Episode 6 - ROM Hack

At the dawn of emulation and the World Wide Web, a group of fans discovered the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games that never made it over from Japan. One of them decided to hack into a few of these and translate them, unofficially, with help from some friends -- starting with Final Fantasy II for the NES.Featuring quotes from Steve Demeter, founder of one of the first fan translation groups, Demiforce, who was the driving force behind three high-profile ROM hacks -- the Final Fantasy II and Radical Dreamers translation projects, and the Earthbound Zero prototype release.Relevant links:romhacking.netFinal Fantasy II Demiforce translation patchRadical Dreamers Demiforce translation patchSpotlight: Earthbound on Lost LevelsDrymouthIf you're looking to try out console game emulation, I recommend OpenEmu (Mac-only) or RetroArch. ROMs are easy enough to find, although I should note that downloading ROMs of commercial games is probably illegal in your jurisdiction.Music Credits:Main Theme and Castle Pandemonium from Final Fantasy II (composed by Nobuo Uematsu)'Requiem ~ dream shore' and 'Far Promise ~ Dream Shore' from Radical Dreamers (composed by Yasunori Mitsuda)Scars of Time from Chrono Cross (composed by Yasunori Mitsuda)Seeker by Kai EngelAnd a bunch of my own stuffThe Life & Times of Video Games on the Web and social mediaWebsite: lifeandtimes.gamesTwitter: @LifeandTimesVGInstagram: @lifeandtimesvgYouTube: lifeandtimes.games/youtubeYou can make a donation to help cover running costs and allow me to rely less on freelance income viaPatreon: lifeandtimes.games/patreonor PayPal: paypal.me/mossrcPlease remember to subscribe and to leave a review on iTunes or whatever podcast platform you prefer. A small donation of a few bucks a month on Patreon would go a long way, too, and it'd get you a bit of cool bonus content here and there on a private podcast feed.Support The Life & Times of Video Games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices