FF6 Multitap

(I can't imagine there's a tremendous appetite for a patch like this, being as FF6 makes for a pretty lackluster multiplayer game, but I thought I'd toss this up on here just in case there's somebody out there who's interested...)

Over the last little bit, I've been piecing together a multitap patch for FF6 that does the following:

• changes the "Controller: Single/Multiple" config option to a "Players: 1/2/3/4" option
  
• scraps the individual controller/character assignment submenu (see controller allocations note below)
  
• allows any connected controller to control the field/menu (think Twitch Plays, but hopefully more civilized), so P2-4 aren't just along for the ride until battle comes along, and can be responsible for their own shopping and character loadout
  
• allows any player to pause at any time, so long as an active player isn't in a menu or selecting targets
  
• allows any player to dismiss end of combat messages
  
• this also fixes a Blitz bug where controller 2 used to be able to screw up player 1's Blitz inputs and vice versa due to a weird merged input schema that Blitzes were pulling inputs from for some reason
  

With the strict controller assignment menu scrapped, controller/character slot assignment for battle works as follows:

• 1 Player: 1/1/1/1
  
• 2 Player: 1/2/1/2
  
• 3 Player: 1/2/3/1
  
• 4 Player: 1/2/3/4
  

As it stands right now, this appears to be working in at least bsnes+ and Snes9x. Ensure your multitap is connected to controller port 2, and then player 1 will use controller port 1, while players 2-4 will use multitap ports 1-3.

This is all built within the existing space of the controller assignment menu and input decoding routines, so if your ROM is based on a FF6us ROM and has the "Controller: Single/Multiple" toggle (and isn't using C3 optimized) then it will presumably work fine.

You can find the asm and ips patches for this on my github here: https://github.com/SirNewtonFig/FF6multitap

(Credit to Bropedio for optimizing the M mod N controller assignment loop, and Vitor Vilela for showing me how to read P4 inputs from the multitap, because that's apparently not straightforward at all)

Sounds like a blast!  I recently discovered an .ips file that allows the player to reassign the native button layout of the controller.  Unfortunately, I have yet to get it to work...I mean at all.  I was a little bummed out at first because I'm a BIG fan of the VGM music player patch that replaces the mono-audio option in the config menu.  And, I can't get that patch to play nicely with any other menu patch out there.  If it's at all possible, try to make your patch compatible with the music player patch.  You might want to try and format the config menu options in a similar fashion as the music player, by highlighting one of the options blue and assigning a submenu to it.  Of course, you'd have to rename each option so that they communicate their intended purpose: one for button layouts and the other for single/multiple controller layouts.  If you install the music player patch, you'll intuitively see how everything is formatted.  They've written good notes.  I only mention stuff like this because the Stereo option just greys out for mono quality audio.  Obviously, there's no reason to create a submenu for that.  The most intuitive renamed option handles I can think of right now would be something like: Button + Multiple.  You could just have the Multiple option grey out for single-play layouts.

Have you thought about doing something like this for Sunset Riders?