Proposal: ROM Hackers Weekly

[Christos]

Title is subject to change. ROM Hackers Weekly used to be a thing years ago and it was a weekly thread containing reviews, interviews and news related to PC's ROM Hacking section.

This doesn't really have to be a weekly thing, it could be monthly, but RHW sounds cooler so I'm going with this one for now.

The idea is posting ROM hacking related news every week, each week having something different.

So, for example:

1. What's New: this would be in the first week of a month and would include the winner of the previous Hack of the Month contest and the nominees for the current month's contest. It could also promote events that might be taking place in the section, new hacks posted in the past month, and betas that were released recently.

2. Hacks Highlight (or just "Hack Review", Spotlight is used for hacks on the YouTube channel so Highlight would match): review of a hack. This could be written by just one person, or there could be multiple people writing their own review on a hack, and it can be different people each time. The hack to be reviewed could be chosen, or hack creators can ask for their hacks to be showcased/reviewed on Daily. Alternatively, Hacks Highlight could be a short promotion for a few hacks each month, while another week's article would be for a review.

3. Interview with <person>: An interview with ROM hackers or regulars of the ROM Hacking section. I would like to see this happen, but I'd like someone else to do the interviews if anyone's interested!

4. Tips and Tricks: A small tip that could help make ROM hackers' lives easier. I remember this was really cool in ROM Hackers Weekly. This would only interest ROM hackers so it might not be worth being a weekly article, so maybe it could be a small part of 'What's New', or interviewees could tell share their own tip or trick with the interview.

What's New and Hacks Highlight are the articles I would like to propose for now. They could be published regularly every month (so there would be at least one ROM hacking related article every two weeks), and other articles like Interviews or Tips could be posted in between if any are available.

Please suggest any other possible weekly content, which could be either its own article or in addition to the article proposals above, in this thread!

 

[Mana1]

I like all these ideas ^_^. Interview with <x> seems a bit more Game Dev-y though? Idk, hackers seem to keep to themselves a bit more?

Tips and Tricks would be interesting :) I like the idea of putting a small tip at the bottom of each "What's New" and "Hack's Highlight" article.

 

[esperance]

I really like this idea! I was going to try and post a similar idea eventually... but you beat me to it.

I think there might be enough people interested in contributing to the writing of something like this (myself included) that maybe a group can rotate writing different articles under the same series? I'm especially thinking of the reviews idea -- having reviews from the same person or two would probably get old pretty quickly and a larger pool of reviewers would be nice to see.

 

[illumine]

You might not want to merge the Tips section and the interview section, part of the reason why interviews are associated with fairly generic non-advice when such questions are asked is that then it's about the person rather than the tips, and you probably want the focus to be elsewhere or it just becomes an image thing. That said, is this to service the whole sub-forum, or just a small section, because if you managed to incorporate most of the new hacks, etc., on the board, then that would encourage widespread interest and participation, while as it is you could see the selected new hack, reviewed hack and interview section coming to revolve around a fairly small group and making the thing come to seem a bit limited, rather than representing the form itself. That said, as a skeleton it does seem to have a decent focus on encouraging new hackers with relevant ideas and tips, so perhaps that should stay as it is.

 

[bobandbill]

I also was thinking about the "Interview with <person>" (I thought of it as Hacker Profile of the Month) shortly after too, so perhaps what I was thinking of is nearly the same as you have here, although monthly, that way an entire article could be prepared over the month, and after all the pieces are together it would just be published as one large article, kinda like a little newspaper for the RH section c:

My preference would be for individual articles rather than one super large one. There's a few reasons; one is that right now especially when Daily is new, I think we'd be better off with shorter but more frequent articles in general rather than longer ones only once a month at most. Secondly (and speaking from some experience here), it's significantly harder to prepare everything to be ready in time, and that's required in such a case. If one thing isn't ready, you either have to go without it (not the best look), or wait (hence delays). It's partly why I've tried to limit how much will go in the opening article for each species analysis set (see the threads for Eevee) - too many parts will drag it out and delay things, hence some parts are to become their own article.

I really like this idea! I was going to try and post a similar idea eventually... but you beat me to it.

I think there might be enough people interested in contributing to the writing of something like this (myself included) that maybe a group can rotate writing different articles under the same series? I'm especially thinking of the reviews idea -- having reviews from the same person or two would probably get old pretty quickly and a larger pool of reviewers would be nice to see.

The more writers, the better imo. =) Also helps take some pressure off others.

 

[pLaster]

Maybe current Poke ROM hack trends or featuring a certain hack every month, like an editor's pick?

#helpful ;0

 

[LilBueno]

I'd love to see something like that. I'd personally prefer a larger article with different sections over smaller, more sectional articles.

1. What's New: this would be in the first week of a month and would include the winner of the previous Hack of the Month contest and the nominees for the current month's contest. It could also promote events that might be taking place in the section, new hacks posted in the past month, and betas that were released recently.

This could be expanded to spotlight the winner of Hack of the Month, and then include a shorter one or two liner on the others. As for showing information on recent hacks, it'd be a good way to drive more views to all those threads.

2. Hacks Highlight (or just "Hack Review", Spotlight is used for hacks on the YouTube channel so Highlight would match): review of a hack. This could be written by just one person, or there could be multiple people writing their own review on a hack, and it can be different people each time. The hack to be reviewed could be chosen, or hack creators can ask for their hacks to be showcased/reviewed on Daily. Alternatively, Hacks Highlight could be a short promotion for a few hacks each month, while another week's article would be for a review.

I've seen stuff like this on other sites with multiple reviewers and it works really well. Usually just a small blurb from each one that links to a more detailed review, but it helps both the reviewee and the reader get more feedback since everyone has different tastes

3. Interview with <person>: An interview with ROM hackers or regulars of the ROM Hacking section. I would like to see this happen, but I'd like someone else to do the interviews if anyone's interested!

This would be interesting. I'm a big comic book reader and some of my favorite articles are interviews with writers or artists. It definitely gives a different look on the creator's work, but also helps the audience learn about the creator.

4. Tips and Tricks: A small tip that could help make ROM hackers' lives easier. I remember this was really cool in ROM Hackers Weekly. This would only interest ROM hackers so it might not be worth being a weekly article, so maybe it could be a small part of 'What's New', or interviewees could tell share their own tip or trick with the interview.

This is something really neat! Something like "This week's tip comes from [member]: S/he says to always remember..." It can be both something small or even get more detailed. Maybe even have a "Featured Tutorial/Tool/Resource of the Week/Month" to go with it?

Personally, I think an all-encompassing article is better than smaller, more specific ones. I'd say if having a weekly one is too difficult, to break it into two parts. Something like What's New and Hack Highlights one week and then the Interview and Tips the next week. I'd definitely enjoy reading something like that

 

[Crizzle]

This would be great. Especially the interviews. Itd be interesting to read. I think a lot of Rom hackers would love to be interested in getting interviewed. Big egos there haha.

 

[Avara]

I have a small tip for FireRed that I'd like to contribute!

There doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation on trainerbattle 0x9. This battle type is used when you first battle Gary in Oak's Lab, and is accompanied by tutorial text with Oak teaching you how to battle. It also allows you to lose the battle without whiting out. What if we wanted lose-able battles without Oak talking us through it?

Opening the ROM in a Hex editor and putting 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 at 80480 will remove the text, letting you have battles that the player can lose against without that annoying tutorial. The only downside is that you'd need a special 0x0 after the battle so that if the player loses their party is healed and it's safe for them to progress, but this also means their party is healed if they win, too.

 

[Xertified]

I would like to do some interviews since I did that on school everytime.

 

[illumine]

Regarding the trainerbattle command, there was a related discusion here, if that's relevant.

Obviously, the text being there can actually be quite useful. For instance, it could be used for something like commentary, either on a specific battle or, if extended, for creating a sense of a League or Conference, etc. This requires for one battle merely text editing, but it could be extended or re-pointed from its current position to allow for multiple different forms for different battles, etc. This might be a useful step in a conference system after a League, along with the usual addition of crowds and etc., which usually don't impact on the battle itself or differentiate it from an Elite 4 battle at that point.

 

[Avara]

Regarding the trainerbattle command, there was a related discusion here, if that's relevant.

Obviously, the text being there can actually be quite useful. For instance, it could be used for something like commentary, either on a specific battle or, if extended, for creating a sense of a League or Conference, etc. This requires for one battle merely text editing, but it could be extended or re-pointed from its current position to allow for multiple different forms for different battles, etc. This might be a useful step in a conference system after a League, along with the usual addition of crowds and etc., which usually don't impact on the battle itself or differentiate it from an Elite 4 battle at that point.

Oh, I hadn't ever seen that discussion before. Never mind =)

 

[The Legacy of The Legends Creator :D]

Are there any new programs comming out?