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

[Tsukiyomaru0]

I was wondering... Since Puresabe can do some crazy stunts, how hard would it be for someone to make a Mega Man hack starring Gunvolt?

[thirtythree]

FAST6191 I somehow forgot to thank you for this response. (My life is basically 50% work 50% kids and negative time for hacking NES games.) I just wanted to do so now, so thanks!  It does sound like making Deadly Towers work on the default NES Mini emu just isn't worth the time.  Hopefully your NES mapper conversion information might be useful to someone else later.

It very much depends upon the game and its coding, its base mapper and the one you are going to and how similar (or at least how much the original acts like the new one, even if the new one is an all singing, all dancing one on top of that). NES stuff was often pretty linear (compared to more modern stuff where jumps and pointer maths to generate jumps can happen randomly at any point in the game) and tends not to have much in the way of obfuscated code.
Most that do mapper changes don't care about sub par emulator compatibility as much as having the best scenario for their hack (all the storage memory, save options, whatever extra music abilities might be afforded by something) whilst retaining hardware compatibility after a fashion.

It then becomes the same as any substantial change in the underlying cartridge setup, or indeed just using another bank/page for your custom code -- making it jump to it and start running there is easy enough, as is changing back afterwards. You need to go to that section when it is needed, and return properly (also whilst leaving enough time for the game's original stuff to do what it needs to do during any vblanks). Finding every jump to another area, finding every interrupt that might run an area unexpectedly (which is now something else, unless you for some reason mirrored the necessary data whilst having your own stuff in an area that does not matter for these purposes).
For NES stuff a static disassembly will probably get you 99% of the way (not like NES games are prone to having a base pointer, adding a bit, and jumping to that where that is boring and standard on many later systems, as well as what might be obfuscated code) and a playthrough does the rest (most NES games being one level after the other and the same basic core loop, compared to later things that might as well be 50 different basically independent minigames stitched together with a menu and gameplay style that jumps between them on a whim), maybe with a log on execute debug session also playing the game (possibly with a code testing approach https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/30/top-five-wrong-reasons-you-dont-have-testers/ ) to see if anything gets captured that you might have missed or simply be a less tedious exercise than staring at a static disassembly.

[SleepyFist]

So there's this idea that's been kicking around my head for awhile for a fan-sequel to Donkey Kong 94 built off Super Mario World as a base (not sure how feasible),
It would basically be a hybrid of both gameplay styles and movesets ideally.

Plot wise, I think it would start exactly the same as the original, continue through world 1 of Donkey Kong 94,and then diverge with a sort of back to the future homage, before introducing the new gameplay and levels.

[Megatronformayor]

Would it be possible to improve Spiderman and Venom separation anxiety by replacing the sprite with the one from Maximum Carnage and making the music sound more like that game.

[LaudinoInfamous]

I have idea for the new Sonic's non-canonical series:

The name is Sonic Overmix (acronym S.O.M)

Anyone who wants someone to talk about it, I'm available on gmail or any chat platform.

My Gmail: laudinoinfamous@gmail.com

[Kallisto]

So Arc the Lad End of Darkness I think had exclusive content in the multiplayer section of the game, and if that data is actually present in the disc (hopefully) that it would be cool to restore for single player.

[julayla]

Do you think there can be a possible Mesen-like engine that can change graphics on the SNES, Genesis, or Turbo Graphx one day? I wouldn't mind them, but I think those are impossible right now

[nanashi89]

Popular VTuber, Luna Himemori has an LP of Rockman X (Mega Man X) scheduled for tomorrow, and the thumbnail for the video is amazing.

https://youtu.be/PB5TpgGqXtI

Any chance of doing a ROM hack with Luna replacing X, in the same armor in the thumbnail of this video?

[SCD]

ClayFighter: Sculptor's Cut (Nintendo 64): A hack that will add Hobo Cop from the beta version of ClayFighter Extreme (PSX) that was released to the public a few months ago.

[Googie]

It'd be cool to play as Toadette in the original SMB3 using the SMM2 SMB3 style Toadette.

Here's the sprite sheet for her, I'm pretty confident it can be pulled off with some ASM sorcery.

And ducking down while being small would be cool, too.

[RedXTheChosenOne]

Y'know what I would REALLY like?
A patch that removed the ineffective mechanic on Final Fantasy I
Now, I know that some people defend this godawful mechanic for some reason... saying that it "makes battles more strategic" or "makes the game harder" but whatever, I would really like if someone could just remove this mechanic altogether and improve the game by ∞%

[Vanya]

That kind of already exists.
It's a bit more than just removing the ineffective result as it changes the battle system to make each character take their turn individually instead of choosing for the whole party at once.

There are a couple of versions available, but Jiggers basically perfected it when she was active on here last year. You might have to dig around to find it.



EDIT:

Here it is: https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=28961.0

[RedXTheChosenOne]

I am aware of that, but I want something with the original turn based system, something like later FFs where a character randomly chooses another enemy.
Also, it is asking too much for a patch that adds a defend option? I never get why Square didn't put this on the game, it's very useful when you want to conserve magic and avoid putting your mages in danger. Someone could also re-do the item system and "fuse" the DRINK and ITEM options so it's more similar to the later conventions on the series.
Oh! I know! Put A MP system! That would make the game A LOT more bearable and- okay, I think I'm really asking too much, maybe I should just play the remakes .

[HippyJ3]

Make clock tower 2 on the ps1 a little bit merciful by having an option to toggle on/off the respawning of zombies on the hospital stage and by allowing to transform between the two personalities even without putting down the amulet plus avoiding a pursuer attack just to trigger the transformation, instead press a button to transform before/after going to the next room, and lastly put some hints on the black border area of the screen where to go next since the game has a lot of branches and some objectives are too vague for first time players.

[Vanya]

... a defend option? I never get why Square didn't put this on the game, it's very useful when you want to conserve magic and avoid putting your mages in danger.

I can at least answer this for you. The reason is that the first Final Fantasy is heavily based on Dungeons & Dragons. And there was no way to specifically defend as an action in the older editions of D&D.

IIRC D&D didn't have a defensive action at all until 3rd edition. Up until then your defense was simply represented by your Armor Class stat.

I would also like all of those things to be added to the game and a few more.
From working with Jiggers on her project I know all of those things are possible because she did most of it, but it would take a lot of effort and at least intermediate knowledge of ASM.

If I had the time, I'd do it myself.

[NesDraug]

Make an easy version of Battletoads. I love this game especially because it's 2 player but it's so hard it's broken.

- Get rid of friendly fire
- More 1ups
- More flies
- Unlimited continues
- Cut some enemies
- Cut some hindrances
- More checkpoints

[MathUser2929]

The game gear version of battle toads lets you take 3 hits in the speed tunnel before you lose a life.

[NesDraug]

The game gear version of battle toads lets you take 3 hits in the speed tunnel before you lose a life.

The game gear version is singleplayer. But yeah, that would be nice in the NES version as well.

[Fredde]

The Japanese version of Battletoads is supposedly modified to be easier. Which is why I earlier in the thread wished for there to be an english translation of it.

[RedXTheChosenOne]

I can at least answer this for you. The reason is that the first Final Fantasy is heavily based on Dungeons & Dragons. And there was no way to specifically defend as an action in the older editions of D&D.

IIRC D&D didn't have a defensive action at all until 3rd edition. Up until then your defense was simply represented by your Armor Class stat.

I would also like all of those things to be added to the game and a few more.
From working with Jiggers on her project I know all of those things are possible because she did most of it, but it would take a lot of effort and at least intermediate knowledge of ASM.

If I had the time, I'd do it myself.

A bit late here, but I didn't know that! :0 it kinda makes sense now, but I still think this mechanic should be added, after all, it's still very useful.