Hackings requests/ideas

[DanP]

Hi guys,

Small topic to explore everyone's ideas for hacks to make existing games different/better than when they were released. Not talking about complete game rewrites but small changes to enhance what's already there.

I'll start off, I'd like to see a hack that could add another shield to the total on The Empire Strikes Back after every completed level (just like in Star Wars).

Anyone got any more? You never know someone might like it, have an idea how to achieve it and go and do it!

Dan

 

[cmonkey]

Number of shields remaining for ESB is held at $4860 in main ram. Wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to detect when you complete a level and increment that value by 1. There's plenty of free space in the roms to put your own code in so it's perfectly feasible to do this.

 

[Nes4life]

I love everything about original Asteroids but the hyper-jump button is awful.
I'd love to see a version with just this feature swapped for a shield (no other changes or improvements akin to Asteroids Deluxe). Does a hack already exist?

 

[guddler]

The only hacks I'm aware of (excluding the multi-game board which doesn't really count) are the speed up hacks back in the day and some years back Clay Cowgill did a hack that increased the number of bullets your ship could have on the screen at once, by default it's 4 and it was increased to 6. Problem was the hack was a bit too hacky. You didn't get credited for anything you hit with those two additional bullets so you rattled through the levels really quick with a really low score

A shield didn't ought to be rocket science. I imagine the code ought to be able to be largely ripped from Ast Deluxe.

 

[virtvic]

An extra life on Pulsar at a certain score (sega are mean)

A button for jump on Kangaroo, rather than diagonal up.

Same for Green Beret.

 

[virtvic]

When are you doing that then, Martin?

 

[Purity]

I would like to see the maze and characters in baby pacman be more like pacman

 

[Alpha1]

Lunar Rescue, although I love it!!!!

1) if you save fuel you get a bonus

2) if you save your entire 800 fuel allowance you get a larger bonus

3) when descending, if you can land on a landing pad without going left or right or using the thruster you get a bonus

 

[guddler]

When are you doing that then, Martin?

I'll add it to the list. Maybe some time in 2020

I seem to remember there's not massive amounts of space left in Asteroids. For Asteroids Deluxe the code spilled out into the Vector ROM.

 

[edwoodjnr]

Can I add Food Fight to the list if there are any 68000 coders out there?

There is a free play mode in the settings menu and on the dip switches but you don't get the fancy attract screen or high score table as it just asks you to begin either a 1 or 2 player game.

Cheers

 

[2huwman]

I'd like to see (or hear) all the voice 'acting' in SCI replaced with the seminal work done in Chase HQ. That must be achievable by some clever person.

 

[niknak]

Just a freeplay option for Salamander would be nice. there's a no coin option on the dips that could be used.

 

[silverfox0786]

The only hacks I'm aware of (excluding the multi-game board which doesn't really count) are the speed up hacks back in the day and some years back Clay Cowgill did a hack that increased the number of bullets your ship could have on the screen at once, by default it's 4 and it was increased to 6. Problem was the hack was a bit too hacky. You didn't get credited for anything you hit with those two additional bullets so you rattled through the levels really quick with a really low score

A shield didn't ought to be rocket science. I imagine the code ought to be able to be largely ripped from Ast Deluxe.

clay also did the Astro Blaster Hack where you get more time and less fuel used. so the game is a little more forgiving to play

 

[Robert]

Just a freeplay option for Salamander would be nice. there's a no coin option on the dips that could be used.

There's a game called spclone in HBMAME that might be what you're after. It has a big FREE PLAY text on the screen.

 

[niknak]

Yeah I know about spclone, but it's built on the Japanese version of lifeforce with the capsule select. BTW in your HBMame builds you have that running as a child of salamander but it should be running under lifefrcej because it needs 3 buttons and not 2 as you have it now. Cheers though Robert.
niknak2015-06-07 12:52:24

 

[ben76]

I'd like a pac land hack where instead of a fairy he has a pork pie or slice of cake under his hat and eats it

looking at you Mr Monkey

- Ben

P.S. even a cheese sandwich would be funny

 

[cmonkey]

If I thought for a minute that I could make a paying career from game hacks/enhancements then I'd quit my current job tomorrow and take it up full time as I'm relatively confident that I could fulfil all the requests here given the time and financial encouragement.

Alas, game hacks/enhancements DON'T pay my mortgage and usually take many many hours to perfect, so the few that I do are usually for MY benefit and are generally for games that I play/enjoy rather than doing them to order, so to speak.

Saying that I do play Pac-Land quite often but I'm NOT going to be replacing the fairy with a pork pie/slice of cake/cheese sandwich/<insert other crazy idea here>!!!!!!!

Ben - I can furnish you with the Pac-Land sprite format info and the offsets within the sprite roms for the various frames of animation of the fairy if you feel like giving it a go yourself of course.

 

[ben76]

If I thought for a minute that I could make a paying career from game hacks/enhancements then I'd quit my current job tomorrow and take it up full time as I'm relatively confident that I could fulfil all the requests here given the time and financial encouragement.

Alas, game hacks/enhancements DON'T pay my mortgage and usually take many many hours to perfect, so the few that I do are usually for MY benefit and are generally for games that I play/enjoy rather than doing them to order, so to speak.

Saying that I do play Pac-Land quite often but I'm NOT going to be replacing the fairy with a pork pie/slice of cake/cheese sandwich/<insert other crazy idea here>!!!!!!!

Ben - I can furnish you with the Pac-Land sprite format info and the offsets within the sprite roms for the various frames of animation of the fairy if you feel like giving it a go yourself of course. 

As if I'd have a clue lol but how funny would it be to see him take his hat off and a pork pie float round into his mouth lol

- Ben

 

[Robert]

Yeah I know about spclone, but it's built on the Japanese version of lifeforce with the capsule select. BTW in your HBMame builds you have that running as a child of salamander but it should be running under lifefrcej because it needs 3 buttons and not 2 as you have it now. Cheers though Robert.

You can't have a clone of a clone, but it is easy to use another game's inputs. I've changed the inputs to use those of lifefrcej, for next release. Thanks for the info.

 

[dj_yt]

Following my work on Cannonball, I had a gentleman contact me requesting an Arabic themed OutRun patch. He provided concept ideas and even offered to pay. Unfortunately, as cmonkey points out, time is the limiting factor with this sort of work and your own personal level of interest!!