Super Mario Star Collect is an NSMB romhack I'm making that has SM64-like gameplay, where you have to collect stars. The folllowing video contains only one of the three missions I've made for this level.


I don't need help with anything other than code hacking and music composing. Note that I don't need either of those to do this hack, they would just be a nice bonus.

I'll post a demo whenever I finish the first world.
Credits:
Graphics:  Dirbaio, Pop006, Tempus,  MarioFanatic64, unknown object, RicBent,  SaturnYoshi, antnee  MeroMero,  BrokenAce255, Alexutzu3,  fun maker,  poudink, charlie59876, Josiah, Black Boo, carlytoon, CopperMario, FieryExplosion and willywilliford
Level Design:  poudink
ASM hacking: RicBent,  skawo,  MeroMero and newluigidev
Music:  poudink
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I ported the SMS/SMG/SMG2/Whatever font to NSMBDS. Only later found out that Newer DS already used Delfino, which is a recreation of Pop Happiness. Oh well, I guess this one can be considered slightly better since it's using the original Fontworks font that Nintendo used for their games instead of a recreation. And yes, this is Pop Happiness, despite what the filename may lead you to believe, not that it makes much of a difference when the letters are 11 pixels tall.
DOWNLOAD.

Usage:
1. Extract arm9.bin from your rom.
2. Open arm9.bin and the nftr font in a hex editor.
3. Select from offset 341C4 to offset 3589B in the arm9.bin file.
4. Copy the entirety of the nftr file.
5. Paste it over what you selected in the arm9.bin file.
6. Save arm9.bin and replace the one in your rom with the one you just saved.

Other notes:
To edit the nftr file, use NFTREdit.
The nftr file I posted is LZ77 compressed. You will need to decompress it to open it with NFTREdit.
You must recompress with header the nftr file before inserting in in the rom.
Your edited nftr file must be 16D8 bytes long or less after being recompressed. If it's bigger, you'll need to get rid of some characters. I had to get rid of the japanese characters for my custom font to fit.
If your file is less than 16D8 bytes long, just add 00's at the end of the file until it is 16D8 bytes long.
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This tutorial will show you how change the contents of ? blocks and brick blocks to various things that aren't available by default.
Let's start!
1. Open the jyotyu tileset.

2. Go in the Tile Behaviours tab and click on any of these tiles:

These tiles are all duplicates of other tiles in the jyotyu tileset, so there's no use in keeping them.

3. Change its tile behaviour depending on what you want it to contain:
Brick blocks:
Blue shell: 35 00 10 00
Fire flower: 34 00 10 00
Mega mushroom: 97 00 10 00
Mini mushroom: 95 00 10 00
Two coins: 45 00 10 00

? blocks:
Blue shell: 35 00 10 00
Fire flower: 34 00 10 00
Two coins: 45 00 10 00

4. Find the object in the Objects tab which uses the tile you modified. If you don't find any object that uses the tile you modified, add a new object to the list that uses it.
Do note that the icon showing the contents of the block won't change no matter what the block actually contains. Because of this, I recommend changing its description to match its content to make it easier to remember which is which.
This can be done by pressing the "Create Descriptions" button and changing the contents of the description box that will have appeared. Once you're done, save.

5. Optionally, you can turn the blue shell behaviour into a mushroom/blue shell behaviour by using the following code hack:
https://nsmbhd.net/thread/2569-misc-patches-thread/?from=540#52910

You're done! Here's the result:

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New worldmap and new HUD!

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Ever since NSMB hacking started in the late 2000s on Jul, more and more of the game's file formats have been figured out and became editable. With the recent completion of a certain Blender plugin which finally made Maya SDK plugins obsolete, SPA has become just about the only format in the whole game that is still uneditable. Until now. While this tutorial won't be going over how to make your own completely custom particles (not because I don't know how, but because drawing in a hex editor is too tedious for anybody to bother), I will be going over how to delete particles (we can finally get rid of those pesky snowflakes in the World 5 worldmap), how to replace any particle with any other particle from the game (as well as other games that use the SPA format), as well as (incomplete) format documentation for anyone who might want to create a proper SPA editor tool or people who really want to draw custom particles in hex, made from various information shared by  Gericom and Ed_IT.

Tools Needed

• A hex editor (I recommend HxD)
  
• MKDSCM
  
• NSMBe or any other generic DS editor with the ability to replace files (Tinke, Every File Explorer, etc.)

Note About SM64DS
If you are not an SM64DS modder or are not planning on taking particles from SM64DS, you can skip to the next section.
SM64DS is the earliest known game to use the SPA format, and as such certain things hadn't exactly been set in stone. While the format remains largely unchanged from its more recent counterparts, SPA files contained within the game do not harbor the .spa file extension and instead end with "_spa.bin". Simply renaming the file to end with a .spa extension will make it work just fine in MKDSCM and you'll be able to carry on with the tutorial.
That being said, most of the game's particles aren't actually contained in the game's file system at all and are instead embeded inside the arm9 binary. You should be able to find it in a decompressed arm9.bin be searching for the following:

File starts at the beginning of the search data. It's 0xC214 bytes long.

Finding Your Particle
The first step to editing the particle you want to edit will always obviously be to first find the particle you want to edit in the rom and then in your hex editor. This is what MKDSCM is needed for, as it is still the only program with the ability to view SPA files. Open your rom in MKDSCM and navigate to the particle folder, which contains every SPA file in the game (assuming you're modding NSMBDS). Then, open each file one by one and check every particle in them until you have found the one you were looking for. Write down the particle ID and extract the SPA file.

Now, open the SPA file you've extracted in HxD. Every particle starts with 20 54 50 53 (" TPS" in text) and ends at the start of the next particle, except of course for the last particle which ends at the end of the SPA file. Their order within the file is the same as their order in MKDSCM, as such particle ID 0 will be the first particle in the file, particle ID 1 will be the second, and so on. Based on the particle ID you wrote down earlier, find the instance of 20 54 50 53 that belongs to your particle (I recommend using Find (Ctrl+F) and Find again (F3) for that) and select all of it. Write down the offsets, just in case. Then, move on to either Deleting a Particle or Replacing a Particle.

Deleting a Particle
Replace the particle you've selected with this (thanks Ed_IT):

Save and insert the edited SPA in the rom with NSMBe.

Replacing a Particle
Repeat everything you did in Finding a Particle to find your replacement particle. Copy it in HxD and paste it over the particle you wanted to replace. You can take any other particle from the game you're editing or any other game that uses the SPA format. Multiple versions of the SPA format exist, but the SPT block, which is what we're editing, is the same for each of them. Here is listed each game that is known to use SPA as well as what version of the format they each use:

Game	Version
Super Mario 64 DS	1.01
Nintendogs: Best Friends	1.10
Nintendogs: Chihuahua & Friends	1.10
Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends	1.10
Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends	1.10
Nintendogs: Lab & Friends	1.10
Animal Crossing: Wild World	1.20
Mario Kart DS	1.21
Pokémon Black	1.21
Pokémon Black 2	1.21
Pokémon Diamond	1.21
Pokémon Heartgold	1.21
Pokémon Pearl	1.21
Pokémon Platinum	1.21
Pokémon Soulsilver	1.21
Pokémon White	1.21
Pokémon White 2	1.21
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!	1.22
New Super Mario Bros.	1.22
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass	1.22
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks	1.22
Tomodachi Collection	1.22

Save and insert the edited SPA in the rom with NSMBe.

Documentation
SPA Header:

Offset	Length	Type	Description
0x00	0x04	String	" APS" (magic ID)
0x04	0x04	String	Version (see the Replacing a Particle version to know which games use what version)
0x08	0x02	UInt16	Number of particles
0x0A	0x02	UInt16	Number of textures
0x10	0x04	UInt32	Particle block length
0x14	0x04	UInt32	Texture block length
0x18	0x04	UInt32	Texture block offset (start offset of first texture)

SPT Particle Header:

Offset	Length	Type	Description
0x00	0x04	String	" TPS" (magic ID)
0x04	0x04	Bitfield	TexImageParam*
0x08	0x04	UInt32	Texture data Length (=T)
0x0C	0x04	UInt32	Palette offset
0x10	0x04	UInt32	Palette data Length (=P)
0x14	0x04	UInt32	Texture 4x4 offset?
0x18	0x04	UInt32	Texture 4x4 Data Length? (=T44)
0x1C	0x04	UInt32	Texture size?
0x20	T		Texture data
0x20 + T	P		Palette data
0x20 + T + P	T44		Texture 4x4 data?

*TexImageParam:

Bit(s)	Description
0-2	TexFmt (0=NONE, 1=A3I5, 2=PLTT4, 3=PLTT16, 4=PLTT256, 5=COMP4x4, 6=A5I3, 7=DIRECT)
4-7	Size S (Width = 8 << Value)
8-11	Size T (Height = 8 << Value)
12	Repeat S (0 = S8 ... 7= S1024)
13	Repeat T (0 = T8 ... 7= T1024)
14	Flip S
15	Flip T
16	Palette color 0 (0 = USE, 1 = TRNS)

Sources
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1imob87CKxextWIbCSDYB8A0UJGe_bDpW/view?usp=sharing
https://nsmbhd.net/thread/2988-export-a-spa-to-a-bmp/
https://nsmbhd.net/thread/84-help-question-asking-thread/?from=1140#64906

TODO

• Document the particle block
  
• Cover flipping and mirroring

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So, here's some general advice. I'll give examples of hacks that do (or don't) follow each points as reference, since looking at other levels is a big part of the learning process:

• You need a gimmick, something that sets your level apart from other levels. Try to focus your level on that gimmick. Use it in increasingly complex and creative ways throughout the stage. I typically pick a random object that fits with the theme and try coming up with as many ways as possible to use it. Public code hacks can also heavily increase the possibilities, especially ones like the actor spawner and rotation controller which can be used with anything. Newer DS does this extremely well. The original NSMBDS not so much.
  
• Balancing difficulty is hard. Sorry, but I don't have much in the way of advice here. Even modern triple A games struggle with difficulty curves. It's something you always have to spend a lot of time thinking about and adjusting. Newer DS does this decently well, but even it has some difficulty spikes. Make sure to ask for the thoughts of demo players and beta testers, as there are things that are bound be more difficult or less obvious for players than they to the creator.
  
• Everything must be hinted at in some way. You can use rows of coins or clever tiling, but all secrets and elements necessary for progression (besides things like Easter eggs which don't matter for 100% completion) must be possible to find without a guide. Unmarked invisible vine blocks leading to a star coin or secret exit are bad. "Kaizo" invisible block traps are even worse.
  
• Level length is pretty easy. Look at the length of original NSMB levels and try to replicate that. Since many of them are considered to be a bit on the shorter side, there's no harm in doing levels that are slightly longer. Newer DS has basically perfect level length. Sometimes, I create the view before the level and design the level trying to fill the view. If you're having a hard time getting the sizes you want, that can be a good idea. Just make sure your checkpoint is indeed somewhere in the middle to avoid making the player go through long stretches of level without checkpoints, as that can be quite frustrating when you die.
  
• Be creative. If you think of something nice that hasn't been done before, then go for it. Unique levels can be a lot of fun.

Here's also some more subjective advice. This stuff is things that bother me when I see them, but that I rarely see mentioned by others, so I'm probably the only one who cares:

• Make sure your tiling is good. Try not to have any seams. Even big hacks like Newer DS have quite a few (subtle) seams and it bothers me like crazy. I always thought it looked cheap, so I make sure to always avoid them, even at the cost of bloating my tilesets with barely used tiles.
  
• Don't hide a star coin in the same place as a secret exit. Once again something Newer DS and many other hacks do and it's always felt lazy to me. Also, make sure everything is actually locked behind some sort of challenge. Star coins that are just out in the open are super lame and NSMBDS is guilty of having a few of those.
  
• This also a graphic design thing, but it also has to be incorporated into level design. Make things look natural. Big flat spaces? Avoid. Lack of decoration? Avoid. Random platforms of jyotyu wooden blocks and the like don't usually look good. Try to find something in your tileset that can be used instead and fit the level's theme. If you can't find anything like that, then add it to the tileset. This is something Newer DS excels at. Minor seams aside, the levels are all very natural-looking and visually interesting.
  
• Put blue shells in water levels. Please.

I spent way too long writing this, so I hope it has been useful.
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Newer SMBW Mountain [Extended]

You could probably fit most of this in a normal tileset to be honest, but whatever.



DOWNLOAD HERE.

NSMB2 Totems [Extended]

This looks awful and I have no idea why. It looks just fine before importing and the palette still has plenty of free space after importing. I did my best so it would looks as good as possible but obviously that wasn't enough.



DOWNLOAD HERE.

NSMB2 Jungle [Extended]

Slightly better than the one I uploaded earlier. Contains like six more tiles that aren't necessary in the slightest but still nice to have for variation, and I also fixed the tree tiles.



DOWNLOAD HERE.

As far as rips from Newer NSMB games go, I don't think I have anything else to upload. My other tilesets are all fanmade stuff I found on MFGG or here (I guess the Newer NSMBW tilesets are also fanmade stuff but whatever).
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Tired of being limited to 256x112 with your tilesets? Well boy do I have a tutorial for you. This is the second version of my extended tileset tutorial. My original tutorial allowed extending any tileset to 256x152 and tilesets that aren't used in conjunction with the sub nohara tileset to 256x176. This new version allows extending ANY tileset to 256x176. That's 256x64 of extra space compared to normal tilesets.

Here are the steps:

Setting it up:
1. Set up the ASM Patch Template if you haven't already. If you don't know how to, there are tutorials for that here and here.
2. Get the following code hacks in your rom:

• Choose which Actors to spare on Level completion
  
• SubNohara textures and broken flagpole relocation
  
• Sprite 93 always available and on higher layer priority (only the hex editing portion is necessary but the "Signboard upgrade" portion will come in handy)

3. Download this model.
4.
If you installed the "Signboard Upgrade" portion of the Sprite 93 always available and on higher layer priority code hack:
Using EFE, add the model to the rom. Set up the code to make it one of the available models.
If you haven't installed the "Signboard Upgrade" portion of the Sprite 93 always available and on higher layer priority code hack:
Replace enemy/yajirusi_l.nsbmd with the model.
5. For every instance of the end of level castle in your stages, delete everything except the small portion on the bottom right corner and place a signboard sprite such that the signboard's rightmost tile overlaps with the leftmost tile of the castle you just deleted.

Expanding your tileset to 256x176:
1. Find the _ncg.bin file for your tileset here and LZ77-decompress it.
2. Extract it.
3. Open both the _ncg.bin file you extracted in a hex editor.
5. Insert 0x4000 00 bytes at the end of the NCG
6. Reinsert the _ncg.bin file in the rom and LZ77-recompress it. It should now be 256x176.

If there's anything that doesn't work or that's unclear, please tell me so that I can improve this tutorial. It was a bit rushed so it may not be the best thing ever.
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Genuinely can't think of anything interesting that happened. Spent a while wracking my head, too. Crazy how empty your days can feel with the lockdown and stuff.

I don't really expect NSMBDS hacking to get any growth at this point. Thought Newer DS would do the trick back then, but even that just brought temporary interest. On the other hand, I don't expect NSMB hacking to die for a long time either. I'm sure there's always going to be a few dedicated hackers like there are right now. Every once in a while, you have a new hacker that pops up, though it's always up in the air how long they'll end up staying. Sometimes you have someone who you thought left that comes back. Soig just posted the first new video previews for his second hack in years. To balance things out though, you always have some active hackers who just leave, like  MarioFanatic64. For a few years now, NSMB hacking's always been not quite active, but not quite dead either, and while that used to frustrate me, nowadays I guess I'm fine with it, or more like I've just come to accept it.
 Dirbaio's going to keep NSMBHD running for as long as he can, so I don't think there's too much to worry about as far as the site's concerned, either.
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Looks really cool! We see MVSL hacks very rarely so it's cool to see some. Just one thing tho, I thought that you couldn't use MVSL stars if you used Dirbaio's ASM hack..?
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It's not a new profile pic, it's a mood avatar. Though I'm pretty sure Luigi will have a role but he doesn't want to spoil anything.
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Have Fun!
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New screenshot!

As you might have noticed, I decided to stop using rips because I think it looks nicer that way and because originality. The only reason I didn't change Jyotyu tileset and the Goomba yet is because I'm lazy .
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He's using the xdelta, he probably doesn't know how to compile everything himself.
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Here you go.
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Elections? Time to show my promotion poster!

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And the logo is stolen from Mario Silva's canceled hack: New Super Luigi DS.
EDIT: Why would you even make a 3DS home menu banner? It's a DS game, not a 3DS game.
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You'll need to remove the castle and then place it again.
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I don't get why people vote for other things than design. Also the blind jump option is useless. Blind jumps are just bad level design. Nobody's gonna vote for that.
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Yep, here it is: https://nsmbhd.net/get.php?id=JKidAIyx4QUjae1h
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