unlearn [Demo] - An ode to 2000-2005 SMW hack releases

I am back. How many broken promises? How many times I forgot about stuff? Looks like I had even forgotten that I was supposed to be retired from romhacking scene entirely. Yet I am here. And I'm making a hack.

...well, I was. Had to stop progress to focus on something else entirely. I did make some more progress than what you can see in this little demo (about 50% is done), but just so it feels like 2005 (btw oh boy the C3 theme managed to be so fitting) the demo features a single world only. I'll come back to it later. I promise

So what's this all about? unlearn is meant to feel like a dated hack, albeit it's obvious that the author has way too much extra knowledge compared to what people had back in the day. But to sum it up: most people used to change palettes in a rather basic way, insert graphics or draw some just as basic, insert quite a bunch of custom blocks such as brick blocks and shattering blocks, hex-editting stuff to change sprite behaviors so Bullet Bills are made faster and Rexes die with 7 stomps... oh yeah, let's not forget the good old SMAS music! And that's basically it. With the difference being it's obviously more advanced and properly designed around those changes.

Without further ado: click me to download.

Notice that even the demo is outdated compared to the little pic I'm showing above.

this thread was not planned in advance so it might be quite incomplete. i'm STILL working on that something else i mentioned, and it should come out tomorrow. thank you see you around

THE RETURN OF THE KING

Welcome back, Blind Devil! Getting back into the ROM hacking scene, to some degree, I see. I had barely gotten started on my fork of AddmusicK when you were last around here, which eventually became AddmusicK 1.0.9.

I wasn't around when the Super Mario All-Stars music implant patch was initially implemented since it predates my sign-up date... and also when I downloaded Addmusic405 once in 2012, but I know why it wasn't fully working due to the echo buffer overwriting some of the loaded songs (at least in the cases of the emulators that were truer to the hardware)... though this is modern AddmusicK.

It really is amazing to see an old guy make an old-style hack accompanied by an old-style layout. I've been wanting to make a retro-style hack myself too, but I've barely even started on any proper hack myself.

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Kinda in hibernation for a while. I hope to be back in full swing soon.

I miss you

Some fun little romps. Beat it. Really like the palettes here, and the SMB3 aesthetics really nailed the early SMW hack days.

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NewPointless

Welcome back!
I do wonder why people say they've retired from SMW hacking at all.
Mayhap I'll enjoy trying this.

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Please pardon the eye.

Nice to see you back, Blind Devil! Unfortunately, I don't think I ever met you back when we were both active in 2017 I never expected you to come back so suddenly. Anyways, I played the demo and while the first level seemed normal at first, there were so many things catching me off-guard! And the hack was getting really good until the demo ended Was looking forward for more...

Some other things: I really like how old-school it felt with the SMAS music. Granted, I can see you were using AMK instead of the patch since sadly the patch makes static noise play during transitions from level to level & whatnot. You even got the cave echo! Palettes were interesting too.

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My Mode 0 guide.

My Discord server. It has a lot of archived ASM stuff, so check that out!

There was such a strangely captivating charm to playing hacks with those SMAS music patches, and while a replication of that is what's done here, that charm managed to remain in this project.

I'm glad that you're releasing a demo of this hack now, and coincidentally with a C3 theme that's so suitable ! You've managed to design very fun levels with a concept that didn't result in substantial changes in those older hacks, and I'm excited to see what else you'll have in store (even if I already know some of what's to come for the hack). Awesome job with it!

When I first started playing Mushroom Kingdom: Under Crimson Skies, I always noticed that the creator was inactive, and even noticing that he "left" the community, I was a little disappointed for such incredible projects.

Now you return in the C3 event, bringing to life a hack from the 2000s!

Keep it up,  Blind Devil!

His majesty has returned! Hope you've been doing well!

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Hey y'all, Scott here!

We leave SMWC but SMWC doesn't leave us. We abandon SMW hacking but SMW hacking doesn't abandon us. We retire but we "aren't retired". Thanks for the welcoming, my dudes.



The idea of making a retro-style hack kinda came out of a sudden in my case. At first, it started with my interest in playing those hacks from the old and digging through SMWDB to find them - hacks such as SMW+, Gywall's SMW, Bowser's Revenge v0.20, Dario's Adventure Demo, Basic Land Demo, TSRP2 6-world Demo, and a bunch of others. Then I remembered about my early days as a hacker who was slightly developing each skill - the first time I learned about custom Map16, custom palettes, overworld editting, ExGFX, and so on. Then, one night of insomnia - it was when unlearn concept came to mind. Besides the edits to make the player leave autopilot while playing, I'm also kind of trying to mimic my own SMW hacking learning steps, so, around W3 you'll see more color variety as I discovered the 'use custom palette for this level' checkbox. Later, I learned how to insert custom blocks. Around W4, tileset mixing evolves a little. At W5, ExGFX gets more complex and I start adding ripped graphics as well as drawing some. As the player progresses, so does the apprentice hacker. Though the apprentice learns and the player has to unlearn. Quite funny.



Anyway, thanks! Glad you had fun and liked the visuals/music choice.




Anyway, I promise (maybe I shouldn't do this lol) you'll not be disappointed with the full product!

Apart from the oldschool/throwback vibes, I really couldn't afford using old tools as well because from technical standpoints it'd break core values. Plus, I don't think I want to really unlearn GPS over jonwil's Blocktool, or use LM v1.63 which if I'm not mistaken didn't have full mouse wheel support as well as zoom functions. I'm old and unironically getting blind so I need zoom to save my life. and maybe glasses but I hate using them





Very happy to know that! I can only hope that this feel can be translated all the way to the end of the project.

And speaking more about the little demo release: as said in the OP, I had to put unlearn on hold because of Miraflecmor - Feelings of a Frozen Heart (btw I made a release thread). It took priority for obvious reasons, but I intended to be finished with the hack for this C3 as well, since right now it has about 35 levels left to do. And if schedule allows as well as creativity flows, I can do 1 level a day and be done relatively quick. But I will procrastinate until next C3 gets in the corner.



Thanks a lot! Trying to go back to old days of SMW hacking is surely an unique experience, and I hope people who are familiar with that period can find some satisfaction in playing this hack. True time tunnel feels.

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All in all, thanks everybody for coming in. unlearn has been quite fun to make so far. And some new ideas, even if pretty simple, are popping up every now and then as in to make the hack feel even more retro than it is.

I'm glad you remember me! For your info, I went by the name 'SwagAssMustafa' at the time (a little edgy, thinking back) as well as 'MasterSkodwarde' before that. Does that ring a bell?

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My Mode 0 guide.

My Discord server. It has a lot of archived ASM stuff, so check that out!

Welcome back Blind Devil! Already loved this!

This is such a fun concept for a hack, and it's nice to see that the SMAS music patch and vanilla-adjacent-but-hex-edited 2009 hack isn't a dead genre.

The subtle physics changes are what really threw me off-guard, especially , and . It took me a while to catch on that it wasn't just me playing worse. It's a nice way to trip the player up a little, like a memory you can't remember quite right.

I also unironically love these palettes. Hueshift Isle 3's palette especially.

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Oh man, now that's a name i haven't seen in a while. I recall the last time i saw you active in the community was basically around the time i started hanging around here haha
Welcome back, Blind Devil!

I feel like a lot of what this hack is trying to emulate is lost on me as i've never really played any hack from back in the day (aside from Brutal Mario but that's obviously an outlier), but i can appreciate what is shown here.
Indeed, quite a few times throughout this hack i felt like i was unlearning, the very subtle changes made to the mechanics of the hack are definitely clever, and the levels explore them in equally subtle ways that made me feel like i was having a skill issue until i realized i wasn't (except the end of level 2, that was actually hard). I like the cleverness of some levels, and some others not as much (they're still clever, just mean lol).

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My Youtube Channel