Language…
13 users online: 35TCB77, Buflen, crm0622, crocodileman94, fanfan21, Green Jerry, Hayashi Neru, KoJi, Maw, Metakabe, Neuromancer, signature_steve, toady - Guests: 244 - Bots: 347
Users: 64,795 (2,377 active)
Latest user: mathew

SMW Hacks worth making onto cartridges? no savestates!

  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2
Hello, new to this site - I've looked around for a similar thread relating to this but no luck. Maybe I'm not getting many results since I am just searching from my phone, so sorry if I'm bringing back old topics !

I'm fairly new to the SMW hacks, I came across someone selling reproduction carts locally through kijiji and purchased SMW Return to Dinosaur Land. I was shocked that someone could make a hack that felt so much like the original game and successfully put it onto a cartridge. It is the game that shines most in my collection of 100+ games. I currently have the same guy making a few more games that I never had the chance to play.

Well then I find a folder on the net of 900+ SMW roms, all different hacks, and became more amazed. I started an emulator up and was going to see what each game looked like or how it played briefly to see if it was worth getting a hard copy of. Well a lot of games were changed far too much with graphics or even level layouts for me to enjoy.

I'm looking for SMW hacks that are from super mario world, not super mario bros. 3 or yoshi's island games. I loved how Return to Dinosaur land seemed like a sequel, how the level layouts actually make sense. I'm not huge on games with graphic changes too much - mainly just after MORE super mario world, not different games entirely.

Now these games have to be beatable (and enjoyable) without savestates. Saving after each level was much better than having to complete a ghost house like in the original SMW.


I've been researching for a solid week now on what I would like on hard copy. I understand I could just test games in the roms, but I don't want to test too far, or there's no point in getting a legit copy. So I ask all of your opinions.

I've narrowed it down to:
-super demo world 3
-second reality project reloaded
-return to dinosaur land
-quest on full moon island


Then for a challege I am getting a brutal mario done, the graphics are altered a little too much - but the play-style is also so it makes it for a new game in a sense. Then I stumbled across "Mario in the Yoshi Island Mystery" on flashback entertainment site. It reminds me of mario mixed with bubsy. That's probably the only other "different" super mario game I'd want.


Anyways, looking forward to hearing some opinions ! Thanks guys,
qw1k
I've heard Lunar Legends is pretty good. That one is the only one that comes to mind though.
Hacks that are similar to the original SMW in style are not common among the released hacks here due to the fact that people want something a bit different from the original SMW (even with the same graphics, different palettes come into mind). There are some hacks that have customizations but stay close to the original SMW, you can look around for them in the hacks section or ask in this thread if you cannot or don't want to find any.

From my experience, playing without savestates is quite tedious for a lot of hacks here although there are some hacks that don't require savestates.
Wow quick reponses, awesome thanks!

I'll have to check out the lunar legends hack when home from work.


I know they can be quite frustrating without savestates. Even though this site specializes in the "different" or harder hacks, I'm almost certain that there are more hacks like the original or return to dinosaur land in the 900+ roms I've run into - just hoping you guys have run into them along the way (even if you don't focus on the simple ones).

Thanks for the help so far !

qw1k
thread prolly fits better in hack discussion

beware of old hacks that use custom music, because they might break on real hardware (aka no point in putting them on carts)
I was having a debate with myself where to post this, sorry for going with the wrong section !

I have been warned about the games with altered music, I guess that narrows down my search even more. I notice some repro sites have mutliple SMW games, not sure if they have altered music - I am going to guess that they don't or it wouldn't work.

I didn't know the altered music could potentially damage real hardware - this is very good to know. Is there a way to check if the hack has altered music before testing? That would suck if they very last level had one different song in the credits and crashed the game/system.

Do you maybe think there are specific creators that aim to make games on carts? I could search artists rather than games if they've made multiple projects.
To know if a hack's custom music will break/crash on real hardware, just use bsnes (also called Higan). It's the worst emulator It's really accurate to the original system, so you can easily know if a hack won't work. I know TSRPR won't, since I've tried it before. Most hacks made in 2011 and after should work, provided nobody still uses any old Addmusics or other programs (Carol's, Romi's the original 2007 Addmusic, SMB2/3 music IPS patches, etc).
Actually, if the creator is careful enough or uses a more recent addmusic program the hack can actually be compatible with accurate emulators and an actual SNES. And broken music doesn't do damage to the hardware actually, it just either makes awful screeching noises and/or crashes the game. In most cases though, the music will make a short electronic noise and mute all sound, crashing the game when you exit the level via goal or another method.

I would give more suggestions here but there really aren't many hacks that stick to the official level design formula.

EDIT: Maybe EP would be interesting?
Originally posted by MercuryPenny
Actually, if the creator is careful enough or uses a more recent addmusic program the hack can actually be compatible with accurate emulators and an actual SNES.



Would this mean if I wanted the second reality project on hard copy, that someone would have to remake it with newer programs?


I know I'm an oddball going after hard copies rather than just roms and emulators.
Well, either that or find and fix all the music used in it. I'd say look for a different hack, like the hack I listed in an edit of my previous post.
Originally posted by MercuryPenny
uses a more recent addmusic program?

I am pretty sure those types of versions refuse to insert such music rather than fix the broken music.

I would like to note that any hack that is accepted into the (not legacy) hacks section since remoderation should most likely be compatible with real hardware.
Originally posted by qw1k
I know I'm an oddball going after hard copies rather than just roms and emulators.

More like an awesomeball. If the really important thing to you is playing hacks on hardware, you could save a lot of money with a flashcart like sd2snes. They take ROMs in flash memory and run them on the SNES, so you can try the hack on the SNES without risk. I have one for testing purposes, and also for playing hacks the right way.

I certainly understand if you actually want a cart, though (I want to get both the smwcp hacks on a physical cart when #2 comes out).
Originally posted by qw1k
Originally posted by MercuryPenny
Actually, if the creator is careful enough or uses a more recent addmusic program the hack can actually be compatible with accurate emulators and an actual SNES.



Would this mean if I wanted the second reality project on hard copy, that someone would have to remake it with newer programs?


I know I'm an oddball going after hard copies rather than just roms and emulators.


As for TSRPR, I'm working on it.
It'll take a little longer because I wanted to update some other stuff in it as well (like multiple midpoints which come in handy on the real hardware) and also because TSRP2R was and still is on my highest priority. Chances are that when TSRP2R comes finally out a bugfix/update for TSRPR won't be far behind, though.

An update to TSRPR would be nice. Would you use AMK or AM4?
Anyways, flash carts seem to be really expensive for whatever reason. I don't see why so many people care about hacks working on actual SNES hardware, but whatever.
Originally posted by HuFlungDu
you could save a lot of money with a flashcart like sd2snes. They take ROMs in flash memory and run them on the SNES, so you can try the hack on the SNES without risk


This intrigues me. I'll have to look into these. Sounds like you can just load the rom on and print a label up and thats the game right there - but if they're expensive, that wouldn't be the greatest alternative for each game if I wanted multiple.

Originally posted by HackerOfTheLegend
I don't see why so many people care about hacks working on actual SNES hardware, but whatever.


Games that have more time and effort and have a better play than the original deserve to be real games in my opinion. I understand its not Nintendo. But look at all the games that are out there that never get played from Nintendo (no offence, much like the hacks - win some lose some).

I've got a collection of over 100 SNES games, its silly having all this hardware and playing emulators. If it is playable on real hardware, why not try? I think it is great getting labels made and making real copies, its making a real game - not just programming a game.


Originally posted by MercuryPenny
Maybe EP would be interesting?


So I click that link, download the games - then get completely confused on how to load the .IPS file into my ZSNES. So I lookup on Google, come across this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btuwQw7wC4U

which is showing this game:

http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=showhack&id=4977&force_old=1


Which seems to be EXACTLY the kind of game I am looking for. I am just about to go make the IPS files playable to test these games. Im certain I won't want EP made into a game only because of how short it is. But thank you for the suggestion because it brought me to Back to the Classics!

Thanks for all the positive responses, I'm excited to get more hard copies of SMW :)
I'm pretty sure that Lunar Legends demo crashes on accurate emulators and the actual SNES; try the second demo instead, as I'm pretty sure it was fixed.
Originally posted by qw1k
This intrigues me. I'll have to look into these. Sounds like you can just load the rom on and print a label up and thats the game right there - but if they're expensive, that wouldn't be the greatest alternative for each game if I wanted multiple.

Flash carts use flash memory to hold the games. In a sense they are emulators since they emulate the bus behavior and ROM layouts, but they are still hardware. The emulation allows them to switch the part of the flash memory where they get the ROM data without resetting the system or anything.

What I'm saying is that flash carts let you load in multiple ROMs and give you a menu to pick which one you want to play. The sd2snes can use up to 32gb flash cards, big enough to fit the entire commercial snes library. And I fit all of the hands hosted here into a 4gb card on the powerpak, so plenty of space.

Again, I totally understand if you want a label and you want it to take up physical space and you want to blow the game when it doesn't work, and you want to thumb through your library of Mario hacks, etcetera, etcetera, because I do too. But for bulk or testing it's hard to beat a flash cart.

Originally posted by qw1k
So I click that link, download the games - then get completely confused on how to load the .IPS file into my ZSNES.

As a note, if you are testing for hardware, you don't want to use zsnes. It emulates music poorly, which created the whole "these hacks don't with on the SNES" thing in the first place. Ideally you should use bsnes, but snes9x 1.53 would work almost as well. Just not zsnes.

If you look in the FAQ of this site, there is a section on ips that will tell you how to make them playable.
Originally posted by HuFlungDu
If you look in the FAQ of this site, there is a section on ips that will tell you how to make them playable.



Thanks, I searched "vanilla" in the SMW Hacks Section and put the # of levels from highest to lowest, this got me quite a few more results for games I am looking for.

And thanks to you (and the organized site) I made them all into playable ROM files and am testing them out. Quite fun, just what I wanted.


Thanks for the help guys, just needed a little digging.


I'll post pictures when they're done being made. I'd still be interested in the 2nd Reality Project like you guys were talking about earlier.

Thanks,
qw1k
You also have to consider which ones that you pick that are even compatible with a real snes.

I don't think 100% of the games here work correctly.
Originally posted by Final Theory
You also have to consider which ones that you pick that are even compatible with a real snes.

I don't think 100% of the games here work correctly.



I narrowed it down to:

-Super Demo World 3 The Legend Continues
-The New Mario World v1.1
-Super Mario World Back to the Classics
-New Super Mario Lost Levels
-Enigmatic Tales


I THINK they should be good
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2