Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY COOL]

Discussion in 'Software & ROM Hacks' started by CPCookieMan, Nov 21, 2012.

  1. CPCookieMan

    CPCookieMan Member

    Alright hello again everyone! I know I'm new to the site, but I'm no newbie to game modding. I (being one of them young modders) used to play SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom (henceforth SB:BFBB) on my GameCube all the time, and it still remains on my top 3 list today. You guys mainly do hardware mods, but I figured you might enjoy a good software mod anyway. I was poking around inside the ISO here, and found some amazing stuff, so let's get started!

    Step 1: Obtain a SB:BFBB ISO file.

    Step 2: Grab GCReEx from here and extract it into it's own folder.

    Step 3: In a command prompt, navigate to that folder and run 'GCReEx.exe -x game.iso' replacing game.iso with the full path to your ISO.

    Step 4: Open up the folder it created and then the root folder inside of that one.


    Now there's a lot of stuff in there, which includes all the maps. If anyone can figure out how to decode / edit those (I've thrown everything possible at them) I'll give you a cookie. What we really want is the sb.ini file. Here is my clean copy.

    Tons of cool stuff in here, I'm going to highlight some of the best lines. I think the coolest thing about this is that they're almost all well commented by the original developers!

    BOOT=HB00
    This line sets where the game boots to when a new game is started. This goes into root > hb > hb00. So if we wanted it to boot to Jellyfish Fields, you'd look in root > jf > jf01 and therefore the code you'd put in here would be BOOT=JF01. Coupled with ShowMenuOnBoot = 0, this is very good for debugging, as the game will start up directly into your chosen map.

    G.TakeDamage = 1
    Setting this to 0 gives you godmode.

    G.CheatFlyToggle = 0
    Now this one I haven't played around with much, I assume as with the other cheats in there you use the D-PAD to toggle fly.

    G.InitialShinyCount = 0
    G.InitialSpatulaCount = 0

    These two set up your inventory when the game is initially booted.

    G.Gravity = 30
    While one is tempted to change this value, it's not what you think it is. This merely effects trampolines and stuff. Jump height is controlled on a character basis and is farther down in the file.

    SB.MoveSpeed = 0.6,4,5, 0.1,0.8,1.0
    You have one of this line for each character, it changes the walk speed. As the comments say, "First to second is the walking range, second to third is running range. The last 3 numbers are the corresponding stick deflections for those speeds." These have animation speeds underneath them, you should change those proportionally with how you've changed the move speed so the animation plays at the correct speed.

    SB.Jump = 1.4, 0.1, 0.1
    SB.Double = 1.4, 0.1, 0.1

    You only need the first number here, the double adds onto the single so a maximum jump with default parameters is 2.8.

    Now time to remake the ISO so it's playable in emulators or modded consoles.

    Step 1: Go back to the Command Prompt with GCReEx.

    Step 2: Run 'GCReEx.exe -c GQPE78'

    Step 3: You're left with out.iso. Happy modding!


    Extra: I've created a bat file that compiles and starts the game. Just replace the dolphin exe path and the iso path with yours and you're good to go! Double click to commit your changes to the game and start it up.
    Code:
    @echo off
    color 0a
    title Compiling...
    GCReEx.exe -c GQPE78
    echo .
    echo .
    echo .
    echo Done compiling! Have fun!
    echo .
    echo .
    echo .
    Pause
    title Debugging...
    echo Starting emulator...
    E:\Games\Gamecube\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe --exec D:\SpongeBobBFBB-Editable\out.iso
    I think I am the first person to mod this game, I haven't seen anything on it elsewhere on the internet. My email is paul (at) cpcookieman.com if you'd like to email me. Any questions, comments, or absolutely additional information found is welcome below. I've only shown some of what I've found poking around in this game and specifically this file, so if you want to see other things feel free to ask.

    --CPCookieMan (Copyright 2012) (I do not claim to own this game, SpongeBob, or anything else but the post content and tutorial)
     
  2. Prog

    Prog Not a Meme™ Staff Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    BFBB is one of my favorites. I started LP'ing it but apparently suck at LPing.
    I'll have to toy around with this soon; thanks for the guide!
     
  3. CPCookieMan

    CPCookieMan Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    I know what you mean, when I start recording I realize I'm not much good at gaming. :p
     
  4. thecasperrojas

    thecasperrojas Well-Known Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    OH MAN YESSSS am a fan of BFBB an am sooo down to do this , thank you so much bro
     
  5. CPCookieMan

    CPCookieMan Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    Bout time it gets some attention, I'll post a video tomorrow if I get the chance.
     
  6. Prog

    Prog Not a Meme™ Staff Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    I wonder if this is possible with other Heavy Iron games. Can anyone try:
    The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
    Truth or Square (actually, if you can get into this one and do some map hacking, it's probably possible to get a semi-fanmade HD remake of BFBB)
    Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights
     
  7. CPCookieMan

    CPCookieMan Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    Movie is very near the same game, I haven't opened the other two. The maps are unreadable as far as I could fathom, but if anyone can get that reading I'll give you a cookie. You do, however, seem to need the same file names or it won't rebuild correctly with gcreex.
     
  8. Prog

    Prog Not a Meme™ Staff Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    Truth or Square is an Xbox 360/PS3 (and, although this would defeat the purpose, Wii, DS, and PSP) game. Are there any tools for those?
    EDIT: Should this be moved to software and ROM hax?
     
  9. CPCookieMan

    CPCookieMan Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    Truth or Square for Wii seems to be a FAR advanced version of the original RenderWare engine that SB:BFBB runs on. If it weren't for a similar configuration file I'd say they were two different game engines altogether. HOWEVER, it still has some cool stuff in the SB09.ini file, as does the Movie game (although the movie game more so). Also, transferring files into the movie game makes it hang on the loading screen.

    What I have done, though, is create an app called SBConfigure!
    It quickly and easily creates sb.ini files while editing the most common settings.
    Download Link (~24KB JAR File)

    [​IMG]
     
  10. CPCookieMan

    CPCookieMan Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    Resurrecting a really old thread! I took another look at the game and found some new things. Every string of text in the game in unencrypted in the iso. Just pop open with a hex editor and edit away. I also have it running on native GameCube (using WiiKey Fusion). On a deeper level, I seem to have found the map info as point cloud data, but how to edit it... Hmm...

    Proof
     
  11. Prog

    Prog Not a Meme™ Staff Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    I want to point out something really interesting that I found in the save file:

    It appears that the working title for this game was Spongebob: When Robots Attack. In a copy of a .GCI save file of the game, at address 0x5A80, there is a string of ASCII text that says
    Code:
    SPONGEBOB:WHENROBOTSATTACK::RyanNeilDan
    . RyanNeilDan probably refers to three of the seven programmers of the game: Ryan A. Mapes, Neil Ka'apuni, and Dan Kollmorgen.

    [​IMG]

    EDIT: The movie contains a similar string, except with the title Spongebob 2: Patrick's Revenge
     
  12. Prog

    Prog Not a Meme™ Staff Member

    Re: Modding SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom [SERIOUSLY C

    Moving & bumping this topic because I've begun to look into this again...
    It would appear that reverse engineering this game wouldn't be insanely difficult, as it's a run-of-the-mill Renderware 3 game. Many tools were created for GTA3, which runs on the same engine.
    I'm fairly confident because previous hackers have gotten into prototype levels for Patrick's dream, Goo Lagoon, and the final boss.