Dezaemon - build your own shoot 'em up software.

Too bad, but thanks anyway. I'll guess I'll look around and I'll tell you if I find out anything useful.

 

Yeah, that's the device I was thinking of. I wasn't thinking about using the floppies on the computer though, but just as a larger amount of space to store created game data - although a 1.44MB floppy isn't a whole lot larger than a 1MB PSX memory card. Do you remember the name of this device off the top of your head, hl178?

 

Don't recall the name offhand and don't really feel like trying to dig it out, but in the US it was released by Interact and had some uninspired name. Most likely something like PlayStation Floppy Disk Drive.

The extra space on the floppy doesn't matter as the PlayStation *never* interacted directly with the drive. The only thing it ever saw was the standard, 15 block memory card attached to the drive.

-hl718

 

In addition to the Super Famicom, Saturn and Playstation versions (there were two different versions for the Playstation and apparently the second one, Dezaemon Kids, was better, though I'vbe never played either), there the original Dezaemon, which was for the Famicom. I saw the cart for sale on a Japanese shop's website once which made me hunt down the ROM just to try it out. It's actually pretty good.

Anyway, devilredeemed, yes, you can save games you've created with both the SuperFami and N64 versions, it's just that they save to cartridge itself instead of a memory card, so you have a limited amount of space to work with. It sounds like what the author of that Dezaemon 3D FAQ you posted is talking about is the possibility of using a backup device such as the Z64 to copy games from the cartridge's own memory onto a Zip Disk in the backup device which would in turn allow you delete the game currently saved to cart and create a new one. This would allow you to keep making more and more games without having to delete old ones when the save space on the cartridge became full, but you would still face the problem of a limited amount of save space for each individual game (so you can't make one huge game like you can with the Saturn version). I wonder if someone who knew what they were doing could come up with a patch for the Dezaemon 3D ROM that would allow you to create larger save files? I know there are patches to change the kind of memory that certain games require, but I don't know if it's possible to actually increase the memory size allotted.

Personally, I didn't like Dezaemon 3D all that much. The Saturn one is way cool, though. And I've always wanted to try out the Playstation ones which are supposedly the best, though I hadn't considered the memory limitation. 1MB is still pretty big, though. PS1 games can't address all the space on a PS2 memory card, I guess?


...word is bondage...

 

PS1 games can use a full card, however the card has to be used in blocks. Can't use 1.5 blocks for a file. A 1 MB save file would fill a PS1 memory card.

-hl718

 

excellent read, thanks for that.

what is the thing that makes you dislike the N64 version personally? and can everything be made from scratch? even backrounds?
I have had Ideas I'm sure cannot be implemented with this software, less so with my inablity to deal with complicated routines - such ideas as having a lazer guided homing missile (the lazer would be a simple red light emenating from your ship and you'd pinpoint the direction of your shot) which would hit the enemy craft but not destroy it - you would have a trigger which you could press when you'd want the ship to blow up and destroy others around it. yeah I know I live in coocoo land and need to put on some led shoes, but that's the kind of stuff I'd like to make. infact I have a concept for a shoot 'em up which has a reasonably strong storyline (for me something that can impulse the simplest of games such as 2D shoot 'em ups and make them very special) - again highly unlikely it'll ever come to be.

anyway, this stuff is way interesting.

 

I think he meant the 8MB Playstation 2 memory card. The PSX cannot address the PS2's memory cards in any manner, it seems.

 

In response to some questions:

The PSX floppy drive was called the "Datel Memory Drive" (there's a FAQ about it on Gamefaqs), I've seen it on sale once for 50e.

PSX memory cards are 1 megaBIT, not megabyte, so that's 128 kilobyte total.

And technically, I'm pretty sure the PSX *could* use the PS2 memory card if you bypass the firmware-based I/O routines and communicate with it using it's own protocol, but of course Sony doesn't allow retail games to do that. It would certainly make for an interesting project, though.

 

so what's the name of the floppy drive for the saturn called? for the sake of seeking it out online, possibly at yahoo auctions japan?

 

Sega Saturn FDD (Floppy Disc Drive)
Serial : HSS-0128

It must come with the FDD Operator CD (some guys sell the FDD without it).

 

yep! I picked up 2nd FDD minus OpCD for next to nothing - was planning to keep it as spare backup anyway...

 

I didn't dislike Dezaemon 3D, I just didn't really love it like I do the 2D ones.

It's pretty customizable, though the option for importing models, backdrops and textures from the 64DD Mario Artist games would have been pure brilliance if it had ever happened.

Your idea would not be possible, however. You're limited to a certain selection of shot types.


...word is bondage...