Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon Randomizer (Archipelago)

This is a randomizer for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) that integrates with the Archipelago multiworld randomizer. This randomizer shuffles items, equipment, abilities, and other game elements across multiple worlds and players in a connected multiworld session.

What is Archipelago?

Archipelago is a multiworld randomizer framework that allows you to play randomized games with friends across different titles. Items from your game can end up in other players' worlds, and vice versa, creating a collaborative randomizer experience.

Features

This randomizer includes the following options and features:

Randomizer Options

• Enemy Randomization: Enemies throughout the game are shuffled
• Starting Room Randomization: Your starting spawn location is randomized
• Increased Pot Ryo: Pots contain more money for better progression balance
• Health in Item Pool: Health upgrades are added to the randomized item pool
• Prevent One-Way Softlocks: Normally one-way entrances are locked off to prevent softlocks

Randomized Items

The randomizer shuffles a comprehensive set of items including:

• Keys: Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Jump Gym keys
• Equipment: Chain Pipe, Bazooka, Meat Hammer, Wind-up Camera, Ice Kunai, Medal of Flames, Flute
• Abilities: Mermaid, Mini Ebisumaru, Sudden Impact, Jetpack
• Characters: Goemon, Yae, Ebisumaru, Sasuke
• Quest Items: Cucumber, Super Pass
• Collectibles: Fortune Dolls (Silver/Gold), Mr. Elly Fant and Mr. Arrow collectibles, Achilles Heel
• Upgrades: Strength upgrades and Surprise Packs
• Health Items: Golden and Normal Health pickups (when enabled)

Installation

Step 1: Get the Recompiled Client

1. Download the latest Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon: Recompiled client from https://github.com/klorfmorf/Goemon64Recomp/releases

Step 2: Get the APWorld File

1. Download the latest mnsg.apworld file from the releases, or
2. Build it yourself using the provided package_apworld.py script

Step 3: Install in Archipelago

1. Place the mnsg.apworld file in your Archipelago custom_worlds folder
2. The world will now be available when creating new Archipelago games

Step 4: Get the Mod File

1. Download the latest mod.zip file from the releases
2. Install the mod in your Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon: Recompiled mods folder

Step 4: Generate and Play

1. Create a new multiworld game in Archipelago with Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon included
2. Generate your game and use the generated .zip file with either the Archipelago Website or local hosting
3. The mod will connect to your Archipelago world using the generated data

Building the APWorld

To build the mnsg.apworld file from source:

1. Run the packaging script:

   python package_apworld.py
   

2. This will create mnsg.apworld in the root directory
3. The APWorld file can then be distributed to other Archipelago users

Building the Recomp Mod (for Developers)

If you want to build the recomp mod portion from source, you'll need to install clang and make.

• On Windows, using chocolatey to install both is recommended. The packages are llvm and make respectively.
  • The LLVM 19.1.0 llvm-project release binary, which is also what chocolatey provides, does not support MIPS correctly. The solution is to install 18.1.8 instead, which can be done in chocolatey by specifying --version 18.1.8 or by downloading the 18.1.8 release directly.
• On Linux, these can both be installed using your distro's package manager. You may also need to install your distro's package for the lld linker. On Debian/Ubuntu based distros this will be the lld package.
• On MacOS, these can both be installed using Homebrew. Apple clang won't work, as you need a mips target for building the mod code.

On Linux and MacOS, you'll need to also ensure that you have the zip utility installed.

You'll also need to grab a build of the RecompModTool utility from the releases of N64Recomp. You can also build it yourself from that repo if desired.

Building the Mod Code

• First, run make (with an optional job count) to build the mod code itself.
• Next, run the RecompModTool utility with mod.toml as the first argument and the build dir (build in the case of this mod) as the second argument.
  • This will produce your mod's .nrm file in the build folder.
  • If you're on MacOS, you may need to specify the path to the clang and ld.lld binaries using the CC and LD environment variables, respectively.

How It Works

This randomizer consists of two main components:

1. APWorld File (mnsg.apworld): Contains the randomizer logic, item definitions, location mappings, and game rules for Archipelago
2. Recomp Mod: A native code modification for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon: Recompiled that implements the randomizer features in-game

When you generate a randomized seed in Archipelago, it creates a data file that the recomp mod reads to determine item placements, enemy randomization, and other randomized elements.