orbinaut

Orbinaut

Made by zuccha, requested by NopeContest. Bugfixes by MarioFanGamer.

Sprite featuring a central orbinaut, with four spike balls orbiting around it.

Contents

This package contains the following files:

• README.txt: This file.
• ExGraphics/ExGFX80.bin: The graphics file containing the images for the orbinaut and the spike ball. This is a copy of GFX02.bin, adding the new graphics in empty tiles.
• Palettes/orbinaut.pal: Base color palette of level 105, replacing palette F with orbinaut's colors.
• PIXI/list.txt: A list for PIXI setting orbinat and spike ball sprites to numbers 00 and 01 respectively. Feel free to use this file if you don't have any other custom sprites already inserted in the hack.
• PIXI/sprites/orbinaut.asm: Code for the orbinaut sprite.
• PIXI/sprites/orbinaut.json: Configuration for the orbinaut sprite.
• PIXI/sprites/orbinaut_spike_ball.asm: Code for the spike ball sprite.
• PIXI/sprites/orbinaut_spike_ball.json: Configuration for the spike ball sprite.

Usage

Here follow the instructions on how to use and customize this sprite.

Simple insertion

If you want to insert the sprite with the provided "list.txt" and graphics file, do the following:

1. Copy PIXI/list.txt in PIXI's main folder.
2. Copy PIXI/sprites/orbinaut.asm, PIXI/sprites/orbinaut.json, PIXI/sprites/orbinaut_spike_ball.asm, and PIXI/sprites/orbinaut_spike_ball.json in PIXI's sprites folder.
3. Copy ExGraphics/ExGFX80.bin in the ROM's ExGraphics folder, then insert graphics via Lunar Magic. You can change "80" into any free ExGFX number.
4. Open "Super GFX Bypass" menu in Lunar Magic and change "SP4" to "80" (or the number of your choice).
5. In Lunar Magic, open the "Palette Editor" and import Palettes/orbinaut.pal.
6. Run PIXI.
7. Insert the sprite in Lunar Magic with the "Insert Manual..." command. The sprite accepts four extra bytes and the extra bit; their behavior is described in detail in PIXI/sprites/orbinaut.asm.

Customize Sprite Numbers

If you change the number for orbinaut_spike_ball.json in PIXI's list.txt (anything other than the default "00"), you also have to change !ball_number in orbinaut.asm to match that number.

For instance, if you modify list.txt as follows

12 orbinaut.json
2F orbinaut_spike_ball.json

then you have to set !ball_number = $2F in orbinaut.asm.

Customize Graphics

If you want to change the position of graphics for the orbinaut and spike ball in the graphics file and/or use a different graphic slot, you can do so by modifying their JSON configuration files.

If you want to use SP1 or SP2, set the property Use second graphics page to false. If you want to use SP3 or SP4 set Use second graphics page to true.

With the !gfx_tile define found in the ASM files you can define what tile to use. In a graphics file tiles range from 0x00 to 0x7F. If you put the graphics file in slots SP1 or SP3, you use the tile value of the graphics file (0x00-0x7F). If you put the graphics file in SP2 or SP4, you need to add 0x80 to the tile value, resulting in values ranging from 0x80 to 0xFF.

You can check the following table for reference, where columns indicate whether "Use second graphics page" is false (1st) or true (2nd), and the rows state the range values for !gfx_tile:

	1st	2nd
0x00-0x7F	SP1	SP3
0x80-0xFF	SP2	SP4

By default, both the orbinaut and the spike ball are in the same graphics file ExGFX80.bin at positions 0x40 and 0x60 respectively. In both their JSON config file "Use second graphics page" is set to true and they are specifying values greater than 0x80 in !gfx_tile (i.e., 0xC0 = 0x40 + 0x80 and 0xE0 = 0x60 + 0x80), meaning we need to load 80 in SP4 via Lunar Magic.

Let's take another example. In Lunar Magic, we set the following SP slots:

• SP1: 0
• SP2: 2
• SP3: 80
• SP4: A2

Also, we have orbinaut.asm and orbinaut.json with the following properties:

• !gfx_tile: 146 (0x92)
• Use second graphics page: false

and orbinaut_spike_ball.asm and orbinaut_spike_ball.json:

• !gfx_tile: 36 (0x24)
• Use second graphics page: true

For the orbinaut the game will take tile 0x12 in GFX02.bin (SP2), because we set "Use second graphics page" to false (either SP1 or SP2) and !gfx_tile is 0x92 >= 0x80 (so SP2). For the spike ball the game will take tile 0x24 in ExGFX80.bin (SP3), because we set "Use second graphics page" to true (either SP3 or SP4) and its !gfx_tile is 0x24 < 0x80 (so SP3).

Customize Palette

By default the sprite uses sprite palette 7 (global palette F) both for the orbinaut and the spike ball.

To change the palettes, you can open the JSON configuration files and change the Palette property (0-7).

Compatibility

This sprite is compatible with PIXI 1.40, older versions will not work.

The sprite is compatible with SA-1.

The sprite takes 5 sprite slots, 1 for the orbinaut and 4 for the spike balls, so be mindful when using it!