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Dodonpachi Campaign Ver.

ekorz

ekorz

Multi Boyz 4 Pi
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Multi Boyz
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CUswHWWNZs

I have rebuilt Dodonpachi Campaign Ver.
It is playable anywhere the ddonpachj rom is playable, including MAME, fpga, and even original pcb (if you're brave enough to de-solder some roms).

Changes showcase:
Background Palettes & Tiles
Animations
Expert Mode
Enemy Layout
Midbosses
Bugfixes
Hyper!, Bees, Bullet Cancels, and Scoring
Bullets.
Bonus Features
Bosses

[coming soon, below]
Download & Patching Instructions
Public Release paused indefinitely

Thanks to MAMEdev, Sudden Desu, Olifante, Mark/EU, members here @rtw, @kuze, @twistedsymphony, @Hammy, and @Hatsune Mike (not involved, but I'm using his freeplay patch with permission)
 
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kuze said:
Hell yeah bro!!

Original Cave version or @ekorz edition?

Either way I can’t wait to play it.
Click to expand...

Well there are no Cakes fighting in it, if that’s what you’re asking…

This is 100% me watching hours upon hours of the existing (e.g. SOF-WTN) campaign gameplay, and then rebuilding it.

Also translated the info flyers that were published along with the vhs, and I’m using any other info I can find. A few other folks have also helped (or are still helping) in various ways but I’ll detail it all later.
 
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I started this thread as a bit of a change-log, as I'm sure some folks only know vaguely that "Campaign version" was a thing and that it was different or "had a hyper". So I'll go through and document what I consider are the major changes.

First up, new palettes and background tiles.

Obviously the title screen has its distinctive Blue vs Red, but they tweaked plenty more. Every level has a whole new tile palette, and a couple even have background tiles adjusted (off the top of my head, stage 2 shown below, and an extended platform at the end of level 4).

Here's a couple side-by-side to help illustrate the changes.
Original is on the left, in case it's been a while for you!

OG2.png
0147.png


OG3.png
0148.png


OG6.png
0155.png


Animations next... gotta fire up my gifmaker.
 
Animations...
Some are big changes, some are small.

The ">PLAYER" got a little extra triangle, so now it's "<>PLAYER". Here it is zoomed in a bit.

ezgif-2-6b0b56a2d2.gif
ezgif-2-94e32d8cb5.gif


The Stage-Over screen got a rework, and it's not just palette change. In the original it will count out all your winnings slowly, or if you press a button it will skip the math and animate things 'fast'. In the new version, it really hustles through it all even more quickly. This is a comparison between the 'fast' versions on both. They also added some background flash, and lengthened the Boss Hit Bonus box.

giphy.gif
giphy.gif



This one gave me a ton of grief since it needs twice as much memory as the original, and was tricky to get the layering effect correct. The WARNING bricks are doubled/mirrored and given a little bit wider spiral range. It does look substantially more bad-ass now though.

giphy.gif
giphy.gif


Finally they put stars in new places. I won't spoil all the fun but here's a good one.

giphy.gif


And if you're reading closely and want to see another, uh, 'secret' animation, you can drop me a PM and I'll send you a build to test out in MAME
 
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Is this build targeted for MAME only, or would it theoretically run on FBA or other emulators as well?
 
Mirkvid said:
Is this build targeted for MAME only, or would it theoretically run on FBA or other emulators as well?
Click to expand...
This will run on everything that can run the mame ddonpachj rom, including original hardware if anyone is crazy enough to do some desoldering on their pcb.

Someone told me the MiSTer core doesn't have test menu implemented(?), so I guess you won’t be able to personalize the legal screen on that (or other test menu bonus stuff I may add).
 
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Oh and if anyone actually wants to help on this project, there's one thing I just can't figure out -- and maybe you can.

Watch the video and tell me what you think is driving the color change on the MAXIMUM bar. Watch it for a couple minutes. Other sections of the video have it, too. It clearly turns blue (for the first time) when Hyper is engaged, and speeds up, but beyond that it starts flashing like mad a little bit after that and just randomly switches between red and blue. If there's a reason to it, I want to implement it, but I can't think of anything driving its behavior. Not enemy kills, chain increases, reward pickups... nothing lines up to me.

Maybe some other cave titles have similar effects and folks know what's driving them?

(Updated)
 
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Back for more. This time it's a new gameplay variant: Expert Mode.

From the flyers we learn the main properties of Expert Mode.
-You don't get extra bombs when you die.
+Both your weapons (Shot & Laser) are 'enhanced,' in that a) you get the strong version if each, and b) when you die, they only drop one level each.
(normally your 'non-enhanced' weapon drops back to 0, and your 'enhanced' one drops one level)

Since it's entirely useless to show you the original game here, as this was absent completely, I'll show you images from the actual Campaign Version footage that I used for the basis of my recreation. Here's the animation, which has the same sfx as toggling between Laser and Shot.

normal_expert.png
normal_expert.gif


And for the longest time I had no idea what to do about selecting this variant when you die, and continue mid-game. WTN does not die. Luckly @rtw sent over some additional gameplay, and though it is extremely poor quality it does show a continue. So I give you - mid-game selection too. I think it says "A BUTTON NORMAL" and "C BUTTON CONTINUE". What do you think?

potato.png
normal_expert_2.gif


If you had accrued extra bombs while playing on Normal mode, and you switch to Expert, I take them away :)
 
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