july

leak to the past

justin scawful • 28 july 2020

for as long as these last few months have seemed i'm very surprised actually that it's already almost august. although seeing as we aren't really out of the woods yet on coronavirus it's not really much to celebrate. it's honestly amazing to me how poorly we've done. it goes to show how uniquely bad modern american society is and how ilequipped we are to deal with crises. not enough from a resources perspective but just the ideological rot that permeates so much of our culture. individualism and warped ideas about liberty have people defying common sense guidelines like reduced gatherings and universal masks. it's quite depressing actually seeing so many people scoff at the notion of these things being for the greater good or necessary. like i see people coming into my job that get offended if you just ask them to wear the mask properly over their nose. they really only wear it because it's a requirement and not to prevent the spread of a deadly infectious disease. it's all a game to so many americans.

in lighter news though, some big developments in the link to the past hacking scene. the source code of the game as well as development files leaked and it's unvealed an insane amount of unseen content. lost graphics and old maps are the most substantial thing seen so far. the source code itself while useful isn't nearly as well commented as the disassembly made by mathonnapkins so for most purposes it wont help anyone with their hacks and really takes a long time to interpret and read but going through the graphics and map files has shown that there was basically an entirely different link to the past that was scrapped and overhauled at some point in development. there's still some debate about whether or not these lost graphics should be used in a hack or not seeing as the leak is very much stolen intellectual property but personally i find it very unlikely nintendo will be coming after people for using some pixels in a rom hack. it's certainly possible but the entire basis of creating a rom hack in of itself is also teetering that line of appropriated the ip so personally i don't see the issue in reusing assets that never saw the light of day to add a unique feeling to rom hacks. there's already so many graphics passed around in the link to the past hacking community that it feels only right to include these in the community resources.

some of these lost maps are proving to be a little unflattering however it's understandable as these are probably from very early in development and the final product did end up being so good. some lost graphics are interesting because there's obviously sketching and progression of the art that can be observed as well as plenty of smiley face placeholder tiles that give it a very organic feeling that you don't get from looking around the decompressed graphics of the released game.

societal overload

justin scawful • 19 july 2020

here to write a blog post for the sake of mentally diffusing, so there probably won't be much of a discernible structure but i'm just hashing out my state of discomfort in real time. i'm overall happy right now because i just spent a week in new jersey with my girlfriend but after work today i came home feeling pretty drained and then started having some anxiety induced sensory overload which was tough to deal with. the humidity doesnt help much. i've got to clean up my room since i left it messy before i left for my trip. when my space is messy my thoughts tend to be messy as well. it's hard to find an optimal temperature of comfort as well. sometimes i have a desire to just shed my physical form and drift as an entity of thought across a vast empty void. the closest i can get to that experience is meditation.

i've been struggling to meditate consistently this summer. i started a year ago and right after a really good streak of daily meditation from then until april i began to slip a bit. i still managed 3-4 times a week in may but then june was abysmal and july it has literally only been twice. i'm going to make a concerted effort to jump back on the wagon since i've got school starting in a month or so and that will bring with it a new range of difficulties to overcome with the whole semester being online. i registered for a class so far but still have to get my biology ii and a physics class to satisfy the science requirements for my associates degree. if only i had predicted this pandemic and taken chemistry instead of biology. all classes are online but the ones that require lab credits will have you come into the classroom specifically for those labs. not that it's a huge issue since i have been working part time throughout the pandemic but it still would be nice to avoid interactions entirely, especially when it's understood now that much of the spread is coming from young college aged adults in this spike of cases we're seeing. illinois numbers are low right now but the surrounding states and their infection rates are closing in on us.

i finally posted a youtube video yesterday which was an update on the oracle of secrets rom hack you can find here. i talked about what has kept me busy from working on the hack as well as detailed what i'm working on and fishing for some feedback about how to release the hack. hoping for some engagement with the video and to continue doing more zelda hacking related content. i want to start streaming again soon too, since i'll be home so much with online school i think it would be fun. operation smithee and i have put the information overlordz podcast on hiatus for the time being as politics is just giving us both too much whiplash to make content about it in a semi-serious manner so i'll have more time to focus on my own channel while still working on some of the other projects him and i are developing.