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.
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.
The online patcher (unless it’s a BPS file) doesn’t check the hash, so it’s up to you to pay attention to the hash of your ROM compared to the one provided by the author.
The online ROM Hasher allows you to check your values. There should be no red screen problems if the ROM is identical.
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.
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.
Had no idea that it was also an issue of the author as well. Thanks for the input!
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.
Hi,
For the first proposal, I admit I didn’t really understand it.
For the remaining space on the romhacks pages, it’s not really exploitable knowing that it’s intended if there are reviews or comments. What’s more, a similar romhack space would make additional requests that aren’t necessarily useful. You might as well go straight to the corresponding section and search by category.
As for the last suggestion, the reviews are already there and it would break the interest of having reactions because anyone could put them in without having tested the romhack.
I’m assuming that the Online Rom Patcher here also has the checksum fix function for Genesis/MegaDrive games as well?
Direct patcher has been mass enable to a lot of entries. If you are verified and if you post an entry for a game on a console that’s not too recent (Wii, X360, PS3, …) , the direct patcher will automatically be activated.
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?
So it depends on the case. First of all, you can combine files. For the Sega CD, I believe the method is similar to that of the PS1 with CDMage. (Video explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuKTm34xh6A). Otherwise, if the music is not modified, you can just include the Track 1 patch and tell them to rename it as before to match the CUE file. If the music is modified, you can include it like any other file.
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.
This online hash/patch option was the missing piece to the puzzle. Thanks for completing the picture.
Agree.
Why require patches to be .zipped?
Patch can also be outside an archive.