Game hacks

[Thad]

Sonic Classic Heroes is wild. Here's somebody playing it in widescreen for some damn reason.



You get a party of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles (or Charmy, Espio, and Vector), all the levels from the first two Sonic games, and can switch characters on the fly. (My biggest gripe from playing the first level is that you can't remap the button to switch; it's A and I'd really rather put it on X, Y, and/or Z because I kept switching characters when I was trying to jump.) It's got all the levels from Sonic 1 and 2, with a stage select available out the gate.

The usual crappy 2-player mode where someone can grab a second controller, pick up Tails, and wander right off the edge of the screen is available. I'm kinda curious whether a third player can join, but I don't have a multitap or much occasion to use one.

[nosimpleway]

For maximum painlarity you can tether the three together Chaotix-style

[Thad]

Metal Gear (MSX) ported to Amiga

[Mothra]

[Thad]

Man I've got dozens of games I've never played and you're gonna make me just play FF6 again?

[Brantly B.]

I mean, at least it's actually FF6.

[mharr]

I just started a new run this year too. Binning that I guess.

[Mazian]

SMW Remade from Memory is all of Super Mario World, put together by the SMW hacking community, based entirely on what they're pretty sure the original level layouts and music are. It's the uncanny valley of SMW.

[Upthorn]

I don't want to play that, but I sure would watch a twitch stream of a speedrunner who hasn't been told their rom was replaced by this hack.

[Friday]

decino recently did a full playthrough of a similar thing for all the commercial Doom releases. It was... very cursed.

[Thad]

Tried firing up the Requiem version of SotN and eh, it's fine, but on balance I'd probably be happier playing the PS1 version.

Or a PS1 version.

I decided to hit up Romhacking.net and I found Quality Hack, which removes the black bars and increases the game's vertical resolution, and a fan translation that reviews say is pretty solid. Unfortunately the two hacks appear to be incompatible.

[Thad]

Got damn the buttons on my PS2 controller are mushy AF

I think I may have spent a lot of time playing PS2

I know I have a wireless Logitech controller here somewhere and IIRC the D-pad wasn't very good but it's still probably better than this. I should probably find it. Eventually. Though I guess there are maybe some other games I could finish before replaying SotN again.

[nosimpleway]

*whiffs a Hellfire*

[atog]

There should be any number of new controllers, even later-gen Playstation ones, that you can remap PS2 functions onto that won't be mushy and spavined

[Thad]

Yeah but that won't help me much playing on a PS2.

I've got a Logitech wireless PS2 controller around here somewhere, but damned if I know where it is. This is what my office looks like RN:



Now that my toolshed's finally built maybe I can start going through some of this shit and putting the stuff that doesn't need to be air-conditioned out there. And get some shelves up for the stuff that does, so it's not sitting in boxes on the floor.

[Mongrel]

Look out dude! Shredder's hiding by the boxes!

[Thad]

i don't get i*URK*

[Thad]

Decided to check and see if anybody's fixed the PC version of Crazy Taxi yet. It appears that they have:

Dreamcast Restoration 2.0 & SilentPatch for Crazy Taxi

"Dreamcast Restoration" restores the Pizza Huts and such and fixes some bugs. The description doesn't say anything about the soundtrack (or if it does, I missed it on a skim and keyword search), but there's Bad Religion playing in the YouTube video so signs point to yes?

The inexplicably-named "SilentPatch" fixes the analog controls and some other bugs.

Meanwhile, I thought to ask, "Say, now that the Steam Deck is a thing, has anybody gotten the FF7 Reunion mods to work under Linux?" And it would appear so:

Final Fantasy VII (Original version) Reunion Mod Guide

I guess I could try finishing it. Though really if I want to finish a Final Fantasy mod that I'm partway through, I think FF6 T-Edition is the higher priority.

[Thad]

The GBC hacks for Mega Man 5 and Super Mario Land 2 are really impressive. Like, better-looking than most actual GBC games.

SML2 has beautiful bright colors that really pop on a handheld screen, and makes some sensible choices like changing Mario's fire-power sprite to the traditional white-and-red rather than the feather in his cap in the original game. It's great.

MM5 looks like an NES game, complete with Mega Man's palette changing when he switches weapons. There's some detail lost in the boss sprites (areas that were multiple shades of gray being replaced with solid colors), but on the whole it comes out looking really good.

Wario Land is a little less polished. The colors aren't as bright (frankly it looks more like a real GBC game), there are some graphical glitches, and some unfortunate palette choices, chief of which is that it's often hard to see doors because they're too close to the color of the background. It doesn't get marks quite as high as the other two, but it's still pretty neat and I think I'll keep on playing that version of the game rather than go back to the B&W.

[nosimpleway]

Was screenshotting and documenting a playthrough of this. Got as far as Terra's wake-up before realizing it was just the GBA script and to the Returner's Hideout before I realized Thad already did it.