These are my edits that convert the original stages from the 4:3 aspect ratio, to a 16:9, wide-screen aspect, for full display with wide screen packs and/or wide-screen monitors. Some additional changes and edits might have also been applied to the stage. See the included 'readme.txt' file for more details.
All of these stage edits are intended for the original Mugen 1.1 engine, as well as for the Ikemen Go engine.
There may be several additional stage variants included in each edit:
- a stage with the 'zoom' word in the file name is a variant supporting zoom,
- a stage with the 'cps' word in the file name is a a variant in 224p and aspect-corrected for the CPS arcade pixel size,
- stages may also have separate variants for different engines: Mugen 1.1 and Ikemen Go.
A preview of all stages (https://tilde.town/~kasasagi/).
A showcase of the CPS aspect-correction (https://images2.imgbox.com/38/9c/GBmOx3L3_o.png).
Download all of the stage edits here (110 total) (https://drive.proton.me/urls/PDERG8YN00#RwM3MVN730fv).
FAQ
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
1. What is this about the separate Mugen and Ikemen variants?
Stages using zoom parameters, whether they actually zoom in and out or not, will generally require a separate Mugen and Ikemen variant.
This is due to the differences in the upper camera bound processing between Mugen and Ikemen. This is not a bug in Ikemen, this is the result of a bug in Mugen 1.1 that has been fixed in Ikemen, so this is a permanent state of affairs.
The exception to the above rule is a situation in which the stage does not have vertical scrolling/deltas at all. This is a special case in which the Mugen and Ikemen variants can be merged into one, even if the stage uses zoom parameters.
2. What is this about the CPS aspect-corrected variants?
Traditional Mugen conversions of classic arcade stages generally use the 320x240 resolution and assume a 4:3 screen aspect, which results in 1:1 square pixels. Then the stage is simply converted from the arcade version in a pixel-for-pixel manner, disregarding any differences in both the pixel shape and the vertical resolution.
The above approach is a trade-off. The main advantage is that it allows for a pixel-perfect display (with no scaling artifacts or blur) in low-to-mid, 4:3 screen resolutions, such as 320x240 or 640x480, which were the PC standard at the time that Mugen was created.
The main disadvantage of this approach is that the actual image of the stage can be severely stretched or squashed, in comparison to the original arcade hardware, which often uses resolutions that are not 4:3, resulting in non-square pixels.
This problem of the lack of aspect-correction and the resulting stretching/squashing of the stage image is especially egregious in the case of the CPS-series arcade hardware (e.g. all of the classic Street Fighter series games, Darkstalkers series etc), as the original arcade screen pixels in this case have a severely non-square aspect of 7:9, i.e. they are tall rectangles.
If the release archive contains the 'cps' variant, then this variant is meant to solve the above problem.
You can see several examples of the aspect-correction in action in this image (https://images2.imgbox.com/38/9c/GBmOx3L3_o.png).
3. Do non-CPS arcade conversions need aspect-correction too?
It depends on the specific hardware.
At least in the case of the Neo Geo arcades (e.g. game series such as Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, The Last Blade, Samurai Showdown etc), the need for aspect-correction is much less pressing, as the pixels of these machines are almost square (off by 5%). However, it would still make sense to convert these stages to the original 224p vertical resolution, if it makes the difference between a working vertical scrolling/deltas and a total lack thereof.
4. What is the disadvantage of aspect-correction?
The problem with aspect-correction is that displaying non-square pixels on a low-to-mid resolution PC screen (which has square pixels), will introduce either scaling artifacts, scaling blur or both, depending on the applied scaling method. In other words, the image displayed on the screen will not be pixel-perfect.
This problem is actually not even limited only to aspect-correction, as just using a modern 16:9 wide-screen resolution, already results in non-integer scaling of the old 4:3 PC resolutions (at least in the vertical dimension) so some scaling artifacts will already have been introduced in this case.
Moreover, Mugen 1.1 allows for sub-pixel positioning of sprites and this will also introduce drawing artifacts all by itself.
The above mentioned problems can be mitigated in several ways.
Arcade emulators for example usually have a variety of options that allow to fine-tune the scaling method and the resulting image quality, using different filters and shaders. They usually even allow to apply strict integer scaling, at the cost of displaying a smaller image at the center of the screen. Such options can be used to find a sweet-spot between blurriness and drawing/scaling artifacts. Mugen and Ikemen however currently lack such sophisticated scaling solutions.
Nevertheless, there is also a brute-force approach to reduce scaling artifacts, and it is to go as high as possible with the screen resolution, preferably up to 4K for example.
Changes to previously released edits:
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
- Some major improvements in the 'MOTW-TerryStage by RYO 2005' stage: extended/restored the sky and ocean background sprites, extended the stage height, redone vertical deltas, fixed some sprites' transparency and alignment bugs, fixed the upper bound in the Ikemen variant (2024-01-09).
- Minor updates in the 'NewPlayground by SeanAltly' and 'NewPlaygroundNight by SeanAltly' stages - tweaked the z-offset and parallax, ported the previous changes from the wide variants to the 4:3 variant: extended the stage height and added vertical deltas (2024-01-06).
- Minor update in the 'Igniz2k2UM by Hiram Yagami' stage - added vertical deltas, tweaked vertical follow, fixed vertical bounds in the Ikemen variant (2024-01-04).
- Minor update in the 'raigatemple by Chok' stage - tweaked the z-offset in all variants and ported the previous changes from the wide variants to the 4:3 variant (2024-01-04).
- Some major improvements in the 'KaedeStage-dm by Duende Macabro' stage, including: restored the clipped/missing parts of the main background with sprites redumped directly from the original game, added falling leaves (their base code and sprites originate from the OldGamer's conversion of the same stage), made many tweaks to the falling leaves animation (2023-09-23).
- Some major improvements in the 'TMNT_MetroTrain by JAM' stage, including: added zoom variant, tweaked sprites, colors, converted the chopper code from animation hacks to proper velocity background controls, for a smooth movement and other (2023-09-03).
- Restored the clipped/missing background parts in the 'aof3santana by Yamato' stage, with sprites from 'fgbg.art', and also added zoom variants for this stage, extended vertical and horizontal bounds and fixes some sprites and animations (2023-08-20).
- Restored the clipped/missing upper background part in the 'shore by Neo Gouki' stage, with sprites from 'fgbg.art', and also added zoom variants for this stage (2023-08-20).
- Fixed parallax issues in 'birthday by Neo Gouki' stage (2023-06-26).
- A small fix in sprite alignment in the 'NewCentralParkDay by SeanAltly' stage. (2023-06-26).
- A small fix for visible background color in the 'NewPlaygroundNight by SeanAltly' stage. (2023-06-26).
- Fixed some parallax issues in Honda and Balrog stages (2023-06-11).
- Fixed shadows in Cammy stage (2023-06-11).
Individual previews of some of the latest stages:
TMNT_MetroTrain by JAM
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available.
Additional edits:
- Converted the chopper code from animation hacks to proper velocity background controls, for a smooth movement.
- Smoothed the train shaking movement.
- Sprite-separated the clouds/sky layer.
- Tweaked the train roof (ground) sprite and other sprites.
- Tweaked the sprites' color palettes.
- Extended horizontal bounds.
And for wide/zoom variants only:
- Extended stage height, for higher jumps.
- Tweaked/fixed vertical deltas.
- Added a second layer of greenery, with its own velocity and deltas.
- Changed horizontal velocities to a more reasonable level.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/44/08/LxXBpH9c_o.png)
raigatemple by Chok
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available.
Additional edits:
- Restored clipped/missing upper background part and animations with sprites from 'fgbg.art'.
- Tweaked some vertical deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/61/f8/V3aKWzof_o.png)
LB2-ShrineStage by RYO 2005
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available.
Additional edits:
- Restored the clipped/missing parts of backgrounds with sprites redumped directly from the original game.
- Added moving fireflies; their code originates from Rabz's conversion of the same stage.
- Added vertical follow and proper/fixed vertical deltas.
- Extended horizontal bounds
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/f6/69/obgSlt7l_o.png)
KaedeStage-dm by Duende Macabro
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available.
Additional edits:
- Restored the clipped/missing parts of the main background with sprites redumped directly from the original game.
- Tweaked the lowest part of the main background sprite, to not be an obvious/perfect vertical mirror.
- Extended horizontal and vertical bounds.
- Added falling leaves; their base code and sprites originate from the OldGamer's conversion of the same stage.
- Fixed some jerky movement in the falling leaves animation.
- Added a slight sinx wobble to falling leaves.
- Made the leaves' landing more seamless.
- Moved some leaves to the foreground (layerno=1).
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/dd/f8/l4hsCtm7_o.png)
graveyrd by Neo Gouki
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available. Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/74/20/R7r1HpAr_o.png)
LB-WashizukaStage by RYO 2005
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available.
Additional edits:
- Restored the clipped/missing parts of sprites and backgrounds with sprites redumped directly from the original game.
- Extended/redrawn some sprites, made some sprite-separations.
- Extended the vertical bounds, for higher jumps.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/c1/09/mCQoQbMX_o.png)
wadamoya by Neo Gouki
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available. Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/2e/d0/AwEdhrEE_o.png)
DesertedChateauVS2 by Phantom.of.the.Server
Wide-screen variant only (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Exchanged the sky/castle background with the sprite from the first Darkstalkers. This means that is is effectively a hybrid stage of Darkstalkers 1 and 2 now.
- Slowed down and tweaked the light and candles animations to make them less flickery.
- Tweaked some of the stage's original parallax inconsistencies, e.g. with the stones standing on the parallaxed floor. These should a lot less jarring now.
- Made some sprite-separations and some sprite tweaks.
- Extended the stage's height a little and added vertical delats.
- Tweaked some other deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a3/19/zYbv84pJ_o.png)
IronHorse by Phantom.of.the.Server
Both wide-screen and zoom variants available. Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a8/8d/REpanNDY_o.png)
agony by Neo Gouki
Wide-screen variant only (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Extended the stage's height and added vertical deltas.
- Made several sprite-separations, for better deltas/parallax.
- Tweaked some of the stage's original parallax inconsistencies, so that they are less noticeable.
- Tweaked the graphics of some sprites.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a5/8a/rnsrqAGP_o.png)
MOTW-TerryStage by RYO 2005
Wide-screen variant only (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Extended/restored the sky and ocean background sprites.
- Extended the stage height.
- Added vertical follow and deltas.
- Fixed some sprites' transparency and alignment bugs.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/eb/ff/7fNp3Y51_o.png)
dead_tree by Roque
Wide-screen variant only (no zoom). Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/43/42/9zbofhvh_o.png)
thirst by Neo Gouki
Wide-screen variant only (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Extended the stage's height and added vertical deltas.
- Tweaked some of the stage's original parallax and deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/1a/bd/so9gHh9Y_o.png)
001_Ryu by Ehnyd
Wide-screen and CPS aspect-corrected variants (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Horizontally extended background sprites for the 'wide-cps' stage variants, so that they cover the whole field of view.
- Tweaked the parallax.
- Tweaked some sprites positions.
- Added vertical deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/bd/ce/ayKza9iF_o.png)
(https://images2.imgbox.com/42/02/V2lpaYYi_o.png)
101_Ryu by Ehnyd
Wide-screen and CPS aspect-corrected variants (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Horizontally extended background sprites for the 'wide-cps' stage variants, so that they cover the whole field of view.
- Converted the flickering clouds to a transparency effect.
- Added vertical deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a5/a8/uw0biTQz_o.png)
(https://images2.imgbox.com/f0/67/BzuMDPIb_o.png)
103_Sakura by Ehnyd
Wide-screen and CPS aspect-corrected variants (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Tweaked some background sprites.
- Tweaked the parallax.
- Added vertical deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/ed/cd/s6BvvMcg_o.png)
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a8/f8/YKM2u3FS_o.png)
006_Karin by Ehnyd
Wide-screen and CPS aspect-corrected variants (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Converted the boat undulation effect from 'PosAdd' to 'sin.y' for a smoother movement.
- Tweaked the distant boat sprite.
- Added vertical deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/d9/0c/xf8I3y8G_o.png)
(https://images2.imgbox.com/5f/5e/9JdsWNS0_o.png)
008_RMika by Ehnyd
Wide-screen and CPS aspect-corrected variants (no zoom).
Additional edits:
- Horizontally extended the sky background sprites, so that they cover the whole field of view in the wide stage variants.
- Tweaked/extended some other sprites.
- Tweaked the parallax.
- Added vertical deltas.
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
(https://images2.imgbox.com/c2/37/yH7D4WvL_o.png)
(https://images2.imgbox.com/6b/b0/BQWL9Lmb_o.png)
Added five new stage edits from the Street Fighter Alpha series, however, these are a little unusual - they are edits of stages from the full-game project named 'Hyper Street Fighter Zero' by Ehnyd and they also include a new variant/category of stages. The individual stages preview is included at the bottom of the first post, as usual.
The three main things that these edits do are:
- they convert the original stage from the original game-specific aspect ratio, to a 16:9 wide-screen (e.g. 1080p/FHD or 4K) aspect for full display with 16:9 screen packs and/or wide-screen monitors; this makes the stages playable in generic wide-screen Mugen installations, just turn off 'StageFit',
- they contain variants of the stage that have been aspect-corrected for the CPS resolution and screen aspect, making the stage appear much more like it did on the original arcade hardware,
- for the CPS aspect-corrected stage variants, these edits also add the vertical deltas to the stage; this is possible, because these variants have the vertical resolution of 224p (like the original CPS hardware, as opposed to the Mugen standard of 240p).
You can see several examples of the aspect-correction in action here (https://images2.imgbox.com/38/9c/GBmOx3L3_o.png).
For more details, I include the full 'readme.txt' file for these stages (which is also included in the released archive):
Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty
What is this?
=============
This is a Mugen stage edit that converts it to a wide-screen aspect.
The edit itself is made by Kasasagi (https://tilde.town/~kasasagi/).
The original stage is a part of the full-game project named
'Hyper Street Fighter Zero' by Ehnyd (https://ehnyd.deviantart.com).
The edited stages are made for Mugen 1.1 and/or Ikemen Go engines.
Other such edits and updated versions of this edit can be downloaded
from here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/PDERG8YN00#RwM3MVN730fv
Where can I download the original stage?
----------------------------------------
You can see the original full game release thread here:
https://mugenguild.com/forum/topics/hsfz-by-ehnyd-190800.html
Or if you want the direct download links (2021.04.28 1.2 Update):
https://www.4shared.com/rar/A9MJFXOTiq/HSFZ_U1-2part1.html
https://www.4shared.com/rar/LztEHChEiq/HSFZ_U1-2part2.html
https://www.4shared.com/rar/ynCTOo7_ea/HSFZ_U1-2part3.html
https://www.4shared.com/rar/lAb5Tlorea/HSFZ_U1-2part4.html
Patch fix 1: https://www.4shared.com/archive/guaL5qgKea/Patch_fix_1.html
Patch fix 2: https://www.4shared.com/archive/I01o3TTZiq/Patch_Fix_2.html
What kind of edit is this?
==========================
This edit does three main things:
1) it converts the original stage from the original game-specific
aspect ratio, to a 16:9 wide-screen (e.g. 1080p/FHD or 4K) aspect
for full display with 16:9 screen packs and/or wide-screen monitors;
this makes the stage playable in generic wide-screen Mugen
installations, just **turn off 'StageFit'**,
2) it contains variants of the stage that have been aspect-corrected
for the CPS resolution and screen aspect, making the stage appear
much more like it did on the original arcade hardware,
3) for the CPS aspect-corrected stage variants, this edit also restores
the vertical deltas and vertical scrolling to the stage; this is
possible, because these variants have the vertical resolution of 224p
(like the original CPS hardware, as opposed to the Mugen standard of 240p).
Some additional changes and edits might have also been applied to the stage.
If so, they will be listed in a separate section below.
Why are there several *.def files included?
-------------------------------------------
There are several stage variants, intended for the original Mugen 1.1
engine, as well as for the Ikemen Go engine (or both at once if possible).
The stage variants are as follows:
1) 'stage_name-wide.def', a 16:9 wide-screen variant, for both Mugen 1.1
and Ikemen Go, 240p, 1:1 square pixels, no vertical scrolling; this is
the wide-screen equivalent of a traditional Mugen conversion, without
aspect ratio correction,
2) 'stage_name-wide-cps-mugen.def' and 'stage_name-wide-cps-ikemen.def',
16:9 wide-screen variants, respectively for Mugen 1.1 and Ikemen Go,
224p, 7:9 non-square pixels, with vertical scrolling and deltas;
these variants are aspect-corrected for the resolution and
screen/pixel shape of the original CPS arcade hardware,
3) 'stage_name-hsfz.def', a stage variant intended to be used in
the original full-game project 'Hyper Street Fighter Zero' by Ehnyd,
with the addition of vertical deltas and possibly other small tweaks;
*not* to be used in a generic Mugen / Ikemen installation.
Why is there no 4:3 variant?
----------------------------
Because there was no such variant of this stage to begin with and
the aim of this particular edit does not include making one.
What is this about the separate Mugen and Ikemen variants?
----------------------------------------------------------
Stages using zoom parameters, whether they actually zoom in and out
or not, will generally require a separate Mugen and Ikemen variant.
This is due to the differences in the upper camera bound processing
between Mugen and Ikemen. This is not a bug in Ikemen, this is
the result of a bug in Mugen 1.1 that has been fixed in Ikemen,
so this is a permanent state of affairs.
The exception to the above rule is a situation in which the stage
does not have vertical scrolling/deltas at all. This is a special
case in which the Mugen and Ikemen variants can be merged into one,
even if the stage uses zoom parameters.
What is this about the CPS aspect-corrected variants?
-----------------------------------------------------
Traditional Mugen conversions of classic arcade stages generally
use the 320x240 resolution and assume a 4:3 screen aspect, which
results in 1:1 square pixels. Then the stage is simply converted
from the arcade version in a pixel-for-pixel manner, disregarding
any differences in both the pixel shape and the vertical resolution.
The above approach is a trade-off. The main advantage is that it allows
for a pixel-perfect display (with no scaling artifacts or blur) in
low-to-mid, 4:3 screen resolutions, such as 320x240 or 640x480, which
were the PC standard at the time that Mugen was created.
The main disadvantage of this approach is that the actual image of
the stage can be severely stretched or squashed, in comparison to the
original arcade hardware, which often uses resolutions that are not 4:3,
resulting in non-square pixels.
This problem of the lack of aspect-correction and the resulting
stretching/squashing of the stage image is especially egregious in
the case of the CPS-series arcade hardware (e.g. all of the classic
Street Fighter series games, Darkstalkers series etc), as the original
arcade screen pixels in this case have a severely non-square aspect
of 7:9, i.e. they are tall rectangles.
The included 'cps' stage variants aim to solve this problem.
You can see several examples of the aspect-correction in action in
the 'showcase/cps-examples/' directory, inside this release's archive.
Do non-CPS arcade conversions need aspect-correction too?
---------------------------------------------------------
It depends on the specific hardware.
At least in the case of the Neo Geo arcades (e.g. game series such as
Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, The Last Blade, Samurai Showdown etc),
the need for aspect-correction is much less pressing, as the pixels
of these machines are almost square (off by 5%). However, it would
still make sense to convert these stages to the original 224p
vertical resolution, if it makes the difference between a working
vertical scrolling/deltas and a total lack thereof.
What is the disadvantage of aspect-correction?
----------------------------------------------
The problem with aspect-correction is that displaying non-square
pixels on a low-to-mid resolution PC screen (which has square pixels),
will introduce either scaling artifacts, scaling blur or both,
depending on the applied scaling method. In other words, the image
displayed on the screen will not be pixel-perfect.
This problem is actually not even limited only to aspect-correction,
as just using a modern 16:9 wide-screen resolution, already results
in non-integer scaling of the old 4:3 PC resolutions (at least in
the vertical dimension) so some scaling artifacts will already
have been introduced in this case.
Moreover, Mugen 1.1 allows for sub-pixel positioning of sprites
and this will also introduce drawing artifacts all by itself.
The above mentioned problems can be mitigated in several ways.
Arcade emulators for example usually have a variety of options that
allow to fine-tune the scaling method and the resulting image quality,
using different filters and shaders. They usually even allow to apply
strict integer scaling, at the cost of displaying a smaller image at
the center of the screen. Such options can be used to find a sweet-spot
between blurriness and drawing/scaling artifacts. Mugen and Ikemen
however currently lack such sophisticated scaling solutions.
Nevertheless, there is also a brute-force approach to reduce scaling
artifacts, and it is to go as high as possible with the screen
resolution, preferably up to 4K for example.
Where is the music?
-------------------
The music is not included in this edit release. However, you can simply
download the original game that includes the music for all of the stages.