Romhack general official copypasta

Welcome to the Hacking General Pastebin!  No links will be posted here, unless it cannot be found at all without special means.  USE GOOGLE FIRST, and if it fails you come to us.  All mentioned hacks within this pastebin are guaranteed to be complete unless otherwise stated, and WIPs (outside of one or two special mentions) are all expected to be completed at some point.

>How to patch a ROM
It's not rocket science.  Most are in IPS format, so things you need for this:
-The Patch
-The ROM it requires (read up, as sometimes they want a specific version)
-A copy of LunarIPS, MultiPatch if you're a macfag.

1. Get LIPS or MP ready to go.
2. Click on it and direct it to the ROM and patch, in the case of LIPS you can even click on the patch itself to make things easier.
3. Play it.  If something screws up consult the hacker's directions.  If you have the correct ROM and all try again.


>Beginning Hacks
Want to play something right away, and it's your first time?  Easily done.

-The 151/251/386/493/649
This term came to being out of a simple hacking process in GBA roms that everyone likes: Make all Pokemon catchable, and make the difficulty a little harder (the best ones being CONTRA HARD if done in a Nuzlocke).  Along with a few other modifications such as starters being altered and giving you the National Dex early in the game if needed.  Examples are:

>RBY
Red Proud Eyes Version
>GSC
Pokemon Crystal Enhanced
>RSE/FRLG
Fire Red Omega
Emerald 386
Sea Green
Scorched Earth
Moemon Forever
Moemon Eternal
Ultra Violet
etc.
>DPPt/HGSS
Platinum Enhanced Edition
SacredGold/StormSilver
Spirit Gold
HardGold
>B/W
BlazeBlack/VoltWhite
PureWhite/PitchBlack
>BW2
BlazeBlack/VoltWhite 2

(Note: if you just want to play the game with no alterations to difficulty but with all Pokemon available with no trading, take a shot at Ultra Violet as that's literally what it does, putting FR and LG together with a few more mons in their places with trade evos put down to leveling.  All Gen 3 mons are in another area away from Kanto for your convince if you wish to just play with what's available in the original.  No version for Emerald exists yet.)


-A little more advanced
These take things a step further.  The actual quality is questionable the further you go, but here are some good ones /vp/ has found.  Not everything will be posted here, but these are great places to start.

>RBY
Brown (Awesome RBY hack with a few GSC Pokemon in, and a completely new region with even some parts inspired by RBY betas.  Don't play this on real hardware and turn off the VRAM in BGB, hacker fucked up the memory a little making the sprites garbage if played that way.)
Team Rocket Edition (RBY hack of you playing as Team Rocket.  It's not as good as others, honestly.)
Cokemon Blue (Hack made out of drug humor)
>GSC
Lost Silver (Obligatory Creepypasta)
Rustic White/Retro Black (A complete demake of B/W on GSC, sprites styled to look like they're in GSC and all.  It's looking really really good, and you'll find updates and work on /vp/ 24/7 in it's own threads or in Skeetendo.)
Prism (Sequel to Brown, WIP and slow as fuck development.)
Skeetendo Inc. Christmas Hack (Not just for the holidays.  Takes place slightly after the GSC hacks in that years' winter.  If you love Ice Types, this hack is for you.)
Touhoumon: Ordinary Version (Some bright bastard had the idea of putting Touhou Puppet Play into GSC.  WIP, but massive work has been made on it so far.)
Dark Energy (WIP, currently being made by the same guy who made Christmas Edition.  Nice and large amount playthrough currently even if it is WIP, it truly provides a more traditional RPG feel and has some really neat ideas going on.  This thing's been worked on for four years with everything made from scratch, and promises at the end of the project more content than the entirety of GSC.)
Crystal World (People have Nuzlocked this for hilarity more than once.  Extremely glitchy and pretty much just says "fuck you" to the player with the cherry on top being incomplete.  Comedy gold with a group.)
Vietnamese Crystal (Really shitty english translation, worth a thousand laughs.  DRUG FIND.)
>RSE/FRLG
Troll Version (/vp/'s actual OC.  Unfortunately it was never finished, but you'll have a riot with Tentaquill anyway.)

Vega (One of the very few fakemon hacks that work.  The designs are good, but it's tough as nails without milk.  If you can't into moonrunes, there's a very partial translation that translates some elements like moves and menus to make it playable at least.)

Touhoumon Emerald 1.812 (Want to go into Touhoumon, the hacks that replace all Pokemon with Touhou?  First play this!  It has far better balance along with far less bullshit compared to most other Touhou hacks, and it even has a fully functional Battle Frontier.  Made to challenge by movesets alone, so bring your brain.  This also means it's worth trying out if you love hacks like Yet Another Fire Red Hack.  The only problem is that you may not like that the plot still talks about Groudon and Kyogre)  Type chart for v1.8 hacks, you WILL need this: http://thpp.supersanctuary.net/wiki/Type_Chart

Touhou Puppet Play Enhanced (The "best translation" of the original 1.8 hack because it's basically a collection of a bunch of people's "additions."  It's honestly pretty bullshitty, but might as well have it if you love things like custom cries and music that is way too loud.  A warning: be prepared for having your ass kicked to the next century at the E4 and after, maybe before that.  Don't play this first.  If you're looking for only a translation without all the shit and just the game, there's a much softer version made by the same guy who made Touhoumon Emerald.)

Touhou Puppet Play Insane (Touhoumon: CONTRA HARD.  This isn't 1.8, so no damage split and no new type system.  Also, it's in Gensyoko which is a definite plus.)

Yet Another Fire Red Hack (This looks like a minor hack but it's everything but, putting some of the best of hacking today where it should be with the Pokemon themselves as the center.  Changes everything except the region itself, and does it right; Damage Split, ONLY 151 Pokemon from all five Gens that are actually put in correctly, a lot of new moves, everything is completely redone to work brilliantly together.  It feels almost like GF remade FRLG just recently and forgot that it's all Kanto Pokemon.  The only two problems with this game are a few complaints about the grinding flow, and there being very little postgame.) Link to YAFRH's latest unaltered patch, because people can't see the source without a Nuzlocke Forums account: http://www.mediafire.com/?zub9mcnyzxu0dcd

Fire Red: Backwards Edition (So you take FireRed, but you move through the region in the reverse direction as the normal game.  A lot more goes to this than it sounds, as a lot more than the region map are flipped "backwards" so to speak.  This has a ton of bugs such as strength being just glitched as all hell and Rock Tomb crashing the game, the hacker apparently completely forgot a trade evolution or two, and the roadblocks are repetitive, but it is a good concept at least once you ignore the shit.  Which for once is enough to ignore.  Oh, and Surf got a nerf.)

Fuligin (First glance and you might be wondering why this hack is in here.  It's a hacker's first time, it seems that they used their bad fanfiction as a plot, etc... but it stands above the rest that you may or may not hate for one reason: it uses mostly FireRed items.  No new Pokemon are in so no chance of horrible Poke sprites, no horrible glaring bugs, there's a plot that actually involves joining Team Rocket as a central thing and makes fun of itself a little, and making it look too much like FR is a plus because it doesn't look like puke like a lot of heavily custom hacks tend to do at some point as an unfortunate side effect.  It's not perfect, but it is enjoyable when you take into account it's the hacker's first.  The level curve is pretty shit at times, though.)

Quartz (first hack for many, this was built to laugh at and maybe even have fun. Babos came from this, and he wants to love you tenderly.)

Snakewood (Haters gonna hate but you'll laugh at this because of it's legitimately funny parts or for other reasons.  Dubbed as the "Birdemic of Romhacks" by an anon, don't go into this serious or you'll come out angry.  Pokemon meets Zombie Apocalypse.  The Hacker started serious, then turned it into parody.  Also, Gainax everywhere.)

Liquid Crystal (Pretty much wants to be the best GSC remake out there.  Actually, we should be calling this an HGSS Demake with a few other ideas: Damage Split, Day/Night, realtime clock into a Fire Red game, random weather, B/W's EXP system, new minigames, and other goodies put in by the hacker... maybe a few too many.  At the time of this post it's still WIP, however it's moved past the main GSC story into the Orange Islands.  Apparently it's to be first in a trilogy that includes a Demake of Platinum.  Good shit here, and another one of the examples of the current best in hacking on GBA.  If you hate self-inserts though, pass this one because the plot got raped by it everywhere.  It's fucking everywhere, and the added story parts have a tendency to go into "3edgy5me fanfiction" territory.)  CURRENTLY ON HAITUS.

CrystalDust (Not like Liquid Crystal which has a ton of new things thrown in, this takes a bit of a more nostalgic turn to Crystal.  Still made very well though with some things done better than Liquid Crystal including actually getting the plot correct, and uses the fact that Emerald is it's base to the fullest.  WIP, at this time of posting the first region is done, Kanto and Sevii Islands are promised.  Known by many to be far superior to LC, but doesn't get the right attention in the process.)

Pokemon Emerald Omega Strike (looks like a 386, and it mostly is, but it adds in some new story elements and only a couple of newer gen evolutions that aren't catchable.  Starters are Machop, Ralts, and a newly pure Dark Seedot.  Only problem is a few sound errors due to A-Map being a faggot during the hacking.)

>DPPt/HGSS
UnovaHGSS (The only one DS hack on this list so far, this hack is going to be a bit more than basic soon: it puts all the Pokemon from B/W into HG/SS, and adds in new story to boot.  It may not seem like much to talk about, but it's the first we've seen to do this yet to make a complete hack.  Still WIP, but a good bit is done.  Soon will be choosing between Gen 2 and 5 starters.)

>BW/2
Nothing to report yet. Be patient!

>Universal Pokemon Game Randomizer
Put here because there's really nowhere else to put it.  This solves all your randomizing questions in one fell swoop: able to randomize any main Pokemon game in current existence with more options, and you can even create the same random game more than once for racelockes and competitions.

-A little outdated
Over the course of time, lesser liked and outdated titles sort of pile up in the Pokemon hack scene more than others due to how tools and knowledge develop.  Some end up considered shit over a couple years because they rather aged badly even for such a short time, but others are still at least decent.

Manly Pink (Took FireRed and made everything Unova Pokemon.  Note that Japanese Names are used because this was very early in Gen V, and it's a little weird looking with the cries unaltered.  Still fun though.  Also you can buy any berries right in the first town.  Put here because it's largely outdated; the lack of damage split really hurts it, and the sprites are awkwardly resized.)

Shiny Gold X (Shiny Gold gets special note as one of the very few hacks that actually made it to a GBA cartridge.  This was the only good one of that group, a pretty well made though never finished GSC remake.  Liquid Crystal and CrystalDust far outclass this one by now unfortunately because they're actually set up to finish the entirety of the game, but X really is still fun and gives a good challenge in the same way that a 386 does to a main game.)

Flora Sky (this one has likers, but honestly it's not the best it can be.  Nonetheless, it's here if you want to play with any Pokemon past Gen 3 in a Gen 3 game.  It's basically a heavily remixed Emerald with somewhat worse maps, a lot more legends, and all Pokemon up to V in it's not one, but two, versions.  If you like one version, the other is the same story and region but completely different pokemon set for absolutely everyone.  For the most part the Pokes are well done, but the lack of damage split or any newer moves really make for a bad experience sometimes and some of the movepools suck due to laziness.  If you want a selection of EVERYTHING, this is the best you're getting now.  Put here because while it is rather well put together outside of what is mentioned, about everything in here is done better in other hacks, namely the newer Pokemon.)

-Flashcarts
Interested in playing on a DS?  DSTWO Supercard right now is the best you can possibly get, especially if you have a DSi or 3DS for the GBA emulator.  If you have an older Lite or Phat, this isn't needed and you will most likely do just fine with a normal R4 or Acekard.  There's too much to be written about each one to fit here, it's best to do your research and figure out which one fills your needs.

GBA is a tough one nowadays, because almost every flashcart isn't being produced anymore.  Especially when taking the DS into account.  EZ Flash IV is the only one still being actively sold in online stores at all, however it's good but not the best because it has no Real Time Clock (RTC) for RSE's events.  This can be patched for anything based on Ruby or Sapphire (FR/LG doesn't have a clock) with an application named GBATA, but Emerald and it's hacks are shit out of luck.  If you have extremely good luck, you can find someone selling an M3 Perfect or something like that on GBAtemp or Ebay.  However they're rare as a shiny so don't count on that.

-Websites

>Looking for hacks to play
If you're looking for hacks to play for the first time, you should definitely go to Nuzlocke Forums.  The "shit ratio" is a lot better, and it's much easier to sift through.  There's even a subforum for complete hacks.

PokeCommunity has a lot more and is the home of many a unique hack, but be warned... it gets the monicker around /vp/ once or twice as "The dA of Pokemon Romhacks" for a reason: there are a ton of hacks that use barely any skill other than the most popular of tools, and they all have a huge fan base for no reason while remaining shit.  I personally find them unfun because the focus is far away from the gameplay and they have rampant bugs, but you may find something that you like if you enjoy such.  The "sideshow showcase" is where the 386 hacks and such are, but they're rarely finished.  In fact, the majority of the hacks on PC are unfinished.

Both mostly have GBA hacks.  If you want to look through a site that's 100% GBC, check out Skeetendo.

>Looking to hack
Sites such as Nuzloke Forums, PokeCommunity, GBAtemp, and Wackahack have a shitload of tutorials/help and they're normally a great place to start for learning about hacking.  First direction in this case is probably PC, as the larger community with many distinguished hackers really helps you out.  Once again, Skeetendo is the first place for GBC stuff.  Keep in mind though: hacking something correctly isn't just banging tools together.

-Hacking tools

>GBC games
Go look up Swampert's tools.  Also, a few GBA tools can be used on GBC all the same.

>Gen 3
PGE, or Pokemon Game Editor is a good starting tool, as it has just about everything you'll need in one place.  You should also look up hackmew's stuff, which also can be used with GBC hacking.

The best damage split patch for the Gen 3 ROMs is found here featuring a whole bunch of fixes, and DS game enhancements like sandstorm boost.  Note that you need to edit it yourself:
http://s7.zetaboards.com/Nuzlocke_Forum/topic/8679031/1/

>Gens IV-V
A lot of buzz is going on about Spiky's DS Map Editor.  This is a pretty big step in the DS gens' hacking.  There are also editors out there for more of the game components, but not all.  Keep an eye out in places like PokeCommunity's toolbox, more and more tools are being developed.  Which also means more DS hacks will be hopefully incoming.

HxD is a hex editor, and one is infinitely useful in any hack work.  Eventually you're going to need to learn about hex, so pick one up.