My first ROM Hack

Discussion in 'Showroom' started by Matt, Mar 31, 2021.

  1. Matt

    Matt Active Member Member

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    Hello guys,
    Today I want to show you guys my first Sonic Hack. Currently, this haven't got a name and it's unfinished, but I would like to share this with all the people here at SSRG.

    0E44D0C2-94C8-4188-B76E-417127D59925.jpeg 28BA2DF5-49EC-4BD2-8225-D0091846AC63.jpeg 384F26CC-34C8-406F-ADA9-8C1DB5912F04.jpeg
    6766FF11-62D5-4942-827C-F5827265C114.jpeg

    Credits:
    @Clownacy for his Sonic 1 Github Disassembly (s1-disasm-master)
    @MarkeyJester for the improved Fade In/Out code

    Programs used:
    • ConTEXT
    • SonMapED
    • Mid2SMPS
    • Flex 2
    • HxD
    • SonLVL
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Apr 3, 2021
  2. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Please can you show screenshots, before anyone downloads this?
     
  3. Matt

    Matt Active Member Member

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    Sure!
     
  4. Matt

    Matt Active Member Member

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    Added images
     
  5. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    You didn't have to post again by the way. You could have just edited your existing post. Anyway, no need to reply back to this message.
     
  6. ProjectFM

    ProjectFM Optimistic and self-dependent Member

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    It's neat that you're figuring out how to edit art and music and all that, but I also think it's necessary to think about if you think people will enjoy your hack before you decide to release it. There's noting wrong with posting screenshots and video for feedback, but I think this was much too early to be worth releasing. The palettes are ugly because they don't follow the pattern of the original art. A good palette-making guide can be found here. The chunks are obviously broken with missing blocks and bits of art in places where they look out of place. The level design, in my opinion, works against Sonic's gameplay, requiring Sonic to play in a specific way and get punished with death if he messes up. It gives Sonic little room to build up speed and lacks the branching paths characteristic of Sonic level design. I'm not saying you have to conform to the level design in the original games, but I just recommend that the level design allows the player to take advantage of Sonic's abilities and has some aspect of flow to it. The object art could use more detail in the shading in order to make the edits stand out less. The HUD in particular is thin, which causes it to be harder to read, especially on hardware when there is a horizontal blur. The numbers lack a shadow, which causes them to be unreadable when on top of something bright, such as a cloud. Finally, the music just sounds unfinished. There are long stretches of silence and often there are as little as only 2 of the 9 channels playing at once. I recommend editing your midis a bit more to take advantage of the available hardware. You won't get it right first try, but if you work at, you will improve. In fact, I'd say the same about everything here. Give it all more thought and work, ask for feedback if you feel you need it, and your hack will get better.

    Edit: Also, I noticed your music doesn't loop. This tutorial shows you how to loop songs in Mid2SMPS, as well as some other tips.
     
  7. Deactivated Account

    Deactivated Account Well-Known Member Exiled

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    You need to change and improve the palettes, you can use HivePAL, also here there are a lot of tools to use.
    About music is right, you will get better with time, the level design is regular, but a nice start.
    If you wanna learn more about music, practice and you could arrive like in this level:

    Take into consideration what we are telling you, be serious and patient when updating your hack.
     
  8. Clownacy

    Clownacy Retired Staff lolololo Member

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    Thanks, but I didn't make that disassembly: I just contributed to it. It's a community project.
     
  9. Matt

    Matt Active Member Member

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    Thank you ;)
     
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  10. Matt

    Matt Active Member Member

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    1. I appreciate if people here at SSRG play my ROM Hack, because I've spent 1 month making this Hack ( Don't be forced to play it, I'm not forcing anyone).
    2. is poor-designed, I know, because most of the downloable ROM Hacking programs need to have Windows NET Framework 3.0 or something installed, but my computer it doesn't let me install them, for some reason.
    3. I also appreciate feedbacks, so don't hesitate to write me in DM at my twitter account (username: MatthiasDark)
     
  11. Deactivated Account

    Deactivated Account Well-Known Member Exiled

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    Don't make double post, you can answer in the same post.
     
  12. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    No need to backseat mod, he was already made aware before about double posting by myself.
     
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  13. Deactivated Account

    Deactivated Account Well-Known Member Exiled

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    Ohh my bad, sorry Spanner, my apologies.
     
  14. Ravenfreak

    Ravenfreak Still hacking the 8-bit titles Member

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    Looks like here's yet another kaizo hack. I'm not a fan of these hacks myself, they don't follow the traditional Sonic game play. Plus 9 times out of 10 they're quite unfair. However I looked past that and gave your hack a go, but I didn't really make it far before closing the emulator. First off your hack will not work in Blast Em, so I can only assume it won't work on actual hardware. I currently don't have a Genesis hooked up at the moment to test on actual hardware, but Blast Em is very accurate and if the emulator will crash there's no way the game will boot up fine on a Genesis. Second the palette edits aren't good, especially both Green Hill and Marble Zone's sky. The HUD is very difficult to read, the text is too small. Adding some additional shading can bring the HUD out more, making it easier to see. (I'm not the best artist in the world, so perhaps another member can better explain what you should do to fix it. :V) ProjectFM already gave you some good advice for fixing your music looping issues, I suggest checking out the tutorial he shared. You've put lots more effort into your first hack than others have so I'll praise you for that. You definitely have lots of issues to fix, but I think you got what it takes to make a good hack in the future.
     
  15. Matt

    Matt Active Member Member

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    Thank you for the feedback. I'm assuming that this hack work really fine on Kega Fusion, but I don't know why it doesn't work on Blast Em. The palette wasn't modified, I simply searched for LevelHeaders.asm and changed the palette header of GHZ with the palette of MZ. I think that this hack will be not updated anymore, and I will restart it from the beginning.