Wizard of Wor just got a Coop mode!

Hokuto Force just released a new cracked version of one of my favorite c64 games of all time, Wizard of Wor. This crack adds a lot of trainer options like unlimited life, Invincibility, Autofire etc. But the most important feature is the Coop mode! This is essentially an option to turn friendly fire on and off. But this is a big deal as its really easy to accidentally killing your friend, so having this option really helps if you are aiming to get as far as possible in this game in a 2-player mode. You have to select YES when you are asked to Save High-Score to get the coop option. You can download the cracked version here https://csdb.dk/release/index.php?id=183327&fbclid=IwAR22UA64lCmpoawS7gFGfXYfGU6NAvhOl2_AO5MRFwdvlSJ7xQtYMhdv0gg

Clean and Minimalistic Retropie Themes

RetroPie is really amazing if you are insterested in turning your Rasperry Pi into a retro-gaming machine. And with all these thousands of games in your library you will probably spend more time in the RetroPie EmulationStation frontend scrolling through games instead of actually playing them and because of this its really fun if you have a really nice looking theme to look at. An luckily there are some amazing theme creators out there. I especially like the themes that have a very clean and minimalistic look. So i just wanted to list a couple of them here.

There are two ways of installning themes, the easy way is directly via the EmulationStation Gui. Just go to the “RetroPie” selection on the screen, and then pick “Es Themes” from the list. And then just Install a theme from the list (there are many youtube guides for this) and then back in Emulationstation press Start en go to the UI Setting and scroll down to Theme Set. Done!

The other way is to download themes from the Internet and upload them via ftp. To do this you have to download WinSCP Client and connect to your RasperryPi via the Network. Go to the RetroPie selection and pick Show IP to get the Ip adress and connect to your Rasperry Pi using WinSCP. When you have connected locate the folder called “/opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation” and create a folder there called “themes” so it looks like this: /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/themes and then you can upload your themes here. Thats it. Just reboot your RasperryPi and the theme should show up in the Set Theme section in Emulation Station.

Art Book

A really amazing and clean looking theme with many different options and view modes. For more info go to the creators page here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11728/theme-art-book You can download the theme here

Chicuelo

Another great and minimalistic theme. I just love the big artworks in the system selection. You can find more info of the theme here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15830/chicuelo-theme and you can download the theme here

GoldenEye Invert aim finally fixed!

Multiplayer deathmatch in GoldenEye 007 for the N64 was just amazing! Screencheating, Slappers only, Golden Gun, Oddjob, Proximity mines, so much fun so fond memories! Oh and if you are a big fan of the game and have not yet watched the amazing parody clip made by College Humor called GoldenEye Stand-Off then go watch it right now!

We still have GoldenEye gaming nights now and then where me and my friends gather to play som multiplayer matches. But a problem that has occurred after many years of Fps playing on consoles is that some people has gotten used to either using Inverted Aim or Non-Inverted Aim when controlling the character. We never thought about this back in 1997 but now when we want to play this is a big problem! Why? Let me explain,

When playing GoldenEye in Solo mode you can switch Inverted Aim on and off when you are playing the game, just bring up the options menu that are located in Bonds very elegant wrist watch and change this. But in multiplayer this option does not exist! All four players have the same settings that you set when playing Solo mode. So if you have Invert ON in Solo mode, then all four players in multiplayer has Invert ON also.

This problem has bothered me for many years and I have constantly been looking for a solution for this problem. If you are using an Emulator you can fix this by just changing the look up and down in the key configuration for each player. But this is not possible on a real N64. There are some amazing N64 flash cartridges out there, so i figured that all we needed to have a fix for this problem was to have some amazing hacker to fix a romhack for this.

So i got in contact with SubDrag who is the owner of the former fan site GoldenEye Vault. And guess what, he is also a programmer and romhacker 🙂 After talking to SubDrag he managed to fix this Invert fix rom in just an hour and released the hacks on the wiki N64 Vault for everyone to download! So now finally we can all play GoldenEye 007 on a real N64 (if you have a flashcart) where every player can have their prefered aiming style!

SubDrag solved this problem by creating three different hacks, each hack inverts the control on different player counts. So for example if just two players want to have Invert aim off then you need to use the “Goldeneye (U) [!] NoInvert2P3P.xdelta” hack for this. So the best solution is to have four different roms on your flashcart and just pick the right one when you are going to play. Super simple!

I have only tested these hacks on an N64 Emulator but they should work perfectly with a flashcart on a real n64 too. But there was still one little thing i was missing and that was to have ALL levels, cheats and characters unlocked for our GoldenEye gaming nights. There are ways to fix this by downloading save files or using gameshark codes.. or just do it the very time consuming way and unlocking everything by playing through the game in solo mode! But as i love romhacking there must be a way to just hack each rom to have everything unlocked right from the start. And yes i found a solution for this. SubDrag who fixed this hack for us has co-developed a romhacking tool for GoldenEye called GoldenEye Setup Editor 3.0. With this tool you can unlock everything and patch the roms. If you want to know how to do this scroll down to the next post or click here!

So that’s it, after all these years of inverted aim problems when GoldenEye is finally over! Big thanks to SubDrag for these hacks and all his help. The Invert fixes and other hacks for GoldenEye is available at N64 Vault.

GoldenEye 007 (N64) Permanently unlock all levels and characters

We all know that Goldeneye 007 for then N64 has a incredibly fun multiplayer mode. But sadly many of the levels, characters and cheats are locked and you need to unlock these by playing the solo mode. I just got an Everdrive for my N64 to play multiplayer with my friends and I don’t want to play all the solo levels again just to unlock all stuff for the multiplayer mode. There are some ways to go around this, most emulators and the Everdrive have support for the Gameshark, so you can add codes to unlock most stuff. You can also download save files and add these to have everything unlocked.

But I just want a way to have the rom file to have everything unlocked from the start. A romhack for this would be the best but I couldn’t find this. But luckely I found the GoldenEye Setup Editor 3.0 from the site GoldenEye Vault (Edit: GoldenEye Vault has been closed and replaced with N64 Vault), Its a very comprehensive editor for the GoldenEye rom that can alter an hack many things, and yes unlock everything in the game! I just followed the instructions from the FAQ section on the GoldenEye Vault site, that you can check too. But im going to walk you through it here anyways 🙂

Step 1. Download and install the editor https://github.com/carnivoroussociety/GoldEditor

Step 2. Choose Tools > Preferences and look for “Quick Convert ROM” and click the “Choose rom” and find your GoldenEye rom file on your computer.

Step 3. Choose Tools > Game Configuration. This will bring up a big window with a lot of tabs and options.

Step 4. Lets start with unlocking all Multiplayer Levels and Characters. Select the “Multiplayer” TAB look for “All Multi chars Available” and pick that and then press the “Unlock all Multis”

Step 5. Can also be a good idea too unlock all solo levels and cheat modes. Select the “Stage Options” TAB and press the “All Solo Levels Unlocked” and “All Cheats Unlocked” buttons. Thats it, just one more step!

Step 6. Finally press the “Delete Debug Data” and then “Write Rom” that are located at the bottom of the window. Then you can name the rom file and save it to your computer.

I would recommend using an emulator to try this out and see if all things are unlocked. Done!

Pico-8 on Raspberry Pi

About the guide
I wanted to share my knowledge on how I installed the virtual fantasy console called Pico-8 on my Raspberry Pi creating an awesome little Pico-8 console that boots in about 6 seconds and doesn’t need any configuration! Its super easy and super fun. All you need is any model of the Raspberry Pi, an Sd card and a gamepad. All of this is possible thanks to Gamaral who created the PICOPi os, you can find a guide, videos etc on his site here: http://guillermoamaral.com/read/picopi/

What is Pico-8
Before i start explaining how to get Pico-8 running I just briefly wanted to explain what actually this is. Pico-8 is the name of a made up virtual gaming console. Think of it as a Nes or Atari with all its old retro limitations, but that you can play on your computer or web browser. The creator of Pico-8 carefully picked a set of limitations to make the console look and feel like a retro console from the 80s. It only has 128×128 pixels of resolution with a beautiful 16 color palette and the games even comes in virtual “cartridge” images that you “insert” to the system, all this to have that old retrogaming feel. Just love this!
And the best part is that it’s really easy to code games and share them and they are all available to play directly from Pico-8 using a built in browser where you can play your downloaded cartridges or play them directly from the Pico-8 webserver.

What you need
– A Raspberry Pi (Models 1,2,3 or Zero)
– Pico-8 Raspberry Pi files (Remember to pick Raspberry Pi: zip)
– PICOPi files (A super tiny OS built especially for running Pico-8)
– A Gamepad controller (more about this later in this guide)

That’s it! Of course you need an SD card for your Raspberry Pi that will have all the necessary files for the system to boot and run.

Get the Pico-8 License?
You need to purchase the license from the official Pico-8 site, when you do you will get the files you need for Raspberry Pi, and also downloads for running Pico-8 on Win, Osx and Linux.
But you might already own a Pico-8 License without knowing it! If you purchase many gaming bundles from Humble Bundle you might have the license there. Pico-8 was included in the “Humble GameDev Software Bundle” and it was also “hidden” in the  “Humble Voxatron Debut” bundle, when you got Voxatron you also got Pico-8 but you need to find the Voxatron key in your humble bundle library, and then find the link “Lexaloffle Account Activation” then after activating this you will also get Pico-8 🙂

Installing Pico-8 to Raspberry Pi
All you need to do is unzip the PICOPi files for your specific Raspberry Pi model onto the SD card and also unzip the Raspberry Pi Pico-8 zip file (There are a couple of different versions to pick from but you need to get the one Raspberry P version) that you download from https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php and thats it! Just connect the Sd card to your Raspberry Pi and it should boot Pico-8. If you need even more detailed information on how to do this then you can find instructions and videos on the PICOPi site: http://guillermoamaral.com/read/picopi/

Gamepads
So this is for me one of the most important parts of this project. The whole idea is to create your own console connected to TV instead of playing Pico-8 on the computer using a keyboard. And that is having a good gamepad!

Bluetooth controllers? Yes! Today we sit further away from the TV so wireless controllers is something I really like. Raspberry Pi 3 has built in bluetooth or you can purchase a small usb blutooth receiver for any other model, but the problem is that you need a way to connect the controllers in the operating system and that’s not possible in this case (Well maybe it is if you have really good knowledge with Linux and coding etc) So the way to solve this problem is to get a bluetooth controller or wireless controller that has its own usb receiver, and i have tested two controller that works great without any configuration. Just plug and play. And here are the controllers:

– Xbox 360 Controllers + Wireless 360 receiver
If you have a wired Xbox 360 you just connect the usb to the Raspberry Pi and it just works. If you have a wireless controller you need the original Xbox 360 receiver. Just connect the receiver and it just works without any configuration and all the buttons you need for Pico-8 are perfectly mapped.

– 8Bitdo Contollers + 8Bitdo Receiver
If you dont what 8Bitdo is then i suggest you check them out http://www.8bitdo.com/ They make incredible wireless retrogaming controllers that look and feel like old console gamepads like Nes and Snes etc and they are bluetooth wireless controllers. I have ordered mine from eBay so i suggest you check there if you want to order one. To get a 8Bitdo controller to work you need a “Retro Receiver” from 8Bitdo that you connect with a usb cord from the Raspbeery Pi to the receiver and it just works, no configuration.

Now that we have Pico-8 running on our Raspberry Pi its time to play some games! There is a huge library of games on the Pico-8 site and they are all free to play directly in the browser or you can choose to download them. There are two pays to play these games on a Rasperry Pi.

#1 Play from Internet. Connect your Raspberry Pi to your network and play the games directly from Pico-8s built in browser. The games are so small that they start instantly, and if there is a game you like just add it to your favorites by pressing the startbutton on the controller.

#2 Play games from the Sd card. Download the games from the site and then copy them to the sd card. This is the way to go if you don’t have the possibility to connect your Raspberry Pi to the internet. The way you do this is first to download the game, i will explain this in the next step. And place the files in a folder called “carts” if this folder doesn’t exist then just create one. This is also explained on PICOPis site: http://guillermoamaral.com/read/picopi/

How to save carts
Downloading a game should pretty easy right? Yes, but where is the download button? Thats the problem, there is no button. Its kinda hidden. The games for Pico-8 is called “carts” and they are in the image format .png so they are both a png image with a very nice art and they also is the actual game which is pretty cool.
So to download a game you need to go to a specific games url and right beneath the gamescreen in the browser you can see the text “cart” rightclick on this and choose “save link as” and then download the .png file (also give the file a propername to make it easer later when you are browsing games in Pico-8) thats it!

How to downgrade the Retron5

Im writing this post because there might be someone out there that did the same mistake as i did. I updated the firmware on my Retron5 and crashes suddenly occurred on my favorite games that worked perfectly before.

After searching the net for reasons for this you will find that many people are having many different issues and problems after updating the firmware. The short explanation for this is that after version 2.1 Hyperkin did some huge changes to the firmware which made it worse. Apparently the Retron5 used some code for emulating the systems that weren’t allowed so they had to remove this code replacing it with new code that wasn’t that perfect, and all this started with firmware v2.2.

So the solution to the problems and crashes is simply, go back to firmware version 2.1

So how do you do this? If you did what i did and updated to the very latest firmware which where v2.5 then when i tried to “upgrade” back to v2.1 i just got an error. Luckily there is one way to fix this, and that is to make a factory reset. Restoring the Retron5 to factory settings gives you the opportunity to then update it to what ever version you want.

To do the factory reset I had to follow the instructions on Retron5s page “Retron 5 Factory Reset Instructions”: http://retron5.in/node/4
(here is a alt link to the instructions of the retron5 site should go down for some reason)

After the reset is done and you start the Retron5 you must give it a firmware update. It asks for you to insert an SD card containing a firmware update and i don’t think i was able to continue without doing a firmware update first. So i simply downloaded v2.1 from Retron5s site: http://retron5.in/?src=d9d4f495e875a2e075a1a4a6e1b9770f

Then everything was fine again and every game played perfectly. I was surprised how easy and pain free the factory reset was and the firmware update to v.2.1 was simple and fast. I hope all the links above still works if you had the same problem as i did. Good luck!

Gaming Night Nes Tournament

A couple of years ago I arranged a Nes tournament for my friends. The concept of the Tournament was to play a set of handpicked Nes games that had support for 2-playes. I made up simple rules for the games so they would be quick and also work as a good competitive game in a tournament for a big gaming group. I wrote about the tournament in an earlier post on this blog but decided to look over the games and tweak the rules to make them more streamlined and more fun!

Every game in the list has support for 2-players and are often games where you can choose to go for the highscore or be the last man standing. I choose how many levels you have to play on each game. If both players are still alive at the last stage we pick the player that has the best high-score and that one is the winner. Should your opponent be killed on one of the levels you are the winner 🙂 Simple, fast and fun. We played all these games on a real Nes using a PowerPak Flash Cartridge. A pro-tip to have easy access to the controllers during a tournament with many players is to use the Nes Four-Score Adapter as this works perfect as an extension cable 🙂

• Ice Climber – Best high-score at the end of the third level or last man standing.
• Mario Bros (Classic Serie) – Best high-score at the end of the first bonus level or last man standing.
• Balloon Fight – Best high-score at the end of the first bonus level or last man standing.
• Life Force – Best high-score at the end of the first level or last man standing.
• Micro Machines – Pick a level, winner of that level.
• Battle City – Best high-score at the end of the first level or last man standing.
• Tetris Tengen – Choose a score, first player to reach that score.
• Ice Hockey – Winner of one match.
• Vs. Excitebike (Nds) – 2 player mode. Pick a level, winner of that level.
• Nintendo World Championships 1990 – Best score (6min 15secs)

Favorites & Hidden Gems for the C64

I have previously written about my memories of the wonderful computer that I grew up with, the Commodore 64! In this post I will be listing some of my favorite games for the system that also are some hidden gems. But this list will be a little different then other lists on the net because I will be listing games that are actually still fun to play today! Let me explain..

The Commodore 64 is an very old system and has sooo many games released, but to be honest.. most of them suck. Back then you purchased games (mostly based of the very cool cover art) and played them over and over even though the game where poorly designed, frustrating, unforgiving and ugly! Today we know better. I have been looking back on the games I played and put my nostalgic feelings aside and just focused on the games that actually where good on the system, and that people still could enjoy today. Thinking, Would a person who never played a game is his life enjoy this game?
Ok enough talk, here is some of my favorite games on the Commodore 64 that I think are great and should be in everybody’s collection!

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You have to win the game (2012)
This is an amazing port of a pc indie game. The original game (available on steam) also has this retro pixel design so the game converts very nicely to the c64. And this game is just amazing! Its an open world exploration game with metroidvania mechanics, where you have to revisit old places once you have found different objects and powerups. Great graphics, fun game play, tight and responsive control. I cant believe that this game has not gotten a physical release on tape/disc as this wipes most of the new games that gets physical releases today. Jet Set Willy is overrated, this game is not! Play this now! 🙂 Download

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Bruce Lee II (2015)
One of the best games in the platformer genre for the c64 is without a doubt Bruce Lee released in 1984. Bruce Lee is a very fun an challenging game. But not so challenging that you cant finish the game, and that is rare for a c64 game 🙂 But im here to talk about the fan made sequel to the original game created by Bruno R Marcos for the pc back in 2013. He kept the feeling of the original game but added new sprites, enemies and new challenging levels! I was not alone thinking that this game would have been awesome to have on an original c64. In 2015 Jonas Hulten released the converted version of Bruce Lee II for the c64, and he did an amazing job! If you like the original game you really need to go and download Bruce Lee II now!

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Bouncy Cars (1994)
There are many overhead racers for the c64, like Rally Speedway or the Super Sprint games but one game that i think beats those games in both control, level design and fun factor is Bouncy Cars! The thing that makes this a more fun game is the car handling, this is a drifting game. Yes a drifting game for the c64! And who doesn’t love drifting 🙂 So this game is all about mastering the controls and the drifting technique to get head of your opponent. You really need to be 2 players when playing this game. Oh and there is a sequel called Bouncy Cars Revenge which is essentially the same game but with new levels.

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International Karate – Time Trainer Version (1986)
Int Karate is a real classic game for the c64! With a total of 16 moves this game beats all other fighting games on the system! And it have aged well, still looks great and is still so much fun today as it was back in 1986. But this version that im talking about here is the Time Trainer version released  by The Fall Guys giving the game a much better scoring system! The original version had that “best 2 out of 3” scoring system which i never liked. Instead the Time Trainer version has a scoring bar with 12 points. The player that gets all 12 points of the respective players color is the winner! And the system can get really intense and fun as you “steal” points from each other trying to get all points of one color. This version makes an amazing game even better! (There is a far more superior version released called International Karate Ultimate, read more about this further down in this post!)

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Guns ‘n’ Ghosts (2013)
Two player games cooperative games are always so much fun, my obvious choice would be Bubble Bobble but this newly released game deserves a place in the list! Basically all you have to do is kill all the zombies that spawn on the level. Go to the next level and try to survive as long as possible. One thing I like in particular about this game is the asymmetric game play with the two different characters you play as in the 2 player mode, they have different ways to kill the monsters which makes this a very good cooperative game. Available to purchase from Psytronik.

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Super Bread Box (2012)
This is a conversion of a fantastic indie game called Super Crate Box released on PC back in 2011 and ported by Paul Koller to the C64 a year later. Try to survive all the waves of enemies that spawn at the top of a one-screen arena. There is always one crate box on the level an every time you pick one up you get a new weapon, and there are maaaany fun and crazy weapons in this game! As you pick up new boxes you eventually unlock more weapons and levels, which makes this game super addictive! The game is released by RGCD and is available for free or you can order the cartridge from RGCDs store.

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Archon (1983)
This is a great 2-player competitive game that mixes both strategy and quick interaction. Each player has a set of magical monsters and creatures with different strength and weaknesses, some are slow but have ranged attacks and some are fast but only uses melee attacks. You can win by controlling the 5 dots on the board or wiping the opponents monsters of the board. The chess-style moment is slow and has strategy, but the fun is when you go into combat and you can move your monster in real time. So much fun! There is also a great web-based version of Archon that you can play here.

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Metro-Cross (1986)
This is a great port of the original arcade game developed by Namco that was released 1985 in Japan. The game is very simple, all you have to do is to avoid all obstacles by moving up and down and jumping to reach the goal in time. There are powerups that temporarily makes you faster and invulnerable. But its very tough as you need to be very fast to avoid the obstacles and to catch those valuable powerups to make it to the goal before the time runs out. Very addictive!

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VVVVVV (2017)
Back in 2010 Terry Cavanagh released the game VVVVVV and it was amazing! A huge open world to explore with many challenging rooms, and the game only uses one button that switches the gravity, flipping the character up side down. The original game looked like a c64 game with the simple pixel graphics and it had the same feel as Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy with multiple rooms (no scrolling levels) and they all had clever names. So this game just had to be ported to the c64! And this was finally achieved in 2007 by “Unctiover” the port is really good. But sadly it does not feature sid version of SoulEyes amazing soundtrack from the original version. This game really need to be in your c64 collection!

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LuftrauserZ (2017)
Now this is impressive! LUFTRAUSERZ is a Indie Pc game that was released back in 2014 and this is a conversion of that game. The C64 version of LUFTRAUSERZ was done by Paul Koller and it took 3 years to finish. The game runs at 50fps and four thousand unique player sprite frames are used. And the game is so much fun and addictive! The control you have over your plane is perfect and super smooth. And you always have different goals to complete to unlock more upgrades to outfit your plane with new weapons, bodyparts and engines that can create a total 125 different planes! You can get the physical cartridge version from RGCD och purchase the digital version from itch.io

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International Karate Ultimate (2017)
One of the best games for the C64 became even better! A team of programmers took International Karate and implemented a lot of great options and tweaks to make it even better, and im telling you.. this is truly the Ultimate version! Some of the stuff added is many new areas you can visits, the original from Ik1, ik2 and 8 new levels. also there are 17 hidden levels as easter eggs! (Hold down RUN/STOP when you see the logo screen of the guy doing a karate kick to unlock the IK+ Levels or hold down the C64 key during the logoscreen to unlock Way of the exploding fist levels. There is also another button you can hold down to unlock even more levels but I sadly forget which button it was) You have the option to change the speed and colors of the players. They also implemented the new scoring system from the “Time Trainer Version” that i talked about earlier in this post in the two player mode. You can choose the original music or the new remixed tunes. And also you can remove those pointless minigames between the fights. And a lot more! If you have an Easyflash you can save all these settings and they will be automatically loaded the next time you play. You can download v1.1 here!

Update: A while after this release the developers held a Graphics Competition and released a new version called IK Ultimate Competition Edition with 8 new levels and some other nice updates to the game. Be sure to check it out!

My favorite romhacks

Romhacks are great! Either a rom hack can change an entire game or just change small things. Add new features or fix broken once. Rom hacks that translates an entire game. Or hacks that creates a whole new games. There are thousands of rom hacks out there and new hacks are added frequently to romhacking.net This is a list of some of my favorite hacks for various systems.

Super Mario Unlimited (Nes)
This is my favorite romhack of the original Smb game. The problem with most Mario hacks with new levels out there is that the hackers have no idea what they are doing. Its like a 6-year old kid is playing with a level editor just mashing the buttons, the maps are horrible and dont have any idea or structure behind them. This is where Super Mario Unlimited excels, the maps are amazing! So well designed from start to finish. Just a solid fun adventure that even made me think that this was better designed than the original game, get it now! 😀 You can read my review of this hack here. EDIT: Super Mario Unlimited Deluxe is an updated version of the original hack with lots of new features, hidden stuff and bug fixes. Be sure to get this updated version instead

Download Original: RomHacking
Download Deluxe version: RomHacking

Super Mario 3Mix (Nes)
This is truly an amazing romhack. Its a total conversion of the original Smb3 with complete new maps and powerups etc. I can actually say that its better than the original Smb3 game *gasp* yes its that good 😀 This hack has sooo many cool and new features that i don’t even know where to start. All new levels, option to chose a character from start, battery-save! and new power-ups, and much more. And a thing i really liked is that the first World has levels from Smb1, the Second World has levels from Smb2 etc, I just loved that idea of mixing in maps from the previous Mario games to this hack. This is a must-have hack!

Download: Romhacking.net
Download: Official Site

Streets of Rage 2: Multiple Enemies!! (Megadrive/Genesis)
This hack doubles the amount of enemies on the levels, but they have lower energy so its still balanced. The game is still as hard/easy as it has been but now with even more chaos! And it works really well, so much fun to plow through 7 enemies at once with one powerful attack 😀

Download: RomHacking

Bubble Bobble – The New Quest (Nes)
This hack just adds new levels, that’s it! Bubble Bobble is an amazing game and its perfect as it is but this hack adds new levels that makes the game feel a little different. I don’t understand why they aren’t more level hacks for this game. A hack worth checking out if you want some new levels added to the cave of monsters! 🙂

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1598/

Super Mario Land Graphics Hack (GameBoy)
This is just a graphics hack for the original Super Mario Land for the Game Boy, but wow this is how that game should have looked. Almost everything is changed, from the menu at the top to the backgrounds and sprites. And i just love that new cute super-deformed Mario sprite! You can read my review of this hack here, with lots of comparison images 🙂

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1314/

Sonic Classic Heroes (Megadrive/Genesis)
Let me ask you a question, what are the two best Sonic games ever created? Thats right, Sonic 1 and 2! How about mashing these two together creating a massive adventure? Also add the feature to play as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles at once, switching between them on the fly! This hack also adds save-slots and lots of options. And the latest version even lets you play the characters from the Sega 32X Knuckles Chaotix! And all the characters in Sonic Classic Heroes have unique skills. One amazing hack!

https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Classic_Heroes

Balloon Assault (Nes)
Balloon Fight is one of my favorite games for the Nes but no one has created a hack for it, until now. The hacker “Quick Curly” managed to crack the code and was able to create new levels for this amazing game! Not just new levels, new graphics are added to the different levels and many other tweaks where done. Defiantly worth downloading if you are a fan of Balloon Fight 🙂 EDIT: Quick Curly released a “multi-cartridge” with all of his Balloon Fight hacks and other cool hacks in this “42 Balloons: The Balloon Fight Collection”

Download: RomHacking

Super Mario All Stars NES (Nes)
Just like the idea of having a “All-stars” collection of all the Mario games released on the Nes in one file. Smb 1-3 plus the Japanese version of Smb2 aka “Lost Levels” is included. And apparently there is a save feature added too, very cool!

Download: RomHacking

Super Mario Bros. 2 Christmas Edition (Nes)
A very neat Christmas/winter theme hack for Super Mario Bros 2! So many things have been changed to give the game a Christmas touch. Just fun to explore the levels and see all the changes that has been made 🙂

Download: RomHacking

Board Fight (Nes)
Board Fight is without a doubt the best hack out there for Balloon Fight! The hack started as a collaborative hack from the boards at Romhacking.net (hence the name of the hack) where users could contribute to the hack with there own level designs. Quick Curly did an amazing job with this hack implementing all the submitted maps with different sprites, not only does this hack feature new levels it also surpasses the original game with a total of 16 levels instead of the original that only had 12. And the best thing about this hack is that Quick Curly managed to remove those annoying bonus levels that I think really interrupting the normal flow of game-play. This hack is really fun and challenging, so find a friend and try to complete all 16 levels if you can! 🙂

Download: Romhacking.net

Mario Adventure (Nes)
This is more than just a hack, this is a completely new Mario game for the Nes! This hack is considered to be the best ever made for the Nes! New levels, music, graphics, powerups and a new system on how you navigate around and finish levels. So many new stuff have been added that its impossible to cover them all here! One notable change is the added weather effects that change when you enter a new level or an old level you already have played. I still think – and i know many agree with me – that Super Mario 3Mix (that i mentioned above in this post) is a bit better than Mario adventure. But you really need to play them both! Get this now! EDIT: Quick Curly released a “multi-cartridge” with all of his Balloon Fight hacks and other cool hacks in this “42 Balloons: The Balloon Fight Collection”

Download: Romhacking.net

Super Pixel Bros & Super Atario Bros (Nes)
These two hacks are just visual upgrades, or maybe i should say downgrades for the original Super Mario Brothers 🙂 The graphics has been simplified, and now look as an very old console and its just beautiful and super cute!

Download Super Pixel Bros: Romhacking
Download Super Atario Bros: Zophar

Excitebike 7 maps (Famicom Disc System)
Excitebike was one of the first games I played on the Nintendo as a kid, and i loved it! The game was fun, fast and addictive. And we spent hours building our own tracks with the level editor. I even built a fansite for Excitebike, thats how much i loved it 😀 But one thing that I always missed where a 2 player mode.Thanks to emulation we can now play the enhanced version called Vs. Excitebike that later was released for the Japanese FDS comsole, and this version had a 2 player mode!  But there was only 3 tracks to play in this mode. But now thanks to the rom hacker BZK you can now compete with a friend in 7 maps instead of 3!

Download Excitebike 7 maps: Romhacking

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project – Weapon Select (Nes)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project is in my opinion the best Turtles game for the Nes. Its essentially TMNT The Arcade game but with better graphics, ai, levels and every turtle got a personal special move! The special moves is vastly different depending on what turtles you choose. They are all fun but the only way to change the special move is to wait until all your lives are gone and then you can change your character. Until now! This very cool hack makes it possible to change weapons and that also changes the special move and you can do this on the fly by just pressing the select button toggling through all the characters. Very cool!

Download the hack here: Romhacking

Super Mario Ultimate (Nes)
This is a fantastic rom hack of SMB3 that got released out of nowhere by the user Silias on the RomHacking site. And wow this is best hack of SMB3 that I have played yet. Its not as impressive as Super Mario 3mix or Super Mario Adventure that both added many new features. Super Mario Ultimate does not add any new amazing features instead its just an amazing makeover with the best graphic overhaul that I have seen and the level design is just stunning! Every level has a great challenging level design that could have been designed by Nintendo themselves and the developer of this hack have added many smart and interesting new obstacles and puzzles that we never have seen before in a Mario game for the Nes. Super impressive and I really recommend this one!

Download the hack here: Romhacking

Party Games – The Essential Selection

We have played many party games on our gaming nights, some of them get phased out but some of them stick and we never seem to get tired of them. In this list I have decided to list just those games, the best of the best, the party games that we want to play over and over on every gaming night.
All the games in this list has support for up to 4 players. Some of them can only be played on console and some just on pc. If you want the bigger party game list you can find it here.

Mashed (Pc, Ps2, Xbox)
I have praised this many times before and wrote a blogpost about it naming it the ultimate party game. Even if you have played it thousand of times or its your first time its still super fun! Even if you play on the same level over and over it has always different and crazy results, where you cheer, scream and laugh at the same time. Don’t miss this game!

Broforce (Pc, Steam)
As of 2015 Broforce is still in development, but we have been playing it since it first started and we never miss an update. This is a highly addictive co-op sidescrolling actiongame. Brofoce has a great tempo with action and fun situations. Every new game has different results as you constantly switch between new characters that have different weapons and powers and they are all so much fun. This is also one of those games that makes you scream and laugh from start to finish.

Speedrunners (Pc, Xbox One)
Another addictive game that works great with 2-4 players. Its quick, simple to learn and very fun! It makes you go “just one more level!” the game is fun right from the beginning but as you learn the levels it becomes even better! So yes its a very addictive game, if you need another fun partygame to your collection be sure to check this one out!

Beach Spikers (Gamecube)
A hidden gem and an exclusive for the Gamecube. You know this is a hit when you notice that its created by Segas AM-2 team. Don’t get fooled and think that this is another boring sports game, as all other games that Am-2 has created its aimed to be a fun arcade game. Its very easy to learn for new players, but also have some more advanced moves that makes that game even more fun. We always have a blast when we play this one, and its perfect for 4 players! A must-have if you own a Gamecube!

Wario Ware (Gamecube)
Exclusive partygame for the Gamecube. This game is actually better in you have never played it before. Wario Ware is one of those crazy Japanese games containing hindered of quick mini-games. This game needs 4 players to be fun, and some of the best partymodes are locked from start so be sure to unlock them. Another must-have game for the Gamecube!

Samurai gunn (Pc, Steam)
This in the best Arena Brawler i have every played! Amazing pixel graphics, great control and simple to learn. Add 2-4 players in one of the many arenas and get ready to laugh and shout at all the chaotic fun stuff that happens, its so addictive! Every person who i have introduced this game to have fallen in love with in just within a couple of minutes, get this game now!

Clusterpuck 99 (Pc, Steam)
Remember Ice Hockey for the Nes? One button to shoot, one to tackle and also the charge shot when holding the button. Clusterpuck 99 is Ice Hockey on drugs and its sooo much fun! The controls are super simple and everyone knows what to do, just get the ball inside the goal. So this game is perfect as a partygame that everyone understands in just minutes. And its super intense, ending up with screams and laughter 😀 Really recommending this game!

Other related list that i have posted on my blog:
– One-screen Arena Brawlers
– The best co-op games
– Party Games for up to 4 players