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

[shiggitay]

Any InuYasha fans out there? I think it'd be cool to have an InuYasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask (PS2) undub made. I know it wouldn't be easy (I started to look into it as far as being able to listen to the audio from the game) to do but it's not impossible for those with the right skills and interest... Beyond just swapping the audio from one ISO to the other I do see that there's at least one cutscene that'd need subtitling (I only did a quick play of both ISOs in PCSX2 to see what I'd be up against, and what would theoretically need to be swapped). I'd be willing to help test on both my good PC here using PCSX2 as well as my softmodded PS2 (Free MC Boot) and Open PS2 Loader. I've pitched the idea on the RomHacking.net Discord server, but no one's really shown interest as of yet.

Any takers? I can't really help directly since I have no skills when it comes to ROM hacking, but as I said, I can help test as we'd go along.

-Shiggitay

[pocket]

 I've seen a few Pokemon Fire Red hacks that have tried to make the experience more aesthetically similar did the Game Boy game.

I'd really like to see something that looks more like the official art,redrawing the pokemon sprites to look like the Red/Blue sugimori art, maybe with desaturated colors to match the coloring style.

[FAST6191]

I've seen a few Pokemon Fire Red hacks that have tried to make the experience more aesthetically similar did the Game Boy game.

I'd really like to see something that looks more like the official art,redrawing the pokemon sprites to look like the Red/Blue sugimori art, maybe with desaturated colors to match the coloring style.

With the amount of tools available for that franchise, and general amount of sprites ripped you could probably do that yourself with minimal technical skills.

[343]

Someone port the Nokia game "space impact" into a gameboy game.

[UltraEpicLeader100]

An English version of Castlevania HOD: Revenge of the Findesiecle with Mega Man's buster shot now going across the screen and through walls and Mario's fire ball now bouncing across the screen till it hits a wall and disappears in a 8-bit explosion as well as a RockMan X that lets you play as Mega Man X (complete with charge shots and wall jumps as well as dashing) and Luigi with him being able to jump higher and move faster at the cost of double knock back and more damage along with slippier controls.

[nesrocks]

Here's an idea that should have been had already but I don't think it has been done:

Recreate all of the Super Mario Bros. levels, but in Super Mario Bros. 3. Doing this as closely as possible but without changing/reprogramming SMB3's physics, graphics, music, enemies, etc, as if they were regular Super Mario 3 levels.

[#]

Is it possible to make Mega Bomberman a bit more like Bomberman '94 (TG-16), like changing the color palettes, among other things?

Or does the Genesis color limitations makes this impossible?

It certainly is possible. There are more than a few Genesis games with poor palettes and several have already received patches. Also check this project: http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=28829.0)

Someone port the Nokia game "space impact" into a gameboy game.

Sounds like a good idea, but that's not a hack.

Here's an idea that should have been had already but I don't think it has been done:

Recreate all of the Super Mario Bros. levels, but in Super Mario Bros. 3. Doing this as closely as possible but without changing/reprogramming SMB3's physics, graphics, music, enemies, etc, as if they were regular Super Mario 3 levels.

I'm pretty sure I've seen several of those hacks around. I'm not sure if there's one on this site though.

[nesrocks]

I'm pretty sure I've seen several of those hacks around. I'm not sure if there's one on this site though.

Well, I did a quick search and couldn't find anything remotely related.

[WeebeeGeebee]

How about a hack for Super Mario All Stars that replaces the ugly de-rezzed box art for the games with just the logos. Kinda like how Mega Man The Wily Wars just has logos.

[IAmCaptPlanet]

oops,  i was replying to nesrocks about SMB3 with SMB1 levels idea


i've never come across one in my travels either. there is hacks that add bouncy physics and SMB3 "style" graphics to SMB1 though

but, that would be SO COOL to have like, every level be based on SMB3 assets, like actually have grass land and every land (obvi, Wet land wouldnt be world 3, just the water stages, and giant land would have to not have giant enemies)

so like 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, and 7-4 would all have like pipe themed, world 8 would be dark land,

use fortress assets every so often, this would be so RAD. heck if there was 32 different level types in SMB3 (i'm guessing it's pretty close right?) you could have a SMB1 experience with 32 different "styles" or whatever in a row

lol, sorry this excites me so much

[nesrocks]

Each world matching the graphics for each smb3 world sounds awesome 

[redmagejoe]

https://www.romhacking.net/games/126/

Final Fantasy II seems like it should get a bit more love considering that, while many people tout the Dawn of Souls and Anniversary remakes as being a vast improvement over the original, there's still a great deal of enjoyment and playability in it.

https://guides.gamercorner.net/ffii/systems

There's a list of bugs here that, surprisingly, don't seem to have any RHDN patches save for the target/cancel exploit. A standalone title screen patch would also be nice, similar to what the Neo Demiforce ROM uses, as I'm using the vanilla JP ROM with Chaos Rush's 2016 translation.

On the note of this, I'm curious if anyone knows if the Stat A up, Stat B down effect still occurs even when Stat A is maxed. What I mean is, I maxed out Spirit (which has a chance to reduce Strength when it goes up), and yet I found that I still get the "Spirit up!" message even when it stays at 99. I haven't done more substantial testing, but does this also means it's still possible for Strength to go down? I hope there's a check in place to see if your stat is 99, but I'm assuming not if the code for displaying the message still runs...

Ugh, that's an ugly oversight. Just tested and, sure enough, you can lose correlating stats when a maxed out stat "goes up". Would be wonderful if someone made a hack that slightly tweaks the stat-up algorithms, but I can't find an FF2 disassembly anywhere, though someone must have dug into it reading this: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/563414-final-fantasy-ii/50953294#7

While in practice the chance of this being an issue should be low, it still means that at 99 of all stats, in every battle there's an X/46 chance of gaining Strength (where X is the number of times the character issued an Attack command), with a 1/6 chance of losing Int, an X/26 chance of gaining Int (X is # of Black spells cast) and then a 1/6 chance of losing Stamina, and an X/16 chance of gaining Spirit (X is # of White spells cast) and losing Strength. So the odds are in favor of you not having to deal with this nonsense at 99 Spirit, Strength, Int, and Stamina, but it's still irritating to know that there's a chance you might have to go power a maxed stat up by a point if you get unlucky.

Upon further thought, would a fix for this not be as simple as including a few more instructions that take advantage of a BNE or BEQ that would simply point to a branch point that would prevent any stat-ups/-downs and the message display that theoretically already exists in the case where the criteria for stat/skill ups are not met? I imagine this shouldn't take more than 3 to 6 instructions to check stat values, and maybe 3 for weapon or spell skills (which also continue to say skill up after every single battle even at max level).

[Reinc]

Langrisser II (Mega Drive):
- introduce permadeath (playable characters who are killed once will not appear in next missions). In this game, some characters are scripted to leave your party and then rejoin. With them, you can do it the following way: if they die before leaving, have them "wait on the sidelines" until they leave the party, and then, after they return, kill them for real if they die second time.

Der Langrisser (SNES):
- introduce permadeath (see above).

Dark Wizard (Sega CD):
- mana will regenerate much slower for the main characters
- add mana limit for spellcasting units
- units that died should not automatically revive for free after battle is over (there are spells that can revive units, but the player cannot cast them until later half of the game, and they are kind of useless, because dead units auto-revive after battle for free).
- stronger attacks on remote garrisons, always getting stronger over time with no limit to their power. Players who take too long to finish the game will have a hard time, or even eventually find themselves losing.
- fix errors from the original game: description for Fan-Shaped Letter item; Elven Ring item having no effect; turn skip for Crystal's peasant units; disappearing sound when battle animations are turned on.
- limit EXP grinding for journeying units (in Dark Wizard, units can gain virtually unlimited EXP by going into secure zones and then Using an item to gain EXP over and over with no penalty). This can be solved by making any actions, such as visiting a town or using an item, progress in-game time (in other words, the unit has to spend a turn on these, like in battle). The time that this unit(s) has spent on a journey will be saved, and the unit will not return to the main party until the party has reached that point of time. Since there is an in-game "clock" that keeps track of month, day and time of day, this should be possible)

[WeebeeGeebee]

How about a hack / improvement for Mega Man - The Wily Wars that would add in the charge shot from Mega Man 4, Mega Man X, Mega Man 7. Something to make playing Wily Wars less frustrating.

As of the moment, even with the NTSC hack and bullet hack it's impossible to do the 3 bullet pulse like you can in the NES version of the games. Adding a charge shot that would do 2x as much damage as the regular bullet would drastically improve Wily Wars and make it so enemies can't just bumrush you.

Go try playing Wily Wars version of Mega Man 2 Metal Man stage and shoot at the drills. Then try doing the same thing in the NES version of Mega Man 2. It's a slower process in Wily Wars because you can't pulse your shots. They just fire one at a time.

Adding charge shot would make the game(s) more enjoyable. The slide was carried over to 1 and 2 from MM3. Maybe it's possible to make a "Dummy" of the Fire Shot charge weapon from Heatman's weapon and turn the shot blue. But also drastically reduce the amount of time needed to charge. The Atomic Fire charges between its three stages incredibly slow. But as a charge weapon, it's good for taking out ground enemies like the small frogs and the wheelie shells after you knock their shell off.

https://youtu.be/xEK_ZfhEfG4

[nesrocks]

I tried at least recreating 1-1 from SMB1 in SMB3 using the new smb3 foundry tool, but I was getting what seemed like bugs from the tool. Will try again later with version 1.0_beta13.

[SCD]

After watching Did You Know Gaming's recent video talking about censorship in GameCube games, I would like to see decensor hacks for these games:

Chibi Robo: Restore the original appearance of the Free Rangers.
F-Zero GX: Restore the original post game interviews.
Pikmin 2: Restore the original price for the Silencer item.
Pokemon Colosseum: Restore Rui's original appearance.
Resident Evil: Restore the decapitation death animations from the Hunters that Capcom removed from all versions.
Super Smash Bros. Melee: Restore the original Motion-Sensor Bomb & Topi trophies along with the Tamagon trophy. Including restore the missing Japanese voice tracks for Fox, Falco & Mewtwo as well.

Aladdin (Genesis): A hack that will add all the Final Cut content from the recent port of it to the original Genesis ROM.

OutRun (3DS & Switch): A hack that will restore the original Ferrari Testarossa car.

Space Harrier (32X & Sega Saturn): A hack that will add the exclusive Haya-Oh boss from the 3DS & Switch ports to them.

[Jeville]

A movie version of Ninja Gaiden (NES) that plays all cutscenes together.

[MathUser2929]

A movie version of Ninja Gaiden (NES) that plays all cutscenes together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGyFQ9aRp_U

[Jeville]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGyFQ9aRp_U

Almost 20 minutes. It'd be pretty cool to see with the authentic experience on console.

[FAST6191]

Almost 20 minutes. It'd be pretty cool to see with the authentic experience on console.

Are there any random enemies on it? I don't know enough about the game from this perspective to say (possibly those birds that really bother some people on one of the later levels? Assuming I am thinking that game and not a sequel) and given Castlevania's fleas were generally noted for being an early example of randomness in this regard.

If not (or you can reasonably subvert them) then you could probably do a nice playthrough on an emulator, note all the keystrokes and timings/durations thereof (framewise 20 minutes at 60fps is 5 hex digits so you should be able to make a frame counter relatively easily) and play them back on the console. Might be slightly harder than some of the normal beginner assembly hacks and I don't know if the game can reasonably hold a list of keys long enough (8 buttons + a length value * possibly a few hundred per level is nothing on newer devices but can be tricky on the NES).


Or if that is too annoying you could probably get the inputs stuffed in from an arduino, teensy++ or whatever else as an autoplayer -- all those tutorials on converting old pads to USB work just as fine the other way around.