Super Mario Land gets a fan-made color patch

[NoNAND]

​

Developed and released by Nintendo as a launch title on the well-known Game Boy way back in 1989, Super Mario Land was a massive success for the company. This popular side-scroller game sold a whopping 18 million copies worldwide, eventually leading to the creation of two other sequels; yet neither of the two ever received an official remastered edition, despite being re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console. However, a ROM hacker has been able to add colours to Mario's first adventure on Nintendo's classic handheld console, thus letting fans re-experience it in a new, vivid and bright way!

"Super Mario Land DX" has been released on ROMHacking .net by toruzz. As previously mentioned, the patch changes how the game feels and looks by adding color not just to the environment, but also to Mario and his pesky enemies, giving it an overall modern and fresh look. While the removal of the old monochrome look may upset some fans, others may find it worthwhile to relive your nostalgia in a new way, or perhaps it will be a good opportunity to play the game if you have never done so before.

**************************************
**** SUPER MARIO LAND DX ****
**** v1.0 23/04/2019 - toruzz ****
**************************************

WHAT IS THIS?
-------------
Super Mario Land DX is a romhack of the original Super
Mario Land for the GameBoy that turns the game into a
GameBoy Color game. It adds color and changes the
graphics to give the game a modern look.


HOW DO I APPLY THIS PATCH?
--------------------------
You have to use an IPS patching program (e.g. Lunar IPS)
on a Super Mario Land (W) (V1.0) ROM. Please make sure it's
the one with CRC32 90776841.


WHAT IF MY ROM IS V1.1?
-----------------------
It won't work.


DOES THIS WORK ON REAL HARDWARE?
--------------------------------
Yes!


I FOUND A BUG!
--------------
Please make sure this isn't present in the original game!
If you actually found one, please let me know.


SPECIAL THANKS
--------------
Martin Allen for making Land Forger. You saved me hours!
JuananBow, Dragoonglue and Marc Max for betatesting and
their valuable feedback.


DISCLAIMER
----------
I'm NOT responsible for the use of the program and/or
the information distributed. Use it at your own risk.
I'm NOT affiliated nor endorsed by Nintendo.
Registered trademarks are of their respective owners.

You will need a Super Mario Land v1.0 ROM in order to apply this patch. Further instructions and download links can be found below:

Source
Source 2
Download

 

[Lostbhoy]

If the title screens anything to go by this looks impressive, thanks!

 

[ShadowOne333]

The hack's been out since April 22nd.
Still though, you are missing the pivotal source of it:

Release page:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4477/

News page in Romhacking.net:
https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=28352

 

[NoNAND]

The hack's been out since April 22nd.
Still though, you are missing the pivotal source of it:

Release page:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4477/

News page in Romhacking.net:
https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=28352

so the thing we that no one has mentioned anything about it here.
besides it was worth pointing out anyway.

 

[FAST6191]

I thought the game got such a hack some years ago. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1187/ being an example of a hardware compatible one, classic "colorizer" ones being even older.
Does this do anything notably different to that one?

Others reading a notable handful of games have got such hacks these days. If you go through the likes of https://www.romhacking.net/?page=hacks&platform=8&perpage=100&startpage=2 you will see a few, though some will be for those games with a GBA bonus mode to have the GBA bonus but also have the GBC palettes as said modes were typically tied to a mode to compensate for lack of backlight on the original GBA screen. Anyway color and DX * are good things to be looking for when searching for such things. Such things are well worth checking out if you liked the original game, or indeed instead of playing the original game if it is one you have not done before or are looking to redo.

*for the unaware the gameboy got a successor in the form of the gameboy color. Quite a few games then got remastered (for some measure of the word https://www.pagetable.com/?p=28 ) for said GBC with some bug fixes and a shiny colour scheme. Many of these games got DX (short for deluxe) in the title to differentiate them from their older forms. Some hackers subsequently adopted the naming scheme it seems, several of these hacks also fixing bugs, slowdowns, some graphical quirks and more besides..

 

[KyleHyde]

I thought the game got such a hack some years ago. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1187/ being an example of a hardware compatible one, classic "colorizer" ones being even older.
Does this do anything notably different to that one?

Unlike that one (which I also recall seeing before, though never got around to using it myself), it colors everything and the sprites are edited/changed, which helps make the enemies (and Mario) actually look like what they're supposed to be in the official artwork. It also makes each world look better/unique, instead of the plain white empty void most of the original game had.