Matthew Visyak's Domain

Reverse Engineered Video Games

Please feel free to download any of the hacked game titles.

You will notice that the spaces in the file names are replaced by underscores. This is because my front end, which was used in my senior comp to house the games and emulators, did not like spaces in titles. I have chosen to keep those files named as such just for convenience, you can rename them anything you wish as long as you retain the proper extension.

These games can be played on any emulator which supports the .nes file extension. The emulator of personal choice has been the fceu.exe emulator from www.emulator-zone.com. This emulator is really easy to use, easy to configure, and is free.

I have altered the games in accordance with fair and free use rights as an artist. I have openly distributed copies of my own work for others to enjoy and alter as they see fit for the sake of creativity. However, any duplication or alteration for the sole purpose of selling the game for a profit is still very illegal. I ask that you respect the copyright rules that come with the games and not alter them for a capitalist venture. By downloading the games you have agreed to the contract set forth by the artist (me) and the original creators of the game. Other than that I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

For futher information, please feel free to browse my written senior comp or view the visual documentation.

Terror Alley

MAME instruction manuel card for the terror alley game.

Synopsis:

Shoot only the terrorists. This is actually harder than it sounds. The terrorists will be the characters with a weapon. Don't shoot the other neutral characters.

About Game:

Hogan's Alley (Game A) -
"Original Version"

Terror Alley (Game A) -
"Hacked Version"

Hogan's Alley was the first reverse engineered game. This game was a light zapper gun game for the old Nintendo Entertainment System. It had a simple plot where you had to shoot only the gang members in the game while avoiding the innocents. The game had a screen in the beginning of the game that would appear if the game was left idle long enough. This screen showed you what were the gang members and what were the innocents.

I changed this game into a hack called Terror Alley. I changed the sprites to represent Caucasian Americans and Middle Eastern people. I changed the game to have the White people as the terrorists instead of the Middle Eastern People. This was identified by the presence of a Caucasian holding some form of weapon and the Islamic people holding non threatening objects.

This game was initially a cognitive exercise where the player had to ascertain if the target had a weapon or not and then decide to shoot, so I retained this quality in the hacked version of the game. I had fun watching people struggle with this new level of stereotyping where they tended to shoot the Middle Eastern targets, succumbing to the media propagated image of a terrorist, rather than looking at the item they were holding.

More Screenshots:

This is the introduction screen of the hacked game Terror Alley. You will notice the differences from the original Hogan's Alley ROM.

This is the in game instructyion screen. The whole idea was to reverse the 9-11 stereotype and to shoot the armed people. This was difficult for people to separate themselves from the conditioning that middle eatsern people are the terrorists.

This is an in game scene from Game A where you must make a split second decision on who to shoot. As you can see it is hard to see who has a weapon at a glance.

This is Game B where the targets move in and out from behind buildings and fences. My favorite is Vallery with the sawed off.

 

George W's Crazy Crusade

Synopsis:

Move Bush from stage to stage by collecting all the oil. Avoid the middle eastern people or bribe them with the objects found in each stage. Each time you are caught you must use up a lie. Empower Bush with booze to breeze by obsticles.

About Game:

Bug's Bunny's Crazy Castle
(Level 1) - "Original Version"

G W's Crazy Crusade
(Sand Level 1) - "Hacked Version"

The second game in the trinity was a 2D side-scroller called Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle. This appealed to the Bugs Bunny crowd where the goal was to guide the character through a series of castle levels. The main idea was to collect all the carrots to complete the board and avoid the other loony tune characters.

I changed this game to G W's Crazy Crusade where I gave an alternative reason for the war in Iraq. This game was the first political stance that I took with an art piece. The game character now becomes George W. Bush and he has to collect all the oil in the stage to advance to the next level. This consumption and collection goal paralleled the original game but now the main character had to avoid the other Middle Eastern people.

In the original version Bugs Bunny could kill targets by dropping items on them such as 10-ton weights. I though death would add a meaning to the game that would complicate the underlying meaning that I wanted to convey. I changed the theme of killing into bribery. The main character would bride the Middle Eastern people with items of wealth while plundering their resources. The levels were remodeled from a medieval castle to a sandy desert littered with factories. Audience members thought this game was whimsically and fun but gave them the underlying message in a subtile way.

More Screenshots:

The title screen of the Crazy Crusade Game. This is the most light-hearted and funny game of the Terrorism/Capitalism trinity. G W is really pointing but it looks like he is throwing the finger so I decided to leave it.

A screenshot of level 1. Bugs Bunny has been transformed into bush who must evade the other enemys, tranformed to middle eastern people, and collect all the oil to complete the stage. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

This is the third level. You can see how the castle setting has been hacked to a underground desert palace. Here the main character has just bribed an enemy to get past her.

Level five is modeled after an oil refinery. This game displays an opinion of the meanless war and suggests reasons behind it origin, but does it in a humorous way.

 

The Legend of the Mujahidden

Synposis:

Elude the clutches of enemy troops as you and your friends flee to freedom. Solve puzzles of underground labyrinths to advance toward your goal.

About Game:

The Legend of the Ghost Lion (Beginning Story Screen) -
"Original Version"

Legend of the Mujahiddin (Beginning story screen) -
"Hacked Version"

The final game I chose for my comp was Legend of the Ghost Lion. This game was a role playing game and this genre has the potential for a lot of text. Role playing games generally take a long time to get the plot and characters established but this game breaks the rule. The main plot and characters for the game are laid out within the first five minutes of game play.

The Legend of the ghost lion's plot had the player immerse themselves in the role of a little girl who goes to some foreign land. My guess is that her parents are explorers. Her parents never return from an expedition and you must go rescue them and solve the mystery of the legend of the white lion, a beast which attacked the village ages ago.

My version of this game was called Legend of the Mujahiddin, where I told the story of a Middle Eastern boy who has the potential and circumstances to become a terrorist. The game starts with the boy questioning his parents about a war with America and is confused why they need to be there because they captured their ruler and didn't find any weapons of mass destruction.The parents try to explain that America is trying to help but are blown away by a stray bomb blast. The boy is dragged underground by his friends who are trying to escape the troops, convinced they will be killed too. The boy then has to make his way to freedom and struggle to uncover the answers he seeks.

I reverse engineered the graphics of the game transforming the lush vegetation and ocean landscape into the geography of modern day Jordan, a desert town. I also focused on the text more in this game than the others. This game had encrypted and compressed text that I had to tackle too.

More Screenshots:

The title screen of the Legend of the Mujahiddin game. This game was the most challenging hack because of the encrypted and compressed text.

This is one of the opening cinema scenes. These graphics were almost completely changed. The boy on the porch was a girl and the arabic parents in the foreground were originally explorers wearing western clothing.

Another scene from the opening story. The smoke and explosions in the background were originally trees.

This is the overworld. This was orinally a grass plateau and was changed to a desert by swapping out various textures.

This is an oasis that was originally programmed to be a secluded lake. The warriors in shrouds with AK-47s were transformed from fluttering faries.

Typical in game battle sequence featuring Uzair who is one of the main character's allies. Uzair replaced the wizard character from the ghost lion game.

A battle scene showing an enemy attacking the main character. I completely revamped the character maps from mythical beasts to invading military troops.