Redesigned 8-bit and 16-bit games (Some unbelievable!)

[Mejilan]

Found two new (to me) Super Metroid hacks that play nice together, and don't add any new content at all!

Control Freak: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/405/
One Missile Doors: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/477/

Why then, are they worth mentioning?
Because they basically adapt the streamlined GBA gameplay to Super Metroid.
From the readmes and whatnot...

This small hack only changes the control setup for the game, to something closer to the newer GBA Metroid games. The opening Options menus have been altered to show the new controls for the game. Item pickup messages and Japanese text have not been altered however. Control Changes * Run is now toggleable between Run and Walk. * Moonwalk has been deleted, and the setting is now used to toggle Auto Run. * Aim Up is now the only aim button, ‘Aimlock’. Holding it will make Samus aim at a certain angle, and aim higher or lower if you tap up or down. * Samus also has the ability to run and aim straight up at the same time now. * Select Item is still used to select missiles, super missiles, power bombs, or the grapple beam. It no longer selects X-ray, which now has its own button. Items that are empty can be selected, but of course will not be used. Beams can still be used at any time, even when missiles and super missiles are selected. * Item cancel has also been removed, as it now activates the x-ray scope. * Aim Down has become Brandish, which, when held, will toggle between Beams and the item currently selected. This is somewhat… abusable. * Smile Beams can be charged and remain charged while you fire missiles, but you still have to wait for cooldown till you can release a charged shot, or else you’ll just waste your charge. * Powerbomb attacks are also now easy to control, just tap Brandish when you want to trigger them. * Spinjump controls have also been improved a bit - Walljumping should be a bit easier on a d-pad, and Samus will fire in the direction you’re pressing instead of just forward, if you press fire. * The controls are configurable to ANY combination. Aim is not limited to L and R.

This is a (very) simple patch that makes it so Super Metroid’s missile (pink) doors open with a single missile, rather than five, like the ones in Metroid Zero Mission and the Metroid Prime series. I created it for myself as I prefer Zero Mission’s style, but I decided to release it publicly on the chance someone else wants to play with it. I recommend using this with Kejardon’s Control Freak patch, for an experience even closer to Zero Mission.

They're pretty damn awesome. I know that there are plenty of you out there that prefer SMet's controls over the GBA games, but I'm not one of them. So I thought that these two tweaks, which can both be applied to the same ROM without conflict, were welcome hacks. Too bad I just finished up a SMet playthrough a month or two ago. Really too bad that Control Freak doesn't work on SMet Redesign. :(

Edit - I'll explain how Control Freak's Brandish mechanic works, since I found the default description rather unclear. Basically, you can still use Select (or whatever button you map it to) to toggle between Missiles, Super Missiles, and Power Bombs (X-Ray Vizor has now been removed from this listing and mapped to its own button, deleting the Missile/Bomb deselect mechanic). However, hitting the fire button will still only shoot your beams, regardless of what's selected. Brandish (comfortably mapped to the L or R shoulder button, for us GBA Metroid fans) "toggles" between beam and the currently selected power up (Missile, Super Missile, Power Bomb). It's slickly done.

[Dash Kappei]

This thread is AWESOME, thanks OP (and to the posters' own contributions), do you guys know if it would be possibile to play the snes rom hacks through Wii's homebrew emus?

I'd like to play these bad boys on my telly :)

[Mejilan]

Some of them should, I would imagine. Of those that interested me, I was basically able to get them all working on my PSP.

[Mama Robotnik]

Sonic 2 Advanced Edit


Dark10x has already mentioned this impressive redesign, but I felt it warranted a bit more exposure. Boasting a wonderfully-realised clean art-style, a new and wholly appropriate soundtrack, stylised enemy sprites, some tremendous momentum/gravity physics work, and a fresh approach to level design; the result is a stand out production. The potential shown here will unfortunately never be realised, as production has been indefinitely suspended. The final beta released a number of months ago offers a solid number of trememndously playable, fully complete levels to traverse. Even incomplete, this is a superb effort.

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Goldeneye - Multiple integration projects


A decade has passed and Goldeneye is still revered as a marvel of design and balance. A number of fans believe the gameplay, arsenal and mechanics the game offered, should not be limited to the same multiplayer maps. A number of projects have been completed which classic multiplayer maps from Counter-Strike and Perfect Dark, and newly designed arenas, and patch them into the code. An interesting idea also applied, is unlocking the single-player levels for use in deathmatches.

Earlier in the thread I explained how new multiplayer arenas for Super Mario Kart gave new energy to a classic. I am sure these projects were undertaken with the same intent.

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[Mama Robotnik]

F-Zero Multiplayer Mode (Completed, v1.1 released)

An intriguing project. F-Zero notably lacked any form of multiplayer mode, so a two-player addition seems a perfect hack premise. The project has however gone the route of Sonic Mega Mix and transcended the boundaries of the host console. Using a custom-made, multi-screen emulator, the designer of this project has added four-player support to a classic.

This is the first case I know where, to produce the redesign, the author needed to not only hack the game coding, but also that of the emulator too. Hopefully, it is not the last we will see of such a bold approach.



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Legend of Zelda - The Seeds of Time - In development

I know I keep bringing this project up, but it is by far my most eagerly-awaited redesign. The designer has an ongoing thread over at SMWCentral, in which he posts occasional updates. His most recent, after a substantial interval, is amazing.

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This is one of the best transformations I have ever seen. Nintendo developed an amazingly versitile engine for Super Mario World, it is nice to see it achieving further potential so many years later. The game looks, sounds and apparently plays as Zelda. Wonderful stuff.

[Sega1991]

Am I allowed to bring up my dumb project?

I might have tried to sneak it in to this thread earlier, on-the-sly. I can't honestly remember!

[Mejilan]

Haha, yeah, I read about that F-Zero Multiplayer hack a few days ago. Neat upgrade!

[Sword Familiar]

Am I allowed to bring up my dumb project? I might have tried to sneak it in to this thread earlier, on-the-sly. I can't honestly remember!

Looks pretty cool. Have you added custom sprites or are they all re-used?

[Sega1991]

Looks pretty cool. Have you added custom sprites or are they all re-used?

Half and half. Sonic is a (somewhat heavily) edited Sonic 2 sprite. The graphics in the christmas demo were borrowed from Ristar. The graphics in the more recent August/October demo were mostly done by me, by hand (minus things like enemies and items, obviously).

[Enk]

Good to see this thread is still alive (I was actually about to make a new one). I'll see about adding some new suggestions once I get a chance.

[CO_Andy]

A remake of the original Golden Axe using the Beats of Rage engine.



Without a doubt it lives up to the source material while offering some nifty upgrades: slightly redrawn graphics, an orchestrated soundtrack, 3-player support, widescreen, and additional maneuvers. Naturally it's available for play on any platform that supports the BoR engine (Xbox, Dreamcast, etc.).

[Enk]

A remake of the original Golden Axe using the Beats of Rage engine. *pics* Without a doubt it lives up to the source material while offering some nifty upgrades: slightly redrawn graphics, an orchestrated soundtrack, 3-player support, widescreen, and additional maneuvers. Naturally it's available for play on any platform that supports the BoR engine (Xbox, Dreamcast, etc.).

:-O First time I've heard of this. I've probably played Golden Axe more than any other beat'em up in the arcades when I was young (cue typical Bell joke). If there was an arcade, there was likely a Golden Axe machine somewhere in it. I'll check this out soonish.

[Mejilan]

Yeah, I dicked around with it on my PSP a few months ago, and quickly decided that Golden Axe hasn't aged all that well.

[CO_Andy]

Old school beat'em ups are a hard sale without a friend around.

[jman2050]

Am I allowed to bring up my dumb project? I might have tried to sneak it in to this thread earlier, on-the-sly. I can't honestly remember!

Oh shit you're BlazeHedgehog?

The more you know...

[skybaby]

Guys, I just had so much fun playing f-zero with 2 friends, such a fantastic feeling. Indeed a childhood dream come true. We raced all tracks numerous times, it's times for new challenges.

What are your recommended f-zero hacks with new tracks?

[Mama Robotnik]

Mario 64: The Missing Stars

The Mario games have always been a popular series in the hacking communities. Their worlds of abstract design, with remarkably balanced rules on everything from enemies to physics, make them ripe for redesigns. As the series has increased in complexity, hacks of later games are more sparse, Yoshi's Island for example, has notably few hacks.

This is, as far as I am aware, one of the earliest attempts to create a whole new game out of the world of Mario 64. As a huge fan of the original, I am very curious to see how this project develops, and whether it will spawn a similarly-talented community of hackers as its predecessors.

The redesign (still in the works) includes options such as multiple playable characers, a day/night cycle, new levels, graphcs and music.

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[Mejilan]

Oh, now this could be neat...

[-PXG-]

These are so awesome. I was gonna go to the Killzone 2 midnight. Fuck that. I got REAL games to play tonight. SFIV? Pfffffftt. This is my shit.

[nincompoop]

Mario 64: The Missing Stars Video Video 1

They'd have to figure out a way to completely reprogram the camera for this to have a chance at not sucking.

[IntelliHeath]

Chrono Trigger side story is pretty spiffy.

[Mama Robotnik]

Sonic 2 Unimpossible



A good hack can have the same effect as well-designed Achievements or Trophies; in that they can take a game you are familiar with, redefine your goal(s) and thus redefine the game experience. This project is one of the best examples of taking a game, a world, a control scheme we have all experienced, and making a subtle change that makes even the Emerald Hill Zone a tense nightmare.

Rather than try to explain what its creator has done, I'll just quote him directly

Sonic 2 Unimpossible started out as a joke hack. I was screwing around and made it so that you gain a life every time you die, you can't drown, and you don't need rings or emeralds to go Super (and it doesn't consume rings). Needless to say, this was all just for the lulz. And it was good. But then I realized it was impossible to get a game over (hence where the name of the hack came from), and being Oppositionally Defiant, as I am, I was determined to get a game over in the un-game overable game. So I did some more hacking, and now here we stand. The current concept of the game? Everything listed above. But you might ask "Wait, doesn't that mean it's still impossible to get a game over?" No. See, the game runs on 8 bit hexadecimal. What does that mean? It means there is no number larger than 255. It basically means that 256 = 0. Now I've made the hack so that in addition to gaining a life every time you die, you gain a life for every ring you pick up. By this method, you get 256 lives quite quickly. Now recall what I said: 256 = 0. Because of its 8 bit programming, the game automatically resets your life count to zero once you have 256 lives. Initially, this didn't give you a game over. You could have zero lives without getting a game over. This is because you're not supposed to be able to have zero lives without dying, so the original game only ran a game over check upon dying. I rewrote the game over subroutine and added a branch to it in Sonic's main routine, so that every frame it checks if you have lives, and if you don't, your game is over. So now, having 256 lives is the end for you. And believe me when I say that it makes the game incredibly difficult.

This hack contains NO new levels, art, or music. It is the Sonic 2 we know and love, with a slight change. When the extra-life counter hits 256, the game-over text hits without warning. And every single ring you pick up will earn you one of these toxic extra-lives.

Playing Sonic 2 with the goal of avoiding as many rings as possible is a tense, challenging, patient test of endurance. It is still unknown if it is even possible (over at Sonic Retro they are obsessing over the challenge, trying different runs, seeing who can get a Game Over further and further into the game). Myself, I can only make it to Casino Night 2, and this was by far the hardest level so far. Those jolly fruit machines? Death-traps from hell.

If you would like to try a simple twist on a classic, or would like to see how a trip through a 16-bit wonderland can become an excercise in tension, then I'd recommend you give Sonic 2 Unimpossible a look. Expect to swear.

[Date of Lies]

Amazing thread, I can't believe it isn't getting more attention. Is there a forum or a community out there that focuses on these rom-hacks?

[JEKKI]

oh wow! I gotta get up on this!!

[eso76]

great thread i had forgotten about, which makes me wonder...

is there any coder gaffer out there who'd like to work on a remake ?

i'll be glad to provide updated graphics.

Back in the 16-bit days of Amiga i've worked on graphics for several games that never actually came out, or were never finished in fact, but got nice previews on several magazines (TGM actually said our SF2 clone had some of the best graphics they had seen on amiga). I wish i could extract all those .IFF files from those amiga floppies but it's just too much hassle i believe (assuming they still work, which i doubt).
I kind of miss pixel art.

[Mama Robotnik]

Amazing thread, I can't believe it isn't getting more attention. Is there a forum or a community out there that focuses on these rom-hacks?

There are a few I check regularly:

http://www.s2beta.com/forums/index.php?showforum=13 - Sonic-Retro's forums. Some amazing Sonic-related projects here. Most recent news is that the amazing "Sonic Megamix" is no longer cancelled. Be sure to look at Sonic 2 HD too!

http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=hacks&level=1 - Super Mario World Central, a site and forum dedicated to the hacking of SMW. Some very impressive works-in-progress in their forums, in particular Legend of Zelda - The Seeds of Time which I've mentioned a few times.

http://www.romhacking.net/ - Romhacking dot net, a repository of hacks for a wide-selection of games. Be sure to check out their message board's "Personal Projects" section for an amazing, varied selection.

[Bluemercury]

I assume you need the emulators like you were running the original roms?

[Mama Robotnik]

Super Mario 64 Classic NES Edition

Though the redesigning of Nintendo-64 games is still in relative infancy, a number of Mario 64 texture hacks exist. Of those available, I find this project was the most eye-catching. Its a simple idea done well, a re-texturing of Mario 64 with NES artwork. The result? A bit mixed on some levels (though the project is very incomplete) but many look suprisingly good. In particular, the field and external castle are very well realised, as are the ice levels. Some other touches deserve credit: replacing the castle artwork with sprites; having the bob-omb explode Super Mario Bros. 2 style, and dozens of other small touches.

Its not an improvement, nor does it intend to be. Its more of a glimpse into an alternate reality, and an interesting reality at that.

(Note - the screenshots are not the highest quality, I'd suggest watching the video to see how fluid it looks in motion)

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[octopusman]

Mario 64: The Missing Stars Has been released! Jump on it!

I miss straightforwardness

[lobdale]

It really is too bad there are not links to these patches in the original post. I'd love to try out a bunch of these but it is really just too daunting to scour the internet for a dozen patches and tools to make it happen ;_;

[404Ender]

Well, it seems like the Mario 64 posts open up the door for more than just 8-bit and 16-bit games in this topic. Rather than create a new thread, this one seems appropriate to ask this in.

Anyone have any good suggestions of other Nintendo 64 game mods/redesigns? Or even just high-res texture packs for certain games?