I'm Making the Kid Chameleon Editor Open Source

[saxman]

I've had my Kid Chameleon editor, simply called KE, on my hard drive just sitting there with no progress made. I have no will to finish it. It allows you to rip maps and art from the ROM and edit the maps. The only thing it doesn't do is allow you to import the data back into the ROM (because I simply don't feel like writing code to recompress the data).

If you know how to use command lines, you'll know how to use the tools I'm providing. Maybe someone with interest can pick up where I left off and finish the program.



http://www.4shared.com/file/54087839/1c1061a5/Kesuite.html
(Source code include)

http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/1474/kidedit6zc8.png

[Mr Smith]

Somebody finish making this now.

[Christuserloeser]

I really welcome the decision to release the source code. - Have you looked up on the GNU General Public License v3 for your code ?

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html

[Thrall of Warcraft]

I have no will to finish it.


:( Drats...

[saxman]

:( Drats...

Don't worry too much -- I've laid out the ground work. The editor, other than modifying enemy placement in the levels, is fully functional. All is required is someone to write some code to recompress the data so it can be inserted back into the ROM. I do fine decompressing, but I've always had difficulty writing a compression tool of any kind. There's plenty of talent within various Sega online scenes, so I'm sure someone with interest in the game would want to take part in making this tool complete. I'm optimistic about that =)

Oh and on the GNU thing, I'm kinda confused about it. What does getting a licence for this actually do?

[CMA Death Adder]

When you say fully functional (apart from modifying enemy placement), do you mean it has the ability to let you change just about everything, including where exit flags take you and what items come out of the boxes? (Admittedly, I didn't take a look at it yet since it doesn't support importing of the modified data.)

I'm willing to offer someone a free copy of Beggar Prince (http://www.beggarprince.com/) if they can get this editor fully feature-rich, finished and ready to go. I think it's something that would be very good for the community.

[saxman]

When you say fully functional (apart from modifying enemy placement), do you mean it has the ability to let you change just about everything, including where exit flags take you and what items come out of the boxes? (Admittedly, I didn't take a look at it yet since it doesn't support importing of the modified data.)

I'm willing to offer someone a free copy of Beggar Prince (http://www.beggarprince.com/) if they can get this editor fully feature-rich, finished and ready to go. I think it's something that would be very good for the community.

I forgot about the flags, and it doesn't modify the level start position either. But both of those are very easy to change because the data isn't compressed for either of those. But yes, you can use any type of block that exists in the game. And I happen to think it has a pretty easy interface as long as you know what the keys on the keyboard do. I would say it's basically 80% complete.

[Mr Smith]

I forgot about the flags, and it doesn't modify the level start position either. But both of those are very easy to change because the data isn't compressed for either of those. But yes, you can use any type of block that exists in the game. And I happen to think it has a pretty easy interface as long as you know what the keys on the keyboard do. I would say it's basically 80% complete.
And a free copy of Beggar Prince doesn't tempt you :(
I would offer you something free too in an attempt to get this finished, however, I don't think I have anything that anybody else would want. A free copy of Sonic 1 maybe?

[TmEE]

1) A free copy of BP doesn't feel very tempting to me,
2) I didn't like Kid Chameleon much
3) Since the util is probably written in C, I'm unable to do anything with it... QB45 or assembly for me...

[saxman]

I forgot to include the source to the data ripper, so I uploaded a new zip file containing the program, the editor source, AND the data ripper source. It's in the top post.

[Mordan]

open source powa!

[Christuserloeser]

Oh and on the GNU thing, I'm kinda confused about it. What does getting a licence for this actually do?

Well, you don't "get" this license, you just release it as GPL'd software.

- Also, it's not just "a license". The GNU General Public License is the license. :)

Seriously: Literally everything you know was influenced by this license. Every program on your PC either is licensed via the GPL, or at the very least is as good/as bad as it is because its publishers fear this license like nothing else on this world.

Another example: The correct name for "Linux" is GNU/Linux, or GNU Operating System. All "Linux" distributions are licensed via the GPL, or at least compatible licenses.


If you release your program under the GPL, you actually have found a way to guarantee that anyone who works with it somewhere in the future has to provide the source code for whatever he/she changed, and that the Four Freedoms of Free Software have to apply to all future releases as well:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html



- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.



All you have to do to guarantee future users of your program these freedoms would be to include the text version of the GPL: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt and to add this comment to your source code:



This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

[saxman]

Anyone find the courage to look into the source code and see about continuing this? I can provide specific details on the compression format if it'll help with writing a compression routine to put the levels and art into the format the ROM needs.

What about useability of the editor -- for those who tried it, is it pretty easy to use?