GameHacking.org Weekly Hacking Target (07-31-11) - Ironsword: W&W II [NES]

[Tony H]

A few more item values... (these worked with $9668?00:xx)

0F = Rainbow of coins
10 = Vertical stream of coins
11 & 14 = Diagonal stream of coins
12 & 13 = Horizontal stream of coins

[BeyondTheStatic]

Well, the week is up and the poll has closed with only four votes, all tied. Since these games are usually retro classics, I wonder if we could possibly move the Weekly Hacking Target over to the Last Generation & Retro Hacking forum, where more gamers are around to make comments and requests? Makes a lot of sense to me. What do you guys think?

[Lazy Bastard]

That sounds reasonable. I placed them in the Announcements forum initially so they would receive more attention and support, but it would seem that has been fulfilled.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I think that moving the poll to the "Last Generation & Retro Hacking Forum" would be a good idea to get more people to vote. It's worth a shot.

[RyanfaeScotland]

Makes sense. I was the only one to vote for Tetirs so if nobody minds I'll change my vote and go for Turtles 3 to split the tie.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Makes sense. I was the only one to vote for Tetirs so if nobody minds I'll change my vote and go for Turtles 3 to split the tie.

I forgot to vote. I would have voted for Turtles 3 as well (thats what I voted for during the Wizards & Warrior 2 poll). So that would be a total of 3 votes for Turtles 3. I've always felt that Turtles 3 never got the respect it deserved because of Turtles 2. They are very similiar games. Although I do like Turtles 2 slightly more due to the nostalgia of also playing that game alot in the arcades. But basically they are the same game. But since Turtles 2 was so huge in the arcades, it received alot more recognition than Turtles 3. All 3 NES turtles games are great.

P.S. Everyone says that the bomb defusing, underwater seaweed part of Turtles 1 is one of the most difficult parts of an NES game of all-time. When I was a kid, I replayed that part over and over and I remember mastering that part. One time, I even navigated through the seaweed without getting hit once. I'm pretty sure that if I played that part now, I wouldn't make it, especially if I played it with an emulator on a computer with my USB controller. That part would seem to be even more difficult not using a real NES controller.

[Lazy Bastard]

So, how's the tie going to be broken?

[Helder]

I will vote for turtles 3, but poll is closed.

[Lazy Bastard]

So I guess Turtles 3 is the winner. In the future, we probably shouldn't close the poll if there is a tie.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Where is the new thread for the winner of the Hacking Target Poll, (NES) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project?

[Abystus]

Where is the new thread for the winner of the Hacking Target Poll, (NES) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project?

Apparently the Weekly Hacking Target is dead. With things being as sluggish as they have been with hacks, collaboration, and modern systems anti-cheat measures one has to wonder how many times we can recycle the same games to hack... The latest spree of advanced hacks (hit anywhere,collect items anywhere,jump in midair, etc...) for these games I feel were the their last great hacks. Whats left when a game has everything (All basic hacks + the advanced types) you can possibly think of hacked for it (that would be of any interest at least)?

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of games out there without that many hacks (or any at all), but are we really progressing when we are rummaging through the remainder of games for a system to hack codes for a game that no one has ever heard of? I have to admit that I don't even play 99% of the games I hack for. I wonder if anyone else even plays them? Are our hacks going to waste or is it for personal achievement only? Are we catering to just retro system/game collectors?

Maybe I'm just burnt out of hacking (games that are almost as old as I am), recycling the same systems/games, or maybe I'm starting to realize that the future of our hobby is looking grim all together. Hopefully new tools such as the rewrite of Renegade (status on this one?) will give us a new library of games to hack and bring the interest of outsiders to rebuild our community to what it was many years ago.

[Lazy Bastard]

Such a line of thought is nothing new; the scene has been in that state for a while. Artemis was a general success, but because the various components of it weren't ever really unified, and because it wasn't from the outset a project designed to bring in beginners and advanced hackers alike, it didn't reach large-scale fruition. If it did, it would have been a giant awakening of the scene. In any case, it was a great precedent. Hopefully something akin to Artemis can be done for the PS3, and other systems, preferably before they reach end of life.

In any case, lots of people go back and play old games, and the ability to do anything your heart desires in an old game is great. I love when I'm playing some NES game, and I suddenly realize it would be nice to do some extravagant thing, and before I set out to hack it myself, I take a look at our DB, and there it is

[OldSchoolGamer]

With things being as sluggish as they have been with hacks, collaboration, and modern systems anti-cheat measures one has to wonder how many times we can recycle the same games to hack... The latest spree of advanced hacks (hit anywhere,collect items anywhere,jump in midair, etc...) for these games I feel were the their last great hacks. Whats left when a game has everything (All basic hacks + the advanced types) you can possibly think of hacked for it (that would be of any interest at least)?

There are still so many useful, helpful, and fun codes for retro games that haven't been created yet. People can continue to hack NES games for another 5 years, and there will still be many codes that can/should be hacked that can help people and bring them joy. There are still some NES games which have no Game Genie codes at all. There is a whole genre of NES games in which have barely even been tackled yet. And that is the sports genre. I would like to see people start hacking more NES sports games. There really aren't many codes made for NES sports games. If you look at some of the all-time great NES sports games, there's barely any codes for them, which is a shame.

I wonder if anyone else even plays them? Are our hacks going to waste or is it for personal achievement only?

I don't feel it's a waste of time. I play the games that people make cheat codes for all the time. And I'm sure many other people do as well. I'm sure not only members of this site play the games, but also many visitors do as well. I appreciate it very much when someone creates a code for a game that I play. These codes being created have helped me countless times and I have enjoyed them thoroughly. I promise you that the codes people make on this site are being utilized by people, helping people, and being enjoyed by people.

[BeyondTheStatic]

Apparently the Weekly Hacking Target is dead.

Perhaps I should have made a new WHT thread two weeks ago, but I've been busy programming cellular automaton simulations. Anybody could have made a new thread in my absence, so maybe the WHT is dead

With things being as sluggish as they have been with hacks, collaboration, and modern systems anti-cheat measures one has to wonder how many times we can recycle the same games to hack... The latest spree of advanced hacks (hit anywhere,collect items anywhere,jump in midair, etc...) for these games I feel were the their last great hacks.

I don't think so. There are plenty of good hacks still waiting to be made for the classics. It just takes looking at old games in a new way, to see where the potential is. For instance, a very fun hack (but one I still can't pull off) for SMB3 would be to have any part of the landscape turn into note blocks upon contact. You'd have people wanting to be the first to beat the game with that enhancement/handicap, people posting their vids to YouTube, and then more people seeing those vids and becoming interested in the game hacking scene. Or maybe I'm just being optimistic

It would also help if there were better hacking tools for other retro game systems besides the NES. Sometimes you just can't find an address to do a specific thing. Hacking then becomes a tedious process of trial-and-error. If only other hacking tools would print to a trace window using a code/data logger like FCEUX, then finding interesting and new codes would be easier.

[Abystus]

It would also help if there were better hacking tools for other retro game systems besides the NES. Sometimes you just can't find an address to do a specific thing. Hacking then becomes a tedious process of trial-and-error. If only other hacking tools would print to a trace window using a code/data logger like FCEUX, then finding interesting and new codes would be easier.

This I totally agree with. The tools implemented in other emulators outside the NES/SNES are very lacking in functionality and user friendliness. Why aren't other emulator developers getting the hint that hackers are not happy using cumbersomely designed interfaces for producing hacks? If your going to implement a debugger or trace you should look around at the more popular designs before trying your hand at reinventing the wheel. But programmers are usually lazy, arrogant, and think they are all knowing when it comes to user interface so I doubt this will ever be rectified.

Being a programmer myself I can attest to going outside the box to implement a particular design to fit my own needs, but it not being overly popular with the crowd. At the end of the day it comes down to if the developer is willing to even consider a revamp in design or to just keep on going with what works for his own needs.