The Adventures of Bayou Billy: The Adventures of Bayou Billy - Round & Stage Select

The problem with Bayou Billy is that when Konami released Mad City in the USA, they made the whole game ridiculously hard. It's a shame, because they ruined an otherwise great game.

This is what this level select hack fixes. It essentially gives the game a password save which makes this play more like Konami's spiritual sequel to the game, the Lone Ranger. The difficulty becomes just right and the game is finally fun to play.

Patch features:

* Select any stage to start on. Simply press left or right at the title screen to select any stage and then start Game A or B as normal.

* Select any round to start on. Simply press right at the title screen after the final stage is selected. Yes, Bayou Billy has multiple rounds, like Castlevania, but unlike Castlevania, unfortunately, not much changes for the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

* Cut scenes that normally are shown before a stage are shown when that stage is chosen as the starting stage.

* Infinite continues. Although it doesn't really matter with the ability to select any stage.

* The ability to use the practice round bonuses, extra-health (the meatball), extra lives, or extra bullets, on any stage.

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ReadMe-DvD_Translations-The_Adventures_of_Bayou_Billy.txt

This file should be viewed using a mono-spaced font like "Courier".
Use a font size where 79 columns are visible.

Please don't distribute the ROM file in patched form.
Please don't distribute the DvD_Bayou_Billy_revA.ips file without this file.
Thanks.

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THE ADVENTURES OF BAYOU BILLY

Stage & Round Select

for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Copyright 1989 by Konami

Enhancement Copyright 2022 by DvD Translations
Patch Version: Rev A Release Date: April 16, 2022

DvD Translations
dvdtranslations.eludevisibility.org

Code Editing: DvD
Graphics Editing: DvD
Testing: DvD

ReadMe: DvD

----------------------------------- CONTENTS ----------------------------------

INFO

(1) Konami Light Gun Game Series
(2) If You Read Anything, Read This

USING THE PATCH

(3) Patching the ROM File
(4) Playing the Game on a Flash Cart or Emulator

ENHANCEMENT DETAILS

(5) Why DvD Chose to Enhance THIS Game
(6) Why YOU Should Bother Playing THIS Game
(7) DvD's Hacking Comments
(8) Project Timeline
(9) Software Used In This Enhancement

------------------------------------- INFO ------------------------------------

(1)---------------------- Konami Light Gun Game Series ------------------------

"The Adventures of Bayou Billy,", known as "Mad City" when it was released in
Japan was the first of three games Konami made for the NES Zapper. All 3 mixed
Zapper levels with other elements such as platforming, racing, flying, etc.
None require the Zapper, yet due to the rest of the content, they are probably
the best Zapper games made for the NES. The Konami LaserScope Voice Command
Optical Targeting Headset peripheral was designed specifically to play Laser
Invasion but the Zapper can be used as well.

All 3 were released in the US, only the first 2 in Japan, and only Bayou Billy
was released in Europe and Australia.

Mad City August 12, 1988 Japan
The Adventures of Bayou Billy June 1989 US
The Adventures of Bayou Billy January 24, 1991 Europe

Gun Sight March 15, 1991 Japan
Laser Invasion June 1991 US

The Lone Ranger August 1991

The Lone Ranger is an excellent game and the best of the 3. It even has a
password save. If you own it, you have probably passed every stage (except
likely the final boss as they ridiculously ramped up the difficulty there).
The problem with Bayou Billy is that when Konami released it in the USA, they
made the whole game ridiculously hard. It's a shame, because they ruined an
otherwise great game.

(2)-------------------- If You Read Anything, Read This -----------------------

DvD Translations enhanced version of "The Adventures of Bayou Billy" features:

* Select any stage to start on. Simply press left or right at the title
screen to select any stage and then start Game A or B as normal. Stages 1-9
are shown using letters A-I instead of numbers simply because all the
required numbers don't exist on the title screen tile set.

* Select any round to start on. Simply press right at the title
screen after the final stage is selected. Yes, Bayou Billy has multiple
rounds, like Castlevania, but unlike Castlevania, unfortunately, not much
changes for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. You don't get a better ending. It
feels to me that it plays a little faster. Rounds 1-3 are shown using
letters A-C.

* Cut scenes that normally are shown before a stage are shown when that stage
is chosen as the starting stage.

* Infinite continues. Although it doesn't really matter with the ability to
select any stage.

* The ability to use the practice round bonuses, extra-health (the meatball),
extra lives, or extra bullets, on any stage. I find this particularly useful
on stage 3, 5 and 7.

Don't buy repro carts! They are expensive. They don't support bug fixes for
patches because they can't be modified in the future. If they aren't built
from scratch they destroy a real cart. Every time a donor cart is used to make
a repro, it raises the scarcity and price of that real cart. If you still want
to spend your money on a multiple repro carts, instead of buying a single flash
cart, buy them from a vendor who only makes carts from scratch with new boards,
chips, and housings.

------------------------------- USING THE PATCH -------------------------------

(3)------------------------- Patching the ROM File ----------------------------

How to patch the ROM file:

You need:

1) A NES file. The file needs to include the standard 16 byte iNES header
followed by the program disk image data. With header, the ROM file is
262,160 bytes in size.

The header should be as follows:

4E 45 53 1A 08 10 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

You must have a 16 byte header for this patch, but even if your header
is wrong, this patch will fix it because it replaces the whole thing. So,
if you have a file without a header, you can just insert 16 of any byte at
the start of the file.

I'm not telling you how to get the NES file, but once you do, call it
"Adventures of Bayou Billy, The+.nes".

ROM w/ proper header CRC32: 0x0ac631ba

3) Patch File: DvD_Bayou_Billy_revA.ips

4) An IPS patching program
Remember to patch the file only AFTER it has a header.

Recommended IPS patching program for IBM PC: Lunar IPS.exe by FuSoYa
Recommended IPS patching program for Mac: UIPS by Lucas Newman

Using Lunar IPS / UIPS:

a) Double-click "Lunar IPS" / "UIPS"
b) Click "Apply IPS Patch" / "Apply Patch"
c) Choose "DvD_Bayou_Billy_revA.ips"
e) Choose "Adventures of Bayou Billy, The+.nes"

(4)------------- Playing the Game on a Flash Cart or Emulator ----------------

All emulators and flash carts that can play the original Famicom file can play
the enhanced game.

The PowerPak flash cart emulates it perfectly.

Games designed for the original Famicom/NES hardware have one or two 16k
program banks and one 8k character bank. Later, all games made for the NES
used special mapper chips to expand the size of the addressable ROM beyond
these limitations. Some even included RAM for the character bank, instead of
ROM. This game uses MMC1, the first custom mapper Nintendo made. MMC1 was
specifically made to port Famicom Disk System system games to cartridges, but
it was also widely used to make unique games for the NES and to port games
using 3rd part developer custom mappers that Nintendo generally did not allow
outside of Japan. Although MMC1 supports SRAM saving, this game does not have
any save feature; hence the reason for this enhancement.

Game file size: 8 x 16 kBytes of Program ROM
16 x 8 kBytes of Character ROM
256 kBytes
262,144 Bytes
+ 16 Byte Header
= 262,160 Bytes

----------------------------- ENHANCEMENT DETAILS -----------------------------

(5)------------------- Why DvD Chose to Enhance THIS Game ---------------------

I've owned a complete mint copy of this game for over 30 years, but I never
passed it. Why? Because it's so damn hard. Even if the game had infinite
continues, it would still suck because you never want to start on stage 9,
and you can't use the bonus upgrades before playing a stage after you die.

(6)---------------- Why YOU Should Bother Playing THIS Game -------------------

Once you can "save" the game by using the stage select, the challenge is
reasonable and the game is really fun. It's still hell to beat the boss on
stage 3, but everything else is reasonable especially if you use the power
up from the practice stages. Why Konami didn't give this game a password in
the first place is beyond me.

This is what this level select hack fixes. It turns this into the Lone Ranger,
essentially giving the game a password save.

When it first came out, if you bought Bayou Billy, to have something to do
with your Zapper besides play Duck Hunt, you probably were sorely disappointed
because you only played half of the light gun content as you never made
it to stage 7. With this stage select and an NES flash cart you will finally
be able to play levels you've never played before, the proper way, using the
NES Zapper on a TV. Playing the game this way keeps it challenging but makes
it fun, more like having the password save of the Lone Ranger.

(7)------------------------- DvD's Hacking Comments ---------------------------

At first I made this hack simply for myself. It worked, but the graphics were
glitchy when the selecting levels. Then, I figured out the correct way to
write to the screen using the way that Konami did it.

But, I could not get it to show the cut scenes after selecting a new stage to
start on. This really bothered me. It took a long time, and a lot of failed
attempts but I finally figured out how to do it in October of 2021.

Beta testing took me forever. Even though I had made it to at least stage 5,
probably stage 6, back in the day, my skills were rusty and the boss of stage
3 kept kicking my butt. I decided to work on other projects, like Ninja
Gaiden's stage select. I finally beat the boss and the soon after that the
entire game in April of 2022 when I had some time off from work to work on it.

(8)----------------------- Project Timeline Highlights ------------------------

Middle 2021 - Project started

Oct 2 2021 - First level select added to title screen

Oct 28 2021 - Tweaked Title screen credits

Oct 29 2021 - Alpha Test Version Complete:
- Cut Scene now shown before any selected level!
- Selectable Stage 10 corrected
- Always plays demo mode

Apr 15 2022 - Testing complete
- Passed all stages on round 1 and last 2 stages on round 3

Apr 16 2022 - Changed (c) date to 2022
Released

(9)-------------- Software & Hardware Used In This Enhancement ----------------

* Emulator

FCEUX 2.2.2 (FCEUX 2.2.3 has too many problems)
by zeromus, adelikat

* Disassembler, Table Dumper, & Relative Searcher

Table Dumper Pro (version 21.05.18)
by DvD

* Hex Editor

Beyond Compare 4.4.2 Licensed Version
by Scooter Software

* Disassembled code manipulation, script editing, & ReadMe creation

Notepad++
by Don Ho and the rest of the Notepad++ team

* Testing on a real NES

PowerPak
by retroUSB

* Tile Editor

Tile Layer Pro 1.0
by Kent Hansen

* IPS Patch File Creator

Lunar IPS
by FuSoYa

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987654321098765432109876543210987654321 123456789012345678901234567890123456789

Database match: Adventures of Bayou Billy, The (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
File SHA-1: 7EBCFDC5CEBFCD64BB371EDE1AF42E1B36A7E3E1
File CRC32: AC631BA
ROM SHA-1: 7356DD9D129EC32F5DBCBA5C9832E0494995398C
ROM CRC32: 67751094