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Wasn't ZAS one of those games that purposely used the ghosting effect on the original Game Boy LCD for some graphical effects?
I'd like to check it out on a real system but sadly it's one of those insanely overpriced games.

I wonder how that would've carried over in the patch.

Yup! The game simulates multiple background layers by displaying individual layers on alternating frames, which would then bleed into each other on the OG screen and appear to be displaying simultaneously. If you play the game on a modern screen and/or an emulator that's not properly configured for ghosting it'll flicker like crazy.

Massive bump, I know, but did anything ever come of this hack? I'm curious to see it in action, particularly with the GBC speed boost.

The SNES VC releases basically have 3 files:
- .PCM
- .ROM
- .VAR

The ROM is basically the original file itself.  It can be played in a PC emulator but it won't have any music since the sound is split into a PCM file. The other file is the VAR file which basically makes any changes to the original rom.  One example is on F-ZERO, the VAR file modifiers the game so the screen doesn't flash black every time you hit a wall.

Some of the VC releases like Donkey Kong Country do have the original rom in there as well (aka the .smc / .sfc file) and actually play fine on a PC emulator.  However they just take up more Wii blocks and can actually be deleted and repacked.

Later VC releases do use a compression (LZH8) on the ROM & PCM files but a tool has been made to uncompress them.


Looking at Romancing SaGa 2, the .VAR file is 2 KB.  The stuff you have listed, I would have thought the file would be bigger.  The .ROM uncompressed is 2MB. I'm going to compare it to the original.

With this tool, it is possible to extract the file from the WAD into a working .smc file.  https://github.com/Plombo/vcromclaim

Hmm, all useful info. Thanks! I just wish I was familiar enough with the original games (and competent enough in Japanese) to be able to conclusively confirm/deny all these changes for myself.

I was randomly checking out one of the wikis on RS2 and it mentioned something about the VC release getting extra content, which I'd never heard about. The only details I've been able to find are these, from GFAQS:

Changes made in the re-release

- now you can see an armor's exact attributes in the inventory screen (i.e. various defense values)
- you can also see a weapon's special tech if you've already sparked it
- rough formation info will also be shown in the formation screen, along with over all mods to various positions
- movement speed can be set at the title
- the imperial library will now show the number of battles you've had thus far
- number of battles will now have an actual effect on number of years skipped (I think this was always there though. Maybe now they're just making it explicit)

- the infinite gold trick is now gone
- one of the shields had a 100% avoidance for just arrows is now changed
- full suit regression bug is apparently still in.

- there are now 4 save slots, I think
- a new city improvement is now available called "Orchard Garden". The improvement primarily improves your income, and has 3 stages of development.

- there is also a new dungeon called "Labyrinth of Memories", which becomes available after you clear the canal fortress. Apparently, this is where you can grind for treasure and experience, since some of the treasure chests have resets after each exit. But apparently this feature will cost you 200 points on virtual console. It seems to be a set of four dungeons set by colors: blue, red, green, and black

- stuff that has been confirmed in the labyrinth of memories:
100000 crown chest
300000 crown chest
magic wine
barrier stone
life recovery
herb perfume
Fire-God's Circlet of Protection (This is a shoutout to ring you get in original RS game from the fire god)

Blue maze
Heavy Suit
Black Galadrial
Tiger Armor
Zircon Axe
Quick Ring
Water Ring

Red maze
Cat's Eye
Earth Sword
Thief Ring
Fire Ring

In Green Maze
Ellis Bow
Sharp Greaves
Power Ring
Wind Ring

Black Maze
Ukomu Harpoon
Earth Ring
Magic Ring

- new game plus is available for 150 points on VC
- just about everything ports over here, apparently, save for story items.

- there's a new stone called the stone of destiny, which can be used for equipment development
- there is also a new formation called "goblin attack" formation, which can only be learned via a book.

- characters are apparently buffed in the early stages of the game so that it's easier to overcome the bosses at early stages
- berserk evade apparently still can't be passed on

- new class: the ninja, a high speed and high dex warrior who you can recruit in Avalon's jail.
- new class: the onmyoji, the only class that starts with dark magic. starts with both high 'darkness" stat and high "magic" stat, making them potentially even better casters than the tactician.

- apparently, some of the ninjas are type 1 and type 0 tech sparkers.

Can anyone with the VC release confirm/deny this stuff, and if so, did they modify the other RS games as well? Has anyone tried dissecting the WAD to see if the changes were made directly to the ROM or if they're applied in real time a la M2's Mega Drive releases?

The Phantasy Star collection for PS2 has a bunch of modifiers like this for all the games--increased walk speed, increased EXP/meseta drops, etc. It's all done in emulation, so perhaps it's worth dissecting the ISO to see if the codes can be recovered directly. I know the modifiers made to the games for their VC releases were stores as plaintext, and they're both M2 jobs, so...?

Also, I was reading on wikipedia about the parallax scrolling that was removed from the US release. Just wondering what that is and if it is something worth hacking as well.

The scrolling removed from the international release is really obnoxious and kinda weird. Y'know how the clouds zoom by at a million miles an hour during battle scenes? In the Japanese version the ground is moving, too, which makes even less sense given that no-one is moving and the battle sprites are barely animated.

Oh, that's cool. Maybe if I sent him e-mails that weren't huge playtest reports he'd be more inclined to read 'em, hah.

It's gonna be hard to keep working on the game if Tashi doesn't come back, since it's largely his work. Does anyone know where he's gone, or if he's still around? I'd really like to see this finished but I don't want for us to start working on it without him only for him to come back and think we've stolen/taken credit for his work, or whatever.

When's the last time anyone heard from Tashi? I haven't heard from him in about a month, and in one of his e-mails he mentioned something about possibly having to leave America or something?

Quick question... has anyone ever attempted to rip the sprites from MK Mythologies and use them in one of these UMK3/MKT hacks?