Hacks ?

We know each other, we won't hide it, we all have in our Recalbox a lot of games that we will never finish, and that we will maybe never launch... Why is that? Because we spend our time sanding down the games of our childhood, again and again.

What if I told you that I had the solution, to allow you to continue to sand your favorite games, but to rediscover them all the same?

Indeed, there is a great variety of HACKS, which are modifications of the code of an original game. Created by passionate amateurs, there are several types of hacks:

• Translation hacks
• Technical hacks
• Graphics hacks
• Music hacks
• Level editing
• Rom expansion

Several of these processes can be found in the same hack, for example:

• FF7 Neo Midgar (translation) The complete retranslation Neo Midgar of Final Fantasy 7 on Playstation 1
• The Final Fantasy VI restoration patch on GBA (Music, technical) which replaces the musics by those of the Snes and which removes the worries of framerate
• The legend of Zelda Parallel (Graphics, Music, Levels, Expansion) complete hack of The legend of Zelda a link to the past on SNES
• Metroid - Rogue Dawn (Graphics, Music, Levels, Expansion) a complete prequel to Metroid on NES of impressive quality!
• The special category Kaizo Kaizo Super Mario World The Kaizo editions of the original games are completely insane difficulty challenges...

How does it work ?

It's quite simple: the hack is distributed as a binary patch (a simple file with a .ips extension) and must be applied on the original rom.

Once the rom is patched, you just have to launch the game on your favorite emulator... in Recalbox.

Where to find hacks ?

Several sites aim at gathering existing hacks:

• romhacking.net contains an impressive list of hacks. The community is very active and the hack tests are numerous and can guide you in your selection.
• romhack.org is a French community of translators
• google.com is your friend. Try the search TMNT NES HACK for example, you might be surprised :)

How to patch my rom ?

There are several tools that allow you to patch a rom. The easiest and quickest is probably to use the online patching tool romhacking.net/patch. Upload your rom, your patch and download your new game.

Let's see what it looks like on The legend of Zelda Parallel Worlds ?

The The legend of Zelda Parallel Worlds is a very deep hack of The Legend of Zelda A Link To The Past on Super Nintendo.

The original hack was released in 2006 and its latest version is from 2017. The author has completely changed the storyline, even though we still recognize the general plot in the background. The world map is completely revised, the characters and music too, and the dungeons are MUCH more complicated. That's why the hack I'm going to talk about is a new version called Zelda3 Parallel Remodel which is a rewrite of the hack correcting the parts that are a bit too difficult.

In the beginning... You are a treasure hunter from a far away country, but very soon you hear about a plot led by Draegor, the king's assistant. He would have killed the king and kidnapped 7 people who had information about the Parallel Tower in common...

Your adventure starts the same night you go to rescue two of the seven people who would have survived this coup...

As I told you above, what is good with the hacks is that we find the pleasure of playing our favorite games but rediscovering them complement. It's a strange feeling, at least at the beginning, but the pleasure returns very quickly in the game. To leave the link house to find ourselves under the rain of Hyrule, it is enjoyable, nostalgic but new!

So we go on an adventure, and that's when we realize the work done: the enemies are numerous, the screens completely different, the dungeons are huge, the puzzles very advanced, and the difficulty is always there...

Anyway I'm in the hype, I finish writing this post and I go directly on my Recalbox to continue the game !

PS: a little bonus, the hack TMNT: Return to New York (NES) allows you to change turtle with the shortcut UP+START and adds many graphical elements, like a different color for each turtle!