Video Game Archival Autism / TCRF / Jul / Sonic Retro / And More - Harvest Troon: Friends of Byuu-Near-al town

[Nigor]

Been lurking this thread mostly but wanted to shoutout @Colon capital V's contributions because otherwise I was going to say we have a lot of people discussing hosting and anti-tranny measures but not a lot of people discussing if they actually want to invest time into getting new unused content. There's a lot of huge leaks where other people basically already did the work that TCRF has been too slow to add, so there's that. How many people here care about/know how to datamine older games? Or translate unused images/text that weren't localized in English? I just feel like if the primary driving force is TTD and not a pre-existing background in game preservation, then no amount of planning is gonna keep that alive. Passion > Spite.

I am technologically retarded but I think a mixture of spite and passion would motivate me to learn enough to contribute something. Last year I had found some program to rip frostbite engine assets and added a few unused assets I thought were interesting to a battlefield game I was autistic about at the time. If we make our own I'd be willing to redownload that and document all of them

 

[⚞⛇⚟]

Words

Normally I hate AI because it is a tool that retards use to outsource their thinking to and it never works when I try to use it for research, but that was honestly impressive. Are there any wikis/articles that document different AIs and what they are good/bad at, because I might need to use some of them and I'm too lazy to lurk more myself.

AI called Lara, which touts itself as the "best" AI tool for translations

Did DeepL fall off?

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

Did DeepL fall off?

I can only feel that DeepL fell to the hand of shitty pajeet hands because before it used to be the best translator for me and others, but now the translator is extremely buggy, especially when you try to find synonyms.

Try it and you see how awful it is, there is no explanation on how the app go so bad besides thinking that it's in the hand of pajeets.

 

[The Fatriarchy]

So people have been talking about it a lot, and the thing about finding new stuff for a mentally stable TCRF spinoff is that it requires a lot of different skills.

Looking through some game rom for plain text is the bare minimum.
Looking for plain text in another format or shifted out of the ascii standard is another way of finding hidden and unused strings in the really old stuff.
Understanding assembly instructions for the game is a big part of finding most stuff, especially cut features or debug menus, maybe even special inputs.
In some games you'd have to be familiar with data structures and certain file formats to be able to dig any further.
Games with graphics, that can be easy with game-focused sprite editing tools unless the graphics are compressed or otherwise drawn in an arbitrary way, and that requires a knowledge set of its own.
Finding hidden music, that would usually only require figuring out how to manipulate the game's sound engine to play a different song, though I'm sure there could just be hidden, isolated music data in some old games too. That's a more complicated issue.
Disk-based media might sometimes have things hidden and copied into otherwise empty space, but disk copying probably doesn't account for this deleted data in the rare event it might happen anyway.

I'm only really scratching the surface, but if anyone is serious about getting into something they've never done before, it helps having an idea of what it's like and the different avenues you can take to discover something.

 

[Shoresy]

Update: this was posted about in the Xkeeper thread.

Xkeeper bans a contributor who has made several thousand edits since 2020. Ban is apparently because the editor talked shit about the site, but further details such as where the shit talking occurred and how Xkeeper saw it are unavailable. God forbid you have an opinion about a site while also using said site anyway.

1 minute later, Xkeeper hides the block details.

3 minutes later, Xkeeper unhides the block details, either because:
1. He had a momentary realization he was being a complete retard and decided to unhide it.
2. One of the other staff members, who may be acting as Xkeeper's personal tard-wrangler, told him it was a stupid move

#freemyniggatamamo

 

[Super Guido]

Update: this was posted about in the Xkeeper thread.

Xkeeper bans a contributor who has made several thousand edits since 2020. Ban is apparently because the editor talked shit about the site, but further details such as where the shit talking occurred and how Xkeeper saw it are unavailable. God forbid you have an opinion about a site while also using said site anyway.

1 minute later, Xkeeper hides the block details.

3 minutes later, Xkeeper unhides the block details, either because:
1. He had a momentary realization he was being a complete retard and decided to unhide it.
2. One of the other staff members, who may be acting as Xkeeper's personal tard-wrangler, told him it was a stupid move
View attachment 7515097
#freemyniggatamamo

Dude really should have known better than to use the same username across multiple sites. XCreeper's still a bitchboy for doing that.

 

[kona2kona]

I was just about to report on this. Another longstanding user who hard carried the site via contributions, kicked out because they had a differing opinion on the internet. Genuinely surprised it actually has nothing to do with us this time around too.

edit: it's also for an even more retarded reason than simply browsing kiwifarms, like what the fuck.

 

[BlueSpark]

Everyone already knows about Xkeeper's Autogynephilia, but his other, larger fetish gets far less attention: his fetish for spreading out TCRF content over multiple pages. Every time a single article is given multiple subpages, each with their own subpages, he fills his pants with cum, piss and shit.
And let's not even get started on how hard he orgasms when you click on a tiny pixel art image to try and enlarge it and instead it opens yet another page and then on that page you have to click it yet again to open it on its own so that when you zoom in you zoom in on the actual image

Just imagine the arousal he feels whenever a videogame company has an internal documents leak and he envisions all the billions of pages he can spread ten pages of information over, normal people aren't even capable of that level of erotic pleasure.

 

[kona2kona]

Okay here's an update: It's actually due to some innocuous comment on the situation outside of TCRF, specifically the Pokemon Proto General discord server, according to a few people I've heard talking about it. As a plus, here's XKreeper's own bsky post about it. (Archive)

In fact, here's the post that triggered it all. Can you believe it guys? Criticism is harassment!

X, I know you read this shit. Our standards for you were low as hell, the bar was in the ground. How the fuck did you dig under the bar and go lower?

 

[Enig]

A dude in here told me privately that a secret cool idea for his TCRF killer is to make it about archival of beta/hidden shit for classic software in general, not just games.

That's a seriously good idea because it's not just games that can have secret archives of spongeman episodes or source backups full of funny developer bitching hidden on the disc. You'd probably still want to put games forefront for the general appeal, but it's another thing to potentially hold over TCRF and make it legit obsolete by encompassing and superseding its scope for nerds like me who dig that shit.

I don't know if that guy has flaked out or fucked off or what but since it sounds like a dozen of you guys are independently building your own TUGSPP I thought I should throw it out there for whoever ends up going through with it.

They really need to encompass unreleased hardware too, there's a lot of shit beyond just devkits that either has barely any documentation readily accessible or is buried in old websites or news articles, eg. the wide range of weird Atari test consoles, or that time a Macbook Pro with 3G networking and an antenna for it appeared and then disappeared. The hardware always seems to get skipped over when a lot of the time it's more insane than the software is.

 

[Treatlerite]

i hope our tcrf with blackjack and hookers gets off the ground,

I'm thinking of putting some kind of guide together to help with Our TCRF with Blackjack and Hookers,

He's so mad at the thread LMAOO

 

[Shoresy]

View attachment 7515706



He's so mad at the thread LMAOO

There's the tagline of the replacement wiki: "It's like TCRF, but with blackjack, hookers, and bigotry".

The fat nigger forgot to take one thing into account: nobody's gonna think our version sucks because there won't be a fat fucking pale white tranny on our version running around banning people for having an opinion.

 

[Buzz Killington]

*snip*

Just as a heads up, that "archive" link links to the same place as the bsky post.

 

[Treff Matthiesen]

I've been thinking a bit more about how to prevent vandalism on the new wiki. Would throttling new accounts (to like 2 edits every 10 minutes) work?

 

[Chudborean]

It did the meme

 

[The Fatriarchy]

It did the meme
View attachment 7515907
View attachment 7515910

Xman failed to show any tolerance so I'm not sure why he's crowing so proudly about this.

 

[McSneaks]

View attachment 7515706

Breaking news: Tranny discovers how LITERALLY EVERYTHING in the entirety of everything has always worked prior to the tranny infestation. More as this exciting story develops.

 

[Colon capital V]

Finding hidden music, that would usually only require figuring out how to manipulate the game's sound engine to play a different song, though I'm sure there could just be hidden, isolated music data in some old games too. That's a more complicated issue.

A while back someone from the Siivagunner team put together a little guide on how to rip Game Music and the tools there are.
https://highquality.rip/ripguide/ (A)
It is horribly outdated and hasn't been updated since 2017, but most of the information there should still ring true given the tools he provides. Typically VGMTrans (A) seems to be the Go-To for game music ripping, but I've only ever used it for ripping Nintendo DS music since it seems to do the best at that.
You can head over to Zophar's Domain to grab yourself the music files of games like .spc's from Super Nintendo to rip from. That place has other cool tools for things like music playback and hacking too, but mainly this is where you would grab a game's system's music files.

If you only want just the vidya music, KHInsider (Video Game Music) has got you covered for pretty much any game from any system (except for any Sonic games because I think they got a DMCA notice from Sega a while back). Fair warning though, I have heard the owner(s) are nonces apparently, dunno what's the story behind that if it's true, but the website still functions fine as it is, and you can get CD releases of a game's soundtrack there if you don't feel like opening up SoulSeek.

 

[Buzz Killington]

Anyone want to see Xkeeper get butthurt over Wikipedia rules from nearly 20 years ago?

For reference, this is what his user page had at the top back in 2006:

There's several screencaps I've got from here, but I'll just cover the important ones here, and spoiler the rest, which are less important.

Seems like Xkeeper had a bone to pick about this fan game I've never fucking heard of called Mario Adventure, and that it was significant enough to keep despite wikipedia not giving a single shit. Here's something he added to his wiki page after one of his articles about it got deleted.

And if you're wondering, yes, he has always been like what you see on discord and bluesky. Just as immature and retarded 20 years ago as he is now, and he clearly never grew up. These are standard vandalism reverts, but he has to add his own little spice to it to show how tough and edgy he is.

And you think I'm making that up to make fun of him, no. I'm only paraphrasing. He says it himself on his 2006 user page.

But maybe it's because he's played too much Phoenix Wright? Again, not bullshit, his words and not mine.

In conclusion, Xkeeper is a fat retard and I would not have sex with him. Sneed. More less relevant 'caps below the spoiler. P.S Xkeeper since I know you read this, good luck wiping all this shit off Wikipedia's archives. You thought "nobody will ever read this" lmao, nice try getting Wikipedia to remove your real name too, but like you said, wiping that shit off you is gonna be harder than that, pal.

Spoiler: More sperging below

There are some edits among these screencaps that are by a few IPs, but I have reason to believe these IPs were Xkeeper, just not signed in. The reason for this is this IP reverted vandalism on Xkeeper's user page, stating it was his. Another also shilled jul (then known as acmlm), a forum software he programmed and advertised on his main page.

First off, after getting butthurt with the admins over pages being deleted, he "retruthed" a page by blanking it and marking it as satire.

When this was reverted, he proceeded to "rm*" (if you don't speak autistic dork, that means wipe) the page.

He also proceeded to add his own opinions on how Wikipedia handled things elsewhere.

He got very opinionated about how Wikipedia picked and chose what to keep on their wiki, and was upset his irrelevant inane bullshit wasn't tolerated there (which, knowing the shit wikipedia writes about, should tell you something)

When he was told off for his vandalism, he proceeded to respond... well, how you'd expect. I won't bother screencapping all the blanking of his user/talk pages (which he had a habit of trying) as well, but one example is included for good measure.

Sounds like he's always had a problem with bots...

 

[The Fatriarchy]

A while back someone from the Siivagunner team put together a little guide on how to rip Game Music and the tools there are.
https://highquality.rip/ripguide/ (A)
It is horribly outdated and hasn't been updated since 2017, but most of the information there should still ring true given the tools he provides. Typically VGMTrans (A) seems to be the Go-To for game music ripping, but I've only ever used it for ripping Nintendo DS music since it seems to do the best at that.
You can head over to Zophar's Domain to grab yourself the music files of games like .spc's from Super Nintendo to rip from. That place has other cool tools for things like music playback and hacking too, but mainly this is where you would grab a game's system's music files.

If you only want just the vidya music, KHInsider (Video Game Music) has got you covered for pretty much any game from any system (except for any Sonic games because I think they got a DMCA notice from Sega a while back). Fair warning though, I have heard the owner(s) are nonces apparently, dunno what's the story behind that if it's true, but the website still functions fine as it is, and you can get CD releases of a game's soundtrack there if you don't feel like opening up SoulSeek.

This isn't so useful for the purposes of finding cut content, I think. Most of these tools only work with known games and known music, and especially music ripped from the games. It all relies on things that are already known, and the farther in the past you go, the more differing formats you end up with. SPC files are an even bigger problem because the only way I've seen them dumped is by starting the ripping process at the beginning of where you hear it in the game, meaning not a single SPC contains an unused song without first finding a way to make it play in the game. It also just plain doesn't work with some games (Super Punch-Out being one), and existing rips in whatever format tend to snip out invalid entries and don't search for hidden ones. Generally, I think it's a bad idea to use tools like this unless they can be modified...

Plus, in the end, the oldest stuff is often all custom music code which would have to be messed with and exploited on a game by game basis. Any fool can access the naturally occurring stuff. It's another thing to get what the game is never programmed to play.