Gabriel Pyron's Color Hacks!!! (Golden Axe, Street Fighter II, Final Fight CD, etc)

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Originally Posted by Orchid87

Hey guys! I'm doing Lotus II color hack and would like to receive some feedback and suggestions. Lotus III The Ultimate Challenge (on Amiga and DOS) is my second favorite Outrun-style racing game (the first one is the arcade version of Chase HQ) and I feel that Genesis version, retitled as Lotus II RECS is really a poor conversion. The only saving grace is remixed music which, imo, is even better than Amiga soundtrack. So I try to at least make the color palettes look more like the original. Of course there's stuff that cannot be changed by color hacks alone - all the sky gradients are gone, many details are changed for the worse, etc. I'd try to fix the graphics if anyone could help me on decompressing them (I don't really know how to do stuff like that). So here's my WIP:

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Keep going this game is very cool, and your improvement looks cool

Linkuei also are doing this, you also can look at his work and takee some inspirations
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...l=1#post741378

And i did one stage to test in the past
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...l=1#post761412

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Originally Posted by Pyron

Keep going this game is very cool, and your improvement looks cool

Linkuei also are doing this, you also can look at his work and takee some inspirations
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...l=1#post741378

And i did one stage to test in the past
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...l=1#post761412

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Hey, I really like the sky color in your rework. Mind if I steal it?

I saw Linkuei work, his title screen is so dope! I'd probably try to make simple white Lotus Ultimate Challenge title screen like in Amiga/DOS version, if I learn how to modify graphic tiles in this game. Looks like he is doing a complete rework to his own preferred style, while I just try to make the game look more like Amiga/DOS version, even if it will look worse than the original in the end.

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Originally Posted by Orchid87

Hey, I really like the sky color in your rework. Mind if I steal it?

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ofc not, make this game looks good plz

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Originally Posted by Orchid87

I just try to make the game look more like Amiga/DOS version, even if it will look worse than the original in the end.

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I think this is the way, but dont try do a carbon copy because some times dosen't go well, try improve and re-improve all your results with calm, i think that some stages can look even betther

Cadash literally need a graphic hack!!

ARCADE-/-MD ORIGINAL-/-MY MD HACK
https://i.imgur.com/ekZBOv5.png
https://i.imgur.com/yjPTMQv.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/OUuvELz.png

^
Looking great! I think characters in Arcade version are a bit brighter though

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Originally Posted by foxnoodles

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Looking great! I think characters in Arcade version are a bit brighter though

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Yea, i dont changed the NPC palettes...
Looks like the palettes are arranged during the gameplay cause the colors in this game is randomly adressed in the rom LOL

All the more reasoning for my stating the game would be better off with a complete redo.

Or better yet, a PC port. With online multiplayer.
No multiplayer game is complete without people yelling at you in inexplicable Finnish and Tagalog simultaneously. :D

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Originally Posted by LinkueiBR

Yea, i dont changed the NPC palettes...
Looks like the palettes are arranged during the gameplay cause the colors in this game is randomly adressed in the rom LOL

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I found all the offsets for objects and characters in the game, so I changed a bit the colors to make them brighter:
https://image.ibb.co/fsmMD7/cadash_chars.png
I still have to be very careful not to change them too much or I would break something else badly, like this one, stage 2:
https://image.ibb.co/nBsmD7/cadash_comparison_2_ND.png

So I had to mostly revert to blue trolls. But still, I'm very satisfied with the result.

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

I found all the offsets for objects and characters in the game, so I changed a bit the colors to make them brighter:
https://image.ibb.co/fsmMD7/cadash_chars.png
I still have to be very careful not to change them too much or I would break something else badly, like this one, stage 2:
https://image.ibb.co/nBsmD7/cadash_comparison_2_ND.png

So I had to mostly revert to blue trolls. But still, I'm very satisfied with the result.

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This new versions looks much betther, the npc's hair now as fixed in comparison with your last version, the warrior looks much betther and accurate oo the arcade version, stage 2 looks a big improvement too, congratulations and keep going.

Another tip, i recomend test in real hardware if you wanna that who's plays in real deal have a good experience, because emulator colors is innacurate and some shades bleends too much with is too near each other on MD

Something I've noticed - with palette hacks you can make Genesis games look like PCE/TG16 games - more bright and vivid. I don't understand why do developers usually choose darker and colder colors for Genesis versions of multiformat games. Raiden and Daisenpu are the examples.

I briefly looked into the possibilities of tile editing for the game but it's all encrypted save for some fonts, and making a decrypting tool for this game is beyond my abilities, so I release the patch as is - only color hacks and nothing else. I didn't know what to do with the beach stage since it's not in Amiga version (it had mountain road instead). The first thing to cross my mind was to make Outrun homage, but those clouds share their pallet with the sky and they looked wrong for a mid day weather, unless I make the sky very bright but then it wouldn't look like Outrun at all. So I decided to do some Miami Vice inspired stuff instead:

https://i.imgur.com/BILWiIQ.png

I've made some other color tweaks to other stages since my last post. Would be nice to get some feedback if anyone will try the patch.

One more thing: I couldn't find the way to make the car tail lights darker. Even if I edit the palletes the game uses, it uses the darker color only for npc cars, but for player car it still takes a brighter color out of somewhere.

Wow - there is so much that can be done to improve this game..
Stage 2 is finished, now onto stage 3!
https://image.ibb.co/dVg2oH/cadash_redstore.png

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Originally Posted by Orchid87

https://i.imgur.com/BILWiIQ.png

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That's very cool! How was it originally?

Like this:

https://i.imgur.com/1dUrozQ.png

Now looking at it, I think that vanilla version looks better than mine. Will probably revert it back.

Edit: wasn't happy with how my sky looked, so I tweaked it a bit and also included second patch with old beach stage from vanilla version:

https://i.imgur.com/qzMC4Bj.png

Download: Attachment 13888

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Originally Posted by Heri

Hello, I've been following the thread for some time (I discovered it thanks to GameSack) and decided that it was time to create an account to at least say thanks to the whole community and specifically to Pyron, Barone, LinkueiBR and Stephane for the amazing work that you have done to improve some of the games that were part of my childhood.

Thank you for everything. :D

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Welcome and Thank you to come here and give us your feedback!

My Cadash color hack is finished.
You can check some screenshots here: https://imgur.com/a/uiPqi
I changed what could be changed without screwing up other stuff.

The modified rom can be downloaded here: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3905/

MUCH BETTER now Tor Landeel!!!
Cant wait to beat the game with your hack
Thanks for this!

Thank you! My first hack has finally been published :)
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3905/
That's a huge satisfaction! Thanks to everyone for the inspiration!

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

Thank you! My first hack has finally been published :)
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3905/
That's a huge satisfaction! Thanks to everyone for the inspiration!

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Well done! :p

Thanks. :D

Just a little bit of off-topic, regarding Super Hang On.

As anybody noticed too the strange "character" that appears on the top left corner? (sorry for the lousy pictures)

If you start the game and allow it to go to demo mode you'll see a normal, plain screen:

Attachment 13957

Attachment 13956


But if you enter a password, play the game (win or lose) and allow it to return to main menu, after a while the demo mode will start but with a strange symbol on top left corner, like this:


Attachment 13958

Attachment 13959



What's that? An artifact? Or is it supposed to have some meaning?

While i didn't finish SF2 RM i was trying do something for DD2.

First stage i think i can't do more than this..:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wp-...omp-arcade.png
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wp-...-megadrive.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/S1ZHqFG.png


http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...-a-big-guy.png
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...let-s-play.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/uQKdVL3.png

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...d-of-level.png
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...boss-fight.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/HacbR6B.png

What a did:
First Boss all frames are retouched add more details and restaured the missing shading of the pants
improve colors and background artwork
changed the interface UI

What left to do:
re-work all enemrys sprites
improve other levels

Nice! I'm glad something's finally being done with Double Dragon II.

Keep it going like that. Even if you think it could be even better, it's already a massive improvement that way by clearing all the lousy drab colors that plagued the conversion (that and the slowdown, good thing we have overclocking for fixing that).

That's already a huge improvement. May I ask which program did you use to add the shades?
I'm working on completing a new hack of Outrun (all stages) and I'd like to change some basic stuff (mostly the interface colors)

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

That's already a huge improvement. May I ask which program did you use to add the shades?
I'm working on completing a new hack of Outrun (all stages) and I'd like to change some basic stuff (mostly the interface colors)

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any grafic editor such tile molest, yyc-char, tpl.. , but you need descompress the grafic data

Wow dd2 looks amazing!

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Originally Posted by Pyron

While i didn't finish SF2 RM i was trying do something for DD2.

First stage i think i can't do more than this..:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wp-...omp-arcade.png
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wp-...-megadrive.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/S1ZHqFG.png


http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...-a-big-guy.png
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...let-s-play.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/uQKdVL3.png

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...d-of-level.png
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...boss-fight.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/HacbR6B.png

What a did:
First Boss all frames are retouched add more details and restaured the missing shading of the pants
improve colors and background artwork
changed the interface UI

What left to do:
re-work all enemrys sprites
improve other levels

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WOAH!!!
Impressive Pyron!!!

OFF: The music arrange from the MD version is the best!

Wow that's an amazing job on Double Dragon 2!! I wonder what the original devs of a lot of these games were thinking by choosing drastically different colors when very similar ones were available.

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Originally Posted by Pyron

any grafic editor such tile molest, yyc-char, tpl.. , but you need descompress the grafic data

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No need to decompress, Outrun is not compressed..I tried Tile Layer Pro, and made a couple of tries and it works fine. I just need to find the right tiles.
I'm really interested in decompressing though because I'd like to make more elaborate hacks (and I want to remove black bars on a couple of games)

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

... I'm working on completing a new hack of Outrun (all stages) and I'd like to change some basic stuff (mostly the interface colors)

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Now you have my full attention! :D

Outrun is a fav game for me on the MD and it always felt like it could have been chromatically better.

Pyron already did a hack aiming for arcade colors, I think.

Your hack will try to achieve... a TG-16 bright and vivid color scheme, perhaps? :)

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Originally Posted by MegaDriver

Now you have my full attention! :D

Outrun is a fav game for me on the MD and it always felt like it could have been chromatically better.

Pyron already did a hack aiming for arcade colors, I think.

Your hack will try to achieve... a TG-16 bright and vivid color scheme, perhaps? :)

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Pyron only did the first stage...while I'm finishing all the others.

You can take a look at the WIP here:
https://imgur.com/a/wQT4W

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

Pyron only did the first stage...while I'm finishing all the others.

You can take a look at the WIP here:
https://imgur.com/a/wQT4W

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I'm hooked! :nod:

Give it your best!! :ok:

I finally finished my OutRun color hack!
For the time being you can download the rom here: https://ufile.io/xtucs
I will replace the link with the romhacking page as soon as they approve it.

I'd like to have some feedback on it, before submitting...let me know!

Please note that this hack IS NOT based on Pyron's, even if the first stage is very similar.

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

I finally finished my OutRun color hack!
For the time being you can download the rom here: https://ufile.io/xtucs
I will replace the link with the romhacking page as soon as they approve it.

I'd like to have some feedback on it, before submitting...let me know!

Please note that this hack IS NOT based on Pyron's, even if the first stage is very similar.

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Thanks Tor Landeel! :D

I will give it a try tonight and let you know. ;)


Edit: Night came earlier than I expected...:mrgreen:

Already tried some of my favourite routes and I must say Outrun never looked this good on the MD! :ok:

Thank you!
I will add a few touches here and there, then I will release it publicly. I tested it yesterday on real hardware and on CRT and it really looks amazing. :D

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

I finally finished my OutRun color hack!
For the time being you can download the rom here: https://ufile.io/xtucs
I will replace the link with the romhacking page as soon as they approve it.

I'd like to have some feedback on it, before submitting...let me know!

Please note that this hack IS NOT based on Pyron's, even if the first stage is very similar.

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I will test it on this week, and i send you my feedback.


Obs:did you fix the inverted shades in some stages that i mencioned before?

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Originally Posted by Pyron

I will test it on this week, and i send you my feedback.


Obs:did you fix the inverted shades in some stages that i mencioned before?

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Please test this new version!
https://ufile.io/d6zq0
In this one I retouched also the music selection screen and the secret ending.
Also, a few tiles were corrected (blue pixels on smoke, the blonde's head when scolding the pilot after a crash)

I don't recall any mention about inverted shades, but I noticed and corrected some on the ground when appropriate (i mean all stages but one must be light color on road, dark on field..only one -i don't recall which one- in the arcade has light-light pattern)

Well, for what it's worth, here is the reprocart I ordered containing Pyron's hacked rom of Super Hang On.

Attachment 14038

Thank you Pyron, even if my MD blew up tomorrow (which I am not sure) I would not regret having played what is likely to be the best SHO version to date on the MD.

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Originally Posted by Tor Landeel

Please test this new version!
https://ufile.io/d6zq0
In this one I retouched also the music selection screen and the secret ending.
Also, a few tiles were corrected (blue pixels on smoke, the blonde's head when scolding the pilot after a crash)

I don't recall any mention about inverted shades, but I noticed and corrected some on the ground when appropriate (i mean all stages but one must be light color on road, dark on field..only one -i don't recall which one- in the arcade has light-light pattern)

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@ Tor Landeel:

So, would this be the last version of the Outrun hacked rom? :)

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3940/

Has Pyron given his approval? :D

Is this it? The definitve Outrun version for the MD? :p

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Originally Posted by MegaDriver

@ Tor Landeel:

So, would this be the last version of the Outrun hacked rom? :)

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3940/

Has Pyron given his approval? :D

Is this it? The definitve Outrun version for the MD? :p

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Yes, that would be the last release :)
After much playtesting, I've found myself very satisfied with the outcome.
I've not heard anything from Pyron lately, of course I'm always open to any advice or constructive criticism.

Great! :cool:

Now we only need to find a way to overcome the fps cap and make it run like Super Hang On overclocked...:mrgreen: