Can we move on to hacking Gen 4 and 5 now?

[Mariow2]

Just inspired me to start ROM Hacking. Always been interested in it, yet I never really thought about doing it myself. I guess I'll start now :pink_boogie:

Glad to have helped!

 

[Mariow2]

How exactly?
Even if all the ASMagicians of this community started to make researches on any of the Pok?mon NDS Games it would take a good while for people to come up with usable tools that make use of those investigations.


I didn't finished Prism yet, but 3D Graphics? On a GBC ROM? What I played of it hadn't anything like that.
Make use of 3D? In what incredible and astonishing way could you use the game's 3D Capabilities?
It's basically only used for maps and cutscenes, and I'm sure that manipulating them will be hard af.
You're definitely going to expend way more effort with them than with the 2D Maps of the Pok?mon GBA Games for a similar result. If anything, it'll be way easier to start using right now the Pok?mon Unity Engine.

And let's not forget how it took more than 10 years for the Pok?mon GBA ROM Hacking Scene to reach the state it is in today. Hell, the Pok?mon R/S Disassembly Project is finally reaching an usable state and once completed, it will probably open a lot of doors and make everything easier than ever before, even.

If Pok?mon Prism is more fun than the currently available GBA ROM Hacks or not is a subjective matter, but that wouldn't be the GBA Games fault at all, clearly.


Tools are done AFTER the investigations they take advantage of.
That's what's lacking in the 4th Gen. ROM Hacking Scene, well documented posts on how things works.


Boy oh boy, where should I begin..
NO$GBA is a hacky, unstable, unaccurate and problematic emulator.
Martin Korth, its author, prioritized performance over accuracy and that summed with how he wrote it in assembly is the whole secret to his incredible performance.
Its audio quality.. gosh, it's absolutely awful.
Also, it does run GBA and DS Games, yes, but mostly with problems.

From the top of my head:
*Pok?mon Emerald lacks the fog effect on Verdanturf Tunnel, you literally can't see where you're going.
Here's a comparison, VBA to the left and NO$GBA on the right:

*Pok?mon HG/SS freezes randomly and there's no solid way to fix it. I'm sure that someday someone will find the way to disable that nuisance since it is most likely an anti-piracy measure implemented by Game Freak.
*For Pok?mon B1/W1 you need an Action Replay to get across a blue screen stating some problem with the cartirdge or something and you basically can't save your progress. I tried the Action Replay that should supposedly fix that, but it didn't.
Also, I think that the blue screen problem also applies to B2/W2 too.

Desmume also has the same freezing issues with HG/SS and its performance leaves a lot to be desired.

Right now, there's 2 competent emulators being slowly developed (MelonDS and Medusa) and the word of Exophase, creator of DraStic, that he would most likely eventually port DraStic to Windows x86.
Things might change in the future, but right now? They're looking bad.


That was some weak marketing crap you just sputted over there.
"With DS pokemon hacking you have everything you need and more!"
... Except nothing because there's barely any research done on them!
Pok?mon Expansion? No.
Mega Evolution? No.
Item, Abilities or even Attacks Expansion? No, No and No again.
AT LEAST A SCRIPTING TUTORIAL..? Oh.. Nope, there's none.


Again, if you're after the 3D, you would have it way easier just using the Pok?mon Unity Engine linked above.
Greater graphics? The textures, OWs and sprites are in 2D, for pete's sake. Literally no different than the GBA Games.
Better hardware? What exactly are YOUR ideas on how to get advantage of it?
Nothing stopping us? You're wrong, the lack of information is stopping everything from moving.

Be my guest though, become the pioneer that this scene's so much needing.

I did say earlier, that I wasn't really intending on doing it anymore, due to the difficulty of it.

btw, I was rofl when you mentioned the cheap marketing bit.

 

[Sakib66]

Right now..NDS is not suitable for hacking. ( Maybe it will be once I released my Black2 base). So, right now...Gen 3 is the golden generation for hacking.

 

[icanonlyhasgbagames]

As a GBA rom hack player, I would hate for the hacking community to move on to Gen 4 and subsequently abandon Gen 3. It might be incredibly biased but my main reason for sticking with Gen 3 is because it can be played pretty much like a native app on mobile.

I tried DS emulators for a bit but came back to GBA because of having to use two screens. I don't really like playing on portrait mode because the screen's too small, even if it shows two screens at once. Playing on landscape on the other hand makes the second screen so tiny it loses all purpose of being there.

And lastly, as others have said, I don't think we're missing out on a lot sticking to Gen 3. It seems like everything from later gens can be ported back to gen 3 with enough patience and tenacity.

Having said all that, I do understand your wanting to move on to hacking later gens. It might feel like we're "stuck" on gen 3 sometimes. And moving on to later gens can also mean less work for devs in the long run, like removing the need to add physical/special split for every single rom since it's already there, among other things.

 

[anameunknowni]

The main appeal of gen 4 is the updated graphics, but with that comes an inconvenient bottom screen and a lot of work.

The tools are put there, but figuring out how to use those and how to add stuff (mega evolutions, gen 6/7 Pok?mon, gen 6/7 moves, abilities, and items, new tile sets, b2/w2 repel system, new 3D cities like Castilia city, new sprites, infinite tms, new types, etc.) would be possible, but would take time to figure out and implement any of those features. However, you can do all of that stuff and more on a gen 3 hack.

 

[Juvia Milotic Lockser]

Glad to have helped!

Haha I love your signature! 😂💙😊🌸

 

[HHIILLOO]

The thing I find interesting in the DS games that no other games have experimented with are the seasons mechanic from gen 5. I found it fascinating the way it warped the over world and how it changes the ecosystems so dramatically. It's a neat system that wouldn't be too feasible to implement in many other scenarios, but if some one worked it out, it would be great to see it again.

 

[Salvation714]

Hacking Gen 4 and up is the next step.
there are already hack programs being released to get started.
I know once people start making Gen 4 and higher hacks the games will go on par with the new games because of the updated graphics.