Mini Tourney Winner Invaderstar

Mayhem 2  Centralia                   3/1/14          1st kamphuna8, 2nd Sir Ted, 3rd Manyo, BoogieWithStu

Mayhem 1 Centralia ACTUAL    2/15/14        Manyo over kamphuna8

Mayhem 1  Centralia                  8/17/13         Didnt happen... 

PNWTC 2    Centralia                  6/30/13         1st kamphuna8, 2nd Randy Foulfield, 3rd Sir Ted, 4th BoogieWithStu

PAC RIM I  Seattle                       4/7/13           1st Randy, 2nd kamphuna8, 3rd tie Sir Ted and Tyler J

PNWTC 1   Olympia                     6/23/12         1st Randy, 2nd GoNickMontana5, 3rd Manyo, 4th BoogieWithStu  RESULTS

 

Rumblings by CochiseBlue(Luigi)  and MadManyo and GoManyo360

Edmonds at Another Castle        5/20/11          1st Manyo, 2nd kamphuna8, 3rd Boogie with Stu RECAP

 

RodWoodson aka TecmoGodfather aka PNW Live Tourney Godfather

 

**UPDATE**

Field Guides!

CFT2 Field Guide.xlsx

CFT2 Field Guide.pdf

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...