I hope I'm not breaking a board rule, but I cannot for the life of me find a list of the board's rules...)
Sixteen years ago, I got it into my head that it would be fun to do a role-reversal hack of Super Mario Bros. 3, in which you play as Peach and rescue Mario. I had no ability to manually hack the PRG ROM, and the available tools were not quite up to the task. Still, I managed what I thought was a credible conversion, with decent sprite work and most of the colours correct.
Last year, I decided that with the considerably greater expertise I had acquired doing SNES development, it was time to revisit that old hack and see if I couldn't polish off the rough edges. I thought this would mostly entail replacing the excessively cheesy interim title (please don't ask), making a few text changes (the text editor I tried in 2008 did nothing) and fixing the few remaining palette issues that had escaped the colour changer tool. But I rapidly discovered two things: first, I wasn't as satisfied with the art as I remembered being, and second, a commented disassembly (Southbird 2011) was now available. The polishing effort snowballed into a complete overhaul, and the result is better than I had hoped.
And yes, I'm aware of Super Princess Peach 3. I think mine's better, and in any case it's a slightly different approach - I've done some code hacking and data rearrangement to achieve things that can't be done via the usual methods. My project was started long before SPP3 went public and initially took no inspiration from any other hack.
Anyway, here it is: Super Peach & Daisy 3, as a hack of the PRG1 version of Super Mario Bros. 3 (the PRG0 patch does not preserve PRG0 oddities; it results in the exact same ROM as the PRG1 patch). I cannot guarantee compatibility with other hacks, as modifications to the code and PRG data have been made under the assumption that everything else is the same, and some of the CHR data has been rearranged. Level-data-only hacks might work.
No level data or game logic has been changed. It's purely a visual hack (resulting in occasional slight visual confusion, as the princess appears taller than the plumber did but their hitboxes are the same). The player sprite design is anchored on the standing sprite from the rescue scene at the end of the original game, with only the eyes altered. Other than the obvious CHR and text edits, changes are as follows (unless I forgot something):
- unused map graphics have been overwritten to obtain the needed letters to spell Peach and Daisy's names
- the spade house player graphic now has overlaid sprites (overwriting the unused Koopa and Hammer Brother hosts) to enhance the colour depth
- the title screen sequence dynamically switches out palette data to avoid having to make the leaf, mushroom and cursors pink
- the World 4 screen in the ending has an extra sprite (overwriting the unused sleeping Goomba) to add colour to the scared swimming graphic
- entering a pipe horizontally no longer causes the masking sprites to not move up one pixel, so your crown and raccoon ears don't stick up past it
- the player metasprite definition tables have been altered to allow a CHR table rearrangement so your dress moves when flying
- as a bonus due to the above, the running and flying head/shoulder graphics are different, and your shoulder puff moves when throwing a fireball
I tried not to "fix" any eccentricities in the original game, which is why the water drop in the scared swimming graphic is pink and not blue, the mushroom in the title screen uses Mario's palette instead of a proper Super Mushroom palette, and the invincible somersault sprites have no tail and include a stray pixel. Justifying this approach together with Mega Man-style palette expansion is a bit difficult, but I managed somehow...
Tools used were Microsoft Paint, Tile Layer Pro, SmB3 Color Editor (for the first version), and HxD Hex Editor (for the new version).
All hacking and graphics design and editing by 93143. Playtesting and constructive criticism provided by cot(θ).
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If anyone has any comments or suggestions, please feel free to share them. This is a NES graphics discussion board, after all, not a ROM hack repository...