Hack Showcase: Alien Soldier Hacks (Genesis) & Dragonball – Dragon’s Mystery Hacks (NES)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Seeing how both of these are more gameplay/translation hacks, I won’t have that much to say about them except for how they work, etc, so I’ll include some mini-reviews of both games too.

Alien Soldier: 6-Button Controller Support by NaOH gives Alien Soldier for Genesis, a game never officially released in the US except on the Sega Channel until emulation and the Mini systems, this hack enables 6-button support and makes it easier to perform your special moves just by pushing a button, instead of hitting a button and the directional pad.

Complete list of changes:

• You can now dash by pressing Z. (Down+C no longer dashes in 6-button mode.)
• You can now perform the “Counter Force” parry manoeuvre by pressing Y. (Double-tap B no longer parries in 6-button mode.)
• You can now toggle shoot modes by pressing X or Mode at any time. (Down+A no longer swaps shoot mode in 6-button mode.)
• The new controls are displayed in the “control test” screen, assuming a 6-button controller is inserted.
• On the password input screen, pressing up now increments the number and down decrements. Furthermore, A, B, and C can now all be used to confirm password.
• Bypasses internal checksum verification and region lock.

Alien Soldier – Weapon Cycling by i_hate_drm allows players to cycle through their weapon arsonal just by pushing the A button, instead of hitting A and cycling through them with no pause in the action!

RPG Hack Showcase: Pokemon Ash Gray and Firered: Rocket Edition (GBA)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Pokemon Ash Gray by Metapod23 is a hack of Firered letting you travel Ash’s journey as a Pokemon Master through the first season (Kanto) and part of the Orange Islands episodes along with the events of the first 2 Pokemon movies! The game will follow Ash’s journey and you can catch all the Pokemon Ash had during the 1st season, along with many others! Fight and make friends with Brock and Misty and follow content from the episodes like the S.S.A nne and even episode banned from the US including the Porygon episode! Other quality of life additions were added and some new abilities and equipment replace old HM’s from vanilla along with new tiles, graphics and more! Due to the uncompleted nature of the hack, it ends halfway through the Orange Islands adventures (there are other hacks for Orange Islands).

There is an unofficial 4.6 beta made by RevKenHack which fixes a number of small bugs and adds some quality of life features.

Hack Showcase: Castlevania: Maria of Sorrow (GBA)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Maria of Sorrow by Kyoski replaces Soma with maria from Rondo of Blood as the main character. The story has been changed so this hack acts as a story taking place between Rondo and SOTN where Maria ends up in 2035 in place of Soma! A lot of other changes were made including:

1.0 What’s been changed:

• Playable Maria over Soma
• Enemy/Boss HP x2
• Enemy/Boss Atk x2
• Enemy/Boss Def x2
• New Custom Weapons
• New Custom Armor
• New Custom Accessories
• Drop rates increased
• Modified HUD/damage numbers
• Modified pause screen/portraits
• Modified all red soul limits
• Some custom sprite edits to fit Maria in
• Some weapon stats modified
• Some armor stats modified
• Some accessory stats modified
• Some modified soul ability graphics (to suit Maria)
• Some new item placements throughout the castle
• Some enemy experience values increased
• Minor text alterations (to suit Maria)

1.1 more update information in Read-me

• New armor
• New accessories
• New weapons
• Rebalanced equipment for normal.
• More souls to fit Maria.
• Hard mode – Calamity mode
• Female voice added
• Mariacula screen added
• More story changes to suit Maria.
• Small armor nerfs to Chaos/Julius

1.11 update, more info in read-me

• “easy mode” patches
• fixed some weapon stats/animations

Hack Showcase: Shotgun Mario64 (n64)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Shotgun Mario64 by Dan_GPTV poses the question: What if Mario had a shotgun during the events of Mario64? Well now you got your answer! Shotgun Mario64 is a blast to play and hilarious to see what you can and can’t shoot. Using the shotgun you can skip around through all the stages, progression of getting Power Stars, shoot the environments and more!

Hack Showcase: Ghostbusters Special Edition (Genesis)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Ghostbusters: Special Edition from BillyTime! Games finally adds Winston to this Genesis game! You can also use Louis Tully also and both characters are added to the game’s cutscenes! Other changes include changing the uniform color for your Ghostbusters, a SRAM feature along with a new harder Nightmare! mode to make the game harder. Another change to Ghostbusters in an additional patch is Ectoplasm mode that allows you to use various cheat functions in-game, but disables the SRAM feature. The built-in cheats (which some were restored from the Japanese edition of this game) for Ectoplasm mode are in a readme file included with the patches. Other changes include:

• New Playable Character:

Winston Zeddemore (To select, press Right on Egon.)

• Stamina: Normal
• Speed: Normal
• Unique Attribute: Increased Jump Height

• Uniform Color Select
• Press A,B or C for new costumes.
• Five brand new color choices for a total of six!

• New Cheat codes and Unlockables (Ectoplasm Patch Only)
• Listed in separate readme file

• Nightmare Mode Difficulty

Hold B upon booting up the game to receive the challenge and how to enter.

• Lives are reduced to one. *Extra lives can be earned in this mode*
• Reduced health cap
• No Continues
• No Cheats allowed
• Saves are disabled

• Soft Reset function
• Press A+B+C+Start will return you to the Sega logo at anytime.

• Coffee mugs take less damage to destroy. (Ectoplasm Patch Only – v1.2)

• SRAM Save Function
• How It Works:

Loading: Select Load Game at the main menu, then select your character. after the initial cutscene all weapons, upgrades, Items and level progress will be retained.

My History with the Final Fantasy Series

The “My History With…” series are my thoughts back when I was a kid to young adult, about when I got games of a series, my initial thoughts about them, and other thoughts about the games. I stick to games I have or had, not one I played for the first time when i discovered emulation or modern system remakes. 

I started my journey in the Final Fantasy series started later than Dragon Quest/Warrior, but i fell in love with it as I did DW. I loved reading as a kid and my love for sci-fi and fantasy really drove me to the FF series seeing how Dragon Warrior was always more medieval fantasy. The longform storytelling here of having an objective for your party and solving problems along the way, or not knowing who or what you’re fighting or fighting for made me want to keep playing as I grew up. Even as a kid I didn’t mind grinding that much (though now with emulators you got that magic fast forward button). I should really start seeing down with these again with some the remakes and rediscover my childhood joy. For this I stuck with ones

US and JP FF3/6 and Jp strategy guides

FF6 jp sfc

FF3/6 us snes

FF6 jp gba

FF6 us gba

Ps1/2 FF games

Hack Showcase: Mega Man X1-2 Zero Playable + X3 Zero Project 4.6 (SNES)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Mega Man X and X2 Zero Playable was designed by Programmer Peru and makes Zero instead of X the main hero using his sprites from throughout the games and some other fixes. You’ll proceed normally throughout the game to fight the Mavericks, get items and upgrades on your way to fighting Sigma normally. Skull_emperor_ is the developer behind the graphic and text fix hacks which can be attached easily to the Zero Playable hacks to make some small graphical fixes in both games, and change the dialog in the openings and endings and cutscenes to reflect Zero being the main hero instead of X. In X1 the Dr. Light capsules were changed to Dr. Wily capsules and the dialog reflects that. Future updates for the X2 hack will change Dr. Light to Dr. Wily.

The Mega Man X3 Zero Project (as of this writing is version 4.6) by Justin3009 adds Zero as the main hero, with X playable too, and adds a lot more (worth noting this is different and rewritten from the ground up than their original Zero in X3 hack). Added in the Zero project is improved music and sounds, gameplay, Zero and X having their own sets of dialog through the game, and other options like a save/load system! Zero also starts with 2 mega shots and his sword attack! There’s also a New Game+ feature!

With most romhacks, strongly suggested to check out the readme files for advice on the changes to hacks and any gameplay tips, especially with rpgs. Readme files for rpg hacks can contain additional gameplay advice, etc, and it’s worth subscribing to hacks you like on RHDN to keep up with updates for bug fixes, additional content, etc.

Hack Showcase: Celeste Mario’s Zap & Dash (NES)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Celeste Mario is a hack made in the span of 2 months by w7n. This hack completely changes Super Mario Bros gameplay into that of the PC game Celeste, where you have to dash and jump in different ways to collect items and solve puzzles to progress. Mario is there along with other stuff from SMB! Every few rooms you can save and failing to solve a room doesn’t mean game over cause you have unlimited tries to succeed!

Hack Showcase: Zelda 1 Ancient Dungeon v3.0 (NES)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Ampoly created an amazing Zelda hack that makes going through dungeons reminiscent of a Rogue-type game with randomized dungeons (think Hades, the Ancient Dungeon in Lufia 2, or Diablo). Crawling through the dungeons you fight your way to find items to proceed even further! The dynamic loading of this hack means new rooms, bosses and more are generated more-or-less on the fly, compared to other randomizers where you build the randomizer and patch it to its parent game. Definitely check out the readme file included with the path for tips! Features include:

• Roguelike Gameplay: Every playthrough is different and it is all included directly in the ROM file. No external randomization programs needed, just load and play!
• Dynamic Enemy Loading: Normally the overworld and each dungeon has a specific set of enemies available. In Ancient Dungeon, new enemies are loaded dynamically during every room transition. This means there are no restrictions in the combinations of enemies you may encounter in the dungeon.
• Room Generation: New to version 3.0, the dungeon room layouts themselves are randomized. Rooms can be made up of pieces of existing room designs and/or randomized blocks.
• Additional Item Abilities: Some items have new functionality specific to Ancient Dungeon. One such example is the Recorder, which now both defeats Pols Voice and forces Peahats to land.
• In-game Timer: A built-in timer keeps track of your runtime and is shown at the end of every run, win or lose. Best completion times are also saved when playing in random mode.
• Seeds: You can choose a custom seed value and play the game in seeded mode, which gives you the same randomized layout every time. This is perfect for setting up races!
• Custom Palettes: New palettes have been added that change periodically through the dungeon, providing a touch of variety.

Hack Showcase: Mega Man Wily Wars Improvement Hacks (Genesis)

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Mega Man: Wily Wars came out for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in Japan and Europe, but only released on the Sega Channel service in the US in the 1990s. It finally got a real US release on the Sega Mini. It’s a collection of the first 3 Mega Man games along with the new Wily tower level with new bosses to fight. The jump to 16-bit graphics and music were applauded, the play control, uneven challenge in all 3 games, the sluggishness and slowdown…not so much. Since emulators and the Sega mini rom of Wily Wars dropping, various hacks have attempted to fix the shortcomings of this collection.

For this Hack Showcase, I used the European rom of Wily Wars and put 4 hacks together for a better experience, which I’ll be reviewing separate and together in the order that I patched the rom. Anyone reading this is welcome to patch their game the way I did. These hacks are made for the European rom of Wily Wars and I patched SRAM + Proto Man first, then the others, testing each one as I put them together. I demoed this set in Retroarch, so your mileage putting these together may vary.

The SRAM + Proto Man Size Fix hack by JackelZXA is the first hack attached and adds the following:

• SRAM saving
• Changes the ROM from EU to US (50Hz to 60Hz)
• Fixes Saving so Wily Tower can be unlocked
• Improves Input Lag
• Improves Buster Fire Speed
• Adds the Slide to Mega Man 1 and 2
• Redraws all of Proto Man’s sprites.

Weapon Master by Woodfrog adds the ability to use any weapon and item in all 3 mega Man games, along with Wily’s Tower! Hit the C button for the Window will pause the game and hitting up or down will cycle through the weapons and items from Mega Man 1, 2 and then 3. Worth noting that you can only use MM1 weapons on the Copy Robot fight in MM1 to prevent crashes.

Wily Tower Always Available by Gruesome_Garie gives you the option to go right to Wily Tower from the start! No need to use save states or worry about saves not working after finishing Mega Man 1-3!

Fixer Upper by Josephine Lithius adds the following improvements, which actually build upon some from the 1st hack I added:

• Enemy invulnerability time has been all but eliminated.  This means that enemies can take damage more frequently and reliably.  No more “missed” shots!
• The default weapon (the Buster) has been sped up to match its 8-bit counterpart.  Watch those lemons fly!
• The default weapon and some boss weapons can be fired more rapidly!  Hammer that “fire” button and launch waves of projectiles!
• Rockman pulls his Buster back a little sooner after firing!  This… only affects a handful of weapons and the change isn’t that big, but hey!  It might help!