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1[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/GarrysMod https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/garrymod_8994.png]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:300:[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog The Mod]] is [[Franchise/StarWars strong with]] this [[VideoGame/{{Rayman}} one.]]]]
3%%
4->"Some say that you can't improve on perfection. The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' mod, ''Beyond Chaos'', proves you can. Here, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Yoshi]] is the new king of Figaro, and [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] is his twin brother."
5-->-- '''[[https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/12/how-randomizers-are-breathing-new-life-into-old-games/ Scott White]]''', ''Ars Technica''
6
7Just because the game designers made a good game doesn't mean you can't make it even better. Or at least different.
8
9Game modifications, or "mods" for short, are any alterations to a game that were not made by the game's license holder. They can be unofficial {{Expansion Pack}}s (new maps or new equipment in the same game), completely unrelated games that merely use the source game's software as a backbone ("total conversions"), or just quality-of-life adjustments to the original, such as {{Fan Translation}}s, bug fixes, or [[TheCameo character cameo appearances]] (which can often lead to NinjaPirateZombieRobot scenarios). (Or, if the game includes any attractive women or men, [[VideoGamePerversityPotential nude patches]].) When it comes to unofficial cameo appearances, a humorous tradition--usually when a particular game is either first released or is made open to modification--involves that of porting characters such as those of CJ from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', Franchise/{{Shrek}}, and WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends, though the latter prompted at least one [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/15/18625132/skyrim-mod-thomas-the-tank-engine-fallout-nexus-mattel cease-and-desist order]] from Creator/{{Mattel}} who owns the rights to the ''Thomas'' franchise.
10
11Some games are deliberately designed to be easy to modify, including a "construction set" of sorts to build levels, weapons, etc., and whole modding communities spring up as a result. However, some types of mods are discouraged, or even cracked down on, for good reason: If it's a multiplayer game, a mod in the hands of a player but not their opponent usually means an unfair advantage. (Some GodModders will use these anyway and hope they aren't caught.)
12That's why multiplayer games are usually exempt from mods or, if running on a modular engine, deliberately designed to be hard to mod (example is that most online multiplayer of any Source engine games has a "Pure" server settings which disables any mods including texture replacements).
13
14A few mods take advantage of content that was programmed into the game in the early stages, then scrapped from the final design. Unless space is a big issue, the programmers usually leave all this content DummiedOut in the game's code. This leaves an opening for a modder to re-introduce an access point and enjoy the missing content... albeit at their own risk, since it's usually unfinished and untested. A safer and more generally successful approach is to overhaul the graphics. PC hardware becomes more advanced over time, making it capable of handling more detailed graphics; this helps keep an older game looking new and fresh and thus helping to keep it alive among the community, as well as helping to prevent the game from being overwhelmed by current-gen games.
15
16It's much easier to mod a computer game than a hard-coded console game, but creative adjustments to a save file (and, with the most recent generation of games, console hard drive content) and/or use of a VideoGame/GameShark allow determined amateur programmers to mod with the best of them. Most often, however, mods of console games are edits of the ROM files used in UsefulNotes/{{Emulation}}. These tend to be referred to as "ROM hacks" and are usually considered a separate scene from mods, as running a mod is intended behavior of the original software especially in the case of games that offer an official avenue for modding, or alternatively, as mods are designed for games on open platforms such as the Platform/IBMPersonalComputer and Platform/AppleMacintosh, while playing a ROM hack requires patching the game's binaries (or performing some other kind of hack) and copying said binaries to a flash cart or burned to a disc.[[note]]And in the case of more recent systems, performing some kind of modification to the consoles for them to run unsigned or modified code[[/note]]
17
18Early ROM hacks were largely present in Famiclone consoles and cartridges, especially where the said system wasn't officially released. Cartridges contained graphics hacks very often. The most common ones were those where the main character was replaced by [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]], passing them off as an "installment" in the ''Mario'' series such as in the case of the now-infamous ''VideoGame/SevenGrandDad''. For more on this side of things, see UnlicensedGame (which are more often than not hacks, though more ambitious examples lean closer to {{homebrew|VideoGames}}).
19
20Unfortunately, game mods are probably the biggest example of SturgeonsLaw. In the mid-oughts, a great many ROM hacks consisted of little else but tons of offensive and poorly drawn graphic hacks like profanity-laden graffiti, buckets of {{Gorn}}, nudity, and outright pornography, and (just to offend anybody who wasn't offended yet) swastikas, racial slurs, and pro-KKK propaganda. Other ROM hacks are made with the intention of increasing the game's difficulty, and depending on the creator's ideas of how to accomplish that, it can result in the mod being NintendoHard and/or laden with FakeDifficulty, which may make them appealing to expert players but probably not to a mass audience. Most modding communities have very little moderation or quality control, save for a few that went on QualityByPopularVote. In addition, redundancy is a bit of a problem as well -- a lot of mods might accomplish similar things.
21
22As mentioned earlier, computer games are much easier to modify than console games. As such, PC gamers will often list mods as a reason why PC games are [[MediaNotes/PCVsConsole clearly superior to their console counterparts]], despite the aforementioned SturgeonsLaw.
23
24Official responses to game mods vary from company to company. Some [[ApprovalOfGod welcome them with open arms,]] some ignore them, and some [[ScrewedByTheLawyers call for their lawyers as soon as they catch wind of them]], especially if the mod creator(s) are profiting from their work.
25
26See also RuleZero, PopularGameVariant, SelfImposedChallenge, and VideoGameRandomizer. Sub-trope to FanGame. When mods start to eclipse the vanilla game in popularity, it's ComeForTheGameStayForTheMods.
27
28Some of these even have their own work pages on this Wiki; see GameModIndex.
29----
30!!Here are examples of the popular modded games among the modding community. Feel free to add in a game and some description if its community endorses it enough:
31
32!!Example subpages:
33[[index]]
34* GameMod/RolePlayingGames
35[[/index]]
36
37!!Other examples:
38[[foldercontrol]]
39
40[[folder:Action-Adventure]]
41* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
42** The ''Zelda'' games have a VideoGameRandomizer, a mod that shuffles up all item locations and sometimes a whole lot more. [[https://www.google.com/amp/s/kotaku.com/what-happens-when-you-randomize-the-legend-of-zelda-1758777271/amp Kotaku called the first game]] "one of the best {{roguelike}}s in recent memory". Full randomizers exist for [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI both]] [[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink NES]] games, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' ([[VideoGame/ALinkToThePastRandomizer page]]), ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' ([[VideoGame/OcarinaOfTimeRandomizer page]]), ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap Minish Cap]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]].''
43** There are several mods for the original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI''; the best-known is probably [[https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/10/ Zelda Challenge: Outlands]].
44** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'''s mods ''Parallel Worlds'' (which began as the demo "Tower of the Triforce", and has an updated, slightly easier version known as ''Parallel Remodel'') and ''Goddess of Wisdom'', among others. Made possible with Hyrule Magic and Black Magic editing programs.
45** [=ZethN64=]'s ''Ura Zelda'' restoration project is a particularly infamous mod that never was completed. It was a mod ''Ocarina of Time'' that, despite its name, originally was supposed to just add a bunch of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen developmental elements]] back into the game, such as the fairy fountain and the Sky Temple. This later warped once more new elements were added, such as a custom story, the Dark World, and a new protagonist. It got to the point where it was essentially a new game, similarly to ''Majora's Mask''. The project was too ambitious and it ended up cancelled.
46** The smaller but no less ambitious hack ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMissingLink The Missing Link]]'' luckily did make it to completion, and serves a short {{Interquel}} between ''Ocarina of Time'' and ''Majora's Mask''. What's impressive about this mod is how it doesn't just modify existing assets from the original game, but rather adds new graphics, animations, music, [=NPCs=] and areas to explore; even the only preexisting area, Kokiri Forest, was redone from the ground up. It also gives Link back the ability to shoot sword beams from the 2D games, which is integral to solving many puzzles and beating many enemies.
47** One of the most famous hacks in the Spanish romhacking scene is "La Lellenda de la Cerda", a parody translation of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening DX'', where the texts are translated [[GagDub re-framing the game]] as Link adventuring in a island full of drug addicts, prostitutes and assorted lowlife population, and the graphics were redrawn accordingly. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJuh2uW54fo Have a video]].
48* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
49** The ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' community gets its share of hacks, and you can enjoy such thing as the masterful (and [[PlatformHell difficult]]) ''[[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/131/ Super Metroid Redesign]]'', the brilliantly atmospheric Super Metroid Eris, or the complete level overhaul of ''[[http://www.zophar.net/hacks/nes/metroid-12/Metroid-X-205.html Metroid X]]''.
50** While the definitive history of ROM hacking has yet to be written, one of the oldest total-conversion hacks, Super Metroid Redesign, dates at least from 2004, which establishes the game's hacking scene as perhaps one of the longest-standing outside the fan translation world. There's a wide variety of Super Metroid hacks, ranging from relatively minor gameplay and physics tweaks (Project Base) to radically deuterocanonical and hugely ambitious reimaginings of the entire game and its backstory (Hyper Metroid); while the total number of released hacks is relatively small compared to, say, the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' scene, the gameplay variety and general quality level of Super Metroid hacks is surprisingly high. They make a delightful diversion, especially for the veteran SM player who knows the classic game back to front. [[http://metroidconstruction.com Would you like to know more?]]
51** There are also a fairly substantial number of randomizers, as mentioned in the game description; they can completely reshuffle items and, in some cases, rooms, allowing a new experience each time one plays the game, and often requiring use of some clever, obscure techniques to reach critical items. There are several different randomizers, including [[https://dessyreqt.github.io/smrandomizer/ this one]], [[https://itemrando.supermetroid.run/ this one]], [[https://randommetroidsolver.pythonanywhere.com/ this one]], [[http://metroidconstruction.com/resource.php?id=102 this one]] (which also shuffles up the rooms), and perhaps most interestingly, the [[https://samus.link/ Super Metroid/A Link to the Past randomizer]], which mashes the game up with ''VideoGame/ALinkToThePastRandomizer'' (any item can be almost anywhere in either game, as long as its location doesn't render either game unwinnable).
52** If you wanted a hair-ripping hack, try your hands at ''[[http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/sm_super_metroid_impossible.html Super Metroid: Impossible.]]'' This is made by the person who developed the under-two hour tool-assisted speedrun for Redesign, a mod that typically takes as long as ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime.''
53** When it comes to ''reasonable'' hacks, we have ''[[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/317/ Super Metroid Dependence]]'' which, for the most part, is pretty fair in its gameplay and really only has two points that come to mind (at least at the moment) where the player can become completely lost, one involving bombing a particular wall in Brinstar and the other that involves the creator being a dick by making a certain fake wall in Tourian not be revealed by the X-Ray Scope.
54** Can't find your way through the orignal ''VideoGame/Metroid1''? Hate having to write long passwords? Hate having to choose between Ice and Wave Beams? What about grinding for health after continuing the game? Well, my friend, someone was thoughtful enough and made us a [[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1186/ hack that improves the original Metroid]]! That's right! It not only gives you 3 save slots, but also a map screen while paused and allows you to use Ice and Wave Beams together! And it will also save your health!
55* ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'' is no stranger to mods like its ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' predecessors. Early on there has been mods aiming to either tweak the gameplay like the [[https://www.pcgamer.com/sekiro-plays-almost-exactly-like-bloodborne-with-this-rad-combat-mod/ Bloodborne Combat]] mod, or character mods ranging from the more or less serious such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnf04pWh2RI Kenshin Himura]] and Shishio from ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', to the more outlandish like [[https://www.pcgamer.com/this-sekiro-mod-turns-toy-storys-woody-into-a-stone-cold-killer/ Woody]], [[https://gamebanana.com/skins/172526 Bo Peep]] and even [[https://gamebanana.com/skins/172525 Benson the dummy]] from ''Franchise/ToyStory'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5z-J8XTJgc CJ and Big Smoke]] from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', along with [[https://gamebanana.com/skins/173523 the]] [[https://gamebanana.com/skins/173634 main]] [[https://gamebanana.com/skins/173552 cast]] [[https://gamebanana.com/skins/173653 of]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' for good measure. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXUl-9ML9VQ This video pitting Elsa against Hans]] is something to behold.
56[[/folder]]
57
58[[folder:Beat 'em Up]]
59* ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesRescuePalooza'' is a love letter to the 80's series, made with ''MediaNotes/OpenBOR'' engine.
60* Shortly after its release, the indie kung fu roguelike ''VideoGame/{{Sifu}}'' received its fair share of character mods thanks to its Unreal Engine 4 underpinnings. Among those standouts include [[https://www.dualshockers.com/play-as-john-wick-scorpion-or-chun-li-in-this-magnificent-sifu-mod/ John Wick, Chun Li, Scorpion]], [[https://twitter.com/Naxshe22/status/1503196559130828802 Neo]], and [[https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sifu-mod-lets-you-play-as-scooby-doo-all-powerful-shaggy/1100-6500649/ Shaggy Rogers]], though there has also been some rather silly ones like [[https://www.nexusmods.com/sifu/mods/55 CJ]] from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', [[https://www.nexusmods.com/sifu/mods/57 Elsa]] and even [[https://www.nexusmods.com/sifu/mods/50 Snow White]] of all people.
61[[/folder]]
62
63[[folder:Fighting Games]]
64* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'':
65** The game had various hacked bootleg versions in the arcade such as ''Rainbow Edition'' and ''Koryu'' that modified many of the games properties, allowing for mid air fireballs, dragon punches that spammed fireball and instant character swapping in game. ''Hyper Fighting'' was developed by Capcom as a response to these hacks, being intended as a legal, saner version of them. (IE: Chun-Li gains a projectile and Ryu and Ken gain the ability to use their Tatsu in the air, but there's no character swapping or aerial fireballs.)
66** ''[[https://github.com/originalgrego/ssf2xjtb Super Street Fighter 2X: The Tournament Battle]]'' is a mod of the Japanese version of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' that restores full functionality to the DummiedOut tournament mode by porting the network code from the ''Super Street Fighter II'' and getting the unique gameplay mechanics of ''Turbo'' to function properly within this mode.
67* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'':
68** A mod for the PC version called ''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20170809034823/http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/133097?threads/street-fighter-iv-koryu-pc-mod-release-thread.133097/ Street Fighter IV Koryu]]'' basically pays homage to the ''SFII'' bootlegs.
69** And for the PC version of ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'', we have ''[[http://www.sf4remix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page USFIVAE Remix]]'' (Formerly [=SSF4AE=] Remix), which aims to make the game faster paced...whilst also making most of the moves and characters balls-out insane. Ryu's Metsu Hadouken Ultra, for one thing has been swapped out for a ranbu-esque move. Furthermore, it further differentiates the original RyuAndKen even more by making Ken a charge motion character.
70* With the launch of [=FightCade 2=], an emulation service that allows people to play online against each other, came a slew of new modified hacks for fighting games, and ''Street Fighter'' was no exception.
71** ''[[https://newlegacy.fr/ Super Street Fighter II Turbo: New Legacy]]'' is an in-development mod of ''Super Turbo'' created with the intent of adding new quality-of-life features to the game and updating the balance in a way that honors the spirit of the original game, in contrast to existing updated versions like ''HD Remix'' and ''Ultra Street Fighter II''. There are several color palette updates, such as the versus screen gaining a sleek metallic black hue and even the stages getting brand new palettes to reflect different times of day. Characters now boast not only their original colors as their default colors, but also all of their existing ''Super Turbo'' colors and 12 brand-new ones for a total of 24 selectable colors per character. Stages can now be manually selected via a code, and old versions of characters are easily selectable by pressing Start. Akuma is now selectable by default and has been rebalanced to better fit in with the rest of the cast instead of outright dominating them. Most importantly, the entire cast has been rebalanced from the ground-up in a way that pays homage to their competitive history while both reining in and expanding upon some of their intricacies. Even the old versions of characters have been completely reworked to pay homage to their [=CPS1=]-era versions from ''World Warrior'', ''Champion Edition'', and ''Hyper Fighting''.
72** ''[[https://sf2mix.github.io/index.html Street Fighter II Mix]]'' is another in-development mod for ''II'', this time of ''Champion Edition'', that completely reworks the game with new system mechanics, moves, and a slew of aesthetic changes. The character select screen has been completely redone and now utilizes character portraits from ''Super Turbo Revival'' for the [[Platform/GameBoyAdvance GBA]]. Stages now have 3 different times of day, similar to ''VideoGame/FatalFury'', and have been reworked to scroll in 3D. Characters now have voice clips from ''IV'' and ''X Tekken'' as well as brand-new and reworked color palettes. The announcer has been replaced with the one from ''V''. Gameplay-wise, it is now possible to do things from other fighting games, including dodge rolls and running from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', Just Defense from ''Fatal Fury'', throw teching, and a unique "Vigor Meter" that functions both as a super[=/=]EX, guard, and stun gauge all in one.
73* ''[[http://umk3.hacking-cult.org/eng/ Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy]]'', a popular hack of the Sega Genesis/Megadrive version of ''Ultimate VideoGame/MortalKombat3''. Contains every version of every character that appeared before and during Mortal Kombat Trilogy and with their own finishers no less, sans the MK 3 version of Noob Saibot which was a black palette swap of Kano. Basically contains much more content than a real cartridge or the Genesis console can handle. And it can actually run on an (albeit) modded console. [[VideoGame/UltimateMortalKombatTrilogy Now has its own page.]]
74** As with ''Street Fighter'', [=FightCade=] 2 has also allowed for modded versions of ''Mortal Kombat'' entries to be played on the service. ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Plus'' is a mod of ''[=UMK3=]'' that fixes bugs, re-adds the Bank stage that was cut from the original version of ''3'' to save memory, and backports several characters from ''Trilogy'' into the game, allowing them to finally be playable on arcade-accurate hardware. Human Smoke gets his own slot on the character select screen while still being available as a transformation code for Cyber Smoke, Noob Saibot becomes playable, complete with his broken moveset from ''Trilogy'', Rain is accesible via a special code, also with his broken moveset from ''Trilogy'', and several secret characters can also be accessed via codes including Motaro and Shao Kahn [[spoiler:, as well as 3 mimic characters: Chameleon, Khameleon, and '''Triborg''']].
75* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'':
76** ''VideoGame/SmashRemix'' is a ROM hack of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64''. This mod expands upon the original game by adding several new characters, stages, and gameplay modes without changing or removing any of the original ones.
77** ''VideoGame/TheAkaneiaBuild'' does something similar to ''Smash Remix'' in that it expands upon the original game it's built off of, albeit for ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'' instead. This mod adds [[Franchise/StarFox Wolf]], [[Franchise/DonkeyKong Diddy Kong]], and [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Charizard]] to the roster and new game modes like Volleyball and Tag.
78** A large portion of the community modifies pretty much everything within ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]''[='=]s engine, including custom stages, character skins, movesets, physics, menu appearance, and music. The mods listed below are the major full-on mod projects made from ''Brawl'':
79*** ''Brawl+'' was the first attempt to make ''Brawl'' more competitive-oriented. While it reached version 7, the team eventually lost interest and moved on to create ''VideoGame/ProjectM'', which by contrast is specifically meant to replicate ''Melee'''s gameplay.
80*** ''[[http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=239604 Balanced Brawl]]'' tries to mod ''Brawl'' by keeping most of the engine intact (i.e. defensive play favored, very little hitstun) while trying to make the game balanced.
81*** ''VideoGame/BrawlMinus'' enhances the game by making everyone [[CharacterTiers God Tier]], yet balanced so that it's practically acceptable. It has hitstun comparable to ''Smash 64'', and it's about as fast as ''Brawl+''. It's ''Brawl'' [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs on steroids]].
82*** The aforementioned ''VideoGame/ProjectM'' basically turns ''Brawl'' into the next ''Melee'', having the return of ''Melee'''s advanced techniques and physics engine. It's intended to even surpass ''Melee'' by making every character good, making almost every stage tourney-legal, and of course utilizing the benefits of being made from Brawl, like better graphics, more characters, and modding capability (see above). Unfortunately, the mod was [[ScrewedByTheLawyers taken down]] in 2015. After ''Project M'' ceased development, several successors built off of it, including ''Legacy TE'', ''Legacy XP'', and ''Project+'' (based on ''Legacy TE''), the latter of which is aimed to further balance, bugfix, and polish ''Project M''. It even adds [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Knuckles the Echidna]] to the roster, who was in mid-development for ''PM'' at the time of its demise, and it has been given [[ApprovalOfGod the blessings of PM's developers]], making it a true successor.
83*** ''VideoGame/PMEXRemix'' is a massive mod for ''Project M''. This mod features over a hundred characters, which surpasses ''Ultimate''[='=]s character roster of 89. Its roster covers a large range of franchises and fighters, including fighters from the post-''Brawl'' installments (some with redesigned movesets such as [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Ridley]] and [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo & Kazooie]], others being more faithful backports like [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry]]), popularly requested characters that were not playable in the official games like [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Waluigi]], [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Bandanna Waddle Dee]], and the aforementioned Knuckles, and more unexpected choices like [[VideoGame/FZero Deathborn]] and [[Franchise/BlazBlue Nu-13]].
84* In December of 2021, [[https://twitter.com/CaseyTheVA/status/1474744031154360322 an unofficial patch]] for the [=PlayStation=] version of ''[[VideoGame/BloodyRoar Bloody Roar 2]]'' was made available which redubs the game with a number of professional voice actors including Creator/CaseyMongillo, Creator/XanderMobus, Creator/EdwardBosco, Creator/KaijiTang, and Creator/KiraBuckland, among others.
85* ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'' started developing a modding scene when the PC version was released, many years after the game first came out. Modding started with texture swaps, then custom movesets, but in late 2021 [=UMvC3=] modding hit its "golden age" when modders figured out how to import assets into the game, allowing the game to have true custom characters. One of the biggest mods for the game is [[https://gamebanana.com/mods/50125 "Palette Swap Characters"]], adding a whopping 20 new characters (and counting), including characters cut from the roster like [[Franchise/XMen Cyclops]], characters from ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'' such as Ultron and Captain Marvel as well as newcomers like Bishop, Carnage and Leon Kennedy.
86[[/folder]]
87
88[[folder:First-Person Shooter]]
89* Mods are Creator/{{Valve|Software}}'s bread-and-butter. ''VideoGame/TeamFortress1'' began life as a free mod for ''VideoGame/QuakeI'', but Valve hired the staff, recreated the mod for Half-Life (calling it ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic'') and then created their own sequel, ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. Ditto ''Day of Defeat'' and ''Dota'', mods purchased by Valve and integrated into their releases.
90** Likely the most famed of all mods is ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', the full conversion of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' into a multiplayer counterterrorism game. It was eventually purchased by Valve and included in later [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition editions of the original]].
91** Another highly successful mod is ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' (pictured above), a mod for ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' that turns the game into a WideOpenSandbox, allowing for nigh-complete control of the Source engine. {{Machinima}} and even comic strips have been done using the game (see ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' and ''Fanfic/HalfLifeFullLifeConsequences''). The mod's developer Garry Newman eventually struck a publishing deal with Valve, allowing for it to be released on their platform ''Platform/{{Steam}}'' as a standalone game.
92*** ''Garry's Mod'' itself has a vast modding community, with over ''1.7 million'' mods available on the game's Steam Workshop. Mods for [=GMod=] are typically divided into three categories: addons[[note]]Fully scripted, most similar to regular game mods[[/note]], dupes[[note]]Short for duplications, these are player-made structures and contraptions[[/note]], and saves[[note]]Similar to dupes, but are map-exclusive[[/note]]. In addition to the base sandbox, a variety of other gamemodes have been created for the game (such as ''VideoGame/TroubleInTerroristTown'' and ''VideoGame/PropHunt''). Other forms of addons typically consist of custom-made maps, weapons (often known as [=SWEPs=]), [=NPCs=], and player models.
93** Valve's ''VideoGame/AlienSwarm'' is based off an ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'' mod and the inspiration for ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' was the popular zombie mods for Counter-Strike.
94*** Speaking of ''Left 4 Dead'', on top of the typical skins and script modifications, both games have a level editor that allows people to create their own survival and campaign/versus maps. They can even include custom sounds and music, scripted crescendo events, and other things. Naturally, there have been maps of other games like ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'', ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'', and even ''Half-Life 2''. Then there are the Mutations, "official" modifications that come in packed with the game. Recently the developers have encouraged players to develop their own Mutations for submission to be featured for a week. They've also been featuring user-created campaigns on the official blog, and hosting them on the official servers.
95** In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', there are fans out there who love to make texture hacks to change the appearance of weapons, hats, character models, etc. to further add hilarity to their game experience. [[https://gamebanana.com/mods/cats/7951 Game Banana]] has a ton of skins for your perusal. Texture hacks unfortunately don't work on Valve's own servers, to stop cheaters from..well...seeing through walls.
96*** Sound Modding is also relatively popular, mostly due to the fact that, while some sounds are blocked on Valves own servers (generally speaking it's the gun-noises and footsteps), modders have free reign to edit pretty much any sound in the game, and it'll work in most cases, whereas custom Models and Textures won't for the above reason.
97*** There are also quite a few fun game mods out there: Pyro Dodgeball, Prop Hunt, Vs. Saxton Hale, [=TF2=] Ware, and Zombie Fortress, to name a few. Vs. Saxton Hale in particular has clearly inspired the first Halloween Boss, the Headless Horseless Horseman.
98*** There's also mods that alters the gameplay of existing modes. Like Randomizer, respawn time disable/reversal, class limitation and its related Highlander mode, and Hardcore- game servers with crits disabled.
99*** ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2Classic'' is a complete modification of the game, taking the oldest version of [=TF2=] and adding new weapons, game modes and even compatibility for four teams instead of two.
100*** ''VideoGame/OpenFortress'' is an open-source mod that, alongside adding alternate game modes such as Infection, [[RevisitingTheRoots revisits the game's roots]] by adding ''Quake''-style deathmatches and in the future will remake ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic'' using ''Team Fortress 2'''s aesthetics and lore.
101** Anyone play Adam Foster's ''VideoGame/MINERVAMetastasis'' mod and noticed the excellent and atypical style of level design he used? Valve did, first helping him out with the last couple of chapters, and then hiring him to work on ''[=HL2=]: Episode 3''!
102** The mod-story "[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/g-string G-String]]" made by Eyaura, while not widely known like other VideoGame/{{H|alfLife2}}L2 mods out there, has a truly unique story and setting [[CrapsackWorld set on an utterly-devastated Earth that is completely irreversible recovery-wise]] in which the North American Union, which is [[CorruptPolitician run completely by corrupt officials]] that have their [[{{Slogans}} self-serving slogan]] of "[[https://i.imgur.com/LSrvLMw.jpg Money is blood. Keep it flowing.]]", this coupled with the fact that, as a certain someone mentions right near the beginning, "Even the air ain't free no more.", quite literally as there's a giant Mega Corporation based on Purified Air Collection that is owned by yet another Corrupt Exec. All-in-all, it's a story that'd make even the developer(s) of Half-Life be amazed with, if they ever cared to notice it earlier and, oh, would it be surprising to know that it was initially made by the '''one developer''' herself? No, this is '''not''' a lie. And it's become quite the popular mod-story among those that fondly remember its HumbleBeginnings.
103** The ''VideoGame/IronGrip: The Oppression'' mod for ''Half-Life 2'', which slammed two genres against each other: {{RTS}} and {{FPS}}.
104** [[http://empiresmod.com Empires]] combines RTS and FPS like Iron Grip, but in a different manner; players play on one of two different armies fighting each other, each with their own commander to whom the game functions like a standard RTS.
105** ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/mariokart-source Mario Kart: Source]]'' was intended to be a mod that turns ''Half-Life 2'' into a ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' game, although the project was eventually abandoned.
106** ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'''s honorable mention is ''VideoGame/PortalPrelude'', an unofficial prequel that introduces fairly harder-than-original levels, new puzzle elements and several additional hours of gameplay for hardcore ''Portal'' fans, which got one ''million'' (!!!) downloads and a following of its own.[[note]]Though, some might argue that this isn't strictly a mod, in the way that it doesn't change Source's source code, but it is worth playing nevertheless.[[/note]]
107** ''VideoGame/BlackMesa'' is a highly ambitious and [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell long awaited]] ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' mod that seeked to modernize the original ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' using the Source Engine. An extended, retail Steam version was greenlit and it now includes an entirely reworked Xen chapter to close off the game.
108** ''VideoGame/SvenCoop'' is one of the first ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mods out there, and is not only still lively with activity to this day, but is still in development.
109** ''VideoGame/FortressForever'' is a ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic''-esque mod on the Source Engine made in response to ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' being stuck in DevelopmentHell. Unfortunately, it released in time for ''[=TF2=]'' to finally be saved from it.
110%%(ZCE)* ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTrespasser'', oh, ''Trespasser''. Its fanbase is hella devoted. One mod has even been worked on since December 2004.
111* ''VideoGame/GoldenEyeX'' is a total conversion mod for ''Perfect Dark'' that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin turns it into [=GoldenEye=]]].
112* One of the earliest game series to still have an active modding community today is the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' series, which intentionally allowed modding of all kinds (''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' wasn't designed this way, but fans were able to mod it anyway), with the first editors coming out just months after its release. One particular Mod, ''The New Technology: Evilution'' (later known simply as ''TNT: Evilution'',) was intended to be freeware, until it was announced at the Usenet ''Doom'' boards, on its intended release date, that not only would its release be postponed, but it would become a commercial product--published by none other than id Software themselves! The reaction to this announcement was... ''[[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.doom/c/Fhfl5PHTbVk/m/0eSgX8fkDJcJ?hl=en heated]]'', to say the least. The product would later come out as part of ''VideoGame/FinalDoom''--within the same month as ''VideoGame/QuakeI''. And the only place where the team was credited--the DOS text-mode post-exit screen--didn't appear in the bundled Windows 95 version, which is how most people installed the game anyway.
113** There are two megawads made by Team TNT that rank among the top lists: the medieval-themed ''Eternal Doom'' and the sci-fi ''Icarus: Alien Vanguard''.
114** Of note would be ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'', which turns ''Doom'' into a faster, harder, gorier slaughterfest. ''Brutal Doom'' would ultimately get its own mod called ''VideoGame/ProjectBrutality'', which adds new weapons, enemy types, and player abilities.
115** Due to using the [[MediaNotes/GameEngine Doom engine]], the games ''VideoGame/{{Heretic}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}'' also have a decent number of mods for them, though not as many as ''Doom''. In addition, there are also source ports designed to be compatible with multiple Doom engine games, allowing the creation of mods making use of the various features introduced in those later games. The creator of ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' began working on Brutal Hexen. One important feature will be collecting XP and levelling up like in Hexen 2.
116** ''VideoGame/HideousDestructor'', which throws out ''Doom'''s explosive, fast-paced sci-fi slaughter, in exchange for tense, realistic, ''VideoGame/ArmA''/classic ''VideoGame/GhostRecon''/''VideoGame/SWAT4''-style fights.
117** On a lesser scale, ''VideoGame/Doom3'' has a large amount of mods available, which range from solving common complaints (adding flashlights to the weapons [Finally, there's Duct Tape on Mars!] and correcting the [[ShortRangeShotgun dismal mechanics of the shotgun]], for example) to full stand-alone single-player campaigns. One particularly notable mod for ''Doom 3'' is darkmod, which is a package to convert ''Doom 3'' into something suitable for building ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}''-like game content in. This is partly due to the Thief mod community not generally liking the Unreal engine based ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows'' for modding (there are some strange differences due to changing engines, and it turns out to be very hard to get things that should be a doodle, like a passageway you can just walk down, to work properly).
118** ''Into Cerberon'' is a total conversion into a ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' fangame. The name's [[{{Pun}} based on]] ''Descent Into Cerberon'', a music track from ''VideoGame/QuakeII''.
119** ''VideoGame/Ashes2063'' is a total conversion so far removed from ''Doom'' that it's essentially its own IP. The only thing it uses from ''Doom'' is its source code, which is free to use[[note]]notably the [=ModDB=] release of ''2063'' comes bundled in with the lawyer-friendly ''Freedoom'' for a template IWAD[[/note]], so part of it can be used in ''Doom'' as a weapons pack, just in case you're intent on having [[PlayerCharacter Scav]] slaughter some hellspawn. Conversely, there's also a monsters pack, for when you feel like making a cannibal eat plasma.
120* ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' is another game that has had a fairly large number of game mods and [=TCs=] created for it. A list of the more recent mods is as follows.
121** ''Duke Plus'', created by Dan "Deeperthought" Gaskill, started as a means to enhance the use of level effects in user maps by adding elements such as realistic water that could have both above-water and under-water effects in the same sector, in addition to have the ability to mirror and expand the size of existing maps for changing the experience of existing levels. It also possesses weather effects like rain and snow, a realistic acceleration system for running/moving, the ability to grapple along the sides of walls [i.e. mantling], improved enemy behavior, the ability to pick up, drag, or throw various items like crates or other background objects, etc. Some new weapon types were also later added, including a laser pistol taken from the Assault Captains (with a chargeable fire function), a ''gravity gun'' substitute to the Expander, two different types of shotguns instead of the original, among other things.
122** ''VideoGame/NaferiasReignInvasionOfTheDarkMistress'', a mod created by Jack "Lord Misfit" Walker, is still in the works, but many betas are released, often once every two or three months. This mod might be considered to be one of the biggest FPS/RPG hybrid mods for a game yet, as it not only incorporates normal RPG elements like leveling up during gameplay, but allows use of a group of 15 different characters, including Duke Nukem himself. The kicker: this isn't like ''Hexen'', where a character is chosen for the whole of the game, but where characters are found over the course of the game and can be swapped back and forth via an extra menu system. Each character has their own skills, strengths and weaknesses and their own main functions in the team. And that's just a few of the numerous features of the mod. Listing them all would take up too much space.
123** ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/duke-nukem-alien-armageddon Duke Nukem 3D: Alien Armageddon]]'' adds additional enemies, location based damages, and the biggest addition, an AI companion and also playable character Bombshell, which is based on her appearance on an early ''Duke Nukem Forever'' trailer, with her own set of weaponry.
124* ''Desert Combat'' for ''VideoGame/Battlefield1942''. It has the same objectives as the original but transplants the setting from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII to Operation Desert Storm, updating the maps and weapons accordingly.
125** Interestingly, much like Valve has a habit of hiring good modders, EA bought Trauma Studios (makers of ''Desert Combat'') to work on its modern-day sequel, ''VideoGame/Battlefield2''.
126** The original ''Battlefield 1942'' had several total conversion mods (Desert Combat being the most popular). There was ''VideoGame/ForgottenHope'', a realism mod adding a large amount of new content and balance changes to give a more gritty, realistic WWII; ''Eve of Destruction'', a total conversion mod set in Vietnam; and ''Silent Heroes'', a total conversion mod based on a speculative conflict between Sweden and Norway, just to name a few.
127** A mod team was also working on a mod in this engine, but limitations forced them to move it to Source (see "Empires" above).
128** ''Battlefield Vietnam'' had an official World War II mod, which basically turned it into an updated version of ''Battlefield 1942''.
129** It's hard to mention ''Battlefield 1942'' mods and not think of the ''Turbo Mod''. The speed of all weapons and vehicles was absurdly increased and alternate fire on all vehicles activated a rocket boost. Multiplayer games with this tended to devolve into goofy stunts like a never-ending loop-the-loop with jeeps or jumping over Midway island using a battleship.
130** There was also a ''Franchise/StarWars''-themed mod called ''Galactic Conquest'', initially with only one map based on the [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Battle of Hoth]], but massively expanded over time to include a huge variety of locations. Apparently, this mod was the inspiration behind the ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront'' series.
131** There is also ''VideoGame/ProjectReality'', a mod for ''Battlefield 2'' that aims to make the game more realistic. It is so popular that some people buy the game just for it.
132*** And now ''VideoGame/ProjectReality'' is getting its own mini-mods. This includes ''PR: Falkland'', ''PR: Vietnam'' and ''PR: Zombies''.
133** The sequels are getting their own sets of mods, too, an example being ''VideoGame/FirstStrike'', a highly Battlefront-reminiscent Star Wars mod with both planetary and space combat for ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142''.
134* ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' in general has lots of mods:
135** One of the most well-known ones is [=ChaosUT=], an offshoot to the original mod released for ''VideoGame/QuakeII''. It adds a complete arsenal of guns, ''some of them with multiple kinds of ammunition'' (normal, armor-piercing, poisonous and/or explosive); UrExample is the LethalJokeItem known as the Proxy, a sentient claymore which chases you down with a smiley face and a cute voice. Or the new superweapon, the Gravity Vortex, which creates a micro-black hole that sucks in and gibs everyone in a substantial radius for several seconds; it even '''ignores the godmode cheat'''[[note]]it does so because it uses the crush death coding and crushing in the unreal engine 1 bypasses godmode[[/note]]. Aside from the guns, other accessories were added too like Gravity Belts as toggleable jumpboots and grappling hooks to move over impassable terrain. And who could forget the ability to amass your remaining rocket ammo and go kamikaze... Oh, and the bots are freakishly good with all weapons, especially the crossbow.
136*** Then came [=ChaosUT2=] for the sequel, bringing with it a graphical upgrade and a few new additions like the Chaos Pulse Pistol as dual-wieldable spawning weapons, the C.U.T.T.E.R. which is a badass-looking version of the Ripper, the Chaos Grenade Launcher with four types of munitions (explosive, poison, napalm, flashbang/EMP) and the Vortex Launcher which now enables the user to actually run away from the black hole before it activates. The MUG (Multi Utility Gun) now operates like a normal flamethrower and the Claw can be loaded with needle packs whose projectiles stick onto whoever touches them and continually deals damage. It even added two vehicles: the easily forgettable hoverboard and the [[CoolBike Chaos Bike]].
137*** Then came the sad day when the dev team announced that due to the lack of interest in [=UT3=], [=ChaosUT3=] was cancelled.
138** ''Oldskool'' is another notable modification pack. It allows true single player campaign gaming, supporting the original ''Unreal'' as well as several custom map packs (''VideoGame/OperationNaPali'' and ''Nali Chronicles'' being two of the most famous). It also works as a customizable mutator for practice sessions and multiplayer.
139* The "accessible realism", WWII-themed ''VideoGame/RedOrchestra'' was created for ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'' (an odd choice for a realism mod), and after much effort, went on to win $1,000,000 and free Unreal Engine 2 licenses in a Mod Competition ([=nVidia's=] "Make Something Unreal" contest). The team, Tripwire Interactive, has since released a retail, stand-alone edition of their mod, entitled ''Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45'', eventually followed by a sequel on Unreal Engine 3.
140** Tripwire has since also published ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'', another ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' mod gone retail, as well as having created ''Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad'' on Unreal Engine 3. Killing Floor received its own built in mod: ''Defence Alliance 2''.
141** Speaking of [=UT2004=], there's the ''VideoGame/BallisticWeapons'' mod that converts the game into a realistic tactical shooter complete with a huge arsenal of guns and features like dynamic accuracy and recoil; toggleable scopes and silencers on many of the weapons; toggleable firing modes between single-shot, burst-of-three[[note]]one submachine gun has both 3-round and 5-round burst[[/note]] and full auto (the minigun instead has single-shot, 1800RPM, [[GatlingGood 2400RPM]] and [[MoreDakka 3600RPM]]); the loadout system which lets players customize their spawn inventory... All but two guns are kinetic[[note]]three melee weapons, seven pistols, three submachine guns, four shotguns, three assault rifles, battle rifle, two heavy machine guns, minigun, sniper rifle, '''sniper railgun''', rocket launcher, flamethrower, LightningGun, three grenades, [[StuffBlowingUp remote-controlled explosive]], land mine[[/note]] and are provided with a backstory. Recoil is very realistic: It's impossible to fire the minigun at full speed and hit someone unless the built-in bipod is deployed first (machine guns have bipods too). All pistols and submachine guns can be dual-wielded, ''[[RuleOfCool even different ones]]''.
142* ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}} [[https://bitbucket.org/daikatana13/daikatana 1.3]]'' is an unofficial patch for Creator/JohnRomero's infamous failure. The patch turns what used to be a nigh-unplayable jankfest of a game into something that's not half-bad. It turned ''Daikatana'' from one of the worst games of all time into a great game that's one of the most criminally underrated FPS games of all time.
143* The sheer number of mods released for ''[[VideoGame/{{Tribes}} Starsiege: Tribes]]'' and ''Tribes 2'' (both of which are now freeware by Creator/{{Sierra}} releasing and abandoning it) is fairly astounding, not to mention what's been done with the vehicle systems.
144* Fans have produced countless third-party maps and mods for all three ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' games, including a number of "total conversions" (eg: ''Devil in a Blue Dress'', ''EVIL'', ''Erodrome'', ''Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge'', ''Portal of Sigma'', ''RED'', ''Rubicon'', ''Tempus Irae'', ''Trojan''.) The third game, ''Infinity'', was thus named because its headline feature was a set of polished [first-party modding tools.
145** There's also ''[[http://resurrection.bungie.org/ Marathon: Resurrection]]'', a mod of the Unreal engine.
146* ''VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject'', ''VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge'' and ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' have loads upon loads of new items, UI improvements, AI, missions, and even entire campaigns! Though the first game is over ten years old, the mod community is still plenty healthy.
147** ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows'' used a variant of the Unreal engine, and was generally panned for mod purposes (besides weirdness like Garret now having SuperDrowningSkills, it turns out to be very hard to get Garret to not walk drunkenly, and other issues). This helped inspire [=DarkMod=], a fan-created conversion kit for Doom 3 (a game often panned for just not being very good) which makes it suitable for Thief-style games.
148** The long period after Creator/LookingGlassStudios folded and it looked like there would never be another Thief game led to the fan-made Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age conversion/expansion of Thief 2.
149* ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' has an extensive map modding community, which often range from crappy to excellent. All of which is played on a separate version of the game called ''Halo: Custom Edition'' (which requires the retail version to work). One particularly notable mod is ''VideoGame/SPV3'', which completely overhauls the campaign with improved graphics, new weapons, expanded levels, etc.
150** A particularly, "unique" mod exists for Combat Evolved known as VideoGame/CursedHalo, and it certainly lives up to its name, with bizarre changes such as reconstructing the GameBreaker Magnum into a reverse-pistol that shoots you when you pull the trigger that instead has to be thrown as a makeshift bludgeon, the addition of several dozen esoteric vehicle variants ranging from miniature Warthogs that effectively function as a Mongoose or Wraiths whose main plasma mortar is replaced with the [[VideoGame/DarkSouls Homing Soulmass sorcery]], ''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} functioning Minecraft weapons]]'', or most disturbingly, [[GunsAkimbo a pair]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking of completely normal]] [[GameBreaker Magnums.]]
151* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' still has a very strong modding community despite being an older game. This includes graphical and gameplay tweaks such as Shifter, and many total conversions.
152** The most impressive of these is ''VideoGame/TheNamelessMod'' which took seven years to complete and is a complete game including ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' gameplay, branching storylines, and thousands of lines of voiced dialogue.
153** ''VideoGame/{{Zodiac|DeusEx}}'' is another one, a fan made Interquel that allows you to play as Paul Denton.
154** ''VideoGame/TwentyTwentySeven'' is a fan-made prequel featuring a nonlinear plot, real-world weapons, and [=DX9=] graphics.
155* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' also has a number of mods, including the Complete 2009 mod, which provides a massive graphical upgrade and a wide range of gameplay tweaks.
156** ''AMK: Narodnaya Soljanka'' for ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' may not be as much of an eye candy, but more than makes up for it by bringing in lots of levels from ''Clear Sky'' and ''Call of Pripyat'', as well as a mind-boggling variety of new gear, new artifacts, consumables and a ton of new quests. Needless to say, the game world gets huge enough to make a complete playthrough qualify as a virtual vacation of sorts.
157*** [[http://www.tecnobacon.com/index.html And it's being translated!]]
158** The release of the long awaited ''VideoGame/LostAlpha'' flooded ModDB with so many visitors they had to invest on additional bandwidth to keep up with the demand. For {{Gun Nut}}s, there's the Arsenal Overhaul mod, available in varying degrees for all 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. To elaborate, this mod introduces about [[GunPorn more than 60 guns]] in the games to add more variety in the mix and minimizing the ennui that was the original vanilla weapons. Each gun has varying degrees of effectiveness and, although there are some grammar problems, detailed descriptions about them. With this mod, you feel like you are in Gun Heaven.
159* Several of these have been made for the ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' engine, such as ''[[http://pumosoft.3d-get.de/documents/pumomines.html Pumo Mines]]''(a total conversion) and ''Descent Vignettes''.
160* The modding community for the games of the ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'' was also very thriving in the past, especially for ''[[http://www.df-21.net/ Dark Forces]]'' (link directs to the major DF fansite DF-21.net) and ''[[http://www.massassi.net Jedi Knight]]'' (link directs to the major JK fansite The Massassi Temple). And even so, new levels are still being worked on even today, with recent major releases including ''[[http://www.massassi.net/levels/files/3111.shtml Magrucko Daines]]'' and ''[[http://www.moddb.com/mods/todoa TODOA]]''. Some mod developers, such as ''[[http://www.otherlander.com/ Patrick Haslow]]'' (creator of ''The Dark Tide'') have even worked on major titles such as ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' and ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite''.
161* The unfinished Platform/GameBoyColor prototype of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' has [[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/891/ a mod to make it playable]], although it still has NoEnding.
162* The ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' community may not be as prolific as ''Doom'''s, but there are still many, ''many'' mapsets and conversions available for the game.
163* ''VideoGame/Blood1997'' has a prolific modding scene:
164** "[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/death-wish-for-blood Death Wish for Blood]]" reshaped the game into a 30-levels long FanSequel comparable to ''VideoGame/FinalDoom'': it even has its own cutscenes and horrific effects that put the vanilla game back to shame.
165** "[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/blood-extra-crispy/downloads/blood-extra-crispy-v11-full-release Blood Extra Crispy]]" can be resumed as ''Blood'' meets ''Brutal Doom'': it revamps the vanilla game into a more extreme one with new enemies, new secret passages, new weapons and [[FinishingMove Glory Kills]].
166* The ''VideoGame/{{Carnivores}}'' fandom has produced many mods and addons over the years, starting with simple reskins of existing animals, and eventually going up to completely new animals, weapons, maps and even several total-conversion packs. One of the most complete and critically acclaimed total-conversions would be ''VideoGame/CarnivoresTriassic'', essentially a fan-made sequel which expands upon the lore of the original trilogy while introducing a completely new setting with its own storyline, assets and challenges.
167* ''VideoGame/Postal2'' had a game mod created in response to complaints about the Apocalypse Weekend add-on entitled "A Week in Paradise", which fixed various issues, added new weapons/gore, and increased the difficulty. This mod was so successful the developer officially released it in the "Fudge Pack".
168* ''VideoGame/QuakeI'' is next to ''Doom'' regarding modding popularity, and has spawned a scene equally as healthy.
169** The original game was written at high-level in a language called [=QuakeC=], which allowed an easy manipulation of the game's own variables. Later, the proliferation of {{Level Editor}}s such as the Radiant series, [=QuArK=] and Worldcraft allowed people to develop not only their own, well, levels, but also campaigns, leading to the existence of ''[[Recap/QuakeBeyondBelief Beyond Belief]]'' (crafted by one Matthias Worch, who later helped Creator/LegendEntertainment develop games such as ''VideoGame/TheWheelOfTime'', ''VideoGame/UnrealI Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali'' and ''VideoGame/UnrealIITheAwakening''), ''VideoGame/XMenTheRavagesOfApocalypse'', ''Abyss of Pandemonium'' and multiplayer-oriented mods such as ''VideoGame/TeamFortress1'' and most importantly ''[[CaptureTheFlag Threewave CTF]]''.
170** The release of its source code allowed development of engines such as [=QuakeSpasm=] and [=DarkPlaces=], which in turn gave birth to games such as ''VideoGame/{{Nexuiz}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Xonotic}}'' and mods such as ''VideoGame/ArcaneDimensions''.
171** The 2021 remastered edition of the game added an addons section, from where mods could be downloaded and added to the game without having to exit the game itself. The available mods are ''Recap/Quake64'' (effectively the Platform/Nintendo64 version of the game ported to the ''Quake'' engine), ''[[Recap/QuakeHoney Honey]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeUnderdarkOverbright Underdark Overbright]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeTerra Terra]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeThePunishmentDue The Punishment Due]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeRubicon2 Rubicon 2]]'', the aforementioned ''Beyond Belief'', ''[[Recap/QuakeContractRevoked Contract Revoked]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeDeathmatchDimension Deathmatch Dimension]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeSpiritworld Spiritworld]]'', ''[[Recap/QuakeQDOOM QDOOM]]'' and ''[[Recap/QuakeSlaveZeroXepisodeEnyo Slave Zero X: Episode Enyo]]''.
172[[/folder]]
173
174[[folder:Hack-and-Slash]]
175* Among the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' games, ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'', ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'', ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry'' and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' have an active modding scene which is mainly cosmetic, though more gameplay-focused modders emerged over the years, which also covered the older games, especially ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry2''. There are also notable mods whose features were later implemented by Capcom in updated versions of the involved games:
176** Style Switching Mod for ''[=DMC3=]'' which gives you the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ability to switch styles on the fly]] ''[=DMC4=]''-style and makes the questionable PC port of ''[=DMC3=]'' run better. The Nintendo Switch port incorporates an official Style Switching feature into gameplay (known as Freestyle Mode), as well as the ability to swap through all weapons on the fly with the right control stick. The option to play with the original fixed loadout for your style and weapons is also available.
177** Using a tool for the PC version of ''[=DMC5=]'' makes it possible to play as Vergil in the vanilla game, using a few techniques that he doesn't use in his boss fight. A later mod attempted to make this a more complete experience with better hit boxes and fewer oddities. With the Special Edition elevating Vergil to fully playable, what was left behind were actually [[https://www.siliconera.com/capcoms-matt-walker-talks-about-devil-may-cry-5-vergil-lady-and-trish-dmc5se/ remnants of a system used to test Vergil's moveset in his boss version]].
178[[/folder]]
179
180[[folder:Maze Game]]
181* ''VideoGame/PacMan [[http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=104 Arcade]]'' for the Platform/Atari2600. It was basically hacked from the Atari 2600 version of ''Ms. Pac-Man'' (which in itself was a hack of Namco's arcade ''Pac-Man'') to make a version of ''Pac-Man'' that was much closer to the arcade version than the PortingDisaster that Atari cursed the system with. With the exception of the blue ghost sound and the absence of [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco's]] VideoGame/{{Galaxian}} flagship (or the Atari "fuji" logo on the Atari 8-bit computer and 5200 versions) as one of the bonus prizes, it comes pretty close to being an arcade-quality port.
182** ''Pac-Man Collection'' for the Platform/Atari7800 was basically a hacked version of ''Ms. Pac-Man'' for that system that turned the game into ''Pac-Man'' and a few other maze hacks.
183[[/folder]]
184
185[[folder:Pinball]]
186* Modifying {{pinball}} games is popular among game collectors. Simple modifications include adding additional toys to the playfield or replacing the backbox translite artwork, while more elaborate changes include repainting the cabinet or metalwork, replacing or updating the playfield lights, or retheming an entire game. Truly ambitious modders have even burned their own [=ROMs=] with custom software, though the availability of third-party controller boards has made software changes easier for more hobbyists. One of the most common mods is changing the otherwise orange-and-black dot-matrix display to a simulated colored DMD.
187* ''Pinball/StarWarsDataEast'' got a rom update created by fans and hobbyists that made major revisions to the rules, fixed bugs, and improved game balance.
188* ''Pinball/{{Paragon}}'' was originally designed for four flippers, but tables for Europe were modified to only use three flippers, to better appeal to the preferences of Italian players.
189* Hobbyists and companies have taken Creator/SternPinball's ''Pinball/{{NFL}}'' -- which can already be customized with team-specific backbox translites -- and further tailored them for specific teams and players, with new cabinet and translite art, additional lighting mods, and more playfield toys.
190* In 2012, pinball player Eric Priepke finished "Cactus Canyon Continued", a project that updated Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''Pinball/CactusCanyon'' with an expanded and complete ruleset, new game modes, and additional animations. The code is available for free online, and requires only a ''Cactus Canyon'' table and P-ROC controller board.
191* Many owners of ''Pinball/TheFlintstones'' have opted to replace the backbox translite (which shows the actors from [[Film/TheFlintstones the 1994 live-action movie]]) with one depicting [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones the animated characters]] instead. There's even an infamous R-rated translite that suggests the two families are into... ''alternative'' lifestyles.
192* ''Pinball/AmericasMostHaunted'' makes this a feature of the game -- the software is fully open sourced, the sound files can be replaced by any PC, and the [=PinHeck=] controller board allows owners to make updates by swapping SD cards.
193* A common and easy mod for ''Pinball/LastActionHero'' is to replace the stock translite with one based on the movie poster, which conveniently gets rid of Schwarzenegger's DeathGlare. There are also rom upgrades that tweak the rules and add additional quotes and features.
194* Creator/{{Stern}} Pinball got into the habit of selling official accessories for their games in TheNewTens. [[https://shop.sternpinball.com/collections/accessories Their lineup]] ranges from adding to a game's aesthetic (themed knobs for the plunger handle, artwork for the sides of the game's interior - ordinarily exclusive to [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Limited Edition models]] - and toppers[[note]]Essentially a display piece that sits on top of the machine's backbox[[/note]]) to adding functionality (shaker motors and headphone jacks).
195* ''Pinball/StrangerThings'' is unique in that it has a special ultraviolet lighting kit that activates during certain game modes, revealing hidden parts of the playfield's artwork. The implication that the mod was being developed alongside the game itself garnered controversy, with many comparing it to on-disc DownloadableContent in video games.
196[[/folder]]
197
198[[folder:Platform]]
199* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
200** The ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' hacking scene is extremely active, thanks largely to the user-friendly ''Lunar Magic'' editing program for the game. There are dozens of full hacks available at [[http://www.smwcentral.net/ SMW Central]], and most of them have been [[LetsPlay LP'ed]] on [=YouTube=] if you're curious to see how they work. Examples include:
201### ''[[https://www.smwcentral.net/?a=details&id=14059&p=section New Super Mario World 1: The Twelve Magic Orbs.]] It's one of the most famous ROM hacks ever made, thanks to its impressive visuals, soundtrack and levels.
202### ''[[http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=5059 The Second Reality Project Reloaded]] '' [[http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=7011 and its sequel.]] It's a remake of two ROM hacks, with the content from the second tucked away in a secret world. [[LetsPlay/{{Raocow}} The author]] of the Let's Play in question also features his earlier Let's Plays of the two separate original hacks as a comparison. One of those hacks being ''VideoGame/ChaosCompleXX'', a [[SoBadItsGood So Intentionally Bad It's Good]] parody of a typical bad hack.
203### ''[[http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=4987 Super Mario Odyssey]]'' (no relation to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'')
204### ''[[http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=5265 SMW2+ 3: The Essence Star]]''
205### ''[[VideoGame/{{The}} 'the]]'', ''VideoGame/{{Eyeless}}'', ''VideoGame/GameDotBps'' and ''[[https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=59067&page=1&pid=958878 Call of Cthulhu]]'' are horror-themed hacks.
206### ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3X'' is a hack influenced by the [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES / Famicom]] ''Super Mario Bros.'' games, but the graphics make it look like a hack of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars''. This is misleading, because it is actually a hack of ''Super Mario World''.
207### There is also the famous ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld'', which kicked off the whole ROM hacks [[KaizoTrap designed by Hitler]] trend (and caused quite a bit of annoyance over at [=SMWCentral=]).
208### ''[[https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=6099 Brutal Mario]]'' is a well-made hack. It is known for having a large variety of bosses, most of which come from unreleated [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] games, such as: ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV V]]'', ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'', and other Mario games including ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland Yoshi's Island]]'', and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''.
209### ''[[https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=27001 R-ACK]]'' and its interquel ''[[https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=35050 ~omh~]]'' are a duo of collaboration hacks by "Team JANK". Offering a variety of levels designed to be either good, bad, or questionable; the games together tell the story of an abstract being called "The Plumber" journeying through the lands of R-ACK and Omhland, eventually discovering a group of {{Level Goal}}s plotting to resurrect their fallen leader.
210** For a while, there was also "Automatic Mario," which were [[AutomaticLevel levels that required no player input and simply propelled Mario through the level through various insane means]]. [[https://www.engadget.com/2007-08-22-dont-move-hacked-mario-world-levels-play-themselves.html This is the original Joystiq article on it, as preserved on Engadget]]. Then the movement proceeded to [[https://www.engadget.com/2007-09-16-dont-move-just-listen-automatic-mario-goes-anime-music.html set them to various anime theme songs]]. It arguably reached its peak with [[https://www.engadget.com/2008-05-26-the-eleven-minute-automatic-mario-masterpiece.html an eleven-minute-long medley of various theme songs]] and [[http://kotaku.com/5415005/marios-italian-rhapsody Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now"]]. In many cases, especially the latter two, they are a sight to behold.
211** Major ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' mods include ''Strange Mario Bros. 3'', ''VideoGame/MarioAdventure'', and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3Mix''. The developer of ''Mario Adventure'' ([=DahrkDaiz=]) is currently (as of January 2016) in the process of making a new hack using the disassembly work of the creator of ''[=3Mix=]'' ([[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Captain Southbird]]), called ''VideoGame/KoopaKingdomEscape''.
212** A recent game that has been modded is ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii''. Thanks to the level editor ''[[http://www.rvlution.net/reggie/ Reggie!]]''[[note]](named after Reggie Fils-Aime)[[/note]], mods for the game are starting to become widespread. One of the more well known examples is ''VideoGame/NewerSuperMarioBrosWii'', whose official site includes a few smaller mods in addition to the main one.
213** ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' hacks became more prominent with the advent of the level model importer. Noteworthy ones include [[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/543/ SM64: The Missing Stars]], the first full [=SM64=] hack, [[http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=4 Super Mario 74]], and [[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/873/ Super Mario: Star Road]][[note]]the developers of this hack have been attempting to make a version for [=SM64DS=] as well[[/note]]. Along with those, a randomizer for Super Mario 64 and an online version of the game are popular mods as well. Furthermore, with modding advancements allowing for full gameplay modifications, even more elaborate character replacement hacks have sprung up that allow for adding unique abilities not seen in the original game, including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_LdL8NdAys Super Bowsette 64]] (starring the memetic character herself with actual fireball throwing abilities), [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J3kQgJbMCM&ab_channel=TetraBitGaming Pizza Tower 64]] (which replaces Mario with [[VideoGame/PizzaTower Peppino Spaghetti]], right down to including a number of Peppino's moves like his Super Jump and replacing the Goombas with Cheeseslimes), and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uMmLFc8bL4 TOTSUGEKI 64]] (another meme-based hack, starring [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear May]], who can actually ride her dolphin friend complete with [[Memes/GuiltyGear TOTSUGEKI]] voice clip).
214** ''Super Mario 64 Plus'' is this for ''Super Mario 64'' requiring an original rom to run. It features wide screen support a plethora of options to make the game more challenging such as a one hit kill mode. There's even alot of gameplay tweaks that improve the controls and a modern camera control. Render96 is a mod of this mod updating the game into an HD style while redesigning the character models to be based off the official render artwork. It even includes Luigi and Wario as unlockable characters with their own unique moves.
215** ''VideoGame/SuperMario64ChaosEdition'' deliberately corrupts ''Super Mario 64'' with all manner of glitches (using built-in Gameshark codes that randomly turn on and off) and features intended to amuse and/or annoy the player while still keeping it ([[GameBreakingBug for the most part]]) playable, inviting many a SelfImposedChallenge (like getting all Stars while the game is in this glitched-out state).
216** A hacking scene for both ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Super Mario Galaxy 1]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 2]]'' is starting to pick up. A LevelEditor called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2Ev34l3TM Anarchy in the Galaxy]] has risen to prominence, and while it's not all the way completed, impressive things have been done, like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsvOscVKVv4 harder missions]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abf89-B3Wuk imported levels]] from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine''. A full game made from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' is taking shape; its name is ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2Point5''.
217** ATA's ''Extra Mario Bros.'' is a technically impressive conversion of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' into a nonlinear {{Metroidvania}}. The same hacker's ''Luigi no Nazo'' is a sillier hack of the same game, borrowing a lot of annoying features from ''VideoGame/TransformersConvoyNoNazo'' and featuring MultipleEndings. ATA has also produced hacks based on Mega Man courses (e.g. ''VS Airman'' which is clearly a reference to the Airman stage in Mega Man II).
218** The hacking community of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' outside Japan has produced few notable works. Some notable hacks include Frantik's ''Super Mario Unlimited'' which improved graphics and added new items and collectives; and w7n's in-progress ''Rohrleitung Gate'' which enhances the music using FM channels and enabled free horizontal scrolling within 2 pages and parallex scrolling effects.
219** Nintendo themselves joined the scene in the Platform/WiiU game ''VideoGame/NESRemix'', which alters ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' levels (and other [=NES=] games). Generally the mods affect physics, visuals, and player/enemy behavior rather than changing the level itself.
220** When ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU [[UpdatedRerelease Deluxe]]'' inspired the creation of the fan-made [[CuteMonsterGirl Bowsette]] transformation for Bowser, quite a few hacks were designed that replaced Bowser with Bowsette. These include [[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4163/ a hack for]] ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''[[note]]with various variations of Bowsette's design as options, along with one that transforms Mario and Luigi into their own Peach-like forms upon powering up[[/note]], [[http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4164/ a hack for]] ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''[[note]]which also improves the game in other areas, as well as a version that swaps Peach and Bowser's roles[[/note]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnQizdVF99U&t=0m40s a hack for]] ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii''[[note]]this one has an option to replace the final boss music with custom music from Segtendo and Music/OverClockedReMix[[/note]].
221** Another mod, ''VideoGame/MariosMysteryMeat'', themes itself after various in-jokes among the WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} community (particularly ones surrounding the group's frontman, Vinny).
222** ''[[https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/the-beatles-adventures-in-pepperland-mod-super-mario-bros-2-hack/ The Beatles Adventures in Pepperland]]'' is a 2021 game mod of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', based loosely on the 1968 [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] film ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''.
223* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
224** For humor, someone named [=VAdaPEGA=] made a mod of the original ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'', retitled ''Sonic [[VideoGame/SonicBoom Boomed]]'', with Creator/RogerCraigSmith's [[WelcomeToCorneria stupid, canned catchphrases]] as Sonic. Effectively shutting down any argument that Sonic fans are blinded by nostalgia or that these new games are underrated gems. He quips about everything: grabbing rings, using Springs, beating a level, rolling into a ball, pressing switches, '''''everything'''''. It is extra hilarious when playing Labyrinth Zone, since Sonic continually runs his mouth even while underwater or ''drowning''. The game throws a lampshade on the whole thing with a weary-looking Sonic on the title screen.
225** A special case is the ''Knuckles in Sonic 1'' hack, which (as the name implies) makes Knuckles into the playable character in the original ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'', in a similar fashion to the ''Knuckles in Sonic 2'' that is obtained by connecting ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' to ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]''. What makes this interesting is that Creator/SonicTeam had tried and failed to put Knuckles in the first game during the making of ''S&K'', citing color palette limitations. To make matters even more interesting, there is another version which inserts Tails into the game, complete with spin dash and flight.
226** Hacking has enabled anyone who's interested to play through all three original-series games as Amy Rose, using her ''VideoGame/SonicAdvance'' moveset.
227** There is a robust community of modders creating ROM hacks of the original series of Sonic games, ranging from the simple, such as recolored levels and simple character replacement (by modifying other characters' sprites), to the intricate, such as creating new level layouts and/or art, adding new characters with unique special abilities, adding new abilities to existing characters, adding new music (either by porting it from other games or creating it from scratch), and even porting or creating new boss characters; some more ambitious projects have arguably converted a given Sonic game into what qualifies as a new entry in the series. Most notable is the heavily recoded ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogMegamix'', a romhack of the original Sonic, which features saves, 4 new characters besides just Sonic, a new soundtrack, new level art as well as secret 4th acts for each level, new moves and abilities, super forms, new bosses, and a load of other features such as a heavily expanded Sound Test, more options, and Time Attack modes (including a BossRush Mode). It's so good that people have likened it to a 5th 2D Sonic game. Megamix has now become so expansive that it has been ported to Sega CD format, and will apparently (when the game is properly burned to a CD-R, of course) even play on an actual working Sega CD. Madness.
228** ''[[http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_2_Long_Version Sonic 2 Long Version]]'', which includes previously DummiedOut levels such as the Hidden Palace. There is also a Knuckles version available.
229** ''[[https://www.s3complete.org/ Sonic 3 Complete]]'', the optimized version of ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', which was promised by Sega before time and space limitations forced them to split the game in two. It would eventually evolve into the Genesis equivalent of the ''Sonic & Knuckles Collection'' for the PC with much more content, including such features as:
230###Single-player controlling of Tails' flight, including carry of Sonic, by using the Up direction. (Borrowed from the 2013 iOS/Android ports of ''Sonic 1'' and ''2''.)
231###An opening cutscene for Tails (he originally just started the game straight on Angel Island)
232###Specialised activation of Super/Hyper mode, i.e. the player can't inadvertently activate it just by double tapping jump (as is necessary for all three characters), but instead by pressing a button to jump then a different button to transform (e.g. C first, then B).
233### Consistent behaviour of monitors when attacked from below (original versions behaved differently).
234### Consistent music throughout games.
235### Swapping out the music for the ''Sonic & Knuckles Collection'' versions and the Main Theme/1-Up/Game Over/Continue themes to Masato Nakamura's original composition for the first two games.
236### The option to use Sonic 3's Big Arms final boss phase, cut from Sonic and/or Tails' Launch Base Zone act in original combined edition.
237### Improved Super Sonic sprite animation.
238### The choice of using Sonic's old sprites from the first game or ''Sonic 2'' (as was originally intended in the development of ''Sonic 3'').
239### Knuckles' intro cutscene with Eggrobo logically occurs on Angel Island Zone rather than Mushroom Hill.
240### Optional opening of different paths for Knuckles for "research purposes".
241### The ability to change gameplay styles to match that of the original game, ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', or ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' (both the original and iOS versions).
242### The option to have Flying Battery Zone be the fifth zone in progression as originally planned.
243### The Easy and Normal difficulty modes from ''VideoGame/SonicJam''.
244### A "Casual Mode" where the player cannot lose rings.
245### A large degree of mix-and-match customisation for the player's ideal ''Sonic 3'' experience.
246** ''[[http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Classic_Heroes Sonic Classic Heroes]]'' combines the levels from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' and ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' back to back. More importantly, it allows for all three members of Team Sonic or [[VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix Team Chaotix]] to be played in the three-at-once style of ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes''. Also present are sprites and power-ups from ''Sonic 3'' (such as the elemental shields), the Super Peelout from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'', special stages from both games, super and hyper forms for every character, and a plethora of other features. This is the combination of two separate hacks: ''Sonic 2: Heroes'' (which gives you the above features but only with the levels from ''Sonic 2'') and ''Sonic 1+2'' (Sonic 1 and 2 back-to-back) and is being developed by the creators of both hacks.
247** ''[[http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=18906 Sally Acorn in Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' puts Sally from the ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' cartoon in the first Sonic game. And actually, the sprite work was extremely well done. Instead of spinning, she uses Nicole as a taser. That same hacker has now done several secondary characters in ''Sonic 1'', including Amy, Vector, and Charmy Bee. Charmy's game is a complete Game Breaker since (just like in ''Knuckles Chaotix'') he can fly forever with no cool down period. Other hackers have managed to implement characters such as Shadow, Metal Sonic, Mario and [[JokeCharacter Motobug]]!
248** ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' is starting to develop a modding community of its own. In particular, one team [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/sonic-generations-unleashed-project successfully ported]] the Day levels of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' to the game. Custom level editors like CPKREDIR and Sonic GMI are also starting to [[http://youtu.be/h4b1HjFrhrg catch]] [[http://youtu.be/46VAz4zhSII on]].
249** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 [[VideoGame/Sonic2Xl XL]]'' is an interesting hack involving onion rings. While Sonic still needs these rings for protection, collecting too many makes Sonic gain weight, and the fatter he gets, the slower he moves and the lower he can jump. This means players can't just blaze through the levels unless they want to collect all the rings along the way and make Sonic an immobile blob of fat. Speaking of immobile Sonic, he will die in a few seconds if he becomes too fat to move, possibly from a heart attack. Ring monitors also have to be avoided like the plague and Tails will make things worse for you if he keeps grabbing rings. Luckily, the hack has special monitors that reset Sonic's weight to normal. To prevent the game from being unwinnable in the water sections, fat Sonic has buoyancy and can jump even higher underwater.
250** ''VideoGame/RobotniksRevenge'' is a BossGame featuring every single boss from the first two games.
251** It is worth mentioning that Sega is aware of the booming modding scene for the [[Platform/SegaGenesis Genesis / Mega Drive]] games. So much so that they released [[http://steamcommunity.com/app/34270/workshop/ a centralized location]] for people to share their mods. (You do need to own the original games in order to play the mods, though.)
252** To add to that, one of the original Travellers Tales games' developers, Jon Burton made his own ''official game mod'' of ''VideoGame/Sonic3DBlast''; a "Director's Cut" which not only fine tunes some of the physics and more frustrating elements of the original game, but adds the ability to turn Super Sonic, tweaks a few levels and layouts (including editing and adding some of the games' badniks), adds a level menu to backtrack across the game, a Password function, and a Time Challenge mode, along with a Level Editor mode much akin to the four mainstream Genesis titles.
253** ''VideoGame/SonicManiaAndHatsuneMiku'' is a fan made modification of ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' which alters the sprites of Sonic to that of Miku wearing the 20th Anniversary Sonic outfit. It also comes with an altered storyline and visually revamps the levels, enemies and bosses to reflect the new plot, while also mashing ''Mania's'' soundtrack with popular Vocaloid songs. The custom [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h23-47bydlY opening video]] detailing the new plot has to be seen to be believed...
254** The Steam version of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' has the [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=299808681 BetterSADX mod]], which not only [[PortingDisaster fixes everything wrong with the Steam port]] but also includes such things as improved Dreamcast models, toggleable Dreamcast DLC, Super Sonic playable in normal levels, and support for additional mods thanks to the included SADX Mod Loader. It has since been succeeded by [[https://sadxmodinstaller.unreliable.network SADX Mod Installer]], which offers bleeding edge updates for mods, more customization for mods the end user wants download and install, presets ranging from converting the game into the Dreamcast version or enhanced the [=GameCube=] version's features, and supports PC releases of ''Sonic Adventure DX'' instead of just the Steam version.
255** The Steam version of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' has seen a slew of mods being created for it thanks to the [=SA2=] Mod Loader, which gave way to mods that has been fixing issues with the port while restoring features from the Dreamcast version, while other mods has replacing characters with custom ones, creating new stages or porting/recreating ones from other ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games, and overhauling the game's Chao Garden.
256** ''[[https://highquality.rip/totinos-mania/ Totino's Mania]]'' is another ''Sonic Mania'' mod, this time by the Music/SiIvaGunner team. It is inspired in part by Totino's sponsorship of [[https://twitch.tv/videos/79497025 the Sonic 25th Anniversary Livestream]], where ''Sonic Mania'' itself was first unveiled. The mod mainly features a ThemeAndVariationsSoundtrack based on the song from Creator/TimAndEric's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lPX5b9m7ro bizarre Totino's music video]], and also replaces the rings with pizza rolls.
257** ''[[https://www.sonic3air.org/ Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited]] (A.I.R.)'' is one part GameMod (as it runs on top of the original ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' ROM) and one part fan remaster of ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' in the vein of Christian Whitehead's ''Sonic CD'', ''Sonic 1'', and ''Sonic 2'' mobile releases. Featuring a plethora of upgrades such as widescreen support, smooth sprite rotation, remastered audio, and various ''Sonic 3'' bugfixes and gameplay upgrades/quality-of-life enhancements in the style of ''Sonic 3 Complete''. The game also supports game mods so fans can inject their own content as well.
258*** The ''[[https://sonic3air.boards.net/thread/29/extra-slot-mighty Extra Slot Mighty]]'', ''[[https://sonic3air.boards.net/thread/30/extra-slot-ray Extra Slot Ray]]'', and ''[[https://sonic3air.boards.net/thread/274/new-update-extra-slot-amy Extra Slot Amy]]'' mods adapt Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel from ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' alongside Amy Rose as playable characters in ''Sonic 3 A.I.R.'' The most significant selling point of the mods is that none of the characters overwrite any of the already playable characters in the game, using [[https://sonic3air.boards.net/thread/28/esu-framework a special framework designed for that purpose]]. Mighty plays like he did in ''Sonic Mania'', with the ability to ignore damage from spiky objects while rolling. His hammer drop move that originated from ''Sonic Mania'', and his wall climb move from ''VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix''. In addition, an alternate wall slide move inspired by the ''Sonic Mania'' mod, ''Sonic Megamix Mania''. On top of this, Mighty has new character-exclusive levels in Angel Island Zone and Lava Reef Zone. Ray plays similarly to how he handled in ''Sonic Mania'', with the ability to gain extra height if the player presses up on the Gamepad. If the player desires, they can have Ray replace Tails as the partner character for everyone except Tails. Amy takes inspiration from ''VideoGame/{{Antonblast}}'' with new bouncing abilities. Note: while all play fine right now, the creator claims there'll be updates in the near future, with plans to add Metal Sonic Kai as a playable character. [[https://shc.zone/entries/contest2022/690 A special version of the mods were showcased at the 2022 Sonic Hacking Contest]], where Mighty and Ray are combined into one mod. It won trophies for 2nd best and best character implementation in the 2D PC category.
259*** ''[[https://hazelspooder.github.io/lunarfluorite/3airmods/stone3.html Agent Stone in Sonic 3 A.I.R.]]'' adapts Agent Stone from [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020 the]] [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022 movies]] as another antagonist to deal with alongside Eggman and Knuckles. This mod not only reworks the minibosses into machines controlled by Stone, but it also has him control the Egg Cannon in place of Eggman, and he replaces Eggrobo in Knuckles's version of the game. There are even custom boss battles, some of which exclusive to Knuckles (though certain Extra Slot characters can fight them as well). Note that the mod is currently only available as a demo. [[https://shc.zone/entries/contest2022/605 The mod originally debuted in the 2022 Sonic Hacking Contest]], with only up to Launch Base Zone changed. It won trophies for best graphical work and best new or modified boss design, as well getting an honorable mention among the contest's media panelists as one of the best mods overall for the 2D PC category. [[https://shc.zone/entries/contest2023/802 It returned the following year]], this time with changes up to Lava Reef Zone.
260** The decompilation ports of the ''[[https://github.com/Rubberduckycooly/Sonic-1-2-2013-Decompilation Sonic 1 & 2]]'' and ''[[https://github.com/Rubberduckycooly/Sonic-CD-11-Decompilation CD]]'' mobile remasters later not only allows players to enjoy these games natively on PC and other platforms, but later updates for them implemented a mod loader, allowing modders to create various mods for these games and fan remasters of these games.
261*** ''[[https://teamforeveronline.wixsite.com/home Sonic 1 Forever]]'' and ''Sonic 2 Absolute'' are a pair of enhanced versions of the ''Sonic 1'' and ''2'' remasters respectively that restores elements from their original Genesis versions, adds various unlockables and new modes, toggles for many gameplay options, extra playable characters, and an achievement system.
262*** ''[[https://gamebanana.com/mods/50089 Sonic CD Restored]]'' is a fangame based on the decompilation port that aims to recreate an authentic speedrunning experience of the original 1993 version while retaining the improvements from the remaster, features Hybrid and Unified OST arrangements with an unlockable custom OST option, and promotes Amy Rose to playable. ''[[https://gamebanana.com/mods/288122 Sonic CD & Knuckles]]'', on the other hand, is a mod for the decompilation port that provides a ''Sonic 3: A.I.R.''-like experience with a wealth gameplay, audio, and visual options while adding Knuckles the Echidna as a playable character instead.
263** ''[[https://gamebanana.com/mods/452036 Sonic Origins Ultrafix]]'' is a mod of ''[[CompilationRerelease Sonic Origins]]'' designed to modify all four main games in the collection both mechanically and visually in order to address underlying issues and make things more consistent between games. The Classic Modes have also been modified to be more faithful to their original sources (for example, you can no longer access the Hidden Palace through Mystic Cave Zone Act 2 in ''Sonic 2''[='=]s Classic Mode).
264* ''VideoGame/MegaManX3'' got its own in the form of ''VideoGame/MegaManX3ZeroProject'' by [=Justin3009=], which allows Zero to be [[PromotedToPlayable fully playable just like in X5 onwards]] and gives him his Black Armor along with X's [[GoldenSuperMode MAX Hyper Armor]]. As of this writing, he's been working on a 4.0 (and for now final) update, which adds a save function in the place of the passwords (And yes, it saves your Sub-Tank storage and the final stages you completed), and a very functional NewGamePlus feature that allows you to keep all of the powerups (Including [[InfinityPlusOneSword Zero's saber for X]]) you've obtained.
265* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 3'' has been the target of various well done sprite hacks that replaces Zero with a completely different character such as Vent, or Copy X. First started off as a hack that allowed the ability to play as Omega Zero which was basically a palette swap of Zero and giving the player access to his exclusive attacks.
266** ''VideoGame/RockmanNoConstancy'' replaces the environments, attacks, and even the music: rather than ''VideoGame/MegaMan2's'' futuristic looking stages, the ones in Constancy look more mystic or dreamlike (think ''VideoGame/SonicCD''). Think the game is easier? ''Think again''. The bosses have faster attacks, the stages have brand new gimmicks, the stages themselves are new, and the scenery is just beautiful, as is the music (Yes, it's taken from various sources, but the soundtrack is beautiful anyway). For a peek, look [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ZLJc6NXgM&feature=related right here]].
267** ''VideoGame/RockmanCX'' far outclasses the above, with a revamped gameplay style reminiscent of Mega Man X, even more new gimmicks, a completely new set of Robot Masters, a great soundtrack, and a new plot revolving around Mega Man's EvilCounterpart, Rockman CX. It really must be seen to be believed.
268** ''VideoGame/Rockman4MinusInfinity'' did the same thing for ''4'', but adds [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner more new features than you or your grandmother can handle.]]
269* ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' has garnered an extensive ROM hacking project in the form of the ''[[https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4035/ Mega Man X6 Tweaks]]'' lead by acediez that aims to fix many of the game's criticized gameplay elements, rebalancing the game's brutal difficulty curve, toggle or even outright remove Nightmare effects, restore some of the DummiedOut features leftover in the game's code, provide an option to update the game's original character dialogue portraits with faithfully redrawn ones, and even re-translating the game's infamous English script. If that wasn't enough, there's also a custom patcher utility that allows players to tweak a wealth of features in the game, ranging from how the characters control, adjusting the rank system and Nightmare Soul requirements to trigger certain events, swapping the game's logo and title screen graphics, changing the appearance of X's Ultimate Armor, and much, much more.
270* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'':
271** ''VideoGame/KirbyRevengeOfDreamLand'' originally started out as a hard mode hack, then grew into a mod that greatly increases the difficulty of the main game, replaces some tracks with remixes and adds new attacks for bosses.
272** ''VideoGame/KirbysHalloweenAdventure'' is a HolidayMode romhack of ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' taking place during the fall season and greatly expanding on the original game's enemies and level tropes, pitting Kirby to traverse Horror themed locations and monsters, serving as a HalloweenEpisode for the series, exploding pumpkins and all.
273* ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'', having its source code in a text file for all to see, is very easy to modify. Common mods are designed to access its ten or so {{Minus World}}s or allow for flight or invinciblity.
274* The PC version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' had an [[NintendoHard even harder]] level hack called ''4D Prince of Persia'' back in 1994. In more recent years, however, hackers became capable of deeper modifications, and now you can get many new level sets, tiles and character sprites -- you may play with levels and graphics from the [[PortingDistillation excellent SNES version]]. Someone even made a launcher to use all of the stuff combined.
275* Thanks to the way lots of data is found in separate files, ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has a lot of mods, [[https://forum.cavestory.org/forums/showcase.31/ as its fan-forum can attest]]. ''VideoGame/JenkasNightmare'' is one of the most popular ones.
276* ''VideoGame/{{Somari}}'' was a pirated Famicom port of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' with Mario replacing Sonic. In turn, the company made a ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' total conversion of it.
277** A hack of Somari was released by the jabu titled ''Sonic The Hedgehog (NES) Improvement'' that improves the graphics and gameplay, and replaces Mario with Sonic. Another version of that hack was then released by Ti, which had improved music. Since then, other hackers have released a "Volume 2" hack which further improved the game as well as added more features.
278* The [[https://sixtyforums.com/index.php Banjo's Backpack]] tool allows for custom ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' levels. If you're familiar with the infamous [[WhatCouldHaveBeen cut worlds]] like Mount Fire-Eyes, it won't surprise you to know that people have been jumping to create said cut worlds, along with recreations of levels from other games like ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. However, these are only works in progress as the tool is still relatively new. Only a few original worlds not based on anything have been released so far.
279* Custom levels for ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall 1 & 2'' are possible, although difficult since you need to use Blender, a free 3D modeling program, with a bunch of plugins to get it to work. However the possibilities are quite stunning, with the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd_9Wzdj-AY ''Monkeyed Ball'' hack]] completely replacing every level in 2's story mode with brand new stages and worlds.
280* The ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' series was abandoned after the sixth game as Id Software went on to better things, despite a teaser of a new trilogy after the sixth game where Keen fights to save the universe. The show must go on, so the fans took it upon themselves to create [[FanSequel the unofficial "The Universe Is Toast!" trilogy]] from mods of Keen 4-6.
281* In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'':
282** An official one, the Donkey Kong Country Competition Cartridge, was made as part of a Blockbuster video game competition. 2,500 copies were made, and after the contest ended, Nintendo Power mailed copies to subscribers. To date, it's one of the rarest video games ever made.
283** "Asshole Donkey Kong", a super hard ROM hack in the vein of ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld''.
284* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'':
285** Several texture hacks for the first three games exist, such as night versions of various levels from the second game.
286** In 2023, a challenge-type hack of [[VideoGame/SpyroYearoftheDragon the third game]] called ''Return to the Forgotten Realms'' was released. The hack adds in new dialog, changes level names, and repositions collectibles in such ways that commonly-known glitches and exploits are mandatory for 100% completion. The mod comes in two "builds": Challenge (which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin) and Exploration (which dials down some of the secrecy for smoother play).
287** ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' has a fairly strong modding base, and it grew near-instantly at that -- not even '''two days''' after the Steam release. This is because the game doesn't encrypt its contents outside of using Unreal Engine 4 filetypes, which are well documented by both Unreal and modders alike, meaning modding the game is fairly straight forward. This is helped by the fact Unreal Engine 4 is a free download. A group had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyzgQ5tXoc8 already modded]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro Cynder]] into the game by that point[[note]]What makes it so notable is the model isn't a prettied up rip of the ones from ''Legend of Spyro''; it was [[https://www.deviantart.com/faithsdk/art/Cynder-Concept-to-Creation-773336150 done from complete scratch]] to make Cynder's design more accurately fit into the Classic universe.[[/note]], so the sky's the limit really. Wanna have the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-PaMRtena4&feature=youtu.be OG PSX graphics Spyro]]? You can! Wanna play as a [[https://www.moddb.com/games/spyro-reignited-trilogy/addons/ember-the-dragon Reignited-styled Ember]]? That's possible too!
288* ''VideoGame/{{Celeste}}'' has an active modding scene, with modders making various new chapters, custom mechanics for those maps, and even [[https://celestenet.0x0ade.ga allowing players to play together online]]. Some notable mods include:
289** [[https://gamebanana.com/maps/203181 Cavern of the Ancients]] and [[https://gamebanana.com/maps/206874 Enchanted Canyon]] both feature new mechanics and follow the main game's structure.
290** Similarly, [[https://gamebanana.com/maps/206930 Shrouded Thoughts]] features a ton of new mechanics, as well as a factory theme and a small story that happens after Farewell.
291** The mod [[https://gamebanana.com/maps/211027 Partnership]] is a mod that requires the help of another player to make it through, which is notable for a game whose multiplayer only exists through mods.
292** [[https://gamebanana.com/maps/209296 Glyph]] was known as one of the most beautiful mods ever created in Celeste. It features detailed rooms, four B-side maps, and its own soundtrack.
293** ''VideoGame/The2020CelesteSpringCommunityCollab'' can feel like its own fangame, as it features new music, tons of new mini-chapters to play separated to five lobbies for each difficulty, uses lots of new mechanics and items, trains newer players in advanced tech, and has some of the hardest levels in the community. The VideoGame/StrawberryJamCollab follows it up a few years later, ending up much larger and map-packed than it.
294** And then there is [[https://gamebanana.com/gamefiles/12131 Guneline]], whose sole purpose is giving Madeline a gun.
295* The 2017 remake of ''VideoGame/WonderBoyIIITheDragonsTrap'' gained [[https://youtu.be/XOIoKEjuPIU a mod]] based on ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'', referencing a Brazilian DolledUpInstallment version of the original Master System game.
296* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower''
297** [[https://gamebanana.com/mods/437536 One mod]] replaces [[WaddlingHead the Toppins]] with {{Moe Anthropomorphi|sm}}c versions designed by RuleThirtyFour artist minus8. The mod is very thorough, altering every graphic featuring to Toppins in some way.
298** Other aesthetic mods replace Peppino with characters such as VideoGame/{{NiGHTS|IntoDreams}} and [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} an Eevee]]. These mods can be quite thorough, even reanimating cutscenes, rank screens, and the opening, and they go so far as to give side character Gustavo the same treatment.
299[[/folder]]
300
301[[folder:Racing]]
302* The UsefulNotes/FormulaOne ''F1 Challenge '99-'02'' (known as ''F1 Career Challenge'' on consoles) has had numerous mods for it since its 2003 release, including mods for various other F1 seasons and even other motorsport disciplines such as NASCAR and prototypes. One mod, known as ''F1 Challenge VB'', includes ''every Formula one season'' starting from 1950 up until 2021, with numerous extra track mods, including numerous year to year permutations of circuits F1 has run on as well as tracks that F1 hasn't even run on such as the Isle of Man TT course and Laguna Seca.
303** The similar driving simulator ''VideoGame/AssettoCorsa'' is also mod-friendly as well, despite being a paid game unlike the former two. In fact, the game was designed to support a wide array of game mods from cars to tracks.
304* ''VideoGame/GrandPrixLegends'' by Creator/PapyrusDesignGroup continues to survive thanks to gradual improvements and hundreds of modded tracks and new car sets.
305* ''NASCAR Racing 2003 Season'', also created by Creator/PapyrusDesignGroup, has its own dedicated fanbase that continues to make mods 13 years after the original was released. Even though its a UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} simulation, it also has mods for other racing series, due to the physics engine the game had is realistic enough that it still managed to rival the physics engine from other racing simulation games released much later than [[FanNickname [=NR2003=]]].
306* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'':
307** Early ''Need for Speed'' games quickly had their vehicle data reverse-engineered which made it able to modify them to an extent. Starting with ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedIIIHotPursuit'', the modding scene really kicked off for a number of reasons. One was that ''III: Hot Pursuit'' allowed for adding more cars than what it came with. This was intended for downloadable official bonus vehicles, but not limited to these, also because Creator/ElectronicArts never made enough vehicles to fill all 50 slots in the game. The fans made ''way'' more than that, so even "car managers" were developed that allowed for quickly switching between sets of cars outside the game. Also, upon learning about the car maker scene around ''III: Hot Pursuit'', Creator/ElectronicArts released their own car-building tools to the public. At least one ''III: Hot Pursuit'' car maker was [[PromotedFanboy hired by EA]] to work on future ''Need for Speed'' games. But it wasn't only the cars that the scene dealt with: They quickly also cracked the track files and not only modded existing tracks, but successfully converted and imported ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedII'' tracks into ''III: Hot Pursuit''.
308*** ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedHighStakes High Stakes]]'' largely uses the same file formats as its predecessor, ''III: Hot Pursuit'', as many vehicles and tracks were carried over from it. But it was soon discovered (and made a lot use of) that ''High Stakes'' has got a much more powerful engine, so especially the car-building style itself changed. For one, ''High Stakes'' supports visual damage to vehicles which many car makers include in their vehicles. But they quickly went beyond the vehicles that came with the game, replaced the opaque black windows with clear ones, modeled the cars' interiors and switched from 2D-shaded low-poly to detailed hi-poly carbodies and from textured to modeled wheels. Since few racing games offer this degree of modding, mods for ''High Stakes'' are still being made. And it's still a pity that the game supports no more than 49 vehicles at a time.
309** The second-generation games of the franchise, particularly ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground Underground 2]]'', ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedCarbon Carbon]]'', have equally received attention from the modding community with numerous mods that range from graphic reworks to add-on vehicles. ''Carbon'', however, received by far the biggest mod out of the available in the form of ''[[https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/1211 Battle Royale]]'', a complete revamp of the Career mode with new events, more interaction with rival Crews and new vehicles. Similarly, ''Most Wanted'' got a massive mod in the form of the meme-themed ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWantedPepegaEdition Pepega Edition]]'', which completely revamps the Challenge Series (now called the Cancer Series), has 15 new Blacklist racers in the Career mode, new vehicles, new pursuit heat levels and (starting with V2) new race layouts.
310** Even the more recent titles, from [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeed2015 the 2015 reboot]] to ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedHeat Heat]]'', have gotten notable mods, which are now condensed into the gigantic Project Unite. Which is the biggest mod pack for the Ghost Game's ''Need for Speed'' games created by a Norwegian student under the name SRK online. These mod packs usually include expanded customization options, revised car sounds, improved graphics and textures, improved handling models, and revised pursuit systems. Unite 2015 can be found [[https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/2335 here]], while Unite Heat can be downloaded from [[https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/2106 here.]]
311* ''VideoGame/RFactor'' was built with the intention that as many add-on cars and tracks could be added to it as the community could provide. It's worked. There's (deep breath); UsefulNotes/FormulaOne cars, NASCAR cars, Indycars, the ''old'' CART-Indy/Champcars, Australian V8 cars, German DTM cars, rally cars... and most major race tracks in the world (and plenty of fictional ones too).
312* The ''VideoGame/ReVolt'' community is still creating custom vehicles and levels to this day. A repository of these add-ons can be found at [[http://revoltzone.net/ Re-Volt Zone.]]They also created the fan-made [[https://web.archive.org/web/20180406022858/http://rv12.revoltzone.net/ Re-Volt 1.2 Patch]], which allows the game to run on modern computers and adds widescreen support, among other optimizations.
313* On the topic of racing sims, ''VideoGame/RichardBurnsRally'' [[https://www.redbull.com/int-en/insid-the-continued-success-of-richard-burns-rally-pc-game-by-modding lives on]] through countless custom rally cars from various leagues such as the UsefulNotes/WorldRallyChampionship as well as new rally stages and tweaks aiming to either make the game's NintendoHard handling more bearable or bring the game up-to-date for modern audiences. The game's developers even [[ApprovalOfGod praised]] the modders for their reverse-engineering of the model formats when they released a 3DS Max script for exporting custom cars into the game. ''RBR'' is now {{Abandonware}} at this point due to a rather hairy licensing row between the now-defunct Warthog, Platform/{{Gizmondo}} (which in itself is also quite a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Telematics#Organised_crime_links long and complicated story]] to say the least) and Creator/SquareEnix (who now owns Creator/{{Eidos}}, not to mention the uncertainty with Richard Burns' estate over re-releasing the game after his death, so it's become a necessary evil for fans to just pirate the game and call it a day, short of buying a used copy on the secondary market.
314* ''VideoGame/TestDriveUnlimited'' has long had their online servers shut down, but the community has put out many impressive mods that gave the game new life: the first big game mod for the original ''TDU'' was the Ultra Community Pack, which added new vehicles, new music and readjustments to the vanilla cars. This was joined by Project Paradise, a mod that reintroduces the game's online mechanics alongside other fixes such as improved mod support and other tweaks to make the game run more smoothly on more recent hardware. The Ultra Community Pack was later on dumped in favor of an even bigger project: TDU Platinum completely overhauls the game by adding ''even more new vehicles'', a new physics engine, new weather effects and support for HDR on top of the UCP and Project Paradise's contents. ''Test Drive Unlimited 2'' is also getting some love by modders with the Unofficial Patch - which fixes many of the bugs that were still left in the game, and the Autopack - which adds a whole slew of new vehicles, up to and including a full-fledged UsefulNotes/FormulaOne car. [=TDUWorld=], a Project Paradise-esque mod that brings back [=TDU2=]'s extensive online functions, is also currently in development.
315* ''VideoGame/{{TORCS}}'' and its fork ''Speed Dreams'', being driving simulators, allow the vast modifications of vehicles, tracks, and even driving physics to the users' liking, due to their open-source nature.
316* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' has boatloads depending on the installment. The most notable rom hacks are listed below.
317** Name a Mario Kart installment, and they probably have a variant of CTGP, a collection of community-made courses bundled into hundreds of cups. The ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' version is the most noteworthy installment of the bunch.
318** ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' has Amped Up, which provides a full set of 16 custom tracks, new mechanics that weren't in the original such as purple coins, and more.
319** ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'' has a few full-on hacks. One of the first complete ones is Ermii Kart DS, featuring 32 brand new tracks, 6 brand new battle tracks, 12 custom characters [[note]] [[AuthorAvatar Ermii]], [[Franchise/StarFox Fox McCloud]], [[VideoGame/HyruleWarriors Lana]], Yawshi, [[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya Haruhi]], [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong64 Lanky Kong]], Franchise/{{Shrek}}, Bowser in his Kyaru Pamyu Pamyu outfit, Rosalina, Mr. Bones, [[VideoGame/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]], and Doge. And that's just their base form, some of them have alternate costumes. [[/note]] and more.
320[[/folder]]
321
322[[folder:Sandbox/Open-Ended]]
323* While ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' is very well known for its moddability for the PC version, most famously realistic cars replacing the fictional, low-detailed cars in III, Vice City, and San Andreas, it also gained infamy in 2005 with the infamous Hot Coffee mod for ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''. In the game, CJ can have sex with various women, but the depiction is limited to seeing them entering the woman's house. Hot Coffee re-enables a DummiedOut sequence where the player not only gets to watch but controls the action to a degree. It was later patched. The discovery led to a brief revival of the [[NewMediaAreEvil Games Are Evil]] panic. Incidentally, PC players tend to avoid said patch not because they want to enable it but rather because it disables all modding function (although it has since been reversed). The Steam version of GTA San Andreas are pre-patched.
324** The PC release of ''San Andreas'' has considerable popularity in Japan because of or leading to the mass number of ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' mods made for it.
325** ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/great-theft-car Great Theft Car]]'' is a fan-made expansion of ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' that follows CJ who wants to find out who burned down his house one year after the canon storyline.
326** The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series of games has always appeared to be ripe for multiplayer, but it was never implemented by the designers. Enter ''Multi Theft Auto'', a mod that allowed for the player of the PC version to play multiplayer with large numbers of players and its own custom game modes. Multi Theft Auto was released for ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII GTA III]]'', ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'', and is massively popular with the PC players for all of them. Rockstar got the hint with the PSP version of ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Liberty City Stories]]'', which had online multiplayer for up to six players. They completely polished it for GTA IV, with 16-player (32 for the PC) support and 15 game modes. GTA IV's multiplayer has some similarities to MTA, including customizable character models, the whole city to explore and fight in, and some game modes. Later for Grand Theft Auto V there are huge focus on online mode post-release, even more so than the single player story mode!
327*** Even with the games officially having multiplayer, there are still players who don't think that's good enough, and thus turn to alternate clients like [[https://fivem.net/ FiveM]] and [[https://altv.mp/#/ alt:V]] due to the options they provide in comparison to ''GTA Online''.
328** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' has your standard set of mods, but the mod that turns the vehicle friction to -9 leads to some... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lssL9a1GAU interesting results.]]
329** ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY plus]] ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''. [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/back-to-the-future-hill-valley That is all.]]
330** ''[[http://www.atpspage.com/pages/grand-theft-auto-united.php GTA United]]'' tried to make Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas accessible in one game. Unfortunately it's a PerpetualBeta that is long since abandoned.
331*** Fortunately there's a SpiritualSuccessor called ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/gta-underground GTA Underground]]'', which not only combines the aforementioned cities but also VideoGame/{{Bull|y}}worth, [[VideoGame/{{Manhunt}} Carcer City]] and even a few original locations. Sadly, that too has been deleted and no longer available.
332%% ** Whoever made ''[[http://www.moddb.com/mods/grand-theft-auto-anderius GTA Anderius]]'' should be on shrooms. [[NoExportForYou Only available in Russian though.]]
333** ''[[http://www.moddb.com/mods/mushroomia Mushroomia]]'', from the creators of the aforementioned Anderius. [[MushroomSamba The title speaks for itself]].
334** Also "GTA: Criminal Russia" has an all-new 90s post-CCCP fictional Russian city and countryside, complete with contemporary cars and music.
335** [[https://gtaforums.com/topic/939012-sarel-things-to-do-in-san-andreas-overall-improvements/ Things To Do in San Andreas]] overhauls the titular game with a lot of, well, things to do, a lot of which are DummiedOut/Beta content or taken from the other 3D Era games, including the ''Stories'' ones, as well as applying various bugfixes and restoring cut dialogue.
336** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQZN9NeCVC4 Darkmyre Gaming]] is a massive, ''massive'' modding community that sees fit to turn the game into a police sim replete with booking speeding motorists to delivering death notices to next of kin. Primarily focused on Australian police mainly New South Wales they have done other countries as well, and were actually in the news when the real police learned of this, took it the wrong way (as in playing a CowboyCop in a crime sim) and were uncomfortable.
337** [[https://www.lcpdfr.com/ LSPD:FR and LCPD:FR]] are similar to Darkmyre, but for ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', respectively. LSPD:FR and LCPD:FR focus on [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the LSPD/LSSD and LCPD respectively,]] but [[UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay in a much more realistic manner]] than the [[CowboyCop regular in-game police,]] allowing the player to pull over other drivers, pursue suspects, call for backup, and get into the occasional shootout, with additional mods that can add different features [[note]]such as better responses, different uniforms, or a custom police radio[[/note]] or different call-outs, though most of the modding community focuses on replacing the game's fictional police vehicles with real police vehicles [[note]]such as the Dodge Charger for the Bravado Buffalo, the Ford Crown Victoria for the Vapid Stanier, etc[[/note]].
338** While there are modders who replace the fictional cars with real ones, there's also modders who have expanded on the fictional cars Rockstar made, making "lore-friendly" versions of various real world vehicles that Rockstar hasn't. A lot of these vehicle mods can be found in [[https://www.gta5-mods.com/vehicles/vanillaworks-extended-pack-add-on-oiv-tuning-liveries-vanillaworks-and-other-modders Vanillaworks Extended]].
339* The ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'' series featured the ability to mod the games simply by dropping the mod (or ''plug'') into the ''Plug-ins'' folder, much like the Platform/AppleMacintosh's operating system could be modified by dropping new extensions/control panels into the System Folder. The most complex mods, however, require overwrite of key data files; ironically, the total conversion mods for the third game that allow you to play the first two games (mods that were ''released by the publisher'') fall into this category. For the most part, it was not so much that it ''required'' overwriting as that it was easier to design total conversions to require you to switch out the core data files for the TC's data files than to have loads and loads of empty resources to keep things from the original game from showing up when they shouldn't. Perhaps notably, ''both'' sequels began life as total conversion projects for the previous game.
340* Being an ASCII-based, non-graphical game, ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' is quite friendly to modders. Some of the more common changes to the game include new wildlife, plantlife, and races, the ability to play as non-dwarven races, and changes to existing animal stats. Like [[BearsAreBadNews fire-breathing bears.]]
341** It's also been modded into Ancient Roman Fortress, VideoGame/{{Fallout}} Fortress and--inevitably--[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pony]] Fortress. There are both "beginners' versions" that are less [[NintendoHard sadistically difficult]] that turn your dorfs into little Terminators and versions that make every monster six times stronger. There's also some really ''dreadful'' cheating possibilities in playing with the raw files; it's possible to make your forges spit out {{Unobtanium}}, for instance, allowing your tiny outpost to fleece an Elven caravan out of everything they own in exchange for one earring.
342** FantasyGunControl? [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85060.0 Averted!]]
343** The wiki has a [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/40d:List_of_mods more]] [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/v0.31:List_of_mods extensive]] [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:List_of_mods list]].
344** Notably, the author of the game has said he wants the game to be as mod-friendly as possible. An example is that while he doesn't plan to have explosives in the "vanilla" game, once it's finished, he wants modders to be able to add this with just a tiny bit of code.
345* ''VideoGame/CortexCommand'', for now, is almost entirely a user-mod based game.
346* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', having been open to modders since the beginning, has a very large modding community with lots of mods to add on. Some add simple things like improved crafting recipes, others add [[VideoGame/TheAether entire new worlds]].
347** A community under the name of Bukkit has numerous plugins used on multiplayer servers (well, on the easier to manage Bukkit servers) with a variety of features. Some are for anti griefing measures, such as disabling damage to terrain by explosions and disabling fire from spreading, to having an in game economy for role playing purposes. The Bukkit community has gained so much attention and popularity that the developers of ''Minecraft'' have plans to incorporate the game with the Bukkit plugins to make modding easier. The plugins can be found [[http://bukkit.org/ here]].
348** There are also modpacks (multiple mods bundled into one) such as Feed the Beast, Yogbox, and so on.
349* ''Minetest'' is an open-world voxel game similar to ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' and even more moddable. It has had a "modding API" from the very beginning, also because its own built-in contents are connected over this API instead of being hard-coded. Essentially, ''Minetest'' itself is only an engine, but it comes with a game named ''minetest_game'' that takes its elements out of "mods". This means that you can not only add more mods to ''minetest_game'', but you can also install wholly new games completely independent from ''minetest_game'', ranging from countless more or less faithful ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' clones for those who complain that everything that makes ''Minetest'' different from ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks suck]] to games that simulate [[LandDownUnder Australia]] or [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic wastelands]] to ''Lord of the Test'' that takes you to [[Creator/JRRTolkien Middle Earth]].\
350Starting with version 0.4, the focus on modding grew when the new Minetest developers threw lots of features out of ''minetest_game'', making it fully playable but somewhat bare-bone, and leaving it to the community to soup it up with mods. Even with ''minetest_game'', ''Minetest'' has been turned into a modding platform.
351* A modding community has sprung up for ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' [[https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?forums/client-server-mods-tools.116/ on its official forums.]] As part of the Journey's End update, the modloader [=tModLoader=] was released as free DLC, effectively giving the playerbase the green light to keep modding the game.
352* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' has its mods uploaded both on the official forums and the Steam Workshop, the former is usually installed by simply extracting the mods content into the mods folder of the game. It also has a mega-mod project, ''VideoGame/FrackinUniverse'', which adds a lot of gameplay mechanic changes and features, for the cost of very long initial loading.
353* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'' has the [[https://donutteam.com Donut Mod]], as well as many other mods.
354* ''VideoGame/{{Factorio}}'', by design from the devs, is highly moddable through Lua. Modders are able to easily create new prototypes and scripts by writing them in the mod's Lua files. These mods range from quality-of-life mods, such as extended reach, automatic research, and a creative mode, to [[NintendoHard difficulty-increasing]] mods such as [[ComplexityAddiction Bob's Mods, Angel's Mods, and Marathon]]. All of these mods are hosted are on the [[http://mods.factorio.com official mod portal]].
355** The modder known as Earendel, who is largely known for his Space Exploration mod, was [[PromotedFanboy hired by Wube]] to help them work on their official ExpansionPack, Space Age.
356* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' Has 3 different mod repositories, with the mods inside ranging from autopilots and info displays to extra planets to new parts or an overhaul of the parts that are there and completely new experiments to run and tech trees to unlock with those experiments. There are also mods that replace the default planetary system with ones like our own and make rocket engines function more realistically.
357* ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' may have had a handful of mods made for it unlike the juggernaut that is ''GTA'', and the vanilla game was released to lukewarm reviews at best, but there has been a number of mods which aim to breathe new life into the hacker-themed open world game, like the [[https://www.pcgamesn.com/watch-dogs/living-city-mod LIVING_CITY]] mod which adds new sidequests and opens up previously-restricted interiors, a [[https://www.nexusmods.com/watchdogs/mods/38 Chevrolet]] {{C|oolCar}}amaro, and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/watch_dogs/comments/ei3u4k/elsa_goes_to_chicago_watch_dogs_mod/ Elsa]] and [[https://www.nexusmods.com/watchdogs/mods/57 Anna]] of ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' of all people, not to mention Carl Johnson from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' from the very same modder who brought CJ and Big Smoke to ''VideoGame/{{Sekiro}}''.
358* The modding community for ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' isn't quite as big as ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'''s, but it's there if you know where to look. One of the best known mods for the entire series is ''[[https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/gentlemen-of-the-row.24/ Gentlemen of the Row]]'' for ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2''. Among other things, this mod adds additional clothing and other customization options, new weapons, graphical tweaks, and some desperately needed bug fixes. Given the game's [[PortingDisaster trainwreck of a PC port]], getting ''Gentlemen of the Row'' is strongly recommended.
359[[/folder]]
360
361[[folder:Simulation]]
362* ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', a 'soldier sim' FPS by Bohemia Interactive was released in 2001, and still has addons and total conversion mods being made for it today. Its two sequels, ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}: Armed Assault'' and ''ARMA II'', maintain the modding community of its predecessor. The sheer volume of content people created for the former bears special mention. The developers kick-started it by including the mission editor, which allows players to create anything from a simple ''run around and kill a few guys'' scenario to full-blown combined arms battles far exceeding the complexity of the game's default missions. People soon went from creating their own missions to creating new weapons, soldiers, vehicles, and eventually whole new islands and a new Capture the Island mode, which is a pseudo-RTS game mode in which players battle for an entire island, using resources to build bases and buy equipment). In ''ARMA II'' the most "out there" examples would probably be ''naval'' combat and in particular ''submarine'' warfare of all things, both of which were probably never intended to be implemented by the devs... yet the modding community found a way. There's also been "cops and robbers" and VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto-style WideOpenSandbox "missions". The {{D|ownloadableContent}}LC for ''ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead'' was actually designed to facilitate this: ''British Armed Forces'' and ''Private Military Company'' consist of their respective campaigns and higher-quality textures/sounds for their respective units and weapons -- which were ''already'' in ''OA'', so that add-on creators could make use of them even without having the DLC.
363* ''VideoGame/TinyLife'': Has an extensive modding API detailed [[here https://docs.tinylifegame.com/]]
364* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' and its sequels allow easy creation and importation of new clothes, faces, and furniture. Website after website can be found with downloadable items that players have designed themselves. Briefly, ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' was changed to make it mod-unfriendly, but a later update changed that, if not back to the original mod-friendly design. It's also worth noting that ''Sims'' is perhaps the most popularly modded game, with the top sites for modding it getting tens of thousands of views a month. Also, a lot of the mods tend to add special features that would've made the game RatedMForMoney if they had been actually included in the base game -- there's one which uncensors nudity, one which lets you kill people, one which gives your Sims realistic genitals, and one called the "Super Nude" which turns the "WooHoo" action (which is simply two people going under the covers, making moans and laughing as the bed shakes in the unmodded version) into a full-blown 3D hentai session.
365* ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'', thanks to the release of its source code by Volition (under the Freespace 2 Source Code Project), is a frequent subject of Game Mods in the space sim community. The original relase's multiplayer is still functional with dedicated server hosted by the community.
366* ''VideoGame/SimCity 4'' has quite a bit of mods available at [[http://www.simtropolis.com Simtropolis]]. These mods can go from simple stuff like making the streets' dead-ends more rounded or making the water darker and more realistic, to downright cheating like ordinances that completely erase all pollution and crime from your city, to simple building addons, to entire expansion sets like the Network Addon Mod that adds avenue interchanges, diagonal-straight highway interchanges, roundabouts, walkways, train-street stacks, light rail and more, to completely new games like the [=SimMars=] mod that sets the game in Mars.
367* The mid-1990s game ''VideoGame/TransportTycoonDeluxe'' no longer even ''works'' on most computers without the help of Platform/DOSBox, due to its DOS-based format. However, ''[=OpenTTD=]'' is an open source emulation that still attracts lots of Game Mods called [=NewGRFs=], from replacement graphics to entire new industry chains, alterations to the interface and even whole new modes of transport (tramways recently added to complement the buses/trucks, trains/monorails/maglevs, planes and boats already in the game). One of the simpler [=NewGRFs=], to begin with, replaces the locomotives' in-game names with the real ones (e.g. "TIM" and "[=AsiaStar=]" are replaced with "TGV" and "Eurostar"). Other [=NewGRFs=] include train sets (sometimes at "encyclopedic" scales), landscape sets, town building sets and such inspired by certain parts of the world so you can make your ''[=OpenTTD=]'' game look and feel like North America, Australia, Japan or even more like England.
368** One of the requirements for the 1.0 release was that ''[=OpenTTD=]'' have full graphics, sound and music of its own under free and open licenses. From a ''VideoGame/TransportTycoonDeluxe'' viewpoint, ''[=OpenTTD=]'' is fully modded by default. This can be reversed, however. Also, multiple alternate music sets have become available meanwhile.
369** If [=NewGRFs=], AI scripts, game scripts and such don't cut it, and you need changes that require modifications to ''[=OpenTTD=]'''s code, there are so many patches for it that there have been and still are several patch packs that usually come with pre-compiled Windows binaries. Some past patches have found their way into the official trunk meanwhile, most notably Cargo Distribution.
370* The ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'' series has a large amount of fan-made mods made for it, usually to add creatures and objects not included in the game (such as many different extinct animals, mythological beings and cryptids and even some fictional monsters.). The first game even had an entire mod creation program created for it named APE -- since the animals were sprite-based, it was fairly easy to recolor them if you knew how.
371** ''Zoo Tycoon 2'' has had some particularly noticeable mods through the years, such as ''Radical Remake'', which gives the game a complete makeover to make it look more realistic, and ''Paranoia'', which focuses on cryptids and mythical monsters.
372* Tons of custom content are available for ''VideoGame/{{Creatures}}'' and its sequels: Objects, creature breeds, and occasionally new worlds/add-on rooms. Official tools to make CC have been available nearly from the start.
373* The ''VideoGame/{{Petz}}'' PC games have a dedicated modding community full of people, called hexers, who use hex-editors to create their own breeds of Dogz and Catz -- and even other creatures, from Horsez to Dragonz. Eventually, a hex-editor called LNZ Pro was created especially for Petz editing, and a tool called "Petz Workshop" made it possible for users with no hex-editing ability to visually design new Petz breeds in a user-friendly interface. Aside from new kinds of petz, people also like to create custom food and toyz, along with pretty much anything else imaginable. This is also true of the sister game, ''Babyz'', which runs on the same engine and is editable with the same tools. Although, most mods in Babyz tend to focus around making toyz, clothes, and hairstyles instead of whole new body shapes.
374* Falling Sand Game 4.4, the original powder game, allows for its physics files (which are just text files) to be modified easily. A community has sprung up around modding the game.
375* ''VideoGame/WingCommander Secret Ops'' is another favorite of the space sim fan community, for its relative ease of modifications. Its immediate predecessor, ''Prophecy'', has even had multiplayer activated by dedicated fans, the core code for which was DummiedOut due to production time constraints (but not before an ad was published hyping its multiplayer capability).
376* ''VideoGame/VegaStrike'' got [[http://wiki.vega-strike.org/MODs many mods]] in status from abandoned to frozen waiting for engine improvement to regularly updated. Includes ''VideoGame/WingCommander''/''Privateer'' universe and whatnot. Aside of stats and models, has MediaNotes/{{Python}} scripting for things like non-cockpit GUI, generation of dynamic universe and missions logic, XML-customizable AI, and XML+Python stock missions.
377* ''VideoGame/IDomination'' is a game mod for the ''VideoGame/TotalExtremeWrestling'' series, which put you in charge of a Professional Wrestling promotion. ''VideoGame/DeathOfTheTerritories'' is another such mod, which puts the player's promotion in the midst of the rise of Wrestling/{{WWE}} and the death of the other major promotions in the '80s.
378* ''VideoGame/{{Orbiter}}'' is essentially just a framework on which mods can be installed. There are literally thousands of them available, from ultra-high-resolution planet textures (running into the hundreds of megabytes ''per planet'') to accurate-to-the-second-and-centimeter recreations of ''every single manned spaceflight ever launched'' from Vostok to the Space Shuttle and everything in between, flyable versions of pretty much every experimental spacecraft, test plane, and lifting body to ever end up on a drawing board, fictional ships from every sci-fi universe imaginable and plenty of original ones as well, building block kits for constructing your own surface base or space station....the list goes on. The mods considered most essential are Orbiter Sound, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and UCGO/UMMU, which add a cargo system and a life support/crew system to the game respectively.
379** For the player ''extremely'' concerned with realism, there's a fanmade scenario floating around that includes the full constellation of active satellites in Earth orbit in updated-in-real-time accurate position. They would have included inactive satellites and space junk too, but most computers would have been unable to handle it.
380** With the right mods and enough time on your hands, it's possible for you to play out the entire history of spaceflight in sequence starting with Chuck Yeager's first supersonic flight and continuing through the decades up to the present day and beyond.
381** The mods have also extended to the creation of fanmade cooperative 'campaigns' in which players work together, each one flying a mission in sequence, to accomplish an objective; the frequent 'Orbiter Forum Space Station' campaigns are an archetypical example.
382* The open-source space simulator ''Celestia'' is also basically a frame to add mods, that range from more detailed textures or newly discovered celestial bodies to real or fictional spacecrafts and space stations, entire solar systems (also fictional or not), and even (pictures of) galaxies. Just search for the Celestia Motherlode as it's known.
383* ''VideoGame/IL2Sturmovik's'' avid global modding community makes lots of new maps, skins, missions and campaigns, addon planes and total conversions on a regular basis. Some more complex mods are a bit harder to implement into the game than others, but generally, the modding community has made mods for anything related to prop and jet plane combat flight simulation of the 20th century (particularly things from the WWI era up to the 1950s).
384* The WWII submarine simulation game ''VideoGame/SilentHunter'' has a huge amount of mods, most of which are oriented to give even more realism to the game (and make it even [[NintendoHard harder]]). Plus they may add new ships or planes and -in the case of ''Silent Hunter III''- you can even add sounds and short videos taken from the movie ''Film/DasBoot''.
385* The ''VideoGame/MechWarrior Living Legends'' total-conversion mod for ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} Warhead'' -- which adds in [[HumongousMecha battlemechs]], jet fighters, power armor, massive maps, and a huge array of vehicles and weapons. After a number of aborted sequels to ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 4'', it became the fandom's ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 5''
386* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' games contain a built-in script editor, and mods have been released that do everything from tweaking the AI to reduce ArtificialStupidity to (in one case) replacing the entire scenario with ''Series/BabylonFive''. Egosoft, the developer, is surprisingly open to mods, and for every game since X2, has released a Bonus Pack of signed scripts written and maintained by ''X'' forum member Lucike. This is important for two reasons. First, is that normally, adding scripts marks the game as modified, removing forum users from contention in rankings, which use in-game statistics uploaded to the forum. And second, having a modified game also disables Steam Achievements. Having the bonus pack scripts being signed, means they are 'vanilla' content and as such won't mark the game as modified. In the ''X3'' trilogy Egosoft often added content developed for fan mods into the main game, making them AscendedFanon. The OTAS corporation in ''X3: Terran Conflict'' began life in a mod for ''X3: Reunion'', and ''X3: Albion Prelude's'' 3.0 patch will be almost entirely composed of content developed by a modding group called the AP Community Project.
387* The ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'' "Bloodstar Mod" would add a bunch of unattainable NPC ships to multiplayer, at the cost of replacing all the Bora & Galspan ships ''and'' breaking the single-player campaign.
388* ''VideoGame/VectorThrust'' is designed ground up for mods with text-based game configuration files, extremely adaptive AI that can learn how to use custom-made weapons, and fully functional mission, map and campaign editors. Being a SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/AceCombat'', it's practically begging for its fans to churn out remakes of the classic [=PS2=] series.
389* The ''VideoGame/XWingAlliance'' Upgrade is a project that replaces all of the game's models and backdrops with much more detailed versions. The mod began almost as soon as the original game was released, and has been continuously releasing new packs for ''fifteen years''. Making the effort even more impressive is the fact that aside from commercial 3D modelling and graphics editing programs, all of the tools used by the project were ''made'' by the community, with no toolkits or other resources provided by the developers.
390** Both ''X-Wing: Alliance'' and ''VideoGame/XWingVsTIEFighter'' received further modifications in the form of new campaigns, ships, battles, and missions called [=ShipSets=]. And again, all using tools and editors developed internally by the modding community itself.
391** ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/tie-fighter-total-conversion-tftc TIE Fighter Total Conversion]]'' integrate the ''[[VideoGame/TIEFighter TIE Fighter]]'' missions in ''VideoGame/XWingAlliance''. It has very impressive visual updates and a remastered iMUSE soundtrack. They also added Reimagined missions which provide a whole new gameplay experience. Like ''X-Wing Alliance'', you also have your own quarters and you collect souvenirs from completed missions.
392* The ''VideoGame/MicrosoftFlightSimulator'' series was built around this, with the default game providing a bare-bones world and developers stepping up to provide more detailed options. ''VideoGame/MicrosoftFlight'' being completely closed off to third-party developers had a huge part in its FanonDiscontinuity status amongst die-hard flightsimmers.
393* ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons'':
394** ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonMagicalMelody: Rainbow Edition'' is a patch that allows {{Gay Option}}s in ''Magical Melody''.
395** ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonFriendsOfMineralTown: True Love Edition'' lets you [[GayOption marry the same-gender]]. There is also a ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonSunshineIslands'' version.
396** ''Harvest Moon: A Proud Life'' is a mod of ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'' that swaps around the models and changes the dialogue so that [[GayOption you can marry the same gender]].
397** The ''Pride Parade'' mod for ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAnimalParade'' adds in {{Gay Option}}s.
398** ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasonsTrioOfTowns: True Love Edition'' is a patch that allows {{Gay Option}}s in ''Trio of Towns''; it also makes fox spirit Inari's gender match your own and makes the dialogue fitting.
399* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' has a very large and dedicated modding community:
400** One of their best works being ''VideoGame/StardewValleyExpanded''. This mod is one of, if not ''the'', most famous mod, which as the name indicates greatly expands the village of Pelican Town, and adds new characters with some of them even being romanceable.
401** ''VideoGame/RidgesideVillage'' is another popular fan-made expansion mod, which adds the eponymous neighbouring town to the game, introducing new characters, including over 14 new romanceables, locations and a new storyline.
402[[/folder]]
403
404[[folder:Strategy]]
405* The second most played mod after ''Counter-Strike'', and also the second most played non-new release or MMO game online (after ''Counter-Strike'') is ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'', or [=DotA=]. It has become far more popular than normal-style ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3'' multiplayer matches.
406** The gameplay style got so popular that it got its own genre name -- MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena -- and various games and companies have jumped onto the bandwagon. These include Riot Games' ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', Gas Powered's ''VideoGame/{{Demigod}}'', and ''VideoGame/Dota2'' by ''Creator/ValveSoftware''.
407** In a funny case of HistoryRepeats, a ''Dota 2'' custom mod called ''Dota Auto Chess'' got so popular that various games and companies jumped on the bandwagon to create their own versions. These include Riot Games' ''Teamfight Tactics'', Blizzard's ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}: Battlegrounds'', and ''VideoGame/DotaUnderlords'' by ''Creator/ValveSoftware''.
408* Once upon a time ''Warcraft II'' had a mod called Kali, with the esoteric function of emulating a local area network between all players who were using Kali across the Internet. Blizzard took notes and built Battle.net.
409* The release of Warcraft III Reforged removed a lot of well-liked features, chiefly the ability to play custom campaigns. The [[https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/quenching-mod-latest-v1-9.331686/ Quenching mod]] was made in response to that particular issue.
410* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'':
411** In general, for every ''Total War'' game released, savvy players know it's only a matter of time before a bunch of modders get together to put together and release a mod that aims to correct any historical inaccuracies and gameplay issues.
412** The ''Europa Barbarorum'' mod for ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar'' began with the intent to revise the game scenario to be as historically correct as possible. The current 1.2 version is a hugely ambitious mod incorporating retextured units, an extremely detailed trait system intended to simulate various aspects of cultural and political life of the time, building descriptions giving considerable amount of historical background information and, perhaps most notably, having original unit voices and commands replaced with new ones in Latin, Attic Greek, Gallic, Q-Celtic, Punic, Pahlav and Proto-Germanic. They have even offered their expertise to Paradox Interactive for the title ''Europa Universalis: Rome'' Another mod, ''Rome: Total Realism'', aims to do much the same. Explaining the differences between the two would take up this whole page, and in the end which one you use is a matter of personal preference. ''Both'' are excellent, however. The ''Extended Greek Mod'' also aims for realism and enlargement of the game, but also seeks to preserve the "look and feel" of vanilla ''Rome''.
413** There is a very popular mod based on ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' called ''VideoGame/TheFourthAgeTotalWar''. This mod takes an abandoned manuscript for a ''[=LotR=]'' sequel by Creator/JRRTolkien called "The New Shadow" and runs with the concept by interpreting Middle-Earth as it may be in a ''Total War'' scenario, with Gondor dealing with its people turming evil. It is also filled it with tons of references to Tolkien's work and keeping it true to the spirit of the stories. Even six years since ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar'' was released, this mod is still being worked un and updated due to the developers' insistence on detail, making sure it is released as bug free and finished as possible and also due to the flexibility in design that Rome was. Currently the team is on version 2.6, which has the factions of Rohan, Dunland, the Gondorian regions of the Reunited Kingdom and other factions which have all be fleshed out and fit into the world. Due for release this year is version 3.0, which will add Elves, Dwarves and [[Literature/TheHobbit Dale]] as playable factions, as well as opening up the western and norther regions of Middle-earth, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome including the lands of Arnor]], the northern part of the Reunited Kingdom.
414** There are numerous mods for ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'', some of the most popular being ''[[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=314 Stainless Steel]]'', ''[[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=346 Broken Crescent]]'', and ''VideoGame/ThirdAgeTotalWar''. ''Third Age'' has become what many consider to be one of the biggest and most comprehensive mods ever. It transports the base game from medieval Europe to Middle-earth, complete with hundreds of new units, generals, and game mechanics meant to simulate Middle-earth.
415** The Chinese fanbase's mods that usually explore periods of time that a Western player may not have heard of in other video games (aside from Three Kingdoms, because well... it's Three Kingdoms). There are mods that focus on the fall of the Song Dynasty and the fall of the Qing Dynasty that ranges from the 2nd Opium War up to the Boxer Rebellion. Future mods will also include the Ming Empire, the Imjin War, and even something more obscure: The First Sino-Japanese War. Late 1800s Korean military probably has never showed up in a video game, let alone in historically accurate dress.
416** A hugely ambitious mod for ''VideoGame/NapoleonTotalWar'' -- a game that is far more difficult to mod than its predecessors -- sets the game in the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI First World War]]. It includes period-accurate artillery, gas weapons, flamethrowers, tanks, and mass swarms of infantry. It can be found [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-great-war-mod here]].
417** The ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'' games have received extensive modding, ranging from map tweaks to new units to balance overhauls to the introduction of entire factions. The most individually notable is ''Simply Fun Overhaul: Grimhammer'' (usually shortened to ''SFO'' or ''Grimhammer''), a game-wide rework of units stats, game balance and abilities intended to make the game play much closer to its tabletop inspiration, and which more recent mods are often designed to be compatible with.
418* ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth'' is a popular modding target, given the setting and concept of a ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' strategy game, with most mods attempting to tweak the gameplay, add new canonical factions, or make the overall game more like the books or films. The two most famous are likely ''VideoGame/{{Edain}}'', which retools the second game to add systems from the first, and ''VideoGame/AgeOfTheRing'', which focuses more on heavily upgrading the gameplay of the second game. Both also end up significantly upgrading the number of factions on display, going from seven major factions in the base game and expansion to nine in the former and ''eleven'' in the latter.
419* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': When the game first came out, fans knew that they weren't going to get all of the 10+ different armies (not counting sub-armies) that are available for the tabletop wargame. So naturally, mods to put the other armies into the game were begun ''before the game was even finished'', as soon as the beta was released. Of course, due to the Expansion Packs that came out late, nine of those armies presently are or soon will be in the game, including many ones that had mods in progress. This doesn't stop the modders, who are shifting to gameplay tweaks, adding units not in the game, and making present units closer to their tabletop abilities.
420* The ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' franchise has a number of mods, particularly mods for the third game.
421** ''In the Wake of Gods'' is a massive mod for III that mainly focuses on adaptable script language, but with new creatures and adventure objects as well. Its very flexible, and is the basework that many other mods are built on.
422** ''VideoGame/HornOfTheAbyss'' is arguably the most popular mod for III. It adds tonnes and tonnes of new content, including new playable towns without replacing any existing ones (something previously thought impossible), new neutral creatures, new terrain types, balance changes for lots of old content, and fully-realised campaigns with animatic cutscenes. It also heavily focuses on lore-friendliness and a feeling of consistency with the base game.
423** ''Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars'' is a full conversion mod that resdesigns III's RealIsBrown aesthetic into a near one-to-one version of II's cartoony 16-bit graphics. It also restores many features lost in the transition between games.
424** ''Equilibris'' is a mod for IV that finishes many of the features that were never added to the original game due to [=3DO=]'s bankruptcy. As the name suggests, the main goal is balancing the game properly, but it also adds new features to the map editor, creature dwellings that were previously absent, and new map objects.
425* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'': Various games have total conversion mods that usually use a later engine for an older game: ''Tiberian Dawn'' on the ''Tiberian Sun'' engine, all previous games on the ''Generals'' engine, ''Tiberian Sun'' (Reborn) and ''Red Alert'' ([[https://w3dhub.com/#/games-apb A Path Beyond]]) on the ''Renegade'' FPS engine, and I didn't mention ''Tiberium Wars'' yet.
426** There was a Generals-to-Red-Alert-2 TC but when news of ''Red Alert 3'' came out, development ceased. Another promising project was Halogen, a Generals TC to ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' -- however, ExecutiveMeddling on the part of Microsoft (more specifically a cease-and-desist letter, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive no doubt due to]] ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' being in development) destroyed all trace of it.
427** The ''Tiberian Sun''/''Red Alert 2'' engine is practically a modder's wet dream, with all unit, etc. parameters being written into INI files in plain English and requiring nothing more than Notepad. While many things are hardcoded into the executables and are thus untouchable, modders found a way around that too with [=RockPatch=] (buggy EXE hack), [=NPatch=] (even more buggy EXE hack) and more recently Ares (DLL injection, still in alpha version).
428** While not technically a mod, there has been an open-source recreation of ''Tiberian Dawn'', ''Red Alert'', and ''Dune 2000''. This same project is trying to extend the engine to be capable of recreating ''Tiberian Sun'' and ''Red Alert 2''.
429* Games from Creator/ParadoxInteractive have a lot of mods. Paradox make life easy for the mod community by storing most of the game data in text files, so they can be edited with nothing more complicated than Notepad, and have dedicated sections on their official forum.
430* It's not surprising that ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' had a large number of mods, including total conversions, given the game was popular; it is rather more surprising that its much less successful sequel, ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation: Kingdoms'', had just as many. The versatility of the engine often resulted in additional races or total conversions that many believe are better than the original game.
431** A team of fans has reverse engineered the ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' engine to create their own SpiritualSuccessor, titled ''[[https://www.beyondallreason.info/ Beyond All Reason]]''. It also has some ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' vibes mix into it.
432* ''VideoGame/{{Spring}}'', a TA-inspired engine positively saturated with great games (most of them free) that are all referred to as "mods".
433* A strangely popular pursuit is taking one RTS game and making a total conversion mod to essentially turn it into another RTS game 'as seen through the first game's engine'. For example, there are mods that turn ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' into ''Red Alert'', ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' into ''Red Alert'', ''Total Annihilation: Kingdoms'' into ''VideoGame/CossacksEuropeanWars'', and so on and so forth. Attempts are being made to make ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' run on Linux by using the Strategus engine. Strategus doesn't support free-roaming units, idle animation, critters, or many of the mechanisms used in {{Easter Egg}}s at all, and the creep, Pylon power, and building liftoffs would require at ''least'' some minor modifications to the engine itself... [[PortingDisaster good luck with that]].
434* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'':
435** ''v1.13'', whose name is derived from v1.12 being the last official patch. ''The'' mod, continually updated to this day, which completely revamps the game and even adds an online multiplayer mode! Some of the gameplay changes such as the New Inventory system (revising characters' gear so that they would have to wear Load-Bearing Equipment "containers" such as vests, backpacks, and rucksacks), the revised equipment system and the 100-point Action Point system were great. To get an idea at how huge this mod is, it adds in around 725 new firearms into a game that originally had around 20.
436** The ''Unfinished Business'' expansion was built specifically to support new campaigns. It even included tools for editing things that were previously hard-coded.
437** Two major mods were created by hacking the original game's source code. They are ''Urban Chaos'' and ''Wildfire'', both developed simultaneously by two different teams for several years after the release of the original game. Eventually, the company that owned the rights to [=JA2=] at the time offered both teams the chance to release their mods as commercial expansions (similar to the ''VideoGame/HalfLife1''/''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' deal). The Russian team that made Wildfire eventually took the offer, their mod was released commercially, and the package included the source code for the game executable (published under a semi-open license, paving the way to 1.13).
438** By 2010, ''Jagged Alliance 2'', ''Unfinished Business'' and ''1.13'' have several dozen campaigns available between them, not to mention many MANY item packages, map packages, and other enhancements. [=JA2=] is easily one of the most heavily modded games released before the year 2000, overtaking even such games as ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' in sheer volume.
439* For a game released in 2003, ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2'' has a lot of mods. These come in two flavors, discounting total conversions:
440** The first are mods that aim to enhance how the two races play out. The most popular are arguably the Complex Mod, and the Point Defense System (PDS) mod. Both added tons of extra features and customizations, essentially making the game more complex (''especially'' in, well, Complex, where rank, soldier population, and morale system is introduced). PDS started out as...a small mod for point defense systems, which became the popular mod they are now. The Tactical Fleet Simulator mod aims somewhat differently unlike the former two. While Complex and PDS emphasizes grand strategy with a lot of decked out units and careful planning, TFS gives decked out units purposely built for intense, fast-paced combats which ups the "tactics" aspect more than "strategy" aspect, which the game is already good for anyway.
441** The second flavor are mods that try to insert additional races, while mostly retaining original units. These can either mean original units, or factions from the original Homeworld. So far, the most successful one is the ''Chinese''-made FX mod, which adds almost all of HW1's factions, some of them having completely new starships. Their crowning awesome is that they added the [[NeglectfulPrecursors Progenitor]] race from HW2, which, in-game, only consists of 4-5 separate units at best. They expanded the race using both unused concept sprites, mishmashed existing units (which they did VERY well), or design from scratch.
442** As for total conversions, there's a rather sweet one here: ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/battlestargalactica-fleetcommander Battlestar Galactica Fleet Commander]]'', a total conversion for -- shock -- ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. Here's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA1hey3FYjc nice video]] displaying gameplay, in this case ''Pegasus'' taking on three Cylon basestars.
443* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'':
444** There are ''hundreds'', if not THOUSANDS of mods for ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV''. Firaxis, the developer company, actively encourages modding:
445*** ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'', a mod that replaces historical recreation with dark fantasy, and adds more than a few layers to the game. Also contains a healthy dose of WorldHalfEmpty and horror for flavor.
446*** Several mods were developed by dev team members themselves and came bundled with the original game, including ''Next War'' (a heckuvalot like ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'') and ''Final Frontier'' (a space-based mod with an original storyline, which has itself been modded for various science-fiction things, such as ''Series/Babylon5''). Additionally, "Rhye's and Fall of Civilization," the ''Civilization IV'' form of the great ''Civilization III'' mod "Rhye's of Civilization," was also bundled despite being a fandom mod.
447*** The Better AI mod (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin) is used in the base of the Beyond the Sword expansion.
448*** Not only are there mods of ''Civilization IV'', but there are modmods of these mods, and on top of that, ''[[SerialEscalation modmodmods]]''.
449** ''Civilization V'':
450*** [[PlayerCreationSharing An in-game mod browser]] includes the Vanilla Enhanced Mod (game balance), the Unofficial Patch (bug fixes), and [=NiGHTS=] (reworks the whole game; no relation to the Sega game of the same name). There are even mods that cross the boundaries of designer, genre, and setting, such as bringing in [[Franchise/MassEffect Asari, Geth, Quarian and Turian civilizations]], although by the nature of the game, most of the units still look human.
451*** The Vox Populi, which completely reworks a number of mechanics (including city-states being more complex and the tech tree being heavily overhauled), improves the AI, adds systems like corporations and vassal states, and offers a BalanceBuff to many civs.
452*** There are various "ethnic units" mods, which do exactly what they say, making it so that, for instance, Zulu don't have [[BlackVikings white-guy spearmen]] until they're upgraded into Impi. There are mods that add in whole extra mechanics, often from the old games, such as tech trading and disease.
453*** There are mods that add new civs to the game, which number in the hundreds if not thousands. On the serious end of the spectrum, you have new civs that add important or obscure historical civs that the base game skipped (from the Goths to the Congo to the Papal States to Nubia to Australia to Sumeria to Scotland), or even [[DecompositeCharacter split up the base-game civs]] to reflect different or notable periods in their history (for instance, breaking up India into the Gupta Empire, the Mughal Empire, and modern India). Then you have ones that add in fictional civs like [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the Seven Kingdoms]], [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Mordor]], [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker the Militaires Sans Frontieres]], or [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas the NCR]]. And then you have ones that just take random characters and base a nation on them - including the entire ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' cast, [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Hatsune Miku]], Franchise/{{Batman}}, [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Bateman]], [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises CIA]], and the notorious GameBreaker, [[Creator/{{Valve}} Gabe Newell]].
454* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 3'' coded an incredible amount of its game data in easy-to-modify spreadsheets. Given the number of {{Game Breaking Bug}}s and incredibly odd mechanics in general, many players found a modded game the only playable version.
455* Magna Mundi, a popular mod for ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis III'', got an upgrade to "full game", developed by the mod team but for commercial release instead. As did Arsenal of Democracy and Darkest Hour for ''Hearts of Iron 2''. In fact Paradox encourages moders to form teams that will create something for them to publish.
456* ''WebOriginal/RedAlert3Paradox'' was a highly ambitious ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' mod notable for its accompanying wiki project, which is slowly building a detailed 1960s Cold War world out of the highly limited basis of the original game.
457* The ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' series from III onwards. III shipped with a modding tool, while IV and V run on text files.
458* The 4X game in space game ''[[VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations Galactic Civilizations 2: The Dread Lords]]'', especially after the expansion packs are added, can be modded quite significantly. Mods can include new technologies, whole new tech trees, weapons, planetary buildings, ships, races, and more. There are many total conversion mods that turn it into Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and more. The game's data is stored in organized text files and can be edited using Notepad, however many editing tools, including some official ones, are available.
459* ''VideoGame/RockRaiders'' was built primarily using .wad files, and so extraction tools have been made to reveal simple English code, easily changable models and animations, levels that editors were made for, easy images, etc. Now more building, monsters, levels, raiders, new models and animations, even overhaul mods are being made.
460* ''VideoGame/{{Myth}} II'' came with a couple of very good editors; it was actively modded for many years, and to some extent still is. In this player's experience, it has more stand-alone mods than any game made before 2000 except ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'', and ''VideoGame/HalfLife''... and the fact that it's the only non-FPS on that list says something. Moreover, many of those mods (The Seventh God, Jinn, Chimera, Bushido) are large campaigns on par with the originals, and have been included as bonus content in commercial releases such as ''The Total Codex'' and ''Myth II: Worlds''.
461* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' has several mods as well, with the Franchise/{{Gundam}}-inspired Gundam Century (ultimately having gotten killed while still in beta from a combination of disillusionment on the part of the creator and a cease-and-desist letter on the part of Bandai) being only one of them. VideoGame/{{Huncraft}} is an Hungarian-exclusive game mod, that works in the spirit of an actual expansion pack, only with fully translated unit speeches, menus and tooltips.
462* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series -- particularly the Platform/GameBoyAdvance installments -- has quite a prolific Romhacking scene, to the point where there are [[https://forums.serenesforest.net/index.php?/forum/8-fan-projects/ multiple]] [[https://feuniverse.us/ communities]] [[http://www.feshrine.net/hacking/ dedicated]] to Romhacks. Some hacks are simply translations of games that didn't get exported, [[https://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?/topic/54893-rom-hack-and-fan-game-directory/&page=1 but some are]] [[https://feuniverse.us/t/the-fire-emblem-fangame-directory-please-add-your-own-hacks/3339 a little more]] [[http://www.feshrine.net/hacking/patches.php complicated.]] Particularly ambitious ones include ''VideoGame/ElibianNights'', an extensive MissionPackSequel to ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Blazing Blade]]'', ''Project Ember'', a full remake of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' that revamps almost every character and system in the game, and ''Sun God's Wrath'', ''Vision Quest'', and ''VideoGame/TheLastPromise'', which have completely new stories, maps, and casts, blurring the line between a mod and an outright fangame. And then there's [[http://vilkalizer.tumblr.com/post/150360116337/it-continues Dorcas Emblem]]...
463** Randomization mods are quite common, with the exact settings varying from the game being fundamentally the same but with the playable cast having different classes or swapped join times, to a complete anarchy where iron swords have siege weapon range and single-digit hit rates.
464** "Reverse Recruitment" is something of a variation on the above, in that it swaps the order of recruitable units: typically leading to the EleventhHourRanger now being the main protagonist and vice versa. To avoid completely destroying the game's challenge, these mods also increase or reduce the stats of the new unit in line with the one they're replacing, which can lead to the surreal experience of the max-level master Swordmaster or mighty Sage being a level 1 weakling who needs to be spoon-fed XP. ''Binding Blade'''s reverse recruitment is particularly famous, as it swaps the main character for Karel, a character infamous for boasting the highest growths in the franchise by far--meaning that when de-leveled, he ends up with a base statline of mostly zeros.
465** For the most hardcore players, 0% growth mods are quite easy to make. These mods remove the game's stat growths on level-ups, [[LowLevelRun effectively locking characters to their join-time stats]] and resulting in a kind of fanmade HarderThanHard mode. This forces the player to rely on CrutchCharacter units and the few forms of guaranteed stat growth that do exist, such as statboosting items or class-change bonuses. The exact level of difficulty this provides varies heavily from game to game, though that hasn't stopped some people from outright ''speedrunning'' them.
466** While mods of the 3DS games are harder to come by (mostly due to Nintendo's policy on homebrew), one of the better ones known out there is a mod that allows the randomization of classes and the order one receives units, in addition to the growths, and in the case of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', the personal skill of the character. There's also the 'Gay Awakening' and 'Gay Fates' mod that, despite the name, allows for same-sex marriage supports and other marriage supports that otherwise wouldn't be possible in game (such as Chrom/Cordelia and any marriage with a character that only marries the Avatar normally).
467* ''VideoGame/AdvancedStrategicCommand'' have sets ranging from ''Battle Isle'' recreations to its own "more realistic" group, and beyond, being optimized for easy creation of rulesets. Even if you can set one sprite per weather, a custom sound for each weapon, etc, only one sprite per unit/building/object/terrain is really necessary and abstract elements of TechTree don't need even that. Data packs are additive and can be cherry-picked on each map, and raw game data other than sprites and maps is all written in plain text and with object inheritance, so properties universal for e.g. all infantry, all drydocks or all anti-air cannons are written only once, in parent class. And what you can't do in data, you can do on a map by using MediaNotes/{{Lua}}.
468* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' usually tends towards translation patches, but a few modded games exist. One noteworthy example is ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration 2: Axel Version'', which swaps the roles of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAdvance''[='s=] main characters, having Axel Almer get amnesia and join the heroes while Lamia Loveless stays with the evil Shadow Mirror.
469* The [[VideoGame/CrusaderKingsIIGameOfThronesMod Game of Thrones mod]] for [[VideoGame/CrusaderKings Crusader Kings II]], making the game of thrones ''literal''.
470* There's also the mod ''VideoGame/AfterTheEndAPostApocalypticAmerica'', which transplants ''Crusader Kings'' mechanics into a FeudalFuture[=/=]AfterTheEnd North America (the map also includes parts of South America).
471* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' has an impressive modding community, with an entire sub-forum on the [[https://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=80e132f28cd63f6dd46786c4c4ebecf3 official forum]] just for mods. The mods range from purely aesthetic mods (such as "Better Planets and Backgrounds"), to new ships you can play the game with (anything between "old-school fighter-planes from World War II" and "the [[Series/DoctorWho TARDIS]]" have been created), all the way up to total-game-overhauls, such as "Captain's Edition," "Infinite Space" ([[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant no, not]] [[VideoGame/InfiniteSpace that one]]) and "Descent Into Darkness".
472* ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'''s community brings us the ''[[VideoGame/XCOMLongWar Long War]]'' mod, which extends the campaign, but more importantly, makes it [[NintendoHard FAR more difficult]], to the point that the readme for the mod has several warnings that no matter how good you are at the base game, you're going to want to play the mod on Normal difficulty the first time. A deeper tactical focus and expanded class and item trees makes the game genuinely different. The game's developers themselves said that it "takes the game to a whole new level".
473* [[http://openxcom.org/ OpenXcom]] started as an engine remake for ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' and ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'', but with easy moddability in mind -- using YAML (whitespace-formatted text) and common multimedia formats ([=MP3=], OGG, GIF, PNG). Mods vary from minor cosmetic fixes -- like uniform colour scheme for all laser weapons or auto mode for heavy laser -- to changing terrain -- like adding extra UFO floor plans or accelerating operatives' speed on the damned exit ramp -- to total conversions -- like ''Xeno Operations'', ''VideoGame/{{Piratez}}'' or ''VideoGame/TheXCOMFiles''.
474* ''VideoGame/{{Anbennar}}'' brings ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis IV'''s colonial era setting into a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-esque world.
475* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'':
476** Due to its highly modifiable nature, tons of mods are available on the Steam Workshop and other sources. They range from graphics tweaks to rebalancing the gameplay to introducing entirely new stuff (primarily skins, portraits, traits, or ships up to PlanetSpaceship and ''[[https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/eekx55/is_this_what_kurzgesagt_meant_by_moving_a_solar/ beyond]]''!).
477** Being SpaceOpera-themed, there are total conversion mods based on popular franchises in that same genre, such as ''[[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=688086068 ST: New Horizons]]'' for ''Franchise/StarTrek'', and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce2rqkHdytk Fallen Republic]]'' for ''Franchise/StarWars''.
478* ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'':
479** Hearts of Iron 4 might as well be the Garry's Mod of Strategy Games. The simple "focus tree" system, alongside the events, allows to anything from simple and silly "change your ideology, conquer the world" trees, to complex, story-driven mods with tight continuity. The simple way of crafting stories and the facility of adding new leaders made the mod a goldmine not only for mods set into alternate histories, but there are popular, massive mods on fictional universes such as Fallout and My Little Pony.
480* Modders of ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'' have made [[FandomRivalry the ultimate showdown]] between ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ''Franchise/StarWars''. Choose between [[TheFederation the UFP]], [[ProudWarriorRace the Klingon Empire]], [[TheEmpire the Galactic Empire]] and [[TheResistance the Rebel Alliance]]. [[https://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-vs-star-wars-total-conversion/news/star-trek-vs-star-wars-for-star-trek-re-released Can be found here]].
481[[/folder]]
482
483[[folder:Survival Horror]]
484
485* ''VideoGame/LethalCompany'': Dozens of mods exist for the game. These include removing the four player cap (the popular ''More Company'' mod), cosmetic changes like changing the Bracken to [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys Freddy Fazbear]] or [[Manga/DragonBall Goku]], and the Coil-Heads to a literal [[Series/DoctorWho Weeping Angel]], to adding costumes for you and your team to wear, to new maps like an abandoned [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP facility]] or a VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} world, to anti-trolling measures (ie using the air horn or clown horn in excess has a chance of making your head explode and thus killing you), to new monsters (ie the Boomba or Mimic, the former being a land mine on wheels and the latter being a monster that disguises itself as a fire exit). to new enemy behavior (ie the infamous Skinwalkers mod which records your mic and then lets enemies play them back later to scare or trick you, most effective with the masks). Some just swap sound samples (changing the loot bug audio to ''Yippee!'' or [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Mr. Krabs grumbling]]). And cosmetic ones that just replaces the posters on the ship with pictures of Creator/RyanReynolds or MediaNotes/{{furr|yFandom}}ies.
486* The "[[https://residentevilmodding.boards.net/thread/13429/re4-welcome-mod-release Welcome to Hell]]" mod for ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' turns nearly ''every normal mook'' (not counting the ambient snakes in containers and set bosses like Mendez, Del Lago, etc.) into their DemonicSpider cousins instead; [[ChainsawGood Dr. Salvador for Village inhabitants, Super Salvador for Island inhabitants]], and [[WolverineClaws Garradors for Castle inhabitants]]. Only those who truly want pain and suffering or [[ChallengeSeeker a nightmarish challenge]] would ''ever'' try this mod just because of those changes.
487[[/folder]]
488
489[[folder:Miscellaneous]]
490* Starting around April 2020, ''VideoGame/AIDungeon2'' updated with the ability for users to make custom scenarios/prompts public for others to play. Naturally, a vast majority of these prompts consist of either Rule34, shitposts, or, oddly enough, ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' of all things. Its imitators such as ''VideoGame/NovelAI'' also included such features.
491* ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' has a rather active modding community focusing around custom songs: the use of an [=MP3=] and a custom note chart to create songs not on the game disk. Said community was the inspiration for the custom song feature in ''World Tour''.
492** And speaking of ''World Tour'', the ''[[VideoGame/GuitarHeroWorldTourDefinitiveEdition Definitive Edition]]'' mod not only brings quality-of-life improvements to the game, it also ported over most if not all content from previous and subsequent ''Guitar Hero'' installments. On top of that, it also adds support for custom content such as new concert venues and characters, which naturally led to some interesting MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover band lineups.
493* Both the arcade and Platform/PlayStation2 versions ''VideoGame/InTheGroove'' can be hacked to include custom themes and songs. As it is based on a VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution VideoGame/{{s|tepMania}}imulator which requires fan-made content to play, it is very easy to port content made for ''VideoGame/StepMania'' over to ''VideoGame/InTheGroove''. Even without hacking, the arcade version allows players to play custom songs and custom stepcharts for pre-existing songs.
494* Most ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' arcade cabinets can also accept custom stepcharts from either USB or Platform/PlayStation memory cards. A hacked cabinet can also have custom stepcharts built-in, as well as allow modifiers like Fuwafuwa (usually found only in Oni courses) selectable in regular play, and change the color scheme/theme.
495* ''Franchise/TombRaider'' has a level editor, which was released [[LongRunners back in 2000]], but to this day still has many users developing content for it. It is easy to use due to its InvisibleGrid system, but this is somewhat restrictive and gives a very "blocky" appearance. The level editor is for an old [=PS1=] game engine, but modifications and patching have allowed for almost-[=PS2=] quality graphics. Notable levelsets include:
496** ''Tomb Raider 1: Revised'' and ''Unfinished Business Remake'', almost perfect recreations of the original game and GaidenGame keeping as faithful as was possible with the engine at the time (some things had to be modified or removed). They were created because the games were totally unplayable on most modern computers without the use of extra programs (which cost money)
497** ''Himalayan Mysteries'', an OriginalFlavor epic that took five years to make, elaborating on the story behind the original continuity's claim that Lara was involved in a plane crash at age 17, rather than age 9 as stated in the ContinuityReboot.
498** ''VideoGame/TRSearch HQ: Emergency'', a bizarre, PaintingTheMedium-esque game in which Lara must stop the level editor itself from being hacked. Contains "British Mountain Ranges" just a few minutes away from Lara's mansion in Surrey.
499** ''Tomb Raider 4 Gold: Fading Light'', notably based on the developer's concept for a Franchise/TombRaider: 4 {{G|aidenGame}}old that was cancelled.
500** ''Tomb Raider Anniversary: Retold'', a fan-made remake of the original Tomb Raider which comes from fan disappointment with Crystal Dynamics' remake (Tomb Raider: Anniversary). The goal is to produce a [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks more faithful and respectful]] remake of the original game, with elements of the [[{{Vaporware}} cancelled]] remake that was being made by [[MyRealDaddy Core Design]] prior to the ContinuityReboot. After almost two years of development, the first quarter of the game has been released to mixed reviews due to flaws in the control scheme and dull (by [[SeriousBusiness TRLE standards]]) lighting. The project leader was a bit delusional about the [[GiftedlyBad quality of his work]], and developed [[SmallNameBigEgo an ego problem]]. That's not a mean thing to say because he's [[SelfDeprecation the one typing this]]. It would appear that TRLE users hate it, while standard-fare TR fans adore it.
501* ''Heboris'' started off as a simple clone of ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster 2 -- The Absolute PLUS''. Official development of it stagnated in 2002, but 2ch posters decided to take it upon themselves to add many mods to it such as more rotation systems and more modes. These additions were collaborated into ''Heboris Unofficial Expansion''. Unfortunately, development has stopped because the code--a mix of C++ and a Japanese game script--has turned into a complete mess, and attempts to expand on it have proven futile. For this reason (somewhat), a new ''Tetris'' clone, ''VideoGame/NullpoMino'', has been produced, and is much more add-on friendly due to the game data being more modular. Many mods for ''[=NullpoMino=]'', such as the ''[[GaidenGame Tetris: The Grand Master ACE]]'' modes and the infamous Phantom Mania mode, were incorporated by the author into later releases, with credit given to the original modders.
502* FCEUX, an NES emulator, features Lua scripting. Lua scripts can directly modify the game's variables. They can also accept user input. The result: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XNTjVScm_8 Mario, meet Kirby Canvas Curse.]] Another example is [[https://tracebullet.net/2019/02/01/metroid-nes-lua-script-for-fceux-by-neill-corlett/ Neill Corlett's script]] for ''VideoGame/Metroid1'', which adds some elements of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', like automapping, and even allows mouse interaction on some screens. [=SNES9x=], an SNES emulator, also does Lua scripting, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHKhMxjEWgU as shown here]].
503* Midway produced unofficial sequels of ''VideoGame/PacMan'' despite only being the distributor of the games for Namco. One of these was ''Ms. Pac Man'', based on a hack of the original game called ''Crazy Otto'', developed by another company with no official connections then to Pac-Man. Incidently, of the Midway Pac-Man games, only Ms. Pac Man was adopted by Namco.
504* PC sports games have active modding communities, mainly ''VideoGame/{{FIFA|Soccer}}'' and ''VideoGame/ProEvolutionSoccer'': every new season of each game is shortly followed by hundreds of mods adding kits for unlicensed teams, faces for generic-looking players, additional teams and leagues that were not represented in the vanilla game, or even gameplay tweaks. The list goes on and on. By the way, ''PES'' mods aren't restricted to PC, and can be made for [=PlayStation=] 2 too, with certain specific editors.
505* ''VideoGame/{{Darius}} Gaiden'' got an official (allegedly) hack called ''Darius Gaiden Extra'', which cranks up the autofire rate, rearranges the stages, and adds an option to play all 28 stages, instead of just 7 of them. Strangely for an arcade game, it also adds a pause function.
506* ''VideoGame/StarTrekBridgeCommander'' starts out with only a few dozen ships of okay quality. Players have added HUNDREDS of ships with quality that makes most older computers cry (due to high numbers of polygons and large textures). There's even new play modes and campaigns, as well as UI and interactivity improvements. ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' (and Cryptic's next major project, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Neverwinter) have the Foundry, a custom mission creator that works the same way that ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights''' Aurora toolset does.
507* The ''VideoGame/GliderPRO'' scenario [="SeaCaves"=] was more than just a custom level; it included a patch for the game program which changed the graphics for just about everything to fit in with its UnderTheSea environment. Only the glider itself still looked the same, except for a temporary transformation into a dolphin.
508* ''VideoGame/{{Aquaria}}'' has a built-in level editor and a menu option set aside for accessing mods. The modding community doesn't really extend far beyond the game's official forum, but there have been some fairly decent mods created, including [[https://www.moddb.com/mods/sacrifice a fan-made prequel to the game proper]].
509* [[VideoGame/WindomXP Ultimate Knight Windom XP]] ''lives'' from this. Being essentially a GundamVS-based game on its own, it was just a matter of time before packs like [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED SEEDmod]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Wind00m]] and a ''buttload'' of various graphic, robot and pilot mods appear. And there's still more to come.
510* [[VideoGame/RobotArena Robot Arena 2]] has the DSL: Total Conversion mod, which completely revamps the game, ironing out some bugs, adding all new components to make the game more realistic, and even including replica robots of such famous machines as Biohazard, Razer, Nightmare, Chaos 2 and Hypno-Disc. Said modded version is ''far'' more popular than the original version.
511* Having character [[TheCameo Cameo]] appearances in games continues to be a popular hobby among amateur modders, particularly with FirstPersonShooter and WideOpenSandbox games. For instance, a number of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' players (mostly those who play the single player games like Episode 1 and Episode 2) have substituted [[ActionGirl Alyx Vance]] with other famous characters such as [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-80SocVHO8]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCvpM6e9XIQ]], [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Miku Hatsune]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9vVIRtDCAw]], [[Anime/DigimonTamers Renamon]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6LHQh5gFVI]], and [[VideoGame/DeadOrAlive Ayane]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpGDzrX0Dtk]], to name a few examples, just to watch them perform actions normally not expected of them.
512* ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' has a [[http://oni.bungie.org/community/forum/index.php mod community]] dedicated to producing the [[http://oni.bungie.org/community/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1629 Anniversary Edition]] which replaces some DummiedOut content and [[LetsGetDangerous seriously upgrades]] the original [[ArtificialStupidity combat AI]].
513* Thanks to the [[http://exult.sourceforge.net/ Exult]] engine, mods can be made for ''VideoGame/UltimaVII''.
514* Many a CreepyPasta deals with a hacked (or [[HauntedTechnology haunted]]) game.
515* ''VideoGame/MarbleBlastGold'' has a massive database of custom-made levels, most of which also include custom-made pieces. There are also modifications to the game engine as a whole, most notably ''Marble Blast Platinum''.
516* ''VideoGame/{{MUGEN}}'' was built to be customized, with a highly extensible and completely transparent scripting language. Though released as a fighting game engine, it was originally intended to be a shooting engine, and total conversions have included turning it back into one, among other game types.
517* ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront'' has a rather large community, mostly focusing on II, ranging from smaller mods such as single maps to the total overhaul that is Battlefront Extreme.
518* ''Veggie Kart'' is a currently-in-progress conversion of ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' that [[DolledUpInstallment replaces the entire cast of]] ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' [[DolledUpInstallment characters with characters from]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Veggietales}}''. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, this is an actual mod]], and a trailer for it can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIhTRbf-YKE here]].
519* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac [[VideoGameRemake Rebirth]]'' has all of the game's assets and parts of the source code open to the community, though they first must be unpacked. Because of this, the remake is significantly easier to mod for than the original game and thus has a dedicated modding community. Alongside other details, most mods include new rooms, custom characters and even new enemies. ''Afterbirth+'' has built-in Lua support and integrated Steam Workshop.
520** Of note is the ''[[VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaacAntibirth Antibirth]]'' mod, which would later be upgraded and turned into the official ''Repentance'' expansion.
521* The ''VideoGame/ProCyclingManager'' series will get a number of fanmade mods released every year, due to the fact that Cyanide Studios does not have license to use every real team and rider in the game. The mods from the biggest communities usually includes real names for every rider and team already in the game, as well as the inclusion of many other teams and riders, as well as balancing the stats differently.
522* Unofficial mods for ''VisualNovel/AtomGrrrl'', ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'', ''Nekopara'', ''VisualNovel/EverlastingSummer'' and ''Littlewitch Romanesque'' have been released that restore the adult content removed from their Steam versions.
523* ''Vs. Skate Kid Bros'', by Two-Bit Score Amusements, is a 1988 arcade add-on for ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Vs. Super Mario Bros.]]''. Changes to the game sprites include Mario being replaced with a guy on a skateboard who turns into a man in a red wifebeater and boxer shorts after picking up a quarter, who also collects soda cans, stomps on tanks, and infiltrates the castles of America to defeat football players and pick up hot babes until one finally takes off her top and invites seven of her friends.
524* One of the most common and popular mods for ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'' is a visible DynamicDifficulty (known more commonly as "rank") counter, as keeping rank managed is one of the most important aspects to securing a no-continue clear.
525* Among {{Tabletop Game}}rs, this is known as "homebrew," and can range from an ObviousRulePatch (AKA "house rules") to custom gear, to fan or {{crossover}} armies, to entire settings.
526* NG+++ is a very popular mod to the video game ''VideoGame/AntimatterDimensions'' linked [[https://aarextiaokhiao.github.io/IvarK.github.io/ here]]. It adds ton more content including 2 more prestige layers and several more mechanics. The mod page also has several more mods of that game, with many possible combinations, but some can break.
527* Within the ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater'' community, ''THUG PRO'' is considered to be the definitive way to play the series, especially in light of the much-maligned ''Pro Skater 5'' instalment. Loads and loads of characters and parks abound, which includes those from the first few titles from the series as well as some bonuses like Andy's room ripped from ''VideoGame/DisneysExtremeSkateAdventure'' among others.
528* ''VideoGame/PrestigeTree'' has several mods that involve different resources and introduce new gameplay mechanics, with some of the more complete ones having pages on this wiki.
529* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' has seen a number of different mods spring up in 2020 and 2021:
530** One of the most widespread and popular is the ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem''-inspired ''[[https://github.com/slushiegoose/Town-Of-Us Town of Us]]''. This mod adds 13 different roles specific to Crewmates, 6 neutral roles, 8 roles specific to Impostors, and several modifiers that any player can potentially get; this greatly changes up how the game is played and adds a lot of new strategies. Role examples include the Mayor[[note]]Crewmate: can abstain from voting in meetings, adding their votes to a "bank" that can be used to add extra votes to other players[[/note]], Sheriff[[note]]Crewmate: has a kill button, with the condition that if they try to kill a Crewmate instead of an Impostor, ''they'' die[[/note]], Jester[[note]]Neutral: they win the game if they get voted out[[/note]], The Glitch[[note]]Neutral: similar to an Impostor but can kill any player and must be the last surviving player to win[[/note]], Miner[[note]]Impostor: can create additional vents/holes[[/note]], and Assassin[[note]]Impostor: can kill people in meetings if they know their target's role; if they get it wrong, they die instead[[/note]]. Modifiers include Tiebreaker[[note]]if there's a tie, the player you voted for will be ejected[[/note]], Torch[[note]]keeps your vision from being restricted when electricity is sabotaged[[/note]], and Giant[[note]]makes your character twice as large and very slow[[/note]]. A full explanation of the roles can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFClFl8_2n0 here]]. Its creators also created an entirely new map called Submerged, an underwater facility with two floors that can be accessed by elevators. It features several entirely new tasks, twists on existing tasks, and is compatible with the ''Town of Us'' mod.
531** Another popular mod is "The Other Roles". This mod is very similar to ''Town of Us'', but adds in even more roles such as the Jackal[[note]]essentially the Glitch, but with the ability to change any other player into a Sidekick who becomes the Jackal if the original dies[[/note]], Lawyer[[note]]acts as a "third Impostor" for one player and wins along with their client if the client survives to the end of the game[[/note]], and Bait[[note]]a Crewmate who causes their killer to instantly self-report the body[[/note]], makes some roles both Good and Evil, such as turning the Assassin into Good and Evil Guessers and adding Good and Evil Minis, and tweaks other roles, such as changing the Mayor's ability to getting an extra vote in meetings instead of banking votes and making ''Town of Us''[='s=] Torch ability into a role called Lighter.
532* The RhythmGame ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'' has an ''extremely'' large modding community, to the point that it might be one of the largest in the entire gaming community (as well as [[ComeForTheGameStayForTheMods for being more popular than the video game itself]]). The reason for this is that it's very simple to do, letting the modders add/replace characters and sometimes change the storyline to their hearts' content.
533* Alex "[=trap15=]" Marshall produced some well-known ArrangeMode hacks of various shmups (notably, he would later make [[PromotedFanboy official]] arrange modes of some CAVE games for their exA-Arcadia [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Re-releases]]):
534** ''[[http://daifukkat.su/hacks/ketarr/ Ketsui Arrange]]'' is a ROM hack of ''VideoGame/{{Ketsui}}'' that adds [[AttackDrone option]] formation control like in ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'' and [[DynamicDifficulty rank]] control and rewards for turning up rank like in ''VideoGame/DoDonPachi Resurrection Black Label''. The mod received considerable attention within the shmup community and some fans even burned the mod onto actual ''Ketsui'' arcade boards.
535** ''[[http://daifukkat.su/hacks/samenew/ Same! Same! Same! NEW VER!]]'' is a hack of ''VideoGame/FireShark'' (''Same! Same! Same!'' being the [[MarketBasedTitle original Japanese title]]) that aims to alleviete some of the game's more frustrating mechanics, such as built-in autofire that correctly interacts with the flamethrower weapon, starting the player's ship off at a faster speed and eliminating speed-up items, and only requiring one 'P' token to PowerUp instead of three.
536* The author of the fanfic series ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'' released a ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' skin for one of the protagonists. The other protagonist is downloadable for ''Koikatsu Party,'' the game the author uses to make her story illustrations.
537* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' has a fairly active modding community, particularly on Website/YouTube, where many creators make mods to show off their concepts about what they think the finished game might look like.
538** ''VideoGame/AcademyHigh'' is a full scale playable mod of the game, with both a fully complete 2020s and 1980s mode, featuring the same gameplay as the main game, but with a brand new cast at a college in New York.
539* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' is known to have sprite-swaps of characters, though the complexity between, say, ''VideoGame/PuyoPopFever'' and ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'' varies due to the engines they run on. Some examples include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IIw4bDYB9k Miku and Haruhi]] in ''Fever'', the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHAI-j14u0w Squid Sisters]] in ''Puyo Tetris'', to a ''VideoGame/Persona5''-themed [[https://gamebanana.com/games/7233 UI mod]] for ''Champions''.
540[[/folder]]

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