Not really in the 100% proper board, but leads up to ZOLE, so I guess it is!Well, I've come a long way... In this topic, because I'm feeling glad about what I accomplished, I'm going to post where I started and how I worked my way up. Note that it's mostly text and information up until point 4 where I get into stuff I made.
Point 1: A Dream and Game MakerWell, it had always been my dream to make a custom GB Zelda game. I didn't care how, but it was my goal for years. I remember in early 2005 I had stumbled across Game Maker, but it wasn't until early 2006 I actually learned how to make use of it thanks to a friend (Mind you I was only 11-12 at this time). And guess what the first game I made was; a Zelda game. Very unpolished, but it was cool enough to make my 6th grader friends jealous. I don't have any screenshots of it, nor do I possess it currently, but my cousin has held onto it and I'll be able to get it later.
Point 2: A BaseI remember finding out about programming in the summer of 2006. My cousin and his family had moved to a new house and my cousin had one of their old computers with '98 in his room. On it was Microsoft Visual C++ 6, and my cousin's dad had gotten him into using it and showed me. We made little console applications but nothing special, although I did quickly pick up the programming syntax. However, I remember us wanting to make a regular application but we couldn't figure out how to create "graphics", so that never took me very far.
Among the next months when Guitar Hero II was about released, I had gotten into RSPS, and so I picked up a lot of knowledge on Java programming. Since I had been trying out C++ before then, it wasn't too hard to catch on. It wasn't until 2 AM on New Year's Eve that I registered on my first forum (I won't tell you the name, because it's so... Disappointing on where it's turned). I was there for quite some time until I came around to emulation...
Point 3: Emulation and an Introduction to ROM HackingMy first friend I had ever made online (and who I still talk to this very day, and even register on these very forums) had introduced me to Advance Map. I was really excited when I used it I learned about other emulation, and remember finding out about other games and systems like OoT. I then stumbled upon SMILE, and went into the IRC room for it after reading it in a text file distributed with it. There I was taught the wonders of VB6, FOpen/Get/Put methods, PlanetSourceCode, and many more things by the awesome people Jathys, MathOnNapkins, and Interdpth. Without these people I wouldn't be where I am today.
Point 4: The start of a long journeyAfter getting into VB6, I remember being taught to use Set and GetPixel. One of the hardest goals for me was displaying a 2BPP, even though I didn't even know what that meant, but I remember I kept wanting to "load tilesets from the ROM". But the first file-related tool I ever made was a really poor hex editor which looked like this.
However, of course, the very first thing I looked into was Zelda Oracle of Ages. I had luckily found data that represents the characters you enter in the Secrets menu in a new game. Here's a video of the old version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ztwdC3Qv0Y And here's what the version I released looked like:
This brings me to something I had made a little bit earlier, called Classic Zelda Hacks (
http://www.freewebs.com/classiczeldahacks/ Please note this was back in mid 2008) which is where I stored a lot of my stuff.
After that, I searched other stuff in the ROM. Editing every bit I could find, I made a tool to edit some of the Seasons area headers, but never could find them all (Gee, I wonder why xD).
Point 5: The wonder of Jigglysaint's documentsWell, I had found Jigglysaint's documents some time later, and thinking I knew what I was doing, I tried creating tools based off of them. Here's the first thing I made (and I guess only released):
As you can see, this just screams "I had no idea what I was doing, but it was still fun!". It was supposed to be a dungeon portal editor for Link's Awakening DX, but I never really got the idea of stuff.
Point 6: BGB, Assistance, and ZOLE 1Well, my first attempt to figure out Zelda Oracle's level data had failed badly. I tried using BGB's debugger but didn't know what I was doing. Tauwasser, who has helped me immensely down the road, tried helping me but I never understood it. However, one day while trying to find stuff, I came across the level data in the memory (And have never forgotten the address... CF00 will always remain in my head). I remember finding it first in Seasons, and couldn't really find a lot of it in the ROM. I asked TW for help and he's the one who cracked the format for me. And, from there, I ripped a few tiles and created this poorly designed and programmed application in VB .NET, ZOLE 1:
Working ZOLE 1, but older:
ZOLE 1 I just took, although it doesn't do stuff correctly:
Atleast somebody here is bound to remember it, as I posted it on RHDN a long time ago. But the way I was doing things, even started on September 10th, 2008, I don't even think I would have finished it by now.
Point 7: ClassicMap, ZOLE 2, ZLADE, ZOLE 3, and JohtoMapThe first successful thing I had ever made in VB6 was ClassicMap. It was a basic level editor for Pokemon Red and Blue, but failed because of some messed up event structure. This is mainly how I learned about pointers and efficiency. Here's what it looked like.
It's kind a better version of PokeMap, but still bad looking back. Anyways, there was no official ZOLE 2. The project was created but was never actually built. But later on, I created ZLADE, a rather popular tool but even looking back now (as soon ago as it was), it's still very badly done with a horrible layout.
The next thing I did, with Jigglysaint on my side for data and Dwedit for the tilesets, I created this piece of junk, ZOLE 3:
The funny thing is that was created as recent as October 7th, 2009. However, still not optimized in terms of performance and code structure. To top things off, it didn't load every map correctly. But after that, I started a project called JohtoMap. There is where I got most of my experience in terms of programming and digging deeper, and even decompressing graphics. However, due to how recent it is, I won't go on about it.
Point 8: The Early Stages of "ZOLE 4"Here, I have only one person to thank: Coolboyman (C, K, same thing). Without him, I never would have learned Z80 assembly and done anything related to ZOLE 4. Now, everything starts somewhere, right? Unexpectedly , ZOLE 4 developed from this:
Yea, kind of hard to believe. But here are screenshots leading up to what you see today.
The first ever picture of ZOLE 4 (Empty, ain't it?), and moving forward:
I can go on and on... But I'll stop there.
So anyway, that killed about an hour. I thought I'd just share with you guys where I actually started and how I built up to here, mainly because I'm bored. So the lesson to be learned here is never give your dream, because with a little dedication and motivation, anything is possible!
~Lin
