Download Super Mario Kart Alternate Tracks ROM Hack

****Super Mario Kart Alternate Tracks:****

I've been a fan of Super Mario Kart since I first played it in the early/mid nineties.  Late last year I 
happened upon a romhack called Super Mario Kart: Pro Edition and was very impressed at the quality (though 
I was humbled by its difficulty).  It inspired me to start my own hack of the tracks, with a focus on 
maintaining the feel of the original game.

Every track has been replaced by one I've created completely myself, including the Battle Mode courses.  
I've tried to avoid putting in overly complicated or silly courses like some hacks of this game have, but 
at the same time I've snuck in a couple of new ideas.

The AI works in all courses, and offers a challenge, but is far from unbeatable.

****IPS Application****

This IPS patch is meant to be applied to an unaltered, unheadered Super Mario Kart NTSC-U rom.  Applying 
this patch to anything else will not be likely to work.  Most commonly the file will be titled 
"Super Mario Kart (U) [!].smc"

If you are not familiar, or having troubles with applying an IPS patch see romhacking.net for help/IPS 
patchers.

****Utilities****

I used the following utilities to create this hack, all of which are available from romhacking.net.

MAKE - For all your custom track making needs.  I used version 0.10 (the Japanese build as the English build 
crashes each time I save).

MKItems - in order to edit the frequency of certain items appearing, for balance.

TileLayer Pro - Just to edit the opening screen, changing "Nintendo" to "Elricorico".

****Changelog****

Mostly for my own records, but just in case anyone is interested in the process and time I took.

VERSION		DATE			CHANGES

1.0		February 17, 2010	Very minor touch ups, and prepared readme file.  Official Release

RC1 		February 9, 2010 	Cosmetic touch ups, bug fixes to MC3 (finish line bug/positioning
					 bug), altered item probabilities, final 2 Battle Mode tracks in. 
					Simple graphic hack of opening screen added. 
beta 1 		February 3, 2010 	All cups complete, still 2 Battle Mode tracks not in, but it was 
					time to send it to a tester. In its current condition it is quite 
					fun (in my opinion). 
none 		February 2, 2010 	Progressing still, with only 2 Special Cup tracks and 2 Battle Mode 
					tracks remaining before I could call it a "beta" version. First Mario
					Circuit 1 was entirely replaced in the meantime. 
alpha 3 	January 22, 2010 	Completed courses for Star Cup, plus some touch-ups and bug fixes for
					all previous tracks. Now have a better understanding of the AI zones 
					and the effects they have on keeping track of the player's position. 
alpha 2 	January 11, 2010 	Flower Cup courses completed and ready for testing. Had some 
					difficulties with laps being missed on 2 of the courses, but it 
					should be hashed out now. 
alpha 1 	January 9, 2010 	Mushroom Cup courses completed and ready for testing. Should not 
					hange much except for fine tuning. 

****Credits****

karterfreak for the inspiration, make sure you check out Super Mario Kart: Pro Edition if you haven't already.
tiohector for his youtube videos on using MAKE, I would never have gotten anywhere without them.
Puresabe and Dirtbag for their work on MAKE.
smkdan for MK Items.
SnowBro for Tile Layer Pro.

****Contact****

If you have any comments/questions/suggestions feel free to shoot an email to [email protected]