Fatal Fury Romhack

[Arcade-TV]

Z E R O
working title
[Romhack made in 2024]
​

I'd like to announce a romhack I've been developing for a while now. It all started with a the idea to have the longer AES opening in MVS mode, but somehow evolved into something with a lot of features. I'll try my best not to bore you while I walk you through it..

Feature Overview

1. Intro/Opening:
   
   The taxi scene is cut out entirely in the MVS version.
   Select long (AES) or short (MVS) version via SoftDIP setting.
   
   ​
2. Different sets of special moves depending on the system's region:
   
   I wanted to be able to use the US-style moves on a japanese system and vice versa, so I created another softDIP setting for this purpose.
   On AES these settings are not accessible (without unibios etc), so I had to add new features to the difficulty-selection-menu.
   You can now selected the special move style by pressing left or right on your controller.
   
   
   This all worked out pretty good, but introduced another problem:
   The "fatal blow" mid-game animations were meant to show only the respective sequence for the given region, meaning I had to re-create all the missing ones.
   Now there are 12 (3 characters x 3 specialMoves x 2 languages minus identical moves) new sequences, displaying the correct "fatal blow" for any combination.
   
   ​
3. Fixing the taxi gfx glitch when G-Mantle drives the vehicle out of the screen:
   
   There's a gap while the cab-gfx gets cut into half. For a blink of an eye you sense an irritating flickering from this behaviour.
   
   It was actually pretty hard to get to the bottom of this issue. Luckily fixing it was fairly easy though as it turned out the programmer was not very good at numbers ;-)
   ​
4. Mr. Richard Meyer a.k.a. Myer a.k.a. Mier
   There are 2 occasions where Richard's surname was spelled wrong.
   
   
   ​
5. Geese Howerd, who?
   
   
   Oh, I meant HowArd - yup, fixed it as well.
   ​
6. A complete Re-translation, r u serious!?
   
   Well, yeah, I know... SNK's wonky localizations have a solif fanbase, but there were so many typos and awkward sentences in there, I just had to do it and see if the overall game would benefit from that. Spoiler alert: It Does!
   I used this translation from Mars as a starting point after asking for permission:
   

   Fatal Fury | The Mad SNK Project

   Sites for personal translation and analysis projects, focusing on SNK Neo Geo titles and Psychic Force.

   marsdragon.brontoforum.us

Ok, what's next?

I believe Fatal Fury has a very strong story behind the game, but it is poorly introduced prior to start playing the game.
On the technical side of things, I'm already prepped for adding a custom story-driven intro, but I'm struggeling with creating pixel-art that lives up to my own expectations...

As an example I'd like to show this modification of the billboard poster from the intro with an explanation:
I always thought the 2 generic boxers where fitting from a point of style, position and colors, but the actual meaning for the story is... well... at least not exactly mindblowing.
Since Billy Kane is the current champion of the King Of Fighters™ Tournament, I wanted to reflect that. Also I wanted to stay within the range of the game's graphics style.
I'm not satisfied with the image, but all technical aspects are clear, so I can change it effortlessly to anything else.

​

So that's gonna be it, hopefully without turning down any curiosity for the custom opening and final billboard.

Any thoughts?

 

[city41]

This is really cool. I like it when old games are fixed up.

Is the hack available for download anywhere? Maybe not yet as it sounds like more work to do?

Would it be ok to add it to my neo rom hack website? I'd give you credit, of course. I'd be able to add all the details you have in this post

https://neorh.mattgreer.dev/

 

[Arcade-TV]

Matt, you have no idea how much I studied your content ^^
I'd be honored to have it listed when it's finished one day.

I built a workflow with vasm and s-record-patching, so I have no bps patches for the P roms yet.
If you want a sneak peak I'll happily grant you access to my github repo and tools.

As a sidenote, I maxed out the P and C roms, using the same C-rom layout as Fatal Fury 2.
I'm using a windows batch file to manage the build process.

 

[city41]

f you want a sneak peak I'll happily grant you access to my github repo and tools

Browsing through it now. I see you decided to use a sane approach with a proper assembler

 

[HellioN]

Interdasting...

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

@Arcade-TV
Are you the CiBo ArcadeTV?

 

[Arcade-TV]

@Arcade-TV
Are you the CiBo ArcadeTV?

There can only be one ☆

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

The title is a bit misleading. "Fatal Fury Zero" implies this is a prequel of some sort. Looks like it's just an enhancement patch.

I would say it's more like a "Fatal Fury Plus" but bootlegs are usually called that. Hmm. Still needs a more descriptive name.

 

[lithy]

The title is a bit misleading. "Fatal Fury Zero" implies this is a prequel of some sort. Looks like it's just an enhancement patch.

I would say it's more like a "Fatal Fury Plus" but bootlegs are usually called that. Hmm. Still needs a more descriptive name.

Fatal Fury NSFHMG

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

perfect

 

[Arcade-TV]

The title is a bit misleading. "Fatal Fury Zero" implies this is a prequel of some sort. Looks like it's just an enhancement patch.

I would say it's more like a "Fatal Fury Plus" but bootlegs are usually called that. Hmm. Still needs a more descriptive name.

I agree, Zero is just a working title until I find something more fitting.
Since I wanted to tell the story how Jeff Bogard was killed and his sons wanted to take revenge I couldn't think of any other addition to the main title.

I just need to figure out how to transate a decent part of this into some good looking pixel art.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

I always figured if there actually was a Jeff Bogard game with a young Geese Howard as the villain and maybe some aged AOF characters making an appearance, the game should be called Art of Fatal Fury.

 

[Arcade-TV]

Since SNK planted so many connections between the games including Geese as a hidden Boss in AOF2 and everything taking place in South Town I'd say that's a valid wish ^^
Though I dunno how aged AOF characters would fit into this picture... I think they would have been around the same age alltogether.

But I gotta admit I already experimented with AOF gfx, still nothing really seemed to fit.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Fatal Fury: Raging Storm

is a good title since it's definitely Geese Howard's game. Soy Sauce or The Immortal Geese doesn't sound bad either. Fatal Fury: The Immortal Geese

 

[SouthtownKid]

have a solif fanbase, but there were so many typos

isn't it ironic

 

[HellioN]

THE KING OF FATAL FIGHTING '91

 

[Arcade-TV]

​

I'm Geese Howard.
I once cought a fish this big.
Of course that was a code phrase for killing Jeff Bogard.
South Town is mine and always will be!
Hahahahaaaaa​

-screen fades-

-text fades in-​

10 Years Later​

-original intro start-

​

I hope y'all realize that was a joke
but if I can't get some fitting art, I'll either have to skip the additional story-intro
or let Geese tell the story and call it a day ^^

 

[Taiso]

I already have teh romz

But this is pretty awesome. Well done!

 

[Arcade-TV]

Here's a little status update to let you know this is not as dead as Jeff Bogard.
I've been working on a custom vblank routine and sequence system to make the story-driven opening.
I used the japanese story text from the original manual as a base, still there's plenty of work ahead but I plan to have everything ready until xmas.

 

[Arcade-TV]

Can you spot the difference?
Left: original, Right: altered.

I always stumbled upon the glitchy look of the CREDIT text at the bottom of the screen in the intro.
This is a design-flaw where the use of a black border around the screen interfers with the transparent pixels of the CREDIT tiles.
The background's vertical movement can be seen through the CREDIT text.

I was brainstorming a lot about this - with different options
- change the CREDIT text's palette only for this squence
- add a black sprite under the CREDIT text

Ultimately I decided to ditch the border and take advantage of a bigger viewing angle.
Of course, to make it perfect I will have to expand the tilemaps and adjust the X-positions,
but I'm willing to go that route if this exterminates any imperfections ^^

 

[Fygee]

This is great! Looking forward to playing it on my cab!

Are you able to tweak the inputs so they're more forgiving/accurate when trying to do special moves?

Probably not possible, but can a proper vs mode be implemented like the console ports had?

 

[Arcade-TV]

1. Are you able to tweak the inputs so they're more forgiving/accurate when trying to do special moves?
2. Can a proper vs mode be implemented?

Generally I'd say that everything is possible with the right amount of time and motivation,
unfortunately I have no plans (or time) to mess with such complex tasks.

about 1.
I'd definitely try a different stick or controller

about 2.
I guess 2P-Versus with the main characters would be pretty simple, while I have no clue if there even is a controller input mapping for the enemies...

 

[Fygee]

Fair enough. Personally I can pull off most of the moves fairly reliably after a lot of practice, but the input timings and forgiveness are pretty jank overall just as a programming level.

 

[Arcade-TV]

That was a tough one, but the black borders and glitchy look of the CREDIT text are history.
I had to rework 4 big tilemaps and extend some gfx but I did my best to make it as seemless as possible,

 

[Arcade-TV]

The VS (versus) screen has been edited.

before and after​