Rom-Hacking or Rom-Modding?

[Lord Varion]

Basically as the title says ...
Rom Hacking or Rom modding which do you normally refer it to?
I used to say Rom-hacking but then my friend proved a point that it's actaully modding since your modifiying a Rom.
As where "hacking" is when someone gets into someone else's stuff like
Getting into some-one's Facebook by guessing/finding out thier password
or
Hacking into people's bank details or personal/secret info (More illegal xD)

So what do you call it?
Or
What should it be called?

 

[colcolstyles]

If you're interpreting the verb "hack" as "to illegally gain access to normally unavailable information," then what I do isn't hacking by your definition. But in reality, it's not that simple. There are multiple classes of hackers. In fact, Wikipedia has three separate articles on hackers (link). The "hobbyist" definition applies to people who modify software to "make it do something it was never intended to do." So, because ROMs are essentially pieces of software (bundled with other data), I think we can safely conclude that we're hackers.

 

[Sawakita]

The illegal action commonly (and slightly wrongly) called hacking (usually by people out of the real hacking scene) should actually be called "cracking", that's the term that refers to an illegal penetration in password banks and similar things (so a cracker is someone who intends to harm, while a hacker is someone who is curious and creative about programs/codes et similia).


Now about ROM hacking/ROM modding:

ROM modding is what most of the people on Pokecommunity do (I officially state here that I don't mean to start an argument). In fact when you're using tools that are a sort of bridge between the raw ROM and the user, you have no idea what's going on in the inside of the ROM, you just see the "output result". This happens if you haven't the knowledge of the ROM's internal structures (because obviously if you are the one, that programmed that tool or know what's the tool is doing at a "byte-level", you know what's going on).

Instead, ROM hacking means more specifically exploring and figuring out the ROM's internal structures and code (that's why you have to know the ROM's hardware specifics and ASM language if you want to figure out something unknown about your ROM, although there are cases where you don't and just are good with a little bit of hex editing).

So, ROM hacking is more of a discovering process, although it includes also the meaning of modifying what you have figured out about the ROM. ROM modding is only modifying a ROM.
And that's it.

 

[Full Metal]

Oh, at first I saw this and was like ohh great, another one of these threads and I was about to blow a gasket. X)
Hm, I tend to agree with your friend and the above poster. :)

 

[Pokepal17]

Rom hacking sounds cooler, and it's the name of the sub-forum on almost all forums, so I think it's the better of the two. :3

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Sawakita pretty much explained everything...
If you use ASM or hex editing you can, without any doubt, say that what you are doing is ROM-hacking.

But since the question is how do I reffer to it, it's "ROM-hacking" for me.
I do use some hex editing and I'm trying to learn ASM so I think it's suitable :D

 

[Cartmic]

Hacking can also refer to to hacking away at some code, e.g. I'm writing a program in C.

 

[destinedjagold]

I used to use "hack" and "hacking" when I first started because that was the word used by most pipz here.
But lately, I have been using both, e.g. "hacking/modding"...

But I don't think it matters here though, as everyone knows what we're talking about, anyway.
We are changing/modifying/hacking/editing the ROM. ;)

 

[miksy91]

Most people here are only modifying their roms because the difference between
hacking and modding is also the fact of enhancing yourself.

By hacking, you learn something new all time time instead of for example playing around with the same old "msgbox" commands.

 

[ShadowMrk]

Heck, why can't we all just ROM-mod in peace and pay no attention to whether its called hacking or not? Either way, we all just want to make our own Pokemon games, right? I think method is no matter when we all share the same ambition.

 

[Lord Varion]

Heck, why can't we all just ROM-mod in peace and pay no attention to whether its called hacking or not? Either way, we all just want to make our own Pokemon games, right? I think method is no matter when we all share the same ambition.

I'm not trying to cause a fuss i'm merely starting a discussion and besides not all rom-mods/hacks are Pokémon some be Mario some Zelda heck one or two are Golden Sun.
The fact is if your merely doing map and texting it most likely counts as Modding but if it hex and ASM it's hacking.
As said above. :3

 

[Sawakita]

If you use ASM or hex editing you can, without any doubt, say that what you are doing is ROM-hacking.

if it hex and ASM it's hacking.

It's not axiomatic. It's not the fact that you're applying the modifies with a hex editor or an assembler which makes it a "hacking"; it's the fact that you're modifying things after you've figured out how they were built at first.

Example: you could modify lots of data in a ROM with a hex editor, following step-by-step a tutorial, without actually knowing why you're editing certain bytes the way you are.

 

[Sawakita]

Changing bytes to make something work correctly after doing something to it (In which you know what you are doing) and/or adding additional bytes to add on to that?

I don't understand what you mean in the bold part.
Anyway, in general, hacking comes along with research and experimentation, so when you say:

I have fooled around in Hex Editors and VBA's memory viewer many times before, and I have had some good results in Game and Watch Gallery 3, where I was able to offset the game's timing and skew music and graphics that had been written to the Gameboy's ram

in my point of view, it's a sort of hacking too.

[Sorry for the late reply]

 

[Alice]

I've literally never heard anyone say ROM Modding... the term for it has always been hacking, so that's what I say.

 

[AmethystEEVEE]

I've literally never heard anyone say ROM Modding... the term for it has always been hacking, so that's what I say.

This.

Seriously, why does it matter? In the end, the result is the same...

I'm not trying to cause a fuss i'm merely starting a discussion and besides not all rom-mods/hacks are Pokémon some be Mario some Zelda heck one or two are Golden Sun.
The fact is if your merely doing map and texting it most likely counts as Modding but if it hex and ASM it's hacking.
As said above. :3

That doesn't change the meaning of the two words at all. That just means you can just swap in the word Pokemon for Mario, in which case the meaning is still the same.

 

[Ray Maverick]

What I do is (or was doing) hacking because I say so. 'Nuff said.

No, jokes aside, I believe we are not modding. It is a very generic term in my opinion, that doesn't imply hacking in it.

 

[Del]

Hay! Thanx for Thread!!
I voted for Rom-hacking; because it gives a new story, new maps, new style of game!!
but moddified rom is not exited then other rom!!

 

[Charmie20]

I like rom modeling
I tried to edit fire red did not go well
But I like emerald so I am trying to mod that one
386 pokemon
New maps
Harder battles

 

[Lord Varion]

I like rom modeling
I tried to edit fire red did not go well
But I like emerald so I am trying to mod that one
386 pokemon
New maps
Harder battles

It's modding... not modeling.

And in my opion as much as the 386 hacks are enjoyable. I don't think of them as actual hacks.
Just merely a way to 'catch them all' without the main purpose and trading with friends.

-_-'

 

[RHIOneAlbum]

Modding-editing basic things like maps and scripts.
Hacking-hacking the code of the game (example: hex & assembly)

So in other words, most "hacks" are mods, yet we have some pretty good "hacks" such as Sienna and Brown.