Topic: Nintendo 64 Mapping Workshop

[Trop]

Game Test Report-

A Bug's Life: Works but very little area is acquired per rip.
Doom 64: Just like Bug's Life, works fine but you only really get the room your in per rip.
Duke Nukem Zero Hour: ?!? All the bitmaps rip perfectly but the only random models show up in C4D like Duke or objects from the room floating alone.
Gex 64: Kind of odd, rips OK but a some things to be missing and the whole scene leans at funny angles.
John Romero's Diakatana: Just like Duke Nukem ZH, only funny objects show up in C4D.
Shadow Man: Again like Bug's Life, rips look good but you don't get a lot per rip.

[Trop]

Game Test Report-
I'm having too much fun here.

Chameleon Twist: Works great, not a lot or area per rip but a decent amount
Chameleon Twist 2: Can't seem to open it in 1964
Duke Nukem 64: Much better then the other shooters so far, lots of area per rip, but C4D opens it on it's side
Earthworm Jim 3D: Almost looks better in 1964 then it does in PJ64! Rips kind of odd, there's a lot there but it's broken up and partly in black and white.
Gex 3: Rips, well, good and bad.  Almost looks as good as it does in the game right off the bat, but like the other Gex you only get what you were looking at and it comes in tilted and upside down.

[Peardian]

Thank you for all your help. As I've said in the earlier lessons, tilted maps are a telltale sign that the game will be unmappable. The upside-down models you describe in Gex 3 is the exact same thing Mega Man 64 suffers from, since both games are PlayStation ports.

The problem you mention in Duke Nukem Zero Hour sounds like the problem I encountered trying to rip from the Mario Party games. Try ending the ripping process without letting the dump finish (by not pausing before unchecking the box). It might get you the level models that way, but might also not show the characters. The game might just be unmappable because of this as it is.

I'll have another lesson prepared after the weekend, as I'm a little busy right now. Unlike the previous ones, this will tackle a rather important issue that would otherwise damage your mapping effort.

[Trop]

Great, and yeah I just tried Mega Man 64, you get a LOT in the rip but the textures are screwy.
Huh. Alright I'll try Duke Nukem ZH and Diakatana again.

Game Test Report-

Armorines: Wow! It's almost perfect! Tons of models and everything's there like it's straight out of the game.  Too bad this game sucks.
Fushigi No Dungeon 2: Only rips a very small, just what's on screen. Other then that it's OK.
Hexen: Messed up. At first it looks alright, then you realize a bunch of models are missing and half of the textures are wrong.
Lode Runner 3D: Like with Chameleon Twist 2, 1964 hits the wall.
Nightmare Creatures: 1964 just kind of sits there and does nothing.
Turok: Works OK.  Interestingly enough while the rip only gets a medium amount of horizontal data it gets tons of vertical.
Turok 2: Like with Armorines you get a large object heavy area. Unlike with Armorines it's full of texture errors.
Turok 3: ... The rip pulled so much stuff it almost crashed C4D.  This one might be better then Armorines,
Turok Rage Wars: Ripped the whole damn level just like that.  Everything looks just great.  Go Acclaim.
Tonic Trouble: Awesome! You get a somewhat large rip and the textures go just where the should.  This to spite 1964 not liking it.

[Trop]

Diakatana behaving a little better now.  Still the bugs are hard to describe.  I recognize part of the level but it's way off to one side.  Other things are just floating out in space.

[Trop]

Game Test Report-

Quake: Nothing loads in C4D. No models no textures, nothing.
Quake 2: I'm going to start calling this the "shooter glitch".  Again only odd models load in funny places.
Puyo Puyo 4: C4D hits the wall. Not surprised since PJ64 can't handle this game either.
Puyo Puyo Sun: Now as far as I can tell there are no 3D models in this game.  Therefore it is not surprising that the VRML rips at 1 kb with no bitmaps and nothing but nothing in C4D.
Rayman 2: Damn!  Nothing happens.  1964 just sits there.  Would've been great too.
Army Men Sarges Heroes: You get a lot per rip, including a hilarious looking football stadium like dome that makes up the sky.  Could be better.
Army Men Sarges Heroes 2: A big improvement over the first one.  You get a large of the level and all the textures are in place.
Army Men Air Combat: 1964 has it's own problems here.  C4D tries to fix them but there are countless bugs.  Models are missing, textures are screwy, and while you get a lot in a rip the whole thing is tiny.
Transformers Beast Wars Transmetals: Not much to rip here in the first place, just character models.  They rip great and are textured nicely.  Maybe they could be better, I dunno.
Bomberman 64 Arcade Edition: 1964 totally chokes on this game.  And while there is a mysterious 34kb to the ripped vrml it's blank in C4D.

[Trop]

Game Test Report-

Aero Fighters Assault: 1964 hits the wall.  And almost gets over it but not quite.
Batman Beyond: It appears to rip great. You don't get much though and there may be texture errors but it's hard to tell.
Battle Tanx: Like the other 3DO games you get good sized rips with accurate textures.  1964 seems to have some problems with it though.
Battle Tanx Global Assault: Just like it's prior. It's worth noting here that 3DO does not quite have quality of Acclaim. This will be more like assembling screenshot maps where you have to go back and patch holes.
Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.: 1964 has visibility problems with this one.  Looks fine in C4D but the rooms have the Gex tilting problem.
Buck Bumble: I can't get this game to work in 1964 or PJ64.
Chopper Attack: Watch out it's SETA. What the *&%! is going on here? You get a decent amount of area around you ripped and tiled just fine, but then it goes and selectively rips random off screen objects.
Flying Dragon: Watch out it's Culture Brain. Nope, 1964 can't handle it.
Harvest Moon: Watch out it's, oh wait Natsume's not so bad. 1964 has tile problems with this game... And C4D will not load it, maybe I was wrong.
Geomon's Great Adventure: Yet another one 1964 hits the wall on.

[Trop]

Game Test Report-

Asteroids Hyper 64: OK this is just 3D asteroids so there's not a lot to rip.  What is there rips perfectly and looks hilarious in C4D.  Here's your training wheels game if you need one.
Bust A Move 2: Another exclusively 2D game. There's nothing to rip.
Bust A Move 99: Same.
Charlie's Blast Territory: This is a puzzle game so each area to rip is just small and checkerboard like.  That said the rips are flawless.  Everything's there, everything's where it should be.  Hell, just load the vrml, move the light, hit Ctrl R and your done.
Dezamon 3D: 1964 can't get it of the ground.  It's a sim game though so nothing to really rip.
Dr. Mario 64: Another 2D so nothing here. 1964 actually handles this a little better then PJ64.
Dual Heroes: A fighting game and the character models and tiles rip and place just fine. Backgrounds don't fare so well.
Forsaken 64: Well Acclaim disappoints for once.  Everything works but the area you get is small. Really small.  Just what's in front of your face. Mapping this game would take time.
Hybrid Heaven: Fantastic rips. Huge and accurate.
Re-Volt: 1964 are hit wall.

[Peardian]

Wow, I didn't know most of these games existed! Great work, Tropicon.

I'm very grateful to you for testing all these games out, but you know you can skip over games that don't really have any content to map.


I've added all the games to the list. Remember, if anyone wants to claim a game to map, say so and I'll mark it on the list. Note that I'm leaving mappable games on the list even after they've been completed so that people don't think they've been overlooked.

[Trop]

Oh, heh, it's nothing.  I was just going through the games I have, it was fun exploring them this way.  There's not to many more so I'll just stop when I run out.

Game Test Report-

Getter Love: Is this a dating sim for girls? 2D as far as I can get with all the Japanese. Nothing to rip.
Glover: Just like with quake.  Appears to rip fine then in C4D... nothing.
Killer Instinct Gold: The characters are sprites and don't rip.  Other then that the stages rip perfectly. Oh but they're tilted like Gex.
Knife Edge: 1964 hits the wall.
Kuiki Uhabi Suigou: And again.
Mace the Dark Age: The characters rip fine.  The backgrounds though are discolored and black and white.  There seems to be a trend in fighting games here.
Mystical Ninja: Every things great.  Some models appear to have panels missing but I think that's because they weren't meant to be seen from that angel so panels were never there to begin with.
Rat Attack: 1964 has some problems with this one.  And C4D pulls up more or less nothing.  Dud.
Wetrix: Complete garbage in 1964, can't tell what's going on.
Xena: Everything rips great.  This game is ready to go.

Oh and I meant to add; I haven't looked over them in any great detail but I found these links in my initial search for Lemmy's plugin.  They deal with N64 and 3D stuff so maybe somewhere they have your JPEG screenshot tool?
http://www.zapotlanejo.info/Nintendopapercraftforum/
http://www.facepunch.com/
http://www.emutalk.net/
http://bmgcl.emuxhaven.net/

[Peardian]

None of them made any mention. The problem is that this tool is over 10 years old. I've found posts referencing it from 1999 but not a single download link. The only thing I've managed to figure out is that the program was called something like JPG Extractor, to go along with Zelda Extractor. Searching for this exact name brings me no leads, however. Maybe I could just email _demo_ himself, or something...

[Trop]

If only the N64 emu scene wasn't so dead.  I doubt it's getting back up either.  These days on Zophar's it's nothing but emu's for cell phones, whoop-te-do.  You should try getting a hold of _demo_.  At this point he may be the only one left who knows.

Game Test Report-
This is the rest of em.  Well I actually have more but they're just Jap versions so they're probably the same.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Does not work in 1964. Barely works in PJ64 anyway.
The New Tetris: The 3D parts work there almost no 3D parts.  Come on it's Tetris, what'd you expect?
Onegai Monsters: I think this game is similar to monster rancher but I really don't know. Rips net you a moderate amount of models and the tiles... are doing that some-color some-black and white thing again.  And it's tilted
Perfect Dark: Works great.  Everything in it's place as far as I can tell.
Rakuga Kids: If Paper Mario was a fighting game.  And everything rips great even though it's flat, I'm shocked.  There might be some visibility issues but I don't have the expertise to tell.
Rampage: Flat game, nothing rips.
Rampage 2: And again.
Resident Evil 2: 1964 crashed and froze.  PJ64 wont' do this one either.
Robotron 64: While some things work this game largely suffers from shooter glitch.
Rocket: Here's one that works in 1964 but not in PJ64.  Big rips!  You get a lot.  But with the black, white, and other tile errors I think this game has what Peardian calls UV damage.
War Gods: Fighting game so you get the whole battlefield in one rip. Good tiling. Something may be missing, not sure.
Wonder Project J2: Flat game, no rip for you.
Worms: Nope, 1964 cannot do it.
Zool: Some kind of story book RPG? 1964 actually handles this better then PJ64 and what 3D scenes I could find ripped just beautifully.  Everything where it should be.

[Peardian]

I haven't had any luck whatsoever finding a way to contact _demo_ himself.


Thank you for testing these games. I've added them to the list, which has grown considerably thanks to you. It's a shame that so many games aren't mappable, but there's nothing we can do about that.

[Trop]

I guess that doesn't surprise me either.  If they'd stopped working on their emu's for so long they've probably moved on with their lives entirely.  Have you asked for help at Romhacking.net?  I'll post a thread about this for you at Fantasy Anime, maybe someone there knows.

No problem, but I'm sure there's some game I missed.  As for the unmappable ones my Cheat Engine camera trick still works.  And that reminds me, I might be able to combine my technique with yours.  In games that only rip what the camera is looking at would you get more per rip if Cheat Engine was holding the camera at a great distance?  Or would C4D throw that out?

[Revned]

6MB PNG files like the new Mario Kart 64 map are bad. In this case PNG is only marginally better than a raw format. You should really be using JPG for these kinds of maps.