Sega Mega Drive ROM Hacks
Breathing New Life to Old Classics
Why ROM Hacks?
The Sega Mega Drive has always been one of my favorite consoles, and I’ve long dreamed of creating a game for it. While tools like the SGDK and Scorpion Engine offer streamlined and modernized ways to develop games for the platform, I chose the ROM hacking route to dive deeply into the console's inner workings.
This decision required learning 68k assembly, working with RAM, VRAM, and ROM manipulation, and sending instructions directly to the VDP, among other technical challenges. By gaining hands-on experience with these low-level systems, I not only developed a deeper understanding of the Mega Drive hardware but also prepared myself to write custom 68k assembly wrapper functions when I eventually create my own game.
