Topic by Randil

Posted: 9/30/2009 5:28 AM

Post subject: Idea: Wiki page for RAM addresses

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Randil

Skilled player (1885)

Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden

I have an idea about making a Wiki page that holds useful RAM addresses for games on TASable consoles. By sharing RAM addresses you don't necessarily have to "re-invent the wheel" when you start a new TAS project, you can just look through this Wiki page, and if you're lucky, someone's already shared all the useful RAM addresses for that game. Basically, I'm wondering if this Wiki page is a good idea. I personally have a lot of RAM addresses for NES games in particular, and I'm guessing that a lot of you TASers out there have quite a few too. If several people kick in and share what they have, I think this Wiki page could get quite useful. I know there is a site called datacrystal.org, but they seem a little more into hacking games than sharing RAM addresses useful for TASing. I also know that adelkat uploaded what he and I got for his TAStools project, and this is something similiar, just more of a Wiki-page-ish approach. Perhaps it's a better idea to share your RAM addreses in the forum thread for the game, but if you have RAM addreses for 30 or more different games that you've dug up, the forum would get quite flooded with new posts. Is this a good idea? If so, how should the page(s) be structured? Should we have one page per console, and on that page a link to each game with uploaded RAM addresses, and a unique Wiki page for each game? Or should a table with the RAM addresses appear on that page when you click on the game name?

My own page on this site.

Posted: 9/30/2009 5:35 AM

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upthorn

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Emulator Coder, Active player (388)

Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 1802

I don't think this is a bad idea, but I think it would be better if wiki pages with ram addresses were written per-game, and then there was a central index with links to all of them.

How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.

Posted: 9/30/2009 5:37 AM

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Randil

Skilled player (1885)

Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden

upthorn wrote:

I don't think this is a bad idea, but I think it would be better if wiki pages with ram addresses were written per-game, and then there was a central index with links to all of them.

Yeah, this is probably a good idea. So the page would look something like this page, with each link leading to a new page that holds RAM addresses for that particular game?

My own page on this site.

Posted: 9/30/2009 5:41 AM

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upthorn

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Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 1802

Randil wrote:

upthorn wrote:
I don't think this is a bad idea, but I think it would be better if wiki pages with ram addresses were written per-game, and then there was a central index with links to all of them.
Yeah, this is probably a good idea. So the page would look something like this page, with each link leading to a new page that holds RAM addresses for that particular game?

Yes. Precisely.

How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.

Posted: 9/30/2009 6:15 AM

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Bag_of_Magic_Food

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Active player (277)

Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712

Why not contribute to Data Crystal instead?

put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude

Posted: 9/30/2009 7:10 AM
(Edited: 9/30/2009 9:20 AM)

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andymac

Experienced player (617)

Joined: 11/30/2008
Posts: 650
Location: a little city in the middle of nowhere

I think this is a good idea. However, I'm thinking like a "resources" link on the front page linking to user edited wikis and documentation, emulators, other tools ect., so when you're ready to TAS you have all the help you need in the one place. EDIT: I'd just like to add that I too, have contributed to datacrystal. Not a lot, but I have contributed.

Measure once. Cut twice.

Posted: 9/30/2009 8:17 AM

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LagDotCom

Joined: 3/7/2006
Posts: 720
Location: UK

Yeah datacrystal already exists for this sort of thing. I've contributed to it in the past.

Voted NO for NO reason

Posted: 9/30/2009 10:16 AM

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Randil

Skilled player (1885)

Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden

Allright, I'll probably share my RAM addresses on datacrystal then.

My own page on this site.

Posted: 9/30/2009 10:30 AM

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Baxter

Skilled player (1402)

Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821

Datacrystal has very useful information... but also a lot of information that isn't useful for TASing. I don't think it would be bad to collect RAM addresses that are particularly useful for making TASes here. Besides, does TASVideos even link to datacrystal in a particular FAQ?

http://tasvideos.org/Baxter.html

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:35 PM

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funnyhair

Player (116)

Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 700
Location: suffern, ny

Are RAM addresses the same thing as memory addresses?

[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:41 PM

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adelikat

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Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4738
Location: Tennessee

Why not add relevant ram addresses on the game resources pages of said games? Add new pages for new games. Also, I am trying to collect ram watch files to store on http://code.google.com/p/tastools/ If we were going to have a wiki like Randil suggests, I'd rather it be on this project. Also, data crystal is indeed useful. However it is a pain to add large amounts of addresses to it. I have some spreadsheets where i have ram mapped 50-80% of various games such as SMB2U, MTPO, TMNT and Tecmo Superbowl. Come to think of it, I have them in spreadsheets and I could add those to the tastools project...

It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:46 PM
(Edited: 9/30/2009 2:50 PM)

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andymac

Experienced player (617)

Joined: 11/30/2008
Posts: 650
Location: a little city in the middle of nowhere

At funnyhair: yes. One thing that datacrystal does not have is tricks and glitches relating to speedrunning and TASing, and the TASvideos wiki is sadly lacking in this department as well, because it lacks game volume and the tricks documented are outdated. I would say that many people would find a knowledge base that anyone could edit useful.

Measure once. Cut twice.

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:48 PM

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adelikat

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Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4738
Location: Tennessee

Um, that is what the site wiki pages are intended for! If anyone wants to help edit them, they simply need to ask me (or another admin/halfadmin) and they can become an editor.

It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:51 PM

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andymac

Experienced player (617)

Joined: 11/30/2008
Posts: 650
Location: a little city in the middle of nowhere

I think that's a liitle too much effort than some are willing to endure.

Measure once. Cut twice.

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:53 PM

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adelikat

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If they can't be bothered to ask, I doubt they can be bothered to contribute.

It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects

Posted: 9/30/2009 2:58 PM

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funnyhair

Player (116)

Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 700
Location: suffern, ny

well when i was checking out Data Crystal, it seemed to be more about ROMs and ROM hacks. I could for the life of me see where they kept the memory addresses. I know some of you have been there before and know right where to look, but it seems to me that the pages I looked at had ROM hack info. Adelikat's page seemed useful, as everything was already laid out for you. I think we should post them there. Somewhere where thy are all in one place and easy access to.

[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool

Posted: 9/30/2009 3:18 PM

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Randil

Skilled player (1885)

Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden

adelikat wrote:

Why not add relevant ram addresses on the game resources pages of said games? Add new pages for new games.

Yeah, this is probably the best solution. RAM addresses and analysis and explanations of tricks and glitches go hand in hand, so this way we would have all knowledge of the game on one page. When I get more time on my hands I might add some more games to Game resources if no one minds, that way I can both share RAM addresses as well as tricks and glitches I have found. :) However, I'm wondering, is there such a thing as too many games for that list? Or do all games deserve a place on that list as long as someone has RAM addresses and/or tricks for them? I don't really know how much space these pages take on the server and stuff like that.

My own page on this site.

Posted: 9/30/2009 3:45 PM

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funnyhair

Player (116)

Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 700
Location: suffern, ny

as long as there are links to different games where you can get different addresses. putting a giant list of games one one page, with every system and what not might seem confusing.

[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool

Posted: 10/1/2009 4:52 PM

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CtrlAltDestroy

Active player (325)

Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786

I've always found datacrystal to be a dead site, lacking in a lot of content. It never has anything I'm looking for. If you ask me, having TASvideos pages which are basically "guides" to TASing certain games, and personal notes/journals from the TASers about specific uses of tricks or certain parts of the game, would be a VERY useful and ideal addition to this site. We have our tricks pages, but they are mostly outdated and rather shallow. They seem like superficial lists of the tricks without specificing how to apply them optimally in specific situations.

Posted: 4/26/2023 5:59 PM

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XTREMAL93

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Active player (388)

Joined: 1/6/2012
Posts: 579
Location: Azerbaijan, Baku

Looks like datacrystal and tastools are dead. There are some useful RAM addresses on this site https://gamehacking.org but they are mostly for cheating

Posted: 4/30/2023 8:13 AM

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Arcorann

Player (16)

Joined: 7/3/2012
Posts: 33

XTREMAL93 wrote:

Looks like datacrystal and tastools are dead. There are some useful RAM addresses on this site https://gamehacking.org but they are mostly for cheating

Datacrystal is still alive (though the correct URL is https://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/Main_Page), but it's not seeing that much activity (maybe a few edits per day). It seems there's a lot of info in .wch files in userfiles nowadays (see also the RAM address editor removal thread).