Saki's Romhacking Shenanigans Mk.II

Links

The Homies

Campanella999	Clair's Website :D (Check it out if you like YU-NO, Taito, or the Skies)
the KAISERNET	chaoskaiser72's Website (if you like ONscripter you will be pleased)
VGM Quiz	For all the OST and typing fans out there, I still log in from time to time.
Rapa	Very nice guy with plenty of soundtracks !
Sytarie	Intriguing girl, attempting to describe her beyond that would be impossible...
Sonico	If you love peak, moeshit, and peak moeshit, this is the guy you've gotta follow
Pixel	All the Yaku Yuujou Dangi trivia you need, with a flavor of yuri here and there.
Dimcas	One of the biggest lurkers I know, and one of my closest friends. May your name be known someday Dimkiki...
Koral	Someday he'll be the top ranker of a Pump It Up tournament, watch the legend's uprise.
Pearl	Another Pump It Up master, also addicted to PSO and League
MohaHtn	Please email me or something if you catch this guy doing anything else than fixing cabs and rocking it on some rhythm game
Nono	If you like gay-ass drawings of gay-ass characters (vocaloid, pokémon), you might like this one

General Use & Miscellaneous Tools

7-Zip	Why even bother with WinRAR when this is a thing ?
WinMerge	A tool that allows you to compare two files byte by byte, or whole folders file by file.
Daemon Tools	An ISO mounting software, the most reliable you can find out there imo.
WinCdEmu	When you really can't stand Daemon Tools.
CDMage	An old and somewhat reliable ISO extractor/editor. Can't insert files bigger than the original.
Ultra ISO	A good ISO inspection/extraction/creation tool. The Premium version is quite useful.
ISO Buster	If nothing can extract files out of your ISO/BIN, this program might be able to.
FileZilla	An FTP Suite.
WinSCP	Another FTP Suite that was made with SCP in mind.
Audacity	An audio recording and editing tool. Can be of use to reverse an audio format by importing a "RAW" audio file.
ffmpeg	You're going to need this if you're struggling with some video codec/format.
GrepWin	You don't have to be a Linuxfag to enjoy grep's quirks anymore. Useful to search for text (or byte) patterns in a folder.
Virtualbox	When you want to run something under a sandbox, or to enjoy some authentic Windows XP (and below) gaming without trouble.

General Programming Tools

Notepad++	The best free text editor you can find.
Visual Studio Code	If you're working with Python, or any other language, this will ease your work. Fuck Copilot.
Code::Blocks	If you hate Microsoft or modern apps that drain your RAM, this is your tool. Mostly for C and C++, comes with GCC, has debugging features.
WSL	If you're on Windows 10+, do yourself a favor and enable this Linux subsystem. Networking features likely still buggy, but X11 apps work now.
Docker	If neither VMs nor WSL are your thing, or if you want to run people's premade environments for an app/server/SDK, this is for you.
XAMPP	Run a PHP/mySQL server in no time with this wonderful Apache distribution.

General Romhacking/Reverse Engineering Tools

RHDN	A romhacker's go-to website for any existing tools and patches.
Cheat Engine	City girls use debuggers, country girls make do
x96dbg	The most famous x32/x64 debugger out there, save for GDB.
Resource Hacker	If you want to edit a Windows Application's resources, this is for you.
Ghidra	Very useful tool for disassembly, debugging, and reverse engineering. Trial and error is the key. It's important to keep both the program and its' extensions updated.
Wireshark	You're going to need this if you want to revive an online game or reverse a networking protocol. What's tcpdump ?
HxD Hex Editor	The most famous Hex Editor on Windows. Very lightweight, supports up to Win95. Only supports ASCII.
ImHex	The richest Hex Editor you can find for free. Multi-Platform, allows complex pattern analysis. Supports many encodings through community scripts.
wxMEdit	Yet another Hex Editor, a compromise between the ones mentioned above. Lightweight and cross-platform. Natively supports Shift-JIS and some other encodings.
Crystal Tile 2	Technically another Hex Editor, the Tile Viewer is its' most interesting feature for reversing and editing game graphics.
vgmstream	Allows the playback and conversion of many audio formats related to video games. Also exists as a foobar2000 plugin.
QuickBMS (and Zenhax)	Essential tool for file format decryption. The forum is where most scripts come from.
Noesis	A general purpose model previewer. Supports many formats, old and new.
Kuriimu2	A fan translation toolkit. Might be useful for some formats.
Total Commander	Supports many exotic file formats, especially when you look for community-made plugins.

PS1-Specific Tools

ghidra_psx_loader	Ghidra plugin for the PS1. Supports overlays.
Tim2View	Can detect (unencrypted) TIM patterns inside of any file and preview/extract the graphics.
img2tim	Converts any image given as argument to .TIM.
jpsxdec	Extracts (sequenced) audio and video files from any PS1 iso.
PSY-Q SDK	Sony will sue. Comes with the original documentations and executables.
MIPS Toolchain	Installs what you need to compile C code into MIPS Assembly.
PSX Modding Toolchain	A toolchain which, when properly setup, automates the process of compiling custom C code and injecting it into a game. Useful for testing romhacks.
xa-interleaver	When you want to interleave multiple .XA files into a single one, this could be an option.
psx_wav_interleaver	Same thing but I wrote the program. Also converts WAV files to .XA before interleaving.
PCSX-Redux	The most complete program in terms of debugging features. Can run a server any instance of GDB (and even Ghidra) can connect to.
no$psx	Still the go-to emulator when it comes to graphics debugging.
Duckstation	Lackluster for debugging, perfect for retail usage, this is the emulator you want to test your romhack's final version on.
FreePSXBoot	Because nothing is better than the OG hardware to test a game. Memory Card-based softmod.

Xbox 360-Specific Tools

XEXLoaderWV	Ghidra plugin for the Xbox 360. Supports encrypted files.
xextool	Use this to encrypt/decrypt and compress/uncompress a .XEX executable. Can also apply a .xexp patch to the original executable.
wxPirs	When you need to extract compressed games or title updates.
BadStick	Run the BadUpdate exploit off a USB key in no time.
Xenia (Netplay Canary)	If you don't have a real console, this will be your sandbox.

Unity-Related Tools

AssetStudio	Extracts assets from most Unity versions. Inactive since 2023.
UnityEX	Russian tool which allows bulk extraction and reimporting of files. Actively maintained, has paid tiers.
UnityAssetsBundleExtractor	The "Mod Maker" feature allows you to distribute .exe installers for users to patch their games with. Inactive since 2022.
UABE Avalonia	A rewrite of the aforementioned tool to support the latest Unity versions.

Adobe Flash & Macromedia Director-Related Tools

JPEXS	Flash and ActionScript decompiler with easy to use editing features.
ProjectorRays Shockwave Decompiler	Disassembles write-protected Director projects into editable ones.
Flashpoint Archive	Gigantic database of Flash/Shockwave software. Includes usable copies of Adoble Flash/Shockwave.