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

[inashed]

A nes tetris hack that is a 15x30 board hexis game.

A hexis will have the 2d pieces that are made of 6 squares, unlike tetris where they are made of 4.

With 6 pieces all pieces when rotated will be changed (with 7 of more pieces start to have holes, and 3 pieces tetris or less are too easy, so 6 is the perfect number for tetris like game), the board is 15x30, because the board must be based at piece size., Thats tetris size divided by 4 and then multiplied by 6.

[Akazukin Chacha]

Kids Station: Magical Do-Re-Mi Sharp - Mahodou Dance Carnival! is a Miscellaneous game, developed and published by Bandai, which was released in Japan in 2000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wpgpj2Nl_w

[Akazukin Chacha]

Kids Station: Motto! Magical Do-Re-Mi: Mahodou Smile Party is an Action game, developed and published by Bandai, which was released in Japan in 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C49_XFNCJ50

[Akazukin Chacha]

Magical Doremi Dokkan!: Mahodou Eigo Festival is a Miscellaneous game, developed by Chime and published by Bandai, which was released in Japan in 2002.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VADTIlyFUwE

[julayla]

Yeah, the Doremi series needs more love. I'd love to play those games.

[PordenoneDan2018]

I have a Game Genie code that does this but I can't get it to work when I add it to a hack.

ZOIVAL

   When you die on the series of Bosses at the end you are sent back to 6-3, not 6-1

A hack that fixes the frustrating checkpoints for Ninja Gaiden on NES by sending you back to the last checkpoint, notably when dying at bosses and particularly the final boss at 6-4 sending you all the way back to 6-1!

[aorin1]

I checked a nice 3 Player hack for the original arcade Final Fight and always wanted something like this in the Streets of Rage series.
Is it possible to do?

[FAST6191]

For anything Streets of Rage related that is not fairly basic rework of what is already there then you will tend to be pointed at Beats of Rage (an open source engine originally aimed at being basically open source streets of rage but moved on to some other things) or one of the various homebrew/fan remakes.
3 players on PC with source code is fairly easy as these things go, give or take balance issues, or at least assuming you can code in the relevant languages and relative to what is to come here.

For a megadrive/genesis. You get to figure out how you are doing 4 players in this (some games went for on cart, though here some flavour of multitap will probably be the order of the day), even if you only use three.
That is not a terribly easy thing but now you get to make the game do it.
You might not hit the sprite limit and can probably find some free memory to wedge in health and power move charge. Though you might hit the sprite limit (trying to get all the move sprites in memory when the other two plus all the enemies are already there could be tricky) and that could be fun to work around.
The mechanics are presumably already present within the game so you then get to add a third option to the calculations list. How close any of those games are to the limit as it is (I do get the odd bit of slowdown depending upon the level) and whether adding another character will tip it over is hard to say without looking, never mind the stuff I am about to contemplate.

You would probably want to also add some more enemies, or make them tougher to compensate. Probably also want to add a few more pickups as well.

Or if you prefer there is generally a reason why most add multiplayer hacks are ones wherein there is already a NPC you can subvert and add extras to rather than have AI handle it.

[KingMike]

I have a Game Genie code that does this but I can't get it to work when I add it to a hack.

ZOIVAL

   When you die on the series of Bosses at the end you are sent back to 6-3, not 6-1

Usually not a good idea to use a 6-character GG code (8-character with Compare value is better at preventing glitches from patching the wrong byte) but I suppose this works since the address decodes to $E3D8 which is usually fixed bank memory space.

As to the code not working, it won't work in a hack if the original code has been moved or changed.

[BlazeHeatnix]

I'm not a fan of the purist treatment either. Although I'm more of the "fix all bad acting": like Final Fight CD, Countdown Vampires, Megaman 8, and the list goes on.

But, I also see that games like "GunGrave: Overdose" don't have an undub patch, which is inconsistent with the first game.

Anyway, here's today's idea:

Fate/Unlimited Codes [PS2]:

Transcript the official localization from PSP to PS2. Also make possible Start single player from P2 side.
(Optional: Simplified Moves from the PSP)

PS: It would be fun some groups like Team Four Star or Project Mouthwash do fandubs for the games of the series they've been parodying. Not as a spoof, just doing a similar or superior dub.

I would love more romhacks that add custom voice acting. The issue is that finding anyone willing to work on this kind of project is difficult for two reasons:

1) Nobody who's serious about giving a good performance is going to want to work for free in this day and age,
and
2) Nobody who's serious about giving a good performance AND willing to work for free is going to want to star and be credited in a romhack with questionable legal ramifications, particularly if the game HAS been released outside Japan and DOES feature an English dub.

In my experience, there are numerous other problems as well. Hacking in custom sound effects is unbelievably difficult for most games, for example. Sound effects can have the right bitrate, length, filetype, header, and yet STILL not work. There's also the ethical question of whether replacing the voice acting is seen as disrespectful to the original English voice cast, as most redubs that happen in anime is done either for consistency, or they simply can't use the original voice cast anymore, either because they don't have the rights or they want to stick to non-union talent, not because they wanted to make a new one that was "better".

[julayla]

Yeah, I get what you mean. It's like Viz disrespecting the original DIC/Cloverway cast by shoving them aside (according to what one of the convention videos with one of the original Sailor Moon actors explained) in some way. But even then, I tried to play games that have English texts with Japanese voices only games and well...I like to be honest: they mostly fall flat at times. I mean I tried to like the games that got translated. Especially to the likes of the Sailor Moon PC Engine, Sega Saturn Utena game, and even 3DS' Project X Zone games (without nostalgia to blind me on anything). And I...I just...They make me feel like I never want to complete the games at all. I just don't know...I feel like I'm in one of those situations that nobody can win or something like that.

[FAST6191]

I would love more romhacks that add custom voice acting. The issue is that finding anyone willing to work on this kind of project is difficult for two reasons:

1) Nobody who's serious about giving a good performance is going to want to work for free in this day and age,
and
2) Nobody who's serious about giving a good performance AND willing to work for free is going to want to star and be credited in a romhack with questionable legal ramifications, particularly if the game HAS been released outside Japan and DOES feature an English dub.

In my experience, there are numerous other problems as well. Hacking in custom sound effects is unbelievably difficult for most games, for example. Sound effects can have the right bitrate, length, filetype, header, and yet STILL not work. There's also the ethical question of whether replacing the voice acting is seen as disrespectful to the original English voice cast, as most redubs that happen in anime is done either for consistency, or they simply can't use the original voice cast anymore, either because they don't have the rights or they want to stick to non-union talent, not because they wanted to make a new one that was "better".

Is 2) a voice actor specific affair?
Most hackers and translators seem not to care, and legal cases are few and far between (mostly that PSP game that was the worst patch, as patching program, job ever and for a game set to be released at some point in the not too distant) or even utterly dismissed (Dead or Alive Volleyball way back in the day).


As far as ethical question... that is probably solved by *points at site we are on*. "if it bothers then you lean Japanese" tending to be the snarky expression of that one. We translate games, retranslate games, hack games six ways from Sunday on every front (levels, underlying logic, art...) and have done for years on this site, and going back further still... peek and poke on the commodore arguably counts and things predate that still.
There are no sacred cows (some in ROM hacking even revel in slaying sacred cows of the real world but that is a different discussion) and voice acting does not seem like a candidate for the first, either by logic (what makes a voice over any different to a script, visual art, music, game coding or any of the other) or pragmatism (there are various things we do around here as we kind of all have to get along).

I would also say voice synthesis provides a distinct possibility in working around finding candidates with the time, tools and talent (something that is no mean feat). If technically unsophisticated types can fake out family members and direct employees with minimal training data (to say nothing of millions routinely listening to text to speech channels on video sites that sound all the robot you ever want), adobe had PC grade software for it about 5 years ago, musicians have been brought back from the dead for decades now then I can't see this sort of thing being so very great a hurdle.

[HARVEST]

I really hope someone ports the official Subsistence translations of Metal Gear 1 and 2 to the superior MSX2 versions.
The Subsistence ports have lower framerates over the MSX2 versions, but the translations are much better.

[RealGaea]

I would love more romhacks that add custom voice acting. The issue is that finding anyone willing to work on this kind of project is difficult for two reasons:

[wall of text]

If not, take a third case: do the voices ourselves. Daisuke Ishiwatari had to voice Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear up to Accent Core since the staff couldn't get Koichi Yamadera to do the role. I suggest this idea, since I saw a Portuguese fandub of Final Fight CD.

I get the part of dissonating bitrate/etc. since one guy, TomiProjects, is replacing the French dub of Saint Seiya for the PS2, with the Latin American Dub. Which quality goes back and forth with ripped dialogues from the episodes and voiceclips from Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Souls on PS3/PC.

There are some sacred cows, and they're recently released games, like the Genesis Mini ROM rip of Megaman The Wily Wars (since is a USA ROM, as opposed of the EUR release which has hacks of all colors and flavors.)

[ponlork]

there's a lot of US released games that have Japanese voices that are not translated. Super Puzzle Fighter II turbo is one of them. I actually was in the process of replacing the audio with English. I took the voices from the mobile version of Puzzle Fighter and used it for the PS1 version. problem is some characters like Donovan don't have a English counterpart, and most of the dialogue from other games differ so it wont be accurate. So fandubbing would probably be the best way to go.

I played a Dreamcast fighting game last night called Tech Romancer. The game's dialogue is entirely in Japanese with English captions. The fighting portion dialogue remains untranslated. It'll be nice to know what they're saying opposed to just imagining what they're saying

[Retrolife]

//https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4609/
Overdue for an update since this is the 30th anniversary of the game a major update is best
1.2-1.6 MB in file size 12-16 MegaPower

[LaudinoInfamous]

I have ideas for the new hack of the kof 2002.

[Tsukiyomaru0]

I wonder if it'd be possible to do a Gunvolt hack for Mega Man games, where the following is done about Gunvolt's controls:
B: Shoots Dart Leader, can tag up to 3 enemies. Base damage is very low, but tagged enemies takes damage from Flashfield. Can't tag through shields (just "plinks" out of existence when it hits a shield) and the tags "resets" after some time.
Up+B: Uses Flashfield, sends lightning sparks towards tagged enemies (chases them), ignores shields. If no enemy is tagged, creates a lightning ball in place that blocks shots.
A: Jump. Double Jump is possible.
Down+Jump: Initiates Spring on ground, short dash in air.
Hold Up (Midair): Slows descent.

"Weapons" (with some liberties):
Cerberus: Default, 3 tags.
Naga: Can be charged to penetrate multiple enemies and shields, 5 tags.
Mizuchi: Can be angled diagonally, up or down, 1 tag.
Technos: Shoots in a V, projectiles crawls along surfaces, 2 tags.
Orochi: Shots fans around GV, starting from the front and ending behind him. 8 tags.
Vasuki: Bounces between enemies up to 4 times, 4 tags.
Dullahan: Strong shots, can't tag.

Original "Weapons":
Orthros: Two projectiles travels simultaneously, but the first one stuns and the second penetrates, 2 tags.
Chimera: 3-way spread shot, short ranged (half screen), 3 tags.
Tsuchinoko: Similar to Cerberus, but there's a small chance one of those shots will be strong as Dullahan and penetrate enemies and shields, 1 tag.

[PresidentLeever]

Tomba 2 (PS1) Improvement:
-Better camera angles+somewhat less zoomed in view - plenty of times when moving into a crossroads the camera is placed more behind the player making it seem like pressing up=forward when really you're supposed to press left/right, and sometimes it picks a bad angle right after switching paths
-More intuitive path switching - can press the direction that seems natural when moving between paths and positioning requirements are less specific when trying to interact with paths (and NPCs). You can also be in mid-air while switching paths
-Skippable in-game cutscenes and event title texts
-The flame pig's location is switched to the first area so the black locked doors can be opened sooner - this might require some other tweaking
-Can walk while charging your attack
-Somewhat faster acceleration and jumps to mirror the prequel
-Lower default jump height (this+the longer air-time makes some platforming kinda clunky since you also can't press up to climb a cylindrical object you're grabbing onto (can do it with regular ledges))
-Circle is used to confirm in the save menus as well
-Switch suits with L2/R2
-Can cancel gliding during a glide jump and stop hovering after jumping in the squirrel suit
-Fixed hit detection when jumping onto poles from above
-Can access the inventory while facing an NPC or flower on the z-plane
-Less floaty jumps while wearing the swimming pig suit
-Removed backtracking for the cogs after reaching the water temple
-The pointless path from the circus village to the beginning of the forest via an "invisible state lock" door leads somewhere useful
-Fewer invisible walls where possible
-Faster revving up of the spinning poles and winches
-Some new enemies appear in previously visited areas when backtracking
-Can have the chef make more than one sandwich at a time
-Some out of the way chests have better rewards
-Fixed draw distance priority on chests - fairly easy to miss some of them
-More forgiving hit detection on the seed items/clues you can grab in the minecart mini-game
-Get more than one shot at grabbing the rare shrimp in the forest without having to reload
-Removed VA re-takes that were left in
-Restoring an area removes or changes enemies and hazards within it
-Harder giant ice pigs in the snow area/ranch and mini-boss in the forest
-Harder main bosses overall
-To make the final boss more interesting you have to use some of the weapons to stun him and/or switch between suits or use the grapple to reach him
-The one-way path between the water temple and the beach through the waterfall can be used as a shortcut
-Longer and harder tower areas in terms of platforming and combat
-Added enemies or platforming challenges during the "destroy the evil pig statues" quest before the final boss

[singhtruer]

A fairly simple hack request:

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES): Change the default sound mode to Stereo. As it is, it always reverts to Mono on each start up.