Evolution As A Hacker

Pretty self-explanatory. How do you think you've evolved as a hacker. For those who already hit a stride in hacking, have you looked back at your earlier works? How far do you think you've progrssed.

In my case, when I started my maps were very cluttered and unnatural. Also I tended to use a lot of rom bases to draw in a crowd. Now I focus more on the story and not over the top features like spritemon and rombases. In terms of actual hacking, my scripts are cleaner, my maps, to me, are more natural feeling and less cluttered, though I do regress sometimes. Also I'm not into using rombases and spritemon anymore. I prefer small edits to the fire red base because if used properly, they're quite nice.

Discuss: How have you evolved as a hacker from your humble begginings to now?

Gaaaaaaaaah, looking back I was such a noob and still am one 8D. I couldn't map for my life; it was some sort of abominated mixture between trying to be natural (-.- don't blame me; when people told me to look at mapping tutorials, I only found Neti.) and ugly-square. That was around the time I made this crappy hack, called something like Cleanse. Cleanse only had new person and signpost scripts. idek what was going through my head with the name and storyline then, though, because it was crazy-bad.

Then I moved on to something called Kyanpu (campers in japanese iirc), and that was pretty terrible, too. By then I could do simple trigger scripts, and I think the most advanced script I'd made was a heal script (which was essentially a buggy redo of Nurse Joy). Kyanpu's mapping was just horrible, but at least I'd grasped the basics of scripting by then.

enCODED. Arguably my turning point in ROM Hacking, because when I was working on it I had met Harry and he helped out a lot (and from Harry I met others, such as Chibi Robo, Ben., Pokepal17, etc.). I then joined Cello's hacking team, bangBANG, which sort of made my mapping better.

Now a moderator of Emulation (idek how I managed to get there anyway), I posted a thread on my previous hack, Sepia, which you could say I'm still working on, as Dark Cobalt, but... Yeah, Sepia had level scripts, (relatively) good maps, and a solid storyline and a normal name, too!. I got pretty far with Sepia before taking a 'hiatus' of sorts around September last year.

Now, with Dark Cobalt, I think I can safely say I've become a really great ROM Hacker, who can map well, script almost flawlessly, insert tiles easily and pretty much do all the basics. I think when I next level up, I'll evolve again. If I train against ASM music looping/composing, I think I'll earn enough EXP to level up though.

Oh, and none of my hacks have yet had a release (which is a good thing in almost all cases XD).

tl;dr Baby Stage: bad mapper, basic basic scripter; Basic Stage: bad mapper, basic scripter; Stage 1: good scripter, okay mapper, generally good hacker; Stage 2: spherical ice is a pretty cool guy, eh scripts and maps and stuff and doesn't afraid of anything. Stage 3: learn asm and music gogogo

When I was 9 I stumbled across a gameboy programming tutorial. I convinced my father to buy me a EZ3-Linker (which is crap btw) and made a few paint-clones. But then lost the cartridge and later the interest.

4 years later I found AdvanceMap while looking for a tool for GameMaker. I downloaded it and and opened a ROM. The interface seemed self-expainatory to me. In the "About"-Box I found the hint "Thanks to Tauwasser" or something like that. With this name in Google I found the german and then the english pokemon hacking community.

Until now I haven't played a single ROM Hack. I think that explains why I'm not interested in mapping or scripting but more in the technology. I tried to write some tools. but all these attempts failed. The time wasn't wasted though. I learned a lot about the game. (mainly in the hex editor)

3 Years later I found out that someone was able to render Diamond and Pearl 3d models. I decided to make my own DPP editor and was more or less successful. (I wasn't even interested in DPP. I just did it for the reputation. (And it seems like this impressed my employer too ^^))

Now I analyze the firered ROM and work on my own clone of it. Of course I could make a romhack. I have the skills (and if I don't it takes 5 minutes to get it in PokeCommunity) But my problem is that I'm not creative enough. So I stick with analyzing. I accept challenges btw. Just send me an offset for firered and I will explain the ASM-Code.

If you take a look at these two images that would pretty much sum it up:-

Also, now I can script much much much better than I could back in the day. And pretty much I'm just all around about three times as much better at all of the different aspects of it than I was when i started out.

Tbh... all I've ever cared about was mapping. I went from horrible mapper to (one of the) top dog(s) in about a week. That's how much I love doing it.

Hm, this is a tough question because honestly I'm not sure if I am a hacker yet. I have recently been doing some serious pondering on the definition of ROM Hacking and I realized that though I'm quite adept at locating graphics and code and subsequently manipulating them, I haven't made any major discoveries. I attributed this mainly to the fact that I'm hacking a ROM for which all the major discoveries (i.e., level data, pokémon data, item data, etc.) have already been made. On top of that, a lot of my knowledge of how my ROM works was picked up from my early days when I was just using tools. So a little while ago I decided to test my skills as a real hacker by trying to hack a game without any prior knowledge of how it works. I chose Super Mario Advance 3 (the GBA port of the SNES game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, one of my favorite games of all time) and set to work trying to locate the level data. I have made a few discoveries (like finding the block table, which is surprisingly similar in nature to that of 3rd generation pokémon games) but I can't, for the life of me, find the level data. And I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not a hacker after all. I'll keep working at it but until I find the level data, I wouldn't even call myself a hacker.

So yeah, I can't evolve if I never was a hacker to begin with.

I wasn't much of a hacker to begin with. My mapping sucked, my spriting sucked, and I always, always, messed up on things. There's not much to say about that stuff, because I quit after my computer got a virus and was wiped. It wasn't until about last January I got back into it. Since before my quiting I've understood more concepts, such as scripting and ASM. (I still suck at spriting though. :p) I've became a good scripter, then I tried learning aSM, and I failed. Then I tried it again, and created the seasons in fire red. It's really my most proud creation.

My first hack experience is index and inserting of sprite and make event,
and these some videos.. :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6nEwLrT5bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IKO_Cai-RE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeUfldGFqJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kROLV0esc

lol, but now, I can map better than the last one.. :D and I can script a small like applymovement and more.. :D
and... I can now make title screen and boot screen and more stuff.. :D

@styles, ITT: people think they're good because they've got better. no sad ponderings here plex

First time I tried to hack... (thank god I didn't actually make a hack) was with Elite Map. It sucked because I couldn't script and had to work around the current ones, and my maps were basically replacing trees with mountains lol.

I then decided to learn how to script (thanks to thethethe's awesome tutorial) and now I'm fairly proficient (ie. I can do average stuff and any advanced stuff i can just look up while trying to do) and my mapping got better. That's when I started work on Moonshine.

It died, of course (because of lack of commitment + a ROM that died due to my bad-at-using it), and I ran out of inspiration because scripting is boring as. My mapping was really natural at the time (neti's tutorial D:) and, as I look back, I dunno wtf i was doing.

But since then, I just worked on maps and played around hacking. I've been on and off Pokemon + Fire Emblem (got decent at mapping + scripting in that, too! :D) and am pretty cool guy now. My mapping is now my own (ie. not my own because natural mapping is done by like me, styles, ice, harry, etc) style (see three words before) and I believe I'm now considered a decent mapper.

Fin.

I first joined in early 2006~, so I've been hacking for 4 and a half years. Wow, that makes me feel old. When I first started hacking, there was very little progress in Gen 3 hacking. There were only a few key programs, mainly by Scizz, Lu-Ho, and the Helmeted Rodent group. Although there were a few very basic tutorials.

Anyway, in order to actually progress in the hacking world, I had to learn to hex edit... It wasn't overly difficult, and definitely helped me out in my later school years.

So after about a year I could do some basic hex editing, but nearly nothing had happened in the form of progress in Gen 3, and nothing really did happen for the next couple of years.

Then, early last year, I decided I should learn how ASM works, and what it is, and such - so I downloaded an eBook on Thumb, and read it.

Uhm, that pretty much only leaves now: I like to think I'm one of the better hackers now, and someone who is able to actually help progress a ROM Hack, rather than doing the same stuff over and over again. I think my FFTA Hacking shows exactly what I mean by that.

LOVELY!

Well, I dunno if I'm a "good" hacker. But I certainly have better knowledge than I did long ago. I started in early March (I think). I downloaded Advance Text (which was a bad idea >.<). If you look at my old account and see the thread Legendary Adventure, you'll see how horrible my hack was. Though I deleted most of the screenshots (I hope). Now, I know how to script (I'm an average hacker actually). Insert stuff like tiles, sprites, ect. And my mapping has improved since when I first hacked. n__n If you guys know me (or been here when I started) you could definitely see the changes. Oh yeah and I don't use A-Text anymore... (= Might learn ASM in January 2011. XP

To put it quite plainly, I sucked when I started out. Now I'm still learning new things, but I have the expertise to do most everything I need to do hacking wise. :rambo:

Hacking ROMs hasn't been something I do to try to create a new game or anything. I first got into it when Diamond and Pearl came out. When I started on those they were relatively untouched, so I opened Diamond up in a hex editor and changed the starters to Mew :P PokeSpam was formed (don't think we're really together anymore) and we found more crap, like evolutions, scripts, stuff like that. A lot of things were things already known in 3rd generation hacking, but they hadn't found the 4th generation equivalents yet. We kind of got the ball rolling for 4th generation hacking with Diamond and Pearl and then the community took over from there. (Shout out to SVC, who basically kept everything going!)

As for me right now? I don't do much ROM hacking anymore, but I come to the board every now and then to see if anything new has happened. Lately I've been more interested in hacking my PS3 and 360 to see what kind of stuff I can do with them. It definitely kept me occupied while it lasted and I learned a lot from it. I also learned some fun tricks along the way too and learned a bit more on VB programming. Other than that it just kept me busy when I was doing it.

(For the record, I didn't end up doing any ROM hacks. I was more into delving into hex and assembly to learn what was happening in the ROM to be able to change around different things and help get stuff going for 4th generation hacking.)

Well, I'm sure alot of people would like to hear my story on how I started to get the interest in ROM Hacking, correct?

Well, it all started back in December 2007, when I first discovered a Pokémon FireRed ROM Hack called
"Pokémon Shiny Gold", it was a ROM hack made by a ROM Hacker named Carlos (Zel's real name)... as we all knew him under the username "Zel" (or Zel 2.0 as of now). He however... faded away into history in April 2009 for some reasons which we do not know. I got into using AdvanceMap by January 2008, which was when I started fooling around with Pokémon Shiny Gold back then, I was always about fooling around with it for months. I never even posted until April 1st, then one day sometime in April, I met my first ever friend online, his username was "chimchar9", as I knew him later on as his name was Kyle.

It's amazing how quickly things changed, isn't it? I started thinking about creating a hack called Pokémon Dimentions of Time. I started a bit on it, nowadays... I'm thinking about making the hack even more better... so it makes it feel as if it's a totally different game. And 2008 was also the time when I got interested in hacking Pokémon Diamond/Pearl, as I noticed that Pokémon Platinum was also on it's way to being released in Japan. I was also discovering on Pokémon Platinum how the maps had some graphical improvements. I was hoping for the first ever map editor for the 4th generation... however it was never made, as even today it hasn't been made yet. As I did make some discoveries of the 4th generation's mapping engine, like for instance... the normal maps are all placed on one whole world map adjusted to the squares of the Town Map, but first maps wern't however displayed on the Town map. But then it wasn't long before I started coming on The PokéCommunity forums less often than I normally did. Ever since the discovery of The PokéCosmo Community forums, I got too attached to it, which then later I got onto a chat site called xat (which I'm still on even today).

Then it was 2009, I still didn't come on PC very much. I still was attached to the chat site called xat, and during that year, I didn't do hardly any ROM Hacking in that year. As the English Pokémon Platinum came out in the US and worldwide (including the country I live in, Australia). Then it wasn't long before Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver got announced. Finally! There was official Gold/Silver remakes as speculated for the Nintendo DS, except they wern't called "DawnGold" or "DuskSilver" as what people were thinking they would be. Once HeartGold/SoulSilver were released in Japan, I started having a look around using the Walk Through Walls code. I found out that the unknown maps in HeartGold/SoulSilver wern't called "Mystery Zone", they were called "-----------" instead. But the maps were made just like the previous installments, they used the same "maps everywhere based on the Map Card (Town Map)" style. Since I was too addicted to the xat chats, I didn't do much in the way of ROM Hacking. So therefore... it came to 2010... and that's when I started gradually getting back into ROM Hacking. I was more interested in hacking the 4th generation more than the 3rd, more of the fact that it had 3D graphics. Because... doesn't it get boring when having to hack the 3rd generation and lower all the time? Well it does for me (even though I hadn't made a hack yet). xD
Then two 5th generation games were announced for the Nintendo DS, as I thought at that time that it might be for the 3DS, but as soon as I read about that it was for the DS, then I realized. So then Pokémon Black/White was announced for the Nintendo DS, I then realized later that it had DSi enhanced capibilities (using the DSi camera). I was also quite interested in the 3D battle scene graphics. As then HeartGold and SoulSilver were released in the US, then all other countries later on, then as I was thinking that Pokémon Black/White was going to be using the same engine as the 4th generation, 'twas only when Black/White got released... I realized the mapping engine was different from the 4th, as I realized that the maps on Pokémon Black/White used a mixture of 3rd and 4th generation mapping engines, the 3rd generation side was the "unable to go outside the boundries of a map" thing, which was of course blocked off by an invisible wall. As for the 4th generation side of the 5th generation mapping engine was the 3D graphics, no map connection codes, and the fixed map size of 25x25 blocks. Now as the 5th generation comes by... the 5th generation mapping engine introduces what I call the "map groupings", because unlike the 4th generation... the maps are not placed on one whole big map. Because the map groupings contain all the textures and objects for the map grouping unlike the 4th generation has all the different maps with the textures and objects, and unlike the 4th generation... they have their objects and textures assigned to it, but in the 4th generation, you can go into a map with different objects and textures and they won't appear because the textures and objects don't change automatically. Nether would the 5th generation if it was possible, but the map groupings would indeed sepparate the problems of it happening. So yeah, you can't go outside the boundries of a map grouping in the 5th generation.

Nowadays... I'm actually looking into getting Visual Studio so that I can try to attempt to create an editor that will the map layout, along with of course an editor for editing models for the 5th generation. Since I've realized now that someone is already creating a map editor for the 4th generation, I've decided to work on conquering the 5th generation. And that way... we will catch up to Nintendo! Aww yeah! :D

And that's my story on how I discovered and my evolution as a ROM Hacker, as I'm now someone who's looking forward into conquering the 5th generation. ;)

I was so eager to hack when I first heard of it. I started with messing around with maps. The first map I ever made was an underwater version of Littleroot Town. It changed and evolved into a realistic underwater scenario and by the time I decided to make a real hack, not just experiment, it was a completely different and underwater town that I named, UnderwaterSapphire. The only underwater town I've ever seen in a hack. I eventually learned how to edit text and making sprite changes, but my best subject is still mapping. My hack ended up breaking about a year ago due to lack of knowledge and carelessness so I restarted it but with the skill I have now and so far it is looking great! It finally has it's own story, characters and everything a proper hack needs. Plus profanity, my hack won't be for kids. Pokemon Sapphire: Hoenn's Ruin! The public beta version is almost ready for it's release!

hacking like life is a never ending growing process.... although its been a few years i still have loads to learn

but 1st off i think its essential to point out how nice and helping ppl are when it comes to new hackers and i hope this tradition will never be forgotten in the future.... ppl like Zel thethethe although were sitting on the top of the hacking world never turned down an opportunity to assist a newbie like me

as an aspiring rom hacker, (like i said still loads to learn) i found its a gradual and slow process but i think ive made an improvement from the naive person i was a couple of years ago... heck i thought makin a hack only involved putting in a few scripts and a lil a text here and there

was i wrong its a tiring but satisfying thing to do and although i stopped hacking for about a year feels good to come back and see all the changes that have been made in the hacking world we got some smart ppl out there!

but to me hacking introduces us to a whole new community that treats us with respect but at the same time does not shy away from correcting our mistakes

as a whole my evolution as a hacker has thought me to appreciate and understand the life of a rom hacker and finally understanding the greek term cetris paribus (all things being equal). i still cant really call myself a true hacker just yet. i dont feel deserving of that term, but to be accepted here in the hacking world is a blessing and an honor

'raises glass'
" To Rom hackers around the world i salute you".