Hacker Envy

I've been lurking on ROM hacking forums for years and had this account for over a year, but despite poring over disassemblies and making tiny modifcations to code, I feel like I'm really going nowhere at times. Even when I do have a measure of success, it takes me eight hours just to produce a few bytes of code that do NOT crash the game.

At the same time, I've seen people who are complete newbies to hacking and programming, but figure out the basics like the C2 bank of which I'm still trying to figure out one tiny piece. What bothers me is that the more I study, the more I realize that the task I am trying to accomplish is intermediate at worst, and the only reason why I keep hacking at it (pun fully intended) is because as far as I know, no one else has done it, but even a newbie could probably do it in a few hours.

To be fair, I do know more now than when I first tried to mess with the code, but I won't lie. I get jealous of everyone else making leaps and bounds when I can't even understand the difference between a register and a direct page. Sometimes I feel I'll never accomplish even my own personal goal hacking-wise in my lifetime and what bothers me is unlike my other pie-in-the-sky goals, I know this is in reach.

Despite your claim of some noobies picking up romhacking right away, It is the fact that having previous programming/coding knowledge of any kind seems to greatly assist the speed of the romhacking learning curve, and I promise the vast majority of rom hackers this is the case. Without this, it is going to be very time-consuming indeed learning the ins and outs. I myself stick to what interests me enough to learn it (event and music) which requires no assembly coding but is still difficult to pick up right away. Learning assembly or any coding language isn't going to be quick, so hang in there buddy! after a certain point I think with learning anything a breakthrough moment of clarity happens where things start to click a lot more. It just takes us all different amount of time to reach this pinnacle as we are all different in terms of brain chemistry - what might take one person to learn something a year could take another a month. That's just the way it is, gotta just stick with it and strive for understanding and improvement which it sounds like you're making

Even when I do have a measure of success, it takes me eight hours just to produce a few bytes of code that do NOT crash the game.

Understanding ASM takes a lot of time, but it may also vary from person to person. I did struggle at the beginning too. Unlike some people who will never try coding because they are certain they will suck at it and understand nothing, you at least try and got some result. I'm sure you'll get better with time, even if progress is slow.

To be fair, I do know more now than when I first tried to mess with the code

This is what you should focus on. I don't know how you proceed to understand code but there could be another technique or way to learn that would be more suitable for you. Maybe some people could tell you the main way they learned ASM.

Don't worry man, I don't know the slightest thing about actually hacking the game. You're doing much better than I am.

Sounds like you've at least learned enough to hit that plateau in the learning curve where you know enough to know what you don't know. That's actually pretty huge. Keep at it and you'll make progress.

By the way I also feel like the simplest things take forever to do. I guess that's what learning feels like.

+1 to seibaby

Yeah, if you already have knowledge of a higher level programming language, it's easier to transition to the lower level stuff. But if you haven't done any programming before, I'm sure it's faster to just dive right in. There's also a large amount of code to work with here.

I'm a software engineering student, and the co-op that I'm doing right now is the first time I'm programming for a large company. We're working with a bunch of technologies that I have no experience with, and the codebase is a lot larger than what I've worked with in the past. So it's taking quite a while to get up to speed on everything. I feel like the only difference is that I have the confidence that I will understand it eventually. Don't focus on what everybody else is doing, just focus on what you need to do to figure things out.

Envy for this kind of stuff is a double edge sword: but it's not necessarily a negative thing, the fact you have that feeling is the
first sign of someone who wants to achieve a certain goal, if you use this feeling and turn it into ambition/determination, then it will be
very positive, otherwise it will affect your attitude to reach your goal... be careful.

Yeah, if you already have knowledge of a higher level programming language, it's easier to transition to the lower level stuff.  But if you haven't done any programming before, I'm sure it's faster to just dive right in.  There's also a large amount of code to work with here.

I agree partially on this. I knew OOP and C# when I started ASM and I still had trouble with a lot of concepts like special registers, flags uses, DMA, jumps, etc.. ASM is also 100% sequential. Now there are some concepts that are similar, but it's not like going from C to Java (or Java to C) and always be in known waters. Non-programmers can be excellent ASM coders and would probably struggle as much going into high level languages than me going from C# to 65816.

I'll be able to claim something similar in my next semester ASM course where the simulator has an accumulator, one register (similar to Y or X) and 3 flags. You know you won't struggle when you talk about a class you haven't taken yet with someone taking it and you know at least as much as what the guy is talking about.

Greetings,

I have to agree with the Senpai folk here - yes, it helps a lot that I'm not completely code inept due of learning Javascript and PHP which basic concepts apply - just like most newbies, I roamed these forums for over 5 years an let me tell you it was a lot worse to find information or get anything done - but that's the beauty of hacking - it is challenging and rewarding.

Hmm... Maybe a Newbie Academy is overdue - yes, I was going to suggest something like that previously but most Senpai folk here are busy with projects and coding new things to improve tools.

I think for now PM will do - Gi Nattak is currently helping me with music hacking and is going surprisingly well.

Also, having a team helps tremendously - try meeting other new people and join forces to complete projects. Recruit some from social media and other hacking forums to join here.

PS I'm not a pig anymore



Cheers!

There are many many tutorials about Hex editing and specific hacking topics on this very forum. We also have a Discord channel, One of the BEST things about this community is the community aspect; everyone is helpful as often as possible. I don't think there's much more we could provide to help get people started.

That being said, back when I was streaming hacking, we had tossed around the idea of a beginner series so you could watch some of the beginner stuff in real-time. Maybe that'll happen at some point. But I honestly think the thing that is most needed is a drive to power through the fog to understanding. I heard a saying once that goes, "The Master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried." The question is, how many times are you willing to fail until you get it?

Don't give up. get up and try again.

Happy Hacking!