mbl

The method would still be about the same, the only thing that might become outdated would be if a more efficient debugging tool becomes available. I haven't heard anything about IDA Pro or OllyDbg being replaced.

You don't need to take a course to learn how to hack, you just need to have developed a proper CS mindset. Proper hacking requires programming and assembly code reading, but beyond that, unless you are hacking a novel using a common engine (Which would likely have an extraction tool available anyways), each process you are trying to hack is it's own puzzle which you won't have a guide for solving. As I said before, I believe learning VN hacking is for people who have a well defined interest in CS; if you properly program in your spare time or are in middle of getting a CS degree, then reverse engineering might be a helpful thing to practice alongside programming. This is the only real VN specific tutorial I found for the reverse engineering side of hacking. It goes over the basics of reverse engineering VNs, but it is a real pain to read and contrary to what the writer claims assumes a lot of prior knowledge. I would suggest taking it slow and trying googling anything he references that leaves you confused (especially reading ASM code, as his intro will leave someone with no prior ASM knowledge lost). http://proger.i-forge.net/Stage_Once_-_a_Visual_Novel_hacking_tutorial/IPD

Step 1 would be to find out if the VN you want to hack is using one of the major engines. If so there might be tools available for you to extract the assets without actually having to do the legwork of hacking. Flat out VN hacking is not a simple task and there aren't a lot of learning sources available, I'd mainly suggest doing it if you already have a well defined interest in computer science and would think of reverse engineering as good practice (Which is how I am approaching it, and I am just starting out). If you are just wanting to get involved in a VN project and think hacking is the best way to do it... it might not be.

Well there is loads if different reasons you could come up with for considering any VN unique, you could go by story, gameplay, art, ect.. Along with that generally as long as you avoid the standard "X guy is going to high school with a harem of girls" or "X princess/valkyrie/space pirate has been captured by a totally evil demon prince guy who is going to rape her with orks and tentacles!" then chances are you're going to get an original story. I'll list a few standouts: Song of Saya, MGQ series, Katawa Shoujo, Kana Little Sister, Narcissu, and Ever 17.

Depending on how new to animu you expect the people reading this to be, you might also want to warn people about porn if you are going to suggest adult titles. I'd agree with what other people are saying that KS isn't a great choice for first VN; along with what has already been said, romancing disabled women is liable to scare off the less open-minded newbies. Narcissu is the staple choice for first VN, but a general list would be better than a couple of suggestions.

Pretty much done with Littlewitch Romanesque. As far as Sisters: Last Days of Summer goes, I'm not really bothering with it anymore but keeping it on hand. My attentions are split right now between Baldr Sky Dive1 and BunnyBlack 1 (Both untranslated). I've played Baldr Sky before, and it is basically how I remember it. BunnyBlack is interesting, gameplay is fun enough but going to have to see how the story goes...

Sakura Spirit got a good amount of notoriety in the mainstream gaming community as a novelty game, which would be why it outsold everything last year. With it, NEKOPARA, and Huniepop, I think it is just more likely for novelty games to sell right now, especially with a VN presence on steam. That is still a step in the right direction over VN's being unknown outside of otaku communities. It may not happen overnight, they may be seen a weird joke for a while, but eventually VNs will have to get the place they deserve on the commercial market. Also will take some changing within the VN scene as well, as the vast majority of eroge players are pirates who will respond with things like "Fuck off MG devs" when asked to support.

I used a guide. Daibanchou is certainly unclear and unforgiving at times as far as character clears goes. Managing your time to get as many CCs as possible with the guide is a good portion of the fun IMO; I prefer that style to Kamidori's system based on character level, could made a game with so much NG+ content a bit more interesting by not making it so easy to clear the optional characters.

That's epic. Been way to long since I last read Narcissu.

Forest's OST was by far the highlight of the VN. I just grabbed the full version of the OP song and two random BGMs, but the entire soundtrack is amazing.

School Days comes to mind. There's loads of different ways for things to go down, but know that most of them end badly. Otherwise I can't think of many translated VNs where most choices have an immediate impact on the story.

JAST certainly won't like it if you release it in any case. Whether it is unethical or will really hurt an official release from JAST is up for debate. I'd say people who won't support an official release just because there's a better unofficial release that they could pirate are the types who would have just waited for a crack of the official release anyways.

I'd say you're unlikely to find a lot games that are flat out comedy. As you see by the mix of suggestions here, there are games within each genre that are just funny in general, and how funny they are will depend on the reader. I personally enjoy the comedy of Alicesoft games. I also think 'Wanko to Kurasou' is comedy gold, if you're looking for ridiculous situations over flat out gags... Though it does kinda devolve into an endless stream of porn near the end.

Late You asked for a comparison between two gameplay-heavy games that have completely different gameplay styles. Don't take what people have said here as a sign that one is any better than the other. I'd say Daibanchou takes much more work to clear the important stuff, as each character is almost a puzzle to figure out how to clear them. It takes so long to 100% Kamidori because of the post game content set up for you to have to farm throughout multiple playthroughs to clear.

Don't remember how I found it, just remember randomly finding the mangagamer site back when it just had 5-6 games on it, having no idea what VNs were. Story ideas and nude animu girls caught my interest. I played through all that were there, and they left enough of an impression on me to dive into the unofficial translation scene.

New game + with slight additions to the game content

It is kind of hard to have a preference when you're just reading for the porn, it's more a matter of what fetish/genre you're feeling into at the time IMO.

It's just a silly tag. Period really isn't tragic or anything.

It's gameplay heavy mecha-fighter with a good amount of VN story

Funny enough I was just thinking about working on translating Dive 1 a couple of days ago. Not sure how I would do in a group project however, as I haven't l worked on translating a game before and don't have that great of an understanding of Japanese or the hacking process. It was more my intention to slowly work on it solo when I felt like it.

There are VNs with a lot stranger styles than those. When you read a lot of manga/eroges it becomes a lot harder to get caught up on bad art, and just a matter or recognizing good art. Beside you won't be playing most VNs for the art.

They made a 2 episode animation as well back in the 90s, it was pretty funny. Not sure how great this new one will be if they follow too closely to rance 1's story, but I love the art style enough to be excited about it.

Probably be finishing up Little Witch Romanesque soon. A lot of it is pretty cliche, but some of the apprentices' adventures are interesting. As far as the gameplay goes, I took to hacking the game stats after my first playthrough to not have to deal with the dice nonsense constantly. Also playing Sisters: Last Day of Summer Ultra Edition(Untranslated) on the side. The characters being semi-animated (Blinking, shifting slightly when idle, voice moving when they talk, anime-quality H scenes) is freaking awesome, but the long, constantly repeating shots of the house and furniture pointlessly slow things down to the point of it being a pain to play.