The 9th Annual Vanilla Level Design Contest Collab Hack of 2016 features 108 contest submissions, along with various staff, judge, and post-game levels. There are a total of 152 exits spread across 117 levels.
While the levels themselves remain vanilla, we included various other ASM features such as score displays with reset functions, as the point of this collab is showing off the individual levels, and not to be restricted by the switch palaces one has already pressed.
The overworld also features ASM shenanigans en masse, creating an experience you are sure to have never had before in a Super Mario World ROM hack.
Taking all of these aspects into consideration, this is now the largest SMW hack ever made (more than 96 levels that would not fit into a regular 4MB ROM!).
A masterpiece of an overworld tainted by mostly trash levels. If you like enemy spam, you'll love this hack. Maybe the biggest problem is that hardly any creator regarded having only one checkpoint as a serious design consideration. So a bunch of levels are like eight minutes long deathless with one checkpoint, so you will be slogging back through super long sections every time you die to some unfair bullshit (likely a lot). On that note, I'm not sure how this got rated "Normal" when two thirds of the stages are hard or very hard at the level of something like JUMP. The Top 10 levels are mostly good, and there are a few other gems mixed in there such as Swiss Hotel (morsel) and Fish In Space (snorunt), but as an entire game, it's not worth the time.
I found the previous annual level design hack to be a fairly miserable experience, though I still powered through most of it because the few halfway decent levels kept me going. Maybe a year later, people would be more skilled level designers?
Assuming all the same people made levels for this game, its safe to say you aren't improving at your craft. I'm not expecting EVERYTHING to be amazing, but I AM expecting asinine crap like the level entitled "Cutting in line" to not be listed in the god damn top ten. It has a neat concept, but everything in the level is EXTREMELY incongruous. The very beginning of the level has some blocks and a falling platform which appear to be leading up to a pipe...except you can't actually go into the pipe... Then later in the same level, Theres a side room with a puzzle, I THINK the intended method was to use the moving coin block, (which is up OFFSCREEN, where its not immediately obvious you need it!), combined with the P-switch, to catch the turtle shell, and use it on the enemies to the left... But I didn't know about the coin block the first time I was there, so I just caught the shell as it was falling and skipped the other steps.
In the outer space level, (I can't remember what it was called, I'm pretty sure it was ranked number 3) you get to a part where you're swimming in outer space, sounds cool right? I touched a square block on this screen, and died. Why is that a problem? THE SAME SQUARE BLOCK IS PRESENT BEFORE THIS POINT, AND DOES NOT HURT YOU THEN! Why wasn't it just a spike block or something!?
And that particular example gets weirder too, there is a second part of that same level where you go swimming, and only at the SECOND part, the game actually warns you not to touch ANY moving blocks! Why wasn't this warning present earlier? I already learned by DYING to a block that you need to avoid them!
I wonder how many people will even see this, don't waste your time with this game. Theres MANY more examples I could probably list. The levels are, at most, passable, and at worst, indicative of people going into a vegetative state before finishing them properly.
I wonder if the moderators would consider any of this too hostile... But stupid children have to learn from their mistakes somehow, don't you think? Its not good to keep throwing yourself at something if you're not visibly getting better at it. Its something most speed runners and fighting game players really need to be taught.
This hack doesn't work in the latest version of bsnes v115 or as a repro cartridge on a real SNES due to increased accuracy of the SA-1 chip since the hack was uploaded. Is there any way that this can be rectified?
play it in either snes9x 1.60 or bsnes "forks" like bsnes-classic or bsnes-plus v05
or ask bsnes creator byuu to update his emulator to add some sort of compatibility function for VLDC8 & VLDC9
Edit 5/21 - the issue with VLDC9 not working with newer bsnes versions from v106r62 onward has been reported on github in April 2020: https://github.com/bsnes-emu/bsnes/issues/7
This hack doesn't work in the latest version of bsnes v115 or as a repro cartridge on a real SNES due to increased accuracy of the SA-1 chip since the hack was uploaded. Is there any way that this can be rectified?
@RussianMan: Thanks for your reply! I did it before, it gave me only black screen with Snes9x 1.53 and ZSnes 1.41, but it seems it works fine with ZSnes 1.51.
you need Snes9x v1.54, 1.54.1 or higher to play VLDC9
I'm on Mac and don't have an emulator to use. It won't show up when I use OpenEmu, Snes9x gives a "powerpc apps are no longer supported" message, and bsnes is laggy as shell. Any suggestions? :|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJepJa1xzQg this is the song of midnight arbor (underworld forest from the gameboy game last bible 3. never played the game but it looks weird)
The first time I downloaded this, it always played at less than 60fps, usually 40 something or less. So it would stick every few seconds. I'll try downloading it again
@RussianMan: Thanks for your reply! I did it before, it gave me only black screen with Snes9x 1.53 and ZSnes 1.41, but it seems it works fine with ZSnes 1.51.
hello friends I love this rom, I have a question, how can I start the map from 0, without solved levels, because I can walk around the map and that takes away the fun: C
I've been asked how I got it to work on a pi. All I did was install the snes9x 1.54. Can't remember if it was an experimental package. This only runs on snes9x 1.54. Hope that helps.
I've been asked how I got it to work on a pi. All I did was install the snes9x 1.54. Can't remember if it was an experimental package. This only runs on snes9x 1.54. Hope that helps. Just note all sa-1 roms tend to lag a bit . This one lags a bit in the overworld and some of the custom music.
Got it working on my raspberry pi. Sound is a bit buggy, but I guess it's due to the size of the rom. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Just had to update to the latest snes9x version.
It's all good. Just wanted to see why this needed the sa-1. The worst that could happen is that I get a repro cart of this. But like I said total noob here. Still learning stuff :-)
No. You can't just remove SA-1 from the hack (it's also locked). SA-1 is needed for... some things. I think World X is one of them. It also allows for more sprites on screen. Just use another emulator (ZMZ, BSNES, etc.)
Total Noob here. Just wondering why is there a need for the SA-1 on this hack. Couldn't there be a version without the need for SA-1? Just a question as i want to learn some more. Wouldn't this work without SA-1 on the SD2SNES? is there a way to remove SA-1 from this? Just want to learn, that is the reason for the question.
Got another question to ask. What is the theme for all the switch palaces? I'm listening to it in my head and I can't get it to leave me. lol I wanna know what that particular song is, and if it's an original composition or if its arranged.
I can't find the last dragon coins in the level call azul fortress.
I found all 5 dragon coins in the Azul Fortress stage, toad64. The first dragon coin is hidden somewhere early in that stage and you can NOT see it. Look for suspicious high ledge or platform to climb on when you first see 3 green koopa paratroopas, bounce off one of them to reach that high platform and then jump to the right and you should be able to get that "invisible" dragon coin.
I'm probably the dumbest person so far to make a comment here, but, exactly what do I need? All I have is the BPS file, and a normal 1 MB ROM. I know the hack uses a 6 MB ROM (am I supposed to use Lunar Expand, and then, which setting should I use?). And then, what exactly do I need to apply the bps? All I have is Lunar IPS 1.02, but no "Floating Lunar IPS" or whatever.
This looks good, but so far I cannot get past the blank screen when I load the rom in SNES9X.
I've made sure the rom I'm patching is headered, and I have to assume I'm using the correct rom because every other rom gives "This patch is not intended for this rom" in Flips. Is there something else I have to do, maybe perform the secret handshake before I can play this game?
this will be the last time to go on about the levels' any more plans for another version with more green doors for levels like cutting in line or great ice ravine or weird at the sky. will the future level that had a pipe go into the endless bonus game get marked down. cutting in line does out stay its welcome.
Sorry if this is a silly question, but will this hack work on a real console? The 7th collaboration hack worked, but I think this one was purely vanilla...
Chuck/Chuck. Would Charlie Chuck again. How much Charlie's could a Charlie Chuck chuck if Charlie Chuck's could chuck Charlie's? TONS of Charlie Chucks were chucked.
Many Charlie's are in many levels would be my main problem. But it's okay because it wasn't done by a single author so it's understandable. It reminds me of ASMT's item babysitting problem. Almost every level in that game had P-switches & springs to babysit.
Still an impressive collab though. I still enjoyed it.
@ZirexBR: de nada, agora por favor não transforme isso num chat, essa seção é destinada para comentários sobre o hack. Enfim: você precisa ter o DirectX instalado para usar o Snes9x, ele deve vir com o tal "d3dx9" que você precisa.
I've been wondering this, and the music is really amazing. What is the song that is used for "Square Land"? Its also the title theme when the game is started up.
152 exits the hack longest in history of SMWCENTRAL, I wonder if VLDC10 will be even longer, there is one thing that makes me wonder, in years of SMWCENTRAL I've seen some hack removed with 190, 400 exits?, fake? or really existed so long hack.
But you can really create hack with over 200 exits
Note to MinecraftPro297: are you using flips.exe to patch this new VLDC9 release? Also you need a "headered" SMW ROM for the patch to work.
note to niko: what version of higan are you using? VLDC9 works almost flawlessly with nearly no lags with higan v098. I don't use the later versions of higan like v101 as the lags are very noticable on there.
also note that this game randomly crashes in zsnes and no$sns, so avoid using these emulators.
Immortality means you have infinite lives
Which is basically how it has always been in the VLDC compilations since the map auto-saves. It's just more convenient about it now.
Why will it not let me patch the IPS patches anymore? I use Floating Lunar IPS and it always tells me, "This patch is not intended for this ROM" for every patch. I try to patch a clean U.S SMW ROM. Can someone help me?
v1.11 - Fixed palette in Divemissile's level.
Fixed yellow level dot for Simple Path.
Removed exit-enabled pipe in LucasRCD's level.
Various stuff in SomeGuy712x's level.
Removed time limit from switch palaces.
Removed F*** You from Streamside (because we can't have profanity
like that on an (illegal) ROM hack on the interenet in 2016)
Changed some names in the credits.
Fixed walking on OW after beating S.N.N.'s level.
Small changes to the haunted OW map.
Fixed 3rd save slot.
What's new/been fixed in this update? (I haven't been on the site for a few days) Also, will my save files from the previous version work on this update?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6sow5atB5w&t 
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