Category: hacking scene

  • Romhacker and Former Achievement Developer clymax’s Achievement Sets Taken Down

    By Retro Achievements Based on False Accusations and Without Inquiry

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube, Twitter, or Retro Achievements.

    1. Achievement Sets Taken Down

    Each screenshot is hyperlinked to the original post.

    Previously, a Retro Achievements admin already reached out on April 28, 2025 via Discord DM (conversation not reproduced here). The admin sought to confirm if any of my achievement sets were paywalled. This question was confirmed in the negative, and the admin indicated the achievement sets would have no issues.

    Admin Announcement via RA Discord, April 25, 2025 (days earlier; bold added)

    In light of recent events, the admin team has decided not to allow sets for paid hacks of copyrighted content. We have long striven to avoid any involvement of money in what we do beyond paying server costs, and we don’t believe the risk opened by encouraging unauthorized monetary gains based on a third party’s IP is worth the gain. We still support and encourage paid homebrew, which showcases the creativity and capability of skilled developers without invoking these concerns. Free hacks will of course continue to be supported as well. This is purely about preventing liability.

    To be clear, this does not affect any sets at this time, it simply sets up policy for when it becomes relevant.

    2. Publicly Addressing RA’s Comments

    Let’s take a look at a first comment posted by Retro Achievements:

    This set has been demoted due to being unmaintainable as the patch is locked behind a pay wall.

    This accusation is false.

    Even more problematic is that no attempt was apparently made to verify false information before taking down the work of an achievement developer.

    A second comment by Retro Achievements:

    This set has been demoted due to patch inaccessibility.

    This accusation is also false. As addressed in the next section, the patch has been (and continues to be) primarily available on RAPatches. The patch is secondarily available via multiple major websites that host this kind of mod—a simple Google search would show this—or via my Discord servers, which are free to join.

    And a third comment:

    The hack author specifically does not want their patches hosted on RAPatches and because of that we aren’t able to ensure continuity of maintenance.

    The first part of this statement is true, but that has always been the case, and there have been talks between myself and certain members of Retro Achievements off and on to try to reach a resolution.

    Meanwhile, pending a resolution, the patch continued (and continues) to be hosted on RAPatches.

    Even if the patch wasn’t hosted on RAPatches, the second part of the statement doesn’t follow from the first. Game roms are not cloned into the repo. That would be illegal, just like cloning hack patches without hack author permission is allegedly. But game achievement sets stay up. Why?

    I previously covered Retro Achievements’ double standard and allegedly illegal or unethical practices in the Related Post below.

    Romhacker and Former Achievement Developer clymax Shadowbanned from Retro Achievements Discord, Presumably over Clovergate Coverage

    3. Having the Effect of a Smear Campaign

    Sample player comments after the set demotions.

    The full extent of the impact can’t be ascertained due to the Discord shadowban covered in the Related Post above.

    Making something pay walled makes me want to get a copy and post it everywhere possible.

    (Not here of course, that’s bad)

    A dev who makes a hack for money is not a dev I respect.

    Bring back the free version and maintain it against their will for all I care. They lost the right to protect the hack the moment they decided making money was their goal.

    Palhaçada isso
    Clymax tem potencial pra um ótimo romhacker, mas toma uma decisão pior q a outra
    Triste q eu tava pensando em jogar essa hack

    [This is ridiculous.
    Clymax has the potential to be a great romhacker, but he keeps making one bad decision after another.
    It’s sad because I was thinking of playing this hack.]

    March 3, 2026

    4. Private Direct Message About Demoted Sets Gets Zero Response from RA Admin Even Though Another RA Admin Previously Indicated the Sets Would Remain Online

    Is it safe to assume, then, that the demotions and public falsehoods are targeted retaliation for Clovergate coverage?

    A. Appendix: clymax Sets Demoted by Retro Achievements

    1. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Arcade)

    2. DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Arcade)

    3. Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song (PS2)

    4. Final Fantasy V: Whirlwind (SFC) [Core]

    5. Final Fantasy V: Whirlwind (SFC) [Subset]

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  • Announcement: No Context Collab + Hack Jam ’26

    Hosted by FFV Central

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    Original Post on January 17

    Hack Jam Under Consideration to be Held

    Join Discord to Show Your Support

    Original concept by YeOldeLoremonger with refinements by clymax

    Proposed game: FFV SFC (future editions can cover other titles)

    Proposed theme: to be voted on

    Submissions: via hack jam channel on Discord

    Judging: by player vote via Discord

    Proposed time: weekend in February

    Details are subject to change, but any changes will be announced asap

    Reddit promo here (similar one here)

    Update on March 5

    No Context Collab + Hack Jam ’26

    Release target is April Fools’ Day ’26.

    Given the “no context” theme, your project must be kept secret from others.

    All working submissions will be combined to the best of our integration team’s abilities.

    More details are as follows.

    1. Choose one focus area: maps, sprites, audio, script, mechanics, or user interface.
    2. Guidance for time to spend is 30 minutes to 1 day, but no upper limit will be enforced. You must, however, report your time spent when you make your submission.
    3. The organizers may also impose a minimum signup threshold before this project is allowed to proceed.
    4. Base rom will be FFV SFC, preferably with RPGe translation applied.
    5. Submission deadline will be March 15. An extended deadline of March 25 may apply to participants invited via other FF modding Discords.
    6. Submission format must be a patch file in IPS or BPS format.
    7. Submissions will be via DM as instructed in the channel.

    For the promotional announcement, see one of the related posts below.

    Related Posts

    No Context Collab + Hack Jam ’26
    Romhack Jams

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  • Modders Who Host Their Mods on Discord

    Versus Players Who Want Those Mods Without Joining Discord

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    The following exchange occurred in an older thread on the r/romhacking subreddit.

    Let’s have a look at one of the replies first, which also summarizes the OP:

    There is some real irony to you linking this out to a wordpress blog instead of just posting the discussion on reddit.

    That said, I read it, and reading the words “r&t@rds,” “discuck” and “r&tardati0n” make it immediately clear you aren’t upset about anything real or relevant – like discords not being archived or easily backed up and not being a good replacement for forums or other types of more centralized repos but just your very weird distaste for discord. You then phrase it in a heavy iamthemaincharacter way when you state “It’s amazing how these mf do everything in their power to piss me off!” and honestly I think that’s enough of a summary of your bad take. You don’t even address it as a community problem – which it absolutely could be – but only as a personal slight to you. No one makes romhacks for you. No one who makes romhacks cares about you. And if anything, you being this obnoxious is only likely to make someone want to piss you off.

    You are a vulgar twit with a worthless perspective and I’m glad these people piss you off, as you deserve to be pissed off.

    Now for some excerpts from OP’s linked blog post (the highlighting is from the blog post):

    LET’S TALK ABOUT THE R&T@RDS IN THE MODDING COMMUNITY THAT ONLY USE DISCORD AS THEIR ONLY SOURCE OF THEIR WORK

    …

    In the BHDN forum, there was a user by the name of “hikikomori” that was working on a romhack of pokemon red called “Plaguemon”.

    I actually really enjoyed watching his progress, the dude has talent, not only he redesigned all the pokemons to make they look like some lovercraft creatures, he also implemented a lot of new features in the rthe game. But for some reason, hikikomori never posted back in bhdn, he didnt even posted his romhack in there. Actually, he didnt posted his romhack in any romhack site for what I know. So where did he uploaded his romhack then?

    IN HIS FUCKING DISCORD SERVER OF COURSE!!!!!

    It’s amazing how these mf do everything in their power to piss me off! Why can’t you guys just upload your hacks on some romhack site or make your own site like a normal person? I don’t want to join your discord server. I dont want to make part of your community. I dont want to read your retards takes. I dont want obey your stupids rules. I just want to play your mod until I get bored and move on to my day.

    …

    I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. This is the future of the romhacking/modding community.

    “Join in your centralized honeypot server for the mediafire/mega/dropbox link of our mods.”

    Well, I don’t know about you, but I gonna show those mf how to do a good work! I went in their discord server and grabbed all the mods shared in there and uploaded on archive.org.

    The blogger apparently thinks grabbing Discord-hosted mods and reposting them on the web without mod-author permission is showing the modders how things should be done.

    For some reason, the blogger didn’t even: try to actually show the modders how things should be done, by making his own mods and sharing them on the web and not on his Discord server.

    Maybe it’s because in this day and age, by the time the blogger actually finished a mod, he wouldn’t want to put it on the web anymore. He’d also want his mod put on Discord instead.

    It’s a case of the blogger seeing things from the player perspective but refusing to acknowledge that the perspective of the modder should matter. At all.

    So, what’s the bigger problem for the hacking scene, if any? Modders who want players to join Discord? Players who want the mods without joining? Or preservation of the mod knowhow for the scene in general?

    Bonus: Related Video – Fire Emblem 8 Machinima

    What do you think? What’s your take on mods being hosted on Discord? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord, where many (but not all) or our mods are hosted.

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  • Slick Productions Forum Archive

    Now Available on FFV Central

    Courtesy of Archival Efforts by rustythepokemontrainer (avaquizzer on slickprod)

    On behalf of the FFV Central community and other FF communities of hackers and players, we thank rustythepokemontrainer for his service to our communities through the preservation and release efforts related to this invaluable record of early FF modding history.

    To enter the forum archive, use the link below.

    https://ff5central.com/slickproductions.org/forum

    For any issues, please report them to the Slick Productions megathread in our Discord.

    Note that the archive does not include other web content.

    Restoring the other web content could be something that is looked into in the future.

    This post has been viewed 21 time(s).