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Hello There!

Started by immortaleeb, 06, May, 2016, 07:40:13 PM

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immortaleeb

Hello to whoever is reading this!

So I've been looking at the posts on this forum every now and then for probably the last 5 years, but never really felt any reason to create an account here.
Golden Sun 1 & 2 are one of my most favourite games of all times, but over the years I kinda lost interest in them (probably because life got in the way)... Until recently...
Ever since I learned about Open Golden Sun, I've had this huge desire to replay the games, get back into the lore and even took some time to look at TLA Editors' source code.

I've also looked at some other golden sun communities but of all those I have to say that the posts I read here, even after all those years, seem to hit home the most for me. I'm under the impression the people here are REALLY into golden sun.
So I thought: Why not just register an account and we'll see what happens. I probably won't post as much as I lurk around, but at least I hope it shows that there are still people outside of this community who still love golden sun as much as you guys do.

That being said:
Can someone fill me in on how active this community still is?
Are there still any running projects I should be interested in/other stuff I need to know/read?

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

#1
Hello! Welcome to the Community! We are looking to recruit new hackers for our umm... world domination plan. Something about using a golden sun to cause global warming, or something... I think we'll need to get into Camelot's servers to find the blueprints on how exactly to do that, though. (And to peek on their progress/plans on making the next GS game, if any.) Might you have the qualifications to do that? :P (AKA: Do you have any hacking experience at all? - On a more serious note... ignore the security hacking references since it is supposed to be, ROM hacking... XD)

I think Balanced Age is one of the currently most active project being posted on here... My signature does have links to GS docs, though... (GS2 having better documentation than GS1.; Feel free to edit./Guests can edit.) ...and there might be some open-source alpha versions of my GS editor stashed somewhere on this site... (Not really worth mentioning about, as of current.)
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

Luna_blade

Welcome to the forums!

Five years???
Wow...

Activity is kinda low. Projects you want to hear about? Depends a bit on what you like.
We've had this person drawing a map a few weeks ago for example.
"Hear the sounds and melodies
Of rilets flowing down
They're the verlasting songs
Whispering all the time
As a warning that behind some rocks
There's a rigid grap even
Oreads fear the tread"

immortaleeb

Quote
Might you have the qualifications to do that? :P (AKA: Do you have any hacking experience at all?

I'm more of a high-level programming guy (probably the main reason I'm excited about OGS).
But I'm no stranger to assembly, so I guess there could be some ROM hacking skills in there... somewhere :P

Quote
I think Balanced Age is one of the currently most active project being posted on here... My signature does have links to GS docs, though... (GS2 having better documentation than GS1.; Feel free to edit./Guests can edit.)

Having lurked on this forum for about 5 year I do know about the balanced age and I've looked at the golden sun docs in your signature a couple of times while trying to understand the editor's code.

Quote
...and there might be some open-source alpha versions of my GS editor stashed somewhere on this site... (Not really worth mentioning about, as of current.)

Now this sounds interesting to me! Having looked at Atrius' editor I have to say: what it does it does well but the code is... well... a huge mess (*please don't hit me*).
The editor could probably use a rewrite, but I do wonder if there are still people who would be interested in this, considering OGS will allow us to do way more than the editor would ever allow and changing/adding stuff would presumably be way easier because we could code it in some high-level language instead of having to write GBA assembly and worry about space requirements.
That being said: where could I find this editor of yours? I wouldn't mind taking a look at it, but I don't seem to find it anywhere.

Quote
Welcome to the forums!

Thanks!

Quote
Five years???
Wow...

Crazy right?

Quote
Activity is kinda low. Projects you want to hear about? Depends a bit on what you like.
We've had this person drawing a map a few weeks ago for example.

I have checked out the map, I love how much work that person put into it! I also enjoy reading the GS stories and theories people have posted here.
Basically: I'm all ear for everything GS related, be it something technical (internals/hacks) or lore/story-wise.
The only exception being if it's Dark Dawn related.... I like to imagine DD happened in an alternate, non-cannon universe or just was never made...

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

#4
QuoteBut I'm no stranger to assembly, so I guess there could be some ROM hacking skills in there... somewhere :P
Yay!

Quote[Now this sounds interesting to me! Having looked at Atrius' editor I have to say: what it does it does well but the code is... well... a huge mess (*please don't hit me*).
The editor could probably use a rewrite, but I do wonder if there are still people who would be interested in this, considering OGS will allow us to do way more than the editor would ever allow and changing/adding stuff would presumably be way easier because we could code it in some high-level language instead of having to write GBA assembly and worry about space requirements.
That being said: where could I find this editor of yours? I wouldn't mind taking a look at it, but I don't seem to find it anywhere.
The story is that... in the beginning... I was modifying Atrius's editor and added a few things... decisions were made that I'd discontinue work on that. There was one point I was working on an editor in Java... (Java is multi-platforrm)... it basically displayed the thumb assembly code... and eventually I guess I ended up not liking Java as much, and switched to C#.. (Which I believe may be cross-platform as well, but you have to get Mono (or whatever it was) for it to be so, I think? Haven't tested yet.) - Sometimes I do wonder if I'll move to C++ in the future, but for now... C# might be good enough.

@C# : They are very early version(s)... so they don't do much yet... (I keep procrastinating...) I recall displaying text and being able to edit it with  full compression. (Regenerates char tables)... and I also had maps displayed, but they weren't editable. (I was working on that at one point, though.) - One of the ones showing text editing capability was posted here http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?topic=2560.msg44428#msg44428 ... but I think I had another version elsewhere. (And then I have another version I don't think I posted on this site... but mainly because it is unfinished... that shows the tilesets/tiles used/etc. in map... part of my progress toward map editing.)

Anyway... the strategies between the Java one and the C# one are a bit different... since the Java one was a plan to show a huge tree of all the data in the order it is in... (But I recon that would be hard to make user-friendly.(?)) Where-as the C# one is to be more like original map editors...

QuoteThe only exception being if it's Dark Dawn related.... I like to imagine DD happened in an alternate, non-cannon universe or just was never made..
Dark Dawn might still be interesting for anything that is similar to the original GS games... as far as data goes, though. And assuming DS games usually have labels and stuff... could even possibly help with some of the terminology for some stuff. (if any)... Like that time with the M&L games.
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

immortaleeb

Quote
@C# : They are very early version(s)... so they don't do much yet... (I keep procrastinating...) I recall displaying text and being able to edit it with  full compression. (Regenerates char tables)... and I also had maps displayed, but they weren't editable. (I was working on that at one point, though.) - One of the ones showing text editing capability was posted here http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?topic=2560.msg44428#msg44428 ... but I think I had another version elsewhere. (And then I have another version I don't think I posted on this site... but mainly because it is unfinished... that shows the tilesets/tiles used/etc. in map... part of my progress toward map editing.)

I checked the link out, but except for the compression code you shared I can't actually download the files you linked there.
Why not just put the code on github? Even if it's unfinished, it sounds like you got a lot working already and it might prove useful or at the very least educational for some people.

Who knows someone might even fork it and finish what you started but seem to keep postponing :P

Quote
Dark Dawn might still be interesting for anything that is similar to the original GS games... as far as data goes, though. And assuming DS games usually have labels and stuff... could even possibly help with some of the terminology for some stuff. (if any)... Like that time with the M&L games.

Do you mean that the compiler they used for DS games left some things in the assembly that references the original source code?
That does sound interesting... However, DD and the original games were written by completely different teams and I doubt very much that the new team would research the old code before starting on DD, so their code base probably looks completely different (even if only because code written in the 90s wouldn't get past code reviews of today's standards)

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

#6
If there does seem to be a problem (i.e. "Whoops" for there not being a preview is normal, and the download link is there.) , then thanks for bringing it to my attention. Might see what I can do about that soon. - Might want to check on something first. (Which can wait... so uploading anyway.)

***To explain... , I dunno how broken it is or not... I can't remember if I left any important unfixed bugs. (This version)... But I'll just store this version (should be the latest) here anyway... as an attachment. Using today's date even though the last edit was over a month ago... The bin/Debug might have a more updated version of the exe than bin/Release.

I think the keyboard buttons to note are the numbers... pg-up/pg-down, and forgot if anything else. (Was it Spacebar to switch between Tileset display and the 16x16 tiles used display? (16x16 Tiles Used is basically every tile as displayed in the map, but none repeating.))

--
I mean that some data tables are already similar... Like the item data.and I think... even the PC data?) (I have a topic where I started Dark Dawn research... but not a whole lot there.)
And I'm saying that Nintendo's compilers (or whatever they are using)... that basically compiling to GBA may leave out a lot of filename-like labels and such... where-as most DS games have a Nitro File System... and what not...
(Anyway, I'm pretty sure I recall the famous Sakurabi, well-known for his music in the old games... also composing music for Dark Dawn as well... can't say for all the other programmers, though. - It's funny how that's the only name I've actually known/remembered about for all this time. :P)


Today's standards = Like Dark Dawn is "Today"?  Possibly more like a few years ago. :P ... Look at how much time has passed... 2001(GS1)/2002(GS2) , 2010(GS3), and now we're in 2016. Not many years until  8-9 more years has passed again.... And even with Moore's Law and stuff... sometimes it doesn't feel like we've gotten that far, even though tech has....
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

Salanewt

Hey there, welcome! Let us know if you need anything.

For activity, the Balance Age is probably the most active project right now while various other patches and topics will pop up from time to time. I sometimes upload something useful or fun when I feel like it though, most of which can be found in the downloads section.

Dark Dawn: I find that there are some ideas that could be borrowed and used in GS1/2 hacks, but as a whole it felt more like a DS Final Fantasy knockoff mixed with constant GS references (some of which were partially wrong too).

Oh yeah baby, £ me harder.

Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak Adepts stronger.

Yoshi's Lighthouse is a hacking website in progress. Why not check it out if you like Yoshi or the Mario & Luigi games?