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Happy new year 2008! VLDC1 compilation is here (Update: map suggestions posted by nin)

Joking aside, this is what I've been doing instead of focusing on The Challenge.

Giant Link

So what is this? It's a compilation of 49 entries from 2008's VLDC1, three levels were lost so I included decoy levels instead as destroyed castle tiles. It also includes FPZero's entry which was posted in the submission thread but was not judged because the author was one of the judges.

Why am I doing it? Well, I saw this thread and I thought it would be cool if “the other 6” were also put together in one ROM. So I decided to do this.

This is only a level compilation, I don't intend to make this as big as the VLDC7 or VLDC8 collabs because this is a contest that was hosted almost 8 years ago and because those level were never meant to be placed in one ROM (it was already a pain reassigning all those levels that used level 105, 106, 107, etc. and map16 page 2). I do intend however, to do something more than just an empty overworld with levels, but I want to ask for your help and opinion on this.

1. Overworld

Based on the level themes we can use a sky world, a grassland world, a cave/mountain world, a dark/ghost house world and the usual best and worst worlds, I'd rather use the main map instead of using all 6 submaps because I want to save one submap for World X. Of course I'm open to suggestions about this, so if you think you have a better distribution let me hear it.

I'm accepting volunteers to design the submaps. Since this is a contest from 2008 I'd prefer if the overworld doesn't use anything that wasn't possible at that time, but of course this is not a requirement, so feel free to use anything you need. Do try not to make to too flashy though.

2. Switch Palaces

This is the subject I'm most hesitant about. As I said these levels were not meant to be put together in a ROM, so most levels that use switch palace blocks are the ones that have switches on them. This would normally not be a problem but there's one yellow switch palace and three green switch palaces in the ROM. My idea for this would be leaving the green switch to FPzero's level and change the other two to red and blue, but then there's another problem: capes. All three GSP levels use at least one green switch block as a cape container, what we can do here is make it so the blue and red switches also spawn capes, but then the problem is that you will be able to obtain capes in Flight of the Yoshi from red and blue blocks by hitting them with a shell (or with another cape) and you're not supposed to do that. If you have a better solution let me know.

Other than those, I think the only level that uses switch palace blocks is Frozen Future Fury. They are not active by default but they will be activated once the blue switch is pressed which couldn't happen in the original level. Personally I say we leave them like that but let me know if you'd rather leave them deactivated all the time. Giga's level uses 4-colored switch blocks, we can make it so those won't appear unless you activated all four switches but I'd rather not since those blocks were not intended for that purpose.

3. World X

As I said, one of the judge's level (the one with the green switch) is in the ROM. I was thinking to give this level its own submap (we can use the one FP made in his entry) and make it similar to VLDC8's world X. The thing is we can't make a "grab all YC" thing because some levels didn't have Yoshi Coins and I'd rather not add them. My idea is to make the level inaccessible until you've cleared all other exits. I will need somebody skilled in ASM for this though.

4. Custom Music?

The contest didn't allow custom music so all entries used the original soundtrack. We can choose to respect that, but we can also use remixes or we can go wild and use a complete custom soundtrack. Personally I'd rather respect the contest music, but I'll leave that up to you guys,

5. Bugs and missing levels

As I said, there are three missing entries, the authors are Raibys, Atomik and pas'ra'chilli (yes, there was somebody named like that, apparently, lol). If somebody has them I'd like to include them in the ROM. Otherwise we can either keep the decoy levels as "ghosts" or remove any trace of them from the ROM. This also makes thin think about the worst world, since two of the three missing levels should be there, shall we take them into account or not?

Regarding bugs, the ROM works almost perfectly. The only bug I couldn't fix was in Mountain Heights: in the cave after the midpoint, there' garbage appearing in the background, apparently this is caused by the layer 2 moving sprite. This didn't happen in the original level so I want to fix it. However, if I edited the level with LM the garbage appears, so it's probably related to some bug from a recent version of LM. I'd appreciate if this could be fixed.

A lot of levels can be broken if you bring Yoshi or a cape, so I want to insert counter-break patches to force the player small at the beginning of all levels. You were not supposed to brings powerups from another level here anyway.

If you find any other bugs in the ROM, they're probably insertion bugs, so please report them here.

----

Without further ado, I hope I can count with your help on this project. Enjoy your time trip and have a good stay at year 2008.

Edit: I already have Raibys and pas'ra'chilli's entry. I'm only missing Atomik's.
Will it be multiple people working on the map? I'd like to help out though. I can send you a quick Submap example I made.
As I said, I'm accepting volunteers, so yes. And sure, feel free to post anything you've made here.
Originally posted by Najeraldo
As I said, I'm accepting volunteers, so yes. And sure, feel free to post anything you've made here.



It'd be nice to have a list to have on which level number each levels is at.
Your working is REALLY nice!

Thanks for your effort to make them playable in one single hack.
Originally posted by Nin
It'd be nice to have a list to have on which level number each levels is at.

Fair enough. The world distribution is only a suggestion for now, you're not forced to follow it. Also, I decided to ditch the sky world in favor of a castle world since most sky levels ended up in either the best or the worst world.

Also, good news: thanks to KTBHacking Black Switch Palace and Hazy Forest Castle are now in the hack (re-download the IPS from the first post). Black Switch Palace introduces a new switch color (take a guess), but this is not a problem because no levels use black switch block (not even BSP itself). Hazy Forest Castle has yellow and green switch blocks, but these can be treated the same way as the ones in Frozen Future Fury. Thoughts on this are still welcome.

I still don't have Cape Quest (Atomik's level), but I still hope to get it, so if anyone has it, please send it to me. If I don't manage to get it though, we can either leave the "ghost" level or remove it completely.

Edit: this might be worth using, I don't think we'd need to use the main map.
Holy cow. The thought of doing something like this has crossed my mind yes, but I didn't expect that someone would've been working on this already.

I definitely want to help with submaps, but I'll have to get to that later on, you know, C3 means busy times (I'm totally not talking about wasting my time with gambling).

What does FP's level have of special other than being a judge level? Not sure if it's worth it to 100% everything for one level. Maybe some peeps could make some levels from the future under VLDC1's limitations that are amazing or something and add them in there?

Also for custom music, maybe an original music version and a remix only version?

Anyway, good job, must've taken shitloads of time
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?
Originally posted by Koopster
What does FP's level have of special other than being a judge level? Not sure if it's worth it to 100% everything for one level. Maybe some peeps could make some levels from the future under VLDC1's limitations that are amazing or something and add them in there?

Well, it's a good level (certainly not the best in the collab, but still pretty enjoyable) and the usage of the Yoshi wings level is a pretty unique gimmick, even today yo don't see many levels doing that.

I'm not sure about adding new levels to the hack, I did think about it, but this is a compilation from the 2008 VLDC, adding a level that was done in 2016 would feel weird (I know the submaps will be made i 2016, but the levels are the core of the complation here). If anything we can add a level that was made in 2008 by S.N.N., since he was the other judge, or ask him to make one and try to imitate his style from back then as best as he can, but I still don't like the idea.

If you still think the level is not worth having its own submap, then we can move it to the mountain map and give it its own special tile or place to point out it was a judge level. I'd like to hear more thoughts on this and the above before deciding anything though.

About submaps, yes, feel free to post screenshots of your work.



Hastily made maps I made for this this morning. They're not the best, but I tried to keep it in a 2008 style
2008 style doesn't mean you have to make them super simple, it just means you have to avoid using stuff from later years, but again, this is more of a guideline than a rule.

I already told you this in a PM, but I totally love that forest map, I'm not really convinced by the rest, though.

Thanks for sharing.
Originally posted by Najeraldo
2008 style doesn't mean you have to make them super simple, it just means you have to avoid using stuff from later years, but again, this is more of a guideline than a rule.

I already told you this in a PM, but I totally love that forest map, I'm not really convinced by the rest, though.

Thanks for sharing.


These were made in two hours due to being busy today. I'll be updating theme and giving them better layouts towmorrow.
Thanks, but KTBHacking sent them to me yesterday.

I just sent an e-mail to Atomik asking him for his entry. So if he doesn't get weirded out for being contacted by somebody who joined two years after he left in a forum where he only made 4 posts, still uses the e-mail in his profile and somehow still has the level (very unlikely but I had to try) we're all good.

And here's a fun fact, the author of the only missing entry was probably the first to suggest this compilation.
Ok, so I've decided to update the castle map (I'll be doing each one by one):



Does this look any better?
much better.
I like the colors you chose.

Overall this is a really interesting project and I hope it gets finished.
Would be cool to see the old levels right next to VLDC 7/8.
Never player the old VLDC levels, so I'll definitly give this a shot once it's finished
My Youtube channel

Currently working on:
Project C

Finished project:
I agree it looks better. Maybe you should change the palette for the cliff and if you can the one for the upper part. Also, you can use castle and tower tiles to have more variety.
Originally posted by Najeraldo
I agree it looks better. Maybe you should change the palette for the cliff and if you can the one for the upper part. Also, you can use castle and tower tiles to have more variety.





Better?
Sorry for taking long to reply, but yes it looks better that way (I'd still change that weird pink wall to another color though. Feel free to send it to me or post it here anytime.
Btw I have the IPS Nin sent to me and I'll be working on polishing up all the maps soon, perhaps after C3 submissions are over. (I could work with someone else if there's any more interest)
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?