What a bunch of hacks!

[WavyGravy]

Let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

While the homebrew scene is still pretty nascent, with the SNES's strong library of classic titles, there have been a lot of hacks and patches made to alter and improve some of the old favourites and inject some life into the machine.

These can range from new levels and rebalanced gameplay all the way to slowdown fixes and chaotic ramdomizers.

 

Here are a few of my favourites:

 

Yoshi's Island - No Crying, Improved SFX and Red Coins

By Trisma

 

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3945/

 

Does what it says on the tin and a little more: Mario doesn't wail when he's in the bubble, and a lot of the more irritating sound effects have been toned down or removed.

 

Starfox: EX

 

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7285/

 

Probably one of the most extensive romhacks ever made. Absolutely crazy amounts of new content and over three pages of options to play with.

 

Mega Man X Randomizer

 

https://github.com/TokyoScarab/MMX-Randomizer

 

Absolute chaos backed up by a rock solid base game. If you find some fun seeds, share them with us!

 

What are some of your favourite romhacks and improvements? Help us get back to actually talking about playing SNES games, even if they've been rejiggered a bit!

[+Biff Burgertime]

Oh cool, at some point during the whirlwind of bullshit I thought to start a hacks discussion, since as you said - unlike homebrew games, hacks are in abundance.

 

I've heard of these Randomizers and have always been curious, but never pulled the trigger. Are they "truly random" or is there some intelligence involved in where items can end up? If everything's just strewn about as if swept by a tornado, that sounds rather tedious... but I suppose there's only one way to truly find out. Mega Man X would be the perfect game for me to bite into, since I got it for my birthday way back in 1994. I know it inside & out. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance!

[Austin]

I like the idea of this topic. I haven't played many SNES ROM hacks, but I have played and finished the following:

 

Mega Man X - Hard Type

- Thought you were a boss at the original Mega Man X? Think again, chump! Mega Man X - Hard Type will knock you over, kick you while you're down, then throw a barrage of in..er, I mean, exceptional SNES hypotheticals and numberwang often seen in AtariAge threads, bringing you to the brink of insanity... It's truly terrifying stuff.

 

No, seriously though, it's pretty damn hard, hence the name. Link: http://ngplus.net/index.php?/files/file/16-mega-man-x-hard-type/

 

Super Castlevania IV: Other Castle

- Basically like the above, but for Castlevania IV. This IMO was even tougher than MMX Hard Type. Worth trying if you can easily steamroll your way through the original game. Link: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3411/

[Punisher5.0]

I always wanted to try out that no cry mod. Nobody wants to hear that constant crying.

 

The only mods I've played has been the MSU1 ones. Rock n' Roll Racing gets me everytime with the opening to Bad to the Bone

[newtmonkey]

Great idea for a topic!  That Starfox hack looks very interesting.

 

Here are the hacks I've got on my SD2SNES:

 

Alien 3: Assembly Cut

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4507/

This is basically a QoL hack.  It adds a save system (the original game uses passwords), and also changes the controller layout a bit, closer to Super Metroid.

 

Blackthorne - Red Blood

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4650/

This simple hack recolors the green blood red.

 

Eek! The Cat - Color Enhancement

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6336/

Although this appears to be yet another horrible licensed platformer, it's actually kind of unique and worth a play.  Anyway, as released the game's graphics are way too dark and lack contrast, so this palette hack improves things a lot.

 

Jurassic Park Save Feature Patch

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6605/

Crucial patch for this somewhat underrated game (great graphics and excellent soundtrack)!  It's an action/adventure game with a large area to explore and stuff to figure out... and yet, the game has no way to save your progress (not even passwords).  If you know what you're doing, the game can be completed in a couple of hours, but that would require many many attempts to figure it out, starting over from the beginning each time.  Anyway, this hack adds a save feature.

 

Secret of Mana Turbo

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=27890.0

This completely overhauls the game.  It removes the stamina bar system, adds a day/night cycle, and incorporates a bunch of other fixes and stuff.  A fun way to revisit a fondly remembered but janky game.

 

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Deluxe

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5025/

This adds a bunch of content to make the game a bit closer to the arcade version, including playable Sheeva.

**Unfortunately, the author of the hack asked romhacking to remove it... it's worth seeking out, though.

Edited August 25, 2023 by newtmonkey

[+Biff Burgertime]

41 minutes ago, Punisher5.0 said:

I always wanted to try out that no cry mod. Nobody wants to hear that constant crying.

 

The only mods I've played has been the MSU1 ones. Rock n' Roll Racing gets me everytime with the opening to Bad to the Bone

George Thorogood has the biggest set of choppers in rock n' roll.

They must help with the b-b-b-b-b-bad! part, I could never do the stutter no matter how hard I tried.

 

Edit: After the mention of Mega Man X and Rock n' Roll, I've now got Spark Mandrill's stage music stuck in my head... Mega Man X was pretty rockin'.

[WavyGravy]

59 minutes ago, Biff Burgertime said:

Oh cool, at some point during the whirlwind of bullshit I thought to start a hacks discussion, since as you said - unlike homebrew games, hacks are in abundance.

 

I've heard of these Randomizers and have always been curious, but never pulled the trigger. Are they "truly random" or is there some intelligence involved in where items can end up? If everything's just strewn about as if swept by a tornado, that sounds rather tedious... but I suppose there's only one way to truly find out. Mega Man X would be the perfect game for me to bite into, since I got it for my birthday way back in 1994. I know it inside & out. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance!

I've attempted a few runs and it can get pretty wild depending on the options you select. As a for instance of how much it can change if you let it, I once had a run where my X-Buster was about as effective as colourful language and slower than molasses in January when I faced right, but was absolutely brokenly powerful while facing left. It can get very, very granular with the changes, but it's also configurable if you want to manage the chaos.

[Tanooki]

Good call, wonder if Inceptional will be able to resist seeing what's going on here, narcissist and all.  That Yoshi fix alone makes that game dramatically more tolerable not hearing that crying alone, and yikes that's utterly huge what Star Fox got added.

 

I know the rom is pinched for space, but it has been done, yet why not released I have no idea, but DOOM did get that fix someone did that Randy approved of which changed a tiny piece of code which really raised the FPS meter on the title, largely plays at 50FPS so PAL players get a smooth experience and a nice steep increase on the NTSC side too, also applicable to the JP release where you can pick whatever episode you want too without screwing with the difficulty.

 

Personally I've always wanted someone to do a proper Act Raiser hack or series.  The game is fantastic, the sequel removed what made that one fun and found ways to make it worse at the same time.  The junk game a few years back to honor it sol serpah is terrible, and the official one has some terrible flaws of adding where it shouldn't which makes the game drag.   I'd just love to see another chapter of the series, OG game engine, new levels, new towns, something fresh.

[Kirk_Johnston]

1 hour ago, newtmonkey said:

Great idea for a topic!  That Starfox hack looks very interesting.

 

Here are the hacks I've got on my SD2SNES:

 

Alien 3: Assembly Cut

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4507/

This is basically a QoL hack.  It adds a save system (the original game uses passwords), and also changes the controller layout a bit, closer to Super Metroid.

 

Blackthorne - Red Blood

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4650/

This simple hack recolors the green blood red.

 

Eek! The Cat - Color Enhancement

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6336/

Although this appears to be yet another horrible licensed platformer, it's actually kind of unique and worth a play.  Anyway, as released the game's graphics are way too dark and lack contrast, so this palette hack improves things a lot.

 

Jurassic Park Save Feature Patch

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6605/

Crucial patch for this somewhat underrated game (great graphics and excellent soundtrack)!  It's an action/adventure game with a large area to explore and stuff to figure out... and yet, the game has no way to save your progress (not even passwords).  If you know what you're doing, the game can be completed in a couple of hours, but that would require many many attempts to figure it out, starting over from the beginning each time.  Anyway, this hack adds a save feature.

 

Secret of Mana Turbo

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=27890.0

This completely overhauls the game.  It removes the stamina bar system, adds a day/night cycle, and incorporates a bunch of other fixes and stuff.  A fun way to revisit a fondly remembered but janky game.

 

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Deluxe

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5025/

This adds a bunch of content to make the game a bit closer to the arcade version, including playable Sheeva.

**Unfortunately, the author of the hack asked romhacking to remove it... it's worth seeking out, though.

I like all the hacks the add FastROM support, such as the Gradius one that removes almost all the slowdown from the games other than in the most intense sections where the whole screen is full of enemies and bullets and loads of large poppable bubbles in the most extreme example, which almost turns it into a completely different game to play. Same with the ones for Contra III (also restores cheats), Super Castlevania IV (also adds the red blood and crosses back in), Super Ghouls n Ghosts (also allows storing of weapons and quick weapon selection with L and R), and even Super R-Type (makes a big difference to how it feels just like the Gradius one). There's also the SA1 hacks for most of these same games that take that to the next level and removes all slowdown entirely and really does make them all play sublimely. The one for Super Mario All-Stars that fixes the jumping when you hit blocks in Super Mario Bros. is pretty good too. And I think the ones that add more enemies into games like Turtles in Time and Final Fight 1 and 2 are pretty interesting as well, although they're not polished to basically finished game quality. Some of the ones that have added in MSU1 support are very impressive to see as well, like the recent DuckTales port on SNES for example, which is both awesome to see as a port in and of itself but then twice as cool with the MSU1 cutscenes and audio added in too. All things that have got me interested in the hacking scene around SNES in modern times. The Star Fox EX one is extremely impressive to see how far they've went with that, to the point it almost feels like a full sequel. Next I would like one for Doom that doubles the frame rate using HDMA as the original programmer has talked about, as well as including the one that already lets you properly move-strafe. And, similarly, I would love a full hack of Wolfenstein that restores all the enemies and gore and stuff to how they are in the original game.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[newtmonkey]

@Kirk_Johnston

I'll have to try that Super Mario All-Stars hack, because my one complaint about that otherwise excellent game is how weird it feels to jump and hit blocks.  I haven't played any of hacks that remove slowdown, because I firmly believe that the difficulty for those games was tuned with slowdown in mind.  It's still very cool that they're out there, though.

[Kirk_Johnston]

35 minutes ago, newtmonkey said:

@Kirk_Johnston

I'll have to try that Super Mario All-Stars hack, because my one complaint about that otherwise excellent game is how weird it feels to jump and hit blocks.  I haven't played any of hacks that remove slowdown, because I firmly believe that the difficulty for those games was tuned with slowdown in mind.  It's still very cool that they're out there, though.

Yeah, even though I was dubious at first as it never bothered me with the jumping as is in the Super Mario All-Stars version, it does make it just that bit better now. 

 

Surprisingly, I actually find playing Gradius III easier with the FastROM patch, and it's more fun overall for me now for me too. It went from being a shmup that I know most people thought was great on the system, although I was always mostly just warm on compared to a few others I put at the top of the list, to one I actually think ranks right up there with the best of the generation. And that reminds me that U.N. Squadron has a nice FastROM patch too, which takes what was already possibly my top shump on SNES and polishes it to a shine. There's FastROM patches for so many games now. Even Parodius Da!, which honestly has no meaningful slowdown anyway, has had it added too, and although I've not patched it as I don't actually find it necessary there at all, presumably that just makes it run perfectly for the most part (as a side note, I'm slowly starting to think this might even be my top 16-bit shump). It's great to have the option though, and it seems the list of titles with FastROM patches is ever growing, so that's great. Wouldn't mind it in Pocky & Rocky, which is a brilliant game that suffers from a wee bit of slowdown here and there (not game breaking in the slightest, but it is there), and a little FastROM would sort it right out.

 

One hack I want that doesn't exist yet is one that adds the balloons and little negotiation scenes from the Genesis version into the SNES version of Theme Park. With that, and I think a couple of other minor QOL improvements I can't recall just now, it would be my version of choice on any of the home consoles. Such an addictive game!

 

Edit: Turns out there already is a FastROM patch for Pocky & Rocky! So that's one I'll be giving a wee go.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[Wayler]

44 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

That Yoshi fix alone makes that game dramatically more tolerable not hearing that crying alone

I don't know. While I utterly hate that eargrating sound, it still brings much needed tension and danger to an otherwise cute and cuddly experience. Without the sound, you don't have the same motivation to go get him and oh god, please make it stop.

 

2 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

Secret of Mana Turbo

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=27890.0

This completely overhauls the game.  It removes the stamina bar system, adds a day/night cycle, and incorporates a bunch of other fixes and stuff.  A fun way to revisit a fondly remembered but janky game.

Man, this one is just filled to the brim with goodies. Definitely going to use this hack the next time I get around to playing SoM.

 

 

Still waiting for someone to hack SOS as a new adventure....

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The main issue with some hacks like the Turtles in Time hack that adds more enemies is that it clearly wasn't tested on real hardware. If you run it on the real thing you get a flickering mess of sprites dropping out, palette corruption issues, and even a slight performance stutter from time to time. In some cases the sprite drop out is so bad you can't even see the player and half the enemies.

 

The MSU-1 hacks are interesting for what they can do for things like Tokimeki Memorial, but it needs to be clear that the FMV cutscenes many of them do wouldn't be possible on a theoretical SNES CD add-on. The Ducktales intro alone is well beyond the bit rate limits of a 2x drive and possibly even a 4x drive. You'd need a 6x drive to pull that off with CD-quality audio and uncompressed frames at that frame rate, and good luck getting that into an affordable early 90s add-on. Compression could help make it feasible but that would probably require an additional CPU to help with as I don't know if the SNES CPU could handle that. And that still would end up with compression artifacts most likely.

[Atariboy]

Some of my favorites have been hacks that make unlockable minigames into their own standalone SNES game.

 

Time Pilot '95

This was a bonus game for reaching 100% completion in the Japanese exclusive Ganbare Goemon 4. This hack turns it into a standalone game while adding a title screen to it.

 

Pitfall

This turns the recreation of the 2600 classic that was hidden in Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure into a standalone game.

 

Pac-Man

Along those same lines, this turns the port of Pac-Man that's included in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures into a standalone game.

 

Ms. Pac-Man

Just like Pac-Man, the port of Ms. Pac-Man that was included in Pac-Man 2 is now a standalone game. This predates the standalone Ms. Pac-Man release on the SNES by several years and is quite different.

 

Super Mario All-Stars

For a change of pace with Super Mario All-Stars, I enjoy the combination of the previously mentioned physics fix along with this graphics hack that makes Super Mario Bros. a bit more faithful to the NES original.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Atariboy

[Tanooki]

7 hours ago, TrekkiesUnite118 said:

The main issue with some hacks like the Turtles in Time hack that adds more enemies is that it clearly wasn't tested on real hardware. If you run it on the real thing you get a flickering mess of sprites dropping out, palette corruption issues, and even a slight performance stutter from time to time. In some cases the sprite drop out is so bad you can't even see the player and half the enemies.

 

The MSU-1 hacks are interesting for what they can do for things like Tokimeki Memorial, but it needs to be clear that the FMV cutscenes many of them do wouldn't be possible on a theoretical SNES CD add-on. The Ducktales intro alone is well beyond the bit rate limits of a 2x drive and possibly even a 4x drive. You'd need a 6x drive to pull that off with CD-quality audio and uncompressed frames at that frame rate, and good luck getting that into an affordable early 90s add-on. Compression could help make it feasible but that would probably require an additional CPU to help with as I don't know if the SNES CPU could handle that. And that still would end up with compression artifacts most likely.

HSSSS.... there that's for Incestinal as he would never tolerate having the MSU1 talked down to nor the SNES CD that would have thrown shit around like a PS1 would have, clearly you're in the wrong there, stop...stop or I will make some game maker videos put together with duct tape and chewing gum to get photoshop to attach alucard to it with some goomba to show just how wrong you are.

 

Seriously though, odds are almost positive you're right, the SNES CD to be fair was more or less exactly what we saw it should have been at the convention circuit/Ben Hecks video breakdowns of him analyzing and repairing it along with how the added cart handled some bits too.  The thing is the SNES CD was largely a storage tool for FMV, streaming music, having far more assets to use, and a bit more memory and what not to increase those assets without bogging the SNES itself down, it was a lift up, not a rocket ship to orbit like crackhead joe here likes to posit.  I'd love to see someone make a cart with a FPGA just made for the MSU-1 outright, what would that cost have been now, how about a chipset of the tech of the early-earlier-mid 90s too.  It's fantasy that's for certain, and if you think the $100 SVP chipped Virtua Racing was nasty enough, ugh who knows.  Even then having the MSU-1, you still have the storage issue and speed of it, that 6x CD you said, and yikes you're getting into 3DO pricepoint ($700) range I would imagine, something worse than buying an AES and a game or two in the day which says a lot.

 

 

 

Also @Wayler agree to disagree, the screeching is a deterrent sure, but it's more of a negative to be as shrill as it is and takes away from all the amazing music and sound otherwise.  Enough people were known to just mute the game or wear headphones as it was just that bad, should have had an option given there was tension enough with the death clock and hovering away from you mechanic as it is.

[+Biff Burgertime]

I only played through Yoshi's Island once back when SNES emulation was new'ish, and I agree that the crying baby a(n annoying) deterrent, a way to convey something is wrong - much like the annoying beeps in many games when your health gets low. It serves a purpose.

 

To each his own though.

[Austin]

Yeah I don't know. The baby cry doesn't bother me that much. Then again, I'm also not being knocked around left and right like some of you may. 🤷‍♂️

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Austin

[Kirk_Johnston]

Here's a small one I'd love to see that would take a nearly perfect game to a kinda perfect game imo, which would be to change the vs sign in Street Fighter II to the one in Street Fighter II Turbo and just make the background colour on the likes of the player select and vs screens use the full screen height, because there's really no good reason for them not to:

 

Because, honestly, I think Capcom kinda nailed it with the first Street Fighter II on SNES.

 

Note: In some hypothetical world, I actually think it would be possible to reduce the amount of vblank Capcom used here too, especially now that I've seen Maxwel's Samurai Shodown demo below--I'd even be at peace with it just being centered vertically if nothing else--but I don't expect anyone to ever try to push a hack that far, so I'm just thinking out loud here:

Edited August 25, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[Austin]

Pretty sure this thread is supposed to be about actual hacks that exist, not more hypothetical BS.

[WavyGravy]

You are quite correct, Austin. We want stuff to play and discuss, not whiteroom theory-crafting delivered by a fucking lunatic.

 

I'll be honest, one of the reasons I made this thread was that I thought he wouldn't be able to see it with me being on ignore, because I fucking knew he'd do this if he saw it.

 

Anyway, not to feed the troll too much because I know he's reading anyway, I'm super hyped to try that Castlevania 4 hack. I got to the point where I was able to do both loops of SCV IV on one life, so some new levels would probably be a good thing for me!

[Austin]

Just now, WavyGravy said:

Anyway, not to feed the troll too much because I know he's reading anyway, I'm super hyped to try that Castlevania 4 hack. I got to the point where I was able to do both loops of SCV IV on one life, so some new levels would probably be a good thing for me!

I am the same way with the stock game, being able to sleepwalk my way through it. The hack is significantly more challenging, no joke. I was able to get through it in one sitting, but it took many continues and four hours of my life. I didn't even bother with the second loop with the hack, but now that we're talking about it, I may have to try it. 

[Tanooki]

You're right he'll read it and he'll act stupid given the chance.  The best thing to do, keep posting and ignoring anything he says, or at least if not that, pick apart and point out every fault in what is posted as a warning to others.

[Kirk_Johnston]

I also like the Hyper Street Kart hack:

 

Which also makes me think of Street Racer:

 

And a hack I'd like to see for this game is a simple one that removes all the pickup/item tiles from the track, which I think are really hard to see what's what and just clutters things visually. And what to do instead can be a thought for another day.

 

The Oh No! More Zombies Ate My Neighbors one is really good too:

 

Along with all the changed content it also adds reverse item cycling, which comes in handy, as well as using Select to bring up the victim radar and some other stuff. I actually just use the ZAMN Reverse Inventory Cycling hack along with Zombies Ate My Neighbors: Bloody Disgusting Edition on the standard game though.

 

On a side note there, I'd actually love a hack for this game with a mode that removes the ever-spawning enemies and instead has a max set amount of them that will spawn in a level and once killed will not return, maybe even if possible with the enemies remaining on the floor after being killed like you see in Doom for example (possibly done via just background tile changes showing graves or crosses or something like that where they died rather than sprites). I think that would be very cool and make the game that much easier, which I'd more than welcome and love personally.

 

Maui Mallard is one that already has a wee hack to address the rather erratic camera there, which is appreciated, although I think it could taken a little further still:

 

I had a chat with the guy who did the hack and suggested possibly adding in an extra element where the camera, rather than only having the new pause for half a second or so before it moves ahead, starts shifting ahead immediately if the player is actually holding down the d-pad direction to indicate they intended to keep moving in the direction (so the camera won't shake if you just flick the d-pad back and forth, but it will start moving ahead as soon as you actually hold to move forward), which is similar to part of how it's implemented in Yoshi's Island:

 

And Donkey Kong Country also has a rather interesting implementation that could be a reference point there too, which the same person who did the Maui Mallard camera hack already talked about in nice detail along with cameras for a bunch of other games in a great video he made on the subject:

 

He's been open to the idea anyway, so maybe something extra will happen there.

 

In fact, I'd like to see this kind of intelligent auto-adjusting camera hack added into a whole load of SNES games that otherwise have kinda low visibility ahead cameras.

 

By the way, Maxwel is the same guy who's done some great experiments and demos on SNES, such as the recent Magician Lord and Samurai Shodown ones.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[Kirk_Johnston]

Since I accidently double posted, I'll just say that the camera does start moving ahead of the player once they start moving properly in the version of Maui Mallard with the hack, but it does so after a bit of time and/or rather slowly, at least during the initial movement. So my proposal would be to have basically no delay beyond the time required to not register quick flicks back and forth of the d-pad in succession, and, once it's clear the player is actually moving forward (maybe after say ten frames of holding the d-pad in one direction), at that point to move it much faster ahead of the player and into the new position that gives as much view ahead as possible. Anyway, if I were in a room with a programmer or if the option was there to do so myself it would a matter of tweaking values until it felt just right basically.

 

Oh, and here's another simple but totally appreciated hack, which is the patch to allow move-strafing in Doom:

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5272/

 

And, since I'm now talking about SNES Doom, is this allowed to be considered:

 

It could get closer to that anyway if Randy Linden [or someone else] implements the Doom SNES double speed frame rate he's talked about, so I guess that hack would be fine either way:

Edited August 26, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[WavyGravy]

On 8/25/2023 at 12:30 AM, newtmonkey said:

Secret of Mana Turbo

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=27890.0

This completely overhauls the game.  It removes the stamina bar system, adds a day/night cycle, and incorporates a bunch of other fixes and stuff.  A fun way to revisit a fondly remembered but janky game.

I'll definitely be firing this up as well. I never played Secret of Mana back in the day, and I actually came to it after playing Seiken Densetsu 3 and I've always bounced off of it. I just don't like the rhythm of the combat with the cooldown and it's just always felt... off. Finding out that it was originally an SNES CD game and had to be cut down once the add-on died makes a lot of the jank make sense, but it sounds like this fixes a lot of that. Have you tried it?