I recently wrote a small document intended for newbies with little to no ASM skills interested in translation hacking aspect. I basically came up with 4 rules to be followed in order to be a successful romhacker. Granted this is just based from my own opinion and observed/perceived from my experience at RHDN. So my question is whether the document is any good or not.


Everything that I've come up with are more guidelines than technical aspects, which aren't my intention to write about.

Hey!

Do you think you will finish all of your current projects? I know I've poked you about that a few times over the years. If I'm wrong I will gladly eat my piece of humble pie and write a Bart Simpson chalkboard full of 'I will not doubt or criticize the all mighty Gideon ever again.' Though you have already completed more projects than any one else and earned your master hacker degree, my opinion on completing all remaining projects still stands! I know you've cheated once or twice like when you dropped Gran Historia. No more of that to make the list smaller!

Now see, for me, my aim is to go down as the only ROM hacker in history to ever complete all announced projects (and have more than just one or two). I'm not sure anyone has ever done that before in a world where the dropped to completed ratio of projects is so large. Technically, there's FF3j as dropped, but it was completed competently by someone else prior to dropping it, so there's really no point there.

I'm sure most aspire to do that when they announce projects, but I actually believe I will achieve it or be crippled or dead.

Back on Topic:

Back to the topic at hand, one thing that is kind of missing is the true scope of the project in time frame. It's going to take many, many hours to do, especially if it's a large scale hack or translation. So many newcomers just don't get it's going to take them months, or even years to do a SINGLE project depending on their work/time rate.

Some guys start 4 or 5 projects, and never get any done because they were never willing to invest the time or motivation actually needed for a single one of them. It really takes a certain kind of person to be a successful ROM hacker. Our rate of dropped versus completed projects is a testament to that. For every project that's completed, there's probably at least 10 that were dropped by others.

Back in the old days, we had the fame whores who would announce projects just for fame and recognition and then not actually do or complete anything. Thank goodness ROM hacking fanfare has declined to keep people from doing much of that that. Though it still happens on occasion. Certainly in the DS community.

How many guys come on this very forum, ask their one or two questions, get help, but never complete what they were working on? Quite a few. I wish we could better get the message across to new people of just how taxing of a hobby it is to be successful at. It takes self discipline, self motivation, and lots of time. It takes 'days and days' to figure something small out sometimes. It can take weeks to make a modification that barely anyone visually notices. That's the norm in this hobby.

Perhaps there's no way to really get that point across up front. It might simply just be a learned point from experience.

I agree here. That's pretty much why I've got a buncha projects. Every now and then you feel like hacking, but don't feel like working on whatever your main project is. Though, I admit I've taken at least one or two projects that I don't see myself finishing (Kawa no nushi tsuri 2, for example, I have no actual connection to).

And also what DMM said about not announcing them all. I've got a few projects I haven't announced (one of which is actually far along) that I work on from time to time. I keep them hidden so that A) I won't hear "Stop taking on so many projects!" and B) I want you to be surprised when they're done.

~DS

DMM/Darkness:

I can agree with that. Along those lines, helping other people on their project hurdles gives you massive amount of experience. You're exposed to project approaches and methodology you wouldn't normally see working with on your own. Not to mention, collaborative effort can be a different kind of learning. I can't even remember all the different games I've worked on just helping or teaching someone else. Maybe as much as 50% of my experience isn't even with any of my own projects! It's just from working with person X, investigating game Y, to solve problem Z in their project.

So I encourage you to jump in and take an active approach to assisting others who mention problems with their projects in the help wanted ads or here on the forum. No need to commit to the entire project, but jump in, work on something fresh, learn, have fun, and jump out! 

There have been times I spent too much time on other people's projects and not enough time on my own! But it was fun nonetheless!

Gid:

Well sir, you've done a stellar job thus far on your list. I wish you the best on the rest! I will stay turned to AGTP and watch the list go down one by one. The journey is long, the battles will be fierce, but in the end, no ROMs will remain, only Gideon!  :laugh:

The trap that'll get you into a dozen projects is that once you got a script extracted there is little to do other than to wait on the finished script. Then by the time you get the first scripts back you started 10 projects without noticing. And since not all games are equally long and not all translators work equally fast you might end up with 3 or 4 finished scripts at once suddenly and then it's time to commit suicide. Fun times

I agree with most of that, but dont think its always a bad idea to have many projects. Sure, it gets harder to finish them all, but it adds variety. Some people will be able to handle more projects than others. I actually have a few going on right now, but only one is almost done.

@ Karatorian: You pretty much just described my life. Well, except for the Shogi part. And I watch a lot of anime...

So yeah, too many projects can wipe you out if youre not careful!