Complete Future PET Series

I spent too much time yesterday working on a 3D rendering of all 7 PET colors I created. Taking a break from it for a while. Maybe I'll come back and make Special Editions. In the meantime, here are all the shots I took yesterday.

Creating a 3D Package Mock-up in Photoshop CS5 [Tutorial]

Sometimes when designing packages, it becomes necessary to build a mock-up, that is, a same that represents the final product. This could be either physical or digital and this tutorial will explain how to create a digital mock-up of your package in Photoshop CS5 using the 3D Repousee feature found only in the Extended version. The only other alternative method I could find for doing this was through third-party payed plugins and fake "distort-mapping" shapes onto a box.

Here is the final product created in Photoshop.

Packaging and mock-ups

I wasted a good 8-or-so hours the past 2 days trying to find out how to create 3D mock-ups in Photoshop CS5. It's no surprise digital mock-ups are a necessary part of the print design world and I was disappointed that there wasn't any real answer. The best solution I found was a third-party plug-in on Adobe's website. Unfortunately, it was premium and ran for $7! I don't have any money to spend! Some of the tutorials are just bad, too. Some suggest distorting it to fit, but it's so fake and obvious, that I wouldn't bother even trying it.

So what really put a smile to my face was when I figured out a solution that would work. And now suddenly the impossible and/or tedious now seemed possible. Here is a GIF of some packages in a 3D scene in Photoshop.

Boxes rendered in 3D using Photoshop CS5.

The textures are just placeholder for what I'll use these for in another project I'm working on for class. Now, if I can do this fairly easily, I can do much more with it! Precursor to a new tutorial, of course. I'm gonna mock up a box for that futuristic PET I made in the tutorial. Even though my method isn't perfect, it's far more flexible than the other methods I found and that always matters to me most.

Looking Back: July 2004

Back in July of 2004, I was at the pinnacle of my gaming age and the Gamecube was king. I had bought some gaming magazines form time to time. Today I dug up an old Tips & Tricks magazine from July 2004. The now defunct magazine often published many cheat codes, game previews, and walkthroughs. This bit caught my attention though and I have a scan below.

The Nintendo DS had just been announced around the time and that explains the hideous prototype. In the list of possible games, Mega Man Battle Network is listed, but no other exact title is given. But of course there are other temporary titles like "Super Mario 64 x4". But here is what strikes me as odd. In July 2004, MegaMan Battle Network 4 was recently released in the states and BN5 was due for release in Japan on winter of that year. So if in July 2004 they anticipated a Battle Network game, I have a feeling it wasn't going to be a port of MMBN5. Look at the other games. They had so much more development time and budget going for them. In July 2004, I think BN5 had just been announced in Japan. And I think the Team Colonel version wasn't even considered at that point yet!

My guess based on this is that a different Battle Network project was in the works around this time, and for whatever reason, never saw the light of day and it turned into a BN5 port. Looking back at the unused 3D models from Star Force and the unused animations from BN5DS, it could mean a 3D version of BN5 was being worked on simultaneously (which sounds crazy) or something else entirely. Either way, for a launch list of Nintendo DS games, BN5DS delivered the weakest punch, which is a shame considering it could always have been much better. They wanted to do something more daring, but now that the NDS is on its way out and all we got was 2 mediocre Battle Network games on it, it's a shame Battle Network never got a game with a higher budget, longer development time, and less recycled content.

Zettai Onkan Otoda Master Gameplay

So I was led to this game a couple weeks ago. It bears quite a resemblance to Mega Man Battle Network's sprite style. I've actually started ripping some sprites from this game just because of the similarity. Unfortunately, the map format, which is a big part about the BN look, will be difficult to rip due to the undocumented proprietary format.
Here is some gameplay, by the way.

MMSF1 & 2 Debug Messages

Today I managed to snatch the Megaman Star Force 1 debug messages as well. A little shorter, but finally provided some insight on the strange alternate sub-items. Turns out they're Boktai DS items. So much for that.

Here are videos of all debug messages from SF1 and SF2.



I messed up a couple times on the SF2 one, so it actually repeats in some spots. Sorry about that.

MMSF2 Debug Loaded!

Well I'm on a roll now! After some shoddy ASM hacking, I was able to force the debug text from MMSF2 to load in the scenario which occurs at the start of the game. The picture is evidence that the debug text has been loaded. Now as soon as I find a modifying value, I will be able to test and display all of their effects. Wonderful stuff here! All that's left is MMSF1's debug. And if I'm lucky, this ASM trick could work for other file swap hacks for some mildly interesting results.

Play with Mike

Hey, so can you believe new things can STILL be found in MMBN6? GM has a really neat text archive viewer going and I uncovered a compressed archive not referenced anywhere in the game as far as I know. It sounds like some sort of tutorial but I'm curious to know if anyone else might have some insight towards this. Otherwise, it can truly be an unused goodie.

Here is the full conversation pulled from the archive.
E8  00
 F1  00  00
 F5  00  37
{Please choose to be
the Host or Client.
}
 F7  07  06
 EB  00  11  00
 EC  00  01
{ Host  }
 EB  00  00  11
 EC  00  01
{ Client}
 ED  06  40  FF  FF  FF
 EE  FF  00

 E8  00
 F1  00  00
 F5  00  37
{This is the host.
Please wait for
Client transmission.}
 EE  FF  00

 E8  00
 F1  00  00
 F5  00  37
{Mike applied to
play wirelessly!}
 E7  00
 F2
{Play with Mike?
}
 F7  07  07
 EB  00  11  00
 EC  00  01
{ Yes  }
 EB  00  00  11
 EC  00  01
{ No}
 ED  06  00  FF  FF  FF
 EE  FF  00

 E8  00
 F1  00  00
 F5  00  37
{Connected to play
with Mike.}
 E7  00
 EE  FF  00

 FC  06
 F5  00  37
 E8  02
{Seems like wireless
initialization has
failed...}
 E7  00
 EE  FF  00

 FC  06
 F5  00  37
 E8  02
{Communication error.
Please reset the
system...}
 EE  FF  00

 FC  06
 F5  00  37
 E8  02
{There was a link
error.}
 E7  00
 EE  FF  00

 FC  06
 F5  00  37
 E8  02
{Your partner
cancelled the
transmission.}
 E7  00
 EE  FF  00

 FC  06
 F5  00  37
 E8  02
{I cancelled the
transmission.}
 E7  00
 EE  FF  00

{Bob}
 E6
{Bob}
 E6
{Mike}
 E6
{Let's play!}
 E6 

I found it so interesting, that I made a video documenting this discovery.