So, you’d like to play a Super Mario World romhack on your PC but are unsure how to get there? The process is a little bit involved and you might be slightly confused at first, but once you understand the steps you need to take, it’s actually quite simple. Essentially, you’ll need four things:
- A clean, unedited rom of Super Mario World. Please note that you’ll need a copy of the American release of the game, the original Japanese version won’t work. The file you’ll get will be either in a .smc or a .sfc format, either one is fine. If you’re not sure how to obtain such a rom file, try this link. Be aware that this is the one part of the process that is ever so slightly illegal (not that anyone is really ever going to make a fuss over the copyright of a game released in 1991).
- The patch of the romhack you’d like to play. These patches usually come in a .bps format nowadays, though if you ever stumble across an old hack, you might come across .ips patches as well. The process is the same for either file format though.
- A program called Floating IPS. You use this program to apply the patch of the romhack you’d like to play to the unedited rom of Super Mario World. This process is simple enough: You open the program, click “Apply Patch” and then select the patch of the romhack and your copy of Super Mario World in that order. The program will then ask you where you’d like to save the romhack it just created. After selecting a folder and exiting the program, you’ll find a new file there, which is the playable version of the hack! It’ll be in either .smc or .sfc format, depending on the copy of the clean Super Mario World rom you used. Note that you do not need to download a copy of Super Mario World each time you patch a new hack, as the copy you just used is still perfectly intact.
- The last thing you’ll need is a SNES emulator. Personally, I use Snes9X for its ability to emulate older hacks which would crash on other emulators. If you’re using Snes9X, I’d advise you to first set up your controls under “Input / Input Configuration”. In Super Mario World, both X and Y are run buttons, B is a normal jump, A is a spin jump, L and R allow you to scroll the camera left and right, Select drops your reserve item, and Start pauses and unpauses the game. If you want to, you can also configure some other actions under “Input / Customize Hotkeys”, such as the save state and save load buttons, fast forward, and rewind (on page 2 of the window). I also suggest ticking the checkbox in “Emulation / Hacks / Separate Echo Buffer from RAM”, which allows you to play some (but not all!) old hacks without experiencing crashes. Finally, you can play your hack by accessing “File / Load Game”.
I hope you’ll have fun! If you’re unsure about which hack you should play first, I’d recommend either A Plumber for all Seasons (if you’d like to play a recent, well-designed hack that’s also quite friendly to beginners), Super Mario Balloon World (for a really cool look at the original game through a unique lens), or The Second Reality Project Reloaded (if you already have some platforming experience and would like to play a sort of “Super Mario World Plus”). You can also check out my hacks section for my thoughts on other SMW romhacks of varying difficulty.