Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Slap ROM Patcher

nyuu.page

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 22 posts

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#11

Post by saghm »

teroshan wrote: post #5

I recently stumbled upon https://www.hackdex.app/ which is a lovely website dedicated to Pokémon ROM hacks. It's a really vibrant scene, with a lot of different hacks that go all the way to fully-fledged games, but because it's so rich it can be a pain to find what is available and what the latest version of a given ROM hack is. This website has a neat feature where you upload any base Pokémon ROM file, and it filter…

Quick clarification: I'm pretty sure there's no uploading at all; it uses local storage for the filtering too, which is important because uploading a ROM tends to be risky legally

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#12

Post by choo-t »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #8
infinite_spin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's similar to adding a note to a book, and then removing that note, leaving you with a the original book. That scenario doesn't violate copyright law as far as I'm aware.

That's not how patching a rom works. You directly replace data and the formats that let you undo have to put a copy of the original data in the patch file. So yes it is a risk.

You don't need a copy of the original data, you can simply store your change as a XOR so undoing it mean XORing it again.

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#13

Post by Retr0id »

choo-t wrote: post #12
Dylan16807 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how patching a rom works. You directly replace data and the formats that let you undo have to put a copy of the original data in the patch file. So yes it is a risk.

You don't need a copy of the original data, you can simply store your change as a XOR so undoing it mean XORing it again.

However, if your change involves zeroing something out, you're back to storing the original data again.

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#14

Post by Joker_vD »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #8
infinite_spin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's similar to adding a note to a book, and then removing that note, leaving you with a the original book. That scenario doesn't violate copyright law as far as I'm aware.

That's not how patching a rom works. You directly replace data and the formats that let you undo have to put a copy of the original data in the patch file. So yes it is a risk.

So? Since when has making backups of the copyrighted stuff that you have the right to use been made illegal?

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#15

Post by Retr0id »

Retr0id wrote: post #13
choo-t wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a copy of the original data, you can simply store your change as a XOR so undoing it mean XORing it again.

However, if your change involves zeroing something out, you're back to storing the original data again.

Slightly silly idea to solve this: Hash all non-patched areas of the file to produce a key. Use the key to encrypt your XOR value. Thus the key can only be derived by someone who has either the original file, or the patched version.

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#16

Post by SideQuark »

Joker_vD wrote: post #14
Dylan16807 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how patching a rom works. You directly replace data and the formats that let you undo have to put a copy of the original data in the patch file. So yes it is a risk.

So? Since when has making backups of the copyrighted stuff that you have the right to use been made illegal?

Employing anti-protection methods to do to has been illegal since 1996 WIPO treaties, and then much more strongly in the 2002 DMCA.

So around 30 years now.

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#17

Post by teroshan »

saghm wrote: post #11
teroshan wrote: post #5

I recently stumbled upon https://www.hackdex.app/ which is a lovely website dedicated to Pokémon ROM hacks. It's a really vibrant scene, with a lot of different hacks that go all the way to fully-fledged games, but because it's so rich it can be a pain to find what is available and what the latest version of a given ROM hack is. This website has a neat feature where you upload any base Pokémon ROM file, and it filter…

Quick clarification: I'm pretty sure there's no uploading at all; it uses local storage for the filtering too, which is important because uploading a ROM tends to be risky legally

Absolutely, I should have made it more explicit, thanks for clarifying it. That's what makes this possible and legally compliant.

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#18

Post by WhiteDawn »

SideQuark wrote: post #16
Joker_vD wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? Since when has making backups of the copyrighted stuff that you have the right to use been made illegal?

Employing anti-protection methods to do to has been illegal since 1996 WIPO treaties, and then much more strongly in the 2002 DMCA. So around 30 years now.

In fairness, games didn’t start employing encryption on the content till the 7th generation. So unless you’re applying ips patches to a 360 game you’re not breaking any DRM

Playing the title you backed up and patched is a different matter entirely

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#19

Post by Dylan16807 »

Joker_vD wrote: post #14
Dylan16807 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how patching a rom works. You directly replace data and the formats that let you undo have to put a copy of the original data in the patch file. So yes it is a risk.

So? Since when has making backups of the copyrighted stuff that you have the right to use been made illegal?

A patch you can undo isn't a backup mechanism, it's data in the patch file when you download it. That's a big copyright risk.

You could design a system that generates undo info while you're patching. But it's easier to make a full backup copy of the original rom, and have no way to actually reverse the patching process.

Re: Slap ROM Patcher

#20

Post by nyuutsu »

gblargg wrote: post #3

Doesn't the undo functionality cause it to store copyrighted data from the original ROM in the patch?

(Author here, my wife posted this thread; it has no bearing on the question but I am told it is good to disclaim.)

You could quibble about what counts but the core is "yeah".

Ppf3-with-undo stores literal "hey, we expect byte n to be 'foo'. on apply, replace it with 'bar'. on undo, put 'foo' back. remember: the copyrighted byte is 'foo'". Touch every byte in some way and your undo data is the entire original.

Some patches literally touch one byte. Their undo is, indirectly or indirectly, a recipe for retrieving one byte of copyrighted data. Is that fragmentary enough that it is entirely in the clear? I have no idea.

Post reply on HN