Mottzilla has done another update to the BS Zelda Mottzilla Patch.
.
No new screenshots because the changes are not necessarily feature-oriented this time.
Again, more bugfixes than additions, but in terms of the English translation there is now a version with HUD graphic translations (similar to the ones in Restoration and TQ/FQ project), and there’s only one small bug left in the game.
The file distribution includes both pre-patched ROMs and IPS patches for playing the game either with a translation, or the original Japanese in-game text. You can check it out by clicking the Megupload link down the thread.
But if you don’t like Megaupload, don’t panic! I’ve mirrored it here, and it should also be on the BS Zelda Homepage very shortly!
As usual, my recommendation is to run this on your SNES Powerpak, SFC Neo Myth Cartridge, or the upcoming sd2snes.
The game will also run on the latest SNES9X and BSNES versions.
Anyhow, besides the score tally and perhaps some nitpicky aspects of Satellaview broadcast accuracy, one feature I’d like to see in a future BS Zelda hack is implementation of the classic NES/FDS Map 1 and Map 2… Ah, a boy can dream, can’t he?
“BS Bokujo Monogatari Dai-4-wa Bokujo Masuta wo Mezase!”
(BS Ranch Story Episode 4: Aim to be a Ranch Master!)
(What, they trying to make this like Pokemon or something?)
Obviously it is very similar to Dai-2-wa in code and style, so you can read back on that if you want info on things like how it plays, ROM compatibility, and whatnot, so I’ll focus on the differences…
You’re in a more developed farm than in Dai-2-wa: There’s a -huge- grass area growing, and within an in-game week or so you will have enough grass to feed animals perpetually. All your farming items are gold. Your fence is practically around the whole perimeter of the field. You have a horse! You also have cows and chickens, and like in the retail game, you can feed them, and milk the cows, and the chickens will lay eggs. This time, your veggies are potatos and turnips. With a lot more options, it seems quite a bit more fun to mess around with than Dai-2-wa.
And now, for the second ROM of the night. Is it Dai-1-wa? Dai-3-wa?
… No, it’s neither? But it’s still a Bokujo… Oh, dear, this is gonna be confusing.
Let me start by explaining where I learned of this one’s existence. This ROM was made possible by the fine folks at SNESFreaks,
So it goes, the member “Undead” owned the 8M Pack with this data, simply titled 牧場物語 (Bokujo Monogatari), and played it a bit at some point. This was apparently a bootable download of some sort.
The pack was described to ChronoMoogle, who would then convince him to let Ikari dump the ROM contents. When I got access to the ROM, obviously I tried checking it out.
In terms of that status of the ROM, it appeared the checksum/maker values were gone yet again. Thankfully a patch for this was easy and it had no bearing on how the game ran, so I was quickly able to toss it in an emulator and play.
The first notable difference between this ROM and the “BS” series is that the “How to Play” mode is available. I played that first thing… and a bit in I was thinking “Ok, so this is meant to be a download, but it doesn’t have sound…?”
Indeed, besides that option’s availability it’s actually not that different from the others in terms of it’s style. The only notable change is that for some reason when you go to bed you have a save option which does not seem to actually work. As for the farm’s status? You have gold items and farm animals, but your land is very undeveloped. You can spend a long time plowing, cutting down tree stumps and whacking giant stones with a hammer.
Puzzled as to how this one fits in with the others, I turned to Kameb’s site for help. Checking the ROM’s download date – the 25th of August – I attempted digging through the Program Schedule archives on Kameb’s site.
“Bokujo Monogatari Torisetsu”
“Bokujo Monogatari”
(“Ranch Story Operation Instructions” and “Ranch Story” respectively)
.. Hmm. I wonder what all those Operation Instructions downloads were like?
Well, anyway, it appears I found what I was looking for.
This appears to be just a couple weeks before the “BS Bokujo Monogatari” Soundlink series, which started in September of that year. Kinda strange.
It’s likely this one was intended as a demo either for the retail game or the Soundlink series, but I’ll probably need to look up more on it to know for certain.
The ROM comes with an IPS patch which should restore the checksum and maker values.
November 22, 2011 at 5:05 pm
· Filed under Soundlink
“Sometimes we do awful things in our lives, even if we don’t know it. Sometimes the only proof that we’ve made mistakes – terrible mistakes the UNIVERSE ITSELF punishes us for – is that we look around and find we’re playing…Monopoly.”
—Dinosaur Comics
Thanks to TVTropes for the quote.
… Ok, ok, I’m sorry, that was harsh. I’m not gonna turn back on my Satellaview research any time soon, now.
But yes, Monopoly! This one… um… well, how do I put this? Ikari dumped the ROM, let me have a look, and… There’s so many strange things about this that perplex me, I’ve had to get a lot of help getting information on this. Thanks to Luigiblood and bluesun for all their assistance.
Where do I begin? I’m not sure, although I have my hunchs. The most significant bit of documentation about Monopoly on the Satellaview is of course on trusty old Satellaview History Museum, but…
With those titles – the “BS Monopoly Kouza Boardwalk Heno Michi” series, to be precise – it’d be hard to tell whether these directly correlate to a ROM which header is basically モノポリーレッドカップ.
However, Luigiblood pointed out to me that the ROM is marked in it’s header as the byte ucon64 identifies as “Full Size + Soundlink”. This is strange.
Every other ROM dump prior which was labeled that was a Soundlink game which had no sound. This game, however, has boot-ups and appears to play like a download game.
Here is what he learned from that;
1) The Soundlink broadcast featured an interview with Ikuo Hyakuta, winner of the 1988 Monopoly World Championships in London, England.
2) The game would play past the schedule, whereupon supposedly BGM would stop.
3) The game allowed three further bootups.
He also told me the order of the broadcasts went like this:
1) Orange Cup
2) Red Cup
3) Yellow Cup
4) Green Cup
Which seemed to suggest that the ROM dumps are from the actual Soundlink series after all!
…
Yes, dumps! There’s more than one!
Beware!
A note on emulation compatibility, BTW: Your emulator better be able to read the currency from BS-X when loading up the Monopolies, otherwise the game won’t let you play. You will be gambling that money here!
Oh, and just to pad this so we have 3 ROMs like the typical pattern…
Ikari also got a redump of a BS Tantei Club, Yuki ni Kieta Kako ROM. It’s data matches up with the 2nd chapter of the story down to the checksum. It’s date is marked 6/20 instead of 6/14.
It’s been a long time since there was a major update in terms of BS Zelda ROM hacking, but over the past few weeks Mottzilla – with the help of my bugtesting abilities – has come out with a highly impressive new version of his “BSZ-Lite”, a BS Zelda hack tailored to those who want to play the game on real hardware, with their Powerpaks, or, in my case, that Neo Myth SFC cart Matthew Callis just gave me a few days back.
Since I don’t normally go out of my way to talk about small updates on The BS Zelda Homepage on the blog, you may be wondering, “What’s so special about this release?”
And so, I’ll tell you!
A new save menu was written, from the ground up, along with new saving code. Both of which were done to make real-hardware operation more accessible.
A 3-character selection screen allows a playable Link without need for an extra patch.
Ohhh, here’s a doozy! Both Map 1 and Map 2 have been combined into a single ROM! It’s almost like having 2 ROM hacks in 1!
The gameplay’s been modified from Mottzilla’s previous release to play more in the style of the “Restoration Project” ROM Hack, with the 4-episode format in the style of the original broadcasts.
And did I mention that I bugtested this? This right here is what I did to all the nasty bugs from all the older BS Zelda hacks! Mwahaha!… Eh-hem. Well, actually, there’s still a few minor things here and there, as the discussion thread over at the BS Zelda forums mentions. Nothing game-breaking, though.
EDIT: A note about emulator-compatibility;
The ROM has been tested to run on BSNES as well as SNES9X 1.53 (and the GTK version for Linux). It will -not- run on the current ZSNES release, and so I’ve heard, not SNES9X 1.51 either.
Mottzilla will probably not make emulator-specific fixes, so I do suggest updating your SNES9X version to play this.
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