Hiya everyone, Celia Dawn here!
Recently, the lovely community member Teon dropped hackdex.app, a repository of Pokemon romhacks that includes built-in patching for players!
In my opinion, this will soon be the way for players to discover and patch new Romhacks to play. The site's layout is slick and clean, and the user interface is lovely. Uploading a new project is extremely easy, and scrolling through existing projects to find new ones is a breeze!
Right now the site is freshly-launched, so there's only a few hacks listed. That's why I'm calling on all Romhack developers to join in and upload their project onto the site!
I don't usually make posts about community goings-on, but this is an exception. I truly believe this is gonna be a change in the winds for how the Romhacking community operates, and I'm excited to be an early adopter.
Thank you so much to Teon for putting this site together! The project is fully open-source, so anyone can contribute. I can't wait to see what the community builds here!
Copying and pasting this from another post since this one is pinned
Just gonna add some answers to some common questions:
- All credit goes to Teon for creating this amazing resource
- You can read here: https://www.hackdex.app/faq for more info (Was gonna link Teon's original post, but I can't find it T_T)
- DO NOT SUBMIT A ROM HACK UNLESS YOU ARE THE DEV
- If you are a dev, go to the Hackdex, make an account to submitted your hack. It has to be in BPS patch format, and you will have to verify you are the dev
- The Hackdex does not supply the ROMs and do not ask where to find the ROMs
- Mod Note: Eventually, the Hackdex will be linked/co-exist with the Codex
- There are already some filters, including for specific hack features and base ROM
- Any feedback/questions should be sent here: https://www.hackdex.app/contact
Hope this gains traction. There needs to be a good place to index all this.
Okay but seriously - Look how slick this UI is!
(no this is not a thinly-veiled attempt to get eyes on my project. how dare you accuse me of such a thing)
wow! such slick UI! Oh and what's this? A thrilling puzzle hack with mysteries, secrets, and hidden quests? What a find!
All wrapped up in an encouraging yet affectionately-satirical tone? Wow!
[accepting a cartoon bag of money then giving a thumbs up to the camera] "I loved it."
Well, having a Yui (K-On) look alike appear as soon as I clicked on the link certainly caught my attention.
Mission accomplished I guess
Indeed, this is an unveiled attempt
Dang this is a pre-
Must play Celia's Stupid Romhack, Must play Celia's Stupid Romhack
Cinccino should absolutely have bone rush.
Would be cool if the locations and other documentations were included
This is a good suggestion! I’m working on compiling them to share with the hackdex dev so that he can make this site as best as it can be!
Built in pdf reader would be nice for documentations, and word for good measure
Which LLM did you use?
My brain :)
Well, you should definitely look into cursor, antigravity or claude code then. Will boost your productivity by a ton.
I like my brain :)
Iconic. May your pores be forever clear and your pillow be forever cool :D
Nah, I think most of us are pretty good without that crap.
Ok jeez didnt know you guys were AI haters lol.
This is a creativity-based community, of course we hate it.
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Gen AI ain't the holy grail y'all seem to think it is. All it's gonna do is fuck everyone's lives up. Hell, it's already doing that.
AI bros remind me of pick me girls/gays on social media
Willingly to shit on everyone else, and blindly ignoring the fact they are being used and will be replaced once companies are satisfied with the results.
If AI really gets to a point where it can replace humans completely, that shit is not going to be free, nor will it benefit anyone but the top brass.
And that's ignoring the huge environmental toll AI takes on the planet, all so they can play pretend artist.
I've used anti-gravity and claude and this isn't the kind of place it will help. The codebase is incredibly large and features a proprietary language that AI struggles to comprehend due to lack of training.
Not to mention, the core of Celia's hack is its comedy. AI would struggle to produce something half as witty as this.
Edit: misspelled Claude
I was talking about the website, not the romhack itself. I dont know enough about that.
A section for tooling maybe not a bad idea too or that at least points to where to get the tools
Nowadays the only tools anyone really uses are HMA for binary hacking and Porymap+TMS for decomp hacking.
Gone are the days of browsing Wack-A-Hack for the twentieth item description editor!
Yeah but if target is also nds there are a metric ton of tools there, also we shouldnt assume the average user even knows what decomp means but they maybe want to make their romhack, if you get my drift. The place people get romhacks is prolly a good place to find how to do romhacks too
I agree for nds tools.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "knows what decomp means" line - I mentioned HMA (the binary hacking tool) in my comment.
You also mentioned decomps but was using an example, avergae user doesnt have any of the context we all do, they dont know what binary vs decomp even means is the point
I think this might be out of scope for the site, but they could definitely link to some resources.
Like an “Interested in Rom hacking?” Then list some binary hacks, some decomp hacks and the resources to make them.
Yeah this is exactly what i was thinking
Like for nds we have a wiki, a link to it more than enough
A link to hma discord/github
Etc...
hma is for binary?
how can i get cfru/dpe on a rom without hma? everyone ive spoken to says decomp is best but to use hma.
They probably are saying to use decomp, but if you don't want to do the setup and just want to get a quick feel for editing a game, HMA is the best alternative. Don't use it for a big ROM hacking project though. It will be a pain.
Pokemon Pisces has been submitted to this site. I think its quite nice!
Wow, it looks perfect! Only thing missing is option to search by completion criteria (demo, beta, completed etc.)
I second this. I only like playing completed rom hacks because of my limited time.
Yup, sam. Completed rom brothers :)
this seems sick
Patching right then and there in the same place you get the patch file is what could make this really take off. Hopefully it does. Best of luck to you.
Submitting Aesthetic Red to this right now and the UI is incredible! The PokeROM Codex was brilliant - closest thing we got to "complete" site like this but it's a shame it's been discontinued, so hopefully this tops it! Having user submissions is by far the best way to do it, as it means it can remain updated without one or two people having to constantly keep updating it
Codex walked so Hackdex could run 🙏
Can we get this, or the original hackdex post to be pinned temporarily replacing the HallOfFame subreddit pin?
Yeah can do
submitted
https://preview.redd.it/92yc0t83m77g1.png?width=749&format=png&auto=webp&s=b6976f640b765e41b31980f14f28aee7ba368b59
Is it known how verification will work for uploading patches? Like, someone can't pretend to be Nemo and upload a .bps file that's actually a virus or something 😅
Only patch files can be uploaded by developers. Admins will ensure that the patches work and try to verify the submitter is the dev. If not, there is a report function and we will take down the hack if the real dev does not want it there or wants to take control.
just uploaded Labradorite!! this seems really exciting
Exactly what the community needed! Great work guys
May I ask, I’m still new to this besides downloading a few a year back when I modded my 3DS, what does built in patching mean?
It means that instead of downloading a patch, opening a patcher, and then applying the patch to a rom, you can simply upload your rom file and the site will patch it for you!
That's a great feature. Just a question since im also new. If I patch a rom file can i still use the original file for the base game?
yeah, it doesnt modify your original file, you get the patched version back as a new file
This site is about to pop off!! So much support from devs will enable this site to really be a haven for hack patches and info!
The Pit post is pending
The Nuzlomizer can be found there too..... as soon as it gets approved that is
Also suggestiion: add an optional "documentation link" field for nuzlocke hacks and the like
Documentation and Readme's would be really helpful, I agree.
Ohh wow, literally had the same idea of making this.
Nice
The project is open-source if you're interested in contributing :)
Can someone explain this in stupid please?
Finding and playing new romhacks is about to get a million times easier :)
So like I usually play romhacks on my iPhone, would I be able to get games there?
So the idea is that if you have your legitimately acquired base roms (fire red and emerald are most common for GBA), you’ll be able to upload them on your side then just download any roms you want from the site that you have uploaded the base rom for! The site remembers what you have uploaded and stores it on the client (your) side. It’ll do the patching for you, and it’ll feel more like just downloading the roms, despite the fact that you are indeed patching them each time!
How does it work if you upload multiple roms? Does the site detect which one is the correct base for whatever patch you are interested in?
Yes.
Thanks. Wonderful project and it looks like it's getting traction already.
Can’t take credit! It’s all Teon!
this'll be great, after spending the past couple days slowly finding and patching romhacks I frankly never wanted to do it again. the gods have heard my plea orz
This is peak
Thank you for sharing. Hoping this pops off and is going to stay
I LOVE that this exists!! Hopefully it grows as more creators add to it, I often see such great projects in this sub but it’s hard to find things if you don’t already know about them! This website is the perfect solution to that
I'm glad you're promoting this! A site like this only works if everyone pitches in and posts their romhacks here!
Always have time for Hackdex love, the ease of use is about to change the game !!
Looks nice
Great looking website, very neat! Emerald Blitz is submitted.
Holy crap. This patching integration idea is actually kind of huge. Seems like a no brainer to support this. Especially since it is open source.
Kind of giving me motivation to try and resetup my retroarch.
this is cool!. thank you, OP. hoping your repo get tractions!
Celia my goat
o7
Commenting for engagement
Oh wow. This is exactly what needs to happen. This is perfect
Wow, sounds sick!
Looks very promising, hopefully people will use it more in the future.
This is fucking sick
I love it! The only small note I have is that arrows to scroll through screenshots of a hack before opening its page would be nice. Clicking on the little bubbles at the bottom works, but I've found myself accidentally clicking to open the full page a couple times due to the small size of the bubbles and the up-and-down "hovering" effect of the hack when it's moused over.
Love the built in patcher
Guess I’ll finish my next demo and put mine on there!
Wow
Submitted entry for Yu-Gi-Oh POKeDUEL!
For pokedex it would be good to sort by number of Pokémon obtainable, not just where the Pokémon are from
Well, content-wise it's pretty much the same approach as https://pokeromcodex.notion.site/8f188f1761b9430f9adb68833c44e5b8?v=6e9c873012004f65bc91a2f39448f5bd
But the UI is better, especially on mobile. 👌🏼
It should definitely also include boxarts (of course by putting the boxart's creator underneath each image), that would be handy.
I wonder though, if devs are fine with this since he provides direct patches on the website whereas many devs are like "My Discord is the only allowed place to download my hack".
That being said I highly HOPE that devs are okay with this because as much as I understand the convenience of having your own Discord server for your hack, it's just a horrible evolution of things that happened. People have to keep track of countless servers (free users even can't add too many) and none of it can be googled. And if Discord decides to go down some day (or dies financially), everything is lost forever.
All of those "my discord is the only place" are shooting themselves in the foot. Man, have at least one site with the patch and the docs, that is the bare minimum and not hard at all. What if discord gets bought my yahoo and discontinued? The dev needs to rum a repo anyway, publishing the source is too easy.
Tbh i think having a link to the source site or discord and disabling the option to patch on hackdex would be a fine compromise. It respects the wishes of the developer.
These are almost entirely non-existent within the community. There are 100000000000000 times more people complaining about Discord only hacks than there are discord only hacks that exist. It is a made up pronlem. The number of relevant hacks that are discord only is so small I don't understand why anyone is even still talking about it. No one can even list me 5 completed discord only hacks any time it's brought up and I ask for proof it's a problem.
We've gone back and forth about this before--hi, again!--and I honestly think the idea that Discord is a black hole of romhacks comes from stuff like, for example, people thinking that Devs are releasing in-development patches constantly only through Discord.
After speaking with you and others, I sat down and did the research: and y'all are right. The issue is way moreso that some hacks put their "latest updates" / "discussions about their latest update progress" solely on Discord, which gives people the impression that Discord is the only place to find up-to-date hacks for a majority of games.
Plus word of mouth/telephone game/etc.
I still think Discord is ass for archival purposes; but in terms of being some Treasury of Babylon for unreleased private hacks? It's a severely overblown problem.
I said this to the person below you and I'm going to say it again to you. These are almost entirely non-existent within the community. There are 100000000000000 times more people complaining about Discord only hacks than there are discord only hacks that exist. It is a made up problem. The number of relevant hacks that are discord only is so small I don't understand why anyone is even still talking about it. No one can even list me 5 completed discord only hacks any time it's brought up and I ask for proof it's a problem.
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I love Celia Dawn. She's the best.
Yeah I hear she's pretty cool
This is really cool, but would you be able to add to the filters a "completion" option, that way fans can show only games that are completed if they want to, or see only demos if for some reason they wanna check out only works in progress
Right now im making, a fully typescript Randomizer (gen 1 already working) i think it would be a great addition to the site :).
This looks great.
awesome
I’ve been crossing my fingers for something like this ever since I discovered the Codex
Ooooh transform… I totally read that as something else before zooming in.
This is great
This is awesome. Exactly what the community needs
Hell yes this looks sick. Exactly what has been needed to contain all the various romhacks.
I love this so much.
With many such attempts, I hope the project does well. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it for myself if nothing else.
Omg this amazing! I hope it becomes a main staple in the ROM hacking community!
Love this and support this.
THANK YOU!!!!
This is a revolutionary step in the romhacking community
Unveiled and appreciated attempt to gain attention for this slick amazing project. I applaud and commend you for this post and efforts.
Love the site! Is there a discord or anything for folks that would like to contribute?
I don't think there's a dedicated discord yet, but Teon hangs out in Team Aqua's Hideout - Ping him and I'm sure he'd be down for any technical contribution to the project :)
Will do, thanks!
i would love something like this to stay but the last project stopped at gen 3 and then died either last year or the year before this looks a lot cleaner but i just hope it stays and stays up to date
I like this. Having assets up like clear logos and box art be very helpful to someone like me.
So did you add ROMs yourself, or do you wait for the creator to give permission? For example, Pokémon Odyssey
Creators have to add their own hacks.
Soo i can download romhacks from this site?
No, you can patch ROM hacks on this site
Ohh thanks im still learning my way around romhacks.
This would be an awesome metadata source for emulation frontends! Really nice work!
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This site is doing nothing illegal.
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Nintendo may be annoyed, but the site is not within their domain to attack.
With that logic, romhacking.net and pokecommunity.com would have been shut down already.
They don't care about patches, they care if you make money and/or dip into piracy
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Do they also do fangames? I enjoy both and it would be great to have a unified repository.
I think fan games are out of scope for the “hackdex” haha
I don't know. I mean, the distinction between the two is solely on the technical side, right? If the purpose of the dex is to be a showcase that enables players to find new and interesting games, then I don't know how much the average user cares if they are based on a ROM or something like RMXP. I've seen this fracture in the community between the two and I've never really understood it.
It’s mean for rom hacks, since with fan games you can just download them and open them, rom hacks need to be patched. A site like this is an unmet need in the community to make patching more accessible!
I agree there should be a site for RPG maker games, but i think the distinction needs to be made for those which are actual gba/nds etc games and games that can’t be played on real hardware.
That is not the purpose of this dex, the purpose is to centralize patching so people don't use shady pre-patched sites.
Fan games don't require patching, hence why they would be excluded.
And as Phaneropterinae pointed out, they aren't hacks.
The average user cares whether are not they can actually play the game or not. Fan games can only be played officially on PC, unofficially on Android and Mac.
Anyone using a modded console, an iPhone, a retro device, etc will certainly care.
There wouldn't be a need for it since you don't need to patch an RPG Maker game, and the easy patches are like half of the point.
The main big difference, though i'll admit only a small portion of fans are effected by it, is that Romhacks can be played on the original hardware, fangames cannot.
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nice the site looks great! I did it but got an error
https://preview.redd.it/vjqg7nyey77g1.png?width=377&format=png&auto=webp&s=f329237a58df904bb51a5f688da529a39a733011
I'm sorry I guess this wasnt an error hahaha my bad
Hey I’ve been given admin privileges for the hackdex, your upload (Hoenns last wish) does not have a patch file attached. Can you try to fix it?
wierd I did provide the patch but ok, i'll check it...
What is the difference to PokéROM Codex (ROM Hack Search)? I hoped we could leave a rating or something too, so people know how good the ROM Hack is.
Built in patch is big! I assume there’s some way to tell which version you’re downloading (for the wip ones)? A searchable database for completed ones would be nice (or even other filters; based on which region, etc.).
Going to save so I can remember to check it out later on my computer since I’m already in bed after gobbling some melatonin. Excuse if some of these things are already on the site. Very excited to check it out! Makes the process so much easier for a rom newbie player like me.
I love this! My only complaint would be that swapping between pictures on the main page is a little annoying, since there aren't any arrows to click, and the little circles are quite small.
UI looks great, but it doesn't appear that there's a way to search by original system (DS, 3DS, ect.).
I know most of these are for the DS, but that makes it all the more important to be able to filter by system.
There's filters for base ROMs
Also, most of the hacks currently hosted are GBA Hacks
Aah yes, I see now. I missed it the first time.
It does appear that there are currently no hacks beyond Gen III on there for now, but that's understandable since it's a new project.
Looks great though.
There is two NDS Hack currently uploaded, Vintage White and the Rose Gold beta.
I know Celia mentioned in another comment they reached out to Drayano to hopefully get his hacks on the Codex (excluding Redux cause that is Aphexcubed's version).
Aah, well when I looked the other day there were no options for Black and White in the Base ROMs filter. That must be why I didn't see them.
When I try to upload a hack to this thing, it asks for the base rom. It is not clear to me whether "Rev 1" of pokémon crystal refers to v1.0 or v1.1. pret/pokecrystal doesn't rever to the versions of the game this way, it mentions this:
Which one of these corresponds to "Rev 1"? I assume the filename comes from a warez upload that I am unfamiliar with.
Rev 1 would mean 1.1 (ie, revision 1).
I see, thanks!
Another question, is there a particular reason as to why specifically the owner of a hack must be the one to upload it? Polished Crystal does have an owner -- Rangi42 -- but generally, the work on formalized releases has been done by others, primarily vulcandth. As someone who isn't the main owner of the hack, but contribute enough to it to be considered one of the major developers, am I ineligible to stand in for Rangi42 when uploading Polished Crystal to it? I seem unable to specifiy the main owner, which I assume is due to this restriction.
The Codex allowed anyone to upload hacks, it led to disaster. It got backed up with a bunch of trolls/fake uploads.
Assuring that only the main dev uploads will hopefully prevent that, but I'm assuming there is leeway for hacks developed by a team, as long as there is proof said person is on the team and/or the main dev approves it.
Every hack has to be manually approved anyways, so as long as they can verify you should be good.
However, I would point out the Github for Polished Crystal hosts pre-patched ROMs, so it wouldn't be allowed to be referenced at all on the Hackdex
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It won't take my version platinum. Every other room I had was fine. Tried 2 more and no go. Anyone have this problem?
I used this today to download The Big New Romhack, but there was no option to download the patch file at all.
Isn't that kind of the single main feature necessary for the website to be considered working? You built a whole weird other process instead of the MVP. Why insist on touching ROM files when the whole crux of legality is NOT touching rom files?
The crux of legality is not distributing ROMs
You cannot play a ROM Hack without a ROM, there is no avoiding using ROMs.
The point is to avoid distributing ROMs, as that falls under piracy.
You really need to add a [Complete] tag for the hacks.. So we know if it's completed and can be played to finish or not..
Hey thank you so much for making this site and creating a awesome db like this!! It's so convienent to have our cached base games that we have dumped and easy patching of the games!! I also love the boxart and game info!! Would it be possible to work with those who have github or even post their stuff on kofi to have links directing the user to either github or kofi to get those straggler hack devs?
Only hacks submitted by dev's themselves will be supported
Im a user.
Theres no link to the original post for some hacks. A website is a minimum.
Having tags for base rom, completeness status, doubles or singles would be cool.
The shaking animation looks stupid to me, but other people may like it.
The pokerom codex has some of the data for past hacks.
Are you guys fine with submissions by user? I dont think it would be problematic if it links to the original site. There are some hacks that have some disclaimer about not allowing to publish to other site, in those, just disable the patch thing so the user needs to open the og site, respecting the wishes of the developer.
Majority of hacks do not have a website, they may have a PokeCommunity thread and/or a romhacking page, or possibly a Github
Worse case, they have everything locked behind a Discord
Edit: And only the creator can submit their hack to the Hackdex. The Codex had open submissions, and it’s the main reason it got fucked
Making sure Pokemon Clover is uploaded so everybody can experience PEAKachu.
Please do not upload hacks if you are not the original creator.
Oh I'll let those geniuses know where to put their masterpiece, thanks for the heads up and my bad! Didn't mean any harm :)
https://preview.redd.it/bedvw772ca7g1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c27217e4298b95cc52aa066280eb1bd3d7f7c45
I think without a way to vote up or down hacks this will be a pass for me.
Thankfully Reddit still gives you the power to up or down vote comments :)
Just wish this site would do the same. Rally hard to find quality romhacks tbh
Or, you can try hacks that interest you and form your own opinion instead of depending on others.
Especially when this community has shown they can't handle people opinions, god forbid you say you like or dislike a certain hack
True. I was nearly burned alive for suggesting I enjoyed clover.
No way lol. Upvotes, whatever. Downvotes no. (And comments no, too, for that matter.) The website is meant to be a neutral, developer-centered repository for hacks to download, not a place for them to be judged/ranked/whatever. We've got enough of that (arguably way too much) happening here on forums.
You can already use the "downloads" metric as a potential judge of quality-- as the site gets more users, it will become a more useful metric.
Where are you seeing this happening? I haven't and I'd like to see upvoted/downvoted romhacks.
Have you seen the state of this sub?