[SunGodPortal]

The only thing that surpassed the SNES and even the N64 (though not right away) was the PSX.  Still IMO it probably doesn't pay to bother rom hacking and changing PSX games around. For that amount of work you're probably better off having your own game engine and making your own game. There were many people who wanted to add in Cursed Prison and Underground Garden into the PSX Symphony of the Night but they quickly lost interest when they saw how much work it was or if it was even possible to do at all. Neo Geo though hasn't at all been explored though afaik.

Even the best PSX games look horribly dated though due to every game company feeling that they had to make every game in 3D before people knew how or had the hardware to make it look good. At least with the best SNES games the developers were smart about working within the limitations of the hardware.

EDIT: N64 games are ugly too.

[Vanya]

Having been a member of Final Fantasy Hacktics for many years I can say with confidence that one of the big problems with hacking PSX games is dealing with the quirks of the CD media itself. Before it was all automated we had to be careful with sector boundaries. It borderlines with pointer recalculations in the annoyance factor.

[tryphon]

It was possible to make great music on the Genesis but I see that as more of an acception rather than the norm.

Which shows you didn't play Genesis a lot. Or SNES.

Because on both console, average was the norm, and great soundtracks exist on both, with no real winner.

I think Castlevania: Bloodlines has one of the best soundtracks of any game for any system.

Of course it's debatable, but there was plenty of MD games with soundtracks I still remember. SoR 1, Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic, Phantasy Star 2 & 3, MUSHA Aleste to name a few. You can even find games where the MD version has a better soundtrack than its SNES counterpart (Street Fighter 2 for example, even if I agree the voices are terrible).

The sound fx are of course where the Genesis fails most miserably. The ugly, limited palettes and the poor sound compared to the SNES have always prevented me from properly warming up to the Genesis.

While it's really true for the palettes (why on Earth didn't Sega design the VDP to use different palettes for sprites and backgrounds? It would have cost nothing more than 128 bytes in CRAM), it's definitely not for sound.

And as you say later, many games succeed in avoiding the palette problem (due to talented artists).

Considering the hardware is some years older, I really think the MD compares very well. The Blast Processing thing is commercial bullshit : the 68000 was noothing exceptionnal at that time. That's the SNES which invented Crap Processing rather

[SunGodPortal]

Which shows you didn't play Genesis a lot. Or SNES.

Because on both console, average was the norm, and great soundtracks exist on both, with no real winner.

You know, I think I'll take that comment back. The reason I don't remember more Genesis music is because I didn't play it as much as I did the SNES (which I have been playing on a regular basis since it came out).

There were a few rare cases where the Genesis music sounded better (Earthworm Jim) but THAT would be the acception rather than the norm. The Genesis sound was simply inferior to the SNES.

[Vanya]

Purely technically speaking the quality of the audio capabilities of the SNES is vastly superior to the Genesis.
But as a person that still enjoys even NES music, both the SNES and the Genesis have some fantastic compositions each in their own right.

[SunGodPortal]

Purely technically speaking the quality of the audio capabilities of the SNES is vastly superior to the Genesis.
But as a person that still enjoys even NES music, both the SNES and the Genesis have some fantastic compositions each in their own right.

Yeah I love me some NES music. Castlevania III, Silver Surfer, TMNT II, etc. Love those synth sounds. Genesis just sounds like the cheapest most generic MIDI.

I think the ship has sailed for me and the Genesis though. I've had too many attempts to like it that failed. The graphics are ugly, the sound is lacking and I don't like the controller (the three buttons on the right, set in a straight line). Due to my view of the Genesis it's probably not possible for me to be more objective about it I guess. All of my judgements are likely to be biased and possibly unfair.

Something from earlier comments has reminded me that there were a few games that I thought were better on the Genesis compared to the SNES. Seems like a remember Pacman 2 and Beavis and Butthead being better on the Genesis. Maybe The Tick as well, but I'm sure none of these are representative of the Genesis library's best.

I stand by what I said about Castlevania Bloodlines though. It's one of the best and none of Michiru's later soundtracks hold a candle to it due to her tendency for filler and sometimes every other track being inappropriate for the Castlevania atmosphere.

[M-Tee]

I'm not much for suggesting stat hacks, but...

I always enjoyed MM2 because the damage caused by finding the "correct weapon" against each boss was so high. I believe this was part of the Normal mode for the US version. MM1 seemed to have pretty high difference as well. Those were the only two I beat in my young.

But, the later games always seemed to have such low damage against bosses. Even if you had "the right weapon," I still felt that bosses were too demanding. I guess, as a kid, I had always thought of the purpose of Megaman games as finding out the right order to beat the bosses, and if I had the right order, then the bosses should be dominated.

So, what I'm getting at is a series of hacks that increase the damage to bosses caused by the weapon against which they are the weakest.

[johnny]

Even the best PSX games look horribly dated though due to every game company feeling that they had to make every game in 3D before people knew how or had the hardware to make it look good. At least with the best SNES games the developers were smart about working within the limitations of the hardware.

EDIT: N64 games are ugly too.

The funny part is that some of the best games on PSX were 2D or 2D-like. Castlevania SOTN and Castlevania Chronicles, Megaman 8 (even with the God Awful voice acting it was pretty fun), and Thunder Force 5. 

I'm not much for suggesting stat hacks, but...

I always enjoyed MM2 because the damage caused by finding the "correct weapon" against each boss was so high. I believe this was part of the Normal mode for the US version. MM1 seemed to have pretty high difference as well. Those were the only two I beat in my young.

But, the later games always seemed to have such low damage against bosses. Even if you had "the right weapon," I still felt that bosses were too demanding. I guess, as a kid, I had always thought of the purpose of Megaman games as finding out the right order to beat the bosses, and if I had the right order, then the bosses should be dominated.

So, what I'm getting at is a series of hacks that increase the damage to bosses caused by the weapon against which they are the weakest.

Megaman 8 and Megaman: Powered Up IMO make things the way you remember. Megaman 8 I think is extremely easy. You fight a boss like Clown Man and use tornado hold and he gets tied up in knots which makes him easy to hit or Tengu Man with Frost and he gets trapped in ice. Unless you're talking Megaman 9 and Megaman 10. I mean I beat those but yeah they were much more challenging.

The things I would improve in Megaman 8 are the cut scenes / voice acting and bringing Cut Man and Wood Man into the PSX version of the game.

Of course there is always this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hP4I_u0_m8

I would think if anyone is going to play Megaman 8 that may be the best way to play it. Just be careful of "JUMP! JUMP!" "SLIDE! SLIDE!" on Frost Man's stage and Wily Stage 1.

[SunGodPortal]

The funny part is that some of the best games on PSX were 2D or 2D-like. Castlevania SOTN and Castlevania Chronicles, Megaman 8 (even with the God Awful voice acting it was pretty fun), and Thunder Force 5.

Too bad so many had to jump on the 3D bandwagon though. I mean, sure, it's progress and all but 2D games during that era seemed so rare it was just silly. I remember being so pissed off that all of the new games were so butt ugly (I thought they were as ugly then as I do now) that I basically stopped paying attention to new games. I picked it up again when the PS2 came out but around that time was when I started getting into emulation and therefore now longer needed to pay attention to new games because I suddenly had access to all of the sweet 16-bit goodness I could handle and then some. I'll probably never run out of SNES games.

[johnny]

Too bad so many had to jump on the 3D bandwagon though. I mean, sure, it's progress and all but 2D games during that era seemed so rare it was just silly. I remember being so pissed off that all of the new games were so butt ugly (I thought they were as ugly then as I do now) that I basically stopped paying attention to new games. I picked it up again when the PS2 came out but around that time was when I started getting into emulation and therefore now longer needed to pay attention to new games because I suddenly had access to all of the sweet 16-bit goodness I could handle and then some. I'll probably never run out of SNES games.

I think the good part is now a days 2D gaming seems to be coming back with games like Shovel Knight.  While I think Rom Hacking is cool and all, I think the spirit of classic gaming can still be captured with indie developers making their own games from the inspiration of that era.

[PresidentLeever]

Mega Man: Wily Wars (MD/GEN)
Basically a partial restoration hack that does these things:
-Speeds up MM's projectiles to be the same speed as on NES
-Removes the little delay when beginning to move (only shortened a bit in MM1's case if possible, though I'm guessing the games all use the same code)
-Easier to refill weapon energy in MM1 (less unforgiving Wily 1 stage)
-Smaller "giant gap" in Wily 1, MM2, so you only need to use three items instead of four.
-Update Proto Man's sprite to be as tall as MM's.

[SCD]

Mega Man: Wily Wars (MD/GEN)
Basically a partial restoration hack that does these things:
-Speeds up MM's projectiles to be the same speed as on NES
-Removes the little delay when beginning to move (only shortened a bit in MM1's case if possible, though I'm guessing the games all use the same code)
-Easier to refill weapon energy in MM1 (less unforgiving Wily 1 stage)
-Smaller "giant gap" in Wily 1, MM2, so you only need to use three items instead of four.
-Update Proto Man's sprite to be as tall as MM's.

That's a cool idea you have there, there's a few more things that should be done to this game as well:

Better music and sound effects.
Better looking sprites for everyone and everything in this game.
Get rid of all the slowdown.
Maybe try and add some of the improvements that was done in the MM3 Improvement NES hack to this version of MM3.

The things I would improve in Megaman 8 are the cut scenes / voice acting and bringing Cut Man and Wood Man into the PSX version of the game.

I would also bring over the Bonus Mode and all the graphical enhancements that were only exclusive in the Sega Saturn version to the PSX version as well.

For the voice acting, I would replace all the English voice tracks with the Japanese voice tracks and add subtitles to the cutscenes as well.

I would also bring over the Japanese intro and ending songs as well.

All these improvements should be done to the PSX version of Mega Man X4 as well.

[PresidentLeever]

While I also find some of the music and sfx to be a bit subpar, I think that would require a lot more work than the points I brought up (save for changing Proto Man's sprite I guess). Not only are most of the songs more complex than on the NES with new harmonies and stuff added, but I don't even know any examples of inserting something like drum samples (which Wily Wars lacks and which would help a lot) into an existing game.

As for the other sprites and the backgrounds I don't really have an issue with what's there, I think the game looks great for the most part. Anything in particular you had in mind?

Fixing the slowdown, yes, absolutely. However I think an overclock feature added to one of the better emulators like Fusion or Regen might be a better way to go about it.

[SCD]

As for the other sprites and the backgrounds I don't really have an issue with what's there, I think the game looks great for the most part. Anything in particular you had in mind?

The sprites that should be changed is the ones that still have their NES sprites.

For the backgrounds, add parallax scrolling to them. Including to the ones that did had parallax scrolling in the NES versions of these games, but are missing in this version.

Someone should add these custom Wily Wars style Protoman sprites to this game:

http://orig09.deviantart.net/4dd5/f/2012/299/3/f/protoman_s_new_wily_wars_style_sprite_by_danmanx5792-d5j1wuu.png
http://orig04.deviantart.net/8f6d/f/2013/070/1/e/protoman_s_new_wily_wars_style_sheet_by_danmanx5792-d5xratt.png

[PresidentLeever]

After looking around a bit I discovered that Regen Debug (0.972) has an overclocking feature, so that's one problem solved!

I recommend setting it to something like 728 cycles for the first Mega Man. There's minor slowdown at 672 cycles during some boss fights if you use bombs or elec beam.

[CyberFox]

- a Restoration Hack of Streets of Rage III (where all the elements from Bare Knuckle III are cut back in)
- overhaul hack of SMB3 based on "Super Pluckio Bros."

[NES Boy]

- overhaul hack of SMB3 based on "Super Pluckio Bros."

Here's some video reference if anyone decides to do this.

[SCD]

- a Restoration Hack of Streets of Rage III (where all the elements from Bare Knuckle III are cut back in)

The best way to do this is someone should hack a English translated patched Bare Knuckle III and replace the title screen with the Streets of Rage 3 title screen and change Sammy's name to his American name, Skate.

- overhaul hack of SMB3 based on "Super Pluckio Bros."

That would be a cool hack to see and play.

[SunGodPortal]

I'd like to see the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 2 hacked into a "Super" Doki Doki Panic.

[jimstrom]

I would like to see a graphical overhaul of Star Tropics 2: Zoda's Revenge.

When the precursor game looks better, you have done something wrong.