Big Rom Hacks & Homebrew Thread
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Hey everyone, I figured it would be cool to start a thread posting all the best rom improvement hacks, rom tricks and homebrews we've been using. I've been compiling my list for a while and i'll definitely be adding more to this list. Feel free to add your favorites.
If you add any, please post links to Romhacking.net or other sites where you got legal IPS patches, but NO ROM LINKS for extremely obvious reasons. The exception being freeware homebrews.
Here is a running list of games, i'll update this from time to time.
Recommended Rom Improvement Hacks / Tricks:
Kirby's Adventure for NES
Not trying to brag (maybe I am)... but I made this romhack of Kirby's Adventure that let's you keep your weapon when you get hit! Not bad for my first journey into hex editing! Check it out!
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4340/Castlevania and Castlevania 3 for NES
Improved controls. This is all i need to say, these 2 hacks are amazing! They take the stiffness of the originals and make them feel like castlevania 4 on snes... the control is as fluid as a megaman game. This is the update these classics needed.
Castlevania: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3867/
Castlevania 3: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3596/Dr Mario for NES
Getting wives to play video games can be daunting, my wife loves Dr. Mario but hates that I am a combo machine and am always dropping punishment pills on her side. This hack removes the punishment pills and makes the game more like 2 player tetris. Now my wife wants to play every night, here is the patch:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3330/
(there are GB, SNES and other versions of this patch also)Castlevania 4 for SNES
There is a nice hack for this that restores all of the censored graphics and fonts from the japanese version back to the american version. All the crucifixes are back on the graves, and level 8 is all blood instead of green slime as it should be. All changes are graphical and all of them are official from konami, it just makes the game just a little sexier:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2928/Ninja Gaiden 3 for NES
The american version of this game was brutally difficult because there were limited continues and no passwords. The Japanese version of this game had unlimited continues and a passwords system. This hack updates the american version to be a bit more fair in the challenge by restoring the japanese continue system. No other changes made, just makes the game more fun:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/570/Gyromite for NES
This game was used with ROB the robot who controlled the A/B buttons via player 2. So unless you have a friend, the regular rom of this game is really hard to play. This is a patch that puts all controls on the player 1 controller making it easily playable without a second controller and skilled toes:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2268/Alex Kidd in Miracle World for Master System
This is a trick… The rom version of this game for SMS has a lingering problem of the JUMP/ACTION buttons being switched out (opposite of mario style), UHG why do programmers do this?!?!... Anyway, If you remember, Alex Kidd was built into the Master System version 2, and if you started the system with no game cart, it would load Alex Kidd. On THAT version, the jump/action controls were correct. SO, if you want a more playable version of the game, find the Master System Version 2 BIOS rom and run THAT file as the game on retropie. It loads completely normal and has the correct control layout. Since bios are considered roms, you'll have to find this one yourself…
EDIT! - There is now a romhack to reverse controls on the official rom in case you don't want to run system bios as a game: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3661/Mario Advance 4 for GBA
Remember the GBA E-Reader? No? Maybe? Well as the Nerd would say, it was a pile of steaming goat s&#@! Anyway, the E-reader unlocked an additional 38 levels and a bunch of items (feather, boomerang suit, etc.) in this game with the use of overpriced trading cards. Now, if you ever played this game on the Wii Virtual Console, you'll notice that all 38 e-reader levels were unlocked and playable without the cards. Neat right? Well even neater, the virtual console file was simply an updated GBA rom and an included emulator. A crafty modder found a way to create an IPS patch for this game which brings all this updated content to a GBA rom you can play on an emulator. All e-reader content, no e-reader. Nice.
...Well, I am posting a link to the romhacking article so you can read about how it worked, but unfortunately because the IPS file contained copyrighted material, it was removed. Of course, with some crafty google searching, you should be able to find it if you really want to play it: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2714/Castlevania 2 for NES
Castlevania 2 Simon's Redaction is a version of Castlevania 2 where all of the weird, cryptic and useless things the towns people say has been replaced by actual clues as to how to play the game. Makes the game playable without needing nintendo power. It also speeds up the day to night transition text so the interruption is a little less annoying. This should be considered the definitive version of this game:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/868/Mega Man Wily Wars for Genesis
This is an EU only game, which means it’s PAL exclusive and runs at 50hz. This patch updates the rom to run at NTSC 60hz which makes the game play full speed. This patch also updates the bullet speed vs walk speeds and fixes the saving problem on wily tower (the bonus you get when you complete all 3 games). This hack takes an otherwise crappy Mega Man game and makes it actually pretty decent:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3322/Donkey Kong NES
WOW you got the high score, it's you're best ever! But oh, dang, next time you start the game, all scores are wiped clean. Well, that's dumb. This patch adds sram saving to Donkey Kong to save those precious high scores:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1302/Super C
The US version of this game only had a code for 10 lives. This IPS updates the code to give you 30 lives instead, same as the original Contra... Unfortunately this hack doesn't fix the weird code they put there in place of the classic Konami Code, but at least its the correct amount of lives now:
www.romhacking.net/hacks/2606/
Recommended Homebrews:
All free to download. Can easily be found with a google search:-
Alter Ego for NES
This is a homebrew and it’s really, REALLY fun and amazing chiptunes!
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Blade Buster for NES
Another homebrew, want to have a good high score battle with friends? This is a great one!
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Angry Video Game Nerd for Atari 2600
ASS! -
Angry Video Game Nerd KO Boxing for Atari 2600
ASS! -
Nightmare Busters for SNES
Great graphics and music on this homebrew: http://www.nightmarebusters.com/
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Thanks @Capeman for the list! Half of these I haven't tried. I'll be sure to give them a go when I have some more free time!
I'll also put a link here to an older topic with the "Best Rom Hacks?"
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7295/best-rom-hacks -
I want to try the final fantasy 7 rom for the nes!
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Got 2 additions:
Sonic Classic Heroes on Sega Genesis:
This game is RAD. It combines Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 together into one large game, adds Knuckes and Tails (as well as all the skills associated with both)... and makes all 3 characters switchable on the fly, similar to Sonic Heros on modern systems... but better because it's retro! This is seriously one of the best hacks out there! It doesn't come as an IPS because it's too complicated, only in full form, but it's easy enough to find with a google search:
Sonic 3 Complete:
This is the combo of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles that should have existed in the 90's. This hack is the equivalent of connecting Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, but it lets you exit back to a main options menu to let you play Sonic 3 as released, Sonic & Knuckles as released, or the combo of the 2 games. It also allows for options of using classic music from older games (title theme, victory theme, super sonic theme, knuckle's theme, etc - all of which is better). It also allows you to use the strike dash from Sonic CD or the complete controls from the awesome (recent) Sonic releases on mobile. It's a fantastic hack and really the definitive version of Sonic 3:
Here's the romhacking article about it: www.romhacking.net/hacks/1056/ But you're best to find the pre-patched rom somewhere on google. -
Great topic, I'd like to suggest this for anyone playing the Pokémon games either on GB, GBC, GBA or Nintendo DS (yes it works on rpi3)..
Basically were talking a hack that doesn't ruin the game anyhow but allows you to complete the pokedex by catching all the Pokémon available within the version of the game whichever your playing . Obviously with Nintendo events & trades we can't actually complete the pokedex on RPI without a ROM hack version of the game.
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@greenhulk
Hmm, your link is just all search results. I'm totally not into pokemon but I've played Pokemon Ultra Violet, which is a GBA Fire Red hack that combines Fire Red and Green Leaf plus the ability to catch every pokemon without trading or those tickets that where given away at some point. -
@EctoOne sorry yeah its just a list of the available improvement or hacks to Pokémon ROMs there, was too many to list.
This may interest some of you..
Streets of Rage 2: Syndicate Wars
Play as literally any character on streets of rage 2
Sadly the sites temporary being reworked where I got the patch for mine, could try romhacking.net tho, there's a few different hacks for sor2 on thrre
http://woc.brawlersavenue.net/main.htm -
Super Boss Gaiden:
I just posted this on a different thread, but I'm adding it here to to keept it all together, haha... AAAANNNYYYYWAY.....If you're a fan of beat-em-up style games like river city ransom, you'd probably like Super Boss Gaiden on SNES.
You play as the Sony CEO who just found out the super nintendo CD prototype went missing, and you rampage through you office building, beating up everyone you see. Similar controls and art style to river city. Worth a play, it's a free homebrew so here's the link (click the logo to download, it comes with instructions, box art and moves list):
https://superbossgaiden.superfamicom.org -
Wall Jump Ninja:
I don't know about you guys, but I'm personally obsessed with Atari Homebrews. The community over at AtariAge keep coming up with amazing games that keep that ugly old wood grain box as an integral part of my game room setup.Wall Jump Ninja is absolutely fantastic! It's a single button jumping game, but it's addictive as hell. High score is determined by how many rooms you clear. It's a must play! I can't remember where i found the rom, but I'm pretty sure the developer was sharing it on the Atari Age forum.
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@Capeman Does this rom run on a SNES emulator in retropie?
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@klachow The Super Boss Gaiden One? Yes it does, the zip file contains both the CD version for the one single existing SNES CD console (i think they were being facetious) and a regular 4mb ROM that runs on any snes emulator. The .sfc file is in the ROM folder in the zip.
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This isn't necessarily a must-play, but just the novelty factor of it's existence is enough to warrant a place in my collection.
(its just a graphical hack of Berserk, but still...)
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Metroid - Rogue Dawn (NES)
Just stumbled upon this one in the retroachievements.org forums. Actually I didn't play it yet, but looks fun for those who like Metroid.
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@meleu I haven't played that one yet either, but i've had it in my "add to retropie" folder for a while now haha
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Konami has made some dumb decisions in more recent years, but mostly in the retro days, nobody can deny that Konami was the sh*t. But even retro Konami made some bone head moves, and one of those was never bringing the TwinBee Series to the USA.
The best entries in the series appeared on the SNES, and were released in Japan and Europe. The best way to play both entries in english and NTSC are via the hacks below:
Pop'n Twinbee (SNES)
This is an amazing vertical scrolling cute'em up game. The graphics and music are top notch and the challenge is true Konami hardcore. In this case the European and Japanese versions are pretty much the same, so obviously the best way to play it would be the EU version since it's in english... but of course PAL games run slow by default because of 50 vs. 60hz standards. This hack is the NTSC hack for the (EU) version of Pop'n Twinbee. Brings it up to speed.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3378/
Pop'n Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure (SNES)
This was a crazed departure for the series, it took the series from a vertical shooter to a wild side scrolling action adventure that is a weird mix of Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Rocket Knight Adventures... If that didn't sell you on the awesome, I don't know what will! Anyway, the Jap and EU versions this time around are vastly different. The EU version strips out the save feature, the between stage dialog and selectable world map, all the secret exits and basically all the fun extras that add to replay. SO the best way to play this game is by using the Aeon Genesis translation patch and playing the original Japanese version in all it's glory! Patch is here:
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2054/
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Anyone here enjoy some simcity?
Check out uCity for gbc which is an open source homebrew.
https://github.com/AntonioND/ucityhere's a precompile bin
https://mega.nz/#!o9EXTLqJ!NbR3iKLourMup1wLysxbtEvkga6ioTtqBDV1JHxhb_IRetroid
breakout for gameboy!
Official Site
https://retroidgameboy.wordpress.com/ -
Recommended Rom Improvement Hack
Gameboy - Red ++ (Pokemon)
I've never really been a big fan of poke hacks but this one is just outstanding.
It's an upgrade to the original fire with tons of additional content and improvements.
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=336256My Custom Palette to better Enjoy it
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Nes - Ducktales 2 - Two Player Hack
I enjoy single players games as much as the next person, but games are just way more fun in multiplayer.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2141/Snes - Secret of Evermore - Two Player Hack
Another game that should of had multiplayer but just didn't and now you can. Player 2 can drop in and out and gets to control the wolf dog.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/24/Snes - Oh No!More Zombies at my Neighbors
Another really good rom hack definitively worth checking out.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/623/ -
Snes - Kirby Dream Course Hack
Grumps Dream Course
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Bio Miracle Baby Upa NES
Near the end of the Famicom lifespan, Konami started to get weird. Bio Miracle Baby Upa is one of those weird games. It's pretty fun! Here is a translation hack: www.romhacking.net/translations/676/
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King of Demons SNES
This is a really neat game on SNES. The best way to describe it, is that a group of talented developers started a Castlevania clone on genesis (the sprite work has a very genesis feel), decided it would be cooler with a gun in modern times instead of the classic Castlevania setting, and then decided to move the whole project over to SNES and make it badass! The japanese name of this game is Majuu Ou and the translation patch is here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/649/Seriously watch until the second level of this game (in the first 6 minutes) when the giant grub worm the size of the whole screen is following you through the cave just before you fall through the floor. A masterpiece!
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