ROM Hack [REQUEST. Sorta] Does a SM64DS infinite underwater breathing hack/cheat exist?

[Zense]

So, I was gonna recommend Super Mario 64 DS to someone who's not familiar with 3D games and I figured a nice hack/cheat for them to use would be to not have limited time underwater. I realise it might be difficult to make since the air meter is connected to your life meter so you might end up becoming invincible, which makes it too easy again.

I've already checked the cheat database you can download with twilightmenu++ and romhacking.net.

 

[Zense]

SO since I never got any feedback I think it's a good opportunity to try and learn how to make cheats. Would anyone have any pointers on how to do this?

 

[Ryccardo]

If you're fine with immediately and continously getting max health while in water (kinda like the original game, heh?) you could add a condition to the max health code - the challenge of course will be finding an appropriate condition (if you play the N64 version with debug display enabled you can see your current "action number" and some apply to swimming, but it's no guarantee they will be the same on the DS version)

Another option is completely removing the health penalty while underwater by removing the appropriate code from the game (technically possible with codes since DS games don't run directly from rom, but added complexity and other limitations...)
Again the hard part, without a fully commented disassembly already made and posted to github, will be identifying the code that does that...

(An educational video about how it is implemented on N64, knowing the address of the health value from the existing max health code, assuming it still works on to-be-added and to-be-removed variables like the original version [is there a "don't take damage" cheat separate from the max health one?] and the values involved, and an emulator or equivalent with memory read/write breakpoints and cheat search - those things will probably be enough to find a solution but it won't be trivial especially for the beginner

 

[IncredulousP]

I figured a nice hack/cheat for them to use would be to not have limited time underwater.

Would anyone have any pointers on how to do this?

Don't hold your breath.

 

[Zense]

If you're fine with immediately and continously getting max health while in water (kinda like the original game, heh?) you could add a condition to the max health code - the challenge of course will be finding an appropriate condition (if you play the N64 version with debug display enabled you can see your current "action number" and some apply to swimming, but it's no guarantee they will be the same on the DS version)

Another option is completely removing the health penalty while underwater by removing the appropriate code from the game (technically possible with codes since DS games don't run directly from rom, but added complexity and other limitations...)
Again the hard part, without a fully commented disassembly already made and posted to github, will be identifying the code that does that...

(An educational video about how it is implemented on N64, knowing the address of the health value from the existing max health code, assuming it still works on to-be-added and to-be-removed variables like the original version [is there a "don't take damage" cheat separate from the max health one?] and the values involved, and an emulator or equivalent with memory read/write breakpoints and cheat search - those things will probably be enough to find a solution but it won't be trivial especially for the beginner

Thanks! Yeah, I figure it might be difficult since I read some posts about it long ago and the problem seemed to be not becoming invincible at the same time.

I saw the cheats in twilightmenu ++ and one is max health and one is invincibility I believe.

So, I'd need to get a ds emulator with a debugger?

 

[Ryccardo]

I saw the cheats in twilightmenu ++ and one is max health and one is invincibility I believe.

Haven't seen the codes but I don't think the invincibility one counts (probably just disables collision with enemies or something), but if it blocks the reduce-health variable all is good...

So, I'd need to get a ds emulator with a debugger?

Yep and I can't really recommend you one (No$gba is the obvious one but the UI is sometimes not too easy to understand), there's even the Trainer Toolkit if you want to use a real consumer DS/Lite but probably very hard to find and requiring xp/vista