Today I’m going to try and establish a new type of article for MGS, the Community Project Spotlight. In these articles I will focus on a lesser known ROM Hack, Homebrew, Translation patch or other interesting Classic Gaming Community topic that I think might be of interest to our readers.
For this first article I’m going to focus on 2 interesting ROM Hacks for the beloved Mega Man series, specifically on NES: Mega Man 1 and 2. A few years ago ROM hacker Ti who has worked on many NES enhancement hacks added the Konami VRC6 audio remixes of prolific chiptune artist Rushjet1 to the original Mega Man and Mega Man 2 games.
For those unfamiliar with his work, Rushjet1 has been creating amazing covers and remixes of classic series Mega Man games for years, and his work is well loved and respected in the Mega Man community, as well as the chiptune community (see link below for their youtube channel, and examples of their work)
The hacks in question not only convert the games’ memory mapper to Konami VRC6 for enhanced VRC6 audio renditions of the existing music, but add remixed versions by Rushjet1 of existing themes that would normally have repeated for multiple levels such as the Wily stages. The result is a familiar but re-energized play experience that would be to many fan’s liking, at least as a different way to enjoy these classic titles once and a while.
These ROM hacks are compatible with most emulators, and will also work on the MiSTer FPGA with a few modifications to the NES ROM header to boot in the highly accurate and feature rich NES core by FPGA Developer Kitrinx.
Links to patches below:
Rushjet1 youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RushJet1
Mega Man: Rushjet1 music patch by Ti: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7899
Mega Man 2: Rushjet1 music patch by Ti: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7968
Nice second article, lovely! I’m getting more into ROM hacks, so thanks!
But maybe a suggestion? Sorry for coming across like some nagging hag, but I thought it might add something positive for future articles.
First, how about a comparison of the original sound and the ROM hack here on this page?
I know that a YT video is present on the linked page, but would be cool and convenient if people could instantly hear what the difference is and if it is interesting enough for them to put effort in to the patch the ROMs etc. Not a new combined video, just two next to each other or something like that.
Second, not everybody knows how to modify the NES ROM header and such for MiSTer. At least a link to how to do that or maybe even a short tutorial in text would be much appreciated I think.
This is pretty good advice, in the good realm of “Show, don’t tell.” I run a youtube channel and have basic video editing skills, so I can make your suggestions happen pretty easily. Thank you for the feedback 🙂