| paleface [sys=PC; cat=Platformer; reg=NA] |
| | | I used this Steam version ROM extraction guide by farmerbb to access the ROMs: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1018020/discussions/0/1629665087674849653/
That resulted in a tidy dump of the ROMs, with these file names:
boy_01_DraculaDensetsu.gb
boy_02_DraculaDensetsu2.gb
boy_us_01_Castlevaniaadv1_fake_rom.gb
boy_us_02_Castlevaniaadv2_fake_rom.gb
famicom_01_AkumajouDracula.nes
famicom_03_AkumajouDensetsu.nes
famicom_04_BokuDraculakun.nes
kid-dracula.nes
nes_01_Castlevania.nes
nes_02_Castlevania2.nes
nes_02_Castlevania3.nes
sega_jp_VampireKiller.bin
sega_us_CastlevaniaBloodlines.bin
snes_01_supercastlevania4_fake_rom.smc
sufami_01_AkumajouDracula.smc
They've been altered to remove mention of Nintendo from the opening screens. Maybe that's why some got the "fake_rom" label?
Supposedly these are like early revision ROMs or something and maybe prone to crashing semi-randomly? I dunno, hasn't crashed yet, if it does I guess I'll just load the last Mesen autosave and try to keep going. : P
I first bought the Anniversary Collection on PS4, but even though M2's logo is shown at startup and they usually do pretty solid emulation work, the available screen sizes and aspect ratios are kinda messed up (no full-height sharp display option, and I think their "pixel perfect" and "4:3" options are swapped around sometimes or something? I dunno, anyway it's not good; there's also some annoying color shimmer or something going on). And only one save slot.
Trying to sort out the screen settings from that, Googling accidentally led me to the mention of extracting the ROMs from the Steam version, so I just did that instead, woo! And I got farther faster so far, but maybe that was just me having had more practice. |
|
|
| | | Updated version of the guide here: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/wiki/Castlevania-Anniversary-Collection
Guide text:
The Castlevania Anniversary Collection contains several different Castlevania titles for the Game Boy, NES, SNES and Sega Genesis, as well as various bonus content. The collection can be purchased on Steam.
All of the games that come in this collection can be extracted. (The English localization of Kid Dracula, exclusive to the compilation, requires extraction of some additional SRAM data.)
ROM Extraction Instructions
Download and install .NET Core from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download
Download MArchiveBatchTool from one of these links:
Windows - https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/releases/download/tools/MArchiveBatchTool-win-x64.zip
Linux - https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/releases/download/tools/MArchiveBatchTool-linux-x64.zip
Extract the zip file and copy alldata.bin and alldata.psb.m from your Castlevania Anniversary Collection install into the extracted directory.
Now, open up a command prompt (or shell) inside the MArchiveBatchTool folder, and run this command:
Windows:
MArchiveBatchTool.exe fullunpack --keep alldata.psb.m zlib 25G/xpvTbsb+6 64
Linux:
./MArchiveBatchTool fullunpack --keep alldata.psb.m zlib 25G/xpvTbsb+6 64
When finished, the ROMs will be located inside of the "alldata.psb.m_extracted\system\roms" folder.
Kid Dracula Save Data
In order for Kid Dracula to be playable on standard NES emulators, an additional file containing SRAM data for the game needs to be extracted.
Download the Swiss File Knife program:
Windows - http://stahlworks.com/dev/sfk/sfk.exe
Linux - http://stahlworks.com/dev/sfk/sfk-linux-64.exe
Assuming you've followed the ROM extraction steps above, navigate to the "alldata.psb.m_extracted\073\script" directory and copy the Swiss File Knife program here.
Additional step for Linux: Rename the "sfk-linux-64.exe" file to "sfk" and mark the file as executable.
Run the following command:
Windows:
sfk.exe filter title_standalone.nut -skipfirst=107 -head=363 +hextobin kid-dracula.sav
Linux:
./sfk filter title_standalone.nut -skipfirst=107 -head=363 +hextobin kid-dracula.sav
You will end up with an SRAM save file, "kid-dracula.sav", to use when playing the extracted Kid Dracula ROM. |
|
|
| | | Apparently the crashing is confined to the US version of Castlevania (1) in this collection. According to https://tcrf.net/Bugs:Castlevania_(NES)#NMI_Crash
"Due to a simple oversight during the FDS to NES cartridge conversion, revision 0 of the game may crash in areas with lots of sprites, such as stage 15 (particularly the hallway below Death's chamber, and the battle with Death himself)."
"Revision 1 fixes this problem by swapping in bank 0 before attempting to jump to the offending routine.
The initial release of Castlevania Anniversary Collection mistakenly uses the Revision 0 ROM which has the aforementioned NMI glitch still intact."
And as far as the internet has remained mum, updates to the collection have not updated the US CV1 ROM to a later revision. And John Harris commented on my video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tAWXqad9dc&lc=Ugx_In_QFLPKHcq1tiB4AaABAg "I can vouch, the version of NES Castlevania in the Anniversary Collection has a bug where if too many items are on-screen the rom will crash. It likes to hit me during the Grim Reaper and Dracula fights. It's not present in the Japanese version."
According to https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_(NES)#Regional_and_Version_Differences , "The game was released in three different formats: the original Famicom Disk System version, a Nintendo Entertainment System cartridge version, and a Famicom cartridge version, which was based on the Revision 1 revision of the NES version."
So that would explain why the Japanese version of CV1 in this collection doesn't have the crash problem. |
|
|
| | | I still have Castlevania Chronicles for PS1, with its two remixes of Castlevania 1, so maybe I'll give that a shot if I still want more after the Collection. Then there's ANOTHER remix of one, Arcade Archives VS. Castlevania on PS4, so I could try that too if I'm not sick of it yet by then. ^ _^ (It's even harder, I think I read.)
US game order in main menu, which I'll probably follow:
Castlevania I-III
Super Castlevania IV
Castlevania Adventure
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Castlevania Bloodlines
Kid Dracula
Except I'm gonna play the Japanese III, Akumajou Densetsu, instead of the US one, 'cause it's got an extra sound chip for some really cool music. : D |
|
|
| | | | Kid Dracula is out, s'got some character flashing FX. |
|
|
| | | | Lots of the Bloodlines bosses have big hit flash FX, so that's out too. |
|
|
| | | | Aaaand so do the bosses in the SNES one. And the GB ones feel either really slow (first) or more of a platform game (second) and I'm just not into them. Sooo that leaves me playing just CV I and III, both JP. |
|
|
| | | | (Oh because I didn't like II. ; ) |
|
|
| | |