Hack ideas: for those without the skill but with all the ideas.

mz · October 08, 2018, 10:59:54 PM

Quote from: Shade Aurion on October 08, 2018, 10:41:06 PMIf I had a clue how to colorize or understood the tools it took to do it, i'd do these myself.

If you won't even learn how to do these yourself, I doubt you'd do them.

The biggest part of doing things yourself is learning how to do them. Reading a ton of stuff, spending a lot of time with trial and error, etc.

(By the way, this is in general for all people who come and say "If I knew how to do X, I would do all this stuff myself." Well, the first step of doing X is learning how to do X, so put your money where your mouth is.)

Psyklax · October 09, 2018, 02:11:09 AM

Quote from: mz on October 08, 2018, 10:59:54 PM
"If I knew how to do X, I would do all this stuff myself." Well, the first step of doing X is learning how to do X, so put your money where your mouth is.

Preach, brother.

If you've got time to post the 100 different hacks you want other people to make, you've got time to learn how to do it yourself.

stgiga · October 09, 2018, 03:00:54 PM

I am brand new to the site, but I have a good idea for a romhack.
I was told to post it here so it could be properly realised. I decided to replace most songs in an ANNSMB hack called All Evening Nippon SMB by ShaneM, with Famitracker FDS Covers of the SMB OST. The OST has a Famitracker download.http://forums.famitracker.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4757

Sadly, I do not know ASM, and I have trouble mixing the music engines in smb2j's disassembly with this Famitracker one. Therefore I am posting this here so that one day we can have a better auditory experience for everyone who plays SMB.

I am not demanding that this be done, I just wish it would happen whenever a hacker deems this worthy. I realize I have no power, so do what you want with the idea. To whoever takes it on, if enough space is available, can this SMB3 GFX Pack be inserted if hacking SMB2j: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3504/?

Bonkers! · October 10, 2018, 03:21:50 AM

Hmm... NES Castlevania to MSX Vampire Killer, maybe? Probably couldn't be done, but would be nice to see. I'd also like to see some MSX 1/2 to SMS hacks, like Aleste.

Shade Aurion · October 10, 2018, 04:52:18 AM

Quote from: mz on October 08, 2018, 10:59:54 PM
If you won't even learn how to do these yourself, I doubt you'd do them.

The biggest part of doing things yourself is learning how to do them. Reading a ton of stuff, spending a lot of time with trial and error, etc.

(By the way, this is in general for all people who come and say "If I knew how to do X, I would do all this stuff myself." Well, the first step of doing X is learning how to do X, so put your money where your mouth is.)

Do I need to quote the thread title? I have for the record tried to get into the swing of learning hex editing and such. I'm just not very good at it. GB Colorizer is a bit of a mess and doing it all manually is rather complicated. If it weren't these hacks would have been released years ago.

dACE · October 10, 2018, 03:00:51 PM

Quote from: Shade Aurion on October 10, 2018, 04:52:18 AM
Do I need to quote the thread title?

You have a point.

The thing is that some does not have any sense of scope - suggesting projects that would take considerable time and effort. This pretty much ensures that no such idea will ever be realized.

If you - on the other hand - suggest a single bug-fix or a well defined feature to add, you would probably have a greater chance of seeing such a suggestion realized.

But just in case I'm wrong - can someone PLEASE demake StarFox for the GameBoy in COLOR with the original MUSIC - thanks!!!!!!

/dACE

Shade Aurion · October 11, 2018, 12:10:42 AM

Quote from: dACE on October 10, 2018, 03:00:51 PM
You have a point.

The thing is that some does not have any sense of scope - suggesting projects that would take considerable time and effort. This pretty much ensures that no such idea will ever be realized.

If you - on the other hand - suggest a single bug-fix or a well defined feature to add, you would probably have a greater chance of seeing such a suggestion realized.

But just in case I'm wrong - can someone PLEASE demake StarFox for the GameBoy in COLOR with the original MUSIC - thanks!!!!!!

/dACE

Agreed, but to be absolutely fair, there is a vast difference between demaking a FX chip 3D SNES in different graphics on a different, lesser platform. If that were truly to happen it would more or less be a remake in lesser graphics from the ground up. That wouldn't be hacking, it would be developing.

I suggested small edits earlier. While colorization is no small feat (and people like Toruzz set the bar high) the suggestion might trigger the drive in someone with the skill but no idea what to apply it to. That said, someone really should patch a skip on the bike level for Battletoads lmao

SmashManiac · October 11, 2018, 01:36:09 AM

Quote from: pianohombre on October 07, 2018, 04:58:09 PM
How about tetris where there is only 2 types of blocks instead of 4 or 5. Or, make it more challenging where there is up to 7 types of blocks.

I believe the Tetris Randomizer already covers the first part of your request.

As for the 2nd part, well Tetris is already 7 types of blocks, so...

Zero Dozer · October 13, 2018, 01:17:23 AM

Quote from: dACE on October 10, 2018, 03:00:51 PM

If you - on the other hand - suggest a single bug-fix or a well defined feature to add, you would probably have a greater chance of seeing such a suggestion realized.

May I remind you that I suggested some ten bugfixes here at best and only one saw the light of the day?

Psyklax · October 13, 2018, 02:16:31 AM

Quote from: dACE on October 10, 2018, 03:00:51 PM
some does not have any sense of scope - suggesting projects that would take considerable time and effort.

The difference between saying "I want to be able to access this menu with a single button instead of having to go through a separate sub-menu", and saying "can someone take this SNES game and make it for the Genesis for me? kthxbai"

I agree, you may have "all the ideas" but unless you understand that sense of scope, those ideas are just shouting into the void. Incidentally I did a hack for someone who posted here, because it was just "restore graphics from Japanese game to US game" which took about an hour. Oh, and I spent a similar amount of time combining two Metroid hacks, so simple things do get done.

KingMike · October 13, 2018, 02:28:39 AM

I remember the bugfix I made to Buster Busts Loose for SNES took a few hours to find the ONE line of code wrong in the game. So even a simple fix could take awhile.
(it is a bug where, if the R Button is changed from its default Dash function, it will become impossible to finish Level 2 on Normal or Hard difficulty because a cutscene, in a part of the level skipped entirely on Easy, won't function correctly.)
It turns out the bug was officially fixed for a Spanish PAL release. (the correct behavior was for the CPU to automatically push the buttons assigned to Dash rather than a hard-coded R input, as it correctly does for Jump)

nemesislivezx · October 13, 2018, 05:02:17 AM

RealGaea · October 13, 2018, 01:27:08 PM

Samurai Shodown/Spirits for the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom:

Give use to the L and R buttons for High Slash/Punch and High Kick. The Mega Drive/Genesis versions assigned them to the Z & C Buttons. Why, while having also six buttons, the SNES/SFC versions didn't do that?

pianohombre · October 13, 2018, 06:55:16 PM

I wanted to add a new boss into Simpsons for N.E.S., other than principal Skinner. This is a mock-up of the screen leading up to the boss.

I'm thinking of a giant evil Space Mutant Rabbit that Bart must fight with his skateboard. If you are interested to work on this hack please e-mail me thanks.

stgiga · October 13, 2018, 07:10:29 PM

I posted this on Discord as a follow-up to my idea, which ended up outlining what is needed to make my planned hack, which seems to fit w7n like a glove. It is long. In it, I link the files needed, and a SMB3 GFX patch to make it feel even more 16 bit. Ideally, you could apply the lakitu physics patch on tcrf to it after pAtching to make an even better hack. I hope this helps with executing the idea. Now here is the method needed:

According to my calculations, my SMB2j nsf is ~17kb, while in my suggested cover the dpcm is smaller but still roughly 12k, while the music data is 9k. There is 12k of empty disk space in SMB2j and more in smb1j. If we create a new file on the disc with the dpcm samples (which all occupy the first dpcm bank in the nsf and bin export.) As all of smb2j's dpcm area is hard to modify, relocating a bin file of dpcm onto the disc from Famitracker, and overwriting existing applicable music with the new fds music and driver, to coexist with the current music, and dealing with the stitched covers that exist, and joining other split things. In addition, to allow this to work, all low timer versions of the OST must be dynamically generated by making the song faster like in stock, without cloning any data so we have space for dpcm, and maybe smb3 gfx. A disassembly of 2j exists, so to make life easier, we can replicate ShaneM's bugfixes and improvements when finished. I want this to look, play, and sound like what the TRUE sequel to SMB1 should have been. I think @w7n is the perfect person for this, if he is willing. He loves fds music, and Mario, so he sounds like a great person for this.
I am not begging
I am only explaining my limited knowledge of how to do it so that the actual hackers here can better understand what to do when the time is right.

ASM for music with unwanted internal dpcm: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tlZTRDQrNWgvBLdYTZnVI5R3ELCpftGo/view?usp=drivesdk

File to put in the FDS disk image for isolated dpcm to avoid bank conflicts:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13zrRcnXSCvHDrB8i3w7MAgjtBbLSg5jD/view?usp=drivesdk

SMB2j disassembly: https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10035

SMB3 GFX Pack for SMB1:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3504/

gadesx · October 14, 2018, 08:40:07 PM

A castlevania sotn of psx hack that let you "open" the bestiary using normal menu,
like GBA Aria of sorrow. So you can see enemies killed, items drops, etc, without go every time to library.

NES Boy · October 15, 2018, 08:19:04 PM

In Pokémon X, Pokémon Y, Pokémon Omega Ruby, and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, there was a type of battle called an Inverse Battle, which reverses type effectiveness and replaces immunities with super-effectiveness. Maybe there should be Pokémon hacks that apply this concept to entire games.

Q · October 15, 2018, 08:29:56 PM

Quote from: NES Boy on October 15, 2018, 08:19:04 PM
In Pokémon X, Pokémon Y, Pokémon Omega Ruby, and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, there was a type of battle called an Inverse Battle, which reverses type effectiveness and replaces immunities with super-effectiveness. Maybe there should be Pokémon hacks that apply this concept to entire games.

Many of the Pokemon games are heavily documented. The first generation games (and I think the second generation games) have complete disassemblies, so putting together a hack like this would actually be pretty trivial. I don't have any of the disassemblies set up at the moment because my HDD crashed recently, but next time I get them set up, I could probably put together hacks like this for Yellow and Crystal. PM me the link so I don't forget about the idea.

I think a hack like this might be more fun for one of the Stadium games. Someone did a hack of the first Stadium game recently, so there might be documentation on the game.

WeebeeGeebee · October 16, 2018, 02:20:30 AM

Quote from: Josephine Lithius on December 30, 2011, 12:16:27 AM
Original poster's note: This post and the post that immediately follow were moved to this topic by my request. Sorry for the confusion!

Greetings! I have a rather odd question/request...

Is it at all possible to hack Mega Man & Bass for the Game Boy Advance to allow players to push a single button to make Bass dash? The game is most definitely a fine addition to the classic series and this port is, in my opinion, nearly flawless save for this one stupid oversight. I'd love to be able to do this as I'm pretty much dependent on there being a button dedicated to dashing, as there was in Rockman & Forte on the Super Famicom. Fighting Astroman using the buster alone becomes impossible for a fumble-fingers like me if I keep having to press left or right twice in succession to get out of the way. I'd prefer to be able to press R to quickly zip out of harm's way and keep fighting, even at the expense of being unable to fast-switch weaponry. (Of course, that button could easily be plunked on to the Select button, if I desperately need to scroll either way through weaponry...)

Anyway, here's to hoping this is something that can be fixed! Thanks for reading!

I don't think I can help you on the GBA version, but on the SNES version a long long time ago I used the "code search" feature in Zsnes to narrow down the location of the buttons' code and make some Game Genie codes that would remap the buttons so that R is dash and X and A are the weapon swap buttons... Y and B are still shoot and jump, of course...

AD72-7461
AD7E-7F61
AD7E-74D1
0D7D-5D61
FD7B-8461

I used Game Genie Guy to make an .ips patch, but I haven't a single clue how to submit it to RHDN...

https://ufile.io/nq9sw - Patch is for unheadered rom, and I don't think it matters if the rom is already english-patched or not since it's only changing the button mappings and nothing else.

October 16, 2018, 07:38:16 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)

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Here's some crazy ideas...

A SNES version of "Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers" using the Super Mario 2 SNES engine from All-Stars as the base. Since that game still revolves around the mechanics of picking things up (plants, mushroom blocks, etc). You could take the plants out of the equation entirely... use the Mushroom Block physics to replicate the "metal cans" from Chip and Dale (the ones you can stack up), maybe make an extra variant of it that acts like the wooden boxes but actually travels across the screen unlike the Mushroom Blocks. Bring in the "throw blocks / objects straight up" mechanic from Chip and Dale 2. It would probably be too complicated to make it into a simultaneous 2 Player game, so one character at a time would be fine... maybe you could use the 4 selectable character thing to your advantage and add Gadget and Montey as extra playable characters. Also all enemies would have to be "harmful from all ends" including the top, otherwise it would not be very fair if you could just jump on top of a Metal Dog or whatever and pick it up and throw it around.

If that's too ambitious, then maybe a Chip N' Dale NES hack where you fight against each other in vertical scrolling stages, like that Contra - Mountain Challenge hack, where the goal is to reach an eagle trophy at the top of the stage... except here the only goal would be to survive the level and if you can, knock your opponent off a platform or at least slow them down with a box. You could also have things other than boxes, like the canisters and apples from the first game and maybe baseballs and basketballs and each one would do something different. I dunno... the idea of having a versus Chip n' Dale where the goal is to just trash the other player seems fun, since that's pretty much what people tend to do when you played those games anyway (or at least you did if you were sadistic).

Other idea...a remake of Willow for NES but using Link to the Past as the base... they're very similar as it is, I mean Willow had the ocarina summoning a pterodactyl thing before Link had his weird pelican / bird thing.

Other idea... a hack of Sonic 3 that replaces the characters with those of the indie game Freedom Planet (which originally started out as a Sonic fan-game before the maker decided to make their own IP).

Other idea... a hack of Ducktales 1 on NES that uses sprites, elements and level concepts from Shovel Knight....

mamertos · October 16, 2018, 09:49:43 AM

- Nintendo World Cup (NES): the matches are sooo long. My idea is shorten the time of the matches in half (2 minutes instead 4).

- Shadowgate (NES): the torches are extinguished very soon. Idea: extend twice the time of the torches.

- Battle City (FAMICOM): start game with more lives (not infinite lives!). I didn't find any game genie code for this. Ten lives would be nice. Also I read this in Internet: "$02DE in the headered NES ROM is the lives value. It is 03 by default."

- Harvest Moon (SNES): fix the crappy translation in the US version and many bugs (I know, this is a lot of work).

- Ogre Battle: The march of the Black Queen (SNES): restore from the JAP version the description menu of the tarot cards during battles pushing down the select button in any tarot card you got.

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Hack ideas: for those without the skill but with all the ideas.