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Backups? How do you "do it"?

#1
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I would call it a poll but the options are just to many. The question?

How do YOU do backups? How do you keep track of your chit?

IPS patches? Saved ROMs? Pen and paper?

Of course there is always: "Backups? I don't need no stinking backups! " for those that run commando and carry their balls in a wheelbarrow.

Me personally, if I'm doing map work, or any work with tools (LE, FF3usME, SE, etc) I make backups of the entire ROM after every success. I work on three ROMs at once. Test ROM, most recent backup ROM, and generally a vanilla ROM or slightly stable patched Rom for referance.

For code, either edit or write, I do everything in Excel. If a byte gets changed, it gets sectioned off with its own title bar, offsets added to the side, hex code in the firat five colums, ASM code beside it, then comments beside that. No real backups for this kinda stuff and only a test ROM that gets butchered often. Takes about 5min to grab a fresh ROM, then copy/paste all the edits and back to current.

The purpose of this thread is mostly just my curiosity, but could also be a way for newbies to decide how they want to backup their own projects. So...

How do YOU do it?


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#2
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I generally just copy-paste my ROM every time I get to the end of something meaningful and rename it to what I just completed. I have rarely needed to revert back thus far, but when I have needed them they're a lifesaver. I find it easy enough to do this that I never really use any other methods.


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#3
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I keep both headered and unheadered copies of the vanilla ROM, which is easy.

For my stuff, I keep every hack separate and create it all with batch files when it's time for testing or release. Everything is separated into three folders:

In one folder, I have two ROMs with the different aspects of the map hacks I've made (chest edits and exit changes) and a third ROM with both aspects applied to it. I manually create an IPS patch off of that and add it to the folder containing the rest of my individual IPS patches (mostly third-party stuff).

In another folder, I have the aforementioned third-party IPS patches that we've utilized in BNW. The map changes get added to this list for ease of use in my batch files.

The third folder contains all of my ASM hacks, each kept in its own file separate from the others, even if they only change a single byte (55 files in all). The exception is my massive events.asm, which is contained in a single file to keep the locations streamlined.

Finally, I have four separate batch files - one combines all of the IPS patches I keep in folder #2 into a single patch. Another batch file applies all my ASM hacks in folder #3 to a vanilla ROM and creates a patch out of that. A third batch file applies the two previously mentioned patches to a vanilla ROM and creates a workable patch to be applied to a BNW base ROM (more on this below). The fourth batch file is simply a combination of the previous three; all it does is call each one in order.

All the above also have back-up copies on my laptop, and folders two and three have copies on my web space.

Now, as for the other changes to the ROM made via FF3usME, BTB handles those and sends me a modified ROM when it's time for a new test or release version. I keep each and every ROM he sends me in a separate folder just in case something needs to be rolled back or he somehow loses all his work (not that I expect him to, I'm just paranoid). The workable patch I create via batch files is then applied to the latest ROM he sent me, and the actual BNW patch is created off of that one.

So basically, everything is separate for me until the moment of patch creation, and is maintained on three different systems. The actual BNW base ROMs are also essentially backed up on at least three separate computers (my home PC, my laptop, and however many systems BTB keeps his stuff on).


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#4
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I keep a running list of backups going back something like 3 years. I have to stomp out bugs fairly frequently due to my rather halfassed method, but it usually doesn't get too bad. My next major project will hopefully be more organized.

Did you compile the events.asm yourself, or get it somewhere? I have a file containing an outline of the events banks, but an actual assembly file would help immensely.
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#5
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Nothing special really, I just make a backup before every change nowadays, along with some half-assed documentation. And then shove all the backups into a 'backup' folder when it becomes to crowded with backups lol.

How my ROM/hack is now sadly, using the different programs they like to shift around data/re-compress data differently, messing up something or another for another editor and/or work I've done, so I often 'corrupt' some aspect of my ROM and need to do an IPS report between the latest working backup and my current ROM and manually edit just the bytes I need, so the data shift doesn't occur. It's quite a headache obviously but I've gotten it down to a science basically.

Lots and lots of backups though all the time for sure, it's nice to be able to narrow down any issues if need be between the latest working and broken versions that are very close together in terms of date to quickly narrow down the issue and learn exactly what date and time it was that the error(s) happened, which usually jogs my memory and prevents me from f**k**g up the same thing in the future lol.


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#6
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Very simple, for sprite sheets I have a Folder for that, and then for monsters and editors I have a Folder for that. I also keep a Backup folder with all the Roms with the changes I have made, sprite-wise, music wise and whatever else, I also keep a few vanilla roms handy in case something goes awry. Mine is sort of off the cuff, I may try this or I may try that, I am just trying a lot of things with animations, sprite sheets, and some editing to see what I can create as far as hacking FF6.
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#7
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Good, now we know that BNW datas are stored in a safer place that Switzerland's banks! Laugh


About me... greater projects have a folder full of backups, i copy and paste the current rom each time i have to deal with hex or music(well, it's hex even in this case) or FF6LE or sprites... it's rare i do the same when i deal with FF3usME, still sometime i export some monster script AI, when it starts to become huge or other stuff...
Each time i do something relevant, i'm used to take note of what i did before/meanwhile/after and save it into a text file, especially the hex code

For greater projects i also write a long list of the steps that i have to accomplish, in order of finishing the hack, sometime i erase or add some point to that list too.

Finally, for CotG i started to write on paper the changes that i'll do to the storyline, dialogues, new events, etc. and i usually do that when i'm on bus/train, going to/from university... at the moment the lore of this hack it dangerously started to expand to a level i couldn't imaginate, before i started to write about that...


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#8
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(04-08-2015, 08:04 PM)dn Wrote: Did you compile the events.asm yourself, or get it somewhere? I have a file containing an outline of the events banks, but an actual assembly file would help immensely.

It's all manual. I still cross-reference the event dump, event commands document, and raw hex of a vanilla ROM when modifying or creating events and just insert the necessary bytes into my ASM file with the DB opcode. I just have it heavily and thoroughly commented so I know exactly what each line is doing.

I haven't found any easier way to modify events to the extent that we do, but I'm open to ideas/suggestions.


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#9
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My method is a bit different.

I have txt files I like to call patchtxt files. They basically describe in text what to change and where. Then I have an assembler written in python that converts the patchtxt files to ips files.

basic example of patchtxt:
Code:
@ 026A6F:     4C F3 57    # put Magtek-Armor in snow as intro

so the format is roughly:

Code:
@ ADDRESS:    DATA (HEX)    # COMMENT

There are a number of commands and modes I've been making that allow for: table mapping, text -> DTE conversion, includes, logging, size assertion, basic ASM conversion, pointer allocation and data allocation based on dynamic pointers. And so on but since I'm the only one using this at the moment I've been changing things around a lot.

I consider patchtxt a data representation format. So it's not a programming language or a proper assembly assembler, it only maps data to locations. Keeping that in mind I'm trying to make the ways of representing the data as flexible as possible.

Using patchtxt files helps me keep my changes and documentation in the same place. It creates readable documents that have proper formatting to be converted.
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#10
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I do the copy/paste ROM thing almost 100% exclusively. Smile


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