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[Archive] ROM Hacking Newsletter 2008 | Issue 1 - 18

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andyp159

Master of Fire!
107
Posts
15
Years
:O to be honest, i am quite shocked that people find Septo Conquest offensive. (as it's my hack, im bound to stand up for it, but hey)

Yes, I know the maps are boring at the beginning, but they greatly improove towards the end, and the text was meant to be funny or sarcastic, not offensivce in any way, and we are sorry if it has offended anybody. Moreso, anybody who downloads the newest version of the ROM will experience much fewer glitches.

HOWEVER< this has not stopped us ROM hacking, as we are working hard on LANCE ADVENTURES. Septo Conquest was really a test of our hacking skills, which have improved greatly over the time we spent making it.

Also, give us a break, as it was only a 2 people team

RANT OVER
 
1,104
Posts
16
Years
:O to be honest, i am quite shocked that people find Septo Conquest offensive. (as it's my hack, im bound to stand up for it, but hey)

Yes, I know the maps are boring at the beginning, but they greatly improove towards the end, and the text was meant to be funny or sarcastic, not offensivce in any way, and we are sorry if it has offended anybody. Moreso, anybody who downloads the newest version of the ROM will experience much fewer glitches.

HOWEVER< this has not stopped us ROM hacking, as we are working hard on LANCE ADVENTURES. Septo Conquest was really a test of our hacking skills, which have improved greatly over the time we spent making it.

Also, give us a break, as it was only a 2 people team

RANT OVER
Dude, don't blame the critic. You can't really complain that a critic gave a hack a bad rating. Look at all the movies that get poor ratings. Don't take it so personally.
Also try and remember the saying "Any publicity is good Publicity?"

And about the two person team, sure Zel has gotten help from others, but essential SG is a ONE person team. The amount of people helping really means nothing.
 

zel 2.0

Gold Remaker
1,955
Posts
17
Years
A team is the best bet, as we wouldnt like to see articles only by just one person, it wouldnt be too objective. We want to see different peoples' opinions. I guess you know what I'm trying to say.

I know having people has the possibility of them not working and that kind of stuff, but as long as everyone helping you agrees that "if you dont work, you get out", that'll help you to get a stable team. If they dont want to agree with that rule, you know that person wont be reliable, even if it's because school gets in the middle.
Obviously, you must set yourself as an example, if you dont work on the issues as it's supposed, what can other people expect?

That's it. Stay firm (even if it means to be a little harsh on other people, it's the only way it could work), and the next RHWs will be good.
 

colcolstyles

Yours truly
1,588
Posts
15
Years
Any update on this? I actually enjoyed reading all of those articles, although (as many others have mentioned) the third issue could have been much better. Anyways, keep up the good work!
 

Thrace

@tion
1,048
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Oct 2, 2016
Rom Hacking Newsletter
Issue 4 - Sunday, 21 September 2008
Introduction
Opening words

Yes, thats right. RHN is back and its better than ever. We now have an established team, the thread can be viewed here. If you would like to apply for any open positions feel free to do so. We now have standardised ratings, you can see which ratings mean what in one of the articles in this issue. Reviews will be conducted by one person but the ratings can be given by anyone in the RHN team.

If you would like to have an article in an issue of RHN please post it in the team thread here. If you want something in the Hacking News section PM both Kawaii Inc. and myself. Anything that you submit will most likely be edited here and there. This is simply to keep the standards that this newsletter has. You will receive full credit for the article.

Hopefully we will get into a rhythm with these issues and stay as regular as possible.
Article by dshayabusa



Hacking News
Staying current with the rom hacking scene

New RHN format

It goes without saying if you're reading this but RHN has gone through a re-structuring. We have a team and have tried our best to make sure that everything in this and future newsletters are accurate, unbiased and consistent.

Hack Rating System
RHN will now follow a standardised rating system similar to that of IGN, ratings and their meanings are described below.
Spoiler:

Pokemon Genesis production recommenced
Exams are finally over and I've been able to start hacking again so production of Genesis is in full throttle. That extended break has really helped get the passion and motivation back for hacking. I've completed nearly 90% of the next betas maps, so with any luck we'll have beta 3 out before 2009.



HOTW Winner
Spotlight on the Hack of the Week

Pokémon Azure Horizons [Link]
Hack Author: Frostbite
Reviewed By: dshayabusa
Reviewer's Rating: 8.8/10

Azure Horizons does not have a playable demo, but we decided that Frostbite has been working on it for long enough to warrant a full review.

The best thing about this hack is its consistency, as far as I few hacks can boast the kind of consistency that Azure Horizons has achieved. The mapping is beautiful, not always the best but his style remains the same throughout. The new tiles he has inserted are taken from the R/S/E games and look great together. It seems that Frostbite has tried to stay true to the Nintendo style of mapping which can sometimes be a bad thing.

The attention to detail is also another feature that propels Azure Horizons to the Impressive rating. Decaptilization is always a nice touch too. Scripts are nowhere near amazing but sometimes they don't have to be. You see it all the time, especially in new hacks, instead of finding a way to suit what happens in the story, the hacker changes the story to implement some cool trick they've picked up. Consistency in my books is far more important than random "wow" moments.

The story too is a place where Azure Horizons drops the ball. Its certainly not bad, it is just generic. However it is far too early to tell how it will turn out so I found it difficult to take points off him for that. This is one of those hacks that have almost limitless potential.

Azure Horizons is a wonderful hack, I personally cannot wait for the release of the first beta and I encourage everyone to give it a go. I look forward to reviewing it again with the release of the first beta.
Article by dshayabusa



Hack Review
Hacks in review

Pokémon Bloody Diamond [Link]
Hack Author: Buffy
Reviewed By: thethethethe
Reviewer's Rating: 0.5/10

Hooray! We have our first Pokémon Diamond hack at PokéCommunity. Should be something great, right? It's very easy to get that wrong. People are announcing that this hack has been a step forward in the ways of DPP Hacking. This hack is probably closer to being one or two steps backward.

Let's look at what Buffy has done with this Diamond ROM. We've got some minor palette edits, some overworld changes, modified starters and some wild Pokémon changed. Things anyone could do with about four tools. But let's think about this. What if this had been done on a Fire Red ROM? Would you play it? I'd like to think it wouldn't even get into the showcase.

I know, I know, you can only use what you have, right? DPP hacking is still fairly limited. The problem I have with this hack is that it doesn't use everything that's available. It only utilizes features that are editable by hacker programmed tools.
Before it's release, Buffy was waiting for a DP trainer editing tool, when hex editing DP trainer battles has been documented on more than one occasion. At this point in time, to hack DPP, you need to know how to use a hex editor, and not just rely on hacker programmed tools. Right now, Buffy is just unable to give us that.

I don't want totally 'bash' this hack. There is an upside to having a hack with only this much done. There's so much more to add. Buffy could hack the evolutions to allow Pokémon to evolve in different ways. She could change the movesets of Pokémon for originality. Maybe, she could even edit some weaknesses and strengths to confuse players or change the way different attacks work. There's so much more you can do to make an original game without relying on hacking maps and scripts.

Where this hack is at, its simply a complete waste of time. I wouldn't recommend playing it unless you had absolutely nothing else to do.
Article by thethethethe

Pokémon Thunder Emblem [Link]
Hack Author: mitchel1
Reviewed By: Kaizer-X
Reviewer's Rating: 7.8/10

Firstly I think that the story is interesting and the first beta is quite good. There are some things which I don't like, which is the colour of the palletes which is too bright in my opinion and the size of the Overworld which I think a bit too large. The new 3-D like Pokeball is really an excellent addition to a hack which already contain lots of Sinnoh tiles.

The mapping is good with only a few errors in tiles and movement permission, nothing really obvious though. Although some of the maps is quite simple it is good overall.
From the new screenshots Mitchel1 seemed to have change the palletes to a more pleasant one. This has a great effect on mapping as the maps looks miles better than before. Overall the maps looks stunning with the varieties of different tiles and by inserting some new ones like the star-shaped building, the maps simply looks magnificent and eye-catchy. The snow tiles are really nice especially the D/P style trees with snow on it and so is the cave.

From the beta the scripts are really good as they can be seen from the video with the music and movements of camera timed to precision. But everything good has it flaws as there are some grammar mistakes or typing errors in the scripts but other than that I give it two thumbs up.

The storyline is interesting but it is confusing as the complete story is unknown and the Unown tomb event is a mystery to me. I am also curious about the role of Team Rocket and Lance in the story. The Celebi's past event is a bit off to me as who would go to the past just to get a badge? The other thing is the place is overrun with Rockets while other trainers are scarce.

Overall this hack looks promising and as winners of a couple of awards, I highly recommend you check it out.
Article by Kaizer-X



Tips and Tricks
A cool new trick that you may not have known about

So last issue the Tip was quite difficult to understand so this week I'm going to write the article myself. This is how it will be for future issues as well; you donate the tip, we write the article, you recieve credit. So lets get started!

In a rom there is only so much space available for us to utilize. So what happens when you run out of space? What happens when every byte from 0 to FFFFFF is taken up? You're only option apart from replacing data is to increase the file size of the rom commonly referred to as expanding a rom.

GBA roms use pointers with 3 bytes to link data. In hex an offset of say 800000 would have a pointer that looked like 08000080. With 08 we can point to any offset within the range of a 16mb GBA rom, that is any offset between 0 to FFFFFF. this will show you how to make pointers to data located between FFFFFF and 1FFFFFF, the new maximum offset gives us a rom size of 32mb; double the size.

Lets begin. The first thing you want to do is load your GBA rom into a hex editor, I will be using Hex Workshop for this. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the file and click to the right of the very last byte. Right-click and choose Insert (shortcut Ctrl+Ins).
4r3kag.png
Type FFFFFF into the Number of bytes textbox, making sure that you are in Hex mode and put FF into the Fill box. Now hit OK. Congratulations, you have successfully expanded your 16mb GBA rom to a 32mb one. But how to access this new data?

With 08 you can only access 0 to FFFFFF, but we need something that can access data beyond that range. You need to use 09. 09 has a range of 0 to 1FFFFFF, which is just perfect for our new 32mb rom. 09 is set out the same, it just has one extra byte. So for offset 13456789 it will be 0989674513. Unfortunately most if not all tools lack support for 09 so you must do it manually via a hex editor.
Tip donated by D-Trogh



Interview
An in-depth chat with...
Spoiler:

Interview by dshayabusa



Closing Notes
Some house keeping

Well, its the end of another issue of RHN and I gotta say it feels great to be back, the team and I look forward to providing the community with a reliable and frequent newsletter.

There might be some confusion as to what goes in Hack News section so I thought I would clear it up. You can post next to anything that has to do with rom hacking there. Say you're writing up a big tutorial, working on a tool, need team members just send both Kawaii Inc. and myself a PM with a small description of it (no more than 3 paragraphs please) and we'll make sure it gets in the next issue. You can put up updates on your hack as well if you want, I'll be using it for that sometimes.

HOTW got a full review this issue because although it does not have a playable version it has already had a lot of work put into it. HOTW will not always get a full review, it might just be a few paragraphs without a rating, it depends on the hack that wins.

Feel free to leave any comments especially about the rating system, we would love to get feedback about that. Don't think theres really anything else to say, see you again next week!
Closing by dshayabusa
CSS design and graphics by dshayabusa. Ask for permission if you want to use it!
 

TB Pro

Old-timer
2,708
Posts
19
Years
Wow, Dshayabusa, this article is a step in the right direction. I like the new rating system, it gives an in-depth explanation of the score. The reviews all seemed proffesional, and nice. The hacking news seemed a bit lacking, Maybe next week will be better, as the members now know how to submit ideas. The Tips And Tricks section is vastly improved from last issue, good explanation this time. The interview was nice, good and proffesional. I just have a question, will there be an interview every issue? I think it would be a stellar idea to include one in every issue. Over all, this issue was good, much improved from last week. It seems you pulled everything together to improve on this one. Well, BOL!
 
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Blitzballer

Sarcasm: now GMO-free.
215
Posts
17
Years
Whoa! A weekend without internet, and the issue is out already! Bravo!!
If your intention was to make up for last issue's "Tips and Tricks," then you just trampled it to pieces. Once we get things rolling, making these issues'll be quite easy! It's taking us all a little while to get used to how it works.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
eheheh... nice new article. congrats to your team for putting their efforts into making this successful article. :)

anyways, the new style of ratings reviewed hacks are truly nice. :)
though I think the interview with thethethethe was a bit short and lacking some more interesting questions to answer, but oh well... still great. :D

good luck with the next issues, team~
 

Thrace

@tion
1,048
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Oct 2, 2016
Wow, Dshayabusa, this article is a step in the right direction. I like the new rating system, it gives an in-depth explanation of the score. The reviews all seemed proffesional, and nice. The hacking news seemed a bit lacking, Maybe next week will be better, as the members now know how to submit ideas. The Tips And Tricks section is vastly improved from last issue, good explanation this time. The interview was nice, good and proffesional. I just have a question, will there be an interview every issue? I think it would be a stellar idea to include one in every issue. Over all, this issue was good, much improved from last week. It seems you pulled everything together to improve on this one. Well, BOL!
Yeah there will be... hopefully, the person I had for next week has left the forum so I'll have to find someone new for this week.

eheheh... nice new article. congrats to your team for putting their efforts into making this successful article. :)

anyways, the new style of ratings reviewed hacks are truly nice. :)
though I think the interview with thethethethe was a bit short and lacking some more interesting questions to answer, but oh well... still great. :D

good luck with the next issues, team~
Yeah I agree, I should plan out what questions I'm going to ask instead of just asking what ever comes to mind.

If people who won awards want to put them in their threads then that would be great (although Buffy might not want to...). It would really help promote the newsletter.
 

Ninja Caterpie

AAAAAAAAAAAAA
5,979
Posts
16
Years
Wuahahah! Good on ya, guys!

That was good...It's a really good system of rating hacks, I think.

Yeah, I think the interview with thethethethe was a bit short, it felt more like a simple talk...

Oh well, still cool! Goodluck with the next issue!
 

Godot

That's one of my rules.
93
Posts
16
Years
I Lol'ed at this. XD

(although Buffy might not want to...)

This edition was much better than the third. I have a suggestion for you: Perhaps you should have a section called "Promising Tools" and have a different tool every week? It would allow people to see new or promising tools that are being developed.

Well, keep up the good work! :D
 

Neti

Inactive
1,516
Posts
16
Years
cool, i didnt know about this newsletter! *subscirbes*
definitely a wonderful idea and well done!
and when i read my name and what you wrote about me in the flame of rage beta release article i was smiling^^ what an honor

btw if you want to i could join you to add another section to the newsletter where i rate and comment on random maps from the map rating thread
let me know if you like this idea ;-)
 

zel 2.0

Gold Remaker
1,955
Posts
17
Years
Wow, it took me a while to finish reading everything (alright, I admit that I skipped the tips & tricks part a bit as I wasnt that interested in expanding roms yet :P), but still, it was cool to read those reviews.

Hope you can be able to put more sections into it in the future, everyone would love that. But meanwhile, it's good to see that it gets to be more stable (in every aspect), I guess the team is working well.

Alright, I'll be waiting for the next one. Good luck, guys!
 
1,906
Posts
15
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  • Age 30
  • Seen Oct 21, 2019
I actually just noticed this thead :P

This is pretty cool, and I love how you included interviews with the newsletter. And maybe you can post a tip/trick that most people can do (I'm terrible with hex) and don't know of. Like how you can select more than 1 block at a time in A-Map.

Good luck with this.
 

Melash

Back for now.
426
Posts
15
Years
Yes, another newsletter! I've just read it, and I must say that this is pretty good! Can't wait for issue 5!
 
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