[OneCrudeDude]

It is possible to make homebrew games and make money off them, though the profit margin would be very slim, much slimmer than that of your average faux-retro game that capitalizes on Nintendo's only era of relevance.  However, I had an idea for a model that combines both, where a programmer makes an NES game and releases a "mass market" version elsewhere, which will be cheaper yet bring the money in.  The NGDEV guys have a similar idea, except they make their games for the Neo Geo and Dreamcast instead.

[FAST6191]

There have been several pieces of paid for homebrew and unlicensed content over the years. These days most will go to the effort of making carts/discs for them but software only is definitely an option, how lucrative such a thing might be is an entirely different debate though.
For the NES most recently there was Super Bat Puncher, however I think it is still in demo form.
You mentioned some DC stuff.
For the GB/GBC there is Little Sound DJ (LSDJ), they do occasionally sell carts for it but that is usually taken care of by most people making GB/GBC flash carts.
For the GBA there was Meteo (a video player) and a quite nice bookreader ( http://www.mqp.com/fun/gb_dnld.htm , originally bookreader.co.uk), several more pieces of homebrew got stuck on carts at various points and stuff like http://www.qwak.co.uk/pages/gba/buy.php also exists. On the flip side several libraries had dual release (free for homebrew, pay me if you want to use it in a commercial game) and pocketnes was somewhat famously used to emulate several commercial games.
On the DS I am not sure what exactly happened with Diamond Trust of London but I do not think it was a licensed title.
Head into the Amiga world, though licensing was not so much a thing there, and some of the other more arcade than console machines and very odd things happen.

Beyond that a fair bit of stuff got a donator only bit of functionality/bonus content.

About the only trouble you might face is if your SDK would have license issues -- most do not even distribute binaries of stuff made with the xbox SDK let alone sell it. I do not think it will be the case here but be aware of it.

[KingMike]

Diamond Trust must've been approved in some form as I do recall the point of the Kickstarter was to pay Nintendo's manufacturing costs.

[MrBing]

Ogre Battle hacks featuring great battles of history.

[tc]

How about letting PAL Pokemon Ranger Shadows of Almia change language in a sensible way?
From trying to help someone out, it appears to me DS firmware mode is used upon first run only. Then set into the non-deletable save file without warning.

Unless there's some button code to erase all data we've overlooked...

http://techforums.nintendo.com/message/129250

[FAST6191]

Actual language changing code, especially if it is locked up like this, might be an odd one. I would take a look at some of the language forcing patches as I guess things would at least be strongly reminiscent of them.
Doing the forest for the trees thing, especially as it works like this for some actual 3ds stuff with less than second hand friendly saves, is write some data to the save; it tends to then trigger the save check/corrupt detection and wipe the save allowing you to start over. In a pinch, or if you lack the gear to dump and restore saves, you might try turning it off as it is saving (it may not work at first so try a few).

[tc]

Yeah I've just tried an emulator. Still I did learn something from it, another method to discourage used games.

[Zero Dozer]

So, there is Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex for PS2. And there are it's incredibly bad-synched scenes. The image is way faster than the sound, and the video sequences end way before the sound sequences do.

What do I need, you ask? I need someone to SYNCH THAT CRAP RIGHT. The guys at Konami/Universal/whatever sucked hard at making the scenes watchable, thanks to this synching problem. God, even Sonic Adventure 2 has better image-sound synchrony than this game.

Can anybody fix this, for the love of God?

This will pile along with my other requests on this thread.

[johnny]

Here is a story idea I had for a Zelda: A Link to the Past hack:

It takes place where the timeline veers off from Majora's Mask. Link is defeated in Majora's Mask and the moon crashes into Clock Town causing lots of destruction. After all this occurs, Majora in its goal to consume everything does so. Not only does Majora succeed in taking over Termina, but also Hyrule. While Majora is causing chaos in Hyrule, the small population Majora neglected to destroy in Termina start to flee as the world Termina is on is dying. They run through a portal into Hyrule and warn Princess Zelda of Hyrule's fate to come. Since no wish could be made on the Triforce while in Hyrule due to the Triforce's powers in Hyrule's World being blocked by Majora, Princess Zelda grabs it and in a hurry directs the rest of the population of Hyrule to head to the dying world of Termina and tells the people of Termina that although she can't save Hyrule using the power of the Triforce, she can save their world. Princess Zelda and the people of Hyrule and Termina all head back to Termina's world as Majora crashes Hyrule's moon into the small planet Hyrule is on causing the planet to be immediately destroyed. Since Termina is located on a bigger world, Termina hasn't been destroyed yet and starts to crumble and break apart. The power of the Triforce surges back when the group arrives in Termina and Princess Zelda wishes for Termina to become a new and peaceful Hyrule. The Triforce grants the wish and Majora is sealed on Hyrule's destroyed world.

Years pass and Termina has changed into a new Hyrule Kingdom. This new kingdom enjoys a long era of peace and prosperity. Decades pass and one of the descended Garo manages to resurrect the Garo Master Muri. He steals the Triforce, kidnaps the Princess Zelda of that time period and New Hyrule falls into an age of imprisonment with the Garo at the forefront. A resistance is formed and one hero (your character) sets out to get back the Triforce and restore order. The only way to defeat Muri is to collect the Masks from all the guardians and only then can you head to the Moon to stand against him.

Things to know:

The Garo's homeworld is located on New Hyrule/Termina's Moon

Muri was given this name as it means impossible to overcome. This is because many skilled warriors who have tried to defeat him have failed

Muri is not the same Garo Master miniboss  whom Link defeats in Majora's Mask. He is far more powerful.

Hyrule Bosses

Odolwa - Woodfall Temple

Goht - Snowhead Temple

Gyorg - Great Bay Temple

Twinmold - Stone Tower Temple

Moon Boss

Muri

[Jeville]

Zelda I can pull this off. By default, it's already poorly populated and looking like a post-apocalyptic setting. It's more ambitious doing A Link to the Past I suppose.

[NES Boy]

I can't believe no tried this project yet: replacing Luigi's, Peach's, Toad's, and Wario's voices in Mario Kart Super Circuit with their US MK64 voices. Even the "Congratulations!" voice should be replaced with the US MK64 version.

Here is a video comparing the voices of both versions of Mario Kart 64 to hear what I am talking about.

It's been a I since I suggested this. I'd like to see someone do this, especially since Mario Kart 8 is on the horizon.

[johnny]

Zelda I can pull this off. By default, it's already poorly populated and looking like a post-apocalyptic setting. It's more ambitious doing A Link to the Past I suppose.

The twist could be that Termina was really Limbo before the wish on the Triforce created New Hyrule. What was supposed to happen on the timeline was that Link was supposed to die in the Lost Woods in Old Hyrule after Ocarina of Time and stop Majora from consuming everything (taking over Limbo, Old Hyrule etc.). When that didn't happen there was no Twilight Princess storyline as everyone in Ocarina of Time that lived in Old Hyrule died thanks to Majora. This means that the Link in Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask could not come back as a Stalfos either since his spirit was purged by Majora. Also the A Link to the Past timeline couldn't happen because again Majora wiped out Old Hyrule. When Zelda makes a wish on the Triforce while in Limbo/Termina, Termina becomes Hyrule and Hyrule where Majora is sealed becomes Limbo.

Seems also the miniboss music in Majora's Mask is a little similar to the boss music in A Link to the Past/A Link between Worlds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEovlsqT4OA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KQFcIhR8zc

[Jeville]

Make this a reality where trainers can hold more than six Pokémon (not necessarily the amount that the picture shows lol), but not for the player because it's honestly not worth the extra work to overhaul the party menu if we can make a massacre with 1-2 anyway. So, increase max PP on moves and/or make ether/elixirs purchasable to compensate.

In the original Pokémon Red/Blue, it's only you and your rival who holds six (gym/elite four leaders hold less than six). So as an alternative to the above, you can just make more trainers to use all six slots.

What I'd also like is the ability to release Pokémon directly from the party menu without needing a PC to. Make it so that the Pokémon at the top of the party list cannot be released, to prevent you from being able to be without a Pokémon.

[Zero Dozer]

Well, there's another idea here.

I don't know if this fits the game hacking topic, but both Soul Calibur II and III for the PS2 face a problem with save files. I think it is better explained through this FAQ: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/927089-soulcalibur-iii/faqs/40424

I wonder if there is a way to fix this, so the game can be saved safely on any Memory Card.

Also, just to fit the game hacking idea, there's something I wanted to see altered: can someone REMOVE that fighting count method for unlockables? I mean, leave only the challenging ways to get the unlockables and remove the fight count system. This is not an Arcade game, this is a console game!

[FAST6191]

Gah that was a prime example of why gamefaqs is looked down upon in terms of writing style.

Still it looks like the PS2 kicks memory handling to the game itself and Soul Calibur's is not up to par, in general programming this is nothing unusual as writing robust file allocation table handling code is not as easy as you might think. That would be something that ROM hackers take care of, though I would prefer to wait and see if any emulator author tackles it first. It might turn out to be someone fluffed a compare somewhere and it could, as the faq speculated, be that someone neglected figure out the maximum potential save size
I did not see mention of it there but was there ever a fixed version? This sort of thing is the exact sort of thing I often see fixed in new pressings, when it makes it to greatest hits and other such things. I would be far more happy to port a fix than reverse engineer something and figure out what is wrong, especially if it is something solved as easily as "just make sure you have a backup".

On the unlocks thing. So if I understand the game has something like "beat 5 opponents without being hit to unlock uber sword, alternatively compete in 500 bouts and the uber sword will be unlocked". You want to change it so the only way to unlock would be the no damage run and you could compete in as many bouts as you like and it would never unlock. Personally I do like that and having unlocks after so many bouts works for me but it is a perfectly valid hack. There are all sorts of ways to set about this but I would be reasonably surprised if it did not turn out to be an assembly hack. If you can do cheats though then the value may well be in memory. If you hold the number of bouts at a low number (a basic cheat really) then you could effectively do the same but it is not the best solution for what you want here.

[Zero Dozer]

Gah that was a prime example of why gamefaqs is looked down upon in terms of writing style.

And still I trust it. I mean, when I want to come by information in some game, it's there that I'll go in most cases.

Still it looks like the PS2 kicks memory handling to the game itself and Soul Calibur's is not up to par, in general programming this is nothing unusual as writing robust file allocation table handling code is not as easy as you might think. That would be something that ROM hackers take care of, though I would prefer to wait and see if any emulator author tackles it first. It might turn out to be someone fluffed a compare somewhere and it could, as the faq speculated, be that someone neglected figure out the maximum potential save size
I did not see mention of it there but was there ever a fixed version? This sort of thing is the exact sort of thing I often see fixed in new pressings, when it makes it to greatest hits and other such things. I would be far more happy to port a fix than reverse engineer something and figure out what is wrong, especially if it is something solved as easily as "just make sure you have a backup".

I didn't hear of any bugfixed version of Soul Calibur II and III. Still, I never dealt with PS2 emulators before (as my machine isn't able to run a PS2 emulator), so I don't know if the guys who made PCSX2 managed to sort this out.

On the unlocks thing. So if I understand the game has something like "beat 5 opponents without being hit to unlock uber sword, alternatively compete in 500 bouts and the uber sword will be unlocked". You want to change it so the only way to unlock would be the no damage run and you could compete in as many bouts as you like and it would never unlock. Personally I do like that and having unlocks after so many bouts works for me but it is a perfectly valid hack. There are all sorts of ways to set about this but I would be reasonably surprised if it did not turn out to be an assembly hack. If you can do cheats though then the value may well be in memory. If you hold the number of bouts at a low number (a basic cheat really) then you could effectively do the same but it is not the best solution for what you want here.

You didn't understand.

The Soul Calibur III unlocking system actually goes partially by the amount of fights you entered. It counts continues in Arcade Mode and Tales of Souls as well, as well as the random fights in Chronicles of the Swords.

Alternately to that, there are other methods to unlock things in SCIII. To unlock a specific character, you must beat him in Tales of Souls mode. This goes also for Olcadan and Abyss, the two last ones to be unlocked.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/927089-soulcalibur-iii/cheats

Just pay attention to the list of unlockables. Namely:
> Various Character Illustrations, Group Illustrations, Speciality Arts
> Extra Create a Soul Classes
> The Vs. Special mode
> Every unlockable character
> Every unlockable stage

Most of them, alternatively to having attended a prerequisite mentioned on the page I showed, can demand you to only play a set number of battles. That's not fair, and I want to have this "battle number system" removed, leaving only the hard way to unlock things on this game. I mean, like the good ol' Soul Calibur, and a good ol' console fighting game, ya know.

[FAST6191]

Gamefaqs can usually be counted on for good info, you are often made to work through a lot to get to it though.

On the unlocks that is what I said/thought. Granted my example was a hypothetical rather than from a list like that.
Personally skill and eventual unlocks works for me but that is largely irrelevant here, doubly so as the fighting game "community" and I rarely see eye to eye on anything when it comes to "fairness" and the game design related to it.

Still it is a valid hack. It might be that buried in the game is some table/xml file or unlock info with the rest of the weapon info. This is more of a modern PC thing in my experience but it is certainly not exclusive to it. Here you could try deleting the bout number based unlock component or setting it something crazy high (FFFF FFFF bouts would take quite some time after all).
Otherwise the game probably holds it in code. I imagine the system runs something like "IF [skill unlock] = done then unlock, IF [bout number]= unlock amount then unlock, ELSE carry on with life". You could break the bout number component (or set the bout number to something silly high/impossible), this is nothing unusual in difficulty hacks ( http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=16917.0 being an example of similar logic).

The cheat thing would work as the game would have to hold the number of bouts in memory somewhere (reading from the save card every time is not good form), forcing this to be a low number would hopefully prevent unlocks. However it would probably mess up the stats and that is often unacceptable for fighting game people. However I would try making this cheat as it would probably be useful to watch that memory location for making the proper disable bout based unlocks hack.

To go one further if it is just a personal hack then fine, I have certainly done enough of those for me, but I am not sure how big the takeup will be. Granted looking at the table it is something you could probably do manually as well ("I have not done the unlocks, therefore I can not use this yet even if I technically can select it").  If you plan to use it in/as a basis in further hacks then ignore me here.

[Zero Dozer]

The problem is that I actually never hacked a game before (maybe Top Gear 3000 passwords through figuring the game's password system). That's why I give the suggestions here: I hope that someone is skilled enough to do what I can't.

If you can pull this one (SCIII) out, I'll be very grateful.

[jonwvsu]

Legends of the Hidden Temple! Two player co-op trivia and Double Dare style mini games. One player assigns a computer partner (possibly a moron). The final temple would consist of rooms that vary in style between TLoZ style puzzle rooms and SMB style speed platforming rooms. All the rooms would be random and the player could see the layout before the match. Prizes could include Casio watches, Tiger electronic games, V-Tec phones, and Vivitar cameras.

[Clippit]

Uhmm... guys?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN9odj1VV5Y

This needs to happen! I mean, c'mon!