User talk:Fuzn/Proto:Mega Man X5

Hey Fuzn, I'm currently waiting on a password reset for Jul but I figured I'd post this here for now seeing as you are already working on the article. Looking good so far, btw! I see you found the debug tiles, they're very much used :)

http://imgur.com/a/xmMaY

Luckily, the internal level order is already chosen and the values from retail correspond to the levels in this beta. (Up to both Dynamo fights) I don't know if the address is the same, because I use Cheat Engine with PSX 1.13 rather than PSX Cheating Plugins. None the less, it's easy to get there and check out.

Values for retail levels: http://bsfree.shadowflareindustries.com/?s=1&d=8&g=648#note4

IIRC, I believe the stage select occupies the value of 0D and itself and values above lead to crashes. Izzy Glow's stage is partially complete including graphics, but the others use X4 graphics or debug tiles. Layouts are similar to final. The Skiver's level is the most incomplete, and Split Mushroom from X4 is being used as a boss for Axle The Red's stage.

There's also some other interesting junk I found in the normally playable levels, such as Squid Adler having his Heart Tank already placed, unlike other levels. I couldn't find anything to suggest any of the other armors were even partially done in this build, and I'm not quite sure where to start to check for weapons with there being no access in the first place. Anyway, just thought I'd send that to maybe save you some time, if you didn't already know. Have a good one!

PS, if there's anything I could potentially help with checking out on this beta, let me know. I'd be more than happy to at least give it a shot.

--AxlRocks (talk) 08:32, 20 March 2014 (EDT)

Thanks! I usually don't have much luck with Cheat Engine or memory searchers of any degree, though. I was planning to cover the playable levels and if anything else was found, I would leave that to other people. I want to cover at least the Intro Stage's worth of content and some basic differences with the other playable stages before moving the page off to it's own off my user space.

I use GGD to snoop around the big ROCK_X5 file for stuff, that is how I found the debug tiles and their correct palette, it seems. For proper viewing, you want 4bit, at 256 width. The 256 color images are at 8bit, with 128 width, and typically they're stored in reverse order. Most of the palette information is towards the top of the file, will work straight up being loaded, with the exception of player-specific palettes.

The other armors don't seem to exist at all in this build. They may have been cut out from this version, or their values instead load an unarmored X instead. I know that they probably were not given names by this point, since the Stage Select has icons for a "X Heavy", "X Wing", and "X Mega" armors. Chances are they weren't even started.

A pipe dream would be being able to get X's and Zero's raw tiles decompressed, though. Capcom usually slip up and leave some unfinished stuff in there, and if that can be done, there might be early EARLY sprites in there, maybe even as far back as early X4 betas! Again, pipe dream, though, I can't seem to get anybody interested in it. Those would contain subweapon graphics as well. --Fuzn (talk) 22:25, 20 March 2014 (EDT)