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

[day2data]

Remove all the cut-scenes from Final Fantasy 5...

[KingMike]

I'm uncomfortable calling this an idea when it's really a request for a (hopefully) simple fix. Is there any possibility that someone can add the big and readable font from the Seiken Densetsu 3 translation to Trials of Mana? I was curious enough about the new script that I was willing to replay ToM again, but this right here just isn't working out.

https://i.imgur.com/B5jS8Ry.png

Only asking because I tend to capture screenshots of playthroughs just to have something to look at later on, and that clearly can't happen with the current font.

Edit, just now occurred to me that maybe the font from the translation would create issues with longer dialogue in Trials of Mana. But maybe some other solution for the font size would be possible to add?

It could be the emulator. I'm guess the ToM translation uses High Resolution mode for the text. Does Secret of Mana's menus display properly? (which also use Hi-Res mode) (I'm presuming the Japanese version also used it to get higher resolution kanji but maybe the fan-translation made it normal resolution or made a font within the same size. Since in English there's not much difference between a squished high-res font and a think low-res font.)

[Sonic68710]

Does anyone know how to make a SRAM save patch for the USA version of Mega Man Wiley Wars so it will work on Mega Everdrive X5? Thanks

[gerry515]

It could be the emulator. I'm guess the ToM translation uses High Resolution mode for the text. Does Secret of Mana's menus display properly? (which also use Hi-Res mode) (I'm presuming the Japanese version also used it to get higher resolution kanji but maybe the fan-translation made it normal resolution or made a font within the same size. Since in English there's not much difference between a squished high-res font and a think low-res font.)

Not sure about the SOM menus, but I can still give some info. I'm using zsnes. The video settings have filters allowed with none of the filter options selected. With this, the text is perfectly clear.

https://i.imgur.com/JvrxfI3.png

But once I take an internal screenshot, this is what I'm left with. (this is an enlarged copy of the original screenshot)

https://i.imgur.com/alXACe6.png

I can't imagine there is a solution for the screenshots other than replacing the font.

[mz]

I can't imagine there is a solution for the screenshots other than replacing the font.

That's the most insanely difficult solution you could find for such a simple problem.

Just try using an emulator that was touched at least once in the last 12 years and isn't absolute rubbish by today's standards. This works fine, for example: https://bsnes.byuu.org/

[Psyklax]

That's the most insanely difficult solution you could find for such a simple problem.

Just try using an emulator that was touched at least once in the last 12 years and isn't absolute rubbish by today's standards. This works fine, for example: https://bsnes.byuu.org/

Three words that speak volumes: "I'm using ZSNES".

We ought to pin the link to the Emulation General wiki:

http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

[acediez]

I'll be looking forward to a new hack release titled "Trials of Mana Font Replacement, Optimized For ZSNES Screenshots"

Label: "Improvement"

[tc]

Does anyone know how to make a SRAM save patch for the USA version of Mega Man Wiley Wars so it will work on Mega Everdrive X5? Thanks

What region is your console?

I'm not sure why, but IIRC the SRAM save patch available on this site changes the game's region code to USA.
Rather than just removing the lockout.

You'll need to get around it if you want to use SRAM on a non-USA console.

[StarWyvern]

 Hey all! 

I am writing to request help with a few ideas for the 3 GBA Castlevania titles. I have had little to no luck in attempting to solve the following issues myself. Any help that can be provided will be greatly appreciated, not only by myself, but by all Castlevania fans as well. 
 
  I have attempted using multiple IPS patches on a single rom and had some really great, beta style, sucesses. Such as, AOS Genya Arikado Hack + AOS Alter = Fully Playable Altered Castle of Genya Arikado. 
It is worth noting that this also works with AOS Future Alucard Hack, but not with Dawn of Symphony. 
Also the Text in places tends to get garbled at times but otherwise the good ending can be achieved as normal.

  Another Patch merge that is notable is HOD LUNATIC with Revenge On The Findesiecle. The only bad thing about it is sometimes the graphics will get garbled, but fix themselves after leaving a room, or upon saving and resetting. The result is you get to play through both castles wholly with any of the available characters, with a new set of enemy placement, which makes level grinding time alot shorter. This mechanic adds new levels of fun to an already fun hack.  Although this hack would be even better with the Belmont to Belnades palette swap.

  In COTM, I combined the Hugh Baldwin Hack with Card UP and the game is phenomonally more enjoyable! AOS Hugh Baldwin Hack also goes nicely with Yukuutski no Minuet. Persephone Hack + Akatsuki no Partita is not finishable due to a missing "Omega Truffles" soul, so only the bad ending is achievable. However Persephone + Yukuutski no Minuet is fully playable! YAY! 

  I have alot more really great ideas.  If anyone is interested, and can help repair the bugs, or help with inserting music let me know. It would be a dream come true to see Dawn of Symphony merged with AOS Alter with OCRemixes and VGMixes inserted in the game.  Or maybe an english HOD Revenge with full equipment menus for all characters, permanent bullet soul for Megaman and Mario? 

[Valkyrie]

As of late I keep on going back to play Parodius Portable due easy access and customization to all the games inside - but I keep noticing the replaced music in various levels throughout the series related to copyright infringement  thought could a restoration patch be done to alleviate this?

It'd be on the following:

- Stage 4 (Ah! Traveling Japan) in Parodius Da ("The Sabre Dance" by Aram Khachaturian, "Hungarian Dance No. 5" by Johannes Brahms in PSP-version)

- Stage 1 (Circo Porto Harborland) ("In the Mood" by Joe Garland, "Turkey in the Straw" - American Folk song in PSP-version)

- Stage 4 Boss (Decoration Core) in Gokujyo Parodius (   "Mambo No. 5" by Damaso Perez Prado, "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" by Leon Jessel in PSP-version)

- Stage 1 (Disco) ("That's the Way (I Like It)" from the 1975 eponymous album by K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Replaced by "Brilliant2U" from Dance Dance Revolution by Naoki Maeda in PSP-version)

- Omake 2 in Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius - Forever With Me ("TRUTH" by T-Square, changed to original song inspired by it in PSP-version)

- Stage 1 (Farm) (This one's very weird. Mostly this has to do with ""Hokkaido ha dokoniaru? Kokoniaru!"-jingle by Gontiti, which got removed in PSP-version. For this reason, PSP-version we get fully recomposed song for this level, which illustrates my problem with changed soundtrack: the replaced songs feel much lower and "artificial" in tone enough to feel jarring next to rest of the original, manic soundtracks from these games.

The kicker though? An Asian release existed for Sexy Parodius which already did this, but kept the rest of the song still intact. In fact one of the songs from this release got reused in PSP-version nonetheless.

-Stage 3A (Geisha Palace Boss - Mayim Mayim / Israeli Folksong, Russian folk song "Korobushka" in PSP-version)

- Stage 4A (Girl Warehouse, "El Bimbo" by Claude Ciari, "Symphony No.40" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in PSP-version, strangely picked from the Asian Arcade-releases from unused songs inside Sexy Parodius's original game files. I'm torn on this one since this one's composed for the game back in it's original release, so it's much more seamless as a replacement.)

[foiopaulo]

Do it... go now. Go look. In the hacks section. Look there, at the "Games" drop-down menu.
LOOK AT IT. Scroll down, not "J".. scroll down, not "M".. scrolling, scrolling....
AHHH the "S" section.
Do you see it, or rather, do you not see it?
All of these brilliant and wonderful people that are way smarter than me and I'm quite sure, way more handsome than I...
Of all of these very handsome and skilled Individuals...
No one has made a SINGLE hack for the SNES version of Shadowrun?
I mean come on.. a futuristic, cyber-punk setting, where dragon owned corporate technocracies control the world.
Somebody, do something here. I'm dying, I mean slowly day to day, but I am dying. Please someone at least lie to me, and tell me there will be fixed pixel hack in the next century.
Thank you for participating in my light harassment.

I second that. Also, some love for Demon's Crest would be much appreciated!

[Thirteen 1355]

What about a patch to start with Xtreme Mode unlocked 😬

Oh yes, that's a thing. I should do that. Should be pretty easy too.

[Midna]

With the entire soundtrack of Donkey Kong Country 1 given a hi-def fan revamp, why doesn't somebody create an MSU-1 hack so we can hear them in-game?

[cartridge_rom]

spiderman lethal foes / SuperFamicom

suppress / eliminate the bad timer  / no time hack

infinite time

the game can be enjoyed now and you can explore all the scenarios with Spiderman,
is the best Spiderman SuperFamicom game

[SCD]

Go to offset 1B9DB and change the hex value to CD.

This will give you infinite time in that game.

[PresidentLeever]

Final Fantasy II (GBA or PSP) gameplay improvement/balance hack
-Change the spell and gear progression in either of two ways:
1. Grouped gear and spells according to similarity and/or them being white or black schools - See the Secret of Evermore balance patch
2. A system in place which checks a character's current spell level average with a school of magic (black or white) and sets a newly learned spell's level according to that average (perhaps also affected by the spirit/intelligence stat) instead of starting it at level 1)
^Either way, Ultima also starts off stronger and is fast to level, to better gel with the story

-Stat growth chance for HP/MP is based on how much is lost in total rather than the amount they're at when exiting a battle.
-Somewhat faster growth in general
-Most trap rooms in dungeons are removed and chest loot is rebalanced so exploration is more useful throughout the game
-Memory crusor carries over between battles
-Can see a skill stat's (spell/weapon/shield/evade/m. def) experience level in battle (means you'll never waste casts trying to level a spell up seeing as there's a limit of 1 level gain per spell in any one battle). Can also see numbers for stat increases after battles.
-New recruits late in the game have boosted stats
-Can escape from all enemies
-Can check a piece of equipment's stats in a shop before buying it
-Can keep using lower level versions of a spell once you've leveled it up
-Skippable spell and resting animations
-Can use l/r to browse through your spells during battle
-Gear effect on evade and magic defense is shown directly in the equipment menu
-Short explanation when encountering an area on the overworld that can't be entered until a certain condition is met (such as Fynn castle or the Coliseum)
-Less backtracking from remote destinations (can make Cid and chocobos wait outside an area?, cheaper ship ride early on?)
-Blood Sword isn't missable
-Rebalanced unarmed so that it starts off weaker but pays off in the end
-Somewhat nerfed Teleport and similar spells

[Psyklax]

Earlier today, I watched Octavius Kitten's video about edutainment games, and noticed how she very deliberately read Donkey Kong Jr. Math as "Maths":
https://youtu.be/1rANABSFAA0?t=17

As a fellow Brit, it got me thinking, and since I've already hacked several of Nintendo's early Famicom/NES games, I knew exactly how the title screens worked. Therefore I spent half an hour or so creating the most pointless, petty hack I've ever made:



I wanted it to be slightly wider to keep all the letters the same size, but I ran out of ROM space and would have to change 'calculate' to 'calc' to compensate. In the end I only needed to remove the dot from 'Ltd', which nobody's going to miss.

If you do use this patch - and I see no reason why you would - I recommend giving it the filename "Donkey Kong Jr. Maths (E)", so that FCEUX and maybe others will assume it's a PAL game, and you can play it 17% slower like a true PAL gamer would.

"Enjoy".

http://s346165667.websitehome.co.uk/psyktrans/dkjmaths.ips

EDIT: after a quick search, it appears that it did actually come out in Europe, but in all likelihood the ROM was identical to the US version. So, there you go.

[IAmCaptPlanet]

someone needs to finish the Mizzurna Falls translation, and while your at it, add a way to restart each day, a la Deadly Premonition or Majora's Mask

actually, if you could slow the in game clock to be about half as fast would be wonderful.

it's a travesty that the game isn't as well known as it is.

i was hoping the "leaked" 0.8 patch was basically done, but released "as-is" to get around some kinda issue with releasing, but it actually is unfinished

menu options the text don't work correctly and some people you talk to have endless garbled text and the only way to escape is to load a previous save state.

menus are like this.

    Do you want a sandwich? Yes No
        .
        .

where they should be

    Do you want a sandwich?
        .Yes
        .No

it's bearable so far, but i'd really like to see this thing polished up (especially with all the work ResidenEevee went through to translate it)

and especially if the clock could be slowed down like in Majora or chapters (days) could be replayed like in Deadly Premonition.

[Vehek]

someone needs to finish the Mizzurna Falls translation

Clearly you didn't read Gemini's tweet from a while back: the whole mess attracted the attention of a competent programmer who offered to work on it.

[IAmCaptPlanet]

awesome, i thought Gemeni abandoned it and ResidentEevee and him (or her) had a falling out.

still, i really think that slowing down time and being able to replay days would help 1000%

is there a blog or something with updates? or a ETA for release, cause it is pretty dang close as-is