Romhacking Spotlight - New Weapons, Reinforcements and Juggling!

Welcome to the Romhacking Spotlight! This time we are going to look at a couple of hacks that will really do some amazing upgrades! Have you played these hacks or have any romhacks to recommend then please tell us about them in the comments. Enjoy the hacks!

Romhacking Spotlight - Contra, Sor2 and Bubble Bobble

Contra Hard Corps - Hit Points Restoration Hack

If you were a Megadrive/Genesis owner back in 1994 you were probably as glad and surprised as I was when Konami released a Contra game for the system. And what a game!. Contra: Hard Corps features 4 different characters with 16 unique weapons, a total of 14 levels with 6 different endings and 38 different bosses to fight!

But when Hard Corps was released outside Japan something was changed. In the original Japanese version of the game each character actually had a health meter letting your character take two extra hits before being killed. This was removed making the game a bit harder as you could only take one hit. So let's fix this and bring back the healthmeter using the power of romhacking!

Romhacking Spotlight - Hacks that adds a second player!

The hacks that impresses me the most are hacks that makes a significant change to a game, that adds an element that changes the way we were used to play the game. And an example of this are these amazing hacks that adds multiplayer to a game that originally just had support for one player. We played this amazing game and just wished there support for a 2 player mode, but sadly the developers only made it a solo game. But thanks to these talented hackers they somehow managed to change so much in the rom that they added support for a second player! In this segment of the Romhacking Spotlight im going to talk about three hacks that does this and we are going to start with Tetris.

Into the Blue - Tetris Attack inspired game comes to the Game Boy

Oh joy of joys, if you loved the 1984 game of Tetris or the 1995 game of Tetris Attack, you'll be pleased to know a brand new puzzle game inspired by those games has been released for the Game Boy. This game named as 'INTO THE BLUE', is a puzzle game developed by Jonas and comes with all the features you would expect of an officially released game from back in the day(Romhacking).

Romhacking Spotlight - New New New New Mario Bros. Interview with MacBee

Sometimes i stumble upon some graphic replacement hacks that are so impressive that it's hard to believe that despite the systems limitations it can looks this good, and the romhack “New New New New Mario Bros” is one of these! This is a graphic replacement hack for Mario Bros. Classic Series. This game is an improved version of Mario Bros released by Nintendo, if you want to know more about this version of Mario Bros you can read more about it in a review that i wrote here on Indie Retro News.

Romhacking Spotlight - Lode Runner Mini, Super Mario Ultimate and SoR2

Welcome to another post of the Romhacking Spotlight! If you missed the first post this segment is all about recommending some of the many great romhacks that you might have missed. For me romhacking is a way to play those old games in a new way, or to get a sequel to a game that never were. For example we all loved Super Mario Bros 3 but Nintendo had to move on to the next generation consoles and sadly never made any more Mario Bros games for the Nes. But thanks to romhacking we can see many new versions of a game and a good example of this is the hack "Super Mario Ultimate" that you can read more about in this post :)

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos NES Enhancement

Bit of a short news update, as it's very late but seeing as it is too good to miss, Romhacking recently announced the release of the Ninja Gaiden II: HD Graphics Pack, which is an enhancement for the NES version of Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. This game was released way back in the early 90's as the second installment in the Ninja Gaiden trilogy. This release graphically enhances the game by porting the graphics from Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for use with the NES version of the game and its 8-bit audio.

Romhacking Spotlight - Mario Land, Turtles and Balloon Fight!

 

Welcome to the first installation of Indie Retro News Romhacking Spotlight! There are a lot of hacked rom files out there and new hacks gets released every week and it's very easy to miss some really amazing hacks. So I decided to create this segment to spotlight some of those hidden gems that might have passed under the radar.

Star Cruiser II The Odysseus Project - Action role playing game for the PC-98 is fully translated

Another awesome heads up by our translation source Romhacking as they have said the action role playing game 'Star Cruiser II: The Odysseus Project ' published by Arsys for the PC-98, has been fully English translated by Nebulous Translations! First released in the mid 90's, Star Cruiser II was only ever released in Japan and is the sequel to Star Cruiser, which came out initially for PC-88 and was later ported to many other systems.

A Life M36 Planet - A complete English translation for an MSX Action Adventure

Usually I'm here talking about English translations for NES games or SNES games, but this one isn't either of those but a full English translation of an Action Adventure game called ' A Life M36 Planet ' on the MSX. Now I'm going to be truthful and say I've never heard of this game before which is a shame as it looks pretty decent, especially as described by Msx.org. According to them "this game was released for the MSX system in 1987 where the player has to find out if the planet M36 is suitable for a human colony. While the game was obviously inspired by Metroid, it does deepen its formula with a lot more RPG elements added on top of it "

Zombies Ate My Neighbors The Sequel - A fabulous unofficial SNES hack that aims to impress!

It was only just a little while ago that we mentioned a much harder hack of the great SNES game ' Zombies Ate my Neighbors ',  as well as Zombies Ate my Neighbors: Dr. Tongue’s Revenge, which featured many of the levels remade with unique ideas by Skylar Brock. But this time we are going much further, as announced recently via the Romhacking website, Droter and team have released the Zombies Ate My Neighbors - The Sequel; A complete hack of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, meant to be a sequel to the original game

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Skull Leader Complete Pack - Translated

We haven't featured an English translation for a while so to change all that here's the very first translation patch from Nebulous Translations ' The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Skull Leader Complete Pack ' for the PC-98. According to Romhacking, this game is a high grade title and one of the best examples of a Virtual Novel mixed with a strategy game and based on the Japanese Anime mecha called Macross. As such you'll be following a grand story, while also involving yourself in mighty battles both on the ground and in space.

CRW: Metal Jacket - PC-98 tactics game featuring mechs gets a full English translation

As a retro based site with the odd bit of Indie we do love to feature Rom hacks and English translations, but CRW: Metal Jacket, which got its own English translation today, stood out by a mile. This game which was released way back in 1994 for the PC-98, is a rather interesting looking tactics game featuring mecha pilots battling against criminals and insurgents in a futuristic Japan after World War III. As the main site says "It plays a bit like X-COM or Front Mission, and came out in late 1994, between the original release of those two series."

Brutal Zombies Ate My Neighbors - A brilliant SNES classic has just got much much harder

There's a game I used to love that involved blasting away monsters in a top down view, while saving as many residents as I could such as babies, old ladies and even the odd cheer leader. It just had to be the highly enjoyable and humorous game ' Zombies At My Neighbours ', developed by Lucasarts, released by Konami for the SNES and Sega Mega Drive in 1993, which has since been turned into a much much harder game by Skylar Brock!

Ghost Chaser Densei - A rather cool SNES Beat em up gets a full English translation

I'm sure there are many of you out there that loved playing Final Fight, Double Dragon, or even Streets of Rage, but how many of you have heard of Winkysoft's 'Ghost Chaser Densei'? Probably not many outside of Japan, because this rather stylish side scrolling Beat em up was not only released in the Arcades as Denjin Makai and then Ghost Chaser Densei for the Super Famicom, but it was only ever released in Japan. Thankfully as of this week AgentOrange, MrRichard999 and rainponcho have fully translated the game into English, which means SNES owners can not only check it out, but they can bang a few heads along the way!

Super Mario Kart Reversed n' Remixed - A complete reversal of a fantastic classic SNES game!

If you've never heard of Super Mario Kart, then I guess you were living in a cave, as this game series which first appeared in 1992 on the SNES, was one of the greatest arcade style racing games ever to appear on a TV screen. Starring many famous characters such as Mario and Princess Peach, it put you and possibly your friends in control of your very own Kart, racing around a colorful track, picking up power ups, and being knocked about like some crazed bumper kart. Well you'll be pleased to learn as of today, Joseph Marshall has released the Super Mario Kart Reversed n' Remixed Hack, which doesn't just make the game playable in reverse but tweaks the game too!

Rusty - Castlevania homage on the PC-98 gets a full English translation

In 1993 C-Lab released the Castlevania style game ' Rusty ' for the NEC PC-9800 in Japan; An action side scrolling platformer that put you in control of the female whip-wielding vampire hunter character Rusty and sometimes her owl companion. She is on a quest to defeat a variety of evil monsters, the main villain Marquis Monte-Carlo and finally to find the missing girls in the cursed land of Transylvania. A game that was only ever released in Japan has now been given the once over by 46 OkuMen and is now in full English!

Energy - Flawed PC Engine game gets improvements and an English translation

VizionGamer is on the ball again as he has once again informed us of a new English translation and game improvement that has been released via the Romhacking website. Today however isn't one of the best games we've ever mentioned on the PC Engine, nor is it particularly loved as it is the rather flawed game ' Energy ', which was released way back in 1988 by Quasar Soft that has a character that fights mutants released all over Tokyo. The game featured a long intro, poor graphics, very slow speed scrolling and not the best of controls.Thankfully this has been improved some what by cabbage and onionzoo to make it a far more enjoyable game.

Animetic Story Game 1: Cardcaptor Sakura - A Fully Playable English Translated Release!

Bit of a late one this and one we had to give a shout out to, is PsionBolt and NoOneee's fully playable English translated release of the PlayStation game Animetic Story Game 1: Cardcaptor Sakura. Mentioned earlier today by our good friend @VizionGamer. This game was released in Japan by Arika in 1999 for the Playstation 1, it featured beautiful 2D graphics, full voice acting, animated cutscenes from the TV show, and actually retells the story of the first season of the popular Anime that many people are still a fan of to this day. As RomHacking puts it  "this game recreates the world of Cardcaptor Sakura more accurately than any other CCS game before or since (and there have been quite a few other attempts)!"

Layla : The Iris Missions - A complete enhancement HACK for this NES Action Platformer

Prepare for blasting action as Supper via the Romhacking website has released the full enhancement hack for the Japanese only NES game ' Layla The Iris Missions '. In this action packed platformer, you play as Lyla on an Iris mission to defeat Chinelkov Manitokha and his army of mutant Chimairan. Throughout the game you'll be blasting enemies, fighting big bosses, collecting items and trying not to be crushed by the 30ton weights to save the galaxy!