Description by Denny:

This is a ROM hack of the NES game “Over Horizon”.
The fictitous backstory for the hack is that “Over Horizon” was originally an arcade game. And this arcade game later got an NES port with extended contents. (Similar to “Rush’n Attack” whose NES version has a new soundtrack, two new levels and a different plot.) Our hack restores the game to its arcade form, or rather to an NES game that’s a straight port.
In reality, I like this game very much since it’s a shoot’em up that is not unforgivingly hard. But the last two stages just drag on too much and especially the stage 5 boss is very frustrating and unfair. That’s why I decided to cut the game down to a more digestable experience.

The ROM analysis, the technical work of finding out how the game functions, was done by kandowontu.
The design choices (which levels to cut, what other alterations to do) were decided by me, Denny.

Source NES ROM file: “Over Horizon (J).nes”
Intended output file name: “Over Horizon – The Arcade Game (J) [h].nes”

For the hack, we cut out stage 5 completely:
With the sub boss in the middle, the gameplay drags on for much too long. And the final boss is incredibly unfair, especially after such a long level.

In stage 6, we do the following:
– Keep the start level, outside 1.
– Remove the single screen before the sub boss. Because an empty, non-scrolling screen isn’t very arcade-like.
– Remove the sub boss. Because it’s barely a challenge. And like the sub boss in stage 5, it lets the stage drag on too much.
– Keep the level after the sub boss.
– Remove the outside 2 level. Because since we remove the next level as well, the teleporter in the middle makes no sense anymore.
– Remove the level after the outside 2 level. Because it has two teleporters of which one sends you back to the outside 2 level. And a backward teleporter isn’t very arcade-like.
– Keep the level before the boss.
– Keep the boss.

We remove the edit mode since it’s not very arcade-like.
And all those configurations cannot be changed between levels. After the start of the game, they are fixed. Unless you get a game over. Hence, story-wise, there’s only one canon configuration anyway. And that one is obviously the default configuration.

The speed selection is a pretty stupidly-implemented feature:
You never need speed 1 or 2. There are no passages in the game that require such a fine control. But the slow speeds can severely hinder you. And speed 5 is only really required in stage 5 in the water, which we cut out. Speed 4 is useless as well. So, most of the time, you use the default speed of 3 anyway.
And if you went faster, going back to the default speed is stupid button mashing: You have to go from 5 to 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3. Because if you just go from 5 to 3, then next time you press the button, your ship gets slower. But next time, you most likely want to get faster again. So, you better make sure that your last speed change was from 2 to 3, not from 4 to 3. Which means you have to press the button six times to get back to the default.
In conclusion, we simply remove the speed selection completely. Let’s play this arcade game with two buttons only.

We remove the post-credit scene where an alien baby appears and says it will be back.
That was mostly a personal decision by me to have a more definite ending. Also, that scene appears 30 seconds after the final score screen. It’s a nice easter egg when you leave the console on for that long. Especially since you don’t expect it. But it doesn’t really fit an arcade game.

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