A few new features have been added to the Plaza. Here’s a quick news update.

First of all, a genre field has been added for games. It is mandatory for romhacks and translations. When you update your publications, this field must be added. It will be used to filter according to your preferred game genres in the future. Contact me on the forum if you need to add a genre to the list.

Two new online tools have also been added.
There’s the Online Rom Hasher, which lets you find out the hash of your ROM to see if it matches the patch.
And we’ve also added the Online ROM Patcher, which lets you patch your ROM directly from your browser. Direct patches may also be available directly from the game download depending on the input. This option must be activated by the Plaza team, as your file must meet two constraints:

– It must be in a ZIP archive or not in an archive.
– The patch must be in a common format (IPS, BPS, UPS, Xdelta, …)

If you want to activate the option, you can report your entry and we’ll be able to activate it.

And finally, we welcome two new members to our team, Gamerhenky and Trax.

And thank you for all these new publications. We’re always striving to improve the platform and make it a reference.
Thank you for keeping the Plaza alive.

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Hansuke
Member
Hansuke
1 month ago

It seems like the Online ROM Patcher doesn’t do checksum fixes for MegaDrive/Genesis games so it sometimes causes the games to have a red screen after patching.

Also, the hash check doesn’t seem to display whether or not it’s the correct hash according to the hack’s page.

Hansuke
Member
Hansuke
1 month ago
Reply to  Benjamin

The online patcher on romhacking.net has those features; hash checking and checksum fixing. Is there a way to get those features into the online patcher here?

The checksum errors usually happen when you try to combine hacks for MD/Gen games. They’ll sometimes redscreen unless you fix the checksum after applying subsequent hacks after the first one.

Adrian Gauna
Verified
1 month ago
Reply to  Hansuke

Ben is right about the hash and the correct ROM being applied to the correct patch, but in some cases the author is unaware or lazy and doesn’t realise that after they make there changes to a ROM, the ROM knows it’s been tampered and alarms the checksum routine that something is different and displays that red screen. This is why all authors and hackers should make sure the checksum is fixed before they release their work so the downloaders only need to download and patch.

Hansuke
Member
Hansuke
1 month ago
Reply to  Adrian Gauna

Had no idea that it was also an issue of the author as well. Thanks for the input!

Terwilf
Member
2 months ago

Hello, I know this is a growing page, and although my ideas might be a bit naive, I would like to share my thoughts:

It would be interesting to create a subcategory for hack translations. So far, a large number of works of this kind have been overlooked by being simply categorized as hacks.

In this case, and in more general contexts, there are many hacks that are derivative works of third-party projects. It would be great if the end user could know that they exist in the long term, also facilitating the process of applying all the patches involved.

I see a large untapped area under the reviews and comments section that could be used to suggest similar romhacks to the user. Additionally, we all like to participate, but we don’t always have something interesting to say, so it would be great to support our favorite hacks with reactions, like on other social networks.

Hansuke
Member
Hansuke
2 months ago

I’m assuming that the Online Rom Patcher here also has the checksum fix function for Genesis/MegaDrive games as well?

Adrian Gauna
Verified
2 months ago
Reply to  Benjamin

I have a question Ben, just curious to know how to submit a Sega-CD/Mega-CD ZIP file folder other than track 1 as an entry, i’m not sure exactly how Sega-CD files are to be organised in a ZIP file on the site. I get that track 1/data track has to be in bin format then made into a patch as no ROMS are allowed, I got that part but what about the music files? Track 2 onwards, can they be included in the ZIP folder as separate MP3 files or do they have to be in a Cue file already organised in the game’s order? Or are the music files simply not allowed on the site at all due to copyright?

bogaa
Verified
2 months ago

Thank you for all the hard work! It feels like you are pooring your heart and soul into this archive and forum. Thank you for making this such a awsome place. I hope that we will see old and many new faces finding there way into the hobby. And many who can discover our projects.

MegaRyeGuy
Member
2 months ago

This online hash/patch option was the missing piece to the puzzle. Thanks for completing the picture.

amy61jp
Member
2 months ago
Reply to  MegaRyeGuy

Agree.

Hâlian
Member
2 months ago

Why require patches to be .zipped?

Last edited 2 months ago by Hâlian