Hi! Some of you may have noticed I've been on the board a lot within the past month or so.
This is because I am currently in the process of crawling all threads and centralizing the info I can find in a thorough, easy-to-digest package. Right now all I have is a myriad of text files that I will later post as threads. Some are huge, some are stubs.
There's notably going to be a lot of beginner-friendly guides on how to do just about anything (outside of ASM), along with what to watch out for, etc.
Looking at old threads made by users who struggle to understand how NSMBe or modding works can teach you a lot- some expect it to be as simple as making a level in Mario maker, and it's up to us to teach them that modding is not like that. NSMB may be flexible, but it wasn't meant to be modded. There will be crashes, there will be weird stuff, and there will be a lot of troubleshooting.
(Also- if you see threads move from one forum to another, that's because I am sorting threads as I go)
Crawling the board is only part of the picture, though. I'm also testing just about anything I can think of in an effort to document everything in an organized manner. I am preparing a lot of threads that reference one-another, therefore I will likely be releasing most threads all at once. There will be a lot of illustrations to make them easy to follow along. They can be converted into wiki pages if you wish, but I'd rather make them threads for a few reasons.
Here's a non-exhaustive list of what I will be covering, in no particular order:
-Overview of how to run NSMBe (level editor, understanding the UI, level design guidelines, graphical editor, file handling, patching...)
-Troubleshooting methods (e.g. delete everything in a level until it starts working again)
-Basic tutorial on editing DS metadata
-Graphic editing (explain indexed palettes)
-Tips and tricks
-Tile behaviors (comprehensive)
-Jyotyu (I've listed all objects and all of their known quirks with extensive trivia)
-Blue coin palette
-Template setups (provided as NSMBeClips)
-NSMBe to CoinKiller clip converter (that one guy who's making a NSMB2 remake, this is for you)
-How to edit demo_castle like a level
-How to not perish
-Community remix retrospective -Sprites (comprehensive)
-Sound sets
-Music hacking tidbits
-List of all graphical files and their respective uses (interactive)
-Slope control guide
-Tileset/background compatibility (comprehensive)
-Level hex recap
-External resources loaded by tilesets and backgrounds (NCG animations, NSBTX files)
-NSMBe gripes (5.1 abandoned features, 5.2 jank, 5.4 changes) and suggestions
All of this takes time to test out, document, illustrate and then convert into threads. I want to be thorough, why is why I plan to keep working on most of this alone as it gives me more control and agency. I am only one person however, hence it would only make sense to recruit people who are interested in this documentation effort.
For example, testing out tile behaviors is a very monotone endeavor (that could very well be automated) which could easily be worked on by several people at once with little risk of overlap.
Yup, for the first time we add another game to the board: New Super Mario Bros. 2!
The NSMB2 section will have the same forums as NSMBDS: General, Code Mods, Resources, Tutorials and Hacks. explos was added as a moderator for that section.
In the next few days I will add a few tutorials that get you started with level editing and eventually also code modding.
So let's go and transform the worst NSMB game into the best one!
In the seven years this site has been running, the NSMB Hacking Domain has become synonymous with the game's hacking community. In our run, we've witnessed and nurtured the development of many high-quality hacks for New Super Mario Bros. on the DS. Over time, to ensure the quality of the hacks we host on the site the moderators and admins have proposed new rules governing NSMB Hacks to maintain a high level of quality and consistency out of our user base.
And it shows.
There was once a time when we found custom tilesets impressive. When this board launched, only two or three people had even played around with ASM hacking. From custom enemy graphics, new music, custom boss rooms, and everything else that blew our minds back in the beginning- today these things are quintessential to any good hack. We've come a long way from the first publicly released hack to the latest one. And this is where we make an announcement.
The release of Newer Super Mario Bros. DS also marks the release of a superior game engine to that of the original NSMB. One that offers more ease of customisation and a far superior in-game interface with high-quality sounds, graphics and content that was previously a pipe dream in the original NSMB DS game engine.
It's no secret that our users are starting to use Newer DS as the new base ROM for their NSMB Hacks. So once more, to maintain quality and consistency for our hacks, the board staff are making our newest rule change yet.
Beginning from today, we are the Newer Super Mario Bros. Hacking Domain!
From here on in, we are accepting Newer DS as the appropriate base ROM for any and all hacks on this website. With the upcoming release of the Newer Team's own development tools, this promises to be a smooth transition for everyone to make their hacks a little bit newer.
Hacks using the original New Super Mario Bros. ROM will be phased out. From today onward we will not be accepting any hacks of the original and clunky NSMB.
This also means that existing hacks will also be phased out. Developers are encouraged to port their work over to the Newer Engine for re-submission and possible re-approval. If your hack once again meets our quality standards they will be approved and moved to NSMB Hacks after a 24-hour phase-out period.
Any hacks not resubmitted within 24 hours from the time of this announcement will be moved to trash. We understand that this might be a problem for some users, but porting everything you've got to the Newer engine should be a snap. Plus, this will help us weed out inactive users and hack threads.
The previous rule revision, forbidding hacks with the word 'Newer' in the title, will be revoked due to redundancy.
We hope you'll all participate in making NSMBHD newer again!
As you may have noticed, the spoiler tag has a new look:
Hello World!
Now spoilers aren't smaller than their contents, so don't use them to compress stuff or hide huge labyrinths of nested spoilers. The spoiler tag is meant for just that, hiding spoilers.
Thanks to Arisotura for the idea and first implementation
