Board Fight Balloon Fight (NES) Hack By Quick Curly & A Bunch of Folks December 9, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patching Board Fight is distributed in the BPS patch format, due to NROM-128 to NROM-256 conversion/ROM expansion. Download the "beat" utility by byuu from Romhacking.net here: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/893/ Apply the included BPS patch to a copy of your Balloon Fight ROM with the following common name and checksums, found with the HxD hex editor: Balloon Fight (U) [!].nes Checksum-16: 0672 Checksum-32: 00230672 Checksum-64: 0000000000230672 CRC-16: 59E6 CRC-32: CB8FD7B2 MD-5: 6E125395CA4F18ADDB8CE6C9152DEA85 SHA-1: F5E4CD9F287A8233EEE35AD1881B2770D9F2C453 SHA-256: 9710F31E7EE204A69AAAAFB6AF340EFEC89657A245C8D402DEE95DAEA4F8A49F When you run "beat", select "Apply Patch". First, select the "Board Fight (v1.0).bps" BPS file. Next, select your original, unmodified "Balloon Fight (U) [!].nes" ROM file. You do not even have to make a copy of the ROM file. "beat" will create a patched NES ROM file for you! You just have to choose the name of the ROM file for the hack. For example, "Board Fight (v1.0) (Balloon Fight Hack by Quick Curly).nes". After using "beat" to apply the BPS patch to a copy of your Balloon Fight ROM, the newly expanded hack ROM should have the following checksums: Board Fight (v1.0) (Balloon Fight Hack by Quick Curly).nes Checksum-16: FEFA Checksum-32: 003EFEFA Checksum-64: 00000000003EFEFA CRC-16: 4693 CRC-32: 842858EE MD-5: F5620D884A4E84D85AE31AB4C6AB7DB9 SHA-1: 489217554D0B3E2827B22A4E305A38517BA821D8 SHA-256: EB711547E2A3252535A62D9E807A0195C76DD443A596D00F27BC6DB9ED00D4B9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hack Information & Reflection This hack initially came about as an attempted Board 2 collaborative hack. However, unfortunately, not many people truly contributed to it, with only a few people taking the time to contribute some drawn level designs, with me implementing them and managing the majority of the ROM hack coming together. The whole idea for a Board 2 collaborative hack was not originally my idea in this specific instance, but I believed that it was a possibility and tried my best to encourage members to help produce what would hopefully finally be a Board 2 collaborative production. However, considering that I and Mattrizzle were the only people who actually dealt with the ROM directly in a hex editor, I don't really believe that it was much of a true "collaborative" effort, and not what I believe was possible from people who were really enthusiastic about and invested in even the idea of a collaboration, let alone actually putting forth the time and effort to see it through. Despite specific details that I won't really go further into here, I do still believe that a collaborative effort can still work out, against all logic and evidence that has proven the opposite for all these years. Meanwhile, if it wasn't for the idea coming about at all, this hack likely wouldn't have come about. The initial development still took place through Board 2, even though the majority of the physical time and effort was done away from it, and not all contributions came directly through Board 2. I am greatly appreciative of the efforts made by the people who took their time to design some levels with the grid template that I provided for the Balloon Fight format, and would like to thank Mattrizzle for his interest and efforts in proving and establishing that the "Balloon Fight Level Hacking" documentation provided effective guidance to be successful for those who are willing and driven enough to edit games without the need for a game-specific, visually friendly utility. The level designs were submitted through Board 2, emails, and Romhacking.net in the following order: MegaEliteGamers, Zieldak, Static S, Vicious Poetry, mrrichard999, and Thermoptic. Here are the detailed credits and contributions for this Balloon Fight ROM hack: Quick Curly - Hacking - Main Hacking & Coordination Mattrizzle - Hacking - Designed Title Screen & Inserted Phase 04 MegaEliteGamers - Levels - Designed Phases 02 & 15 mrrichard999 - Levels - Designed Phase 12 Static S - Levels - Designed Phases 05 & 13 Thermoptic - Levels - Designed Phases 07 & 14 Vicious Poetry - Levels - Designed Phases 06 & 08 Zieldak - Levels - Designed Phase 04 In addition, back when I released my first Balloon Fight level hack, Cosmic Balloon Assault, I received an email from Thermoptic about the hack, and he provided a very creative suggestion: To allow the ability to play the hack without the Bonus Phases interrupting the normal flow of game-play. So, that idea has already been applied to the *standard* game-play flow of this new hack. The normal version of this release contains 16 brand new Phase designs - more than the count of 12 in the original game - and there are no Bonus Phases. Now, this presents a unique new challenge. Normally, after the players complete a Bonus Phase, they begin the next regular Phase with 2 balloons in tact. However, now that there are no longer any Bonus Phase intermissions, the balloon fighters will face the ultimate survival challenge! However, to account for this situation, the balloon fighters both start out with 20 extra lives instead of the usual 2! Still, though, don't lose focus! Pop the balloons on those enemy fighters before they can get you! There is an additional bonus patch included that can be applied to the unmodified "Balloon Fight (U) [!].nes" ROM to disable the Bonus Phases in the original Balloon Fight game as well. Hopefully, I'll get around to updating the Cosmic Balloon Assault RAR to feature a patch without the Bonus Phases soon enough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tools beat - For patch creation and application. FCEUXD 1.0a - Debugging, direct hex editing, and play testing. HxD - Checksum algorithms and direct hex editing. Nestopia v1.40 - Play testing. Tile Layer Pro - Graphics editing. WindHex32 - ROM expansion and direct hex editing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank You/Credits For games and/or ROM hacking programs/utilities/modifications: bbitmaster - For FCEUXD 1.0a. Bongo` - For WindHex32. byuu - For beat v01. Maël Hörz - For HxD. Martin Freij - For Nestopia v1.40. Mattrizzle - For designing an early title screen placeholder (and the current design of "Fight") and inserting Phase 04. MegaEliteGamers - For designing Phases 02 & 15. mrrichard999 - For designing Phase 12 and suggesting Blaster Master graphics be used. Nintendo - For Balloon Fight and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. SnowBro - For Tile Layer Pro. Static S - For designing Phases 05 & 13. Sunsoft - For Blaster Master. Thermoptic - For designing Phases 07 & 14 and beta testing. Vicious Poetry - For designing Phases 06 & 08 and beta testing. Zieldak - For designing Phase 04. People, forums/message boards and/or companies: My family, Blazzerdragon, blackhole89, Board 2, cuberootinbinary, dougeff, English1stud, errijnde, Flotonic, Googie, Grenade Studios, JcDizon, JMFSpike, Mariomaniac10, MegaEliteGamers, metalchains48/GoombaParaKoopa, Moon in Pieces, Romhacking.net/RHDN, SchlossRitter, Static S, vhernandez2121, and Vizzed. Like many people, I listen to a TON of music, especially while working on ROM hacking projects. Thank you to all musical artists, bands, and other audio creators, including: 13 Engines, 13 Lashes, Allan Holdsworth, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, Arch Enemy, Area 51, Bad Acid Trip, Black Grape, Bob & Tom, Buckethead, Bush, Caption Radio, Capture the Flag, Chain Reaction, Chris Buck, Classroom Zero, Concept of God, Darlahood, Deadeye Dick, Death From Above 1979, Dynamite Boy, Fastball, Fiftywatthead, Finger Eleven, Flybanger/Jar, Four Years Gone, Full on the Mouth, Funkoars, Gadfly, Gracepoint, Grinder, Haken, Helmet, Horse the Band, I Mother Earth, Imminent Sonic Destruction, Institute, Interpol, Intruder X, Jamie Warren, Jody Raffoul, John 5, Kicking Harold, Kopek, Led Zeppelin, Less a Day, Lifeline, Local H, LoDown, Lo-Pro, Lucerin Blue, Manchester Orchestra, Marc Rizzo, Master, Maximum the Hormone, Menthol, Metallica, Mr. Obvious, Mt. Helium/The Apex Theory, Next to None, Nirvana, Nonpoint, One Man's Opinion, Paris Grim, Paw, Protest the Hero, Pulse Ultra, Radio Holiday, Rammstein, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rumble in Rhodos, Rush, Sam Sly, Seether, Sethian, Shaun Ryder, Shawn Lane, Silverchair, Similar, Sonovox, Soundgarden, Sponge, Stabbing Westward, Stone Temple Pilots, Superjoint Ritual, System of a Down, Taking Back Sunday, Tetema, The Butts, The Culls, The Dead Kings, The Fluid, The Marble Index, Three Days Grace, Thrice, Tiles, Tool, U.K., Van Halen, Witchcraft, and Within Shadows. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Change Log Here is where any notes will be documented for any potential future updates. ------------ Version 1.00 - Initial public release. ------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contacts ------------ Quick Curly: Board 2 http://acmlm.no-ip.org/board/profile.php?id=1121 Jul http://jul.rustedlogic.net/profile.php?id=1111 Kafuka http://board.kafuka.org/profile.php?id=111 Romhacking.net http://www.romhacking.net/community/1051/ http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3816 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/Qu1ckCur1y Email: quickcurly[at]yahoo[dot]ca ------------ ------------ Intruder X: CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/IntruderX MySpace http://www.myspace.com/intruderxmusic YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/intruderxmusic GRENADE STUDIOS - Musical instruction/instrument repair/recording studio. Email: livegrenade[at]sympatico[dot]ca ------------ ------------ Mattrizzle: Board 2 http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/profile.php?id=407 Email: m.grassman87[at]gmail[dot]com ------------ ------------ MegaEliteGamers: Board 2 http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/profile.php?id=3482 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/MegaEliteGamers ------------ ------------ Moon in Pieces: DeviantArt http://mooninpieces.deviantart.com/ Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/mooninpieces Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mooninpieces Instagram https://instagram.com/mooninpieces/ Spoonflower http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/mooninpieces Storenvy http://mooninpieces.storenvy.com/ Tumblr http://mooninpiecesstudio.tumblr.com/ Twitter https://twitter.com/mooninpieces Email: mooninpieces[at]yahoo[dot]com ------------ ------------ mrrichard999: Board 2 http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/profile.php?id=3139 Romhacking.net http://www.romhacking.net/community/131/ http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=15175 ------------ ------------ Thermoptic: Subretro https://subretro.wordpress.com/ ------------ ------------ Within Shadows: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WithinShadowsOfficial Twitter https://twitter.com/WShadowsBAND YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/Stat1cS Email: pickerilas[at]gmail[dot]com ------------ ------------ Zieldak: Board 2 http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/profile.php?id=2734 Romhacking.net http://www.romhacking.net/community/1905/ http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=13074 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/Zieldak Zieldak's Domain https://sites.google.com/site/zieldak/ Email: zieldakmail[at]gmail[dot]com ------------