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| 0 users currently in ROM Hacking. |
| User | Post |
| MathOnNapkins Posts: 226/1106 |
Well whatever, his online name is pretty irrelevant to the topic at hand, don't you think?
Personally I would like to try my hand at hacking a game like Demon's Crest or Megaman X. Both games have a lot of potential for improvements via ASM hacks and new maps/levels. |
| The Kins Posts: 97/352 |
Originally posted by MathOnNapkins Do keep in mind that this is a games forum... |
| MathOnNapkins Posts: 221/1106 |
Not really, considering I always thought it was a play on words for Drew, like Joseph but Drewseph instead.  . |
| The Kins Posts: 96/352 |
Anyone else see the irony of a thread about repetition and unoriginality, made by someone with a username that references Sephiroth? |
| D3stiny_Sm4sher Posts: 18/226 |
The Mario gameplay is simply legendary. There are currently only 3 TRUE Mario platformers to date, and when you have such fun and amazing gameplay, I love to see well-done games that test that gameplay.
If you're going to make your own version of a game series, Mario is a really good one to do, and so is Zelda, because they both have such amazing gameplay to work from. |
| Chainlink1061 Posts: 7/143 |
Mario games are the easiest to me. I've always wanted to hack a game that is easy to hack, and Mario happens to fill in that spot. |
| Sukasa Posts: 612/2068 |
I picked SMW for two reasons (Hey, SMW is mairo):
So yeah, that's why I picked mario. Next, I'm not too sure which game I'll work on. |
| HyperHacker Posts: 987/5072 |
Well hey, me too... except for me it was Pokémon.  I saw a lot of other cool hacks of it (back then it was the shit) and wanted to make my own levels. I did but they sucked.  I still have a hack of it in the works, actually. Taking forever though. |
| QBRADQ Posts: 18/26 |
Wow Hyper, I actualy agree with you  That's really how I got into ROM h@cking to begin with. My girl wanted to make her own levels for SMB1, so I got in on the back-end. Personaly, I prefer making SMW levels (more flexable), but hey
QBRADQ |
| HyperHacker Posts: 980/5072 |
Well how many hacks for Legendary Wings or Nobunaga's Ambition* do you see? Few if any. Mario? Tons. Number of hacks is directly proportional to popularity. So many kids (and even adults) played SMB and wished they could design their own levels for it. These people are finding out that they can. They don't care that their hack is the 4957845th, they care that they finally get to make levels for SMB. Hopefully they'll eventually move on to other games, or hey, maybe their SMB hacks will totally rock. Mario Seasons is an SMB hack too, after all. 
*2 randomly-chosen games I never really played |
| Kirk Bradford Myers Posts: 14/89 |
Most people who begin hacking seem to cut their teeth on Super Mario Bros, because it's an easy, straightforward jumping-off point. Besides, association through familiarity with already established standards definitely helps a ROMhackers initial case that everyone should check out their hack. Since Super Mario Bros. was a good game to start with, perhaps many feel that people will believe that their hack also must be at least worth a try, because it is still Super Mario Bros. at it's heart.
Let me use as an example a game which I instead cut my own teeth on, a game I have an unequaled love for...Metroid. Instead of writing it off for it's errors and fatal design flaws, I took it and shaped it around it's well-balanced play engine into the game I always believed it had the potential to be. Kept the good, threw out the bad and made it better. That takes a true love for the game, and any game in which a great deal of caring has been invested is bound to be a good hack. HOWEVER...if I were hacking a game such as, say, Lunar Pool, a game not too many have played or established with a familiar standard, perhaps less people would be inclined to try it out, even if it is a rather good hack. Which may explain also why many people immediately reach for Mario... I do plan on digging into Super Mario Bros. and doing something unique and different with it, something along the lines of Commander Mario. I'm just not sure what I want to do yet. And I can't really get a good idea until I take a little bit of time and effort to dig into the mechanics of the game and figure out what's what, so that I know what my limitations are. A ROMhacker's best tool is an intimate knowledge of the ROM he/she is attempting to hack. BTW, on a side note..about the aforementioned Lunar Pool. I would really like to do a new one of that one day. I can't believe that no one has tried their hand at that one yet, as that game is just screaming out to be hacked!  |
| QBRADQ Posts: 16/26 |
Well, here's my two coins:
I started h@ck1ng SMB1 because my girlfriend wanted to make a level mod. We messed around with it for a few days, and then she lost interest (first time working on software, she didn't realize how much work is involved ). After that, I continued working on what I was doing (map data addressing, adding a mapper, etc).
SMB1 isn't exactly easy, depending on what you want to h@ck. The music data is straight jacked, and the map data addressing method is so convoluted (and in some places, redundant and bugged) that attempting to mess with it without the aid of a pre-existing editor is a real pain. Anyway, I suppose the main reason why I liked h@ck1ng SMB1 (and now SMW) is the fact that there isn't too much to change. The mechanics of the g@m3s provide a simplistic method of play, the enemies by themselves provide a mild element of danger, but the levels are where it's all at. Change the levels, leave everything else alone, and you can make something much different (and hopefuly more enjoyable) than the origional. The only real problem I see with people using SMB1 as a spring-board into is the over abundance of bad examples. There are so many truly terrible SMB1 hacks out there that many may get the impression (as my girlfriend did) that making nearly impossible levels, replacing the graphics with stuff that looks like cr@p, and throwing hammer brothers all over the place equates to a good hack. Thus, the cycle of svck repeats. Anyway, I'm looking into some other, less abused for the time being. Till I sink my teeth into something, I suppose I'll be fairly quite. Always reading here though
PS: I'm at my vocational school ATM, behind censorship software remincent of Red China. Hence the @'s and 3's. QBRADQ |
| Dragonsbrethren Posts: 80/442 |
Originally posted by Dan That's it exactly, games like Castlevania and Mega Man have much easier to work with level formats, and are a lot more fun to hack. Dan, would you endorse "How to make a badass Castlevania hack in a day?" (Of course, I'd have to write said tutorial...) |
| Guardian Posts: 5/28 |
That's why I decide to take different turns. Try something new. No doubt its alot. Mario games seem to be the most popular ones to hack, next to Megaman, Zelda, & Final Fantasy nes games. |
| Glyphodon Posts: 27/536 |
I do it 'cause it's easy. There's so much data for the Marios, specifically Mario World, that I don't even have to like Super Mario World (I don't) to enjoy hacking it. |
| captain Qball Posts: 12/28 |
Quite simply, I think it's because of the appeal. When someone discovers ROM hacking, and sees the potential of designing their own game, it excites them. If they know nothing about programming, editors are good things, and there is a wide variety for Mario games. Chances are these peole have played mario games in the past and enjoyed them, and want their game to be as good as those games of the past, so what better way to ensure your game is like Mario than to make it modeled after a Mario game? |
| asdf Posts: 523/4077 |
In addition to the forementioned parts about showing off originality and being a good starting point, Mario games also have the widest array of resources available to assist in your hacking, plus the editors are a lot nicer than those for other games. Plus, look at something like Lunar Magic. Not only is it easy enough to novices to use, but it also benefits the more experienced hackers by removing a lot of the hassle in hacking, allowing them to focus on other things that they may implement themselves. |
| Dr. Mario Posts: 50/195 |
I also found it to be a realitively easy game to practice ROM hacking skills on. My first hack was a simple one for SMB (GFX, level, and minor gameplay changes), and then I moved on to other games, but I just started working on another SMB hack, just to get some practice in with working with games, and trying to get better at custom GFX. I mean it's turning into a larger project (I'm trying desperately to figure out how to write music for SMB, I know where the data is, it's just a pain to work with at all.) But I just think it's an easy game to sit back and just practice some basics. If I release a patch of what I've done, I think it's just a bonus. |
| Surlent Posts: 16/103 |
As long as there will people come with originality, even a level only hack will be good despite some advanced ROM hackers like BMF will come up with ideas like HDMA, ASM and other changes/effects. And Mario also offers the most popularity on this board.
Hacking an RPG is another thing, you need to balance out the enemy stats well, changing the plot line will be a lot harder than to use something like Lunar Magic (if you do it via hex, where a single character might mess up the entire ROM) with an included text editor. |
| Guy Perfect Posts: 124/451 |
The exact reason there are a lot of modifications released for Super Mario Bros. likely involves a newcomer to the field of ROM hacking and they're eager to show others what they were able to do. While this may become tirelessly redundant for people who have watched this happen countless times in the past, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do for someone who is new to the whole idea and I don't have a problem with that.
After all, constructive feedback is invariably helpful and if a person picks up some Super Mario Bros. tools to help become acquainted with ROM manipulation, then all the power to him. As has been mentioned already, it's a familiar game with simplistic features and several tools exist to work with it. It's a game of choice to work with to get into this stuff, so that could explain why people start with it. And in order to get feedback, they'll have to release some work which, for obvious reasons, end up taking the form as a new Super Mario Bros. patch. Now don't get me wrong: If a person ends up releasing upwards of 10 patches for Super Mario Bros., then some problems will arise. But if you see 10 Super Mario Bros. mods each by different authors, it shouldn't be any cause for concern. As a person's exposure to ROM modding expands, he will tend to take on various other challenges and enter the territory of games that most people wouldn't care to look into themselves. It's all part of a simple learning curve. So I see the multitude of Super Mario Bros. projects to be a good thing, as it means there's a multitude of people gaining interest in the activity and perhaps some great mod for a great game will be released by one of them in the future. |
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