In a modern world where “hacking” is generally redeemed as a bad activity, the retro gaming community has hugely benefited from its positive aspects. Rom hacking, for instance, can breathe new life into an old game by tweaking the characters’ design, editing the levels, changing the color palette, etc… it can also change people’s lives.
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Toby Trujillo, an amateur hacker and modder, hacked the rom for the original Legend of Zelda on the NES by editing some text out and replacing it with a marriage proposal. He fired the game up on his NES and let his girlfriend play it until she stumbled upon the surprise he had intentionally included for her to find. I talked to Toby and he told me that he and his girlfriend first bonded over video games and asking her to marry him in one was just perfect.
While not too technically involved, I found this hack to be pretty neat on a personal level and it sincerely shows that this “nerdy” hobby of ours can bring people together.
Oh and she said yes!
Toby’s original post on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/262095914209624/permalink/604254333327112/
(Please note that this was posted on a closed group so you might want to join in able to view the above content).