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The other day I was digging some romsets for multiple systems on the archive.org and 2 cardcaptor sakura graphical nes hacks from the late 90s caught my attention, one being an unattributed hack of the game Tower of Druaga (NES version currently unavailable in the repo) and the other an Athena hack attributed to "mogemogesama". At first, I thought both were not hacks but bootlegs, so I went down the rabbit role to try to confirm and see if I'd find any information about the later hacker other than the stuff implied by the source (the game's front screens and/or end credits, to say).
Haven't really find anything I'd truly call reliable, either about the person or the development. But there were tons of sparse information on the hacker's creations, so I got to play and compile a historical set of nes graphical hacks that I haven't find in other places like RHDN, RHDI, Plaza, Vimm's, NesDev and such (as available patches) nor in the chinese/bootleg centered platforms (as available dumps). My bet is that the hacks were practically made entirely by hex editing or with the assistance of very "rudimentary" software and tools (such as the Family Basic interpreter), considering the release dates indicated in the sources. I'm yet to open the hacks in a editor to get to see if there's any clue, either a string or easter eggs perhaps that could indicate anything about the hacker or any context.
There's this kinda mindset that hacks that are "mere" graphical, objectively adding nothing in terms of physics/mechanics (chocolate hacks) or level design (vanilla hacks) to the base game, are not of that much worth, tho I think this was in everything a work of love made by someone who's clearly a huge fan of the franchises and brands in lens, within very restricted technical conditions (not many folks with access to computers and internet in the turn of the millennium, tho not really the case if a non westerner hacker)... The sprite art of characters like Dejiko (Mappy hack) is absolutely precious, for instance, not sure if those have been ripped already -- to get to see em in other more recent stuff.
I think this thread is going to work for us to discuss on the main question (in which ways are graphical hacks still relevant to the scene and for each one of us personally?), but also to try, search and share more information about the hacker or perhaps other crossovers made by em... I'm in all honesty completely clueless atm and I sure need the lore :p
I'm going to add the hacks over time to the downloads section, btw! That's kinda way too much work...
So, here's all the information I was able to retrieve on the hacks:
Hacks/Games:
1 Cardcaptor Sakura (Athena hack)
2 Abarenbou Tengu (Zombie Nation hack)
3 McDonald's: Donald Magic! (Burger Time hack)
4 Evaroid (Metroid hack)
5 The Legend of Hage (The Legend of Kage hack)
6 Maria Sisters (Mario Bros hack)
7 Pepsiman (Metro-Cross hack)
8 Pikachu Dig Dug (lol)
9 "Rabbit & Rope" - Rabbi on Role (Mappy hack)
Pages:
1 the archive dot org romset with most of the attributed hacks (can't link due to rules)
2 general search results for "mogemogesama"
3 nesninja dot com - search results for "mogemogesama" (can't link due to rules)
4 projetosakura.net - Especial NES "Os Hacks de Cardcaptor Sakura", original write-up by BMark.
Forums:
1 Sega Brasil - Especial NES "Os Hacks de Cardcaptor Sakura", forum post by BMark.
Wikis:
1 DataCrystal results for "mogemogesama"
Videos:
1 "Rabbit & Rope" - Mappy hack staring Hikaru Usada ("Rabi en Rose") as playable character, the main antagonist in Di Gi Charat
2 "Mac Donald's Donald Magic!"
Most people in the comments seem to have played these games in early age from GBA multicarts, so that's prolly how the dumps/ports survived over time... yet I can't say for sure if all the stuff was originally a fan made endeavor, that is, "hacking" in that sense or some sort of commitioned bootlegs.
Some more screenshots here.
Haven't really find anything I'd truly call reliable, either about the person or the development. But there were tons of sparse information on the hacker's creations, so I got to play and compile a historical set of nes graphical hacks that I haven't find in other places like RHDN, RHDI, Plaza, Vimm's, NesDev and such (as available patches) nor in the chinese/bootleg centered platforms (as available dumps). My bet is that the hacks were practically made entirely by hex editing or with the assistance of very "rudimentary" software and tools (such as the Family Basic interpreter), considering the release dates indicated in the sources. I'm yet to open the hacks in a editor to get to see if there's any clue, either a string or easter eggs perhaps that could indicate anything about the hacker or any context.
There's this kinda mindset that hacks that are "mere" graphical, objectively adding nothing in terms of physics/mechanics (chocolate hacks) or level design (vanilla hacks) to the base game, are not of that much worth, tho I think this was in everything a work of love made by someone who's clearly a huge fan of the franchises and brands in lens, within very restricted technical conditions (not many folks with access to computers and internet in the turn of the millennium, tho not really the case if a non westerner hacker)... The sprite art of characters like Dejiko (Mappy hack) is absolutely precious, for instance, not sure if those have been ripped already -- to get to see em in other more recent stuff.
I think this thread is going to work for us to discuss on the main question (in which ways are graphical hacks still relevant to the scene and for each one of us personally?), but also to try, search and share more information about the hacker or perhaps other crossovers made by em... I'm in all honesty completely clueless atm and I sure need the lore :p
I'm going to add the hacks over time to the downloads section, btw! That's kinda way too much work...
So, here's all the information I was able to retrieve on the hacks:
Hacks/Games:
1 Cardcaptor Sakura (Athena hack)
2 Abarenbou Tengu (Zombie Nation hack)
3 McDonald's: Donald Magic! (Burger Time hack)
4 Evaroid (Metroid hack)
5 The Legend of Hage (The Legend of Kage hack)
6 Maria Sisters (Mario Bros hack)
7 Pepsiman (Metro-Cross hack)
8 Pikachu Dig Dug (lol)
9 "Rabbit & Rope" - Rabbi on Role (Mappy hack)
Pages:
1 the archive dot org romset with most of the attributed hacks (can't link due to rules)
2 general search results for "mogemogesama"
3 nesninja dot com - search results for "mogemogesama" (can't link due to rules)
4 projetosakura.net - Especial NES "Os Hacks de Cardcaptor Sakura", original write-up by BMark.
Forums:
1 Sega Brasil - Especial NES "Os Hacks de Cardcaptor Sakura", forum post by BMark.
Wikis:
1 DataCrystal results for "mogemogesama"
Videos:
1 "Rabbit & Rope" - Mappy hack staring Hikaru Usada ("Rabi en Rose") as playable character, the main antagonist in Di Gi Charat
2 "Mac Donald's Donald Magic!"
Most people in the comments seem to have played these games in early age from GBA multicarts, so that's prolly how the dumps/ports survived over time... yet I can't say for sure if all the stuff was originally a fan made endeavor, that is, "hacking" in that sense or some sort of commitioned bootlegs.
Some more screenshots here.
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