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Most hacking groups offer web space for hosting hacks and screenshots (sometimes only hosting hacks by the group's members and hosting almost any hack), a message board, and often have an [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]] channel. There are also many guides created by several hacking groups that aims to help others get into grips with ROM hacking for the first time, one of which was the legendary "Rom Hacking Bible" for the NES written in the mid-to-late 1990s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NES - Rom Hacking Bible - NES - By SeRiAlKLR - GameFAQs |url=https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/916386-nes/faqs/2948 |access-date=2024-08-05 |website=gamefaqs.gamespot.com}}</ref>
One of the most popular sites devoted to the ROM hacking of games was {{Anchor|Romhacking.net}}ROMhacking.net, which first went online in late 2005. It hosted a repository of hacks, translations, utilities, documents, and patches for many well-known and obscure video games from the [[Third generation of video game consoles|third generation]] up to the [[Seventh generation of video game consoles|seventh generation]]. It was preceded by its immediate predecessor, ROMhacking.com, a similar ROM hacking-oriented site that launched in 2000 and went offline in late 2004.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Legacy - ROMhacking.com/ROMhacking.org |url=https://www.romhacking.net/about/#romhackcom |website=ROMhacking.net |access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref> On August 1, 2024, the site's staff announced that ROMhacking.net will transition over into being a read-only news site after nearly 20 years of hosting due to various reasons beyond the site's control, with its former database and files being archived on the [[Internet Archive]]. New submissions on the site were also permanently closed on the same day of the announcement, and all downloads will remain available on the site until further notice.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Joshua Wolens |date=2 August 2024 |title=Founder takes down the Nexus Mods of romhacking after 20 years because 'lines were crossed' by 'a most dishonest and hate filled group,' but others tell a different story |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/founder-takes-down-the-nexus-mods-of-romhacking-after-20-years-because-lines-were-crossed-by-a-most-dishonest-and-hate-filled-group-but-others-tell-a-different-story/ |access-date=2 August 2024 |work=PC Gamer |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |
==Methods==
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As many Game Boy Advance games use the M4A Engine (informally called "Sappy Driver" and officially known as "MusicPlayer2000" or MP2k) for music, the program SapTapper can be used to hack Game Boy Advance music data. Various other utilities were created to work with the engine such as [https://web.archive.org/web/20160306150654/http://www.pokemonhackersonline.com/showthread.php?t=120-Wataru-Kun-s-Ultimate-Pok-mon-Music-Hacking-Guide Sappy 2006]. Another instance of the same engine being used between games is on the Nintendo 64 where most games use the same format; albeit with different sound banks. A utility known as the [https://github.com/jombo23/N64-Tools/tree/master/N64MidiTool N64 Midi Tool] was created to edit the sequences that the majority of Nintendo 64 games use, however it does not cover first-party N64 titles that use a slightly different engine such as ''[[Super Mario 64]]''.
Several games for the [[Sega Genesis|Sega Mega Drive/Genesis]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Mega_Drive/Genesis_Sound_Engine_List|title=Mega Drive/Genesis Sound Driver List|website=GDRI (Game Developer Research Institute)}}</ref> used a sound engine commonly known as "SMPS", which has been offered in both [[Motorola 68000|68k]] and [[Zilog Z80|Z80]]-based versions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://segaretro.org/SMPS|title=SMPS|website=Sega Retro|date=30 March 2024 }}</ref> This sound engine was predominantly used in a wide variety of Japanese-developed games for the system (including first-party games) with some games providing modified versions of the sound engine tailored for a specific game. It has been researched for decades by many hackers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=32473|title=Valley Bell's SMPS Research|website=Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board}}</ref> Today, many tools are available<ref>{{cite web|url=http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Hacking_Utilities#Sound_Editors|title=Sonic Hacking Utilities|website=Sonic Retro}}</ref> to alter the music of games that used the SMPS engine (most notably the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games in particular); many of them had eventually made their way into the [[Steam Workshop]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=34270|title=Steam Workshop :: SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics|website=steamcommunity.com}}</ref>
===ROM expansion===
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Once a hack is completed (or an incomplete version is deemed suitable for an interim release) it is released onto the Internet for others to play. The generally accepted way to do this is by making an [[unofficial patch]] (in IPS format or others) that can be applied to the unmodified ROM.<ref name="dictionary"/> This, and usually some form of documentation, is put in an archive file and uploaded somewhere. IPS is a format for [[File comparison|recording the differences]] between two binary files (in this case, between the unmodified and hacked ROMs) and is suitable for rom hacks.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pokemon Rom Hacks |url=https://www.inversegamer.com/best-pokemon-rom-hacks |website=InverseGamer.com |date=20 September 2020 |access-date=31 March 2021}}</ref> IPS is still used today for small patches—however, as ROMs became larger, this format became useless, leading to quite a few file formats being created—such as NINJA and PPF (also known as "[[PlayStation]] Patch Format"). PPF is still used today, particularly to patch large files such as ISO [[CD-ROM]] images as well as [[Nintendo 64]] games. A new patch format, UPS, has also been developed by the ROM hacking community, designed to be the successor to IPS and PPF.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,6059.0.html|title=New patching format, UPS, debuts today|website=www.romhacking.net|date=27 September 2023 }}</ref>
A more recent patching format, the APS patching system, has also been developed by a devoted Game Boy Advance ROM hacker.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pokecommunity.com/member.php?u=28656|title=The PokéCommunity Forums - View Profile: HackMew|website=www.pokecommunity.com|date=27 June 2006 }}</ref> The APS system is more space efficient, is reversible, and is faster than its predecessor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pokecommunity.com/showpost.php?p=2488977&postcount=1&highlight#A-Ptch|title= Newest patching format, APS, recently released|website=www.pokecommunity.com|date= 20 May 2007}}</ref>
The main purpose of distributing a hack in patch form is to avoid the legal aspects of distributing entire ROM images; the patch records only what has ''changed'' in the ROM, hence distributing it does not usually distribute parts of the original game. In this case, patches usually contained user-made code changes to the game and not the original game’s copyrighted code, which would have eliminated any copyright issues that may occur with distributing unofficial patches for games.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024|reason=A claim of legality without source}} A patch is also normally drastically smaller than the full ROM image (an NES ROM can run anywhere from 8 KB to 2 MB; a Super NES ROM can run from 256 KB to 6 MB; and Mega Drive/Genesis ROMs can run from 512 KB to 4 MB).
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