Sega Supporting ROM Hacks Via Steam

[Baloo]

Does anyone know how to actually play custom ROMs in Sega Mega Drive Classics new hub? I don't want to add stuff to the workshop, but I'd love to put some ROMs for other games into the player for my own personal sake. I enjoy using the scanlines and CRT filter that they have in the hub versus the KEGA Fusion emulator.

[NeoVamp]

Does anyone know how to actually play custom ROMs in Sega Mega Drive Classics new hub? I don't want to add stuff to the workshop, but I'd love to put some ROMs for other games into the player for my own personal sake. I enjoy using the scanlines and CRT filter that they have in the hub versus the KEGA Fusion emulator.

From memory..

1. Get an IPS maker/patcher
2. get the rom you use in steam
3. get the rom you want to use in steam
4. tell ips program that steam rom is original unaltered one
5. and that new rom is the hacked one.
6. ips program will compare them and output an ips file
7. use this ips file in steam (if they use ips that is, i have no idea)
8. the steam emulator will use the ips with the steam rom and change it into the new rom you want to play.


Works the same with the Retron 5 btw.

[Sik]

Nope, their emulator only supports full ROMs.

I've seen somebody upload ROMs in the Workshop as private (meaning only he would be able to use them), so for now that seems to be the workaround I suppose.

[asmikace]

It's sad to see it's going downhill now, though.

Several users exploiting the lack of verification in order to upload games which have no relation to the Sega packages. This is going to result in bad things IMO, especially if Sega doesn't do something to moderate this kind of crap.

Some hackers are also annoyed by the fact that people have been uploading their work without asking for permission.

A few days and the things seem to be going out of control already. I hope Sega find a way to start banning people who upload ROMs of other games or even use the hub to try to sell repros (yes, there are people doing it).

Not to derail the thread but Steam has a bad quality control on user submitted content especially with Steam Greenlight with people uploading other people's creations and even actual released games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYW3t1yBflI

[Sik]

So they sold 350,000 games so far after doing this:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2...game_sales.php

[The Jackal]

So they sold 350,000 games so far after doing this:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2...game_sales.php

They deserve it. One of the best decisions they've made as a whole in recent years.

[NeoVamp]

I can't help but wonder if Sega's current embracing of their past was somehow affected by the way a lot of us filled in their recent survey.
I personally showed a lot of love for the SMS/MD era, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

[Baloo]

I'd love for them to add new games. I know many people would rather use an emulator, but I enjoy supporting the company, especially when they put out a cool new interface like this one.

[Barone]

So they sold 350,000 games so far after doing this:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2...game_sales.php

This is awesome.

I think Sega Europe deserves a lot of credit for this. Not only for the Sega Mod Hub initiative, but they had also promoted that giveaway campaign recently and it included a few Sega Mega Drive Classics games in it, one in each round of the giveaway.
Certainly not a coincidence but a well executed campaign IMO.

[chilled]

read the thread.

Is this killing off romhacking, .ips sharing and hacked rom sharing for non steam users?

Some of these hacks are not on RH (not even Ecco rev1 for that matter, which can only be downloaded, as a full rom hack, from the soronline Ecco equivalent Barone pointed some pages ago)

[Barone]

Is this killing off romhacking, .ips sharing and hacked rom sharing for non steam users?

No, it's not. Also, Mega Drive hacking represents a very small percentage of the content in romhacking.net.

BUT it may affect a few things in the MD hacking scene in the long run IMO.
For an example, some hackers may prefer to focus on games supported by the Mega Drive hub if they're looking for street credit and/or a way to get a stronger feedback about their work while other may prefer to avoid such games from now on since people having being uploading hacks to those games regardless the permission of the hacker.

There's no need to worry about anything right now though, time will tell us the exact impact of this move by Sega.

[midnightrider]

There's just too many hacks in the wild for RomHacking to know about. I don't know where all the Streets of Rage series hacks are, but a good number, unknown to RH yet, are at Streets of Rage Online. Tons of Sonic hacks not at RH are at Sonic Retro as well.

[chilled]

I thought it was to the hacker to upload his work onto RH.

I wish there was some place were most hacks were (either ROMs or patches), and it's not a steam-account dependent hub that's likely going to get all the past & future hacks. That's why there are non-steam versions of PC games on torrent sites.

Where will all these new hacks go once the hub disapears? That's what I'm afraid of. That and having to install steam just to download these roms, and not even having the ability to back them up on my own PC.