Really Old Editor screenshots, and interesting facts.

[Atrius (He/Him)]

I was looking through some old files I have on my hard drive, and came across the very first version of the GS TLA Editor that I created.  This was long before version 0.1, it was in fact before it was even capable of loading a ROM file at all.  How could it be a GS Editor if it didn't load ROM files you ask, well originally it wasn't intended to edit the actual Golden Sun games at all! *gasp*



Nothing special here, the interface looks exactly like the current version of the editor just brighter, and this is the Editor Assets tab that was still present in v0.1 of the editor as we know it today.  Although... in v0.1 it would only ever contain the top three items in this list, here it's populated with... battle sprites?  Interesting, I'll leave you in suspense and explain that later though.  Now If you bring your attention to the top bar that usually has the file button it now says "Golden Sun: Fan Game Engine, Data Editor"  Ah, so it was originally intended to be an editor for a Golden Sun fan game.

















"Whoa, what the?  Transparent panels with a blurring effect on what's behind them?  Now wait a second, Atrius, I thought you said this was an older version of the editor, how did the interface look MORE polished back then than it does now?"

Heh heh... Let's save that for later, for now lets focus on the differences between the old item editor and the one we have now.  This one pulled it's data from a text file which I painstakingly typed the data for each and every weapon into myself, the list on the left displays the item name as well as what type of item it is, and the right panel... Well it never got finished for this version of the editor.  Obviously though there isn't enough room in it, so I had to compact the list on the left to make that room, that and the item type isn't actually specified as such in the games data.
















"Really, Atrius, you could change the color of the interface back then too, but not now?  Why would you downgrade it so much, is that what we do, we make things worse as we develop them, really?"

Um... Hey look, it's a battle screen integrated into the editor's interface!  This is the obviously WIP original ability editing interface which has a nifty little battle screen stuck into it, presumably intended for previewing the graphical effects of attacks.  The enemy party was mostly just for the heck of it as it was being tested.  I'm amazed at how developed that battle screen is compared to the rest of the menu, it even has a 3D particle system programmed into it.

Isn't that pretty?  This wasn't just for the sake of the editor though, I was in fact developing a Golden Sun fan game engine as well, and required a battle system complete with particle effects capable of emulating the original Golden Sun's.  I think I did an admirable job if I do say so myself.  Though difficulties with the actual Golden Sun's attack animations being programmed in assembly code make sticking a battle screen in the editor now fairly pointless, at least you've now seen it can and has been done in the past.



Now about the interface.  Since the editor as we know it today was built directly from this older version, all of the code for the interface back then is still in the editor's programming (except for the battle screen that got cut out completely, not that it couldn't be reinserted fairly easily)

Color changing:  Although the code to change the interface's colors has been there since the very beginning, back then it was just assigned to keyboard buttons for testing purposes since it was easier than making a menu for it.  Unfortunately early on in the process of transforming the editor into what we know it as now those button commands were removed, but the options never got stuck into a menu.  Since I was so busy getting to editor to... well... edit things for a long time, and being able to change the interface color wasn't considered an important enough feature to work on at the time, I eventually forgot that the feature was programmed in at all.  It's still there in fully working order though, and will see the light day.

Semi-transparent panels with blurring effect:  Ah, unfortunately this one was disabled very much on purpose.  Not removed mind you though, re-enabling it is as easy as changing the value of a single variable in the source code from 0 to 1.  There was a very good reason for disabling the effect though, as the editor's interface grew in complexity, and it became necessary to open new panels in front of old ones a very crippling glitch with the system was uncovered.  Again, at the time making the editor actually able to edit was of higher priority than reprogramming the interface to fix the glitch, and eventually the feature was completely forgotten.  Although the code still exists for it, there are no intentions to re-enable it any time soon.  Increasing the editor's functionality still takes priority over making it look shiny, and the glitches involved with this feature would require a heck of a lot of work to iron out.  Although it is possible that this feature may be fixed and re-enabled eventually, it's not going to be any time soon.



That brings this look into the past of the editor nearly to an end, I leave you with the fact that before I started work on the version of the editor capable of editing GS ROMs I only intended to come up with a way to rip the sprites from them for my fan game.  And here are the result of my early attempts at it before the first time I cracked a compression format.

[MaxiPower]

I had a grave suspicion that you were trying to create a fan game at one stage, At one point you posted like a flash game were the user could walk about a Madra looking place, It was identical to the games in terms of character movement and all.... I may be wrong in assuming that its connected to this editor but all the same.

Any chance you could upload it to the Editor download page for the lulz, just to mess about with colour boxes if nothing else 

On a side note, you should have enabled it on the version 0.2 and released it on April fools as Version 0.3. People would be liek OMG The editors alive ayeeee.

[Tetsuya the Azure Blade]

So the editor was originally intended to make a fangame? Cool, but why so many Isaacs? Attack of the  killer Isaacs!!!!

[Zach]

This is awesome Atrius and I agree with MP, it would've taken ALL of us by surprise :D

[Rolina]

So... the purpose of the editor hasn't changed, I see.  Just the name. XD