4/10/09, New RHN Issue 2

Welcome to a new edition of the well known RHN. This week's edition is a massive one. Including 4 reviews and one of the 4 having 2 reviews in 1. We also have 2 rants, an interview, a special download, and a new tip/trick continued from last week. Today a storm of new reviews came in which pretty much saved the day. The reason another tip was not in was because Om3ga Ars3nal is having a bit of a rough patch but should be better in a week. Thanks you guys.

Team RHN.​

What a nice hack we have here. Just by looking at it, you can see this hack will go far.

You really don't see very many hacks with Fakemon in them. The mapping is fabulous and by looking at the screenshots, so are the scripts.

This ROM hack introduces "Pokemon Torzach: The Legend Begins" with a new whole region called Torzach, 250 new Fakemon, a new storyline, new and original scripts. Hopefully that everyone is looking forward to the release, because I am. The mapping set out is beautiful, but in my opinion lacks some vegatation, and some of the maps look pretty bare, and what great graphics!

And MegaMaccer has used Punk Rocker / Visual's Kyledove Rom Base to increase the popularity of this hack, and the graphics. This hack is a hack of Pokemon FireRed. MegaMaccer is currently complete more sprites, finishing up Scripting details on the current Maps, developing new features and working on he next segment of the Pre Alpha. Can't Wait!

I give this hack no rating, due to the fact that this hack hasn't been released yet.

Keep up the good work, MegaMaccer, and hope to see more updates soon!
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Looks can be deceiving the old saying goes. For this hack it's just like that old saying. I reviewed Pokemon Shining Opal this week and I was some what disappointed. The hack had nice scripts but awkward mapping. The story was just like the maps "awkward". Don't you think the prof. would notice that he just gave you a legendary? The idea of a fusion of Mew and Pikachu was very unreal but the sprite is good. Anyways lets talk about the "Fakemon" Mikachu (Your starter) He was just too powerful. When I was doing the first battle with the rival may I say it.....

Just Beacause The starter was just too powerful.
Now the scripts were probaly in my opinion saved the game! They werent the best scripts or the newest but it saves this hack from being well bad.Anyways I think Im being generous by rating it a 5


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MewTwo Strikes Back. Ahh, that brings back some memorys... I've played through the Alpha, and I must say, I thouroughly enjoyed it! Straight to the point at the start, you would'nt notice
that it is a hack, as it hasn't used any of the scripts from Fire Red, and that is something I really look for in a hack. Its easy enough to find your way around and work out what you are
supposed to be doing, even for someone who has never watched the movie. Good solid maps, nice scripts, sprites, and a good use of tiles just to top it off. Something else I like is that it throws you straight
in at the deep end with battles, but also makes them fairly easy to complete, unlike others I have played before. I have a strong feeling this Hack will do well for itself, and I'm sure fans of the movie will enjoy it.
Alright, that was the positive side of the hack ^^. Now, on the flipside, there is one script in particular that sticks out to me: the HM script, where you recieve Surf. It seems completely out of the blue, it may
have been in the movie, and I just mised it, if so, my apologies, but it still seems rather random. There are the obvious tile and movement permission errors you get with almost every Alpha,
but they didn't really affect my gameplay much at all, and I'm sure they will all be fixed for further Alpha/Betas.
Alright, time for the overall rating: Like I said, it could be great, with a little bit of effort. Once they get past the few issues that are inevitable with a movie based hack, I think it will go very far indeed ^^
I will certainly be keeping my eye on this hack to see how it turns out, and I reccomend it to all MSB/Non MSB fans alike. Overall it is an 8/10, an excellent hack needing only a few things.



Review 2:
Alright, well "Pokemon Mewtwo Strikes back!" is a hack rendition of the movie, "Mewtwo Strikes Back", it's not like I haven't seen this before, it's been attempted by many different hackers and the outcome is usually low quality, hopefully this will be different.

The first thing I notice is the title screen, nothing is edited except for the text and the flames in the background, pretty low effort, though this is an alpha, I still think that if your going to have a new title screen for a demo of your game, do it right or don't do it at all.
The intro was cleverly done, I love the way they manipulated Mewtwo's dream sequence, but still, they did not edit the background, it really ruins the whole feel of the cutscene.
The mapping….
This is a serious disappointment.
The mapping is square and unimaginative, I also spot some errors, hopefully the other maps are better.
The scripts however are great; the dialogue is almost perfect for the anime characters, the little details give the game a real movie feel. I do however see some minor text errors, along with some color errors.
Uh oh, they broke a cardinal rule of hacking, don't make the character speak!
It makes the game feel so much more… controlled, the player feels bound to the restraints of the storyline, but I digress.
The levels of the Pokemon given to you, along with the battles seem pretty well thought out, the game is challenging, but still engages you to the point that you want to play more.
But some of these events are terrible, like the Dragonite, I doubt he was standing there waiting, you could have just made an event touch that makes the Dragonite fly to you and give you a message, another example is when the old man runs up to you and randomly gives you the HM, I really don't think I need to explain the problem with this script.

I'm going to stop putting in all these details and cut to the chase, the game has great playability, the battles from the movie make it feel so fun and energetic, the tiles are simply beautiful and the dialogue is very entertaining, pointblank period.

Oh but no, I am not letting them off that easy, on to the negatives.
The mapping is just plain bad, I really can't say anything else about it; it looks like it was done in a few minutes with no effort or reference to the movie whatsoever.
Some of the crucial events were just lazily done, which emphasizes the lack of detail in some parts of this game, it just seems so rushed. This hack would deserve a higher rating if it had been taken a bit more slowly and once all bugs are released and we can get to the brunt of the movie I expect this rating of a 6 to rise ;)


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When I first saw this hack, I knew it was going to be good. Lex is a long time pokemon hacker and is particularly skilled in the graphics department. The story is of two friends who share adventures in the region of Kanji while encountering a dark organization known as the Terror Squad. They're after the most powerful pokemon in existence. It is not said which pokemon this is as far as I know.
Right at the beginning of the beta I discovered that the graphics and maps are great. Things look fairly natural and there are few errors. The maps are fun to traverse. However some spots do look a bit unnatural. The tiles are combined wonderfully. Greenery and buildings blend in with one another to create a great environment. I personally like most of the palette choices.
Although I did find two references to Hoenn,(one of them being a town still named Oldale Town) plenty of fresh dialogue was included. Among the new scripts there was humor and things to keep the player interested. I won't spoil the jokes, but I can say that the Terror Squad encounters are interesting. (from what Spanish I can read as I'm not fluent.) I found a couple or so grammatical mistakes. A rather large bug I discovered was an event that would repeat. It is an easy way to level up your pokemon as it's a battle with a rival.
Playing Dark Blue beta 1 was an enjoyable time. If you can read Spanish, I recommend that you check it out some time. If you can't, it's still fun thanks to the new events. What will become of this hack? What role does Dragonair play? You'll have to wait and see. Overall this hack deserves a 9 out of 10

In today's Tips and Tricks I will be showing you how to insert your indexed tiles in to advanced map. First of all open advance map and go the decrease color depth feature as shown in the last newsletter. and get your options like this on it.



Once you press ok go to the edit palette feature and choose each color and change them to be divisible by 8. original image on top, divisible by 8 on bottom.





Now in Advance map do that with each color of tree (what I used)



Once all colors are in export the .dib and load in your newly saved tile image (with new pals) and your newly saved pal in the .dib. Wala
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Lack of reading.
It is creating some unnecessary trouble and wasting peoples' time. Reading is a skill taught to most people at an early age. Why not use it?
The rules and help threads are there for a reason. As you all know, this fact has been ignored many times. Don't post a thread before reading the rules and thinking about what you're doing. Post scripts in the script help thread and not the simple questions thread. The two threads are right next to each other. It's hard not to miss it. Search the simple questions thread before asking a question. It says to do this in all capital letters in the thread title. That's what the search function is for. I do believe anyone can follow these instructions pretty easily.
People who are the new to the forum shouldn't have too much trouble finding their way around. Everything is laid in a clear manner and there are plenty of members that are willing to help a new face. The rom hacking section seems especially easy to navigate. Each sub-section name means exactly what it seems. The scrapbox is for hacks in early stages of development and things that don't fit into any of the other categories like hack walkthroughs. The documents and tutorials section contains just that; documents and tutorials. An unnecessary question post can be avoided by reading things in the documents and tutorials section. Looking for tools? That's what the toolbox is for. For those of you who have not yet adhered to these suggestions, please do so.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in the rules thread it says that your post should be constructive. Don't post something extremely generic like "Looks good. Can't wait to play it". It's not appreciated. Hackers generally like feedback and hearing what people like specifically about their creation, whether it is a hack, a tool, or a tutorial. Additionally, moderators look in disdain at people "hyperposting" to get fifteen posts in order to post pictures.
Not only are moderators being affected by this lack of reading, but the general public is as well. Valid, easy to answer questions have been skipped over in the simple questions thread, causing people to have to repost. Posters in the map rating thread have suffered from this too. There have been maps that were skipped over not once, but twice. Possibly even three times. Call me crazy, but I think the rom hacking community does not appreciate spammers and there sorry posts either.
So, now that you've read an elaboration on just how much lack of reading and spam affects both the rom hacking section and the community as whole, I bet you want to put an end to it. Switch sides, join the fight, or keeping on fighting to rid the community of clutter and mindless garbage.
Reading came long before the internet. Let's use it positively online. I hope this rant has been informative, encouraging, and not too boring. To reading and logic!​

Shiny Gold spam threads.
Yup that's what I'm ranting about. Yeah I know it's probably already been ranted about. The thing is it annoys the heck out of everyone. All the newbies making thread asking zel 2.0 for the next beta; or asking for help on it. I mean God if they ever used the search button or even looked around they would find a help thread. Do these spammers know that they are at fault or zel 2.0 closing all his threads and working on it in private? Because they are, if it wasn't for all this spam then maybe the public could see how zel 2.0 is progressing in Beta 6. I'm sure these threads annoy everyone especially zel 2.0. I know a lot of moderators get annoyed as well when all these threads put up in their sections. I know most people would say they would love to have a hack as popular as zel 2.0's. But to be honest I wouldn't. If having a hack that popular means having spam pop up all over your threads and vm's/pm's then I would rather have a known hack but not as popular as Shiny Gold hack. I think I am playing a part in stopping the Shiny Gold spam. What I am doing is monitoring the Shiny Gold help thread and answering some questions. I know it's not a lot of a difference but it stops some people making random threads about it. Anyways this rant has been brilliant for me to get out my frustations.​

Introducing the forum to the RHN: Meet the staff rom. You are a new employee here at the RHN. Waking up on what is supposed to be your first day on the duty you realize you are late by the scream of your mother. Once at work you get to finally meet us staff members :D, this hack will be continued in hopefully some other issues ;). you will be a writer, deliverer and more I hope. In this hack I included plaques for Malin and Darthatron, VIP section for people who were reviewed and interviewed. It is a patch of firered.

Download: Sendspace.
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Wow, that was an immense issue. thanks to all the writers in the team and supporters out there. Also big props to HFI for making the rating boxes, they are fantastic. Next week's issue is planned to hold more surprises so get on your toes. Once again thanks from the RHN.

Team RHN.​