Is it just me? Or is hacking consoles beginning to fade?

[Platinum Lucario]

Hm... something I have indeed noticed with most consoles as of nowadays. A few days ago, me and my friend that came over to my place have been searching for a PS3 Jailbreaker on the web, but all the results we got was none other than websites with links requiring people to do a survey or a .zip file with a password protected .PUP file with a non-password protected .txt file that contained a message to copy and paste the link to get the password, which ended up resulting in a website requiring a survey to download a file. From what I've heard from most people about this is that those files are completely fake.

But wait, there is more to that than where that came from. When I used to Google search for .3ds ROMs, I can no longer find a site that contains a non-broken link, but I know there is a site with 3ds ROMs but it requires premium membership, I cannot give out the link due to community rules. And I am not asking for ROMs either, I am only stating what I have noticed over the web.

I've noticed how there are less tools made for NDS ROMs nowadays than there used to be, is ROM Hacking also beginning to fade away too? It just feels as if things are progressing more slowly than there ever used to be. 3DS hacking hasn't happened yet, probably only one person has ever managed to extract the data inside of a 3DS game card. When the Nintendo DS began, hacking the Nintendo DS began almost instantly, while the 3DS didn't... you just kinda wonder "why?"

I would like to see a future of so many ROM hacks on every console there is, but I don't feel as if that is going to happen anytime soon. I feel as if it's slowing down.

What do you think might be the problem? What can we do to improve hacking consoles and how are we going to learn how to create new ROM hacking programs? How are we going to research the new consoles and how are we going to research the 3DS ROMs to create an emulator for them? Or is it because I'm blind as a bat?

 

[miksy91]

One reason to rom hacking dying is probably the following fact:
Rom Hacking began in early 90's (maybe earlier actually) and until year 2000, most of the games were quite "hackable" (=could be easily researched).
Little by little, good hackers started to show up at that time (just some assumption I made).

Today, all of the games have more advanced programming and for a complete newbie at hacking, impossible to be start with.

What's more, good veteran hackers, who started in the 90's, have jumped off the scene - maybe because they're not interested of helping out starting "hackers" who want there to be tools for doing everything for them. Other reason for this is just because they've started a new life and left hacking behind (which I''ll probably do sooner or later as well although even after I quit hacking, I want to be there for guidance).

And, all this stuff goes hand-in-hand with hacking tutorials, tools and game consoles...

 

[ShinyUmbreon189]

Thank GOD!!! I'm tired of playing against hackers on PSN.

 

[Moonmover]

In addition to what milksy91 has suggested, I think that more and more copanies cracking down on people violating their copyrights has had some effect.

Also, more and more games can be legitimately modded using tools provided by the developers. This makes hacking uncessesary. Some recent games, like Minecraft and the last three Elder Scrolls installments, are designed from the bottom-up with modding in mind.

~Moonmover

Hacking? I love hacking! Oh, you mean video games? Never mind then. I thought you were talking about hacking people up, and started to get exited.

~BLOODMEAT

 

[Cello]

I've actually thought about that long and hard (lol) lately, and I don't necessarily think it's fading so much as it's just becoming harder to keep up with.
Back in the day when a system with games came out, you got what you got. There were no firmware upgrades or patches.

These days it's harder for thing to be hacked and taken advantage of since the teams behind the systems and games have far more control over their products/easy access to it through the internet.

 

[Chimchar 9]

Well, to be honest I think rom hacking is dying because all the decent hackers have moved on and aren't interested in it anymore. Same with hacking the DS games, I think that all the hackers are fed up because it's too much work bringing it in to one tool, for example a map editor.

Console hacking I hate and glad that Sony and Microsoft and other companies are dealing with it, because it just ruins the games and is just pathetic.

Also, Rom hacking you can just download a rom and start editing it and stuff, which is free. As for console hacking you actually have to pay for the console and games. If you go play COD 4 or COD 5 now, you'll see that they have been messed up completely, and it's sad to see good old games go to waste.

 

[The 100 Mega Shock]

Select 3DS ROM dumps exist and can be found on the internet. They're simply not publicised because A) they're currently useless and B) not many people have the tools to dump ROMs or see fit to distribute them because of A).

Perhaps correlation equals causation here? The DS was really easy to hack, but nobody has found (Or publicly released) exploits on the 3DS hardware yet? I wonder why the 3DS might be much more securely designed???

 

[hinkage]

Console hacking is still pretty popular, and can make playing your favorite games even more fun if you get to add custom textures/music (aesthetic things) without changing the game itself.

 

[Platinum Lucario]

Console hacking I hate and glad that Sony and Microsoft and other companies are dealing with it, because it just ruins the games and is just pathetic.

Well, I don't basically mean for online play, 'cause often the companies can deal with it to make it fair for all people playing it, I just mean like... homebrew things, like the Wii's homebrew channel and the innovation you can do with the apps you can make for installing onto the console. I don't basically mean making it possible to cheat and make it unfair for others. And of course creating mods for online play often does ruin the games for anyone playing online against each other, making it at an unfair advantage.

But other than that, we need to hack consoles in order to dump the ROMs, and how an emulator is made... is by researching the ROMs. We've just gotta start it... in the same way as how all those ROM hackers did back in the 90's, we've gotta follow their steps... in research... and sharing it with everyone, this is how we're going to progress, it's no use relying on tools to do it, before ROM hacking began... it was mainly people who were good at programming. I'd like to learn about programming, so then I can help out and inspire others into programming too, and research... it's like we're creating open source codes to bring in things to help with the ROM hacking community, which shall indeed progress, otherwise... without those developers of those tools... ROM hacking wouldn't have existed. We can't let it fade way... to help improve ROM hacking to expand... then we need people who are willing to research 3DS ROMs... and you just kinda wonder how people are going to do it without tools, eh? Well even a hex editor alone can surely do it's job, I've already noticed how the game code in 3DS ROMs isn't shown at the top like what the NDS ROMs do, it's more lower down. It'll be interesting to see new developers who are willing to research and create tools to help progress with researching newer ROMs and ISOs. It's almost like starting again from scratch. ^^

 

[Chimchar 9]

Well, I don't basically mean for online play, 'cause often the companies can deal with it to make it fair for all people playing it, I just mean like... homebrew things, like the Wii's homebrew channel and the innovation you can do with the apps you can make for installing onto the console. I don't basically mean making it possible to cheat and make it unfair for others. And of course creating mods for online play often does ruin the games for anyone playing online against each other, making it at an unfair advantage.

But other than that, we need to hack consoles in order to dump the ROMs, and how an emulator is made... is by researching the ROMs. We've just gotta start it... in the same way as how all those ROM hackers did back in the 90's, we've gotta follow their steps... in research... and sharing it with everyone, this is how we're going to progress, it's no use relying on tools to do it, before ROM hacking began... it was mainly people who were good at programming. I'd like to learn about programming, so then I can help out and inspire others into programming too, and research... it's like we're creating open source codes to bring in things to help with the ROM hacking community, which shall indeed progress, otherwise... without those developers of those tools... ROM hacking wouldn't have existed. We can't let it fade way... to help improve ROM hacking to expand... then we need people who are willing to research 3DS ROMs... and you just kinda wonder how people are going to do it without tools, eh? Well even a hex editor alone can surely do it's job, I've already noticed how the game code in 3DS ROMs isn't shown at the top like what the NDS ROMs do, it's more lower down. It'll be interesting to see new developers who are willing to research and create tools to help progress with researching newer ROMs and ISOs. It's almost like starting again from scratch. ^^

If you're wanting to find programmers to help you with this project, then why don't you look around on the inter net and find forums that involve this sort of research? Just a idea really. :P

 

[botface23]

I don't think console hacking is dying. I am an active member on various hacking sites that are updated almost every day with new tools or updates on how to edit this or change that.
I haven't delved into ps3 hacking much since my bro doesn't want me wrecking his console but i know for xbox there are ways to hack your console so you can add your own textures/dlc. Now when it comes to online mods you can get online with the consoles but you are in for an instant ban. M$ has ways to detect modded consoles yes but like with all rules there are ways to get around them. Take halo reach for example you can mod anything in the campaign and M$,Bungie/343 won't care. (to my best of knowledge and I have been doing this since the game came out). But as soon as you do something online down comes the ban hammer.
As most modders know bethesda supports the modding community 100% that is why they released the creation kit. They want to see what the community has to offer.
Basically I don't think its dead and it won't be for a while. I also think that there is a time and a place to mod your console; its fine as long as you don't do it online and ruin other's experiences.
/endrant