Super Mario RPG: A Mod Backports The Switch Remake's Extras To The SNES ROM

Three years after the Switch remake, two modders have made the journey in reverse. AnAxemRanger and Pidgezero_one have released Super Mario RPG Demake, a patch that backports the modern version's additions into the 1996 SNES ROM. The project is available as version 1.0 on the authors' GitHub repository, as a patch file in IPS format.

The backported content is meatier than it sounds: new weapons such as the Wonder Chomp, extra equipment and accessories, postgame boss fights and rematches against main story opponents, a beefed-up Teamwork Pin ability, fast travel options for the longer areas, previously unseen cutscenes and faster dialogue when holding the B button. Enough to replay the original campaign with the balance and bonuses of the 2023 version.

Cuts were needed to fit on the cartridge. Squeezing all of that into the limits of a SNES ROM took sacrifices: some tutorials, the opening cinematic and several narrative scenes were removed to free up room for the new code. It is a deliberate trade-off, typical of romhacking on 16-bit hardware, where every addition is paid for in bytes. The patch requires a clean ROM of the US version of the game, which the authors do not and will not provide.

Applying an IPS patch needs no complicated tooling: an online utility such as Rom Patcher JS does the job straight in the browser, taking the ROM on one side and the IPS file on the other. The result then runs on any decent SNES emulator, or on original hardware through a flash cartridge.

Source: Time Extension