dev, computing and games

This post explains Lagoon_hitbox.ips, a proof-of-concept patch created to enlarge the hitboxes in the game Lagoon for SNES. The patch was really quick+and+dirty. Nonetheless it's posted here:

http://secretplace.cml-a.com/edits.php

What follows is a description of the patch and how it works.

First, here are some useful memory locations

$01:0502-0503 - NASIR's X position in the map
$01:0504-0505 - NASIR's Y position in the map
$01:050A- The direction NASIR is facing.
	- 00 means right
	- 01 means down
	- 02 means left
	- 03 means up
	
$01:B710-B717 - The offsets of NASIR's hit box from his position, if he is facing right
$01:B718-B71F - The offsets of NASIR's hit box from his position, if he is facing down
$01:B720-B727 - The offsets of NASIR's hit box from his position, if he is facing left
$01:B728-B730 - The offsets of NASIR's hit box from his position, if he is facing up

In Lagoon, the following code is invoked whenever an action button is pressed, even if you're not near anything.

$01/9BBD AD 0A 05    LDA $050A               ; A = the direction NASIR is facing.
					     ; 
$01/9BC0 0A          ASL A                   ; A *= 8
$01/9BC1 0A          ASL A                   ;
$01/9BC2 0A          ASL A                   ;
$01/9BC3 18          CLC                     ;
$01/9BC4 69 20       ADC #$20                ; A += 0x20
					     ; 
					     ; Now A effectively stores an array index with 
					     ; which to load hitbox offsets.
					     ; If facing right: A = 0x20
					     ; If facing down: A = 0x28
					     ; If facing left: A = 0x30
					     ; If facing up: A = 0x38
					     ; 
$01/9BC6 20 C3 B6    JSR $B6C3	             ; Call CalculatePlayerHitboxDimensions()
$01/9BC9 60          RTS                                         

The function CalculatePlayerHitboxDimensions() looks like the following

CalculatePlayerHitboxDimensions:
					     ; Preconditions: A is set to one of 
					     ;     {0x20, 0x28, 0x30, 0x38} depending on
					     ;     the direction NASIR is facing, as described 
					     ;     above.
					     ; Postconditions: $40, $42, $44, and $46 contain 
					     ;     the dimensions of NASIR's hit box; left, 
					     ;     right, top and bottom respectively.
$01/B6C3 C2 20       REP #$20                
$01/B6C5 A8          TAY                     
$01/B6C6 AD 02 05    LDA $0502               ; Load NASIR's X position
$01/B6C9 18          CLC                    
$01/B6CA 79 F0 B6    ADC $B6F0,y             ; Add left edge hitbox offset to NASIR's X position
$01/B6CD 85 40       STA $40                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6CF AD 02 05    LDA $0502 		     ; Load NASIR's X position
$01/B6D2 18          CLC                     
$01/B6D3 79 F2 B6    ADC $B6F2,y             ; Add right edge hitbox offset to NASIR's X position
$01/B6D6 85 42       STA $42                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6D8 AD 04 05    LDA $0504               ; Load NASIR's Y position
$01/B6DB 18          CLC   
$01/B6DC 79 F4 B6    ADC $B6F4,y             ; Add top edge hitbox offset to NASIR's Y position
$01/B6DF 85 44       STA $44                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6E1 AD 04 05    LDA $0504               ; Load NASIR's Y position
$01/B6E4 18          CLC                     
$01/B6E5 79 F6 B6    ADC $B6F6,y             ; Add bottom edge hitbox offset to NASIR's Y position
$01/B6E8 85 46       STA $46                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6EA 29 FF 00    AND #$00FF              ; Clean up and return
$01/B6ED E2 20       SEP #$20                
$01/B6EF 60          RTS          

If you were to skim the code quickly you'd see it loads hitbox dimensions from memory. From that, you might get the impression they are something dynamic. But, they come from a table hard-coded in ROM data. (you can see this based on the particular address they're loaded from).

Just so you know, the hitbox table data contains this (Semantics are left, right, top, bottom)

Facing  	Raw data			Plain hex offsets		Signed dec offsets	
------		--------			-----------------		------------------
Right		00 00 19 00 F8 FF 08 00		0h, 19h, FFF8h, 8h		0, 25, -8, 8		
Down		F0 FF 10 00 00 00 0F 00		FFF0h, 10h, 0h, 0Fh		-16, 16, 0, 15	
Left		E7 FF 00 00 F8 FF 08 00		FFE7h, 0h, FFF8h, 8h		-25, 0, -8, 8
Up		F0 FF 10 00 F1 FF 00 00		FFF0h, 10h, FFF1h, 0h		-16, 16, -15, 0	

Yes, the game uses slightly differently-sized hitboxes depending on the direction you're facing.

Now, the patch. What this patch does is instead of offsetting NASIR's position by values from this table, it hacks it to offset the position simply by a hardcoded number. The hardcoded numbers yield bigger hitboxes than the offsets from the table.

It always applies the hitbox of offsets {-0x30, 0x32, -0x38, 0x30 } = {-48, 50, -56, 48 }. The hitbox size is 98x104 which is about 5 times bigger than the default.

The patch modifies just four operations in CalculatePlayerHitboxDimensions:

CalculatePlayerHitboxDimensions:
					     ; Preconditions: A is set to one of {0x20, 0x28, 0x30, 0x38} depending on
					     ;     the direction NASIR is facing, as described above.
					     ; Postconditions: $40, $42, $44, and $46 contain the dimensions of 
					     ;     NASIR's hit box; left, right, top and bottom respectively.
$01/B6C3 C2 20       REP #$20                
$01/B6C5 A8          TAY                     
$01/B6C6 AD 02 05    LDA $0502               ; Load NASIR's X position
$01/B6C9 18          CLC                    
$01/B6CA E9 30 00    SBC #$0030              ; Apply left edge hitbox offset -30h
$01/B6CD 85 40       STA $40                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6CF AD 02 05    LDA $0502 		     ; Load NASIR's X position
$01/B6D2 18          CLC                     
$01/B6D3 69 32 00    ADC #$0032              ; Apply left edge hitbox offset 32h
$01/B6D6 85 42       STA $42                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6D8 AD 04 05    LDA $0504               ; Load NASIR's Y position
$01/B6DB 18          CLC   
$01/B6DC E9 38 00    SBC #$0038              ; Apply left edge hitbox offset -38h
$01/B6DF 85 44       STA $44                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6E1 AD 04 05    LDA $0504               ; Load NASIR's Y position
$01/B6E4 18          CLC                     
$01/B6E5 69 30 00    ADC #$0030              ; Apply left edge hitbox offset 30h
$01/B6E8 85 46       STA $46                 ; Store it as an output
					     ; 
$01/B6EA 29 FF 00    AND #$00FF              ; Clean up and return
$01/B6ED E2 20       SEP #$20                
$01/B6EF 60          RTS     

And there you have it, the code for the proof-of-concept posted at the link above.


Here is a small improvement that can be made to the above hack. First, it'd be cleaner to modify the hitbox region offsets in the ROM directly. So let's do that instead.

To re-iterate, the default values are (with semantics left, right, top, bottom)-

Facing  	Raw data			Plain hex offsets		Signed dec offsets	
------		--------			-----------------		------------------
Right		00 00 19 00 F8 FF 08 00		0h, 19h, FFF8h, 8h		0, 25, -8, 8	
Down		F0 FF 10 00 00 00 0F 00		FFF0h, 10h, 0h, 0Fh		-16, 16, 0, 15	
Left		E7 FF 00 00 F8 FF 08 00		FFE7h, 0h, FFF8h, 8h		-25, 0, -8, 8	
Up		F0 FF 10 00 F1 FF 00 00		FFF0h, 10h, FFF1h, 0h		-16, 16, -15, 0	

The ROM file offsets for each direction are

Facing		Headerless ROM file offset
------		--------------------------
Right		B710
Down		B718
Left		B720
Up		B728

While we can patch the table manually, it makes for easier testing of changes if you use a patching program.

Here's some C++ code for one:

enum Direction 
{ 
    FacingRight = 0, 
    FacingDown = 1,
    FacingLeft = 2, 
    FacingUp = 3 
};

struct HitboxDir
{
    int Left;
    int Right;
    int Top;
    int Bottom;
};

void PushValue(int b, std::vector<unsigned char>* out)
{
    if (b >= 0)
    {
        assert(b < 256);
        out->push_back(b); // little endian
        out->push_back(0);
    }
    else
    {
        int u = 0x10000 + b;
        int low = u & 0xFF;
        out->push_back(low);
        u >>= 8;
        assert(u < 256);
        int high = u & 0xFF;
        out->push_back(high);
    }
}

int main()
{
    FILE* pB = nullptr;

    fopen_s(&pB, "Lagoon.hitbox.v2.smc", "rb");

    // Check size
    fseek(pB, 0, SEEK_END);
    long sizeB = ftell(pB);
    fseek(pB, 0, SEEK_SET);

    std::vector<unsigned char> dataB;
    dataB.resize(sizeB);

    fread(dataB.data(), 1, sizeB, pB);

    fclose(pB);

    HitboxDir allDirs[] =
    {
        {0, 25, -8, 8},
        {-16, 16, 0, 15},
        {-25, 0, -8, 8},
        {-16, 16, -15, 0}
    };

    // Enlarge hitboxes
    int ff = 3;
    int hf = 2;

    allDirs[FacingRight].Right *= ff;
    allDirs[FacingRight].Top *= hf;
    allDirs[FacingRight].Bottom *= hf;

    allDirs[FacingDown].Bottom *= ff;
    allDirs[FacingDown].Left *= hf;
    allDirs[FacingDown].Right *= hf;

    allDirs[FacingLeft].Left *= ff;
    allDirs[FacingLeft].Top *= hf;
    allDirs[FacingLeft].Bottom *= hf;

    allDirs[FacingUp].Top *= ff;
    allDirs[FacingUp].Left *= hf;
    allDirs[FacingUp].Right *= hf;

    // Transfer hitbox info into byte data
    std::vector<unsigned char> hitboxBytes;

    for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i)
    {
        PushValue(allDirs[i].Left, &hitboxBytes);
        PushValue(allDirs[i].Right, &hitboxBytes);
        PushValue(allDirs[i].Top, &hitboxBytes);
        PushValue(allDirs[i].Bottom, &hitboxBytes);
    }

    // Patch the new tables in
    int destOffset = 0xB710;
    for (size_t i = 0; i < hitboxBytes.size(); ++i)
    {
        dataB[destOffset + i] = hitboxBytes[i];
    }

    fopen_s(&pB, "Lagoon.hitbox.v3.smc", "wb");
    fwrite(dataB.data(), 1, dataB.size(), pB);
    fclose(pB);

}

Running this patching program yields the table

Facing  	Raw data			Plain hex offsets		Signed dec offsets	
------		--------			-----------------		------------------
Right		00 00 4B 00 F0 FF 10 00		0h, 4Bh, FFF0h, 10h		0, 75, -16, 16			
Down		E0 FF 20 00 00 00 2D 00		FFE0h, 20h, 0, 2Dh		-32, 32, 0, 45	
Left		B5 FF 00 00 F0 FF 10 00		FFB5h, 0h, FFF0h, 10h		-75, 0, -16, 16			
Up		E0 FF 20 00 D3 FF 00 00		FFE0h, 20h, FFD3, 0h		-32, 32, -45, 0		

Find a convenient, buildable version of patcher here: https://github.com/clandrew/lagoonhitbox/

You can use the patcher to change the hitboxes as you want. If this concept seems useful then it'd be a good idea to fuss with the values until they yield something desirable.

Note:

  • All ROM file offsets are on headerless ROMs.
  • The hitboxes calculated from the routine described here is used for both talking to NPCs, and combat. While there might be a motive to affect only combat, there've also been complaints that the hitboxes when talking to NPCs are too fussy, so YMMV.
  • If you make the hitboxes obscenely large it can make the game hard to play. For example, if NPCs A and B are standing close to each other, attempting to talk to A might acidentally cause conversation with B.

This post is also available in text form here:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clandrew/lagoonhitbox/master/lagoon_patch_info.txt

August 27th, 2020 at 4:57 am | Comments & Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

My first time playing this game on real hardware.

I treat the SHARP and 90s game consoles very differently.

The SNES I'll carry it any which way. Power it off unsafely, leave it on for days, use the reset in an angry manner, be negligent with carts and so forth. Also, the fat PS2 has been taken apart and "repaired" (ask me in person if you want more details about this).

However, the SHARP is different. I move it very carefully and keep it upright. Touch nothing unless necessary. All disks must be either in the system, or in protective cases inside boxes. It must always be transported by me, in my car, in a cool temperature. And, minimize the number of FDD transactions.

That last one is the biggest one and it actively affects gameplay. I play in order to minimize the number of FDD reads and writes.

The death penalty in Lagoon is not high in terms of gameplay setbacks, but it is high in terms of disk switching. Dying will reset the game back into the starting area (disk 1), from which you will typically need to insert disk 2 or 3 to resume your save- that's 2 disk swaps. And starting the game from boot requires 2 swaps across both FDD0 and FDD1. (boot + data1 --> user + data1--> user + data2). And then of course 1 save == 1 write.

Put it all together, and you want to have few, long playthroughs. Try not to save too much, but also really try not to die. Don't unnecessarily venture into areas which are stored on a different disk.

Is all of this strictly necessary? Maybe, maybe not. Is this founded? I think so.

All the while playing through Lagoon there is this nagging feeling in the back of my head like my days playing it are numbered.

Like the raw number of FDD transactions it can do is finite. While this is true for any piece of computer hardware ever, there is reason to believe it's much more imminent on this machine. With every seek, every read, every grinding noise that comes out of the FDD- that brings it closer to no longer working. I was especially nervous at the in-game disk switching prompts (besides the boot disk and saved game disk, the game is spanned across 3 data disks). All this was despite the fact this unit has had capacitors replaced and that sort of usual stuff. Eventually, this machine will break down and then the only option will be an emulator compatible with contemporary PCs.

The other problem is media and loading it. This is my second copy of Lagoon. The first copy I obtained several years ago. When I tried to boot it, the boot disk showed CRC fail. The data disks couldn't be read. While this was a disappointment, it was not altogether a surprise. This happens with old disks and FDDs from that time period. It's not even uncommon now. Recently when I was playing with the TRS-80 with my coworker, we tried loading some games from the late 80s on 5-1/4" floppies. We had about a 10% success rate and blew out one FDD where it started to smoke so we unplugged it for the fire hazard.

I'm extremely lucky for having acquired fully working games with fully working hardware. There are a bajillion things that can go wrong with 5 1/4" disks stored away for 30 years shipped from the other side of the world. If I try and play this game again in 5 or 10 years, I might not be able to. I have a bad feeling about this computer. It has already started happening where it will power on, render corruption, fail to boot into Human68k. I'm going to stay positive, and reflect on the good times on this platform.

Boot and resume save at gold cave

Ending credits

August 26th, 2017 at 10:45 pm | Comments & Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

I loaded the system disk into my computer and started the game. First couple quests things in the town to unlock the starter equipment.

Graphics and sound are good.

It can load saved games (of which, the previous owner left a couple... ) And save. The 30-year-old magnetic tape came through. Minimal grinding and churning !!

The gold cave is a maze but I have my old strategy guide.

August 15th, 2017 at 10:36 pm | Comments & Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

I made this as part of a costume project. You guessed it, the Lagoon starting equipment.

I hope the con folks will be able to peacebond these

March 21st, 2017 at 12:40 am | Comments & Trackbacks (0) | Permalink