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

[hossbags2]

hack sengoku denshou sega cd so it will play on any bios

[miaz]

First post, so not sure where to put it really.
Couldn't find what i was looking for, so guess its an idea for someone else if they fancy.

To be able to to cut the random encounters for the Final Fantasy series (Snes) in half,
and to double the exp. points gained, so it evens out (so it wont be more difficult).
And really, this, but for every other game with random encounters, such as: Star ocean, SMRPG, Tales of Phantasia etc etc.

Ive seen hacks for both FF4 and FF6 where this has been included (somewhat), but theres no increase in exp. points, making the game way harder.
I had to quit playing Star Ocean about 10 hours in because the random encounters were driving me crazy.

[Foffy]

I'm just gonna shoot for the moon here, but it's something I've been thinking a lot since bsnes incorporated a widescreen mode for SNES games. Could something similar be done to the GBA?


1. Custom GBE+ build with increased resolution (not a romhack per se, but definitely step one)

Some time ago, a /r/emulation thread discussed the idea of increasing the resolution of GBA games horizontally.
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/cw90sz/feasibility_of_increasing_internal/

Shonumi, a GBA+ dev, entertained the idea and shared a few screenshots of his experiment.
https://imgur.com/a/OFUfO8k

Later in the comments, he pointed out exactly which parameters must be modified on source code to increase display area.
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/cw90sz/feasibility_of_increasing_internal/eyapdre/

Most likely, games would need to be heavily modified to take advantage of this.


2. Increased resolution hacks of GBA games.

Now, if theorically there was a build of GBE+ (or any other emulator) that allowed for increased resolution, how far could romhacks push it?

I'm thinking mainly for action platformers (Kirby, Metroid, Mega Man Zero). Could they be pushed to 320x240, as if they were released for a home console? That would possibly spark interest in romhacks with UI redesigns, complete expansion of map designs, and enemy placements (and attack patterns) to correctly fit the new resolution. Would it be possible to bring SNES to GBA ports back to their original resolution? (Probably more trouble than porting GBA content/relocalization to the SNES originals, I'm thinking theorically).

I was very disappointed when the NDS Mega Man Zero Collection didn't use the increased resolution at all. Now even more so with the ZX/Zero Collection. I would definitely be on board to at least try giving the Mega Man Zero series some attention.

Sorry if this is a "bump" to this idea, but I gotta say it's very amusing to me to ask for something like this using the same examples being brought up in this post. I hope in the future the community considers tackling stuff like this.

As said in my earlier post (which was like two or so posts before the one I'm quoting here :p), I think the best place to start is the SNES-to-GBA ports. Some GBA games might render enemies in the area, which I believe Kirby does, so you don't get many issues. But that's just Kirby; that's not an assured way to develop all games for the platform, so there's no assurance, for example, that any of the Castlevania games or some other title follow the same approach. But I believe all of the ported games from the SNES handle things very similarly to the SNES versions besides resolution, so those games would far and away be the easiest the mess around with. I've shared examples in a previous post to how it's mostly possible for the core gameplay as long as it's not using any GBA specific features, with the most frequent issue being texture size and overlap when expanding the resolution, which is where the need for a hack to come in.

[julayla]

You know...since the Genesis version of Classic Sailor Moon got a real translation, I was wondering if someone can make a mod to the SNES version (you know, fix some of the things on the SNES version or something)?

[CyberFox]

A rom hack of Mr. Driller Ace
[i wish someone would do a complete english translation of it]
The idea is basically a overhaul hack of which it'll be turned into a new game
- New Story
- Additional Modes

[Kincyr]

How about a Soul Blader / Soul Blazer restoration hack to go along with the retranslation by Steppolo Steppi?
Maybe an update to those item names that were "not straight forward".
And were the graphics uncensored? If not that would be a good thing to add in there.

I tried my hand at making a graphics restoration patch last year, with help of the ROM map at the Data Crystal and further documentation at http://pkhack.fobby.net/misc/soulblazer/. I got stuck trying to figure out how to display the Katakana in the title screen and Lisa's hands in the ending (graphical data for both still exists in the US version, which means the programming was simply altered to not use them. it's a matter of finding the specific programming), and found a bump when trying to restore Solid Arm's boss room

Spoiler

turns out that conveyor programming is tied to map coordinates, not the tile type. IOW, You'll still automatically move if you're standing on a regular floor that you replaced a conveyor with in the Map Arrangement data. again, need to find the programming

[close]

I did manage to restore everything else, even Medusa, which is relatively difficult due to some technical reasons

Spoiler

US Poseidon's sprite is assembled using less pieces (the sprite composition data uses 46 bytes less data in the US version, I had to move some other things around in order to fit the data within a single 32KB block), and holds the trident further from his body, so the sprite behavior was slightly altered, specifically the offsets when it came to spawning projectiles. had to disassemble that myself.

[close]

I do have a possible lead on the locations of the remaining programming I'd need to alter to finish this, I just need to prod around to see if I'm on the right track, though I suppose the best I can do is see if I can screw up said specific programming and work from there

EDIT: my leads were spot on. it's funny how after months of procrastination when it comes to disassembling the code by hand, I manage to restore what had stumped me in less than 24 hours. only a few minor things before it's complete, and I can probably skip them

[StarWyvern]

 A GBA emulator for PSP with Vast Fame support would be nice. I would like to play Rockman and Crystal.

[deir707]

Hack idea:
Is there a way or a project to be done to edit the player's name,team's name or logos in Sega Genesis game 'European Club Soccer'?

[Vahan]

Doesn't it already work on NES emulators, like the rest of the Vs games?

I don't see it on any ROM sites. I see someone has tried to make a hack, but I do not know which original ROM am I supposed to patch.

https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=17412

[SCD]

Sonic Pocket Adventure (Neo Geo Pocket Color): A hack that will change the sprites of Sonic & Dr. Eggman, to make them look more like their classic counterparts:

[nesrocks]

Tobal 2: a hack that doesn't make items (potions and stones) unknown after saving or exiting quest mode, or when entering a new dungeon. To make it simple: never lose the ID of an identified item.

[Tsukiyomaru0]

So, today I had an interesting thought: a hack of either Wai Wai Racing or Mario Kart Advance or a similar game to turn it into a Chocobo Racing demake/port.

[luna211]

Anyone else love Vectorman 1 and 2 on the Sega Genesis? I sure do!  Though Vectorman 2 could definitely use a quick fix or two. The intended music doesn't play at the options screen, and the AND and PRESENT screens are left over from the prototypes... aaaand they're also not used. 

Check out that original game over screen. Very creepy, but it fits the darker atmosphere of the game! Any hack of 1 or 2 would keep a long-time fan busy until anyone decides to make a third installment!

[luna211]

Yet another Genesis game that could use a good color modification is Stone Protectors. The colors are fairly close to the SNES version, but are somewhat too dark.

[Reefytheslim]

hi guys
im not sure if this has been covered before or not so forgive me.
im trying to translate the dialogues of this japanese Snes game to english (Mini Yonku Let's & Go!! - Power WGP 2). i've read and researched alot online and figured out how to locate the text in a hex editor. but i can't apply what i learnt on this game!
i've tried a different game (FFIV) and worked perfectly on it.
here's what i did:
1. i used tile molester to change the jap font to english letters (already present in the game tiles)
2. then started the game and looked for words that appear in english letters, did a relative search for them using WindHex, and when i found them i created a table and just filled the rest of the table with what's missing.

but when i do that for my game, i get no results (or wrong results that don't apply) in relative search. I tried value search and still the same.

what i noticed though, that FFIV font used 1bit per letter in tiles, while my game used 2bit (vertically) per letter.

(the tiles after i replaced the jap font with english font A-Z)
i don't know how this is the cause of not but i would love for any advice as im still learning.

here is a screenshot of another similar game that i was planning to do next once i figure things out (and learn more), but this one uses 4bits per letter (2X2) (Game name: Mini Yonku Shining Scorpion - Let's & Go!!)


when i changed the jap font to english, the game showed the english letters withing its dialogues but again with relative search for these words gave no results or wrong ones.
im just wondering what im missing?

[PresidentLeever]

Banjo Tooie: Unbloated & Improved (N64)
-Basic in-game maps added as images from guide scans (how to access these I'm not sure, maybe via the pause menu?), unless someone can perhaps inject a map system from another game to use with this one

-Mumbo just gives you the ability to stand on his pads instead of the game making you play as him

-Similarly, the boring transformations like the detonator or van are just items you gain and use for their levels (an alternate fix to these would be letting you transform back into banjo at any point with a button combo)

-Less backtracking of the stupid kind like having to open the path between the temple and the mine level from one side only.

-Less dead space or more flight pads - perhaps the latter can be unlocked as the player finishes collecting all mumbo/transformation related jiggies or beats the boss of the level

-Control/camera/interface fixes to these things:
-can't rotate the camera in various situations
-both rotation and R are a bit slow
-slow movement in stone form - as with the roll in the prequel there's also a delay after tackling
-sneaking is too slow
-no notification when you have enough jiggies to open up the next level (and at the temple of jiggywiggy which is where the next one is unlocked you're only told if you do or don't have enough to unlock the next one - not how many are needed for each (for some reason you have to talk to the guy outside when you don't have enough to know how many are needed for the next level))
-repeated tutorial message at the teleporters if you press B slightly before standing on them
-the camera is too slow to turn when you do while underwater

-Air dashing/beak bombing into walls won't make you lose HP since that discourages playing around with the move

-Don't keep getting HP drops from enemies when at full health (gives you feathers/eggs instead)

-Fixes how if you don't aim in FP view at the prison gates in level 3 then you won't break the gates + if you don't stand just right you won't trigger talking to the prisoners and getting the hint that you can break them and don't need a key

-Harder lvl 2 boss

-More platforming and less shimmying and climbing in levels that lack it

[Masked Dedede]

Mega Man Zero 2: Ultimate Form hack that increases the POW, DEF, and SPD to ☆☆☆☆, and adds the extra effects of the Active, Defense, Rise (mapping the upwards third slash to how it is in MMZ3), X, and Erase forms.

[StarWyvern]

Mega Man Zero 2: Ultimate Form hack that increases the POW, DEF, and SPD to ☆☆☆☆, and adds the extra effects of the Active, Defense, Rise (mapping the upwards third slash to how it is in MMZ3), X, and Erase forms.

I second this.

[FAST6191]

hi guys
im not sure if this has been covered before or not so forgive me.
im trying to translate the dialogues of this japanese Snes game to english (Mini Yonku Let's & Go!! - Power WGP 2). i've read and researched alot online and figured out how to locate the text in a hex editor. but i can't apply what i learnt on this game!
i've tried a different game (FFIV) and worked perfectly on it.
here's what i did:
1. i used tile molester to change the jap font to english letters (already present in the game tiles)
2. then started the game and looked for words that appear in english letters, did a relative search for them using WindHex, and when i found them i created a table and just filled the rest of the table with what's missing.

but when i do that for my game, i get no results (or wrong results that don't apply) in relative search. I tried value search and still the same.

what i noticed though, that FFIV font used 1bit per letter in tiles, while my game used 2bit (vertically) per letter.

(the tiles after i replaced the jap font with english font A-Z)
i don't know how this is the cause of not but i would love for any advice as im still learning.

here is a screenshot of another similar game that i was planning to do next once i figure things out (and learn more), but this one uses 4bits per letter (2X2) (Game name: Mini Yonku Shining Scorpion - Let's & Go!!)


when i changed the jap font to english, the game showed the english letters withing its dialogues but again with relative search for these words gave no results or wrong ones.
im just wondering what im missing?

That is an odd way of going about things, but not incorrect.

The style of the font, font size and whatever else has no real bearing on the text itself outside of some specific cases on very old devices. The text engine itself is all about decoding the text and is largely disconnected from the pictorial representation (as your example above proves).

In this case I would suspect 3 different possibilities
1) Compression. This breaks relative search quite happily
2) You included a placeholder in the text you searched for (it costs [somevalue] a night to stay here, might well look like it costs %2F% a night to stay here and thus me up your relative search. Formatting would also be this, as would new lines. Search for a shorter fragment or search for something either side of a placeholder.
3) 16 bit encoding -- Japanese has thousands of characters which 2^8 (256) struggles to represent, to that end many Japanese games go in for 16 bit encoding (2 to the power 16 being a rather larger number) instead and your chosen relative search tool might not be geared for it.

Nothing stopping all three, or a combo of two of them, being present either. The text could also still not be encoded in a relative manner, though that would be unusual for a SNES game (DS games for instance use ShiftJIS encoding all the time despite it not being a relative encoding in the strictest of senses courtesy of jumps and missing characters).

To that end you might want to search for pointers, maybe try corruption, maybe tray a stats based method or give in and trace it.

[91-MPH]

I know it's impossible to give Seiken Densetsu 3 an English Script Port from "Trials of Mana" (from the Collection of Mana or Remake), because of how much of a hassle it would be; and the ROM for Trials of Mana (from the Collection of Mana) won't work on the Hakchi2 hardware, due to its limitations.

But someone should at least work on an addendum patch that updates or ports the Official (or Canonical) English Terminologies to Neill Corlett's Translation Patch.

(e.g.: God Beasts < Benevodons)
(e.g.: Koren: Wizard of the Crimson Lotus < Brian the Crimson Wizard)

I would ask someone to update the title, icon and music text, but G-Trans beat me to it.