Methods to rip MAME games?

[wonder_boke]

I'm trying to rip the sprites of a MAME game (Wonder Boy Monster Land), but all every tutorial says is "just use the tile viewer".

Due to the way the protagonist holds his sword and other equipment, there is absolutely no way to rip his sprites through normal gameplay.

   

This is literally every single tile in the tile viewer. The [ and ] keys do nothing, it really is every tile. Notice an abscence of any sprite in general (literal sprites, those are all background tiles). I also opened each one of the ROM files for the game in YYCHR and couldn't find anything that's not in the tile viewer.

   



1 - Is there a way to view this game's sprites in the tile viewer or similar program? Why doesn't it work?
2 - Is there a way, in any arcade emulator, to disable specific sprites so that I can properly rip the ones I need? For example, I'd only disable the sword so that I could see the character.

[Yawackhary]

1. I've managed to find a way of viewing the sprites. They can be viewed via TiledGGD and the settings for these are after opening the ROMs, go to Image and select these:

Format: 4 bits per pixel
Keep Big Endian and Linear
Width Skip Size: 1 pixel

The sprites can be found in the following ROMS:
epr-11027.86 (bosses & effects)
epr-11028.87 (Book/Bock/Tom-Tom, weapons, effects, enemies)
epr-11029.88 (Mecha/Meka Dragon, Dragon, items)
epr-11030.89 (enemies & bosses, Book/Bock/Tom-Tom, weapons)

Press Page Up and Down to scroll up/down and left/right cursor keys until you find the sprite and doesn't look like bars (had to rush this so it's a bit hard to make out).

Have yet to find the palette though... So you might have to recolour using MAME as a reference.

It doesn't work due to that Sega uses a different way of storing sprites. Nearly all of Sega's whether published or developed games are like this in MAME where only the font/background tiles are in the tile viewer if that* and Sega isn't the only company either. Many can be ripped using System 16 Sprite Ripper but this is a System 1/2 game that uses a different way (along with some other Sega hardware e.g. SG-1000 based and Master System based System E can use a tile viewer like YY-CHR or TileMole-ster, System C2 uses Mega Drive like hardware but the ROM might be compressed). This method should also work on Wonder Boy as well.

*-When it gets towards the likes of the Model 1/2/3 games, it's mainly just menus, fonts and HUD as 2D elements...

It's also nice that someone wants to rip from this game and looking forward to seeing them.

2. The only arcade related emulators that I've aware of that can remove pieces of sprites is the Neo Geo based WinKawaks and that's a pretty old emulator so sadly not much help if you're going in that route.

[wonder_boke]

1. I've managed to find a way of viewing the sprites. They can be viewed via TiledGGD and the settings for these are after opening the ROMs, go to Image and select these:

Format: 4 bits per pixel
Keep Big Endian and Linear
Width Skip Size: 1 pixel

The sprites can be found in the following ROMS:
epr-11027.86 (bosses & effects)
epr-11028.87 (Book/Bock/Tom-Tom, weapons, effects, enemies)
epr-11029.88 (Mecha/Meka Dragon, Dragon, items)
epr-11030.89 (enemies & bosses, Book/Bock/Tom-Tom, weapons)

Press Page Up and Down to scroll up/down and left/right cursor keys until you find the sprite and doesn't look like bars (had to rush this so it's a bit hard to make out).

Have yet to find the palette though... So you might have to recolour using MAME as a reference.

It doesn't work due to that Sega uses a different way of storing sprites. Nearly all of Sega's whether published or developed games are like this in MAME where only the font/background tiles are in the tile viewer if that* and Sega isn't the only company either. Many can be ripped using System 16 Sprite Ripper but this is a System 1/2 game that uses a different way (along with some other Sega hardware e.g. SG-1000 based and Master System based System E can use a tile viewer like YY-CHR or TileMole-ster, System C2 uses Mega Drive like hardware but the ROM might be compressed). This method should also work on Wonder Boy as well.

*-When it gets towards the likes of the Model 1/2/3 games, it's mainly just menus, fonts and HUD as 2D elements...

It's also nice that someone wants to rip from this game and looking forward to seeing them.

2. The only arcade related emulators that I've aware of that can remove pieces of sprites is the Neo Geo based WinKawaks and that's a pretty old emulator so sadly not much help if you're going in that route.

Hey, you're the one who ripped the NPCs! Damn, you did it from the tile viewer in MAME, right? That must have been a pain in the rear.
I've already ripped some stuff (even updated the NPCs). I was doing it all from screenshots. Since you're looking forward to someone ripping this game, check it out and let me know what you think! I'd love feedback since I'm new to ripping sprites.

Anyway, when I get home later today, I'll try what you suggested. I had never heard of tiledGGD. Thanks a lot!

[wonder_boke]

I've already tried everything, but can only see half the sprites. idk what else to do