[IDEA] Hacking Challenge of the Day

[Abystus]

I know there are a lot of talented hackers out there (mostly lurking). What if there were a challenge (a very difficult hack) presented daily for a random game on a random system? These would be "elite" type hacks that would challenge the hackers of the board, thus possibly stimulating their interests once again. I wouldn't really consider these "requests", but more of a competition (with your fellow hackers) to complete the hack (must accomplish the goal set, and cannot be a side effect of another code) before the day is up. Maybe some sort of tally system could be used to keep track, and maybe a top 10 list could be displayed somewhere on the site.

I'm not sure if there would (or could) be any reward for completing each challenge, but the winner could be announced on the main page of the site, and possibly receive other extras for a limited amount of time. It's just an idea, but I (and most likely others) grow bored of trying to think up new hacks to revitalize the game hacking scene when the code output comes to a crawl. Feel free to share your thoughts.

[Pyriel]

"Challenge of the Day" is way too ambitious. The staff would be hard-pressed to come up with that many challenges, let alone track all of them. And I don't care how "elite" a hacker you are, if the challenge is something like "make it possible to access the job-switching screen from the menu in Dragon Quest VII", the hurdles will require more than a day unless you already have the game and some idea how to do it.

I'm pretty sure they already did a "monthly hacking target" thing around here. It seems to have petered out. For my own part, I never participated because the targets were usually like NES games I had never heard of. That's about the level of this kind of thing. Hack a twenty year-old game that the ROM is freely available for, and you almost have to pick one that isn't popular, or it will already be hacked to death. Unless you come up with weird crap, like making the Master Sword in A Link to the Past shoot chickens.

[Abystus]

Make the Master Sword in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past shoot chickens.

That's not a bad idea...

"Challenge of the Day" is way too ambitious. The staff would be hard-pressed to come up with that many challenges, let alone track all of them. And I don't care how "elite" a hacker you are, if the challenge is something like "make it possible to access the job-switching screen from the menu in Dragon Quest VII", the hurdles will require more than a day unless you already have the game and some idea how to do it.

I've personally never spent more than a day (once I got around to wanting to hack something) on any hack I've created, but of course I'm usually not out to make a code that would be better implemented as a patch to begin with. I can see how something more than what would feasibly be entered in a cheat device, or emulator may take considerably longer to create.

I'm pretty sure they already did a "monthly hacking target" thing around here. It seems to have petered out. For my own part, I never participated because the targets were usually like NES games I had never heard of.

It fell from glory because the creation of "Weekly Hacking Target" posts were not maintained for subsequent weeks, but it did do well for quite a while before it all came to a grinding halt (most likely due to lack of votes for the polled games).

I guess I'm one that doesn't want to re-hack the same games for no point at all other than to pass the time, or for someones requests (I make exceptions on these due to the level of complexity, or if it's even worth the time.) Unfortunately, I don't even play the games I hack, which in part is due to all the games I know and love being hacked to smithereens well before I can lay a finger on them (because of their age, popularity, etc...) Well I guess we should all go back to our quite scurry of mindless code posting for systems older than some of the youngest hackers on this site....

[Helder]

Well the PSP and NDS are still pretty Next Gen and very hackable and I hack them both on and off but there are other sites that hack those systems mainly so if there are enough requests or enough attention we could try to get more people interested in these systems. Challenges are nice but a daily thing is hard to keep up with especially since not everyone is around all the time nor has the time to do the challenge. Maybe the monthly challenge would be nice since it gives plenty of time for people to hack and not just one game but maybe 5 so people aren't limited to just one all month long.

[Pyriel]

I've personally never spent more than a day (once I got around to wanting to hack something) on any hack I've created, but of course I'm usually not out to make a code that would be better implemented as a patch to begin with. I can see how something more than what would feasibly be entered in a cheat device, or emulator may take considerably longer to create.

I don't know what you're considering elite hacks then. I have a couple of menu hacks for RPGs that are forty to fifty lines long and let you edit your inventory and item stats. That's in the ballpark of what I'm thinking of. When I decided to make those codes, it probably only took me a day to produce something, and then maybe a couple more to massage out mistakes and bugs, but I'd been working on the games off and on for days before that, and used a lot of what I'd learned previously. If I'd set out from the beginning to make those codes, I have no idea how long it might have taken.

You may not know of me, but you have to bear in mind that I come from a fairly PS2-filled background, and was most active before Artemis, and some other useful things materialized. I'm accustomed to working on a system where you have to roll your own method of pulling a dump, the emulator is flaky, and a functional debugger is a pipe-dream. I tend to forget that shorter time frames are possible because some systems have better tools.

[Abystus]

I don't know what you're considering elite hacks then. I have a couple of menu hacks for RPGs that are forty to fifty lines long and let you edit your inventory and item stats. That's in the ballpark of what I'm thinking of. When I decided to make those codes, it probably only took me a day to produce something, and then maybe a couple more to massage out mistakes and bugs, but I'd been working on the games off and on for days before that, and used a lot of what I'd learned previously. If I'd set out from the beginning to make those codes, I have no idea how long it might have taken.

Well I mean "elite" hacks in the sense that we aren't hacking Infinite type codes, or other easy rom hacks that fall into this simplistic category. More of the advanced type (not the most advanced, as we are not trying to produce codes that would be better implemented as patches) codes like Walk Through Walls (some games are surprisingly challenging), Hit Anywhere, Collect Items Anywhere, Jump-in-Midair (again difficult depending on the game), Control Enemies, Enable Debug features, etc... Things that would most likely require more than 15 minutes worth of work, but less than a day to complete in most cases (anything that was not accomplished goes back into the queue). It would also give the lurkers (our hidden hackers) something to do (everyone loves competing against each other, otherwise we wouldn't have sports).

You may not know of me, but you have to bear in mind that I come from a fairly PS2-filled background, and was most active before Artemis, and some other useful things materialized. I'm accustomed to working on a system where you have to roll your own method of pulling a dump, the emulator is flaky, and a functional debugger is a pipe-dream. I tend to forget that shorter time frames are possible because some systems have better tools.

You're right, never really heard of you (outside of your posts here), but I figure your not new to all of this either. As far as hacking is concerned, I usually won't touch a system emulator that does not have the adequate tools (Cheat Search, Hex Editor, Debugger with breakpoint support, and Trace options) to do the job. Also, I usually won't touch a system that does not have a cheat device (most users look for codes because there is a cheat device requiring them to do so, but there are occasions where someone is just wanting to cheat on an emulator as well), but again there are exceptions to the rule depending on my mood for that day (or if I'm just very bored).

I think more than anything I'm just anxious to not spend my day thinking of hacks (in retro games near about everything has been hacked), but instead be working towards a goal hack (something I have not thought of, something original). Even if it was more than a 1 day thing like Helder suggested, it would still be something to make people attempt something outside of closing themselves up in their own threads. Hacking for me is becoming stagnant outside of hacking systems (NDS, Genesis, Mame, Mess, etc...) I would have usually excluded (because I lose interest in the popular/common systems I normally would hack, or they have already been hacked to death), or hacking PC games (started here a long time ago after learning to hack on the N64 GameShark). Artemis appears to be common knowledge to some, but I have personally never used it. If it supports my required features (listed above), I may considering looking into shifting my hacking to the PS2 (if it still has games that have not been over hacked like some of these older systems hacked here).

[rimsky82]

If you want to try something like this Abystus, then go for it. Just create a thread and see if there's a response.

I would suggest giving it a week, or until the code is hacked. If it turns into something popular maybe I can make a leaderboard for the front page or something.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I like the idea. But like rimsky said, it should be a weekly or monthly competition instead of a daily competition.

[Abystus]

To anyone interested, I have created the first hacking challenge thread here.

[Lazy Bastard]

It's great to see more activity like this going on. As long as it's thought out, it should be fun and good for the hacking community, even if it eventually dies (as all things do).

Also, Pyriel is one of the best hackers I've known. Admittedly, his background is primarily PS2, so many hackers will naturally have no knowledge of him.

[Parasyte]

I agree, one per day is too much.

I also agree, Master Sword needs to shoot chickens.

[Lazy Bastard]

As far as I know, Pyriel has yet to make the Master Sword shoot chickens. We're all still waiting.

[xirtamehtsitahw]

Make Assist Trophies into playable characters for Smash Bros. 3DS! LOL