Saving & Passwords (4.5 and Beyond)

[PasseGaming]

... I was thinking the other day. I'd like to make a Legend of Zelda-like game of my own, but how the hell can I pull that off without the player being able to save their progress?

Looking at these ROM-boards I don't see any battery, so a save function is out of the question... Though I am sure someone with the knowledge of more advanced coding could easily figure it out. I'm thinking more along the lines of novices like myself and how we'd implement somesort of save system.

How about a password system? Does anyone have the slightest clue how that'd work? Does the NESmaker have the ability to support a password system? I know the more complicated the game, the larger the password you'd have to stuff in. Think we could get a tutorial on that? Just spit-balling at this point.

 

[mouse spirit]

Well i think a basic password relates to actual code or variable values. So lets say i have a 4 letter code.
Letters 1 and 2 is for my level
Letter 3 for my lives
Letter 4 for my whatever.

It could be simpler, and you only have say 4 letters available. And you only need a level to be read really.
So any combination of those letters can be used but maybe you have preset 4 letter "codes" pertaining to individual levels or something.

Theres others ways to do it

 

[PasseGaming]

Definitely but that's some advanced coding there. Like I said, especially for a adventure game like Legend of Zelda. It'd have to keep track of how many hearts you have, what items, pieces of the triforce, weapon and armor. That that'd be a ton of letters for a password. Some like a platformer it'd be easy cause like you said it only needs to know what level you were on last.

 

[CutterCross]

Mapper#30 / UNROM 512 boards have flash memory saving functionality, so battery-backed SRAM and password systems aren't necessary. A few NESmaker users have already implemented flash saving in their games. (IE Dungeons & Doomknights, Nix, Light from Within...)

This is a long post regarding saving implementation. It is very much an advanced-user thing at this point: https://www.nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=2417&hilit=saving

 

[PasseGaming]

Thank you CutterCross! I bookmarked that topic for future use. Hopefully after some more practice coding and designing games I can make the adventure game I've been planning in my noggin.

 

[mouse spirit]

Yeah but passwords are cooler looking. And theres nothing like gettin them wrong several times.
I think people would really appreciate a simple password system on here fersure.

 

[mouse spirit]

Also with batteries. They can mess up especially on some cheap newer boards and batteries. Passwords are forever! Although saving can be nice.

 

[PasseGaming]

Well, like Cutter said we could set up saving without a battery but we'd need the know how.

 

[mouse spirit]

Yeah flash memory sounds cool. I'll have to look into it.

 

[JonnyManjiro]

If I understand correctly, wouldn't implementing SRAM also allow our NESmaker programs to essentially have access to a lot more working RAM?