I'm new to registering on this site so forgive me for not knowing how to navigate my way around the site like a pro. Anyway I made my own Alex Kidd ROM hack using KiddED and thought I would share the ROM in the form of a patch here on this site. I have no idea how to take screenshots or post it on the actual hacks page, maybe the moderators of this site do that? I have no idea.
My hack is an extended version of the original with longer levels that consist of extra level layouts added onto the already existing ones found in the original, like for example in stage 1 Mt. Eternal is almost 3 times as long as the original, You just keep descending from the top until you fall in the water and then the water part goes on for a very long time until you reach the ocean floor where the onigiri (rice cake) is waiting. The colours have all been changed, the music is completely different taken from other Master System games with a heavy nod to Lemmings where one of the actual levels has 3 sixes in it that you have to punch your way through and just generally the hack is designed to provide the player with a more fuller experience than the original.
After test playing it for days and days on end I think i've ironed out all the bugs and glitches that I came across such as accidentally putting pass-through tile sets down in the terrain causing it to hurt Alex, seaweed also causing death when I didn't want it to and enemy placements not loading or not loading where I specifically put them and other weird things. Hopefully you won't come across anything like this but if you do I would kindly suggest that you let me know so I can fix it and maybe make it better. There is a bug in the Nibana Castle level where I put a few ghost blocks right before reaching the Nibana king sitting on the throne and if you're not quick enough and the ghost(s) chase you into the last room where the king will give you the message, the game accidentally loads the ghost in place of the slabstone resulting in missing the slab for the last level and the ghost still chases you to the rice cake. To avoid this just be very quick to get the ghost out of screen or don't touch the ghost blocks and all is good and normal. Aside from this I couldn't find any other bugs in the game that were not there in the original at least.
Things players need to know:
1. You start with the default 3 lives
2. Shop items cost more and continues are automatic but will now cost you 1000 on account of there being alot of money in the game and plenty of chances to collect it.
3. Colours have all been changed in every level except in three, (Radaxian Castle, Kingdom Of Nibana and Cragg Lake).
4. Music is completely different with plenty of groovy tunes to hear, Lemmings served as a big influence on me for this game, it's a mix of the standard Japanese beatboxing stuff vs the Matt Furniss C64 pulse wave stuff.
5. There are now 8 Janken matches to dance your way through instead of the usual 7, i've placed a third encounter from Gooseka in one of the levels unexpectedly just to piss people off.
6. Playing this with a Mega Drive controller will allow you to pause the game by using the start button.
7. Button layouts are swapped so the game's controls will behave just like the 1990 Master System II built in version.
Thank you Maxim for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I have now fixed those two bugs that you kindly reported.
In stage 1, ladders are now there in the ponds so if you respawn in the ponds you have a way of escaping. The other bug that you reported in ''The Radaxian City'' where it will sometimes respawn you being trapped between the two grey blocks, one grey block is moved higher so you have a way of getting out. So best to download version 1.1 from now on that is, unless someone else discovers another issue?
It's come to my attention that you can still get trapped in the ponds if the screen has moved too low pushing the pond terrain too far towards the top of the screen after respawning but there's not much else I can do about it, I added the rocky ladders but I think you just gotta be really unlucky to get trapped in the ponds to begin with. Lucky it's an issue that only appears in level 1 so you're not that far into the game if you have to reset.
Just posting to say I really enjoyed this, and it’s a great idea for a hack. It was awesome to reach the end of a normal level and then have extra to play. Please keep making more hacks! 🙂
Just posting to say I really enjoyed this, and it’s a great idea for a hack. It was awesome to reach the end of a normal level and then have extra to play. Please keep making more hacks! 🙂
Thank you so much reno! I'm very happy you enjoyed the hack, it's comments like yours that make it all worthwhile for me. Just to recieve positive feedback from the community on something I created means the world to me, after all it is a hack aimed at gamers like you who greatly appreciate the original game and choose to seek out a little bit more. I will be the first to admit that my Alex Kidd hack is certainly not the greatest out there and thruth be known there is still alot of room for improvement as 4 or 5 levels have no extension layout added onto them, but in my defense I made this hack in only one month and it only came out about because I originally started mucking around with Kidded to reduce the dickmoves of Alianger's Radaxian Rumble hack, but as it stands, my hack is still quite enjoyable and pretty decent to play with not too many bugs in it.
If you or anybody else reading this forum wants to see a full gameplay video from start to finish I have one on my Youtube channel, a South American Youtuber has also made a speed run of my hack in 60Hz where it was finished in 40 odd minutes.
