What does ROM Hacking mean to you?

[Andrew McKenzie]

I understand the definition that, and excuse me, "purists" like to use to define Rom Hacking.
But I appreciate that it has been made slightly easier for me through the use of tools.

And just because I use these tools, I do not think I am a true hacker myself.
Besides, ACTUAL game designers working for Nintendo and Pokemon Company most likely have their own tools for building games, something that makes their jobs easier, like we;'ve had the chance to have hacking be slightly easier to do.

But besides that...

Like I was saying. I use the tools because it makes the job slightly easier for me.
But I have a great interest in learning the inner workings of both the tools themselves and the roms too.
The reason for my use of the tools is because I don't deem myself proficient enough in knowledge YET to approach the job directly.
But I am constantly studying and trying my best.
Eventually, I hope I can move away from the tools and into some root hacking but I don't see that goal anytime soon.
I can merely make it my goal to get there, eventually, no matter how long it takes.

Rom Hacking to me is a way to change something great into something greater.
A chance to learn something not normally available unless I was at a college level, which I won't be until next year.
And a chance to be inspired by those around me and those who came before me, people like Coolboyman and Zel.

Rom Hacking means a chance to be an artist is a whole new way.

 

[FlamingThunder]

To me, ROM Hacking means creativity, every hacker always has a creative mind, right? ROM Hacking allows the hacker to create his own world, its inhabitants, anything that his heart desires.

 

[NatureKeeper]

Making a Pokémon game was a wish for me.

Wish granted.

 

[Full Metal]

( Nice to see Zel and Zeikku back, jussayin. )
What does it mean to me...
To me, it's entertaining.
I get to prove to myself that I can do something.
I've always been the "braniac" around my friends, and at school.
But Rom Hacking actually gives me something to think about.
It's even tougher than programming, if you do it right.
I guess that goes to say why I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be.
But hey, I'm getting there.
So in essence, RH is ... humbling ( ? )
It's also really fun. I mean, can you imagine something you did, being all over the internet, and enjoyed by hundreds, even thousands? I think the satisfaction of creating something that other people enjoy is worth it in and of itself. :)

 

[teejermiester]

I wish I could say something reall yinspiring and entertaining and all that, but the truth is that it is for FUN. Most people, at one point in their pokemon-adoring lives, have thought "You know what? I would really like to make a pokemon game". So kudos to those nice people who actually spent months figuring out how to do it so us "un-purists" could use your tools and actually do something about that little voice in the back of your head that makes you want to be a pokemon game designer.

What I'm really trying to say is that I do it for fun - to spend all that free time on. It is also, like what Tropical Sunlight said, strangely parallel to writing a book. So, fun. yep. Fun.

And to join the conversation, for argument's sake, I agree that Hacking is not game designing in the least - However, it depends on your definition of Game and Designing. Game could either mean a true game that was made from scratch, or a hack that someone edited. It depends on your point of view. Designing could mean either making it up in your head (that is what I think of it as) or going to whole 9 yards and actually making the game.

True Game "Designing' would be like what Coolboyman does - he actually takes what he knows about the game's code, and uses that to make a fun and interesting experience. Or, you could take actually making and producing a new game as designing. It's all on the point of view.

 

[moudinho]

ROM Hacking is like creating a whole new game!with the provided tools,a masterpiece can be made!

 

[Fullbring64]

It means Do whatever you like you can change the game to order you like like playing Zack instead of cloud in fvii You can manipulate everything to your liking my my 1st game is super mario land in gbc age 4 i iwas contended in changing the color green and blue (GREEN IS MY FAVORITE BUT BLUE AND GREEN MUCH WELL RIVER AND FOREST)

 

[Dreg]

ROM Hacking means a lot to me. I really have no life outside of the internet, So I just turn the computer on and start hacking away. If you know exactly what you are doing, then knowledge is power, like someone mentioned earlier. I do fiddle about with editors, like Neptune (Adventures of Lolo 2 level editor) and Lunar Magic (Super Mario World). It always helps to know what you are doing so it means you can help someone else if they are stuck with something, even if it is simple.

For me, I don't consider most of the people (including myself) in this forum to be rom hackers. I think that mostly the people here are game designers. The difference is that to be a good rom hacker you have to be able to hexedit, find images and manipulate them, be able to trace things back to their source and modify them to your liking, etc. I guess a good definition of what I think of as a hacker is a person who can discover new data and figure out how things work without using anything but a hex editor and maybe some basic decompilers. This does not mean that they don't use tools made by people, it just means that if need arose they could do their hacking without any tools except a hexeditor (and, once again, maybe some basic decompilers). A game designer is a person who just designs a game useing the tools others have created. They can do some simple hexediting if they have a tut, and can maybe track down a few offsets, but are pretty much helpless without a tutorials and/or tools from others. They key part here is that a hacker finds out things for himself and applies his knowledge, while a game designer just designs a game without knowing how it works.

I couldn't have put this into better words myself. This is like how I romhack, except I don't use decompilers, just only a hex editor and maybe a tile editor so it adds more documentation to the rom map. I would then find the tile data (like in a 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 etc.) and design a tilemap so that it isn't too difficult in making a level because then you'd know what tiles you were using. Sometimes, I might find a large amount in the ROM (something like 60% and higher) and maybe post it online in hope that someone makes a level editor or something similar to it.

 

[pokedude919]

ROM hacking is having fun and changing something cool to make something even better

 

[shadowXspirit]

I feel like rom hacking is a cool thing because its letting people show creative ideas and can be a sign or future video game makers.

in my case i hope to be a video game hack tester so when i see games with fakemon a stories and other add ons that a regular pokemon hack doesnt have i show full
support as a sign of making a statement and keeping up with the original point of a game.

:)