What this hack does:
This hack attempts to increase the usage of the WAND and to improve the overall gameplay of the beloved cult classic Little Nemo: The Dream Master. This is accomplished by giving the player the WAND weapon from the start, streamlining the action-platforming aspects of the gameplay, and reducing the cumbersome animal-riding parts of the game. Various re-balancing adjustments and improvements have been made to the game as well.
List of features, additions and changes:
1) WAND activation! Nemo can now use the WAND weapon from the beginning!
2) Brand new bosses at the end of level 5 & 6!
3) Nemo can now jump slightly higher. He can now reach up to 3 blocks vertically without the help of the frog suit!
4) Nemo now has a max of 4 hit points. This should reduce the difficulty of the game in the early stages.
5) All new levels! The amount of changes to the levels vary from level to level. From minor edits/polish to complete overhauls.
6) Adjustments to enemies hit points. Example, Airplanes and Balloons in level 3 can now be killed, etc.
7) Added more platforming challenges.
8) Added many challenges that require the usage of the WAND.
9) Added many secrets and bonus areas. These areas are not required to pass each level.
10) Streamlined many levels from the confusing and annoying key-fetching quests to more of an action-platformer.
11) Reduced and streamlined the animal-riding aspects of the game. Removed all instances where the need to constantly change animals are required.
12) The height of jumping out of water is now consistent and always at the highest.
13) Various graphical changes to give the levels a better look and feel according to the level's theme.
14) Restored censored contents.
15) Swapped music between levels 5 & 7.
16) Bosses hit points have been increased to provide a more challenging boss battles experience.
17) The difficulty of level 8, Nightmare Land, has been ramped up to the max. Take advantage of the extra 1-ups!
18) Cap of 9 max lives is now removed. Nemo can now have a stock of more than 9 lives.
19) Various texts changes in attempt to modernize and to make the story fit with the early WAND activation.
20) Minor adjustments to enemy hit points.
21) Other various minor edits and adjustments.
22) Changed the "Morning Star" to the "Wonderful Wand".
Special thanks:
A very special thanks to spiiin and his amazing CadEditor!
Little Nemo - The Dream Master - A Wonderful Wand Edition
-= Complete hack v1.7 =-
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Patching instructions:
Apply 'Little Nemo Dream Master - A Wonderful Wand Edition - v1.7.ips' directly to 'Little Nemo - The Dream Master (U) [!].nes - GoodNES 3.14'
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-= Other Patches =-
-= Older Version =-
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Patching instructions:
Apply 'Little Nemo Dream Master - A Wonderful Wand Edition - v1.0.ips' directly to 'Little Nemo - The Dream Master (U) [!].nes - GoodNES 3.14'
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-= WAND Only =-
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Morning Star activation only patch for the original game:
Apply 'Little Nemo - The Dream Master - Morning Star Activation Only Patch.ips' directly to 'Little Nemo - The Dream Master (U) [!].nes - GoodNES 3.14'
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What this hack does:
---------------------------------------------------------
This hack attempts to increase the usage of the WAND and to improve the overall gameplay of the beloved cult classic Little Nemo - The Dream Master. This is accomplished by giving the player the WAND weapon from the start, streamlining the action-platforming aspects of the gameplay, and reducing the cumbersome animal-riding parts of the game. Various re-balancing adjustments and improvements have been made to the game as well.
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Version 1.7 changes:
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1) Minor tile adjustments in level 7 and 8-1.
Version 1.6 changes:
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1) Slight change to level 6 Boss.
2) Minor tile placements and graphics update.
3) Minor background graphics update.
Version 1.5 changes:
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1) Brand new boss at the end of level 6!
2) Added new areas and adjustments to existing areas to create a better overall experience to the player.
3) Adjustments to enemies hit points. Example, Airplanes and Balloons in level 3 can now be killed, etc.
4) Bosses hit points have been increased to provide a more challenging boss battles experience.
5) Upgrades and various bug fixes.
6) Various graphical refinements and fixes.
7) Various text fixes and updates.
8) New areas that require super expert skills to achieve!
List of features, additions and changes:
---------------------------------------------------------
1) WAND activation! Nemo can now use the WAND weapon from the beginning!
2) Nemo can now jump slightly higher. He can now reach up to 3 blocks vertically without the help of the frog suit!
3) Nemo now has a max of 4 hit points. This should reduce the difficulty of the game in the early stages.
4) All new levels! The amount of changes to the levels vary from level to level. From minor edits/polish to complete overhauls.
5) Added more platforming challenges.
6) Added many challenges that require the usage of the WAND.
7) Added many secrets and bonus areas. These areas are not required to pass each level.
8) Streamlined many levels from the confusing and annoying key-fetching quests to more of an action-platformer.
9) Reduced and streamlined the animal-riding aspects of the game. Removed all instances where the need to constantly change animals are required.
10) The height of jumping out of water is now consistent and always at the highest.
11) Various graphical changes to give the levels a better look and feel according to the level's theme.
12) Restored censored contents.
13) Swapped music between levels 5 & 7.
14) Boss surprises!
15) The difficulty of level 8, Nightmare Land, has been ramped up to the max. Take advantage of the extra 1-ups!
16) Cap of 9 max lives is now removed. Nemo can now have a stock of more than 9 lives.
17) Various texts changes in attempt to modernize and to make the story fit with the early WAND activation.
18) Minor adjustments to enemy hit points.
19) Other various minor edits and adjustments.
20) Changed the "Morning Star" to the "Wonderful Wand".
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Tools and resources used:
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CadEditor, FCEUX, Cygnus Hex Editor, nestopia, everdrive, retroUSB AVS, Tile Layer Pro, thealmightyguru.com, and romhacking.net.
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Special thanks:
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I'd like to give a very special thanks to spiiin and his amazing CadEditor! Without it, I would not have been able to complete this project.
Thank you very much!! :D
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My story behind this hack:
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This a hack of Little Nemo for the NES. I called it "A Wonderful Wand Edition", which is a reference to what they called the 'Morning Star' weapon in its original comic/book I believe.
The main point of the hack should be obvious by the title: a more focused usage of the WAND weapon. The reason is that the WAND weapon was introduced very late into the game and even then, the amount of opporunities you are given to use the WAND was very little also. In stage 8, when you are finally given the WAND, you are under the impression that you'll be using the WAND weapon quite a bit for the enemies. Instead, the game continues to throw obstacles at you in which you are required to continue using animals to overcome, further reducing the usage of the WAND to just merely at the bosses. This hack attempts to fix this by giving the player access to the WAND from the beginning, and also reworked the levels to utilize it much more than before.
Besides the addition of the early WAND activation, this hack also attempts to streamline the levels to give the player a better overall experience. In the original game, many levels had overly tedious keys fetching quests. Stage 5 was the biggest offender as there are no checkpoints, and each time you die, you were sent all the way back to the beginning, and the player would need to go through the entire basement area just to get the Bumblebee again. This hack eliminates that and reworks the level with an interesting twist. Other confusing aspects of the game has also been eliminated/changed such as confusing layouts and strange platform/item placements. Several levels has also been streamlined to play more like an action platformer without the key fetching quests and/or the overdone animal-riding. I've also expanded MANY empty/unused areas of the game to give each level a more 'full' experience.
Each level's difficulty has now been adjusted and is now incremented fairly. I've made the levels more about challenge of platforming/WAND-attacking skills instead of cheap hits and/or deaths. There are many bonuses/secrets in the game that will require advance skills in the game, and challenges will be pushed to the maximum in Nightmare Land.
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Acknowledgements and Credits:
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Capcom for the fun game.
Nintendo for licensing the game in the US.
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2017.9.20 v1.0 by 8-bit fan / 8.bit.fan / butz
2017.10.15 v1.5 by 8-bit fan / 8.bit.fan / butz
2017.10.21 v1.6 by 8-bit fan / 8.bit.fan / butz
2017.10.22 v1.7 by 8-bit fan / 8.bit.fan / butz
Little Nemo - The Dream Master (U) [!].nes
CRC32: 71D868C4
MD5: 7D774124D8FE1ED4A21F6CC8A34AA800
SHA-1: 1FC0EE2265A49974F99DFFA92802C2331DE86D93
SHA-256: 6D9958DC0D3B72BAA852D6FCD74FCBA94E6E8B1EBDD00EF9C0437FA9DA0A3AB3
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