A Short introduction to ROM Hacks
For “Semi Conversion”-’s first piece I’d like to focus on Modding’s slightly older, more mysterious and sometimes brooding older brother “Rom hacking”, in short: the modification of “images” of older video games (mostly console titles of the 16-32 bit era) via varying methods (usually involving “brute force” ASM hacking, or the use of tools built via “brute force” ASM hacking).
(many) Rom hacks do differ from modding in one way major way however, - whereas Mods usually force a user to own a legal copy of the game he wishes to play a modified version of, on the system he owns it for - ROM hacks usually (with the exception of the always growing translation
communities and most post PS1 hacks) come in the form of a complete modified game image, dropping them (in some cases) into the somewhat murky waters of “Maybe” legalness, and they can usually only be played via the use of emulation software.
So a small disclaimer before we begin: Do not download ROM hacks of games you do not own, this is probably not legal, if anything even try to use whatever hacks you want on the system you own the original game for.
One of the first ROM hacking communities I ever encountered was the one over at Retro Sonic, stumbling upon it when searching for the ROM from the “locked on” version of “Sonic the Hedgehog” that let you play as knuckles (as was possible when locking on most Sonic games to the “Sonic and Knuckles” game cart), due to technical limitations however SEGA never actually did anything like this, instead what I discovered was a page dedicated to a ROM hack that did what SEGA could not.
Over the next couple of weeks I’m gonna try and bring you more articles on the subject of rom hacks, and (until I finish the genesis trilogy) particularly Sonic ROM hacks.
let us begin with the first of firsts “Sonic the Hedgehog” for the genesis:
More Charcters:
- Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog: Introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 it doesn’t seem that their has ever been a sonic game since that didn’t feature Sonic’s two tailed genius sidekick
fox. This little gem (produced incrementally by both drx [v1] & Puto [v2]) brings him one step back to Sonic’s original solo outing, with handling borrowed from the refined Sonic the Hedgehog 3. - Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog: The aforementioned Knuckles mod, while popping the original Sonic 1 into the Sonic and Knuckles cart would at best let you play a limited version of Sonic 3’s special stage this so called “holy grail of rom hacking” as brought to you by the hacking prophet and guru Stealth, will let you do what SEGA didn’t, albeit with some completion issues and a slightly off pallet.
For those who have already finished this “Timeless piece
of Art” “like over 100 times”, or those who want to play a slightly
updated version of the original:
- Return to Origin: Played Sonic 1 to death? How about playing it backwards?! Once described (by myself) as being to Sonic 1 what Hebrew is to English (that is right to
left rather than left to right) RtO offers a whole new direction to
experience Sonic 1 in. (By a mister “carretero”). - Sonic the Hedgehog Plus: One of the most glaringly obvious features missing from the original Sonic 1 featured in almost every other game in the series is Sonic’s
trademark “Spindash” ability, there are allot of hacks out there that
add spindash too the original Sonic 1 experience, however it doesn’t
quite get more bare-bones than this, which when considering the extra
characters, levels, art etc. most such hacks usually add or change
actually makes this one my personal choice. By Hivebrain (Game Plan, Design),
drx (Spike Bugfix) and Stealth (Bugfix).
Fan-Charcters and other wierd experiments:
- Sonic 1 Beta Remake: Although the beta version of Sonic 2 is one of the most well known leaked 16-bit era game beta’s, (as far as I know) at the time of writing no significantly different beta of the original game has been discovered or leaked. To fill that hole however we have rom hacking, in much the same way “Missing Information” hopes to recreate the Half-Life 2 described in the incredible “Raising the Bar” book, this project recreate the
Sonic 1 previewed by many a video-gaming magazine before it’s release. By Tweaker, JcFerggy, Driver, and R. Solaris. - Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog: Surprisingly not erotic fan-fiction (although the title does sound that way), this ROM hack inserts Shadow the hedgehog, a weird fan-created* charter that has been making rounds in the sonic community these past few years, into Sonic 1. More or less a black and red “edgy” antihero to Sonic, Shadow is described as the “Ultimate Life-form” (Really? a bipedal hedgehog?!) and is somehow easily and commonly confused with our leading blue blur. By Jimmy Hedgehog, Selbi, MarkeyJester and E-122-Psi.
- Mr. Needlemouse: Once again: not porn, Mr. Needlemouse is a Sonic 1 rom hack that replaces Sonic with a concept version of him, more or less just ridiculous, but a sort of fun “Dumb Running Sonic” kinda ridiculous that’s good for the soul. By MKAmeX.
That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed this little feature, join us next week when we cover some more ROM hacks for Sonic 2, or join us for the rest of the week as we keep on seeking out: The Fringes of Modding!
-Remote (AKA Djtjj, AKA Djtjj2, AKA Dgjtjghjghj, AKA Sam Wagner, AKA Tales of a Fan) (With allot of help from Sonic Retro’s excellent wiki)
*Yes I know shadow is an official character I just like to pretend otherwise
PS: If I got anything wrong or miscredited anyone, comment or email or PM, I’ll fix it ASAP.
PSS: As you might notice some major sonic hacks weren’t included on
this list, I’m reserving those “total conversions” for a later feature.
PSSS: Still not sure on how the to do this PS stuff
????,gettin better at hacking :)