Castlevania II: Simon's Quest: Castlevania 2: Improved Controls

This hack modernizes the control scheme of Castlevania 2 to make it less frustrating to people used to tighter controls as in Symphony of the Night and Mega Man. It primarily allows the player greater control while jumping and on stairs.

In addition, Simon now blinks when he has invincibility frames, like in Castlevania 1 and 3.

Complete list of changes:

- Enables the player to control their x-velocity in mid-air while jumping (including while jump-attacking).
- (Optional) When releasing the jump button, Simon immediately starts falling again; this allows the player to make smaller hops if desired.
- After being knocked back, the player regains control after a split second and can angle their fall.
- When walking off an edge, the player retains control instead of dropping straight down.
- The player can jump off of stairs at any point in the climb. (However, it is still impossible to land on stairs, so be careful jumping from long flights of stairs over pits.)
- If the player is struck by an enemy while climbing stairs, they will not be knocked off the stairs. This is the same as the behaviour in Castlevania 1 and 3.
- Simon blinks rapidly after getting hit, as in Castlevania 1 and 3.

Compatibility has been verified with the following hacks:
- TheAlmightyGuru's https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/868/
- tkempkes's https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/912
- NaOH's http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4135/

An additional version is included which is compatible with:
- Bisqwit's https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1032/ -- NOTE: some users have reported that a more recent version of the re-translation has been released which is no longer compatible with this hack. You may need to get a version of the re-translation from before July 2020. There is a review posted below which may have more information. There is no timeline currently for when the improved controls hack will be updated to restore compatibility.

Similar to the Castlevania 1 hack found https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3867/ and the Akumajou Densetsu (Castlevania 3) hack found https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3596/.

Use http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/240/ to apply the hack to your Castlevania 2 ROM file.

The source code for this hack is available https://github.com/nstbayless/cv2-controls.

----
Updates:

- V1.1: Increased invincibility frames flicker to 30 Hz, matching the other two games. (In vanilla CV2, there is no indication for invincibility frames at all.)
- V1.2: Fixed softlock during the intro cutscene for the final boss.
- V1.3: Added (1) a patch for Bisqwit's retranslation + map hack, and (2) a README file, and (3) byte-level documentation for the hack.
- V1.4: Updated compatibility for Bisqwit's retranslation (now compatible with v2.9.9.1 / 2020-07-1 and v2.12.0.1 / 2020-08-16) and no-vcancel version.

#### Castlevania II Improved Controls ####

Version: 1.5

This hack modernizes the control scheme of Castlevania 2 to make it less frustrating to people
used to tighter controls as in Symphony of the Night and Mega Man. It primarily allows the player
greater control while jumping and on stairs.

############## Instructions ##############

Two basic versions are included:
* CV2-controls.ips
- This is the basic version of the hack that should be applied to a standard ROM.
- It should be compatible with several other hacks, but not with Bisqwit's retranslation + map hack.
Compatability includes:
* Simon’s Redaction: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/868/
* Annoyance Fixes: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/912
* Game Over Penalty Reduction: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4135/

* CV2-controls-bisqwit-compat.ips
- This version is only compatible with Bisqwit's retranslation + map hack,
located at https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1032/
- do NOT apply this unless Bisqwit's retranslation is already applied.
- Compatible only with version 2.9.9.1 of the retranslation (released 2020-07-01).

Use Lunar IPS or similar to apply the hack to your Castlevania 2 ROM file.
https://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/

In addition, no-vcancel versions are provided for those who prefer not having vcancel.


################ Changes #################

Complete list of changes:

Enables the player to control their x-velocity in mid-air while jumping (including while jump-attacking).
When releasing the jump button, Simon immediately starts falling again; this allows the player to
make smaller hops if desired.
After being knocked back, the player regains control after a split second and can angle their fall.
When walking off an edge, the player retains control instead of dropping straight down.
The player can jump off of stairs at any point in the climb. (However, it is still impossible to land
on stairs, so be careful jumping from long flights of stairs over pits.)
If the player is struck by an enemy while climbing stairs, they will not be knocked off the stairs. This
is the same as the behaviour in Castlevania 1 and 3.
Simon blinks rapidly after getting hit, as in Castlevania 1 and 3.


############### Licensing #################

Feel free to use or modify this hack, but be sure to
include a link to the original hack:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4150/

No other crediting is necessary, but if you wish you may credit
the author (NaOH).

If the hack is modified and distributed, please be sure
to note that it is not the original version of the hack
and that it was modified by someone other than the
original author.

No-Intro Name: Castlevania II - Simon's Quest (USA)
(No-Intro version 20130731-235630)
File SHA-1: D6B96FD98AE480C694A103FE9A5D7D84EEAFB6F7
ROM SHA-1: 2447D6133573F7ED2CC49DC95B3130427BD4DC35