• Just a reminder that providing specifics on, sharing links to, or naming websites where ROMs can be accessed is against the rules. If your post has any of this information it will be removed.
  • Ever thought it'd be cool to have your art, writing, or challenge runs featured on PokéCommunity? Click here for info - we'd love to spotlight your work!
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

ROM hacks that were ahead of their time

Infinitum

Infinitum

╭━━╮╱╱╭━? ??╱╱╱╱╭╮╱? ?╱╱╱╱╱╱╱╱ ╱╱╱╱╱╱╱╱? ??╭?
    • 311
    Posts
    11
    Years
    Hello everybody,

    Some ROM hacks that were released back in the day were far ahead of their perspective time. (Ruby Destiny Rescue Rangers as an example), do you know any others that were released back in the day with limited ROM hacking knowledge and tools, but still outshine the current ones?
     
    Deokishisu said:
    That's not hard, save a scant few quality hacks of today. ShinyGold. Quartz. SuperRisingThunder. Naranja. RijonAdventures. Orchid.
    Click to expand...

    Quartz? Is that a joke?
     
    Crizzle said:
    Since hacks of today don't put much personal effort, how does that make Quartz ahead of its time?
    Click to expand...
    Good hacks of today put in a lot of personal effort from the hacker to be good. Quartz, being from a time before you could plug-and-play ASM and scripts and ROMBases and such, put in more personal effort than the good hacks of today. Therefore, Quartz is ahead of its time in that it put in an equal or greater ratio of personal effort than the good hacks of today (in relation to their respective hacking environments).

    We have to remember that Quartz happened in a time when nobody really knew how to change palettes and tiles. Most of the things we take for granted today had to be researched and hex edited. UNLZ GBA was the ONLY tool capable of changing compressed graphics and was buggy as hell. We didn't have dynamic offsets for our script editors (so you had to know the size of your scripts and remember where you were putting them), and ScriptEd broke a ton of scripts when it decompiled them so you had to rewrite them before reinserting. I don't believe we had a reliable Trainer editor when Quartz was being developed, though correct me if I'm wrong there. EliteMap was still a viable map editor. EliteMap.

    Pokemon Quartz's thread is dated March of 2006. Pokemon Emerald came out in 2004; Ruby and Sapphire came out in 2002. It was still Gen 3 when this was being worked on. And despite the lack of knowledge, it was STILL better than some of the stuff that is being churned out today. It's not good from our high standards of today (but again, still better than some of what's being released now), but it was amazing and completely ahead of its time when compared to its contemporaries (of which there were very very few) back in 2006.

    Seriously, if people don't think Quartz was ahead of its time, fight me. I was there. We have members on the board who are younger than Quartz is and 90% of us (including myself as, again, I was there) would be completely unable to do what Quartz did if dropped in that era and could only use that era's knowledge.
     
    Deokishisu said:
    Good hacks of today put in a lot of personal effort from the hacker to be good. Quartz, being from a time before you could plug-and-play ASM and scripts and ROMBases and such, put in more personal effort than the good hacks of today. Therefore, Quartz is ahead of its time in that it put in an equal or greater ratio of personal effort than the good hacks of today (in relation to their respective hacking environments).

    We have to remember that Quartz happened in a time when nobody really knew how to change palettes and tiles. Most of the things we take for granted today had to be researched and hex edited. UNLZ GBA was the ONLY tool capable of changing compressed graphics and was buggy as hell. We didn't have dynamic offsets for our script editors (so you had to know the size of your scripts and remember where you were putting them), and ScriptEd broke a ton of scripts when it decompiled them so you had to rewrite them before reinserting. I don't believe we had a reliable Trainer editor when Quartz was being developed, though correct me if I'm wrong there. EliteMap was still a viable map editor. EliteMap.

    Pokemon Quartz's thread is dated March of 2006. Pokemon Emerald came out in 2004; Ruby and Sapphire came out in 2002. It was still Gen 3 when this was being worked on. And despite the lack of knowledge, it was STILL better than some of the stuff that is being churned out today. It's not good from our high standards of today (but again, still better than some of what's being released now), but it was amazing and completely ahead of its time when compared to its contemporaries (of which there were very very few) back in 2006.

    Seriously, if people don't think Quartz was ahead of its time, fight me. I was there. We have members on the board who are younger than Quartz is and 90% of us (including myself as, again, I was there) would be completely unable to do what Quartz did if dropped in that era and could only use that era's knowledge.
    Click to expand...

    Makes sense.
     
    Has anybody mentioned that one ROM Hack with only up to Gen 4?
    Am I think of Dark Rising?
    Wait somebody mentioned that
     
    I still don't think any hack has surpassed Identity in terms of story. Far and away the best hack I have played (sorry gaia), disappointed that no one else has really been successful in merging Pokemon and story well. Can't say I'm surprised though, considering your average hacker is in their early teens.
     
    chrunch said:
    I still don't think any hack has surpassed Identity in terms of story. Far and away the best hack I have played (sorry gaia), disappointed that no one else has really been successful in merging Pokemon and story well. Can't say I'm surprised though, considering your average hacker is in their early teens.
    Click to expand...

    Why? Gaia is a very mediocre hack to be honest. I can name over 20 that surpass it in terms of quality, gameplay and content. Even Cyan does.
     
    chrunch said:
    I still don't think any hack has surpassed Identity in terms of story.
    Click to expand...
    I'm torn between this, SuperRisingThunder, and mostly because notalgia Toxic Purple in terms of hacks that had stories that a lot of other hacks haven't really been able to surpass.

    I would say overall SuperRisingThunder has not been surpassed stylistically, mechanically (as in, you were a Pokemon ala Rescue Rangers style), and story wise. No hack has been able to capture my attention like that hack for a very long time.
     
    Infinitum said:
    Why? Gaia is a very mediocre hack to be honest. I can name over 20 that surpass it in terms of quality, gameplay and content. Even Cyan does.
    Click to expand...

    It has a level of polish and detail to it that very few other hacks possess. It doesn't try do anything mindblowing or particularly adventurous, and it sticks to a fairly safe premise (the whole 8 gyms + evil team routine), but it has a consistent high level of quality to it absent from most other hacks.

    I also appreciate the compliment but Cyan has a lot of problems itself and I wouldn't consider it a top hack.

    Tcoppy said:
    I'm torn between this, SuperRisingThunder, and mostly because notalgia Toxic Purple in terms of hacks that had stories that a lot of other hacks haven't really been able to surpass.

    I would say overall SuperRisingThunder has not been surpassed stylistically, mechanically (as in, you were a Pokemon ala Rescue Rangers style), and story wise. No hack has been able to capture my attention like that hack for a very long time.
    Click to expand...

    SRT also crossed my mind as one of the standouts in the story department, but I personally favour identity over it. Identity's story is more ambitious while SRT deals with a personal one, and I think the world in Identity is much more interesting and detailed.
     
    chrunch said:
    It has a level of polish and detail to it that very few other hacks possess. It doesn't try do anything mindblowing or particularly adventurous, and it sticks to a fairly safe premise (the whole 8 gyms + evil team routine), but it has a consistent high level of quality to it absent from most other hacks.

    I also appreciate the compliment but Cyan has a lot of problems itself and I wouldn't consider it a top hack.



    SRT also crossed my mind as one of the standouts in the story department, but I personally favour identity over it. Identity's story is more ambitious while SRT deals with a personal one, and I think the world in Identity is much more interesting and detailed.
    Click to expand...

    Gaia is indeed consistent, it failled me all the times.
     
    chrunch said:
    Care to list your actual problems with it then? I can't think of any, other than a lack of ambition.
    Click to expand...

    It was more a practical joke than a serious hate towards it... I don't like it a lot, but it's one of the hacks that started the new wave. (Eclipse, Gaia, Mega Power, Cyan...)

    And no, Spherical Ice didn't force me to say this.
     
    Dang the fire :P

    I think Gaia had consistency in graphic appeal and tons of minor things that added to it such as the IVs screen, revamped sprites, the battle graphics ect. While it does follow the standard 8 gyms and evil team Pokemon meta, I feel like that shouldn't really take away from the game itself. Is it less fun because of the standard formula? I don't think so. Gaia isn't a game that's really praised for it's story, moreso for it's modernized feature list, diversity in Pokemon and enjoyable game flow.

    I don't think there are any hacks out there that really surpass Gaia on these fronts, though as some people have mentioned storywise there has been a few :)
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top