my first website
3D platformer feel
folk music
save editing
my first website
3D platformer feel
folk music
save editing
i ended up going down a funny little rabbit hole today
it started with me continuing a playthrough of a pokemon red rom hack called pokemon brown and generally winding down from a day of revision. i finally got to the pokemon league as you do and challenged the first member of the elite four...and their pokemon was level 58. my pokemon after battling every trainer in the game were around level 48 and some research revealed that levels went up to 78 and the only way to prepare was grinding/cheese. being a fan of neither i figured that maybe there might be a way to edit the save and avoid all of that.
of course pkhex normally suits those needs but the tool unsurprisingly has no support for some rom hack, especially one with cross-gen evolutions and new key items. so i considered my options and decided that i'd just do it myself in a good old hex editor. i have enough experience dealing with game file formats so figured i should be able to do it.
i decided the best and most efficient way to solve my problem was to put in some rare candies. this is because i figured the data would be comparitively easier to find than the individual pokemon data amongst all of their variables. luckily i had four rare candies and i didn't have four of any other item which meant i had a unique identifier for the item. i also moved them to the bottom of my bag in hopes this would make it even easier to identify.
finally opening up the save in the hex editor i sifted through the bytes with the value four and basically found exactly what i was looking for!
you can see that the bytes following the four are seven repeating FF 01 motifs.
the bag's capacity is 20 and the rare candy is the 13th item so this must be the empty space in the bag.
this also tells us items are represented with two bytes - considering the count is one byte the preceding one must be the item type.
so i just change the four to a ninety-nine and boot up the game with the modified save.
...but the game says the save has been corrupted which reminds me of year 11 computer science. sure enough a quick google search tells me that pokemon red saves contain an eight-bit checksum which is the inverted overflowed sum of the data bytes. i can't be arsed to calculate a checksum every time i make an edit so i do some quick maths instead...
the overflow can be exploited by making changes to the value of the bytes which sum up to 256 since it overflows to 0. i can't do that just by changing the number of rare candies but i can do it by adding some to the empty slots! the FF 01 sums to 256 so replacing these conveniently underflows and means what's added changes checksum. rare candies use 40 for their item code so adding 99 rare candies in one slot and 77 in another adds up to 40+99+40+77=256! with these changes the game loads the save and the candies are there...but aren't selectable?
oh...the number of items in the bag didn't change so that must be stored somewhere.
conveniently it's the byte just before the list of items so i can increment that by 2 and decrement rare candies by 2 to keep the checksum.
after that little tweak, at long last i have all the rare candies i need to avoid some stupid grinding :)
traditional uk folk music is pretty damn cool actually
for the past half year i've been in university which has been a lot to get used to. honestly i still wouldn't say i'm that comfortable in the environment and don't have any close friends however i have got pretty into the folk scene thanks to the university ceilidh band and so have some people i enjoy making music with throughout the week.
i got an accordion last summer since it's essentially been a dream instrument of mine for a while. there's very likely a love letter to the instrument coming soon so i won't elaborate too much here but once i got the hang of it and could play the song of storms and kass's theme to my heart's content i was struggling to find some further repertoire which i truly enjoyed.
and then along came the fresher's fair where there was a stall advertising the ceilidh band - i'd never really engaged in the culture before but was eager to have some fun playing stuff. plus rehearsals have free biscuits and sessions have free pints :p
i was hooked as soon as i'd been to the first rehearsal
i think what draws me to folk music is that it's not performative. the goal is to have fun making music together with other people rather than to simply serve someone else's entertainment. if played in ceilidhs then the music serves to complement the dancing which also is just a fun group activity where nobody cares about mistakes.
folk instruments include whistles, fiddles, guitars, recorders, flutes and accordions mostly. therefore music tends to be melodies accompanied by chords which compared to classical is quite simple. however this limitation has produced so many tunes which are catchy as hell and super fun to play (which is the aim). it's actually quite similar to retro videogame soundtracks which were limited by hardware soundchips - it forced composers to write melodies which were actually good, not hide it behind effects. this approach has produced some of my favourite osts such as those of ocarina of time and undertale.
i think the best representation of what makes folk fun is sessions. a session is essentially a get-together in a pub or park where people just play or sing folk music. if you know the tune you can join in and otherwise you can accompany or pick up parts by ear. they're always a great time and often go hand in hand with drinks and chat.
people will normally play tunes in sets - essentially medleys of tunes which go well with each other. this often entails those in the same key, an adjacent key in the circle of fifths or in a relative minor/major key. the tunes may also be from the same region but nobody really cares too much about that. they'll also normally be the same type of tune too - uk folk has a few different types.
there's reels (fast tunes in 4/4), jigs (fast tunes in 6/8), slipjigs (fast tunes in 9/8), strathspeys (slow tunes in 4/4), waltzes (slow tunes in 3/4) and hornpipes (swung tunes in 4/4) to name a few. of course these are loose categories and there are plenty of slow jigs and cheeky 7/8 tunes which i'm quite fond of too. since folk is now being composed by newer generations there's way more experimentation and refinement of what came before.
unfortunately some of that fun stuff isn't great to dance to at ceilidhs. i've done quite a few gigs where we play for dancers and danced a bit myself too! it's definitely fun but i much prefer playing the music than dancing to it. plus we get free food at a lot of our gigs :p
i gotta be honest i have no fucking idea what i'm doing.
i'm currently studying biology at university and i'm totally enjoying that but at the same time i feel like i'm not even trying to do anything for myself. recently i've been watching some old smosh videos and something kinda resonated with me about how genuine everyone was. they were being creative, making stuff that they wanted, being little goofballs. honestly i haven't found my people yet so it feels a bit disheartening to be here on my own just kinda waiting for an excuse to go outside like the societies i've joined.
i want to make shit! but at the same time i don't. it's fucking weird that my brain simultaneously can obsess over really cool projects but then instead want to not do them and watch youtube instead.
i want to make more shrines here! i love sharing things that i love but for some reason the pseudoregalia shrine has been stuck in limbo FOREVER. i think it's because the blue fire and pseudoregalia shrines really are stories i'm telling, hence the scrapbookish theme. once that's done I'LL GET TO IT SOON I SWEEAAARRR then i can start doing some cooler shit.
i want to embark on some more modding projects! hyper light breaker just released and i've been enjoying digging into that but i'm lacking inspiration for stuff to make for it, especially since the game's in a rough state currently. i can probably make some balance modifications for now like removing boss minions but the custom breaker framework might need some cooking time. custom weapons and modifications and danger level events would be fun to do and i reckon that might be easier and more functional too.
unsurprisingly, different games implement the same mechanics in different ways. in a genre revolving around simple ones those must feel good - however what's perfect for one character or dev will be different for another. i did a study of all the 3D platformers i own to find these different perspectives
higher accelerations increase responsiveness but making them too high can stretch believability. umbra treads this line since he reaches max speed in 1560/9000 = 0.17 seconds - that's half sybil's 550/1600 = 0.34 seconds! (using MaxWalkSpeed and MaxAcceleration in the player blueprints).
max speeds will also change responsiveness but in more of a sweet spot way - high values sacrifice precision while low ones sacrifice the player's patience. max speeds can also change e.g going down a slope or sprinting you'll be able to go faster than you could walking on flat ground.
turning is also involved in this responsiveness balance as characters shouldn't be able to make sharp turns instantly. again, umbra shows how light a character can feel if this is the case. to acknowledge this, most games will have some sort of skid state or animation if you make too extreme a turn. but even for less extreme turns characters like sev and mario have lower turn rates (and accelerations) to sell their heft.
you can't really fall backwards if you didn't start going backwards. but that can make mistakes feel more punishing, so many characters don't change how turning works in the air e.g hat kid. even when this is changed, it's only slightly muted so that you can still
in terms of jump arcs you'd probably assume that all jumps would just follow parabolic motion (a symmetrical curve) like in real life. honestly, if not for this blog post i wouldn't have noticed raz's gravity in psychonauts 2 at the peak of his jump is lower to allow for better precision. while i can understand this, ultimately it may be overengineering a problem which didn't need solving.
| game | character | ground acceleration | turn rate | skid | air acceleration | air rotation | air turn rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| the big catch | caster | high | high | yes | high | none but looks back | cannot go backwards |
| super kiwi 64 | kiwi | high | instant | no | high | high | instant |
| metro gravity | stephanie | low | instant | no | medium | delayed | medium |
| celeste 64 | madeline | high | medium | yes | high | none | low |
| blazing dynamo | bucket | high | instant | only when sprinting | high | instant | low |
| psychonauts | raz | high | instant | animation | high | instant | low |
| corn kidz 64 | sev | medium | low | yes | medium | delayed | medium |
| pseudoregalia | sybil | high | instant | yes | high | high | medium |
| blue fire | umbra | high | instant | no | high | yes | instant |
| mario odyssey | mario | low | low | yes | high | high | low |
| a hat in time | hat kid | high | instant | animation | high | none | high |
| spyro reignited trilogy | spyro | high | instant | animation | high | medium | high |
if you didn't know i am half british and half chinese. have been all my life funnily enough and i think it's granted me a very unique cultural perspective.
because my dad couldn't speak mandarin (also because my mum was at home less) i didn't speak mandarin at home although i did go to a "chinese school" every week to learn the language. the school was a place where chinese families could meet and chat while the kids learnt. i always felt out of place because i was the only one who didn't have black hair (which is weird because every other half'n half person i know does) and i personally don't feel i look very chinese anyway, although according to other people and a face ai i do. i definitely wouldn't have the confidence to join any chinese clubs at my uni since i'd definitely feel alienated.
i can speak mandarin fairly well and can hold a conversation with anyone who speaks standard mandarin but definitely have more to be desired in terms of language ability because i couldn't speak it at home. this hurts how well i can connect with my chinese family - although many speak in dialects which sound completely alien anyway. of course i love them very much but i do feel slightly disconnected, not only because of my background but also because i'm not considered part of the main family line (i don't have the surname).
i had two very different cooking styles in my household: my dad served cauliflower cheese, casserole, pies and sausages while my mum brought noodles, rice, dumplings, 粥 and 粽子 to the table. i loved this and i think it really sucks that most families don't have as large a range of dishes. it also meant i didn't hate vegetables like the rest of the people in this country because i had stir-fried vegetables. COOK YOUR FUCKING VEGETABLES DON'T PUT THEM IN A SALAD.
i was able to experience both cultures simultaneously which was very cool. i know quite a few immigrant families don't celebrate a lot of festivals like bonfire night, halloween and christmas and obviously most british families don't celebrate 春节, 中秋节, 端午节 or 清明节 so i felt very priveliged to be able to both trick or treat and make dumplings with good company
i honestly don't think the uk's a very racist place, at least where i'm from. of course there's the whole 'ching chong' stuff that happens on the playground in primary school but other than that i haven't experienced anything and neither have any of my not-ethnically-british friends as far as i know.
funniest story i got from it was getting asked if i was mixed race by a drunk chinese lady at a corner shop at 3 am where i just bought some ginger beer
well this is my first post on my first website! ISN'T THAT COOL? i think i've always wanted a little outlet to just talk about stuff i love that no-one else really gives a shit about.
i initially heard about neocities from a great video about the indie web - i wholeheartedly agree that the mainstream internet has regressed and want to be a part of this lovely community. i've always been a big believer that the internet is for collaboration and sharing, especially in regards to open source software and learning resources. additionally, despite being born in the 2000s i missed the entirety of the early internet so i thought that this would be a nice way to try and experience it.
in terms of what i actually want this website to be i want it to be a place i can ramble about my interests, dump my thoughts and document my hobbies. one thing i really don't want to do is add to the pile of linktrees and empty spaces. this should be a place which is completely, absolutely, truly mine
what will i actually do here then?
thank you neocities!