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

Thrace · #1 August 10th, 2008, 10:06 AM

Released Issues

hi sir tomato my password is syvniti · #2 August 10th, 2008, 10:57 AM

Hey, This Is awesome dshayabusa (I spelled it right? no I copyed it in)
We realy need a newsletter, which is a great idea...

If I would suggest some one to be Interviewed then It would be thethethethe...
Since he help a lot...

Thrace · #3 August 10th, 2008, 11:52 AM

The Rom Hacker's Newsletter

Issue 1 - Sunday, 10 August 2008

Introduction

Another attempt at a newsletter? -_-

The rom hacking scene seems to have dulled a bit so KhaosKnight and I thought that it was time for another incarnation of the old Rom Hacking Newsletters. I can't really guarantee that we will be able to regularly create a newsletter but we will try our best.

So far it is only KhaosKnight and myself making this newsletter, but if people like the idea then we may create a thread in the Team Discussions Forum to recruit people who are keen on helping us. We will be looking to come out with a new issue every week but if it looks like it will be too much work then it might have to be every month.

We are looking to have sections for a few things which will hopefully expand with your input. We want this to be community driven. So without further ado...

Welcome to the first issue of The Rom Hacker's Newsletter!

Opening by KhaosKnight and dshayabusa

HOTW Winner

Spotlight on the Hack of the Week

Pokemon Tree of Peace [Link]
Hack Author: Kawaii, Inc.
Reviewed By: dshayabusa
Reviewer's Rating: 3/5
Far too many hacks have either established teams or are looking for one. Not this hack though. Kawaii has done everything himself. That in and of it self is an accomplishment. The hack is looking quite promising even though at the moment it is relatively new. It has some very nice features planned that the average Pokefan will love. Though I have to say using Team Rocket, Aqua and Magma is probably a bad thing. Not only has it been attempted numerous times but using those teams is a little slack, wouldn't coming up with new ones be a lot better?

The Alpha is quite good, not much available though. The use of many different colours in the text got a little annoying. The beginning also isn't what you'd usually expect so that's good. Theres a few bugs but if there weren't it wouldn't be an Alpha now would it? One thing that I didn't like though was how you get the PokeDex, who would just randomly give a PokeDex to someone for free?

Story wise its decent. Celebi hacks are a bit of a turn off for me. As are grass Pokemon. But it seems very well written and I'm sure we can expect perfect grammar and spelling in-game.

Mapping? Well, its ok. I remember when I first started Pokemon Genesis my mapping had similar faults. I'm sure he will improve. Don't get me wrong, compared to most of the other new hacks this has excellent mapping, its just I have come to expect a high standard when it comes to mapping. I suggest that you look at some mapping by Christos, Fanking Omega, Dark Lakitu and myself. I believe that is the style of mapping you are going for.

Noooooooo!! Why did you use a rom base? Sorry I just have a thing against them. Some people might like seeing the same graphics over and over though. The new rom base you are using certainly fits your hack so I won't complain. I don't like how the Mart is the same size as the PC though...

The scripts are good, perfect spelling is always a plus. Why have you not used the colour convention though? Its not too hard but a lot of people don't use it which gets frustrating. Its only 3 bytes! Female -> Red, Male -> Blue. There aren't any very advanced scripts yet but its early days yet. This hack definitely has potential.

Article by dshayabusa

Hack Review

A review by the editor

Pokemon Liquid Ocean [Link]
Hack Author: Christos
Reviewed By: dshayabusa
Reviewer's Rating: 4.8/5
Pokemon Liquid Ocean won HOTY back in 2007 and if you remember the old thread it truly deserved. Its gone through redevelopment, but the question is does it live up to its former self? The answer? It does so in spades!

Let's start with the mapping. One word describes it: inspiring. When I first started hacking Liquid Ocean was what gave me inspiration for maps. I learnt to map simply by looking through Christos's maps. Overall the mapping is absolutely beautiful and very imaginative. Some places could use a little extra work but these are very few and far between. The only other complaint I have about the mapping is the flowers. A little too much IMO. Beautifully subtle palletes too.

Scripting is solid, nothing too amazing but as long as it is consistent then I'll be happy. The mini-games look like where Christos will really be able to show off his talent and I can't wait to try them for myself. New things like the egg store, showcase his brilliant and innovative ideas. The NPCs are very interesting and always have something quirky to say.

The tiles he's used are wonderful, as always sticking with the FR style. It seems however that he has given up some of the quality of tiles for originality which is a little disappointing.

The story is where it falls short for me. Team Rocket has never really interested me, but I guess Christos's aim is to stick to the original Pokemon game guidelines. Thats not to say it isn't interesting, just not enough to make me hold my breath for every update on the story.

The Alpha is nothing short of amazing and the play time is the perfect length. Very little bugs, and where bugs exist they are very minor. I could go on forever, but it would take me too long to talk about everything that makes this hack so good. Go check it out for yourself. Definitely my favourite hack.

Article by dshayabusa

Tips and Tricks

A cool new trick that you may not have known about

If you've ever tried using the special 0x17B (Seagallop animation) in FR/LG you'll know that it inexplicably always sends you to Vermillion City. Thats perfectly fine of course if that's where you wanted to end up, but what if you wanted to go somewhere else? Although you're choices are quite limited, it is possible to change it.

The Seagallop is used only when travelling between the Sevii Islands and Vermillion City. Therefore the harbours of the Sevii Islands and Vermillion City are the only places you can go. That said you still get around 8 different places.

So anyway, the way to change your destination is by changing the value of a variable. Which variable? Good 'ol 0x8006 of course! Now I haven't checked what the maximum number of values are, you'll have to try yourself, but starting from 1 for Sevii Island 1 to 7 for Sevii Island 7 should work. Vermillion City is 0. As I said I haven't really tested it completely, I've only used it once (the boat script for Pokemon Genesis). So in code form it will look like this:

setvar 0x8006 0x[place where you want to go]
special 0x17B

But oh no! What if you want to travel back? Sure you just use the corresponding number but the animation shows that you are moving in the wrong direction! Well its quite simple to fix, all you need is another variable, variable 0x8004.

setvar 0x8006 0x[place where you want to go]
setvar 0x8004 0x[0 for right, 1 for left]
special 0x17B

So, thats how you do it! Next weeks tip will be somewhat of an addon to the above. Hope this helped some people!

If you would like to donate a tip, please PM one of the editors; dshayabusa or KhaoKnight.

Tip donated by dshayabusa

New Tool

An excellent new tool from the Toolbox

Hello all in the hacking community this is Khaos here reporting on a new tool that just landed in the Toolbox. It is called the Nameless Tile Map Editor(apply dubbed NTME)by D-Trogh. Of course this isn't the final name, I personally find it catchy. I have found the opportunity to download this awesome looking piece of software, as the boards have been experiencing technical difficulty's lately ;). But as soon as I find the moment I will be sure to nab it, and you should too.

This tool looks very nice for an Alpha release. It looks as though you can make title screens and edit world maps with this nifty program. The author stated that, Darthatron lent him the source code that this program was written from, so a big hand to Darthatron as well. Though was hasn't been stated is what GBA games that this is compatible with, but the picture in the thread(http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=149454) there is the Rayquaza title screen for Emerald. So I expect it to be compatible with at least Emerald and most likely FireRed. Remember guys this is still an alpha and D-Trogh still needs testers.
After reading about this I give this program a 7/10.
This has been Khaos Reporting on the Tool scene. See ya Soon.

Article by KhaosKnight

Interview

An in-depth chat with...

Spoiler:

Interview by dshayabusa

Closing Notes

Some house keeping

The editors hope that you enjoyed the first (of hopefully many more) Rom Hacker's Newsletter. If you are interested in helping out with this keep an eye out for a recruitment thread in the Team Discussions thread. We only want people who are experienced, mature and reliable. Please make comments and criticisms and suggest new sections for the newsletter. If you would like to donate a banner to us or some other graphics that would be greatly appreciated, too. Not much more to say, see you next week!

Closing by KhaosKnight and dshayabusa

CSS design by dshayabusa. Ask for permission if you want to use it!

D-Trogh · #4 August 10th, 2008, 12:07 PM

Hey.. how nice to see NTME is 'reviewed'.. :D
For your information.. NTME works (or should..) for all tilemaps for the GBA games.
That means.. not only Pokémon GBA games!

zel 2.0 · #5 August 10th, 2008, 01:47 PM

Interesting, it was interesting to read (specially when people take this kind of things seriously it always makes me happy), hope to see more issues in the future.
I wish you luck in finding reliable people so that you can, I dont know, perhaps add more sections. But to begin, we need to have a stable newsletter, let's concentrate on that first.

About the whole issue, it was well written, which is a plus, considering that the articles werent too short. That made me not feel bored while reading them.
It's also awesome the HotW had its own section, that'll help me to improve it even more ^o^

By the way, the newsletter has a nice layout, very professional.

That's all I had to comment. I hope you take it seriously and even though it will be hard, achieve to release a lot of more issues.

Shadows · #6 August 10th, 2008, 03:54 PM

This was fun to read

I can't wait for the next one!

KhaosKnight · #7 August 10th, 2008, 03:55 PM

Hey Dshaya, i didnt know you posted this already, hahaha. Well i am glad i could make a contribution.

+Sneasel™ · #8 August 10th, 2008, 04:06 PM

Wow, this is great! Another ROM hacking news letter, finally. I hope you guys will keep this up! The articles were nice and long, I was interested in what you guys had to say. So, yea, this rocks. (Oh yea, you spelled Khaosnight's name wrong at the end of the Tips and Tricks section.)

I do have 2 suggestions though :)

1. Definetly rate some more hacks, like I know its the first issue and all, but this is just for next issue, I think maybe you should rate 3-4 hacks. The HOTW winner, a new hack in the Showcase (as Zel would say, maybe has to be less than 31 days old or something), and 2 hacks such as Liquid Ocean, you know, like older and stuff (not that old is bad XD its just my way of saying it). And maybe make the rating scale out of 10, not 5, but that's just a minor thing.

2. I think you guys should split the articles fairly, dshayabusa did everything except the tool. But it's not really much of a big deal, since you're really good at reviewing hacks ^^

So, keep this up, and it is a big job, so I hope you guys can stay with it!

Binary · #9 August 10th, 2008, 04:10 PM

This newsletter is great. It's very interesting to read something like this and you've made the layout very insteresting. It definitely looks like a great thing for all hackers. I hope there will be more to come.

Eeveon · #10 August 10th, 2008, 06:04 PM

That's a nice news letter you got there! :D

Luck · #11 August 10th, 2008, 07:19 PM

This is a great idea.
The layout is nice, it seems tidy, and the reviews are very accurate.
But i was wondering if you are going to review hack of the month also?
but i found the article to be rather...short.
maybe you could add one or two more hack reviews to it so it will be better.
Other than those, the article seems pretty good and well thought out.

Antwhan · #12 August 11th, 2008, 02:13 AM

kept me interested and thoguht provoked, a nice way to help stay ontop of things, the summer rush always gets me lost in the bussle. anyway...

the scale for rating the hacks shud maybe be in solid numbers ala 1,2,3,4,5 if ur going to do it out of 5, which i prefer since on the 10 scale things get mucky in the nit picking.

and it would be something worht doing i think. I may even sign up if ur going to be committed to doing this.

/Circa · #13 August 11th, 2008, 07:19 AM

You forgot to add how everyone is now adding CSS in their threads...
Hopefully you can keep this running for more than a week

Thrace · #14 August 11th, 2008, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zel

Interesting, it was interesting to read (specially when people take this kind of things seriously it always makes me happy), hope to see more issues in the future.
I wish you luck in finding reliable people so that you can, I dont know, perhaps add more sections. But to begin, we need to have a stable newsletter, let's concentrate on that first.

About the whole issue, it was well written, which is a plus, considering that the articles werent too short. That made me not feel bored while reading them.
It's also awesome the HotW had its own section, that'll help me to improve it even more ^o^

By the way, the newsletter has a nice layout, very professional.

That's all I had to comment. I hope you take it seriously and even though it will be hard, achieve to release a lot of more issues.

Thanks a lot! Yeah finding people who are reliable will be quite tough. I think I will wait a couple of weeks before creating a team thread. I can do everything myself right now, the whole thing (including the thread design) took only 2 hours.

Quote:

Originally Posted by T

This was fun to read :)
I can't wait for the next one!

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KhaosKnight

Hey Dshaya, i didnt know you posted this already, hahaha. Well i am glad i could make a contribution.

Aahh yeah sorry. I just wanted to make sure we had an issue out at a regular time every week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by itman1234

Wow, this is great! Another ROM hacking news letter, finally. I hope you guys will keep this up! The articles were nice and long, I was interested in what you guys had to say. So, yea, this rocks. (Oh yea, you spelled Khaosnight's name wrong at the end of the Tips and Tricks section.)

I do have 2 suggestions though :)

1. Definetly rate some more hacks, like I know its the first issue and all, but this is just for next issue, I think maybe you should rate 3-4 hacks. The HOTW winner, a new hack in the Showcase (as Zel would say, maybe has to be less than 31 days old or something), and 2 hacks such as Liquid Ocean, you know, like older and stuff (not that old is bad XD its just my way of saying it). And maybe make the rating scale out of 10, not 5, but that's just a minor thing.

2. I think you guys should split the articles fairly, dshayabusa did everything except the tool. But it's not really much of a big deal, since you're really good at reviewing hacks ^^

So, keep this up, and it is a big job, so I hope you guys can stay with it!

If we start doing more than 2 hacks a week, we'll probably run out of hacks we want to review. I only really want to review hacks that I like or I think have potential not just every hack that comes up in the showcase. I think i'll stick with 5 just because its my personal preference. And yes I will be reviewing older hacks as well, but probably only after something special like a beta release.

KhaosKnight was busy so I decided to do the majority of the work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cε׀׀

This newsletter is great. It's very interesting to read something like this and you've made the layout very insteresting. It definitely looks like a great thing for all hackers. I hope there will be more to come.

Thanks, we will certainly try our best!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wind~

That's a nice news letter you got there! :D

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by makunouchi

This is a great idea.
The layout is nice, it seems tidy, and the reviews are very accurate.
But i was wondering if you are going to review hack of the month also?
but i found the article to be rather...short.
maybe you could add one or two more hack reviews to it so it will be better.
Other than those, the article seems pretty good and well thought out.

Really? Short? I don't want to make the articles all that long though. We don't have a HOTM atm, but if its good enough for the PC staff chances are I'll already have reviewed it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antwhan

kept me interested and thoguht provoked, a nice way to help stay ontop of things, the summer rush always gets me lost in the bussle. anyway...

the scale for rating the hacks shud maybe be in solid numbers ala 1,2,3,4,5 if ur going to do it out of 5, which i prefer since on the 10 scale things get mucky in the nit picking.

and it would be something worht doing i think. I may even sign up if ur going to be committed to doing this.

I don't want to have natural numbers because it makes it less accurate. For example, I would have had to give it a 5. As much as I like it I can't really say that its 100% perfect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Visual

You forgot to add how everyone is now adding CSS in their threads...
Hopefully you can keep this running for more than a week ;)

Hahaha yeah, might include that for the next issue! Thanks for the idea!
Yeah definitely. I'll make sure that at the very least there's a couple more issues.

Ninja Caterpie · #15 August 11th, 2008, 08:52 AM

Woot!

A newsletter?
Cool! It's...awesome...can't say anything...xDDD

I realised you put my name as one of the mappers to look at... :D I feel honoured...xDDDDD

X-aveon · #16 August 11th, 2008, 11:42 AM

you should put in some stuff about xse, and tutorial updates.
and i think you should interview someone like cooley or ~Wind.
They're both great hackers in my opinion.
Hackmew's not here.
Maybe D-trogh.
He's always making useful tools, and you put an issue about him today.
So he's already in the spotlight.
This is coming out weekly, right?

Ninja Caterpie · #17 August 11th, 2008, 11:44 AM

Hohoho! Interview the elusive Coolboyman!

Oh, by the way, will new thingos come regulary? If so, every when?

X-aveon · #18 August 11th, 2008, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Lakitu

Hohoho! Interview the elusive Coolboyman!

Oh, by the way, will new thingos come regulary? If so, every when?

my guess is every week. i think a month is too long too wait and will attract less viewers. but if they update every week, they'll get more viewers, but then they'll (peeps who made this) start getting it up late and forget to do their part so they'll probly need help. people want more and more if its weekly, but then the creators might get stressed and quit this. so i VOTE for it to be every two weeks. that way, its even, and the creators get their spare time.

Blitzballer · #19 August 12th, 2008, 06:51 AM

Yayyy! That was super professional. Haha.
I enjoyed reading the review of my hack (I feel much honor in being the first reviewee). Even if it was a little biased...HUMPH! Just Kidding! =) Although, I can almost guarantee I won't be changing a lot of the things you didn't like. I'll make a more in-depth story for the new neighbor later, so it won't seem as random. Although, the Pokedex was outdated! Haha. And don't worry, I like the ROM Base! ^__^;;

Anywho, the Format looks stunning, and I'm most certainly keeping a watchful eye on this! Although, it would be easier if you kept all the issues in one thread like the Hack of the Week thread (now, I'm reviewing you! Ha!). I'd love to be a writer if/when a recruitment thread pops up, or an interviewee (I could talk about teaching myself how to script [funny stories there...])!

{EDIT: Okay, COMPLETELY off-topic here, but I noticed that you're username has Hayabusa in it. That's the name of the Carpet-making place in Steambot Chronicles!!! Sorry, for that slight outburst. Tehe. =)}

KhaosKnight · #20 August 12th, 2008, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawaii, Inc.

{EDIT: Okay, COMPLETELY off-topic here, but I noticed that you're username has Hayabusa in it. That's the name of the Carpet-making place in Steambot Chronicles!!! Sorry, for that slight outburst. Tehe. =)}

Acually Dshayabusa comes from his real name and a character from Ninja Gaiden, Ryu. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by dshayabusa

Actually its De-es-hay-a-bo-sa. Hayabusa is the last name of the character in Ninja Gaiden and DOA, Ryu. DS are the initials for my last name.

Thrace · #21 August 12th, 2008, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by X-aveon

you should put in some stuff about xse, and tutorial updates.
and i think you should interview someone like cooley or ~Wind.
They're both great hackers in my opinion.
Hackmew's not here.
Maybe D-trogh.
He's always making useful tools, and you put an issue about him today.
So he's already in the spotlight.
This is coming out weekly, right?

Some stuff about XSE? AFAIK there haven't been any updates to XSE for quite a while. Since people don't want to vote on who they want to be interviewed I will decide. Next weeks interviewee is someone who has been hacking for a very very long time. Yup its definitely gonna be weekly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Lakitu

Hohoho! Interview the elusive Coolboyman!

Oh, by the way, will new thingos come regulary? If so, every when?

I would definitely like to interview Coolboyman, but probably when he releases a new beta of Prism. Every week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by X-aveon

my guess is every week. i think a month is too long too wait and will attract less viewers. but if they update every week, they'll get more viewers, but then they'll (peeps who made this) start getting it up late and forget to do their part so they'll probly need help. people want more and more if its weekly, but then the creators might get stressed and quit this. so i VOTE for it to be every two weeks. that way, its even, and the creators get their spare time.

Wow, you really made a lot of assumptions there. This is going to be every week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawaii, Inc.

Yayyy! That was super professional. Haha.
I enjoyed reading the review of my hack (I feel much honor in being the first reviewee). Even if it was a little biased...HUMPH! Just Kidding! =) Although, I can almost guarantee I won't be changing a lot of the things you didn't like. I'll make a more in-depth story for the new neighbor later, so it won't seem as random. Although, the Pokedex was outdated! Haha. And don't worry, I like the ROM Base! ^__^;;

Anywho, the Format looks stunning, and I'm most certainly keeping a watchful eye on this! Although, it would be easier if you kept all the issues in one thread like the Hack of the Week thread (now, I'm reviewing you! Ha!). I'd love to be a writer if/when a recruitment thread pops up, or an interviewee (I could talk about teaching myself how to script [funny stories there...])!

{EDIT: Okay, COMPLETELY off-topic here, but I noticed that you're username has Hayabusa in it. That's the name of the Carpet-making place in Steambot Chronicles!!! Sorry, for that slight outburst. Tehe. =)}

I'm happy to hear you aren't going to change your ideas just because I didn't like them. More hackers should just do what they believe instead of making a hack so people will like it.

You seem like you would be quite a good reviewer... My only concern is that (forgive me if I'm wrong) you haven't been hacking for very long. I'm still a little undecided. For the next issue I've got a bunch of ideas so I won't need another interviewer. Excellent idea about having them in the same thread. I don't want to clutter the Rom Hacking section with my newsletter. Carpet making place? XD

So the next issue is coming sooner than usual, my school ball is on Saturday so I won't be able to release it on Sunday. :P
Therefore issue 2 will be coming on Friday!!!!
This does mean that there is no HOTW review (there will be two HOTW reviews the following week) but there will be 3 reviews to make up for it.
I've picked my interviewee and I'm sure that this person will be very interesting to talk to. The interview is going to be held via MSN so unless people really want to have it live I won't be using the IRC channel.

Hmm... what else? The next release will be here. I will ask a mod to change the name of the thread. Unless its possible to do so yourself (anyone know how?). So in summary... check back next Friday, don't vote for interviewees and keep the C&C coming!

liuyanghejerry · #22 August 12th, 2008, 10:47 AM

haha,this is really interesting.Maybe sometime, we'll have our real newspaper on the street,and hawking: Do you hack this week?

Keep doing ~~

Ninja Caterpie · #23 August 12th, 2008, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Next weeks interviewee is someone who has been hacking for a very very long time. Yup its definitely gonna be weekly.

Oooh! Oooh! I know! I know! Is it Jagold Time? Or is it...Baro? Or...uh...Christos? Yourself? xD Interviewing yourself...that would be epic.

Weekly huh? That's good...no HOTW review? Darn...mine won't get a review till next week(Or will it?)

Yeah, that means I'm sorta guessing it'll be my hack (so far 3 votes to me(Time, Megiddo and X-Aveon) 1 to everything else!)

Hmm...For the week after that, can I suggest interviewing Time or Baro if you didn't do them next week?

X-aveon · #24 August 12th, 2008, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Lakitu

Oooh! Oooh! I know! I know! Is it Jagold Time? Or is it...Baro? Or...uh...Christos? Yourself? xD Interviewing yourself...that would be epic.

Weekly huh? That's good...no HOTW review? Darn...mine won't get a review till next week(Or will it?)

Yeah, that means I'm sorta guessing it'll be my hack (so far 3 votes to me(Time, Megiddo and X-Aveon) 1 to everything else!)

Hmm...For the week after that, can I suggest interviewing Time or Baro if you didn't do them next week?

it would be funny if he interviewed himself, but i don't care who he interviews. I just like to read it. The first one was good. Why cant the second one be?

Melash · #25 August 12th, 2008, 09:32 PM

Wow...this is...awesome! Keep it up!

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