Hey, sorry for being a pain, but I need to ask something. I'm not going to ask where to find ROMs, I'm not THAT much of a noob, but what I'm having trouble with is simply uploading  my spoof of SMW to the site. It's just graphics, text, and some level editing, mostly the first few levels. I now reallize someone prbly told me how to do this several times but I wasen't listening or got distracted by some shiny thing, so now I need help allllll over again. :'(

Just to warn you, the site is pretty strict about these kinds of hacks, it has to be a very well done hack. They don't accept simple things like replacing all the mario characters with final fantasy and calling it "done"  and they usually don't accept incomplete hacks you have to edit every level.

Good luck 

There are SMW-hack specific sites you could try to submit to if you want some preliminary feedback on your hack as a 'demo'

What sites? Could you tell me?

I agree entirely. A rotting bull carcass can do a graphics "hack"""; if all you do is change the graphics, but leave the original layout of the game intact, you've really done nothing original.

If, however, you attempt to create new level layouts in order to maximize the usefulness of changing the graphics, you may be on to something somewhat original. I think someone around here called any hack of that nature "tracing over someone else's art".

CIP: if you don't hack levels to change the feel of the game, or hack the engine to change the game mechanics, and only add your interpretation of what someone else has already done graphically with a game, you're really only doing little more than wasting your time.

I agree. I'll reference the "JUSTIN BAILEY" patch for Super Metroid as proof. The only graphics that were changed were the sprites and any other graphics related to Samus (no levels or anything else were altered).

I've tried over and over again to play through Super Metroid a second time to no avail (I kept losing my interest), but after applying the hack and giving it another go, it was very refreshing to play it again. You don't need brand new levels to make it a "proper" hack. Sometimes the game is just fine the way it is and a few new graphics are all you need to spice it up again.

That's not to say that no one should ever give a game a complete level hack. There's a big need for those. But there's still a nice little niche for simple graphics hacks.

I think the real issue here is that a graphics-only hack, provided it's well done, can be considered "complete" if it changes all the graphics. Something that changes all the graphics and half the levels can only be considered partially complete, and is thus an incomplete gameplay experience.

Is this a problem?  :beer: