Ketsui Arrange
[Download 2014/07/16 ARRANGE1.7 VER]
(Updated: 27 March 2015 23:09:14 UTC)
[Download 2012/09/27 MR.STOIC VER.]
(Updated: 11 April 2014 17:22:53 UTC)
[Download 2012/04/17 ARRANGE VER]
(Updated: 11 April 2014 17:22:49 UTC)
[Download 2012/04/17 BACK. VER]
(Updated: 11 April 2014 17:22:51 UTC)
[Download 2012/04/17 FAST. VER]
(Updated: 11 April 2014 17:22:52 UTC)
Installation
You must have the ROM image for the EPROM labeled V100 in a folder. This file should be called ketsui_v100.u38. If you have the MAME ROM set, simply unzip it to a folder.
System-dependent steps (provided below) must be performed to generate the modified ROM set. After the ROM images are modified, burn the resulting image to a 27C160 EPROM.
If you are using this with MAME, leave the folder uncompressed and named ket. You may re-compress the folder, but you will have to move the .bak file out of the folder, or MAME will just load the original unpatched ROM images. Depending on your MAME version, you may also need to rename the modified ROM images.
Windows
You have two options: You can either compile from source, or drag your folder over the ketmod.exe application in the win folder.
Mac OS X
You have two options: You can either compile from source, or drag your folder over the ketmod.app application in the osx folder.
Source compile
cd src make ./ketmod [folder]
| Version | CRC | SHA1 |
|---|---|---|
| 2014/07/16 ARRANGE1.7 VER | 2cb80b89 |
e1aa072b8344890486e11795e02703aa2d234bb1 |
| 2012/09/27 MR.STOIC VER. | 35c984e4 |
d4517f318de0c40a3b30e41374f33bb355581434 |
| 2012/04/17 ARRANGE VER | d4c7a8ab |
65d104d17bd4fd03a2b44297a003ba03d746c7ee |
| 2012/04/17 BACK. VER | ec7a4f92 |
6351fb386586956fbdb5f0730c481fb539cc267a |
| 2012/04/17 FAST. VER | 6ad17aa4 |
791bd1a107433a3811c8a79ea26a73e66ddd296f |
Developer's Notes
So it's finally here. Ketsui Arrange is now complete, after what seems like forever. This entire project was done in the span of approximately 3 or 4 weeks, but I had the benefit of having already hacked around in Ketsui a deal before (when the PGM games were just starting to be emulated).
I'd say I spent much more time on this arrange than DoDonPachi, not just because the codebase is more complex, but because I modified a lot more things and added a bunch of new features (whereas DoDonPachi Arrange was mostly modifying old features). I think I like how Ketsui Arrange turned out better too; it feels like a very significant arrange. It's like Daifukkatsu Black Label to Daifukkatsu. In fact, if you play (or look at my changelog), you'll notice a relatively large similarity in differences between the two as well.
Anyways, just like DoDonPachi Arrange, most of the work was done in IDA Pro, along with debugging in MAME with the debugger and cheat functionality. However, unlike DoDonPachi Arrange, I didn't insert everything by hand into a hex editor, but I wrote a program to patch the original binary. This let me be a lot more flexible, and keep better track of what I was doing. Being programmatically patched, I was also able to have my patcher deal with a bunch of work that I would have had to do by hand otherwise. The program in the release archive is not this program, as austere has recommended I keep it closed source (he wrote a significant amount of the code as well), so instead it is a far more generic patcher that is very modular, and will probably be used for any future hacking endeavours.
I was hoping to add a switch to the test menu to switch between Arrange and Original, but the free ROM space left was absurdly small, so it would have been impossible to do while keeping usability on a real PCB. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I have listed the EPROM model you can use to burn to for a working alternate EPROM (so you can simply desocket and insert a new EPROM to switch modes).
The development of this was based a deal more on trying out new ideas with the source material, compared to DDPA. DDPA was mostly a quick change that I had already come up with (I liked Bakraid chaining and hated DDP chaining, so it seemed natural to combine them), but Ketsui was chosen as my arrange target before I even really knew how to play the game properly. As I played more, I found small things that I wanted to fix (most notable being speed), and I came up with a few possible ideas. Most of my ideas ended up being not very well thought out and broke the game design or just weren't fun. I guess the turning point was when DJ Incompetent suggested that I add Yagawa-style option configuration.
After I added the option configuration, I started removing my previous changes that didn't work very well, and started brainstorming new ideas. It was around this time that I received my copy of DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label from a wonderful gent who goes by the name of rancor. After playing a significant amount of this great game, I realized the big addition I could make to Ketsui to make it even better: adjustable rank.
I initially wanted to make the rank meter very similar to the one in DFKBL, but constraints of the original graphics ROMs and PGM hardware made that impossible. After that I wanted to make the rank meter where the boss life bar is, and have it scroll down along with the player information when a boss actually came up, but the logic for that was horribly convoluted, and I decided for my own sanity to not go along with that idea. In the end, I settled for the current location: under the bomb counters. I also initially wanted to make the rank meter only keep track of user controlled rank, but this proved to be impossible due to the limitations of Ketsui's rank system (I really didn't want to have to overhaul the entire rank code!), so I settled with displaying the full game rank.
My main tester for this project was the one and only MrMonkeyMan, who currently holds the top score for Ketsui on the Shmups Forum. He provided very valuable input and found several rather important bugs. I also have to give a shout out to yosai who was the first person to test Arrange on a PCB (and it worked too!). One last thanks goes out to Erppo who was the first person to livestream a couple credits.
It's possible that I will be working on another arrange in the future, but I don't know yet. I also can't think of another game yet! Anyhow, that's all I have to write. Thanks for playing!
1.5 Developer's Notes
So, I completed most of the 1.5 modifications not too long after the release of 1.0, but due to having done almost literally nothing but play Ketsui, hack Ketsui, eat and sleep for the previous month, I had started to actually hate the game. Thus I postponed Ketsui Arrange 1.5 until I felt like I could tolerate it again. This happened not too long ago, so I finished most of it up, and here it is!
Most of the modifications in 1.5 are based on suggestions and complaints from the 1.0 release. I feel like most of them were pretty spot-on, and so I took them to heart. There's not really much more I can say for this release, so this section is kinda short. Big shout-out to the folks who attended Frenetic's shmupmeet in SoCal the other weekend who burned my loc-test ROM and played it and gave some feedback.
Last note, to CAVE's lawyers: I'm sorry that this page somehow offends you, but I do not mean any harm. I absolutely love your games, and that is why I do these arrange hacks. They are purely done from a fan standpoint, and I do not wish to profit from them. I have removed the screenshots, as it seems that you feel that they are part of your intellectual property. I will not remove the modifications themselves though, as I have made every possible attempt to keep my patches from breaking copyright (feel free to look at the source, it's all freely available).
1.7 Developer's Notes
1.5 had some stupid things. I changed them. I've removed bad versions from this page, but they can still be downloaded if you know the URL. I hope everyone enjoys the new version. I am completely done with Ketsui now, this can be considered the final version of Ketsui Arrange.
I've removed all the change logs, as I think it's less interesting if it is all spelled out for the players. You must find the changes yourself.