Golden Sun and GS: the Lost Age Fusion? GS: Complete

[jmillart]

It might be interesting to do this, and I don't have the skill to do it myself but wouldn't it be nice to fuse the two games together in a single ROM? Probably could be done with The Lost Age editor since it includes most all of the Golden Sun features. The rest would have to be ported over.

I'd have it like so:
Part 1: Golden Sun
Part 2: Lost Age with the ability to visit previous cities from GS under disguise after reunion (mainly to still be able to get all Djinn ), and remove transfer code and GS Djinn locations from the Lost Age map.
Part 3: Set it up so hacks/mods/updates can be made off of this ROM version.

[zman9000]

... well if you could find a way to do it, that would be awsome, but i don't think you could... or at least anyone would want to spend the masive amount of time to do that... we already have the community hack to work on...

[Griever]

It would be nice to be able to do it.
Though i don't think the GBA CAN HANDLE THIS MUCH INFORMATION ... the rom will be too big.

[zman9000]

... well space wise (on the computer) i think it would be fine, but the way the program is set up it can only have so many slots for enemys and items and moves and other stuff... and i don't think you could fit all the enemys from gs1 and 2 in the empty slots... wait... is there even any empty slots???

[Salanewt]

Atrius tried doing it, but I think he stopped working on it because of all of the conversions that were necessary (like heightmap stuff).

If I recall, every enemy that was in GS1 has a slot in GS2, and every enemy besides Deadbeard made it in. Most of the overworld sprites didn't though.

[Atrius (He/They)]

I looked at it briefly to see what it would take, and partially converted 1 map from the original game into TLA's format.

My conclusion is that it would take WAAAAY more effort than it's actually worth.

[jmillart]

... well space wise (on the computer) i think it would be fine, but the way the program is set up it can only have so many slots for enemys and items and moves and other stuff... and i don't think you could fit all the enemys from gs1 and 2 in the empty slots... wait... is there even any empty slots???

Well we are on version 4 of the editor and all the versions just have minor updates. I suppose someone would first have to clear up slots by changing the encoded limit to a higher number. It would also help community hackers/modders by allowing them to add more content instead of change it. for example if you wanted to add more playable characters you would first have to make the limit bigger than 8 to add more slots in right?

I looked at it briefly to see what it would take, and partially converted 1 map from the original game into TLA's format.

My conclusion is that it would take WAAAAY more effort than it's actually worth.

after I learn how to do it, I'd be willing to do the map part. The thing I couldn't do is change the editor to allow for more creature ext slots. I told zman9000 it might be possible to have all creatures from both games if you could change the limit number for creatures to allow for more, then port in the original creatures from the first game. It is all possible, just hard.

[Atrius (He/They)]

Please don't double post, use the edit button instead.

You can't just throw in more slots, and have it work.  8 players is the maximum the game's engine allows, it's not programmed to handle more.  If you even try to reference a 9th character slot the game doesn't know what to do with it, if it doesn't crash it wouldn't work right even if the data for it existed.

[zman9000]

And if you wanted to have a 9th character there is a way to do it.... but it not like anyone would want to do it...

You would have to re-program the whole game and game engine from scratch... and then would have to re-program the editor from scratch...

basicly it would just be easier to make a whole new game then to mess with it, just to add more characters...

the thing you have to remember jmillart is, Atrius didn't make golden sun, and he has to work with the program in a way that doesn't completely change whats already in place in the game engine.

(summing it all up)
To change what you want, you would have to add/change something in the game and engine not the Editor, but as for what Atrius is working with its impossable... now can you let it go?

[Salanewt]

As the others have said, it would be nearly impossible to have more than 8 characters. Unlike Pokemon or Fire Emblem, it seems like quite a bit of Golden Sun's code uses registers 0-7 for each character (R0 - Isaac, R5 - Jenna, etc.). With the nature of thumb, it would be really impractical to attempt to use any of the other registers in the way that these are used.

As for transferring the maps, I would think that you could get away with just copying over some of the sprites tilesets, right? With more tilesets and sprites, you could do the rest from scratch; and maybe even fix one or two bugs along the way.

[Atrius (He/They)]

I have successfully transferred the graphical, and height map portions of map data before.  Unfortunately the code associated with them doesn't convert as easily, it contains function calls to code contained in the ROM, and since those functions differ (in location at least, I haven't even been able to confirm if they all are even present/the same) from TBS to TLA it doesn't work out so well.

You also have to consider how data is stored for saved games.  All of your storybook flag, chests that have been opened, e.t.c information is stored in the same place within both saved games.  They would overlap each other causing all sorts of problems, and there's just not enough room there to separate them.

[Charon]

Wouldn't it just be easier to put the two games in the same cartridge, have a boot menu on which game to pick, have one save slot dedicated to GS and another to TLA, and use the data from GS1 instead of a password?

[Amylolz]

@Charon the Ferryman: I like this idea a lot! But is it possible? I mean is there enough space to do that?

@zman9000: WTF are you trying to say???

[Misery]

There is enough space to contain the data from both games, but as Atrius mentioned above the designated storage space for save data is quite limited. I don't know if the GBA needs to reference certain sections in the ROM, if it does that seems like it would cause a problem if the data for one of the games is way back in there. If it doesn't, I can see it being possible if you use one save slot per game, but then you'd have to mess with how the game saves and it just seems like it would be way too much work.

If all you wanted was easy data transfer, just use VBAlink.

I can see it being possible

Oh and by the way, I did NOT write this. If this is what you saw, you misread.

[Mion Sonozaki]

Considering this is the world of rom hacking where you use savestates anyways, I for one would like to see the reality of this project.

[Atrius (He/They)]

I don't know if the GBA needs to reference certain sections in the ROM, if it does that seems like it would cause a problem if the data for one of the games is way back in there.

Oh it does, and many of those references, in Golden Sun's case, are contained within compressed chunks of code.  Good luck finding them all, again: more effort than it's worth.

[Tetsuya the Azure Blade]

It might be better to use RPG Maker to combine the games. You can make almost any kind of RPG with it, so why not combine the plots of the GBA GS games into one game?

[MaxiPower]

It might be better to use RPG Maker to combine the games. You can make almost any kind of RPG with it, so why not combine the plots of the GBA GS games into one game?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wq3EINBIBs

ill just leave that here