Practice Hack
Contents
What is the "practice hack?"
The practice hack, created by Arnethegreat, is ROM of the vanilla version of Yoshi's Island that is modified to allow save-states, auto-scroll disable, egg-count manipulation, free-roam, and many other useful tools for learning how to speedrun the game.
How does the practice hack work?
The practice hack can be downloaded just like any other SNES ROM. The only difference is, because all flash cartridges (Super UFO Pro 8, SD2SNES, and Super Everdrive) currently do not offer stand-alone support for enhancement chips like the SuperFX2, the Yoshi's Island practice hack can only be used in conjunction with the Super UFO Pro 8.
What is the Super UFO Pro 8?
The Super UFO Pro 8 is a type of flash cartridge that can allow players to load and play ROMs on original hardware. The Super UFO Pro 8 is currently the only one that works with Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's Island is one of the few games on the SNES that uses an enhancement chip called the SuperFX 2. Rather than flood this section with technical information about the chip, we'll just include the link to the Wikipedia article that explains what the chip is, and how it works.
The Super UFO Pro 8 is shaped very similarly to original Super Famicom cartridges. It has a removable cap on the top that, when removed, allows you to insert an SNES/SFC cartridge (physically identical to how the old Sonic and Knuckles cartridge worked on the Sega Genesis). The Super UFO Pro 8 also requires an SD card in order to function. Most sizes will work, depending how many ROMs you're planning on putting on it. If you're just planning on practicing Yoshi's Island, something as small as a 4GB SD card would be sufficient.
