Robocop vs the Terminator Sprite Problems

[Neon Streak]

So, I've decided that I want to rip sprites from Robocop vs. the Terminator-specifically, the Genesis version-however, I've run into a couple of problems which I'll mention in a little bit.

First off, I tried using Gens to rip the sprites. I got to the part of the game I wanted to rip sprites from, paused the game, opened up the tile viewer...only to find that it could only display a few of the sprite tiles I want to rip (And on a black background, nonetheless.).  This meant, of course, that the game's graphics were probably compressed, which leads me to my second problem.

After failing to rip the desired graphics with an emulator, I tried opening up the ROM with YY-CHR. Well, there was some good news and some bad news when I did that. The good news was that the program was able to display all of the sprite tiles in an uncompressed format. The bad news was that it didn't display the correct color palette, not to mention that the graphics were all over the place.

The latter is a big problem to me because in most of the games that I ripped from, the tiles were all neatly arranged in a way that I'd figure out which tiles go where when I'm assembling a sprite sheet. With this game, however, I can't tell which graphics go where. To add further insult to injury, in the Sega Master System version of Robocop vs. The Terminator (Which was made and published by the same companies.) the graphics were neatly organized.

So this is where I'm stuck in a hole I've dug myself into. How am I supposed to rip sprites from this game, if the methods I've been using didn't work? Is there another way? I know someone's probably going to mention Tile Molester, but as I stated in a previous thread of mine, I can't use it because it requires a separate Java executive to open which I don't have.

If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it.

[Yawackhary]

It isn't that the graphics are compressed in this case [usually it is though and the reason why I have unable to rip Comix Zone especially Sketch Turner] but it is rather loading the graphics so basically it is loading a sprite and the next frame loading different tiles for the next sprite. It is to with the VRAM.

I actually did look at this before to rip [a LOOONG time ago] and yeah, the sprites (or at least the tiles) are all over the place making it very hard to know which sprite is where. It seems to be a thing in Virgin/Dave Perry games on the console and when I did Aladdin, after looking at the ROM and find it hard to begin, did it the old fashioned way mixed with the tile viewer making sure that I got every pose.

Oh and: Mega Drive/Genesis version: Virgin Games, Master System/Game Gear version: NMS Software [explains the differences in organisation, Virgin often outsourced their games to other developers for the 8 bit versions]

You could try making the savestate of the character you want, use the Genesis Savestate Viewer: http://segaretro.org/images/5/5d/GSavestate.zip Then go to VDP, Color RAM, change the first colour in the palette [or at least the first black on the palette lines, there are 4 lines on the system] to a different one and check in the tool. Sometimes it actually loads more than just the one pose but isn't used [yet or already has], so check the Patterns (F7 or View, Patterns) just in case. Another method is to hack the ROM to change the palette so when you rip it, it isn't in black [or use GensKMod for a pink but doesn't work on every game] however it requires looking at the palette via a savestate then using that knowledge for the ROM.

Failing that, the only thing that I can think of is if someone figures out the mapping and sadly I don't have the technical knowledge on how to do that (requires disassembly).

[Neon Streak]

Ooookay...now I'm even more confused. I took a savestate of the game, downloaded the savestate viewer, opened up the file, and I don't know where to go from here. This is what I've got so far:

I must've done something wrong.

[RoboWags]

Hi!  Not sure how far you've gotten on this but I've started ripping from this game for a project and I've completed Robo:


Hope it helps!

[Davy Jones]

Since his last post is from September 2015, I guess he gave up a long time ago.

[Neon Streak]

Well, actually, it's because in October 2015 my old laptop bit the dust (And with it all the sprite-ripping programs I had installed on it), so I had to replace it with a new one. Don't worry, I haven't given up yet.