iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 29/09/2026

Tuesday, time for a new video! Super Castlevania IV, for the SNES, has a lot of slowdown. My FastROM patch takes almost all of it away. Full comparison video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4s6... Patch: github.com/VitorVilela7...

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 27/09/2026

Hi all, the beta version of the JAPANESE Super R-Type SA-1 patch is now available for all Patreon supporters. If you'd like to early test the versions, learn more about the differences or just support my work, consider taking a look: www.patreon.com/vitorvilela/...

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 26/09/2026

Confess I never seen RAM usage getting 100% on Windows

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 24/09/2026

SimCity SA-1 now runs 5.93x faster than the original version. Still not enough for me. I'm rewriting the simulation now with SA-1 native opcodes to get the 10x speed up I promised. Also Japanese support is work in progress.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 22/09/2026

Axelay (SNES) is a great shmup that slows down a lot. My FastROM patch takes almost all of it away. NEW comparison video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhdX... Axelay patch 1.1 is out: github.com/VitorVilela7...

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 15/09/2026

Important news. One month ago, I moved to new apartment at São Paulo city. I am living in a rented house and on a more expensive region. I used to live in Taboão da Serra, where the quality of life was inferior but the living costs were minimal. Sounds a risky move, no? But -- net effects:

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 13/09/2026

This is Super Metroid on the SA-1 chip. No music yet, but SFX plays, opening works. Impressive that even with SFX only the opening is dark and the ambience hits hard. Been working the entire weekend on this (among with SimCity multi-languages). Hope to share more scenes soon.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 12/09/2026

The new tooling makes SA-1 analysis way more aggressive. 64 GB pagefile to compensate my lack of RAM (current DDR5 prices on Brazil are too much for me right now) - but I'm super glad that it's working. Super Metroid SA-1 will happen.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 12/09/2026

Gradius III SA-1 is one my most proud ROM hacks. Zero slowdown. Gameplay fluid as a rocket. You can either play it unlocked (60 FPS and harder) or play the Origin version (60 FPS with speed controls for fair difficulty). It's available for download and works on real hardware.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 12/09/2026

3 days with non-stop rain in São Paulo?? This weekend is gonna be fun with SA-1 projects...

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 11/09/2026

Small SimCity SA-1 update. Added "OPTIONS" menu which you can choose your preferred mouse speed and... surprise, the game's language =) I already got English, German and France partially supported, imported from the European versions.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 07/09/2026

While the beta 2 had a focus on mouse support, I started improvement some screens like the overview/map for a smoother experience.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 07/09/2026

Hi everyone!!! SimCity SA-1 beta 2 has been released for all supporters. This version has full mouse support with gesture controls and quality of life improvements, including faster menus, maps and pricing indicators.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 07/09/2026

I know some people has the urge to release things as soon as possible, to not lose traction, the moment, but the value of the work is exactly the attention you gave while you were learning and the experience you want to give to the player. This is not negotiable for me.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 07/09/2026

4. What happens if SA-1 erases a value between a read-and-write operation on the SNES side? 5. What happens to the SRAM if the game crashes? 6. What if the user destroys the entire city accidentally? ...And much more.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 07/09/2026

The most important aspect for me, as a ROM hacker, is attention to detail. 1. What happens if you unplug the mouse mid-game play? 2. What if mouse is on port #1 and not #2? 3. What if the user uses joypad's dpad and mouse at the same time?

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 07/09/2026

I don't recall a SMW hack like this 🤔

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 05/09/2026

So here is a great finding from Twitter/@ChrisRetro1986, holding L/R avoids the nuclear meltdown even with SA-1 running simulation in parallel. Awesome to have you all testing the new game. By the way, as you can see you can place multiple RCI zones and destroy many things at once via mouse!

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 04/09/2026

Gambiarra is such an underrated word. We should spread it everywhere. BTW ROM hacking is pura gambiarra -- we make hijacks and write code around them. Specially if you make a JSL-with-RTS!

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 31/08/2026

SimCity with gestures control - Big powers, big responsibilities This will probably need its own warning pop-up... and probably custom sound too 😅🚜

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 31/08/2026

SimCity SA-1 now has gesture controls. You all know me about my SA-1 work, but it's not just about accelerating games. It's about improving games to make they even more AMAZING than what they already are. Place a lot of roads, parks, wires & more with your mouse!

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 30/08/2026

Submenus are also optimized for mouse. In the tax menu, you can use the mouse to select the funding and tax rates. Each button has now its hitbox which can be clicked, yet the normal way via joypad continues to work. Use the way you prefer.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 30/08/2026

Here is the a quick look on how SimCity behaves with mouse. You can move around menus faster and place tiles with the left button and scroll around the map using the right button. Joypad continues working normally on port #1 or #2 as additional input.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 30/08/2026

Fun side effect of the SA-1 SimCity: The nuclear meltdown scenario is now *impossible* to avoid - you barely load the city and the powerplant is gone already. On the OG version, you had a few seconds to quickly stop simulation and destroy all powerplants. No longer possible.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 27/08/2026

I got mouse working on SimCity SA-1. Now time for gestures control. I can sense the game getting as fun as SimCity 4 to build huge roads or an entire residential zone with 2-3 clicks via drag&hold =)

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 23/08/2026

Here is a quick playthrough of SimCity SA-1. I plan the city with simulation paused and then resume simulation when done. The experience is pretty smooth - you see your city evolving at real time organically. The feedback is instant and organic.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 23/08/2026

SimCity SA-1 makes the map generation process much faster. From over 10 seconds to less than 2 seconds, picking and generating a map is a much better experience.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 23/08/2026

But current approach doesn't work well with islands, I'll think on something better for them.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 23/08/2026

So the terrain generation is always the same no matter the map size: 120x100. Then I repeat the lake+tree algorithm, apply continuation on the rivers and smooth everything out. Left: Map #1011, original. Right: Map #1011, 2x expanded.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 23/08/2026

SimCity, making 2x bigger maps. Original Map #061 on the left. Simply re-generating the terrain would yield a completely different result because the RNG used for the other lines would be consumed earlier. So I generate the 120x100 map first and then expand to the bigger one.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 22/08/2026

Ha! I'm the best level designer That was a gift from my wife :) this reminds a lot of Lunar Magic!

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 20/08/2026

So, here is a thing. SimCity fails to initialize one of the variables used to generate map's seed. If you enter map generation screen immediately, map #000 is shown (left). If you pick another number, generate, then pick #000 again and generate, it's another map (right) 😮

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 19/08/2026

SimCity has France, Germany, Japan, USA and "Europe" versions. And it's possible to create a version that has all of the languages together... and maybe more 👀🇧🇷

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 18/08/2026

Hi everyone. I'm happy to share that I was able to make SimCity SA-1 stable and running. I made a beta release available for all Patreons and once confirmed no bugs it's gonna be available for everyone else.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 04/08/2026

And finally, game rendering: PPU updates, VRAM uploads, positions handling. And once V-Blank is done, it updates object animations to ensure they run at 60 FPS. The airplane, ship, Bowser, tornados, they run smoothly even if simulation or UI itself is slowier. Impressive.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 04/08/2026

One thread takes care of user interface. Every button press, action taken, pop-ups, warnings, text. Runs at 15 FPS. Another thread handles simulation. City growth, traffic, everything complex. Takes several frames to finish a round.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 04/08/2026

SimCity has 3 different threads and it's so interesting how they interact with each other. The V-Blank (yes, screen blanking/refresher) is the main coordinator. It decides which main thread will run (think of a simple scheduler) and later does the main animations.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 02/08/2026

What is helping to understand the game better: instead of static analyzers or debug assisted playthrough, I'm also building tools that builds a graph-like to understand the cyclic complexity of each algorithm and the interactions between them.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 26/07/2026

In other news, my LG C1 TV is gone after about 4 years =( The panel has short circuit and turning it on makes the TV to flicker to about 3-4 seconds and *bam*. LG support basically told me to buy a new panel (90% price of a new TV) and there's no courtesy for me. Too bad.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 10/03/2026

SMW hacking. I never seen so much potential for new tools. With the advances and knowledge we have now, we can create tools that pushes creativity to infinity. I'm very excited!

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 25/02/2026

Did you know that the SNES sound system supports surround sound? However, the current surround tech in our TVs and even on emulators doesn't produce the intended sound. This includes for both hand-made surround or tech like Dolby Surround (e.g. Samurai Showdown). Sounds a lot of potential.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 23/02/2026

Every day is a new opportunity for growth. For new projects. For continuation. Time can pass, but what you've learned stays. I'm back, everyone, and I hope you all look forward for what will be coming in the future. The future will be great.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 10/10/2025

By the way, which comparison video is your favorite?

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 10/03/2025

I finally got a new PC! A laptop as always. I have great expectations for this new hardware. By the way It's the first time I'm using Windows 11, any hints for someone that is been using Windows 10?

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 17/09/2024

The ASM patch is already 1.8 MB big.

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 17/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #6,283,019! Hue hue hue!

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Vitor Vilela @hackervilela.sneslab.net · 16/09/2024

For reasons I can't understand yet, applying the SA-1 patch makes two scenarios marked as completed automatically

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