ROM Hacks News
After a 9 month hiatus NBA Jam 21 is back making its 2022 debut during the Playoffs. It’s better late than never. Version 1.4 brings a new look and feel with a revamped logo, updated splash screens, new FMV highlights, and 7 new players added plus one hyperactive ninja.
The newly added players are Anthony Edwards, James Harden, DeMar Derozan, Zach LaVine, Darius Garland, Anthony Davis, and Naruto Uzumaki.
As always there are minor fixes and improvements to the game. The most noteworthy one is the CPU Difficulty fix which makes the AI more balanced and less aggressive.
The campaign ladder was also updated to reflect the 2021 NBA season standings. The Milwaukee Bucks are now the Champions making them the final team to beat.
Check out this AMV style trailer to see more details of the changes: https://youtu.be/JFKcWwtxBBA
[ 0 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
ROM Hacks News
It’s long overdue, but today is the day, Super Mario Land DX v2.0 is out!
This update brings a lot of new features and bugfixes from the original v1.0, which from toruzz’s own words: “Many people will consider it the real v1.0.”
So, what can you find in the newest update?
- Framerate issues have been addressed. That includes issues in the original game, especially noticeable in 3-2 (hard mode).
- Mario’s sprites have been revamped. They are mostly the same size as the originals.
- Mario’s relative position when jumping has been fixed. This was responsible for the weird collision issues in v1.0 (yeah, it wasn’t the sprites).
- Luigi has been added. He has slightly different physics.
- Old graphics are now an option. Not all graphics are unchanged, as it mostly affects the sprites, but this should be good enough for people who didn’t like the new ones.
- A shortcut to difficult mode has been added.
- New palette for Superball Mario/Luigi.
- New animation for Super Mario/Luigi when looking up.
- New animation for Super Mario/Luigi when entering a pipe.
- Options menu added to accommodate the new options.
- Battery added to permanently save your options, top score and level selection.
- Every single stage’s colors have been tweaked.
- An incompatibility screen for the original Game Boy has been added.
- Hundreds of minor (and not so minor) changes and fixes.
What are you waiting for? Relive the first outing of Mario on the GameBoy with a brand new look and polish!
[ 15 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
Documents News
Great news everyone!
If you wanted to translate a retro game and you didn’t know how to start, or maybe you wanted everything covered in a 3 short papers guide, your prayers have been answered!
The last document of that guide has been finally published, that achievement is now at your fingertips!
You can see the 3 document names and links here:
(Besides each of them can be read as standalone)
Romhacking 101 - Script Dump: https://www.romhacking.net/documents/871/
Romhacking 102 - Font & Sprites ( + Palette): https://www.romhacking.net/documents/872/
Romhacking 103 - Script insertion: https://www.romhacking.net/documents/873/
[ 2 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
Translations News
Soul Eater: Battle Resonance, released for the PS2 and PSP in 2009, is now fully playable in English.
A traditional 2.5D fighting game, it features 11 locales and 13 playable characters from the popular anime and manga series. The game has an adventure mode that follows the original story with over 50 missions to complete. In addition to the adventure, there are versus, team battle, and arcade modes which allow players to continue the battle long after the story has ended.
Separate patches were created for both the PS2 and PSP games. The PS2 version contains the Soul Theater, an additional mode for viewing screenshots from the anime, as well as additional costumes for Maka, Black☆Star and Kid. The PSP version supports Ad Hoc multiplayer to play with friends over two devices, allowing both players to have their own dedicated camera.
The team behind the patch also previously created translations for Medusa no Inbou (NDS) and Monotone Princess (Wii), meaning this release sees all three Japan-only Soul Eater console games now available in English!
[ 2 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
Translations News
Over a decade after its initial release, Pennywise and Tom present a new and improved translation of Goemon 2 for the NES. The ROM has been expanded this time around for a full script and various other graphics have been newly hacked and translated.
A translated manual can be found here as well thanks to Almendrita:
[ 4 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
ROM Hacks News
Garfield puts you in the driver’s seat!
Join America’s favorite cartoon cat Garfield, Odie and Jon Arbuckle. Grab your controller and pull up to the starting line. It’s you against four other all star-racers in this thrilling Nintendo kart racing competition! You’ll face hair pin turns, outrageous curves, oil slicks and rain clouds as you make your way through 32 treacherous courses that will test your driving ability like never before.
Along the way, you’ll pick up performance boosters like Turbo Acceleration, Sticky Tires, and Top Speed that will help you get to the finish line first. But when the going gets rough, you’ll use bombs and missiles to knock the competition for a loop and make sure you’re the winner! Collect the letters that spell NINTENDO and upgrade to a faster, more powerful kart. Start with Garfield and unlock Jon Arbuckle and Odie. Hop in and enjoy the ultimate in video racing competition on your NES. Go fast, go big! It’s Garfield Kart!
This hack is based on the 2017 hack “Mario Kart NES” by PacnSacDave. While most changes have been reverted or redesigned here, elements like the Mario jingle are still present. Hack by Pangent Technologies (pangenttech, Signal and Noise on Youtube)
[ 10 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
ROM Hacks News
A week of adventure with the world’s favorite comic strip cat!
A Week Of Garfield is somewhat infamous as a poor-quality licensed NES game. It is not quite as bad as its reputation, but it’s very flawed and unforgiving.
This hack greatly improves the character graphics for Garfield, and alters other character and item graphics, along with other improvements and corrections.
This hack features:
* Overhauled graphics, especially Garfield and the UI. * Start with full health. * Level select. Press Select at the title screen to skip stages, then press Start. * New font in the style of “Search for Pooky” for the Game Boy Advance. * All text converted to ASCII format. * Graphical bugs fixed, like how the lasagna powerup is rendered. * Palette bugs fixed, like the incorrect palette of the Mice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Garfield is a one of a kind cat. He loves lasagna and coffee. He hates Mondays. When his friend Odie the dog disappears suddenly, Garfield goes on a week-long adventure to find Odie. It won’t be easy. Garfield will be attacked by mice, birds, spiders, frogs, worms, flies, fish, baseballs and more. Checking in with his owner, cartoonist Jon Arbuckle, Garfield must reach the end of each level and find the key before time runs out. Milk, lasagna and coffee will keep him going. He can kick enemies. He can also throw bones, burgers and cheese. But watch out! He’ll need to defeat the dangerous alley cats who stand in his way. It’s going to be a difficult journey. Can you handle it? Look out, Monday, here comes Garfield, in his first adventure for your Nintendo Entertainment System.
[ 1 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
Documents News
For those who always wanted to understand the wizardry used to make a script dump!
For those who want a unified document instead of going through several to make “only” a few tasks!
For those who want to review the basics after a long time away from the community!
Bunkai has released a romhacking 101 document to cover that.
The document covers how to make a script dump from scratch, with technical info on the process and basic tool use for: Windhex, BGB, Notepad++ Cartographer, and a hex calculator.
The document uses a GBC game but, the explanations are made with a “how to think” approach in mind. Besides, it contains guided examples.
You can follow the link down below to see it, happy Romhacking!!
[ 0 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
Translations News
Culminating nearly five years of work, an English translation of Yumimi Mix Remix for the Sega Saturn has been released!
In a town somewhere in Japan, there once lived a very average high school girl named Yumimi. Together with her best friend Sakurako and friend/crush Shinichi, she enjoyed happy if very average days…until one fateful morning when, on the way to school, she witnesses a procession of ghosts(?) crossing the street before her very eyes! And then in the hallway, a girl suddenly latches on to her, tells her she has to “go stitch the holes,” and – declares her love for her!? Suddenly, Yumimi’s life isn’t so average anymore, though she may soon be wishing it was…
Yumimi Mix Remix is a 1995 adventure game for the Sega Saturn. A direct port of the 1993 Mega-CD game Yumimi Mix, it was created in a collaboration between developer Game Arts (of Lunar and Grandia fame) and well-known shoujo manga artist Izumi Takemoto, who wrote and storyboarded the entire game. A happy marriage of Game Arts’ technical skill with Takemoto’s cute, whimsical artistry and inimitably eccentric sensibilities, the game is comprised entirely of fully-animated, fully-voiced, full-screen cutscenes coupled with periodic multiple-choice prompts, creating an experience almost exactly like watching an anime while still making full use of the interactivity afforded by the game medium.
While this game may be unfamiliar to Western audiences, the advanced animation engine developed for it was later reused to power the cutscenes for Game Arts’ renowned RPG Lunar: Eternal Blue. And though Izumi Takemoto isn’t a name many outside of Japan would recognize, his unique style earned him a considerable cult following and had a wide-reaching influence: Touhou Project creator ZUN is known to have been a fan, to such an extent that an early game in the series features an (unauthorized) appearance from one of Takemoto’s characters.
This patch fully translates the game into English, subtitling all dialogue, songs, and important background text in the manner of a typical subtitled anime. It also adds new in-game options to show or hide Japanese honorifics, to partially or completely disable the subtitles, and to allow unimportant scenes to be skipped during gameplay.
This video demonstrates the translation in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgMF5H3DLEo
This translation was the work of Supper (hacking and translation) and cccmar (testing). Work on the project initially began in 2017, but stalled for years for lack of a translator; the authors hope you’ll feel the result was worth the wait!
[ 8 COMMENTS ] Relevant Link - RHDN Project Page
Translations News
paul_met, aishsha and Pennywise present another complete translation for everyone to enjoy. This time for the Sega Saturn port of Ogre Battle. Unique to this version are an additional five maps for the player to unlock. See if you can find them all!
The official PSX translation was used as a base for this translation, but in the course of aishsha’s review, some significant censorship and butchery was found. So, the script was mostly redone to better present the original creator’s intentions.
See the readme for more details.
Until next time.
