This has been tried (unsuccessfully) several times over the years, but maybe this time it might actually work.

What would you guys think about doing a group project? Creating a thread, picking a game, and working on it. Be it a translation project or just a general rom hack. Everything documented in posts or otherwise. We might actually get a game fully translated, and we might actually give a guide for people to learn how things actually work. Would be an interesting starting point for new hackers to be able to see a half-assed haphazard project from start to its either fiery burn or (probably unlikely) completion, and who knows, we might end up with some document worthy discussion in the process.

If that's Psx stuff, count on me.

That would probably be the best goddamned document you could put on romhacking.net

This could be an awesome thing. Nightcrawler already described most of the problems that could likely pop up, but there are a few more from a translation aspect, assuming multiple translators are working on the same project.

Different people have different ways of working through something...for example, the way I prefer to translate may not be the same way satsu, for example, prefers to translate. And don't get me started on hacking methods. Conflicting methodologies may not matter, but they have the potential to be a major hurdle that would need to be overcome.

And then there's the translation itself. What names would be decided upon? What kind of style? Ironing everything out so that the script flows together is essential, and there would likely be fighting over just how to translate something--and not necessarily just between translators.

Personally, I like working in pairs--one translator and one hacker. The communication tends to be better, and it's easier to iron things out that way--arguments are easier to resolve. Plus, the project only depends on those two people, which means that it has a much higher chance of being completed.

The upside I see to something like this is that there probably won't be a single bug or hacking issue that can't be overcome simply by throwing enough brain cells from various hackers at it. With something open like this problem solving should be much easier than with single-hacker projects.

This could really open the door to more difficult projects. Heck, this could be a way to try and make a concerted effort to push to a previously uncharted system, such as the Saturn  :P  The community bands together to make a concerted group effort to crack the wall surrounding the system, and generates an excellent supply of documentation as it goes, really opening the door for whoever wants to follow. The open forum would really help this, and invite ideas from people who might not otherwise notice or speak up. I'd still recommend that the core group actually generating the code and the script be relatively small--probably only one or two translators and a few hackers--maybe someone for graphics, someone for tools, etc.

Anywhoo. Like Nightcrawler, if it's not a game I personally want to see translated, I probably wouldn't be interested in joining up. If, however, it IS a game that I'd like to see done, and depending on the structure and organization for the group, I could be very interested in such an endeavor. This has the potential to be the biggest thing to happen to ROM hacking since, well, ROM hacking itself.

Man. I have a style that is very very different from everything taught in docs. I could corrupt a few people!

It would really just depend on the game and what role I'd have and how dependent that role is on someone else's. I hate do the "gruntwork" (table building, script-dumping, script inserting), but I don't mind contributing an asm hack to a project if the game interests me a little.

You might be better off getting a small group together and working from there. Once you get a project off the ground, expand as you go.

I would definitely be interested in helping out, especially with the grunt work stuff. If it's not GBA then I may not be able to do much ASM for it, but I'm sure I could learn.

Also just an idea of how to go about it: Do it sort of like an open source project, make a change, document what your change was. Everyone keeps changing stuff and eventually it's a whole new game.

Also maybe we could try decompiling an entire game (like the Sonic games have been) maybe a tough one like one in the Final Fantasy Series.

So we should probably start posting what games we would like to see done, because people have said they would be interested if it was one of those games. Personally my standards aren't too high, I like Mega Man games, Final Fantasy, pretty much any Nintendo made game.. the ones I don't like are mainly ones based off of a crappy anime. Don't get me wrong though, some games based off anime are good.