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

I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

joshfonseca.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 198 posts

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#181

Post by kkukshtel »

simonw wrote: post #90

Here's the code: https://github.com/vuciv/animal-crossing-llm-mod I was intrigued as to how it would intercept a conversation and then pause the game for long enough for the LLM to return a response, so I used https://gitingest.com/vuciv/animal-crossing-llm-mod to dump the 40,000 tokens into Claude Opus 4.1 and asked it: https://claude.ai/share/66c52dc8-9ebd-4db7-8159-8f694e06b381 The trick is the watch_dialogue() fu…

I think it's funny how goblin mode this whole hack is. The memory scanner itself was clearly written by an LLM (using python??) and the way this person goes about hacking the game is very non-reverse engineer but instead someone equipped with very capable tools. No shade to the dude to be clear, I think it's sort of incredibly how possible this stuff is now due to LLMs and doesn't require someone to know how to use Ghidra.

AND ALSO - the Gamecube did actually have networking through a barely used peripheral (though I knew and loved it through Phantasy Star Online Episode 1&2): https://gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Broadband_Adapte...

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#182

Post by standardly »

Razengan wrote: post #103

This is what I and I'm sure many other gamers/gamedevs thought when LLMs/ChatGPT first came on the scene: Dynamically-generated dialogue. Device-local models designed for games could be trained on the game's lore and given a different style for each NPC, and react to the player's random actions instead of blurting out canned responses each time. I'm sure if the genre-starting veterans like Richard Garriott or Roberta…

I've floated that idea around in various internet comments and am usually met with the typical AI=BAD response. It would work so well in a CRPG type game, but I think a lot of folks would review bomb a game like that just because

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#183

Post by rkomorn »

Razengan wrote: post #103

This is what I and I'm sure many other gamers/gamedevs thought when LLMs/ChatGPT first came on the scene: Dynamically-generated dialogue. Device-local models designed for games could be trained on the game's lore and given a different style for each NPC, and react to the player's random actions instead of blurting out canned responses each time. I'm sure if the genre-starting veterans like Richard Garriott or Roberta…

Live commentary in sports games is a place where I think LLMs could shine, but I have no idea if they could perform, time wise, to the point that it would sound right.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#184

Post by rkomorn »

standardly wrote: post #182
Razengan wrote: post #103

This is what I and I'm sure many other gamers/gamedevs thought when LLMs/ChatGPT first came on the scene: Dynamically-generated dialogue. Device-local models designed for games could be trained on the game's lore and given a different style for each NPC, and react to the player's random actions instead of blurting out canned responses each time. I'm sure if the genre-starting veterans like Richard Garriott or Roberta…

I've floated that idea around in various internet comments and am usually met with the typical AI=BAD response. It would work so well in a CRPG type game, but I think a lot of folks would review bomb a game like that just because

My main issue would be that, especially with dialog, I'd never trust whether it's something the game's writers would think is canon, correct, etc.

It would probably creep into my suspension of disbelief and mess with my enjoyment.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#186

Post by lawlessone »

amilios wrote: post #9
wincy wrote: post #5

That's hilarious that you give the villagers thought and the first thing they want to do is overthrow Tom Nook. If this works in Gamecube on an emulator, surely it'd be possible to make it work on the Switch emulators as well?

Would require decompilation of the Animal Crossing game code for the Switch. I believe DRM has gotten a lot better since the Gamecube days as well. Hypothetically possible maybe but good luck haha

I am curious. Does the kind of DRM used to prevent decompilation come with any performance costs?

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#187

Post by Wowfunhappy »

i_c_b wrote: post #128
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In many situations its very useful to know when your "done" talking with an NPC when they start repeating lines etc... But that's not how real life works at all, right? You talk to someone for as long as you want to talk to them, or until they start sending signals that they are done talking with you . The way video game dialog works has always bothered me, it makes characters feel stilted and makes me care less ab…

"But that's not how real life works at all, right?" How real life works is always a plausible interesting goal, but it's very often at odds with a bunch of other valuable goals for players. A particular sharp example of this is sports video games. It might well be interesting (and certainly realistic) to simulate bad referees in a sports game. Horrible blown calls by tennis line judges, or missed calls by basketball…

I don't mean to imply that realistic is always better, just that there are other ways to figure out when to stop talking to someone. And I think the current method is actually quite bad for immersion and building empathy in the player.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#188

Post by djmips »

ricardobeat wrote: post #118
smt88 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LLMs are heavily trained on reddit, and "Tom Nook is a capitalist dictator if you think about it" is a reddit meme. Like many LLM reactions, it's less "thought" and more "regurgitating reddit jokes/opinions".

> Like many [ human ] reactions, it's less "thought" and more "regurgitating reddit jokes/opinions"

It used to be Letterman jokes.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#189

Post by squigz »

mclau157 wrote: post #135
amilios wrote: post #4

There's something about taking old games and injecting new life into them that just seems so fun and exciting! Also very interesting to know that the Animal Crossing codebase has been decompiled into readable C code. Fascinating! So many opportunities to mess with it.

The Ocarina of Time modding scene is growing a lot right now as well if anyone is interested

I recently started playing Wind Waker (HD) Randomizer - so fun! It's almost like playing the game for the first time again.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#190

Post by aucisson_masque »

To me LLM are one of the greatest advancement in gaming. I don’t understand how there isn’t already any big game that’s using it to have ‘live’ npc.

It would make single player game so much more alive, even railroaded one like red dead redemption because the npc could adapt more easily to what you just did, how you behave in game and so on.

Games are already demanding on gpu, running a very tiny local LLM and only when people interact with npc wouldn’t require so much power.

I’m sure there are issues which explain why it’s not already being used but the first one to do it will be remembered.

Post reply on HN