____________                                                   \
  |         \                        /\                        /    __
  |          |            __  __    /  \    /                 /    /  \
  |          |              |   |  /    \  /                 /     |    |
  |_________/               |   | /      \/                 /     _|_ --|--
  |         \      ___      |   |        /\                 ___    |    |
  |          |    /   \|    |   |       /  \ \   |  ____   /   \   |    |
  |          |   |  o  |    |   |      /    \ \  | (____  |  o  |  |    |
__|_________/     \___/|   _|_ _|_           \ \_|  ____)  \___/  _|_   \__/
                                              \  |      
                            /                  \ |    /
                           /                  \__/   /
                          /                      \  /
                        \/                        \/
                                 __________
================================(Industries)================================




                 Ballzysoft Industries proudly presents: 


                     CASTLEVANIA - VENGEANCE ON HELL


                a hack of Castlevania 2 for Nintendo NES




Table of Contents:

   I. Version History
  Ia. How to Use this Patch
  II. An Introduction
 III. Credits
  IV. Changes
   V. Status
  VI. Special Thanks
 VII. Conclusion/Disclaimer



                               _______________
I.============================(VERSION HISTORY)=============================

	Version 1.0a - (07/26/99)no more bugs, some new graphics (bad rom)
	Version 1.0b - (07/26/99)same (good rom)

	Version .95a -  (03/22/99)some minor bug fixes (for bad rom)
	Version .95b -  (03/22/99)some minor bug fixes (for good rom)

	Version .9a  -  (11/15/98)Initial release (for bad rom)
	Version .9b  -  (11/15/98)Initial release (for good rom)


                           _____________________
Ia.=======================(HOW TO USE THIS PATCH)===========================


	Since there are two versions of Castlevania 2 on the Net, there are
two sets of patches that have been released.  One version of CV2 is a bad
dump of the game, with the password screens totally messed up. More recently,
Vertigo 2099 rereleased CV2, this time with corrected screens.  Version 1.0a
is for use on the original dump, with the messed up screens.  Version 1.0b
is for the Vertigo dump.

	An additional patch (Vertigo.ips) is included with Version 1.0a;
this patch makes your screwed up copy of CV2 into the Vertigo copy.  This
patch *MUST* be applied *FIRST* to the rom before applying the VoH patch to
make it work.

	If you do not know how to apply ips patches to your rom, read
Braxton's readme file (read-1st.doc), included in this zip, to find out how.


                              _______________
II.==========================(AN INTRODUCTION)==============================


	Ballzysoft Industries is a one-man group devoted to hacking classic
video games.  A new twist to old games, as it were.  This is done because
of the childhood memories I have of playing these great games, and now,
today, reliving the adventures.  Only now it is I who calls the shots.  I
hope that you, too, enjoy the products of Ballzysoft Industries as much as
much as I helped to create and reinvent them.

	"Castlevania - Vengeance on Hell" is Ballzysoft Industries first
completed project.  Since I still have a lot to learn about rom hacking,
I enlisted the help of two fellow hackers to assist me. They were both
invaluable to this project, and I doubt I could have finished
it without them.


                                  _______
III.=============================(CREDITS)==================================


Chris Collette/Ballz (hstz14c@prodigy.com) - project leader; text editor;
	web page maintainter; some graphic alterations

Steve Curtis/Zerostar/Braxton (zero_star@hotmail.com) - font editor;
	background graphics editor

Jason Leonard/aStROcReEp 2000 (ac2k@ipa.net) - character editor; enemy
	editor



                                  _______
IV.==============================(CHANGES)==================================


	Many of the demons and characters that were created in this hack 
have a historical and theological background.  So that you have a bit of a
better understanding to some of the major characters, here are a few quick
bios. In parenthesis I have included the name of the character that was 
replaced.

	-Apollion (Dracula) : A fallen angel that has gone by several names,
	 including Abaddon, the Angel of the Abyss, and the Locust King.
	 According to the biblical testament of Revelation, he's an angel
	 sent by God to guard Satan and seal him within the gates of Hell. 
	 Problem is, after a 1000 years of doing this, Appolion succumbs to
	 Satan and releases him, thus giving way to the Antichrist.  
	 Apollion controls a legion of demonic little locusts that have 
	 faces of humans and other meannie stuff.

	-Mazikeen (that big mask thingy) : a daughter of Lilith, with half
	 a face, half a bloodbath, so she must therefore wear a mask to
	 cover it.

	-Amy (person who gave Simon the flame whip) : a fallen angel who 
	 longs to return to heaven.  

	-Vilheim (Simon) : character of my creation. Vilheim is a simple
	 man, who, when he was younger, was one of the King's knights. Now
	 he lives in a quiet village living a quaint life with his only
 	 daughter. Vilheim lost his wife to the Plague some ten years ago.

	-Deborah (Grim Reaper) : character of my creation. Vilheim's
 	 daughter, a young woman whom many regard as being the most 
	 beautiful girl in the kingdom. Her beauty and kindness were what
	 initially attracted Apollion to her, and took her as easy game.
	 No one has seen Deborah since her kidnapping, but Vilheim can only
	 assume the worst has happened to his daughter.

			*		*		*

	aStRO did a fine job at altering many of the monsters in the game, 
and Braxton has truly made a name for himself in the rom hacking community
with his scenic changes that truly match the mood of the game, as well as 
creating an excellent new font and a coolio title screen. As for me, I made
sure not one shred of the game's original text remained, and in the process, 
managed to create a lowercase font and several dual character tiles. All 
three endings have been changed, and now more closely reflect how quickly
you completed the game (the best ending now really IS the best).  I don't
wanna spoil things too much for y'all, but the three of us made sure this
game was worth the download time.  =)  See for yourself what exactly was
done.



                                  ______
V.===============================(STATUS)===================================


Version 1.0a/b
	Any and every bug I could find was squashed.  Note that you no
longer will see the icons that in the original game appeared on the same
bar as the weapon name.  The items will still be in your posession, they
just won't be shown on the screen.

	I screwed around with the graphics some since no one else wanted
to. I think some are pretty neat, albeit on the bizarre side (check out
the vertical eyeballs).  Vilheim's sword swing still hasn't been fixed,
and pretty much, I doubt it ever will be.  This version is 1.0, and I
think I can put it to rest for good.  Only took a year to get this far. :)


Version .95a/b
	An uninspired Zero has decided not to work on the project. [cx] was
quick to volunteer, but I have not heard a peep from his direction about it
in months.

	A couple of bugs were fixed, and now the project has fallen under
the wing of the Confederated Translation Company. Still feel free to report
any bugs to me, but I make no guarantee that another release will ever be
made.  Enjoy the game.


Version .9a/b
	As far as I'm concerned, this project is finished. The only reason
why this patch is at .9 is because some enemies were left unaltered. But,
having spent all of summer working on this game, the three of us were too
tired to finish it up. So work has fallen now on a FOURTH member, a friend
of Braxton named Zero. When he finishes work on it, a final patch will be 
released, and then this project is DONE.  No more updates! The end!

	But in the meantime, this is considered a beta, so if you run across
any bugs, please drop us a line and let us know.  If you can, also include a
save state, so we know exactly where to look.



                              ______________
VI.==========================(SPECIAL THANKS)===============================


	Here we go, and in no particular order:


	-AWJ and especially TheGun, for helping with expanding the game's
	 endings.

	-MadHacker for his excellent pointer doc.

	-Necrosaro for his Thingy. =)

	-SnowBro for his neat-o Tile Layer proggie!

	-Then we got Jair with Graphics Inserter/Extractor (the bat on the
	 title screen originally came from the Japanese version of CV2)

	-Vertigo 2099, for dumping CV2 the RIGHT way.

	-JimW and his own awesome CV2 hack. It's da shit!!

	-demi, for showing me how to combine multiple patches

	-Braxton and aStRO, although I'll never disclose why. Suffer.

	-Konami, for not only making a really cool game, but one easy to
 	 hack. :)

	-Wildbill and the Confederated Translation Company, for basically
	 allowing little old me into their little club.

	-And to everyone else who has shown their interest and support in
	 the making of this project. Y'all are the reason why I like doing
	 this.



                         _______________________
VII.====================(CONCLUSION / DISCLAIMER)===========================


	You know what this is, the usual yackity smackity.  You can
distribute this PATCH as much as you want on the net, just be sure to include
all original documentation, and do NOT distribute it as a patched rom or
with any other roms for that matter. Roms are like, illegal and stuff. 
Ballzysoft Industries takes no responsibility if this patch makes your
computer blow up or something similar to that effect. Castlevania 2 and other
aforementioned umm... stuff is all copyright their respective owners. This 
patch itself is copyright 1998, 1999 Ballzysoft Industries. You can now find 
Ballzysoft Industries on the WEB!!!!@#% <http://www.the-liu.com/ballzysoft/>
for all your Ballzy needs.  Ask me for roms and I'll get medieval on your ass.
Eat Froot Loops to grow big and strong like me.