[Hack of the Year 2008] Pokémon: rijonAdventures

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Since you asked so many questions, I'll answer them in the same fashion.

Yes. There's going to be a "murder case" involving the player, Bugsy, and some village residents. Kurt's long gone, so it's not him who's the "victim".
Kurt's granddaughter has taken to selling the various Poké Balls that she often carves.
Slowpoke Well still exists. Might not be as clean.
Bugsy still exists. He's all grown up. (And Whitney will be, too.)
There aren't any Cooltrainers known to be living around Azalea Town in the Metal Generation era, either.

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Virturia
April 27th 2008

Portal.

Virturia is a virtual reality chamber. The world inside is completely virtual. You're thrown straight into this world as part of the South Rijon quest.

The first town in Virturia, and the first route of Virturia.


Where might this be?
The first person who can identify the location shown in these three screenshots gets to join the beta testing team!

[Typlosion]

First is : Route 54
Second is : Merson City,top
Third is : Also Merson City,bottom
Thats what they look like to me.

EDIT :
I got stuck in that city twice! (Guess I had the Wrong Charmander)
Also last time I played was Tuesday or Monday

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

That would be… correct!
(How'd you know!?)

[Embrace]

That's amazing, he beat me, damn

[Epsilon]

Originally Posted by Hiroshi Sotomura

Virturia
April 27th 2008

Portal.

Virturia is a virtual reality chamber. The world inside is completely virtual. You're thrown straight into this world as part of the South Rijon quest.

The first town in Virturia, and the first route of Virturia.


Where might this be?
The first person who can identify the location shown in these three screenshots gets to join the beta testing team!

Wow,

that's an amazing idea!
But i have a few questions :P

- Is it a virtual time travel machine, or something like that? (The G/S/C tile)
- How do you make those cool posts?
- What is the mission that you have to complete inside the machine?

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

It's not time travelling. The virtual reality simply looks very 8-bit (just like how when you put on a Virtual Boy, the world around you was red and black).

The posts I did are done using CSS, which is a fair bit of coding.

The mission in Virturia is a rescue mission, and the kidnapped person was testing Virturia before he got kidnapped by a computer virus. (I wasn't going to say that much, but ah well.)

[Epsilon]

Thanks for answering :D

The story sounds awesome,

is the virus like a porygon or something?

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

*cough*

People hypothesize too much nowadays. Most times (like this time) they're correct. D8

[Epsilon]

Originally Posted by Hiroshi Sotomura

*cough*

People hypothesize too much nowadays. Most times (like this time) they're correct. D8

:P

I'm sorry for all the questions :P
No really, i am :P

But (here it comes again)
is it a porygon-Z?

(And again sorry for the questions but this hack is just so awesome :D)

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Actually, nope. It's a Porygon2.

[Antwhan]

I knew those curves made him such an evil pokemon.

That's a really cool idea mate too bad about ur plot geting rained on. That's going to be really cool to see in action, a virtual world. i'm assuming some pokemon are exclusive to this place (aside from the virus) No need to tell who though. ;)

[neo101]

the location of the virtual world is rijon region

[pokeguy12]

Sorry if this was already asked, but can pokemon that need to be traded to evolve, be evolved without trading? EG. can a kadabra/graveller evolve into alakazam/golem without trading?

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

I refuse to change the evolution methods around, but those Pokémon can still be obtained by possible means (in-game trading and one-off Pokémon chances).

Though, why wouldn't you want to trade still? Trading's become possible as of recent times anyway.

[Ripper]

Just a few things on the current Beta...

Are you planning on changing the Pokemon names to small caps? I know you've done it with people and places, but what about Pokemon?

When your father gives you the Running Shoes it randomly uses a different name I think. I might not of been paying attention

Where the National Pass is required, south of Mason, the guard says "SOUTH Rijon". Should this be small caps?

Overall I have loved the game so far, the aesthetic changes are nice too. For some reason it reminds me of R/S

EDIT: Also, I'm sorry if you know this, but to the left of the southernmost house in Hayward City there is a hidden Rare Candy. When you pick it up you get eight Rare Candies This is fairly common place in hacks, I'm not sure what causes it...

EDIT 2: Just north of Hayward where you battle your rival the movement script only works well if you are right up against the left set of trees. If you are not your Rival will not talk directly to you and may end up walking through you!

Sorry about posting all these

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Originally Posted by DNA

Just a few things on the current Beta...

Are you planning on changing the Pokemon names to small caps? I know you've done it with people and places, but what about Pokemon?

When your father gives you the Running Shoes it randomly uses a different name I think. I might not of been paying attention :P

Where the National Pass is required, south of Mason, the guard says "SOUTH Rijon". Should this be small caps?

Overall I have loved the game so far, the aesthetic changes are nice too. For some reason it reminds me of R/S :P

EDIT: Also, I'm sorry if you know this, but to the left of the southernmost house in Hayward City there is a hidden Rare Candy. When you pick it up you get eight Rare Candies :P This is fairly common place in hacks, I'm not sure what causes it...

EDIT 2: Just north of Hayward where you battle your rival the movement script only works well if you are right up against the left set of trees. If you are not your Rival will not talk directly to you and may end up walking through you!

Sorry about posting all these :P

I've gone and solved a lot of those errors already. It's not your dad with the wrong name - he's giving the shoes to the WRONG NAME (calling you "Nino").

I don't plan on decapitalising Pokémon names - that can be left to a patch if needed. Names of items, people, and other phrases, were decapitalised to conform with changes made by Nintendo of America's apparent new loathing of capitals (reflected in Diamond and Pearl, Fire Emblem, etc.). The attack names and items should conform with the way Diamond and Pearl has them.

You notice a Ruby/Sapphire feel? That's not hard to figure. I originally planned to give the game a Hoenn-like feel. XD

As for what causes the silly Rare Candy, AdvanceMap causes it. (That, and the rival error, are repaired [or should be] in the beta I'm seeding to testers.)

I appreciate the long comment you made. Makes me a little better-feeling after the boredom I suffered today. :x

I conclude with an update for this thread! (Not very important.)

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

UPS patching specification [tech note]
May 3rd 2008

rijonAdventures will be supporting a new patching format called UPS. This format allows for a much bigger ROM size (more for working on!). It's a new format that aims to also iron out the problems with the IPS format.

Read on to find out about why rijonAdventures will be using UPS and what benefits it provides.

Read more… (link to The World of Rijon)

(Note: rijonAdventures' public beta is not currently using UPS.)

Please spread the use of this format!
UPS needs a big kickstart to get working, and it takes support from a lot of hacks! If you're hacking a game, help the format out by changing from IPS to UPS.

And if you're hacking Diamond and Pearl or plan to in the future, the UPS format will be absolutely necessary to use!

[BlackRainbow*]

This is awesome Hiroshi. This UPS format is really awesome. But i've tryed to patch one of my game and it failed .

[destinedjagold]

UPS ei?
I heard of it, forgot the source, yet I haven't tried it yet.
I might try it later on, soon, I guess...

it may be a bit off-topic, but would you mind sharing the difference between IPS and UPS format..?

also, i wish ou luck on progress~

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Originally Posted by BlackRainbow*

This is awesome Hiroshi. This UPS format is really awesome. But i've tryed to patch one of my game and it failed :( .

You… didn't just try to patch FireRed with the rijonAdventures public beta, did you? That's an IPS patch, not a UPS patch… :x

The final game will use UPS patches. The current beta does not. You won't be needing UPS at the moment.

Originally Posted by destinedjagold

UPS ei?
I heard of it, forgot the source, yet I haven't tried it yet.
I might try it later on, soon, I guess...

it may be a bit off-topic, but would you mind sharing the difference between IPS and UPS format..?

also, i wish ou luck on progress~

I tried to explain on the page, but it seems you don't get it.

Anyway, UPS allows patches to be created for ROMs over 16 MB of size (which is a limitation of IPS).

(Warning: Following is technical jargon which you may not understand.) It's an open source specification (one whose author is known). And, unlike IPS (to which the many programs available might not patch properly), UPS aims to not be changed at all - it's a recommendation by its developer, byuu, that programs that use the UPS specification don't change the spec (hence, any proper UPS patching program will patch the same way, making no stupid errors).

[BlackRainbow*]

Originally Posted by Hiroshi Sotomura

You… didn't just try to patch FireRed with the rijonAdventures public beta, did you? That's an IPS patch, not a UPS patch… :x

The final game will use UPS patches. The current beta does not. You won't be needing UPS at the moment.

xD no. I've made a new UPS file with my hack.. but then i've tryed to patch but it failed.

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

I've had quite successful results (though one tester of mine had problems).

[BlackRainbow*]

hm..well this is wat it says.
"Failed! Input checksum is invalid."

Anyway hope to see some new progress of your game. Because its awesome.

[Mitchman]

So wait if ups doesnt work on vba what emulator are we going to play it on. Or is it self automatic like a fan-game?