------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe-DvD_Translations-The_Adventures_of_Bayou_Billy.txt This file should be viewed using a mono-spaced font like "Courier". Use a font size where 79 columns are visible. Please don't distribute the ROM file in patched form. Please don't distribute the DvD_Bayou_Billy_revA.ips file without this file. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ADVENTURES OF BAYOU BILLY Stage & Round Select for the Nintendo Entertainment System Copyright 1989 by Konami Enhancement Copyright 2022 by DvD Translations Patch Version: Rev A Release Date: April 16, 2022 DvD Translations dvdtranslations.eludevisibility.org Code Editing: DvD Graphics Editing: DvD Testing: DvD ReadMe: DvD ----------------------------------- CONTENTS ---------------------------------- INFO (1) Konami Light Gun Game Series (2) If You Read Anything, Read This USING THE PATCH (3) Patching the ROM File (4) Playing the Game on a Flash Cart or Emulator ENHANCEMENT DETAILS (5) Why DvD Chose to Enhance THIS Game (6) Why YOU Should Bother Playing THIS Game (7) DvD's Hacking Comments (8) Project Timeline (9) Software Used In This Enhancement ------------------------------------- INFO ------------------------------------ (1)---------------------- Konami Light Gun Game Series ------------------------ "The Adventures of Bayou Billy,", known as "Mad City" when it was released in Japan was the first of three games Konami made for the NES Zapper. All 3 mixed Zapper levels with other elements such as platforming, racing, flying, etc. None require the Zapper, yet due to the rest of the content, they are probably the best Zapper games made for the NES. The Konami LaserScope Voice Command Optical Targeting Headset peripheral was designed specifically to play Laser Invasion but the Zapper can be used as well. All 3 were released in the US, only the first 2 in Japan, and only Bayou Billy was released in Europe and Australia. Mad City August 12, 1988 Japan The Adventures of Bayou Billy June 1989 US The Adventures of Bayou Billy January 24, 1991 Europe Gun Sight March 15, 1991 Japan Laser Invasion June 1991 US The Lone Ranger August 1991 The Lone Ranger is an excellent game and the best of the 3. It even has a password save. If you own it, you have probably passed every stage (except likely the final boss as they ridiculously ramped up the difficulty there). The problem with Bayou Billy is that when Konami released it in the USA, they made the whole game ridiculously hard. It's a shame, because they ruined an otherwise great game. (2)-------------------- If You Read Anything, Read This ----------------------- DvD Translations enhanced version of "The Adventures of Bayou Billy" features: * Select any stage to start on. Simply press left or right at the title screen to select any stage and then start Game A or B as normal. Stages 1-9 are shown using letters A-I instead of numbers simply because all the required numbers don't exist on the title screen tile set. * Select any round to start on. Simply press right at the title screen after the final stage is selected. Yes, Bayou Billy has multiple rounds, like Castlevania, but unlike Castlevania, unfortunately, not much changes for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. You don't get a better ending. It feels to me that it plays a little faster. Rounds 1-3 are shown using letters A-C. * Cut scenes that normally are shown before a stage are shown when that stage is chosen as the starting stage. * Infinite continues. Although it doesn't really matter with the ability to select any stage. * The ability to use the practice round bonuses, extra-health (the meatball), extra lives, or extra bullets, on any stage. I find this particularly useful on stage 3, 5 and 7. Don't buy repro carts! They are expensive. They don't support bug fixes for patches because they can't be modified in the future. If they aren't built from scratch they destroy a real cart. Every time a donor cart is used to make a repro, it raises the scarcity and price of that real cart. If you still want to spend your money on a multiple repro carts, instead of buying a single flash cart, buy them from a vendor who only makes carts from scratch with new boards, chips, and housings. ------------------------------- USING THE PATCH ------------------------------- (3)------------------------- Patching the ROM File ---------------------------- How to patch the ROM file: You need: 1) A NES file. The file needs to include the standard 16 byte iNES header followed by the program disk image data. With header, the ROM file is 262,160 bytes in size. The header should be as follows: 4E 45 53 1A 08 10 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 You must have a 16 byte header for this patch, but even if your header is wrong, this patch will fix it because it replaces the whole thing. So, if you have a file without a header, you can just insert 16 of any byte at the start of the file. I'm not telling you how to get the NES file, but once you do, call it "Adventures of Bayou Billy, The+.nes". ROM w/ proper header CRC32: 0x0ac631ba 3) Patch File: DvD_Bayou_Billy_revA.ips 4) An IPS patching program Remember to patch the file only AFTER it has a header. Recommended IPS patching program for IBM PC: Lunar IPS.exe by FuSoYa Recommended IPS patching program for Mac: UIPS by Lucas Newman Using Lunar IPS / UIPS: a) Double-click "Lunar IPS" / "UIPS" b) Click "Apply IPS Patch" / "Apply Patch" c) Choose "DvD_Bayou_Billy_revA.ips" e) Choose "Adventures of Bayou Billy, The+.nes" (4)------------- Playing the Game on a Flash Cart or Emulator ---------------- All emulators and flash carts that can play the original Famicom file can play the enhanced game. The PowerPak flash cart emulates it perfectly. Games designed for the original Famicom/NES hardware have one or two 16k program banks and one 8k character bank. Later, all games made for the NES used special mapper chips to expand the size of the addressable ROM beyond these limitations. Some even included RAM for the character bank, instead of ROM. This game uses MMC1, the first custom mapper Nintendo made. MMC1 was specifically made to port Famicom Disk System system games to cartridges, but it was also widely used to make unique games for the NES and to port games using 3rd part developer custom mappers that Nintendo generally did not allow outside of Japan. Although MMC1 supports SRAM saving, this game does not have any save feature; hence the reason for this enhancement. Game file size: 8 x 16 kBytes of Program ROM 16 x 8 kBytes of Character ROM 256 kBytes 262,144 Bytes + 16 Byte Header = 262,160 Bytes ----------------------------- ENHANCEMENT DETAILS ----------------------------- (5)------------------- Why DvD Chose to Enhance THIS Game --------------------- I've owned a complete mint copy of this game for over 30 years, but I never passed it. Why? Because it's so damn hard. Even if the game had infinite continues, it would still suck because you never want to start on stage 9, and you can't use the bonus upgrades before playing a stage after you die. (6)---------------- Why YOU Should Bother Playing THIS Game ------------------- Once you can "save" the game by using the stage select, the challenge is reasonable and the game is really fun. It's still hell to beat the boss on stage 3, but everything else is reasonable especially if you use the power up from the practice stages. Why Konami didn't give this game a password in the first place is beyond me. This is what this level select hack fixes. It turns this into the Lone Ranger, essentially giving the game a password save. When it first came out, if you bought Bayou Billy, to have something to do with your Zapper besides play Duck Hunt, you probably were sorely disappointed because you only played half of the light gun content as you never made it to stage 7. With this stage select and an NES flash cart you will finally be able to play levels you've never played before, the proper way, using the NES Zapper on a TV. Playing the game this way keeps it challenging but makes it fun, more like having the password save of the Lone Ranger. (7)------------------------- DvD's Hacking Comments --------------------------- At first I made this hack simply for myself. It worked, but the graphics were glitchy when the selecting levels. Then, I figured out the correct way to write to the screen using the way that Konami did it. But, I could not get it to show the cut scenes after selecting a new stage to start on. This really bothered me. It took a long time, and a lot of failed attempts but I finally figured out how to do it in October of 2021. Beta testing took me forever. Even though I had made it to at least stage 5, probably stage 6, back in the day, my skills were rusty and the boss of stage 3 kept kicking my butt. I decided to work on other projects, like Ninja Gaiden's stage select. I finally beat the boss and the soon after that the entire game in April of 2022 when I had some time off from work to work on it. (8)----------------------- Project Timeline Highlights ------------------------ Middle 2021 - Project started Oct 2 2021 - First level select added to title screen Oct 28 2021 - Tweaked Title screen credits Oct 29 2021 - Alpha Test Version Complete: - Cut Scene now shown before any selected level! - Selectable Stage 10 corrected - Always plays demo mode Apr 15 2022 - Testing complete - Passed all stages on round 1 and last 2 stages on round 3 Apr 16 2022 - Changed (c) date to 2022 Released (9)-------------- Software & Hardware Used In This Enhancement ---------------- * Emulator FCEUX 2.2.2 (FCEUX 2.2.3 has too many problems) by zeromus, adelikat * Disassembler, Table Dumper, & Relative Searcher Table Dumper Pro (version 21.05.18) by DvD * Hex Editor Beyond Compare 4.4.2 Licensed Version by Scooter Software * Disassembled code manipulation, script editing, & ReadMe creation Notepad++ by Don Ho and the rest of the Notepad++ team * Testing on a real NES PowerPak by retroUSB * Tile Editor Tile Layer Pro 1.0 by Kent Hansen * IPS Patch File Creator Lunar IPS by FuSoYa ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 987654321098765432109876543210987654321 123456789012345678901234567890123456789