ROM hacking
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

ROM hacking is the process of modifying a ROM image or ROM file to alter the contents contained within, usually of a
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
to alter the game's
graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...
,
dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...
,
level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (optical instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights * Spirit level or bubble level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *C ...
s,
gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...
, and/or other elements. This is usually done by technically inclined video game fans to improve an old game of importance, as a creative outlet, or to essentially make ''new'', unofficial games using the old game's engine. ROM hacking is generally accomplished through use of a
hex editor A hex editor (or ''binary file editor'' or ''byte editor'') is a computer program that allows for manipulation of the fundamental Binary file, binary data that constitutes a computer file. The name 'hex' comes from 'hexadecimal', a standard numer ...
(a program for editing non-textual data) and various specialized tools such as
tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...
editors, and game-specific tools which are generally used for editing levels, items, and the like, although more advanced tools such as
assemblers Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...
and
debugger A debugger is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" programs). Common features of debuggers include the ability to run or halt the target program using breakpoints, step through code line by line, and display ...
s are occasionally used. Once ready, they are usually distributed on the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
for others to play on an
emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...
or a games console. Many ROM hacks today are typically created as a fun way of playing the original games, as they typically redesign the game with new mechanics, graphics, levels, and other features while keeping most if not all of the items the same, effectively creating either an improved or an entirely different version of the original games. Some hacks are also created to unlock and/or reimplement features that existed in the game's code but are not utilized in-game, especially for when rediscovering or restoring old beta content that was hidden away from the final game's release. Fan translation (known as "translation hacking" within the ROM hacking community) is another type of ROM hacking; there are also anti-censorship hacks that exist to restore a game to its original state, which is often seen with older games that were imported, as publishers' content policies for video games (most notably,
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
's) were much stricter in the United States than Japan or Europe; randomizers are also available for certain games, which are designed to shuffle entity placements from within the games. Although much of the method applies to both types of hacking, this article focuses on "creative hacking" such as editing game levels.


Communities

Most hacking groups offer web space for hosting hacks and screenshots (sometimes only hosting hacks by the group's members and hosting almost any hack), a message board, and often have an
IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...
channel. Several hacking groups have also created guides that aims to help beginners get into grips with ROM hacking for the first time, including the legendary "Rom Hacking Bible" for the NES written in the mid-to-late 1990s, as well as guides that are designed for those that wanted to learn how to add or change things from start to finish. There are many sites on the internet dedicated to world of ROM hacking, with each site focusing on several hacks and translations of several different games across multiple series, franchises and platforms. One of the most popular sites dedicated to ROM hacking of video games was ROMhacking.net, which first went online in late 2005. From its inception up until 2024, it served as a hub related to all things ROM hacking, hosting a repository of hacks, translations, utilities, documents, and patches for many well-known and obscure video games from the third generation up to the seventh generation. ROMhacking.com was the immediate predecessor of ROMhacking.net, which launched five years earlier in 2000 as "The Whirlpool" and was briefly renamed as ROMhacking.org between 2001 and 2002 before returning to its original name afterwards and then went offline in late 2004. , ROMhacking.net is now relegated into being a read-only news site for ROM hacking projects after transitioning into the new format on that day after nearly 20 years of hosting on the site due to various reasons beyond the site's control; its former database and files have been archived on the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
on the same day of the announcement. New submissions were also permanently closed on the same day as well, and all downloads on the site will remain available for as long as the site maintainers can handle. The spiritual successor to ROMhacking.net, Romhack.ing (RHDI), was launched as an alpha release on 15 August 2024 and opened for registration on 1 March 2025.


Methods

Having been created by many different programmers or programming teams, ROM data can be very diverse.


Hex editing

A
hex editor A hex editor (or ''binary file editor'' or ''byte editor'') is a computer program that allows for manipulation of the fundamental Binary file, binary data that constitutes a computer file. The name 'hex' comes from 'hexadecimal', a standard numer ...
is one of the most fundamental tools in any ROM hacker's repertoire. Hex editors are usually used for editing text, and for editing other data for which the structure is known (for example, item properties), and Assembly hacking. Editing text is one of the most basic forms of hacking. Many games do not store their text in
ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...
form, and because of this, some specialized hex editors have been developed, which can be told what byte values correspond to what letter(s) of the alphabet, to facilitate text editing; a file that defines these byte=letter relationships is called a "table" file. Other games use simple text compression techniques (such as
byte pair encoding Byte-pair encoding (also known as BPE, or digram coding) is an algorithm, first described in 1994 by Philip Gage, for encoding strings of text into smaller strings by creating and using a translation table. A slightly modified version of the algori ...
, also called dual tile encoding or DTE, in which certain combinations of two or more letters are encoded as one byte) which a suitably equipped hex editor can facilitate editing. A hex editor is the tool of choice for editing things such as character/item properties if the structure and location of this data are known and there is no game-specific editor for the game that can edit this information. Some intrepid hackers also perform level editing with a hex editor, but this is extremely difficult (except on games whose level storage format closely resembles how it is presented in a hex editor).


Graphics editing

Another basic hacking skill is graphics hacking, which is changing the appearance of the game's environments, characters, fonts, or other such things. The format of graphics data varies from console to console, but most of the early ones (NES, Super NES, Game Boy, etc.) store graphics in
tiles Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ot ...
, which are 8x8-
pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...
units of data, which are arranged on-screen to produce the desired result. Editing these tiles is also possible with a hex editor, but is generally accomplished with a tile editor (such a
''Tile Layer''
o
''Tile Molester''
, which can graphically display the ROM data, as well as finding and editing tiles. Graphics hacks can range from simple edits (such as giving
Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...
an
afro The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro-textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" '' Ebo ...
or
Luigi Luigi (; ) is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Part of Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, he is a kind-hearted, cowardly Italian plumber, and the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario. Like ...
a
golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety o ...
) to "porting" characters from one game to another (such as creating pixelated ("retro-styled") sprites of later generation
Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...
for use with Generation I-V Pokémon games), to full-blown thematic changes (usually with accompanying palette changes; see below). More sophisticated graphics hacking involves changing more than just tiles and colors, but also on how the tiles are arranged, or tile groups generated, giving more flexibility and control over the final appearance. This is accomplished through hex editing or a specialized tool (either for a specific game or a specific system). An example of this approach was the incomplete ''Pokémon Torzach'', a
Pokémon FireRed is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...
hack of that attempts to add a whole new generation of Pokémon and tiles to the game. It was able to achieve some desirable results with the tools that were currently available at the time. ''Super Mario Land 2 DX: 6 Golden Coins'' is another example of graphics hacking, which is an enhanced version of the original game that added, among others, full-color support (the original game was greyscale-only) and some quality-of-life improvements, such as fixes with screen flickering issues from the original game.


Palette editing

Another common form of hacking is ''palette hacking'', where color values are modified to change the colors a player sees in the game (this often goes hand-in-hand with graphics hacking); Palette values are commonly stored in Hex. This is fairly easy for NES games, the graphics of which use a pre-defined set of colors among which a game selects (using a
YIQ YIQ is the color space used by the analog NTSC color TV system. ''I'' stands for ''in-phase'', while ''Q'' stands for ''quadrature'', referring to the components used in quadrature amplitude modulation. Other TV systems used different color spa ...
-based color palette); palette hacking in this case entails changing which of those colors are selected. The matter is slightly more complicated with
Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...
games as well as games for other systems (which includes Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) games), which store absolute RGB color values. Palette editors are usually simple and often are with level editors or game-specific graphics editors.


Level editing

One of the most popular forms of ROM hacking, level editing entails modifying or redesigning a game's levels or maps. This is almost exclusively done with an editor specially tailored for a particular game (called a '' level editor''). Level edits can be done to make the game more challenging, to alter the flow of the game's plot, or just to give something new to an old game. Combined with extensive graphics hacking, the game can take on a very different look and feel.


Data editing

A core component of many hacks (especially of
role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...
s) is editing data such as character, item, and enemy properties. This is usually done either "by hand" (with a hex editor) if the location and structure of the data is known, or with a game-specific editor that has this functionality. Through this, a hacker can alter how weapons work, how strong enemies are or how they act, etc. This can be done to make the game easier or harder or to create new scenarios for the player to face.


Assembly hacking

The most powerful, and arguably the most difficult, hacking technique is editing the game's actual code, a process called ''ASM hacking'' ("ASM" means " assembly", referring to the low-level programming language that gets executed by the CPU). There is no set pattern for ASM hacking, as the code varies widely from game to game, but most skilled ASM hackers either use an
emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...
equipped with a built-in debugger or tracer, or run the ROM through a
disassembler A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. The output of disassembly is typically formatted for human-readability rather than for input to an asse ...
, then analyze the code and modify it using a hex editor or assembler according to their needs. While quite challenging compared to the relatively simple methods listed above, ''anything'' is possible with ASM hacking, usually within the limitations of the hardware and software of the gaming platform. This can range from altering enemy AI to changing how graphics are generated. If the developers used a typed language, the hacker may be able to compile their code for the game in the same language if they have access to a proper compiler. One such example would be using C to hack
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
games, since MIPS- GCC can compile code for the Nintendo 64.


Music hacking

Music hacks are relatively rare in most hacks, due to the wide variety of ways games store music data (hence the difficulty in locating and modifying this data) as well as the difficulties in composing new music (or porting music from another game). As music cracking is very uncommon, many hacks do not have any ported/composed music added in. Exceptions exist, however, such as the most recent ''
Super Mario World ''Super Mario World'', known in Japan as '' is a 1990 platform game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The player controls Mario on his quest to save Princess Peach and Dino ...
'' hacks where custom music can have new instruments not found in the original game. Other games that have music hacking as part of their research and hacking communities are the NES ''
Mega Man ''Mega Man'' (known as in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the Mega Man (character), protagonist of the same name. The Mega Man (1987 video game), original game was released for the Nintendo Enter ...
'' games, ''
Final Fantasy VI also known as ''Final Fantasy III'' in its initial North American release, is a 1994 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Final Fantasy'' ser ...
'', and the Mega Drive (Genesis) ''
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
'' games. As many Game Boy Advance games use the M4A Engine (informally called "Sappy Driver" and officially known as "MusicPlayer2000" or MP2k) for music, the program SapTapper can be used to hack Game Boy Advance music data. Various other utilities were created to work with the engine such a
Sappy 2006
Another instance of the same engine being used between games is on the Nintendo 64 where most games use the same format; albeit with different sound banks for each game. A utility known as th
N64 Midi Tool
was created to edit the sequences that the majority of Nintendo 64 games use, however it does not cover first-party N64 titles that use a slightly different engine such as ''
Super Mario 64 ''Super Mario 64'' is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combini ...
''. On the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), several games made for the system had its music and sound effects created under a single sound engine commonly known as "SMPS" (also known as "Sound-Source" by some developers), which has been offered in both
68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
and Z80-based versions. This sound engine, leveraging both the YM2612 and SN76489 sound chips of the console, was predominantly used in a wide variety of Japanese-developed games for the system (including Sega's first-party games), with some games providing modified versions of the sound engine tailored to a specific game. The SMPS engine has been researched for decades by many hackers, which led to the creation of various utilities that can alter and create music (and sound effects) for games using the SMPS engine (most notably the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games in particular); many of the compositions and arrangements made under the SMPS engine had eventually made their way onto the Steam Workshop.


ROM expansion

Generally speaking, a ROM hacker cannot normally add content to a game, but merely change existing content. This limit can be overcome through ''ROM expansion'', whereby the total size of the ROM image is increased, making room for more content and, in turn, a larger game. The difficulty in doing this varies depending on the system for which the game was made. For example, expanding an NES ROM may be difficult or even impossible due to the
mapper MAPPER Systems, now known as Business Information Server, BIS, is a 4GL, fourth-generation programming language originally from Sperry Univac. Now owned by Unisys Corporation. Mapper originated in the 1970s based on some work in the 1960s, It ha ...
used by the game. For example, if a mapper allows 16 ROM banks and all of them are used, expanding the ROM further is impossible without somehow converting the game to another mapper, which could be easy or extremely difficult. On the other hand, expanding an SNES game (and even a Mega Drive (Genesis) game for that matter) is (relatively) straightforward. To utilize the added space, parts of the game code have to be modified or rewritten (see Assembly hacking above) so the game knows where to look. Another type of ''ROM expansion'' that is fairly easy is
Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
ROMs. The ROMs themselves are generally small, but the memory space available sometimes exceeds it by multiples of up to 17.


Distribution

Once a hack is completed (or an incomplete version is deemed suitable for an interim release) it is released onto the Internet for others to play. The generally accepted way to do this is by making an
unofficial patch An unofficial patch, sometimes alternatively called a community patch, is a patch for a piece of software, created by a third party such as a user community without the involvement of the original developer. Similar to an ordinary patch, it alle ...
(in IPS format or others) that can be applied to the unmodified ROM. This, and usually some form of documentation, is put in an archive file and uploaded somewhere. IPS is a format for recording the differences between two binary files (in this case, between the unmodified and hacked ROMs) and is suitable for ROM hacks. IPS is still used today for small patches—however, as ROMs became larger, this format became useless, leading to quite a few file formats being created—such as NINJA and PPF (also known as "
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
Patch Format"). PPF is still used today, particularly to patch large files such as ISO
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
images as well as
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
games. A new patch format, UPS, has also been developed by the ROM hacking community, designed to be the successor to IPS and PPF. A more recent patching format, the APS patching system, has also been developed by a devoted Game Boy Advance ROM hacker. Compared to other patching formats, the APS system is more space efficient, is reversible, and is faster than its predecessor. The main purpose of distributing a hack in patch form is to avoid the legal aspects of distributing entire ROM images; the patch records only what has ''changed'' in the ROM, hence distributing it does not usually distribute parts of the original game. A patch is also normally drastically smaller than a full ROM image (an NES ROM can run anywhere from 8 KB to 2 MB; a Super NES ROM can run from 256 KB to 6 MB; and Mega Drive (Genesis) ROMs can run from 512 KB to 4 MB). In a novel example of legal distribution, Sega released a
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
-based virtual hub for its previous collection of Mega Drive (Genesis) games, entitled '' Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub''. The ''Hub'', besides allowing players to play emulated versions of these older games, takes advantage of Steam's support for user-created content through the Steam Workshop, officially allowing the distribution of ROM hacks of any of the offered games.


Usage

Patched ROMs are often played on emulators, however, it is possible to play patched ROMs on the original hardware. The destination cartridge could be the original cartridge from which the initial unpatched ROM was pulled (which usually involves replacing the original ROM chip with a new one), or another compatible cartridge of the same type, such as flash cartridges. This is particularly popular for fan translations, homebrew games, prototypes, games for which ROM cartridges were never produced, or for games that require exact timing or other elements of the original hardware that are not available in emulators.


Systems and games

The majority of ROM hacking is done on NES and SNES games (including Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) games to an extent), since such games are small and simple compared to games of more advanced consoles such as the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
or
Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...
. Games for the
Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...
,
Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...
and
Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
are also popular for hacking, as well as games for the
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
to a lesser extent. However, games intended for more recent consoles are not exempt from hacking, and as computers have become faster over time and more programs and utilities have been written, more PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS hacks have emerged. Of these, popular games to play are popular games to hack; many hacks have been released of games of the ''
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
'' series, ''
Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...
'' series (including '' Mario Bros.'', '' Super Mario Bros.'', '' Super Mario Bros. 2'', '' Super Mario Bros. 3'', ''
Super Mario Land is a 1989 platform game developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, Nintendo R&D1, the same team that designed the Game Boy. It was published by Nintendo as Game Boy#Launch titles, one of the first four games released for the console. I ...
'', '' Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins'', ''
Super Mario 64 ''Super Mario 64'' is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combini ...
'' and ''
Super Mario World ''Super Mario World'', known in Japan as '' is a 1990 platform game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The player controls Mario on his quest to save Princess Peach and Dino ...
''), ''
Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up item (game terminology), items. It features Characters in ...
'' series (including '' Super Mario Kart'', ''
Mario Kart Wii is a 2008 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the sixth installment in the ''Mario Kart'' series, and was released in April 2008. In ''Mario Kart Wii,'' the player takes control of one of 24 ''Mario'' series c ...
'', '' Mario Kart 7'', and '' Mario Kart DS''), ''
Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...
'' series, '' Chip's Challenge'', '' Castlevania'', ''
Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...
'', ''
The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...
'', ''
Mega Man ''Mega Man'' (known as in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the Mega Man (character), protagonist of the same name. The Mega Man (1987 video game), original game was released for the Nintendo Enter ...
'' series, ''
Fire Emblem is a Video games in Japan, Japanese fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, the series currently con ...
'' series, ''
EarthBound ''EarthBound'', originally released in Japan as is a 1994 role-playing video game, role-playing video game developed by Ape, Inc., Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the second e ...
'', '' Super Metroid'', and many others. A notable hacked arcade game was '' Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition'', which featured increased game speed and new special moves. The success of this game prompted Capcom to release '' Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting'' as an official response. ''
Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', originally ''Your Spectrum'' or ''YS'', is a discontinued British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was commercially published between 1984 and 1993. History The magazine was la ...
'' magazine published a monthly column called "Program Pitstop". This focused mainly on cheat hacks for games, but also featured both a level map printer for the original '' Gauntlet'', as well as a full level editor for the same game.


See also

*
Emergent gameplay Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics. Designers have attempted to encourage emergent play by providing tools to play ...
* Fangame *
Fan translation of video games In video gaming, a fan translation is an unofficial translation of a video game made by fans. The fan translation practice grew with the rise of video game console emulation in the late 1990s. A community of people developed that were inter ...
* Forking (software development) *
Game Genie The Game Genie was a line of Video game accessory, video game accessories that allowed players to alter codes transmitted between ROM cartridge, game cartridges and a video game console, known informally as a cheat cartridge. Developed by Codemas ...
*
GameShark GameShark is the brand name of a line of video game cheat cartridges and other products for a variety of console video game systems and Windows-based computers. Since January 23, 2003, the brand name has been owned by Mad Catz, which marketed G ...
*
Homebrew (video games) Homebrew, when applied to video games, refers to software produced by hobbyists for proprietary video game consoles which are not intended to be user-programmable. The official documentation is often only available to licensed developers, and th ...
*
Video game modding Video game modding (short for "modifying") is the process of alteration by players or fans of one or more aspects of a video game, such as how it looks or behaves, and is a sub-discipline of general ''modding''. A set of modifications, commonly c ...
*
Undubbing Undubbing is a type of video game hacking that restores the original language audio content of a game that has been localized for export while retaining the translated text of the language into which it has been localized. A typical candidate fo ...
* Twin Eagles Group


References

* * * * {{Firmware and booting Video game modding Hacker culture