alttpo VS Archipelago

I've developed quite a few SNES-related things for fun, mostly using Go and C++, with some 65816 ASM sprinkled in.

https://github.com/alttpo/alttpo - A Link To The Past Online. Lets multiple players see and interact with one another in the same game world and synchronize their progress through the game. Exclusive to a customized fork of the bsnes emulator which provides a scripting language and PPU-integrated drawing routines to render remote player sprites. In retrospect, I consider this a dead-end architecture; redesigned in o2 project (see below).

https://github.com/alttpo/o2 - Second version of alttpo (see above) but this time targeted at SNES hardware console support (via SD2SNES flash cart USB feature) and does not require a customized emulator nor a scripting language. Trade-off here is a loss of the visual aspect (cannot see remote player sprites) due to tight hardware limitations in the amount of VRAM and limited SNES CPU cycles available. Work is in progress to gain back the remote sprite rendering as an optional add-on via the bsnes-plus WASM module support (see below). This project includes a 65816 machine code emitter library (pure Go) with support for named labels of branch targets. There is also a bare-bones headless SNES emulator library (pure Go) included for unit tests to verify the generated 65816 ASM and ROM patching mechanism.

https://github.com/alttpo/bsnes-plus - A fork of bsnes-plus in development that invokes WebAssembly modules when certain general SNES events occur, e.g. `on_nmi`, `on_power`, `on_reset`, `on_frame_present`. WASM code has access to a draw-list API for drawing into the various PPU layers, e.g. extra sprites, text (with PCF font support), basic shapes. WASM code can also receive arbitrary binary messages from external applications, e.g. to update remote player positions or exchange custom sprite graphics.

Due to the way it’s designed and its short length, it has a great randomizer. It is a decently popular pick in Archipelago multiworlds. In fact someone recommended it in a multiworld I was playing so I picked it up.

> walk through a door in an RPG Maker game end up playing a Quake level! And then, upon killing a certain enemy, be suddenly in a bossfight in a SMW ROMhack!

I just learned about this [1] yesterday but seems to be the first data point I've seen regarding something like you describe. Very cool to see, and it definitely blew my mind that things like this are now being developed.

[1] https://archipelago.gg/

There are randomizers for many Metroidvanias at this point, each with their own community of casual and competitive players. Just in Archipelago system you can find Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Super Metroid, SMZ3, Timespinner, and The Messenger.

I recommend checking out a randomizer mod at https://archipelago.gg/ (https://archipelago.gg/games/Stardew%20Valley/info/en). You start a new file with a defined goal (i.e. 'complete the Community Centre'), and set about seeing how fast you can do so, but... with some tweaks. For starters, you could randomize your seasons or seeds. Then things like progressive abilities and items. i.e. you earn fishing level 2, but instead of *receiving* fishing level 2, you get a Coop. When you go to Robin to buy your Coop, you receive... an Ossified Blade. And when you manage to fish up a Flounder, you receive... Fishing Level 2.

Not really speedrunning but since GDQ has randomizers, I'll mention Archipelago. https://archipelago.gg/ Multiworld randomizer that has people contributing to add game integrations. They have documentation on how to add games https://github.com/ArchipelagoMW/Archipelago/tree/main/docs Its a lot of fun and I feel will only get better the more integrations people add! Definitely covers a lot of programming areas from assembly to networking.

It's a multiworld randomizer https://archipelago.gg/

It’s cool stuff. Funnily enough, Zelda 1 was added to Archipelago literally yesterday.

Archipelago Cross-Game Multiworld Randomizer