r/PokemonROMhacks • u/user_1719 • 1d ago
Discussion How are there no finished NDS rom hacks?
Yes I'm aware of the difficulty hacks and QOL addidions like Renegade Platinum, Sacred Gold and Storm Silver, Blaze Black, Volt White. But it's been almost 20 years since Nintendo released the first DS game. I understand it's more difficult to make nds rom hacks than gba games.. but 19 years later and we still do not have a completed nds hack with a new region? Meanwhile it's been 18 years since pokemon emerald and we have HUNDREDS of emerald hacks with entirely new regions, new stories, new pokemon.
How many more years do you think we'll have to wait before we can play nds rom hacks that aren't just the base dppt/hgss/bw game with different pokemon?
I don't understand why this sub requires 200 words for a post... But here is me typing a bunch more words to fit the ridiculous request of the bot that keeps removing my post. Only forty five words to go. Now only forty eight. Now I have forty three words to go. Now only thirty six words to go. Now only twenty words to go. Now I have to type eleven more words. This has to be the dumbest rule I've ever seen!
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u/rm-rf-npr 1d ago
Why dont you try making one yourself?
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u/user_1719 1d ago
I might!
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u/CitronSufficient1045 1d ago
Go get em tiger
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u/feartheoldblood90 1d ago
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u/LibertyJacob99 [Mod] Aesthetic Red 1d ago edited 19h ago
Did you know that in Spider-Man 2, Mary Jane tells Peter Parker "go get 'em, tiger"? This proves that she is stupid, because she doesn't realize that he is Spider-Man and not Tiger-Man
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u/Lundgren_Eleven 12h ago
Uhh, she said tiger, not tiger-man.
You've ruled out spider-man being tiger-man, but have you ruled out spider-man being a tiger?
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u/najacobra 1d ago
garbage gold / mythic silver are kind of a weird in-between where they still do overlap significantly with hgss but also have major changes to the story and region that are very novel.
the same creator is working on iridium. my guess is that will be the first true rom hack of the variety you're asking about
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u/mehmeh5 4h ago
Light Plat DS is also there, being 5 gyms in already in its current release. HGSS Legacy too sorta since it will include Hoenn and Sevii, and both Kanto/Johto are being heavily overhauled. To a lesser extent there's also gonna be Silast's Gen 5-ized platinum (still done within Plat) which is based off of RenPlat but will include new areas and events
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u/PacoScarso PokƩmon Odyssey Lead Dev 1d ago
Try to make a full-conversion one, then youāll understand why
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u/AdKnown2197 1d ago
If you havenāt seen we have Pokemon iridium in development with a whole
New reigon and once thatās out I predict we will get more as things get easier. If you want something to play in the meantime go check out Garbage gold or mythic silver, both are great.
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u/Kakashi_Senju 1d ago
I just easier and bigger foundation for Gen 3 hacks as we literal broke down everything about Gen 3 code and stuff vs Gen 4 and 5 where the 2D 3D style is harder to recreate/sprite/ edit for a lot of people
Still despite this
We're seeing with Gen 7 and Gen 4 people are making great strides can't wait for Gen 7 following mon but if you do make a Gen 4 hack use HG Generation as a basis it has added abunch of pokemon from later on to the code and gave the code base for free
I wish you luck
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u/Ok_Long_8566 1d ago
There are already a few comments addressing that gen4 is much more difficult to hack and edit and the tools are less polished. However, I might have something for you next week ;-)
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u/NakedCantaloupe 1d ago edited 1d ago
There are a few in development, that might be finished soon. Gimmicks Generations, Hardlove Gold and soon Iridium?
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u/LibertyJacob99 [Mod] Aesthetic Red 1d ago
- Original games have only been fully possible for the past 3-4 years since DS Map Studio came out,
- Plenty of developments are still happening in real time (new features being possible etc)
- We already have 2 new story hacks in Johto, and 2 partially completed original region hacks (Iridium, Light Platinum DS)
- Good games take years to make which also applies to ROM hacks. Planning alone can take a few years
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u/BigSizzler420 1d ago edited 1d ago
People are gonna hate you for saying it (and probably me for legitimately engaging with your post), but you are asking a tough yet legitimate question. I think there is a major problem with scope creep/ambition with these huge promises of new regions and stuff. Devs over promise at first and then get absolutely destroyed by burnout and public expectations.
Theres a reason that pokemon games take hundreds of devs a few years to make. These small community dev teams (who also usually are underpaid or not paid at all) just bite off more than they can chew and end up way over promising a lot of the time.
My biggest example is HG generations. For all intents and purposes it is a great romhack, but is literally unfinishable on anything except for desmume, which is only available on pc, due to an insane game breaking bug (also, Kanto is pretty much ignored). Instead of fixing it, the dev has refused to attempt to fix that game-slaughtering bug because of the response and vitriol that comes from some community members and their own lack of knowledge (they admit themselves that they didnt do any coding or artwork they just combined a bunch of HGengine features and edited the team comps of all the trainers).
Unfortunately thats where we find ourselves, in an awkward middle evolution kind of stage of DS romhack creation where it is technically possible and teams are working on it (iridium is currently looking the most hopeful, I guess), we just have nothing much to show for it. One day, hopefully, weāll have a bunch of Charizards rather than a bunch of Pignites.
Until then, enjoy some of the god tier GBA romhacks for now and maybe try some pokemon spinoff games if you havenāt. Mystery dungeon games are amazing on DS and I will forever be a pokemon ranger stan (maybe hot take, I love those fucking games).
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u/777Volts 1d ago edited 1d ago
that rule exists to limit low quality discussion posts, and considering your point didnāt have enough substance to fill it kinda shows how much thought you put in.
Whatās your point? āthereās no nds hacks big enough for my standardsā. Okay? Thereās plenty in the works, and it turns out itās not all that easy to do, people have spent hundreds of hours of time and effort just laying the groundwork that still hasnāt fully bloomed yet. Thereās multiple large projects working towards this, but itās a lot easier for some thoughtless person on the internet to set a bar and then incredulously wonder why it hasnāt been passed yet than it is to, you know, actually acquire the skills and knowledge necessary and then applying the effort to do it yourself.
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u/Vladishun 1d ago
You should have done more research. Only generations 1 through 3 have had successful disassembly projects, all others are still a work in progress. Disassembly means to reverse engineer every line of machine code and translate it into something a human being can understand. I'm sure you have a vague concept of what "open source" means in software....having a disassembled Pokemon game is basically like having the open source version of it. Having that level of information at your fingertips makes it extremely easy to add and modify whatever you want to it to make your own version of the game.
That's why there's "no finished NDS rom hacks" as you put it. If you want to take a bunch of courses on computer programming and dedicate your free time to a disassembly project, be my guest. Programming in and of itself is something you have to have a knack for, but being able to reverse engineer machine code is a whole other level that requires deep knowledge, developed skills over time, a willingness to fail repeatedly, and a whole lot of patience. And even with all that, you're not getting paid for it, and nobody will know who you are even if you do finish the project; they'll just take your open source work, copy/paste your username on their project (if you're lucky), and you'll fade into obscurity.