First Hack of the Quarter - 2012

[demonta4]

pokemon crystal dust is the best out of the three

 

[Correspondence]

I think all three hacks are great but personally i like Snakewood better.

 

[NarutoActor]

For you guys who actually voted for snakewood, did you actually play it? Not to be mean to the owner, but when I saw CoolBoyman play it during the Rom Hacking Charity, it was really disappointed. A lot of the maps were ruby maps, with added rocks. . . Most of the fakemon where just pallet edits, and some of the trainers looked really weird.

I was surprised by how popular it was, and how it could be in this competition, let a lone be winning, I know that sounds mean, but it's true. . .

 

[rpg man]

For you guys who actually voted for snakewood, did you actually play it? Not to be mean to the owner, but when I say CoolBoyman play it during the Rom Hacking Charity, it was really disappointed. A lot of the maps were ruby maps, with added rocks. . . Most of the fakemon where just pallet edits, and some of the trainers looked really weird.

I was surprised by how popular it was, and how it could be in this competition, let a lone be winning, I know that sounds mean, but it's true. . .

Agreed The "Dragon" pokemon is a pallete edit of Charizard!

 

[machomuu]

For you guys who actually voted for snakewood, did you actually play it? Not to be mean to the owner, but when I say CoolBoyman play it during the Rom Hacking Charity, it was really disappointed. A lot of the maps were ruby maps, with added rocks. . . Most of the fakemon where just pallet edits, and some of the trainers looked really weird.

I was surprised by how popular it was, and how it could be in this competition, let a lone be winning, I know that sounds mean, but it's true. . .

Since you say you saw CBM play it, I have to raise a question to you: Did you play it?

 

[Ach7AC]

For you guys who actually voted for snakewood, did you actually play it? Not to be mean to the owner, but when I say CoolBoyman play it during the Rom Hacking Charity, it was really disappointed. A lot of the maps were ruby maps, with added rocks. . . Most of the fakemon where just pallet edits, and some of the trainers looked really weird.

I was surprised by how popular it was, and how it could be in this competition, let a lone be winning, I know that sounds mean, but it's true. . .

I do not exactly agree with you. Snakewood did take place in a post-apocalyptic Hoenn, so it would be natural to use Ruby's default maps. Not to mention that Cutlerine did create a bunch of new maps, such as the Shakya Monastery, the S.S. Cangrejo, and the Lilycove Sewers. Plus, even though I have to agree that Cutlerine's spriting skills are... not really above average, to put it in a polite manner, his story is truly unique. Even though zombies have been done to death(pardon the pun) in modern media, the plot twists, the sheer amount of factions, they all took my attention. To paraphrase Cutlerine, "While a pretty picture can take your attention for five minutes, an engaging plot can enrapture a person for hours." You can't really judge a hack's quality just by seeing its first few scenes.

In my opinion, Cutlerine's game was successful, his intent was not showing off with well-done sprites, nor was to showcase his mapping skills, but it was to tell a serious and dramatic story, with a few insanely crazy bits and pieces.

But I have to say something, Snakewood seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it game, sort of like Baro's Quartz.

 

[Murkrow]

I do not exactly agree with you. Snakewood did take place in a post-apocalyptic Hoenn, so it would be natural to use Ruby's default maps. Not to mention that Cutlerine did create a bunch of new maps, such as the Shakya Monastery, the S.S. Cangrejo, and the Lilycove Sewers. Plus, even though I have to agree that Cutlerine's spriting skills are... not really above average, to put it in a polite manner, his story is truly unique. Even though zombies have been done to death(pardon the pun) in modern media, the plot twists, the sheer amount of factions, they all took my attention. To paraphrase Cutlerine, "While a pretty picture can take your attention for five minutes, an engaging plot can enrapture a person for hours." You can't really judge a hack's quality just by seeing its first few scenes.

In my opinion, Cutlerine's game was successful, his intent was not showing off with well-done sprites, nor was to showcase his mapping skills, but it was to tell a serious and dramatic story, with a few insanely crazy bits and pieces.

But I have to say something, Snakewood seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it game, sort of like Baro's Quartz.

agree with this. Of the countless hacks ive played, only Snakewood stands out for its interesting story and zombie theme.

It may not even be pretty (there are MANY other hacks of those with unique tilesets and creative mapsets and other watnots) but playing Snakewood felt...refreshing compared to playing other hacks which are basically just the same old boring "beat the gyms and elite4 while defeating so-and-so evil team" concept.

.

 

[NarutoActor]

While a nice story line is something I expect, it is part of the aspect of professionalism. I feel that, that is the most important part. All problems people could have with a Rom Hack are really just lack of professionalism, does it look professionally done? Is the question everyone must ask themselves when they play a hack. Does this look like it could have been a legit game? If it fails to do that, then the hack needs to be fixed.

 

[machomuu]

While a nice story line is something I expect, it is part of the aspect of professionalism. I feel that, that is the most important part. All problems people could have with a Rom Hack are really just lack of professionalism, does it look professionally done? Is the question everyone must ask themselves when they play a hack. Does this look like it could have been a legit game? If it fails to do that, then the hack needs to be fixed.

I disagree, a good hack can have a crappy presentation. For instance, Pokemon Ash's Quest, despite it's flaws, was a pretty good hack, and yet it was simply dropped off in the scrapbox and touched again but once, it wasn't too professional looking, either. Similarly, there are games out there that don't have good presentation but are insanely fun.

 

[NarutoActor]

A Lack of professionalism shows a lack of effort, and lack of effort equals less fun. If you're in to lock quality, then go head play it, but this thread is for the Best Hack, not the most fun. The best hack, hack meaning hacking, as in things beyond what you can do with Advance Map. Adding Text, trainers and some events (plus rocks) does not equal a Hack.

Also as to the argument that is is, post Hoen apocalypse doesn't satisfy wouldn't you think things would still look diferent, like empty houses, lots of messes, ect? There is a zombi in the PokeMart, is it that causal of a thing? Oh yeah buy some pokeballs, oh look a Zombi whats up? If the apocalypse happened now there would be houses in ruin, broken windows, fires, chaos, and people would run away from zombies! I don't understand, did the Zombies bring rocks with them? Because that was all that changed in those maps.

 

[machomuu]

A Lack of professionalism shows a lack of effort, and lack of effort equals less fun. If you're in to lock quality, then go head play it, but this thread is for the Best Hack, not the most fun. The best hack, hack meaning hacking, as in things beyond what you can do with Advance Map. Adding Text, trainers and some events (plus rocks) does not equal a Hack.

Also as to the argument that is is, post Hoen apocalypse doesn't satisfy wouldn't you think things would still look diferent, like empty houses, lots of messes, ect? There is a zombi in the PokeMart, is it that causal of a thing? Oh yeah buy some pokeballs, oh look a Zombi whats up? If the apocalypse happened now there would be houses in ruin, broken windows, fires, chaos, and people would run away from zombies! I don't understand, did the Zombies bring rocks with them? Because that was all that changed in those maps.

First I would say that a lack of professionalism isn't always a lack of effort. Many people try their hardest to make something that we would consider "unprofessional". Not always, but it happens often enough. Sometimes it's a lack of vision, sometimes it's eccentric vision, sometimes it's lack of creativity, and sometimes it's layout ignorance, all of which I have seen on more than one occasion, and that's more a lack of ability or difference in vision than anything else (though, as I said, it's not always the case. And I would say those things are a hack. Simply adding a rock is a hack; it may not equal a good hack, but a hack nonetheless. But if people just edited those things, that's not to say the hack would be bad. Some hacks are way more fun simply because of edited characters or just because of text, some hacks have small changes so enticing that they actually successfully persuade many into playing the games again just for the small changes.

Also, about the "post-apocalyptic" theme, there are various ways one could go about this. Just because there exists a zombie, that doesn't mean the zombie is evil. There have been cases where zombies were allies or members of society. Also, there are many different types of apocalypses. There's the "No Destruction" type, often see in plague-induced disasters. Then there's the "No Electricity" route, where there's destruction, but it's not so much "disastrous" as it is desperate. Then there's the mainstream zombie apocalypse, the Nuclear War Apocalypse, the Natural Apocalypse- it all depends on the vision of the one telling the tale.

BTW, did you ever play the game?

 

[NarutoActor]

No that is a Mod, a hack requires more than that, and a little bit of skill. It is a lack of effort, anything can be done with enough effort, and knowledge (With knowledge obtainable through effort).

But that is not the storyline, the zombies are the bad guys, and thats why you are fighting them, it wouldn't be an apocalypse if they were your friends.

 

[machomuu]

No that is a Mod, a hack requires more than that, and a little bit of skill. It is a lack of effort, anything can be done with enough effort, and knowledge (With knowledge obtainable through effort).

But that is not the storyline, the zombies are the bad guys, and thats why you are fighting them, it wouldn't be an apocalypse if they were your friends.

What I described was indeed a hack. You're changing a tile on a map to that of a rock. You are modding the game, but you are changing the hex to create the rock texture, thus it's both. In many cases, a hack is a mod (I did my research on the subject, but a quick Google search wouldn't hurt. A hack can be as simply as changing a single piece of text, and I can guarantee you that one doesn't take more effort or content than the other. If you don't believe me, look up Elsweyr for Oblivion and then compare that to...any hack in the hack showcase, there was quite an extensive amount of work done on it.

Also, that's not completely true about effort. One may think that what they have is perfectly fine, and that they did put all of their effort and knowledge into making it, does their ignorance mean that they didn't put enough effort into it? Is that even really ignorance at all? No, because it's their opinion that what they've made is "professional", and it's strictly someone else's opinion that it's not, the subject itself is very objective. A lack of effort implies that one didn't give it their all in what they were doing, and in many cases of unprofessionalism that's not the case.

Also, have you played the game?

 

[First time hacker]

All the hacks look great! I have played snakewood and the thing about it was even though it was the same maps, it was a completely different game. This hack had true originality and creativity to it. Another remake (even though very well done) is a very used theme. I voted for Snakewood because my favorite part of hacks is starting a NEW adventure in pokemon.

 

[marcc5m]

I voted for Snakewood because Crystal Dust is a remake, and I've never heard of the other one. That and I enjoyed the storyline and it is the most original hack created to date.

 

[Sierraffinity]

I voted for Snakewood because Crystal Dust is a remake, and I've never heard of the other one. That and I enjoyed the storyline and it is the most original hack created to date.

So you didn't vote for CrystalDust just because it's a remake? I'm okay with you voting for Snakewood, but being a remake doesn't mean that it's a bad hack, and you're supposed to judge based on quality, not necessarily originality.

 

[miksy91]

A Lack of professionalism shows a lack of effort, and lack of effort equals less fun. If you're in to lock quality, then go head play it, but this thread is for the Best Hack, not the most fun. The best hack, hack meaning hacking, as in things beyond what you can do with Advance Map. Adding Text, trainers and some events (plus rocks) does not equal a Hack.

I agree with the part about professionalism - most hacks lack this and is the main reason I often get bored with each one I play. I've finished Ruby Destiny Rescue Rangers a couple of years ago but don't think I've played through any other rom hack since then (expect for finishing Prism's summer beta but that's that). Yet even both of these were missing the real excitement even if they had lots of nice scripting, especially Prism.

About the other fact though, I've to disagree even though I also used to think like you do. We should be voting for the most entertaining hack, not the hack with the most skillful creator. I believe diegoisawesome is the best among the three of us although it's hard to say anything for sure, I too am pretty fluent with (GB) assembly these days, and can't say a thing about Cutlerine. But that's not the point of the competition now is it ?

Personally, if I had never played G/S/C (wouldn't be creating Dark Future then though, hahha), I would vote for CrystalDust instead of Snakewood (and possibly my own hack). It would be something way more original then but I'm not a big fan of remakes myself so haven't gotten far with it either (not sure if I have even ever played it or not ?!). This far, I haven't voted for any because it's a bit unclear whether you can vote for your hack or not but would that really make a difference if all three of us did so.

Now like I said Snakewood has got this, great storyline, great character development. If dark future was completed it probably would be kicking some butt right now.

You've no idea how right you're right with this assumption as the game (storylinely-wise) doesn't really even begin in Beta 3.

 

[Bix Nood]

Voting for Dark Future, since Miksy did a lot of awfully hard work on it, and it's nice to see Silver so thoroughly hacked.

 

[Tcoppy]

No that is a Mod, a hack requires more than that, and a little bit of skill. It is a lack of effort, anything can be done with enough effort, and knowledge (With knowledge obtainable through effort).

But that is not the storyline, the zombies are the bad guys, and thats why you are fighting them, it wouldn't be an apocalypse if they were your friends.

I love how you keep dodgeing this question.

Also, have you played the game?

If it's a no, why bother commenting on a hack you never played. If it's a yes, then that's your opinion but doesn't give you the right to talk down about a hack that "isn't as beautiful as Flora Sky" (the tiles hurt my eyes in that hack) but what mostly is a beautiful hack has an unoriginal story. I'd rather pick an original hack then a graphicly amazing.

I voted for Snakewood because I never played the other two games but I might give them a try.

 

[LiquoriceBeef]

Off-topic: Hi, I'm new to PC btw.
On-topic: My vote goes to Snakewood because it has a great storyline, creepy zombie Pokes and some cool Fakemon. I'd love to play CrystalDust but I have a Mac and the latest version of VBA-M won't run in my WineBottler, so :c
I'm going to try Dark Future; but if it were just between Snakewood and Crystal Dust, it'd be a tie 'cause Crystal Dust looks EPIC.

[snip]