This is the most difficult theoretical vote I've had to make. In the end, though, I have a simple solution that I think will solve a lot of headaches, and that's to just have a seperate "hacks" section, outside of the system-specific sections. I'm not suggesting to just open the floodgates and allow any stupid hack in; I think sticking to "total conversion" type stuff would be ideal and using the current "ask first" rule. I decided that this video should be included, though; getting anywhere in that hack is impressive. I'd also like to see speedruns of the infamous Challenge Games, too.

This movie now has a pending acceptance. It will be processed when I have time to make the tiny reforms to the site to make it separate from real-world games.

This movie now has a pending acceptance. It will be processed when I have time to make the tiny reforms to the site to make it separate from real-world games.

do you mean a hacked-games section?! *-*

Wow, that was ridiculus and strange. If there's going to be a hacked-games section, this should be in it just because it's so weird.

as soon as you have time to breath some AIR..

The people who don't have time for that usually aren't people anymore.

Does this mean that hacks in general will be accepted? I'd gladly see a couple of other hacks as well. For example this could open up a gateway to homebrew translations as well. Such as FF5 for the SNES perhaps?

That was actually an awesome idea Highness! FF5 is one game I could actually watch at lower speed just to get the story right. A translated (to english) run would be great!

Does this mean that hacks in general will be accepted?

No. There's still the problem of infinite number of hacks, each which may have been altered in ways that we can't possibly judge. I'm accepting this particular movie of Air, because Air appears to be not-completely-unknown a hack. Same criter was used for Super Demo World: it's well known, and also good quality.

A separate section just makes it less likely that something which is otherwise publish-worthy will be rejected only because it doesn't fit in with the other games. On another note: "concept demoes" should be "concept demos", and is that meant to also apply to concept demos of non-hacked games?

it's well known, and also good quality.

Those certainly are words I'd never have expected to hear being said with regard to this hack.

Those certainly are words I'd never have expected to hear being said with regard to this hack.

After reading the homepage of this hack, I learned that there are some familiar names who have played this hack through. Therefore it can't be completely unknown :) Even if it's known only in Japanese emulator-gamers' circles...

is that meant to also apply to concept demos of non-hacked games?

Yes.

Should this game be added to the exceptions mentioned in the Rules page then? Or is the decision not final yet? An aside: it's impure, not inpure. Not that it matters, it's only in the internal coding.

Should this game be added to the exceptions mentioned in the Rules page then? Or is the decision not final yet?

I only allowed this movie. Not the game generally.

Wow. This hack is just... insane. Even though this hack might not make any sense, it does demostrate many glitches and bugs which you can use in other hacks, so it is somewhat "educational". Does the .fcm file stop at 4-3 for anyone? It did for me... unless I'm missing something. I'd vote "WTF" if I could, but I can't vote yet.

I thought that was just the last level, since you hear the princess music.

Yeah, it's the last level. If you do press B last the message says, you get sent back to the title screen -- and your only option is to start the game over again. You don't get to select a world as though you just completed 8-4. If you think about it, you've made it that far, and step into that pipe, just to go through this hell again. Put yourself in Mario's shoes, there. Whoever created this is a sadomasochistic nutjob. I'm voting "yes" because whoever made this hack had to have thought it through -- there's no way this "one solution" hack could have just been thrown together -- and for what it is, it was played expertly. I hope ROM hacks (and movies of them) are going to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Throwing the "must be well-known" qualifier out there undoubtedly disqualifies some well done, quality hacks that few have ever heard of (it's the internet, such a thing must exist somewhere). Instead of "few have heard of it, throw it out," I urge a review of any "unknown" hacks before simply tossing a movie of such a thing.

I hope ROM hacks (and movies of them) are going to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Throwing the "must be well-known" qualifier out there undoubtedly disqualifies some well done, quality hacks that few have ever heard of (it's the internet, such a thing must exist somewhere). Instead of "few have heard of it, throw it out," I urge a review of any "unknown" hacks before simply tossing a movie of such a thing.

I second that. It's probably a better idea to judge all movies for hacked ROMs on a case-by-case basis instead of trying to enact general rules that govern what will and won't be accepted. Considering that there probably won't be that many movies for hacked ROMs, anyway, I think this is a luxury we can and should afford.

ok i just watched this and all i can say is WTF. its 1 of the most confusing, horrid hacks i've ever seen and is hardly ok to be published. not that the game playing was bad, its the game itself. i couldn't understand what was going on for more than 10 secs. walking through walls, pipes, awful level design. if there was a vote lower than no i'd be using it.

ok i just watched this and all i can say is WTF. its 1 of the most confusing, horrid hacks i've ever seen and is hardly ok to be published. not that the game playing was bad, its the game itself. i couldn't understand what was going on for more than 10 secs. walking through walls, pipes, awful level design. if there was a vote lower than no i'd be using it.

I actually sort of agree with you. I suppose one of the points of having a hack section is that you can have weird stuff like this in there, I just feel bad for Super Demo World being grouped with things like this considering what a great game that (SDW) is :)

yeah after the big stink i made about SDW i really liked it after i watched it. this however...

Well, the section is called "hacked games / concept demos", and I think this run is as much of a concept demo as it is a run of a hacked game. It doesn't have to be the same sort of game/run as SDW. (SDW is not really a concept demo, although its title of "Super Demo World" might be misleading.) There were quite a few places that looked far from being as fast as possible, so I can only assume that being as fast as possible was not one of the goals in making this movie. (EDIT: which is fine, of course - did I say it wasn't?) Question: What things did Genisto do here that were not intended to be possible, if any? Temporarily escaping above the level is one thing that comes to mind as a possibility here, but some of the things that happened were so odd that I couldn't tell if they were intended to happen.

When it comes to a concept demo of a hacked game, "Aims for fastest time" is a liability. Entertainment is everything here.

There's no question that Air is one of the most bizarre hacks that would fall into the Total Conversion category. The objective of this hack, IMO, was to see how far the SMB1 engine could be taken, and to exploit things not done in the original game. For example, making getting hit a requirement, making getting X number of coins a requirement, making dying a requirement...all of these things had absolutely never been handled in the original Mario game. It reminds me a little of some concepts present in the Japanese FDS Super Mario Bros. 2 (the one renamed to Lost Levels), such as having a blooper out of the water and reverse warp zones. This hack basically takes these things to the furthest extreme. Now I think it goes without saying that playing this game without an emulator is completely impossible; the whole one-mistake-in-this-impossible-game-and-it's-game-over thing should make that abundantly clear, coupled with the fact that only experimentation and dying many, many times can reveal how the hell this hack's wacky physics fit into a viable solution. Many, many puzzles involve setting things into place so that Mario doesn't get himself killed as he auto-pilots between a flag pole and castle entrance. There's definitely little sense of reality here; Mario should be smart enough to not walk his dumb self into a pit. Unless Air's storyline is some kind of crossover with Lemmings it's certainly little more than the programmer saying "ah-ha! You've fallen into my trap and now Mario will die!" to the player. Remember Seanbaby bitching about the controls in one game, talking about how he always apologized profusely to VG characters he killed off because they misplaced their trust in him for a quarter but would say "It's your fault; I told you to jump" due to this one game's shit controls? This is kind of the reaction you get from playing Air: the programmer is testing the player using Mario and a screwy digital world as a medium, and there's no sense of immersion that you get in a traditional game. Although did anyone else get claustrophobic playing this hack? That being said, I do think that this type of movie does have some merit as a speedrun. In fact, Genisto's run isn't so much a speedrun as it is an "only run." AFAIK, there's almost no deviation possible from Genisto's actions, and for the most part they're done as fast as they can reasonably be, and I'm convinced that the "slower" times are more for aesthetically showing off than actually wasting time (i.e. revealing those hidden coin blocks to show off blocked passages).