Dodonpachi Campaign Ver. [rom hack]

[ekorz]

Hi, I have rebuilt Dodonpachi Campaign Ver. for your enjoyment.
All changes were made from watching the existing ddpcv video footage, then recreating them.
Follow this link for more detailed information and lots of handy comparison gifs/photos (just follow the links on the first post).
If you don't want to click the link, here are a few quick images for you:

New Level Palettes and Tiles (original on left)


Updated bullet patterns (original on left)


Hyper Mechanic (left) & New Enemies (right)


Animation changes (original on left)


Lots more stars in lots of places


There are many more changes... new scoring meta, new boss patterns, expert game mode, more bullets, bug fixes, bonus features, etc. so check that link above if you're interested.
A couple folks are testing it now. In a few days, I'll post the links here (and at arcade-projects) so anyone can try it. I'll be collecting more broad community feedback for a couple weeks, will make an update if needed.

Hope you'll want to give it a try!

[SuperPang]

This is absolute madness! Well done.

[mirkvid]

Been waiting until the bosses are wrapped up before I dive in, can't wait! Awesome job all around!

[DMC]

Cool project, seems very ambitious.

Off-topic: Someone should make a rom hack of Batsugun and add all kinds of Street Fighter input as an homage to Rando's ST thread.
System11-certified rom hacks.

[Bassa-Bassa]

As it is not the original version (and given the process of making it), I'd suggest not to call this like exactly the original game, even if it's only in order to avoid possible naming conflicts when the original is available, which you never know if it will happen some day.

[Lander]

Incredible! Looking forward to satisfying a long-standing curiosity come final release

I'd love to peek behind the curtain and understand what degree of technical wizardry made this possible; I've a mild familiarity with disassembly and reverse-engineering, and the sheer scope of the changes seem like they would require a truly herculean effort (and/or herculean tooling ) to pull off!

[MJR]

I may not be a fan of the new palette changes (sorry!!), but I salute your re-engineering skills. All in all cool.

[ekorz]

I may not be a fan of the new palette changes (sorry!!), but I salute your re-engineering skills. All in all cool.

They're copied from existing video footage - no apology is necessary.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

As it is not the original version (and given the process of making it), I'd suggest not to call this like exactly the original game, even if it's only in order to avoid possible naming conflicts when the original is available, which you never know if it will happen some day.

It's very cool that you're trying to reverse engineer DDP Campaign Ver and recreate it, but I agree with the above that naming it the same with [rom hack] appended is going to be very potentially confusing down the line. Something like DDP CRUSADE VER, something similarly themed but not samey enough that it causes potential search conflicts later.

[ekorz]

Given the myriad hacks and legit variants for the plethora of games already out there, I have full faith in HBMAME staff (and MAMEdev if they choose to preserve it) to apply appropriate naming conventions to my version. What’s on the title screen doesn’t actually end up being preserved for the long term.

Also I applaud all of your optimism on the original being released. One goal of this project is to reignite interest in hopes that it does surface. Given that the original board’s roms were all in sockets (not soldered in), there is no risk to removing the chips and dumping it.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Will this run on a real DDP pcb setup?

And how many burned eproms needed to pull it off successfully?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Given the myriad hacks and legit variants for the plethora of games already out there, I have full faith in HBMAME staff (and MAMEdev if they choose to preserve it) to apply appropriate naming conventions to my version.

A) This isn't necessarily about how the name appears in MAME, but rather how it appears when you're searching for it in a search engine, and using a distinct name helps for people who are unclear about the origins of the actual DDP Campaign vs this rom hack.

B) MAME has been known to get names wrong (for a while I think Formation Armed F was listed as Armed Formation), or list an inferior bastardized North American release as the "main" version of a game.

[ekorz]

Will this run on a real DDP pcb setup?

And how many burned eproms needed to pull it off successfully?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Yes but don't do it, you'd have to desolder 3 roms. Program roms 26/27 are socketed, but 50, 53, and 62 are not. To play this you would also overwrite your eeprom, and while I think it would be fine when you reverted, there's a chance you'd need to desolder that too.

[brokenhalo]

Very cool project! Since it was released right after the New Years celebration, how about Champagne Version?

[Bassa-Bassa]

Given the myriad hacks and legit variants for the plethora of games already out there, I have full faith in HBMAME staff (and MAMEdev if they choose to preserve it) to apply appropriate naming conventions to my version. What’s on the title screen doesn’t actually end up being preserved for the long term.

Not true, I'm afraid. If your version was included in Mame at some point (and very likely, it will), it'd be called something like "Dodonpachi Campaign Version [hack of Dodonpachi]", since "Dodonpachi Campaign Version" is what it's called on the title screen and they rarely put much thought into this stuff. This, however, misdescribes your version, as it's not actually the true Dodonpachi Campaign Version built from the game's original code/roms and somehow hacked into Dodonpachi's PCB.

[BulletMagnet]

Very cool project! Since it was released right after the New Years celebration, how about Champagne Version?

Seconding this!

[linko9]

Amazing work! Can't wait to try it out later this week.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Jesus, that's fucking amazing. Really looking foreard to trying this out.

[To Far Away Times]

Absolute madman

[Lemnear]

Can you add an option for "Color Swap" for each Stage separately? Or just for background and/or enemies separately?

[parodius]

Very nice, can't wait to try it on MiSTer.

I sincerely hope we get to play the actual DDP Campaign dump someday - I have myself seen the board run once in the Try Tower in Akiba, but didn't play it back then, what a fool I am...
Knowing that Shou now has it "preserved" I have to assume the only version we might see eventually is DDP Campaign Exa Label

[sven666]

Wow thats some very impressive work!

[emphatic]

This is seriously the coolest thing I've seen since the Ketsui Arrange mode appeared.

[SuperPang]

This is seriously the coolest thing I've seen since the Ketsui Arrange mode appeared.

Yeah, whatever happened to that guy.

[ekorz]

Well, this isn't going to win me any new friends today.

I just learned some new information, which unfortunately is not my role to disclose right now. Given the new info, it is abundantly clear to me that the best course of action for everyone, especially the shmup community, is for me to pause the public release of my project indefinitely. I'm hopeful that this info will become public in the not too distant future, at which point I expect you will understand my decision (and then, yes, we can be friends again).

Looking forward to what's next

[kuze]

I think everyone should understand you haven't made this decision lightly after all the work you have put into this project @ekorz .

We can be patient! Good things come to those who wait.

[mirkvid]

I'm hoping that the new information you received is good information for the community.

[Lander]

Hmm hmm. Given that such extensive work isn't easily vaulted, I see two credible possibilities:

A. C&D to the face. Perhaps a studio has licensed DDP to make a collection including Campaign Ver. and doesn't want their selling point eroded.

B. ekorz 'boutta get made Exa-exclusive

I guess there's also C. A ROM dump has finally been committed to, but don't see why that would necessitate squashing a passion project.

And well, I just hope the reality isn't such that talented effort has gone to waste at the behest of greedy entities whose legal rights sit atop a medium that would be largely lost to time if not for the hard work of enthusiasts.

[Ms. Tea]

Well, regardless of what this is about and what happens, your work looks really slick - thanks for sharing what you were able to!

[CStarFlare]

When I saw the thread yesterday I though "hm, probably should have just dropped it without the announcement. There's a good chance this doesn't come out."

Fortunately, it does sound like it's being stopped because something interesting is happening. Hoping it's an M2 release, but Exa is completely plausible as well. Fingers crossed we won't have too long to wait.

Hope ekorz isn't too disappointed by the twist - he's obviously put a huge amount of effort into studying footage and making the hack. I'm grateful that I at least leaned a little bit about Campaign - I had never noticed the Normal/Expert options before.