When I say hack here I mean a video game that’s been manipulated in a certain way by one or more people by use of various programs that may involve coding. Most of the time these are done on a pc ,but their are ways to do small things off a phone or other various things like that. People probably mostly use the term for like stuff done illegally to someone else on the internet(for instance hack into someone elses youtube account. The term is obviously used for things computer related obviously.) You probably can legally do this stuff to things you own or have purchased. Their are fewer people that use the term hack for a video game thats been changed or modified in some way. People can convert their games from consoles to various formats to be played in emulators(various programs you can get off the internet to be used to run the files the games are converted to as if they were being played on their original consoles.)To hack the game you need to use various programs ,and/or coding techniques to make the changes you want to said game. Only legal if you’ve purchased the game. Fan games are games made by fans(people who support ,and back the series in some way even to the point of putting in effort to help the series in some way that might involve money which would help that game or franchise all together.) that are not put on consoles most of the time as they would violate copyright(extremely strict rules or rights that people can get or earn for various things they create most of the time by paying money probably to established governments like the united states.) as people like sony probably wouldn’t let it be play able on their consoles ,because of that. As a result big companies like nintendo have what seems to be almost enough power and money(obviously money)to be almost abusive about what they create(This is my opinion that probably many people probably might agree with in some way. Its obvious though that they have a lot of money of course.) I mean you probably could theorize that this is the case anyways ,because at times their are weird court cases that at times either would result in the companies winning. Their are also some court cases that seem very similar to the ones where they one ,but they lose to either another company or person. Heres a video you can watch that covers those things with better sources on that like court cases that I fail to mention here.
A modification(most gamers say mod. for short.) at basic edits or tweaks made to a game that aim to improve,amuse, or some other personal gain(more the other two.) themselves in some way. Mostly just to improve mainly though(definitely improve.) A site called nexus mods(can be found by doing a quick search of the two words.) has many modifications that seek to improve games like dark souls 1 in various ways like for instance making the game look better. In fact theirs modifications that you can apply to that game that makes it almost as good as the remaster of the game that was released by the developers you would have to pay money for where as you could just get it for free. Of course I’m mostly talking about the PC version at least. A hack of a game would qualify as either a modification or a fan game. At times its difficult to tell what really blurs the line. In fact some games in the past that were made practically seemed to be texture modifications practically of other games on certain consoles. Fan games though are never really seen though compared to modifications. In another post I talked about a metroid fan game or hack called am2r. Based on what happened it seemed like Nintendo had been secretly working on another remake of a game that was created years ago at the beginning of the 90’s, or had just had the idea of making one,and these fans of this series had began working on their remake before they did. Nintendo as soon as these fan finished making it a few thing happened as a result of said fan game. One of those things being having the just about every copy of the game they could get getting taken down in some way at the time. That act is seems a bit abusive of there power. As a fan game I’d say its especially abusive. On console its less of an issue if they intended to make profit on it. Still even so they made a remake before they did. The fact that the original was enough for all that to happen makes since. What causes me to think it might be a tad abusive despite all that other stuff is that they were probably going to make a new one even if what was happening with metroid at the time was happening(Which makes it a bit less ,but still.) Its not that big a deal though. I’m not saying that Nintendo’s the worst company of all time(Thats probably obvious.)I’m just saying that the kind of power companies have gives them the ability to be abusive. I’m mean you can see it on youtube where entire channels are getting screwed over ,because of someones copyrights that they may or may of not of originally created in the first place. You could just you someone else’s music and claim it as your own. Sounds a bit abusive to me. Should we even have copyright? At least not as to the point where it is.As I stated what differentiates modification between fan games, what differentiates fan games from games on their respective consoles. Super Metroid is one of the many games Nintendo has the rights on. Their many modifications of this game which most people in this community typically use the word hacks for. They more take the form of a fan game almost. As I said its difficult to define those lines. Heres a video I did showing off just about everything you could possibly find out about this game in this video.
Super Metroid is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. It is the third installment in the Metroid series, following the events of the Game Boy game Metroid II: Return of Samus. For many its probably the best the metroid series has to offer. Probably so many has decided to try modifying this game. One of the biggest games in the speed running community actually. The hacking community extends to other games in the series. They all are probably fans of the series. Most probably reside on this site called metroid construction.Easy to find with a quick browser search of those 2 words. Their are people on youtube who make videos of the hacks of metroid games you’ll find on that site. Heres a video of a remake of metroid 1 on their for instance that never really got any heat like am2r for some strange reason.
Much like metroid 1 theirs a hack that makes it where you can play through super metroid as if you inputted a code into metroid 1 (at basic a cheat code. No coding required.) Without the code. In fact if you wanted to I suppose you could put it together with the rom hack above. Heres a video on that hack…
I should probably add its perfectly legal to modify your games in this way. Its a grey area ,but its perfectly legal. You purchased the game your free to play or break it in anyway you want. Much like uploading videos to youtube of video games is,music or things like that. Its not Okay if your trying to profit off it or trying to make a game thats not yours on the internet publicly downloadable for free(I’m almost 100% sure.) or money(100% sure.) Your not aloud to put up the modified games ,but you can if they are files that modify a game. In order for you to post any game publicly its gotta be completely different from another game except genre in most cases. I mean their are free games you can download on your phone in the app store. Just like free programs you can get off the internet. I suppose it depends on how long someone has ownership of a copyright on something. Just knowing anyone could claim something after someone dies ,and by someone they never new well that seems abusive. Remember how I said that a fan games can blur the lines of being a game on a console well heres some footage of a hack of this same game super metroid phazon(The trailer 3 minute trailer I just put into this playlist is first in this. you can skip to actual footage of the game in the embed here if you want.)
In this you’ll see the main character looks like samus ,but isn’t samus. The character actually appears in metroid prime games. Its just in snes graphics though due to the limitations of super metroids console compared to like say Nintendo switch today. Although if someone wanted to you could see it being a possibility that this fan game can be on more recent consoles if they had used what they needed to in order to put it on a more recent console. It could be remade for it to be on a console maybe. Their are cases where they aloud things to exist on a platform or cases where they haven’t so its not a for sure thing ,but you do see what I’m getting at here. Their are cases where the fans made better games than the people working with people like nintendo. Sonic forces was incredibly disappointing where as Sonic mania which fans worked on did well(even those games have mods.) Some people who actually know what people are going to like. Not saying thats always going to be the case. Since metroid has been experiencing problems the issue their is they didn’t make something that was gonna entertain people as well as what they already had. So fans were just led to do it themselves. For other fans more. Just a bunch of people entertaining each other. Pretty sure whats gonna pay better their is entertaining people so yeah with that do that. In best way you possibly can. Like I said I still like the games so yeah. Probably gonna continue playing games. Unless they give me a reason enough to not to,and might again if you begin to do better again. Their are or might be some better fan games of other games that I might do other posts about if I bring up a good enough topic about it. Some fan games are or might be pretty interesting. Some Almost or as good as non-fan games maybe. I’ll probably be playing the ones that those company’s make though more due to how fan games are with company’s. Even if someone modified their game without any profit Some companies do dislike like it from what I’ve heard. If it boosts sales its a win-win isn’t it? In even more abusive ways I think. I got my point across though by now so I don’t need to try ,and find an example.
super metroid(snes)-https://www.amazon.com/s?k=super+metroid+snes&crid=1MAU7K44W2OJF&sprefix=super+metroid%2Caps%2C202&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_13
its also on wii u(eshop) and switch(game store) The snes classic as well. Via a downloadable only through those consoles. Used to be available wii shop channel before it went down. Same for the games below(except samus returns I think.)
metroid 2: return of samus – https://www.amazon.com/Metroid-II-game-boy/dp/B00002SVEM/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=metroid+2%3A+return+of+samus&qid=1584635943&sr=8-3
metroid: samus returns – https://www.amazon.com/s?i=aps&k=metroid%3A%20samus%20returns&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&url=search-alias%3Daps
Dark souls 1 – https://www.amazon.com/s?i=aps&k=dark%20souls%20remastered%20&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&url=search-alias%3Daps
sonic forces – https://www.amazon.com/s?i=aps&k=sonic%20forces&ref=nb_sb_noss_1&url=search-alias%3Daps
sonic mania – https://www.amazon.com/s?i=aps&k=sonic%20mania&ref=nb_sb_noss_1&url=search-alias%3Daps