The Ebullient Thread

[Dan2]

Spices make rice EVEN BETTER!!!

[AfterCrescent]

New car brakes!
Checkers food!
Playing Earthbound again!
Sleep Deprivation! What?

[Shewolf]

New car brakes!
Checkers food!
Playing Earthbound again!
Sleep Deprivation! What?

Buddy, I hear ya.

[AfterCrescent]

You're playing Earthbound again? Good.

[Shewolf]

Ok, everything but that, jackass 

[AfterCrescent]

Awww
Well I'll just have to send you the rom.

Had a good session today. I think I may have successfully creeped at least one person out with scary monsters. Means I did my job.

[BobismyRhino]

Checkers food!

I see what you did thar.

[RobbyPants]

I've been having a lot of fun playing the old NES Final Fantasy again.

I'd read just how buggy the old US version was.  Plenty of spells either did nothing or had the opposite effect than what it was supposed to.  I found a few very handy stickies on a FF1 forum.  One of them had hex fixes to the old ROM, so I've been spending entirely too much time with a hex editor adding in various patches.  There are still quite a few fixes I need to add, and due to the layout of the thread, it's hard to find them all.

Still, who would have thought such a rediculously simple game could be so much fun?

[Tshern]

RobbyPants: Both I and my friend will die if I get Bubble Bobble on my Wii. So I really understand what you mean.

[j0lt]

I've been having a lot of fun playing the old NES Final Fantasy again.
Still, who would have thought such a rediculously simple game could be so much fun?

I don't care what the Cloud fanboys say, FF1 is still by far the best game in the whole series!

[RobbyPants]

I don't care what the Cloud fanboys say, FF1 is still by far the best game in the whole series!

+1!

I'm still trying to see if I can fix the AFIR bugs.  I haven't found any posted fixes yet, but that doesn't mean they're not out there. 

It's funny that from years ago, there were certain spells I shyed away from because they didn't seem that effective, and then I find out later that those spells don't work.  Sadly, it leads to an HP-attrition style of play, because the only spells that really work are the damage dealing spells and the healing spells.  All of the resistance boosters and most of the buffs and debuffs simply don't work.

RobbyPants: Both I and my friend will die if I get Bubble Bobble on my Wii. So I really understand what you mean.

I could see that game being addicting.  Isn't there something like 100 levels?

[j0lt]

I still have my "secret weapon".

Had this thing since I was 12! 

[RobbyPants]

Nice.  I was at my cousin's house yesterday, and he showed me his old strategy guide.  It's missing the cover and is a bit ratty, but it's otherwise still pretty useful.  IIRC, it takes you up to the fire fiend and the airship, and leaves the rest to you.

Sadly, it's full of bad information, because they didn't know about all the bugs.  For example, they talk about RUN using the character's AGILITY, except that's only partially true.  The variables point to the wrong place.  So, person 1 uses 3's AGILITY, person 2 uses 4's, and 3 and 4 each point at something completely unrealated.  So, if you have a thief in your group, never put him in slot 1 or 2.

[j0lt]

Shit, really?  I always put my thief second!  I didn't know anything about the bugs in the game, I always just played it straight off my cartridge (before my NES died) or ROM now.

[RobbyPants]

Yeah, me too.

Check out the top two stickies on this FF1 GameSpot forum.  The top one lists various formulas and the second lists actual bugs and fixes (assuming you have a hex editor and a copy of the ROM).

If you're interested, you can PM me and I'll give you a quick crash course in hex editing.

_____________

I don't know all the bugs, but a list of some that come to mind are:

• The RUN bug I mentioned earlier.
• TMPR (and SABR?) don't work because certain combat data isn't properly loaded when a fight starts.
• AFIR/AICE/etc and XFER don't work for the same reason (although when enemies use XFER, it works on you!)
• LOCK and LOK2 don't work.  In fact, LOK2 actually buffs your opponents by raising their EAVDE instead of lowering it.
  
• Elemental/specific enemy weapons (ICE sword, FIRE sword, DRAGON sword) don't deal extra damage properly because of some data not being loaded.
• There is a bug involving when a black belt levels and his stats aren't properly calculated.  This can be fixed in game by going to the ARMOR screen and exiting it (this also triggers the stat calculation).
• HEL2 acutally has a benificial bug: it heals as much as HEL3!

[j0lt]

That's cool, thanks, but I think I'll just stick with the standard Rom, bugs and all.  I've played through it a couple times already, and mostly want to use it to mine for ideas for my eventual Saga Edition fantasy campaign world.

[Tshern]

I could see that game being addicting.  Isn't there something like 100 levels?

100 levels exactly, IIRC. The version I first played did not have pause function, which sucked.

[RobbyPants]

That does suck.  100 levels without a piss break or any other interuption.

[McPoyo]

Not if you get lucky and start umbrella-ing through the game

Granted, I could never actually BEAT the game, but that's beside the point. I need to go find my cartridge now.

[Tshern]

I've only played it through once. I believe the black umbrella gave a neat 7 level skip and I took it after my friend died. Until that we had played 91 levels without skipping. Then I beat the last two myself...