Alex Kidd In Miracle World - Extended Edition (W) v1.3 Final Release
Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 4:21 am
Hey all,
I made an Alex Kidd ROM hack 3 years ago (a rather decent one at that) and it was my very first time making an extensive ROM hack and it came out quite well.
The hack was natively the same as the original but has most of the levels extended with much longer level layouts, different colours, completely different soundtrack, more annoying Janken matches and was designed to just give the player a more fulfilling experience over the original.
Last week an online friend of mine (Josh) expressed some renewed interest in reviving my old 2021 hack in the way of tidying up the game in the form of removing bugs and glitches that I wasn't aware of and fixing up the overscan borders so the colours match the colours inside the stage. Although I already knew how to use Calindro's KiddED Josh taught me a few new things and showed me how to fix the checksum in SMS ROMs which I honestly wasn't aware of.
This new version isn't a great deal difference from the two older builds from 2021, it mostly concentrates on cleaning up the game by removing bugs and dangerous dickmoves that cause cheap deaths and traps. It does play better than the older versions and i'm sure you won't be complaining about getting trapped in a wall or respawning in a pool of water because of some cheap death.
FIXES: (Thanks to Josh Russell)
1. Accidental transparent walls are now removed and replaced by solid ones stopping the player from respawning after death in areas like getting trapped in a wall. The Cave level for example was notorious for getting stuck in a wall.
2. All overscan border palettes match their stage colour palettes.
3. Title screen has been cleaned up by Josh.
4. Checksum fixed by Josh.
My Edits:
1. Stage 1 Mt. Eternal just before diving into the ocean had a dangerous section that caused a respawn in one of the cliff ponds with no escape after touching a flying monster bird. This section has now been changed with the removal of the two ghost blocks and the flying monster bird so death shouldn't appear there so no chance of getting trapped in the pond. Even though there is a ladder there, I recommend not going for a swim in it.
2. A last minute edit in Stage 10 ''The Janken's Castle'' I had a room with spikes on the floor to the left and to the right leaving the centre the only place to stand from falling from the ceiling. This proved to be a dangerous dick move as if the player hit either the left or the right floor spikes from a fall, a respawn after death from the ceiling would cause a loop of landing on the spikes until all your lives were lost all because the player hasn't enough time to move out of the way of the spikes from a fall.
3. Lastly, the scrolling text in the ending credits gives Josh more credit for all of his renewed work as deserved.
Speaking of the two original builds from 2021 I made, v1.0 and v1.1 I posted them here in IPS patch form 3 years ago but after a few days they didn't get much feedback and quickly went under the radar here at SMSpower and I also had zero luck with ROMHACKING(.)NET at the time on account of far too strict instructions and approval processes. I had no choice but to make a Youtube video on it and release it through a file sharing site for the public through Youtube. It meant less exposure to the public but full control by myself with no one telling me ''you can't do this or you can't do that.''
This is the only other place outside Youtube where I can post it. If it goes unoticed again after a few days then so be it, I don't have time anymore to make more ROM hacks like this, family priorities a far too important these days. After speaking briefly to Maxim I was told that this is the way to do it, so here it is.
As usual, the patch has to be patched to the rev1 ROM.
I can't seem to provide screenshots to show. Kega Fusion takes screenshots in an unsupported file format on SMSpower and Regen doesn't even support screenshots? So I give up.
Here is the latest full playthrough of the hack played on a real PAL SEGA Master System model 1 console.
I recall Kega Fusion only supports Windows Bitmap (bmp) files. Even in the mid 2000s that was considered poor taste (they are uncompressed which means they take up unnecessary file space). If you wanted to, probably any image editor (or even conversion tools) would be able to convert it to supported formats, such as PNG (surely that is permitted).
I can happily vouch to say that this ROM hack update is something worth playing. :) I gave it a play myself and it has a lot of improvements so that it is well playable without any issues that v1.1. I brought it to his attention when I gave the hack a go. I did get stuck at the cave level due to the transparent cave roof walls where it should have been solid ones. With that being fix. It shouldn't be a hassle now and hopefully not getting respawned and stuck there like I did. Love now that the overscan colour palettes now match to the level's BG now. That was easy to fix up. The title fix was a piece of cake. Lastly the checksum was straight forward. I tested it on KEGA Fusion to make sure the game ran with the BIOS first with no problems. I did check it on the Mega Everdrive x7 and it runs well via BIOS on real hardware too.
Saying that, Adrian did a excellent job fixing up more of the things that need fixing that i didn't know about, Especially on Level 1 and of course the Janken Castle, As well as the credit scroll too. Although I only helped with the fixes. Adrian deserves the credit on his part as it is originally his HACK from 2021. :)
Take it from another Aussie that really loves playing this on actual real hardware.:D
ENJOY the hack everyone and hope it goes well for everyone else, Take care, stay safe, and GAME ON!
Best Regards,
Josho (Yes the same one that helped polished this ROM hack)
I played over the weekend and loved it to be fair. A really well done hack I think and Alex Kidd fans will enjoy. I actually have a small video coming this Friday of my time with the game by way of a small review on my YT channel but as I say I really enjoyed it.
shameless self promo but just search @8bitboyuk this Friday evening
JRussellRetroGaming wrote
G'day everyone.
I can happily vouch to say that this ROM hack update is something worth playing. :) I gave it a play myself and it has a lot of improvements so that it is well playable without any issues that v1.1. I brought it to his attention when I gave the hack a go. I did get stuck at the cave level due to the transparent cave roof walls where it should have been solid ones. With that being fix. It shouldn't be a hassle now and hopefully not getting respawned and stuck there like I did. Love now that the overscan colour palettes now match to the level's BG now. That was easy to fix up. The title fix was a piece of cake. Lastly the checksum was straight forward. I tested it on KEGA Fusion to make sure the game ran with the BIOS first with no problems. I did check it on the Mega Everdrive x7 and it runs well via BIOS on real hardware too.
Saying that, Adrian did a excellent job fixing up more of the things that need fixing that i didn't know about, Especially on Level 1 and of course the Janken Castle, As well as the credit scroll too. Although I only helped with the fixes. Adrian deserves the credit on his part as it is originally his HACK from 2021. :)
Take it from another Aussie that really loves playing this on actual real hardware.:D
ENJOY the hack everyone and hope it goes well for everyone else, Take care, stay safe, and GAME ON!
Best Regards,
Josho (Yes the same one that helped polished this ROM hack)
I tried but Alex fall in this point and disapear.
Reset and tried again and the same crash. If plays diferent in this point from the video the game crashes.
I tried but Alex fall in this point and disapear.
Reset and tried again and the same crash. If plays diferent in this point from the video the game crashes.
I'm so sorry about your experience.
May I ask what emulator you were running the game on? That bug has never happened to me or Josh, but then again we play it on original hardware rather than emulators, it could be an emulator issue?
I found the area from your screenshot and tried to recreate it exactly using the same height in Regen emulator.
I think what's happened is you've landed on the top of the pond outside of the visual screen in the overcsan area and assumed the game crashed. If you can't see Alex, don't panic. Just keep jumping and moving back to the left and he will eventually be visible and drop in the visible screen again.
I don't think this is a bug or a glitch as you could move Alex outside on the overcsan area in the original game if you were high enough.
It's finally starting to move around the community. (Yay)
Here is a quick play by Revo. (A very impatient, abrasive play with 45 lives wtf?)
I don't mind others hacking it further to include 45 lives or whatever amount you feel you need in order to get through it, but in my ROM hack untouched by outsiders, although you start with 3 lives you get automatic continues as long as you have $1000. Despite some stages and sections being challenging, it's a very forgiving ROM hack in the form of continues. Some stages you can easily pick up $1000 in one single stage. There's a lot of money to pick up and the forgiving nature of the hack makes up for some of the more tricky stages and sections.
I played over the weekend and loved it to be fair. A really well done hack I think and Alex Kidd fans will enjoy. I actually have a small video coming this Friday of my time with the game by way of a small review on my YT channel but as I say I really enjoyed it.
shameless self promo but just search @8bitboyuk this Friday evening
G'day 8BitBoy,
Got a chance to see your gameplay on YouTube. That is a good attempt with what you played on it. Love the positive humour on some parts you got going. :)
Give it your best as much as you can. Although I didn't go through all completely myself. But I did go further than what I did on the v1.1 release a month or so back. I yet to upload my attempt on the v1.3 when I can. The video is already done, yet to put it all together.
M.Osorio wrote
I tried but Alex fall in this point and disapear.
Reset and tried again and the same crash. If plays diferent in this point from the video the game crashes.
Huh. That's a first I heard about it myself considering I never ran into that problem ever not even on the v1.1 release from 2021. Since Adrian here has gave it a go and saw what you mean, Try what he suggested and you should be right.
Adrian wrote
I'm so sorry about your experience.
May I ask what emulator you were running the game on? That bug has never happened to me or Josh, but then again we play it on original hardware rather than emulators, it could be an emulator issue?
G'day Adrian. He used Kega Fusion 3.64 with the screenshot he provided to show the trouble he had before you gave him the good advice when you tested it yourself on your end mate.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I plan on playing again tomorrow. I have some loyal viewers on YT who will try it out I reckon. Patching the ROM with the IPS file will be the challenge for them but if I can learn anyone can 👍
Video if anyone else is interested
JRussellRetroGaming wrote
8BitBoy wrote
I played over the weekend and loved it to be fair. A really well done hack I think and Alex Kidd fans will enjoy. I actually have a small video coming this Friday of my time with the game by way of a small review on my YT channel but as I say I really enjoyed it.
shameless self promo but just search @8bitboyuk this Friday evening
G'day 8BitBoy,
Got a chance to see your gameplay on YouTube. That is a good attempt with what you played on it. Love the positive humour on some parts you got going. :)
Give it your best as much as you can. Although I didn't go through all completely myself. But I did go further than what I did on the v1.1 release a month or so back. I yet to upload my attempt on the v1.3 when I can. The video is already done, yet to put it all together.
M.Osorio wrote
I tried but Alex fall in this point and disapear.
Reset and tried again and the same crash. If plays diferent in this point from the video the game crashes.
Huh. That's a first I heard about it myself considering I never ran into that problem ever not even on the v1.1 release from 2021. Since Adrian here has gave it a go and saw what you mean, Try what he suggested and you should be right.
Adrian wrote
I'm so sorry about your experience.
May I ask what emulator you were running the game on? That bug has never happened to me or Josh, but then again we play it on original hardware rather than emulators, it could be an emulator issue?
G'day Adrian. He used Kega Fusion 3.64 with the screenshot he provided to show the trouble he had before you gave him the good advice when you tested it yourself on your end mate.
I can´t finish the first stage.
When alex fall fast and nothing stop him like this other capture, alex dissapear or die.
I do not why the stage is moving acordingly with alex, but happens, if my alex fall fast sometimes die directly or dispear, y move my pad for a minute after that, and finally restart the game.
If you play like me, do not open boxes, only go down as fast as posible trying to see only the design of stage 1.
Hope it gives you the way to solve the problem, I do not have way to record me playing the game.
Regards, M
I can´t finish the first stage.
When alex fall fast and nothing stop him like this other capture, alex dissapear or die.
I do not why the stage is moving acordingly with alex, but happens, if my alex fall fast sometimes die directly or dispear, y move my pad for a minute after that, and finally restart the game.
If you play like me, do not open boxes, only go down as fast as posible trying to see only the design of stage 1.
Hope it gives you the way to solve the problem, I do not have way to record me playing the game.
Regards, M
Once again I am sorry that you're having trouble with it. This time I used Kega Fusion and tried to recreate the problem that you're having but it plays perfectly fine for me? I even tried dropping down quickly and nothing unusual happened?
If I start to get others reporting the same problem or a similar issue then i'll have something to worry about.
I've tried to see this for myself on Kega Fusion to try and recreate it if that bug triggers,. But it's not happening on my end either as it's running perfectly fine.
So that rules me out to say I can't trigger the bug that M.Osorio facing.
RESOLVED solution but it's not the fault of the ROM Hack
Posted: Sun May 26, 2024 8:36 pm
M.Osorio wrote
A small part of my gameplay.
Alex die or dissapear in this part.
In this case, with the program ready to record Alex die.
Regards, M
G'day M Osorio
I gave it a try myself, and NOW I can see why it happened. It's because you keep hitting the yellow block with the skull on them as you are going down is what's triggering that glitch, It has absolutely nothing to do with the hack, It's how your playing it. On the game when you hit that it will make Alex freeze for a short 2 seconds (Not death ). which is part of the game's engine when it was made by SEGA. Now take this with a grain of salt, It's clearly the fact that you constantly breaking it as you are going down which is why It stopped the screen scrolling down.
Best advice I can give you on this is, there's two options to work around that.
1. Pause the game, select the ring, unpause the game and use the ring to eliminate the blocks (including the Skull block) BEFORE you go down. Using the ring will not coarse Alex to freeze or shake hitting it.
or
2. Just simply don't break the yellow blocks with the skull as you go down all the time if you are not using the ring. Otherwise it will trigger that glitch constantly, OK? That way it will not coarse the game to break on you during your gameplay.. This is not me being a d**k! it's what I discovered not just from your video proof but the locations of the screenshots you posted previously.
Once again, It's got nothing to do with the ROM hack, it's 100% your gameplay strategy of how you execute as you go at your own discretion. Unfortunately there's no way to find a way to fix it from preventing such thing.
Did you warn/recommend to use last flips version (1.79 or others older) to proper patch your ips file ?
You can just patch it with Lunar IPS if you're on this site or if anyone finds it too difficult to patch and find the working ROM, you can just download the complete file from the video above, in the video description are two download links to file sharing sites.
You can also use KiddEd (it ensures you are patching the right rom) or Emulicious to apply the patch. But any ips patcher (e.g. LunarIPS) should work. No idea what's flips and why it wouldn't work.
Flips is a modern cross-platform open-source replacement for Lunar IPS, with better handling of ROM expansion and support for BPS, and support for commandline use.
