nilson
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Your mother and I think you should leave.
Posts: 26
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Post by nilson on Mar 10, 2014 12:57:00 GMT -5
Hey guys! Recently, I've been trying to dig into the sordid and obscure history of Dragon Pervert, one of ROM hacking's greatest mysteries. There seems to be several different versions. Dragon Warrior XXX, which I believe is the original perverted DW hack, was created by Golok and AC2k, which in turn inspired their friend DJW to make the game we know as Dragon Pervert. After this, it gets blurry, as people from Spooky Kids seem to have released several different versions throughout the years, one of which I think is the one I played back in the early 00s as a kid... There's this thread here: Badderhacks where DJW sort of explains the history behind the project. If anyone knows anything about the history, or knows any of these guys (or was even in Spooky Kids), it'd be great to compile some more history here. Thanks  |
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Post by Joseph Joestar on Mar 10, 2014 16:15:36 GMT -5
Shit. This is just the time for my memory to go. Please bear with me, because there are some things I remember clear as day and some that are fuzzy, like who was who (people changed nicks all the fucking time, including DJW as he mentioned). Long story short my old nick was "monsterturtle"/"monster_turtle" on the old #nes98 chatroom and I was a member of the Spooky Kids Hack Posse from 1997 to 1999. I did jack and shit besides hang out on the chatroom and talk about the things I was going to do Original/founding members included Twiggy/maat, Linque, and Telia. DJW/Gema2k joined a bit later (can't remember if it was before or after me), then Kasady and popehentai later. This all was tied to and sprung from the "nes scene" (yes that's what we called it) chatroom #nes98, which originated on the website "The NES Triforce" (which was basically staffed by the first three guys I mentioned). I can confirm the history DJW discussed up through his involvement. I was actually the one that suggested "pussy breath" for the replacement of the "chain sickle" ;p. As of the date I "dropped out" (August 1999) I wasn't aware of any alternate versions of Dragon Pervert - it's entirely possible it was someone else fucking around with it. Although Kasady had done some edits of existing projects after people left (like Evil Dead - see below), you'd know it if he was involved because he would have added something horror/gore related or references to Marvel's Carnage (who he claimed to have invented - hence his handle, from "Cletus Kasady"). I'd worked on a total of three projects - an abortive attempt at translating Sweet Home that went nowhere, "Monkey Dong" which I did the sprite work for then gave to DJW to finish (he actually fixed the title screen text too, which I had no idea how to go about), and Evil Dead which I did the Ash sprites and other stuff for before saying "fuck it" and giving over to Kasady, who sorta finished it I suppose. Anyway this shit's all lost to time it seems. You can still find the apocryphal Dragon Pervert and Kasady's version of Evil Dead out there. Unfortunately I had a lot of shit like archived websites and roms and shit but I ended up deleting them around 2000 or so to make room and because I didn't give a shit at that point (which I now regret). I've been casting out a line here on the site for years hoping to run into or get in contact with any of the #nes98 folks but no dice, I'm assuming they all got lives . Anyway some other trivia/discussion related to things he talked about in that thread: - The Marat F. thing was true. Everyone hated him because he charged for his emulators when in most cases there was better stuff out there - about the only thing you didn't have a choice but to use was his PC Engine one (I forget the name). - Another ongoing joke was about TSR (of "TSR's NES Dungeon") being fat. We were all jealous of him for having a popular site and/or access to shit we didn't have. The second thing was that he was part of the AtariHQ clique, and they were all a bunch of elitist fuckwads, especially Keita. |
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Post by wxbryant on Mar 10, 2014 16:47:12 GMT -5
I was technically part of the Spooky Kids group for a bit myself, but it was more like I asked and they let me host a few of my hacks (just Afro Man and Madd City War X, I think) on the site for a while, around '99 or so. That was about the extent of my involvement, though.
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Post by Joseph Joestar on Mar 10, 2014 17:24:51 GMT -5
I was technically part of the Spooky Kids group for a bit myself, but it was more like I asked and they let me host a few of my hacks (just Afro Man and Madd City War X, I think) on the site for a while, around '99 or so. That was about the extent of my involvement, though. I remember Afro man. Just out of curiosity what was your Internet handle/nick? |
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Post by wxbryant on Mar 10, 2014 17:58:52 GMT -5
I think originally they were submitted under Will B. (very smart, using part of my real name...) but then I changed to Mad Wolf at some point. I'm pretty sure the copies floating around of those two are credited under the former name but there is a later revision of MCWX (the title changed to San Mierde: Homeroom Homicide) that uses the latter handle.
While I'm owning up to bad hacks floating around the internet... Pokecide? Also me. That was post-Spooky Kids, though, and I don't remember what handle is given for it.
Hindsight being what it is, I know Afro Man isn't a very good hack but I kind of have a soft spot for it. If I had the time/energy to get back into hacking, I'd almost be tempted to do a halfway decent one with the guy.
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Post by Joseph Joestar on Mar 10, 2014 18:02:16 GMT -5
I think originally they were submitted under Will B. (very smart, using part of my real name...) but then I changed to Mad Wolf at some point. I'm pretty sure the copies floating around of those two are credited under the former name but there is a later revision of MCWX (the title changed to San Mierde: Homeroom Homicide) that uses the latter handle. While I'm owning up to bad hacks floating around the internet... Pokecide? Also me. That was post-Spooky Kids, though, and I don't remember what handle is given for it. Hindsight being what it is, I know Afro Man isn't a very good hack but I kind of have a soft spot for it. If I had the time/energy to get back into hacking, I'd almost be tempted to do a halfway decent one with the guy. A lot of people are awfully judgmental of earlier hacks but they need to understand that a lot of that stuff (graphics, etc.) were by hand, and without the aid of all the different tools there are available today. Not to say that stuff like Megaman Minus Infinity or whatever aren't impressive, but it's like being critical of silent movies for not having sound - it's just a different type of romhack and people made use of what was available (like the sprite editor in Nesticle or Hexedit). |
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Post by wxbryant on Mar 10, 2014 18:20:43 GMT -5
Oh, I'm not being judgmental about it based on the standards of today's Mega Man hacks. I'm just saying that, looking back at it, I can tell I didn't put much thought into some of the design changes I made, and now parts of it just seem like bad ideas to me. Turning Shadow Man into Noob Saibot and then putting him against an all-black background comes to mind, for example.
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nilson
New Member
Your mother and I think you should leave.
Posts: 26
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Post by nilson on Mar 10, 2014 20:38:29 GMT -5
Shit. This is just the time for my memory to go. Please bear with me, because there are some things I remember clear as day and some that are fuzzy, like who was who (people changed nicks all the fucking time, including DJW as he mentioned). Wow, this post is super helpful I'm super fascinated by this early rom hacking scene. Did you ever know AC2k (Astro Creep 2000, I think)? He seems pretty controversial, or at least a hardcore troll. Was Dragon Pervert a big deal when it came out, if you remember? Was it "well received" so to speak ; ) ? |
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Post by 1upsuper on Mar 10, 2014 20:41:57 GMT -5
This is all very interesting to me. I honestly have very little idea what you guys are really talking about, but it's interesting to hear that ROM hacking started that early. I thought it was more an early-2000s construct.
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Post by Joseph Joestar on Mar 10, 2014 20:49:10 GMT -5
Shit. This is just the time for my memory to go. Please bear with me, because there are some things I remember clear as day and some that are fuzzy, like who was who (people changed nicks all the fucking time, including DJW as he mentioned). Wow, this post is super helpful I'm super fascinated by this early rom hacking scene. Did you ever know AC2k (Astro Creep 2000, I think)? He seems pretty controversial, or at least a hardcore troll. Was Dragon Pervert a big deal when it came out, if you remember? Was it "well received" so to speak ; ) ? AC2K/acey was alright, I know a lot of people didn't like him because he was a bit of a troll but I didn't think he was that bad. Pachuka was kind of like that too but I thought he was amusing (I'm not sure any of his flash cartoons are around, he had a character called the "Bug Felcher" who was this Grey Alien that would rape people.). I never really talked to either of them that much but they seemed ok. Teeth, who DJW mentioned WAS a fucking asshole but I think that was what he intended people to think of him. Honestly, Dragon Pervert wasn't particularly controversial; it was definitely amusing and IIRC people liked it, but the bulk of what was out there consisted of dick and pussy graphics hacks so it wasn't particularly "out there". There were definitely more offensive hacks out at the time (the Super KKK Bros. games come to mind). This is all very interesting to me. I honestly have very little idea what you guys are really talking about, but it's interesting to hear that ROM hacking started that early. I thought it was more an early-2000s construct. Thanks! Yeah, it basically started out in the summer of 1997, and I think there were a lot of little factors that contributed to it. There were a couple of larger websites out there, TSR's and NES World for example, and I think that got people interested in NES collecting. I can't remember specifically when, but Nesticle came out not TOO long before that, emulators were starting to make the rounds and get more common around late 1996-ish or so (the famous Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake translation project and emulation were going on at that time). Rom distribution sites were starting to pop up around that time too. These factors got a lot of younger people (well, younger than me) interested in the NES, and the fact that more people were getting access to the internet around that time gave them an outlet to talk about it. Basically I found out about Rom Hacking from the guys on #nes98 that I mentioned, we'd basically all get together on that IRC channel to talk about shit. Hell, it's not that different from the IRC channel for HG101, which I guess is why I enjoy it. Anyway I don't know specifically when it started in 1997, but Nesticle had a sprite editor built in and word got out that you could use it to edit the graphics on these NES games (in a lot of cases you'd have to use hex editing to make the changes permanent, but other roms could be changed directly). Anyway, Spooky Kids was formed not too long after that. Anyway it'd be great if we could find some of the old people (I'm especially wondering about "phifey/phifedog" who was a really nice guy, or "tom/octopooki", who hosted brinstar.com and the different game sites on it). If anyone has any questions I'll do my damndest to remember, although I can't guarantee anything from late 1999 on. |
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nilson
New Member
Your mother and I think you should leave.
Posts: 26
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Post by nilson on Mar 11, 2014 13:02:46 GMT -5
Anyway it'd be great if we could find some of the old people (I'm especially wondering about "phifey/phifedog" who was a really nice guy, or "tom/octopooki", who hosted brinstar.com and the different game sites on it). If anyone has any questions I'll do my damndest to remember, although I can't guarantee anything from late 1999 on. You've been super helpful and you seem like a cool guy ; ) I'm surprised that there isn't more of a written history of the early hacking days. I think the internet gaming scene at large is indebted to them. Maybe HG101 should do a historical post about it (unless I already missed something) and try to find some of the original guys. |
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Post by The Great Klaid on Mar 11, 2014 13:36:57 GMT -5
I was technically part of the Spooky Kids group for a bit myself, but it was more like I asked and they let me host a few of my hacks (just Afro Man and Madd City War X, I think) on the site for a while, around '99 or so. That was about the extent of my involvement, though. Wait this Afro Man? www.i-mockery.com/romhacks/afroman/Because that's kind of cool. I remember these days, and I really thought most of those people had gone away and left the internet. |
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Post by Joseph Joestar on Mar 11, 2014 14:30:23 GMT -5
Anyway it'd be great if we could find some of the old people (I'm especially wondering about "phifey/phifedog" who was a really nice guy, or "tom/octopooki", who hosted brinstar.com and the different game sites on it). If anyone has any questions I'll do my damndest to remember, although I can't guarantee anything from late 1999 on. You've been super helpful and you seem like a cool guy ; ) I'm surprised that there isn't more of a written history of the early hacking days. I think the internet gaming scene at large is indebted to them. Maybe HG101 should do a historical post about it (unless I already missed something) and try to find some of the original guys. I wouldn't go so far as to say that but thanks . Here's a link I found with a good timeline. It reminded me of one quick addition/correction for something I said before - #nes98 did indeed start in 1998 as he says in his timeline, but technically it/the group of people on it started out by communicating on the Java applet chat on the NES Triforce, then later on IRC as #nes97. smackdown.myrmid.com/smackdown/articles/history.phpI agree that it's a shame that period's not better represented - even before the Geocities apocalypse there was a lot of stuff that was erased. Some of the old sites are still archived to a degree on the Wayback Machine, but a lot of things like romhacks and such are gone for good. Honestly if I could find a person or two from that initial phase I'd love to do a podcast for GC9X talking about the "good old days", branching off our "xerxes and jojo are old" bits. |
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Post by wxbryant on Mar 11, 2014 18:24:43 GMT -5
I was technically part of the Spooky Kids group for a bit myself, but it was more like I asked and they let me host a few of my hacks (just Afro Man and Madd City War X, I think) on the site for a while, around '99 or so. That was about the extent of my involvement, though. Wait this Afro Man? www.i-mockery.com/romhacks/afroman/Because that's kind of cool. I remember these days, and I really thought most of those people had gone away and left the internet. Yep, one and the same. I remember trying to read that post once several years ago and just kind of going "...ow" about part way through. I may recognize it as being "bad" but it's still my "bad," you know? |
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Post by The Great Klaid on Mar 11, 2014 19:02:04 GMT -5
Yeah, sorry that was the way I had to remember your work. But I came on the emulation scene kind of after a lot of this.
Also, I'm sorry that was your 50th post. That was a hell of a thing to use it on...
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