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Errr, its late. And I kinda ran out of time for this so my segments won't be up to scratch. There will also be no reviews this week. Its totally my fault, I knew I would have trouble getting this weeks issue in on time. I should've asked someone else to do it for me. To make up for it, I'll be doing two HOTW reviews and two hack reviews next week.
Enjoy the rest of issue though. We've got a great article by Kawaii. Ten points if you spot a spelling error. An interview with Esmas/Infernal Contraption/Keyris/Keyrin, an all new segment called "Question of the Week" and our first ever map review courtesy of Neti.
Article by dshayabusa
Hacking News
Staying current with the rom hacking scene The Ultimate TileMap Editor
Darthatron has made a thread to get ideas for the ultimate tilemap editor. If you have any suggestions go reply in his thread here.
Map of the Week
Wind~ has started a new topic for people to vote on the top Map each week in the Map Rating Thread. RHN will start a new segment on this. Be sure to check it out and cast your vote here.
Hack Rating System
RHN will now follow a standardised rating system similar to that of IGN, ratings and their meanings are described below.
Spoiler:
10.0 to 9.0 - Masterful
Its almost impossible to make a hack that is perfect, but ratings in this range get pretty close. These hacks are flawless in all aspects of hacking, they are innovative and engaging.
8.9 to 8.0 - Impressive
Hacks that we feel are outstanding and are exceptional in at least one aspect will receive ratings in this range. Hacks that we feel are worthwhile and that everyone will find enjoyable. You'd need to put in a lot of effort to get this rating.
7.9 to 7.0 - Good
An excellent hack that is let down by a one or two major problems. Above average in all aspects but just missing a few things it needs to be great. Not amazing but has potential.
6.9 to 6.0 - Passable
Hacks that are just above average. Nothing to really get excited about. Nothing particularly horrible about the hack but nothing all that great either.
5.9 to 5.0 - Mediocre
A hack that provokes no emotion, standard, run-of-the-mill whatever you want to call it, these hacks are as average as they come.
4.9 to 4.0 - Lackluster
Hacks that do not have enough effort put into them. Probably not worth the attention for the time being. Has some potential to be better, but not enough to become something spectacular.
3.9 to 3.0 - Poor
Hacks that are flawed in all areas, most likely caused by inexperience by the author rather than effort. Not worth checking out regularly, will probably be cancelled the next week.
2.9 to 2.0 - Bad
Hacks that we recommend you avoid, not worth playing. Might have a few interesting ideas but ultimately is just very poorly executed. Major flaws in all aspects.
1.9 to 1.0 - Terrible
A hack we believe should not have had its thread accepted. These hacks are not even worth browsing over. These hacks are usually made by people trying to achieve internet stardom.
0.9 to 0.0 - Abysmal
Hacks that are not even truly hacks, more like edits. A few small changes to the original game, achievable in mere minutes.
Question of the Week
Same question, different oppinions
"Re-using scripts from the original game"
Ripper
To be honest, as long as the scripts are used appropriately, I'm not too bothered. There are plenty of decent scripts within both FRLg and RSE and as long as new, original scripts are also in the game I don't see it as much of a problem. Although it it frustrating to see mention of non existent events/locations which are so obviously not original.
Kawaii, Inc.
I think re-using any script should be avoided at all costs. You can't better yourself by copy & pasting. A prime example is the old man script from Veridian City. The script gets used in many low quality hacks constantly. Even if the text is changed, the script is still easily spotted.
thethethethe
I'm not a fan of it. I mean, scripting in the Advance Generation games is almost compulsory nowadays and talking scripts are so simple. You only need to write like 6-7 lines of a script for a simple talking event, and once you've written one all you need to do is edit the text from there on. It's not like it's asking for some amazing ASM feature.
When i first looked at this map I was wondering how it could win the "Map of the Week"-Award, becuase I was turned off by its palettes. But Palettes should not get into the Map-Rating, so I had a closer look at it and saw really neat details that I had not seen on a map before.
Regarding the number of houses and the quite atmosphere, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a starter Town. Therefor it's kinda big, but I like that fact and it is necessary to create that nice shape with the different mountain levels and the river. The river, by the way, is my favourite detail of this map. The fact that makes it so stunning is that it follows exactly the path of the mountains, what most people would call unnatural. But when looking at a map you always have to imagine it being a real place and you are in it. Now imagine you are standing on the bridge at the right and look down the river to the right: What a nice view!
But still you have some tile Errors at certain edges, I know theyre hard to fix (I experienced that my self), because there is no tile for that and you cant create one with just the block editor.
But the river also causes some logical problems:
1. Where does all the Water come from? I dont see no source.
2. Where does the water end up at the part behind the house in the bottom left? The Waterfall there brings more and more water down there, but the pond is not getting bigger...
Lets get away from the river and take a look at some other things, for example the mountains:
Overall theyre in a good shape, even though you could have rounded them a bit more at some places.
Aother thingg I dislike about them is the part with the waterfall at the left, it's very symetrical.
The trees give the map a nice shape, but why did you place them in rows? I can see taht you have tiles to create diagonal rows of trees, so why didnt you use them at the borders?
Anyway, you used a good mixture of small and big trees, what gives a more natural feeling to the map as well.
Also, If you on the tile before thee small tree right of the lab, you will see a border error.
The amount of flowers is correct as well I think, but you could have spread them a bit more all over the map instead of just placing them at the borders of the path.
But what happened to the rocks? Even though you dont need a lot of them in a town like that, you should have placed 1 or two at least to make it look better. You could have added some to the bottom center area with it which appears a bit empty to me.
Thats it about the natural things, but what about the paths and fences?
The paths are placed good, I have nothing to complain about there. They are not straight and end at some places which looks neat.
There is not mcuh to say about the fence, it just looks good, except fo one thing: There is a tile error left of where the fence goes between two trees.
That's it, all those things I marked out as good things create a very natural feeling, whats the biggest plus of this map and the reason why I chose it.
Take the things I critisized as pieces of advice and work on them.
P.S.: From now on there will always be the "Map of the Week" Winner reviewed. So dont send me maps anymore.
Article by Neti
Grammatical Hacking:
A Public Service Announcement
The Rom Hacking scene in perspective
As a few of you know, I have a pet peeve. My pet peeve is improper grammar usage, and I'm sure I'm not alone. In fact, I know I'm not alone. For example, look at the more popular hacks in the "Hacks Showcase". Hacks such as Shiny Gold, Genesis, and Rescue Rangers contain very few (if any) grammatical mistakes. There are quite a few hacks, on the other hand, that use "Internet jargon" in hacks and seem popular, having five or six pages. These hacks tend to be lower quality, and do bad in any other category classifiable to a hack. In fact, if you take the time to look at these threads (which I wouldn't recommend), many of the comments are criticism.
There is an exception to the rule of bad grammar=bad hack. Spanish translated hacks, or foreign hacks in general, are prime examples. In many cases, you'll see a hack in Spanish and think it looks great (mainly because of the graphics)! Then, the game gets translated, which excites you because now, you'll know what's happening during the story. When you finally get the chance to play it, you find the grammar and word usage is atrocious and you can't understand what's happening at all! I feel sorry for the original creators of these hacks. In most cases, they're approached by someone claiming, "I can translate that for you, if you want!" and it sounds like a great idea. Then the "translator" (and I use that word loosely) plugs the scripts into BabelFish or GoogleTranslate and copy & pastes away. You'd think the "translator" would at least have the common courtesy to edit a few words to make it sensical English, but this isn't usually the case. ҳ̸ҲRichie's "Never Black & White" is the only example I can think of where the translation is literate (I suggest you all take a look at his thread). In any case, even when playing translated hacks, grammar is important.
Now, onto my address to you readers. I'm sure I'm not the only one that is annoyed by grammar mistakes. In fact, I know I'm not the only one. Deokishisu's thread, "The Ultimate Turnoff-What You Don't Want to See in a Hack" features grammar as #1 in his list, a list made from the responses of you who replied to his thread (even though he stated the list is in no particular order, I'm trying to stress a point). Voice your opinions, people! Tell the creators of such nonsensical hacks how you feel. In fact, don't tell them! Don't say anything at all! Many of the culprits of bad grammar are only hacking for the recognition. Don't let them have the satisfaction of a thread with many comments and views. Maybe then, they'll get it in their head that grammar is important. So, tell us what you think about grammar in a hack! Is it a big deal to you? Will you take my advice in denying the satisfaction of a popular thread? If so, spread the word!
Article by Kawaii, Inc.
Tips and Tricks
A cool new trick that you may not have known about
We'll be carrying on from last weeks issue. I made a bit of a mistake in it. You weren't supposed to do the tiling yet. Theres still a bit more to do before.
Palletes
Spoiler:
Before we proceed with tiling the different tilemaps we need to work out which palletes are going to be used by which pallete. There are 16 in total but unfortunately we can only use 3 of them. The ones you can use are shown below.
The bottom two are used for the same thing. They produce the blinking effect of the Press Start. We will be dedicating pallete 16 and 15 to the background, 13 to Giratina and 14 to Arceus/Press Start/Copyright. You'll need to organise the palletes as such.
Tiling
Spoiler:
Now that we've got the hardest part out of the way we can get to work on the most boring part. Load up your favourite TileMap editor. Tiling the background and the Pokemon Logo to your liking. For the Giratina/Arceus/Press Start tile map you need to be careful. When you are tiling Arceus/Press Start you're pallete must be set to 14 and when you are tiling Giratina it must be set to 13.
Inserting
Spoiler:
Save all your TileMaps and load UNLZ. Find the tile maps you are replacing and insert the images and the tilemaps. Make sure to repoint them, they will almost definitely be too big. You're end result should look like this:
Tip donated by dshayabusa
Interview
An in-depth chat with...
Spoiler:
(12:02:46 AM) thethethethe: Ok, so we'll get started now. (12:02:53 AM) Russell: Alright. (12:03:23 AM) thethethethe: I guess we should start with, How did you get into hacking? (12:04:33 AM) Russell: I got into hacking by just liking Pokémon at first. I was just looking up random stuff on YouTube, and then I saw ShinyGold. Later, I saw a "how to download ShinyGold" tutorial, thanks to foullump. I noticed one of the links were PokéCommunity. (12:05:08 AM) thethethethe: And then did curiosity just take over from there? (12:05:49 AM) Russell: Yes, later I noticed that there were more hacks. But, before that, I had started spriting in the Pokémon Crater Forums, which got me into Pokémon. (12:07:37 AM) thethethethe: In my time at PC, I've seen you as quite a talented sprite, but what do you find the simplest aspect of hacking? (12:09:31 AM) Russell: Oddly, I haven't done much at hacking for the past 2 years or so I've been ROM hacking. Actually, I just learned to simply insert a script. I'm going to have to say either palette editing or mapping. (12:10:51 AM) thethethethe: If you haven't done too much in hacking for the past two years, how long ago did you start? (12:11:26 AM) Russell: Well... about two and a half years ago. (12:13:40 AM) thethethethe: I've only been at PC for about a year now, and in that time you've had quite a few hacks from Burning Crystal to Pokemon Glacier. Is there any reason why you seem to have a hard time sticking to one idea? (12:15:54 AM) Russell: I really don't know, I just have a need to make new stories and sprites for miscellaneous things. Pokémon Peridot was my best hack in my opinion, and my idea to make it into a game failed. My latest hack is Pokémon DarkRed, though, and I plan to stick with it. (12:18:08 AM) thethethethe: I'm not 100% sure about this, but I heard that your actually only 13. Is that true? (12:18:46 AM) Russell: Yes, I'm 13. (12:18:57 AM) thethethethe: Okay. (12:20:16 AM) thethethethe: Well a couple of weeks ago in the RHN interview with Darthatron we talked about the age hackers today, and the somewhat lack of maturity found at Pokemon hacking forums. What are your thoughts on that subject? (12:20:56 AM) Russell: I'm not sure I understand what you mean by maturity in Pokémon hacking forums... (12:27:14 AM) thethethethe: In the context of a Pokemon forum, I kind of see maturity as being able to at least try anything. To not be starting a hack then quitting because they couldn't find someone to script for them or hackers complaining that their hack's thread doesn't have a billion posts in it. (12:29:00 AM) thethethethe: Maybe I should rephrase my question. Do you think that the age of a hacker means much? (12:31:09 AM) Russell: Well, I don't find it does. Most often a hacker that is quite a lot older than me can do this as well. But sometimes a hacker who is older has more wisdom with this subject. (12:31:33 AM) Russell: It also depends how long they've been hacking, so they understand the concept of being a "noob". (12:33:21 AM) thethethethe: Well, you've tried both game making and hacking. Do these have any similiarities? (12:35:14 AM) Russell: In my opinion, because I've been ROM hacking for longer, I find game making gives a wide range of capability of making the game, but since I have no knowledge of doing this, I am terrible at it. (12:36:09 AM) Russell: But, hacking gives everything by default, and you can stretch it so it looks a lot better to the eye. I also enjoy ROM hacking because it is an actual game, so everything is the same as if you were playing it on a GBA. (12:36:55 AM) thethethethe: So do you find hacking easier than game making? (12:37:29 AM) Russell: Yes. I am a lot more used to it, and there are tools already given to me. (12:39:32 AM) thethethethe: Well you've mentioned you've been around hacking for two years, what keeps you around? (12:40:33 AM) Russell: Well, if I haven't been ROM hacking for the past two years, I would have lost my interest in Pokémon long ago. It's also the most enjoyable thing I have to do. (12:50:18 AM) thethethethe: Hacking can be frustrating at times. Is there anything that you actually dislike about hacking? (12:52:23 AM) Russell: I dislike the fact that some ROMs are incapable of some things, such as changing the font of the in-game text. I also dislike changing title screens and animations, as they are quite difficult. (12:53:07 AM) Russell: I may also have some difficulty with some areas of changing tilesets, because if I want to change a certain aspect, I have to assume this tile is this, etc. (12:54:36 AM) thethethethe: Of all the hackers in your time hacking, is there anyone that you, sort of, look up to? (12:56:29 AM) Russell: At first I always looked up to people like zel.
Now, I look up to most people who provide useful tutorials and essentials documents, such as HackMew, LU-HO, etc. (12:57:17 AM) thethethethe: Have you ever tried to hack a ROM other than Pokemon? (12:58:28 AM) Russell: Yes, actually. I've once thought of hacking a random Mario game, but my lack of hex editing knowledge abandoned that idea. I'm currently working on hacking Mega Man 2. (12:59:57 AM) thethethethe: Well we might wrap this up now. Is there any hack that you would like to recommend? (1:01:05 AM) Russell: I would say either Pokémon Genesis or Liquid Ocean. (1:01:47 AM) thethethethe: Both good hacks. Would you like to leave readers with any advice? (1:02:25 AM) Russell: Sure: Stick with your hacks! XD (1:02:41 AM) thethethethe: Thanks for the interview Infernal Contraption.
Interview by thethethethe
Closing Notes
Some house keeping
Err, yeah. Next week will be better thats a promise. We'll have a new segment too "Beginner's Corner" (thanks to EarthsVisitor for the idea as well as "Question of the Week").
Closing by dshayabusa
CSS design and graphics by dshayabusa. Ask for permission if you want to use them!
about the Question of the Week, you should have included the question and then the answers...
at first I thought the question was about the current hacker's style in scripting, and when I read the second, I then knew it was about recycling old script events in the game... :\
well, anyways, I understand that you are busy, so ya don't need to apologize for a short newsletter today. :)
also, the grammar is one of the important things in hacking...
but each of us differ in personality, style, etc, which sometimes conflicts with other's 'correct' way of what grammar should be...
I agree about the translators thingy, but I guess not all are 'copy-pasters'...
To be honnest, this Weeks version was pretty bad, I got confussed at the qustien, I solved the qustien, but first I thought it were "riper", Could you write the qoustien in the top next time?
about the Question of the Week, you should have included the question and then the answers...
at first I thought the question was about the current hacker's style in scripting, and when I read the second, I then knew it was about recycling old script events in the game... :\
well, anyways, I understand that you are busy, so ya don't need to apologize for a short newsletter today. :)
Lolz I liked it it was a bit empty (A) but still neat job I couldn't myself do that every week XD And I kinda liked the review of my map :P
And I do agree with the grammar thing because you always need to have neat understandable english in it and no internet slang.. But if you make a few mistakes it isn't so bad nobody is perfect :P
I FOUND A FEW GRAMMAR ERRORS!! WHERE'S MY TEN POINTS?
Uh-ohs! The map image is broken!! Anyway, I thought it was funny how you talked about a shorter issue, then went on to describe two new segments and an article. =)
Hopefully people will figure out the fact that you're busy and if there's no review, they'll just have to deal! Myself taking three or so weeks to finally write a decent article is a prime example of busy. Don't worry, you'll see more from me.
Oh, despite the fact that reviews are missing this week, it's very good as always, I like the interview, a good job of thethethethe as usual.
It will be interesting that you look up to some old hacks. Maybe a "Hack Graveyard" section or something.
Also, take a look to the old hacks that aren't stopped ;)
Okay first off, I get ten points. It's Viridian not Veridian. Second, haha, I love how you say it's going to be a short issue, but it's actually just as long, with the two new segments:P I liked the question of the week, it was a great idea! I also agree with MOST of the feelings in that segment. I like the idea of the map review, it's great! Except the missing link... I have to say, I completely agree with Kawaii, the grammer in hacks these days is atrocious, and it needs to be fixed. I mean, how hard is it to spell a word right? If you don't know how to spell it just look it up, there are many online dictionaries at your disposal. Yes, the tips and tricks is finished! Haha, but yes, I'm sure many hackers are pleased about that segment being finished. The interview was pretty good this week as well, I guess that's what to expect from Thethethethe! You don't have to apologize about the newsletter, I understand you are busy, and I'm looking forward to next week's issue! Well, BOL!
To be honnest, this Weeks version was pretty bad, I got confussed at the qustien, I solved the qustien, but first I thought it were "riper", Could you write the qoustien in the top next time?
I've edited it, I just forgot to write the question in. I have no idea what you're trying to say about the interview. And I don't see whats wrong with the tip.
Oh, despite the fact that reviews are missing this week, it's very good as always, I like the interview, a good job of thethethethe as usual.
It will be interesting that you look up to some old hacks. Maybe a "Hack Graveyard" section or something.
Also, take a look to the old hacks that aren't stopped ;)
If it's that you just can report Quartz and the Ruby Destiny series. I haven't heard of any other completed hack.
Any way, I see usually in Gaming Magazines a section like that, where they report about SNES or NES games.
And, you never know when someone can come back. All hacks with betas are worth reporting, in my humble opinion.
If it's that you just can report Quartz and the Ruby Destiny series. I haven't heard of any other completed hack.
Any way, I see usually in Gaming Magazines a section like that, where they report about SNES or NES games.
And, you never know when someone can come back. All hacks with betas are worth reporting, in my humble opinion.
