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

[gamingcat02261991]

Ever since seeing and playing the Monster Rancher 2 Seasonal Shrine ROM Hack, I've been wondering about the possibility of a Seasonal Shrine hack for Monster Rancher 1 on PSX. You know, getting a random monster depending on both the current season and the player's name. Like, in Spring 1000, you get this monster, but in Summer 1000, you get some different monster.

Also, it would be cool to have a bugfix regarding the in-game loading screens so that you're not stuck on them (which happens on occasion when playing both MR and MR2).

Speaking of Monster Rancher 2, there should also be a bugfix regarding the Mock event (where you receive Mock's seeds on a certain year upon reaching and being in the 4th Rank and no higher) where any Rank higher than 4th would also trigger the event upon visiting the Shop.

[#]

A simple ROM hack request
Please do an improvement hack of Road Runner
I mean both the NES and Arcade versions
What needs to be improved? The controls for the Road Runner mostly

What's wrong with the controls?

[Shade Aurion]

Difficult request: Remove the final segment from the 3rd stage of Battletoads in Battlemaniacs.
Medium request: Slow down the 3rd stage.
Simple request: Skip the 3rd stage in Battletoads in Battlemaniacs.

I have beaten that jetbike stage a few times in my youth but is undoubtedly the reason most people stopped playing Battlemaniacs which is a shame because as a Beat Em' Up, it's pretty great. A split second precision, high difficulty spike meant kids playing the game got really used to the first 2 stages with anything past the 3rd stage seeming legendary or impossible. Even slowing down the last sequence or whole stage would suffice.

[ddw_1978]

I'd love to see full English translations of Wizardry I+II, Wizardry III+IV and Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom for the PC Engine CD.

I've been a fan of the Wizardry series since playing Wizardry I on the NES in the early nineties. While there have been plenty of cross-platform conversions and translations of the Wizardry series already, I think, IMHO, the PCE-CD versions are often overlooked. Also, the graphical style of these versions are definitely unique when compared to other versions of the same games.

Thanks for listening! 

[EthansDreamLand]

An unpopular idea, but I wish I could hack games so that I can hack games that give you limited continues so that the continues are infinite.

An unpopular opinion: My views on lives varies, but limited continues are almost always the bane of my existence.

[Psyklax]

An unpopular idea, but I wish I could hack games so that I can hack games that give you limited continues so that the continues are infinite.

An unpopular opinion: My views on lives varies, but limited continues are almost always the bane of my existence.

Game Genie?

It's not unpopular either, I think most people want infinite continues, though you didn't specify which system.

[POWCo-op]

Does anyone else kind of... have their eyes bleed when they see white text on a blue background? I would ask someone to change the palette color. White with purple (as an example) looks really nice. Just look at the text boxes in The Magical Land of Wozz. It's great.

Some games that have white on blue: Breath of Fire 1 SNES. Breath of Fire 2 Ryusui's translation SNES. Slayers SNES. Shining Force Game Gear series. Several Final Fantasy games.

[FAST6191]

White on yellow, sure.

White on (darker) blue, perfectly acceptable choice for everybody else I have ever spoken to or otherwise seen, and generally accepted in most thoughts on design for colours, web and whatever else. I don't know if many would even have a preference for black or purple or something similar. You could even make a case for black not being optimal, though that might have to involve the start of CRTs at the time (tangentially related but a favourite article so why not http://bogost.com/games/a_television_simulator/ ).
Indeed if someone mentioned it not working well for them I would first instead look at the font itself, if it is one of those games that decided all capitals was a good plan or if there is some kind of shadow or sub pixel fun with the font causing issues.

Some games, especially later remakes/ports, do have some options which might get in the way a bit. Similarly the text boxes/text in general can be part of a background rather than sprite but it is still graphics and usually palettes of some form in the end.


As for the continues post. Surely you make that the same way you make infinite lives cheats -- get to the point where you need a continue, do a scan, get there again, do a scan...
To speed things up you might as well make an infinite lives cheat first but set the payload to 1 to give you one (or zero depending upon the game) life. Turn the cheat on so it sets it to no lives beyond the one you have, then turn off so it allows it to drop. Then get killed or jump into a pit or whatever (minimal other changes in the game sort of thing) to get to the continue screen. If necessary you can go further and make an infinite health or infinite time cheat and do the same for those to make getting to the continue screen even easier. If a level editor exists or you just feel like it, or a continue restarts a level where a life drops you back in/back to a continue point, then you could also hack the first part of level 1 to include some means of easy death.
If there is a means to earn a continue in a game then even better. Shops (give yourself infinite money) and score caps (make a cheat to set the score 10 points or whatever below the various caps to have it roll over for the next scoring action.
Most limited continues games tend to be about 3 in my experience which can make it harder. You might also do to play with some savestates and do some "same value" searches to narrow things down more quickly than those events where you have 99 of something and can continue to use one and drop, use one and drop, use one and drop...

Minor aside. Arcade machines often wire continues to a coin slot. Said slot is often functionally just another button, or at least a fixed bit of I/O. To that end you might be better off playing assembly hacker for that one as anything that reaches out and touches it is probably that. Obviously if it is one of those time activator things then that is a different matter.

Aside from the arcade assembly thing I would expect anybody that has made it to the point in life where they are playing with emulators/flash carts enough to run ROM hacks, and posting on said boards, to be able to do a basic cheat finding session. Maybe not have the shortcuts above be immediately apparent but now you do know...

[POWCo-op]

If you've played any of these games, you know it's not a dark blue...

[nesrocks]

Difficult request: Remove the final segment from the 3rd stage of Battletoads in Battlemaniacs.
Medium request: Slow down the 3rd stage.
Simple request: Skip the 3rd stage in Battletoads in Battlemaniacs.

I have beaten that jetbike stage a few times in my youth but is undoubtedly the reason most people stopped playing Battlemaniacs which is a shame because as a Beat Em' Up, it's pretty great. A split second precision, high difficulty spike meant kids playing the game got really used to the first 2 stages with anything past the 3rd stage seeming legendary or impossible. Even slowing down the last sequence or whole stage would suffice.

If you want to remove the non-beat-em-up levels in battlemaniacs you'll be left with level 1 only. And you can already play level 1 only, just turn off the game when you beat the boss 

[FAST6191]

If you've played any of these games, you know it's not a dark blue...

I was thinking as opposed to sky blue or something.

Still. It has been a few years since I played many of those so did a token search for them. All them seemed inoffensive enough. Slayers had a drop shadow I was not an amazingly big fan of but nothing I would hit the stop it all I first need to fix that button for, and could well see some enjoying. Colours were a bit all over the place between shots and videos but there is a reason they call it Never The Same Colour.

[Shade Aurion]

If you want to remove the non-beat-em-up levels in battlemaniacs you'll be left with level 1 only. And you can already play level 1 only, just turn off the game when you beat the boss 

You're missing my point. It's just the end of the Jetbike stage that difficulty spikes like crazy and thats only the third stage. I can beat it just fine, albeit with mild frustration but most people never finished Battlemaniacs because of that stage. It's famously hard, so a nice little patch would probably do the game well and make it beatable. Also, the stage directly after the jetbike level is a beat em up level, as is the final level. The only other level in fact outside of bonus levels is the rollercoaster stage which most people don't reach because the jetbike level screws them out of lives =P

A character select option would be nice also since Pimple is always reserved for Player 1 and Rash for Player 2.

I'm just saying, it would be an improvement.

[KingMike]

Does Battlemaniacs function like Battletoads (or at least the western releases, not sure how they handled it on the Famicom) where you can play a one-player game with either Rash or Zitz by pressing Start twice on the title screen with the appropriate controller. (though I don't know if playing alone as P2 on the US version makes the game literally impossible to finish due to the famous level 11 bug )

[BaiduMe]

I got this DBZ game for GBA, and recently found how to decompress the text/sprites/images on it. Currently researching the scenario scripts and how to place NPCs and enemies. But have no idea what to do with it. I know there's a really big demand for Legacy of Goku 4 about the Super saga, but I'm not an artist, and cannot draw sprites and backgrounds, and don't want to ask someone to do it, because it's a very big undertaking.

I'm curious what's possible with this game as it is now. What'd make it better?

[#]

You're missing my point. It's just the end of the Jetbike stage that difficulty spikes like crazy and thats only the third stage. I can beat it just fine, albeit with mild frustration but most people never finished Battlemaniacs because of that stage. It's famously hard, so a nice little patch would probably do the game well and make it beatable.

Changing the speed makes you miss jumps in this level. Unless you only mean the very end where you're only avoiding walls at very high speed. That can easily be fixed without messing with any other elements of the level.

[mamertos]

Ice Hockey (NES): change the music of the usa version for the third period of a match to the famicom disk system version instead, since the USA and JAP versions have different music. So, first and second period: USA version music, final period: JAP version music.

[Pink yoshi]

I want someone to make the legend of zelda ocarina of time and majoras mask 2d so basically take a 2d zelda example the Minish cap and switch the npcs enemies and terrain+dungeons to be stuff from the zelda games on N64

[Arty]

a hack of Kirby's Dreamland 3 that makes Kirby a little faster would be lovely. I really like the game but he's just so ungodly slow, even when running he doesn't feel as fast or smooth as in other games.

[Shade Aurion]

Unless you only mean the very end where you're only avoiding walls at very high speed. That can easily be fixed without messing with any other elements of the level.

This is for the most part what I meant. The rest of the level is fine but that is the part that gets people. I just proposed a speed change as a possible alternative. Again, I can and have finished it a heap of times but there is no question that it is quite difficult and infamous for a reason XD

[KingMike]

I want someone to make the legend of zelda ocarina of time and majoras mask 2d so basically take a 2d zelda example the Minish cap and switch the npcs enemies and terrain+dungeons to be stuff from the zelda games on N64

One guy attempted and he ended up (we assume) pulling the "I died" routine to get people to stop bugging him about it.
Also not a good idea these days with Nintendo sending out C&D letters to anything even halfway decent.