Best of 2024

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2024. 199 posts.

Games & Graphics
107

Reversing Choplifter

The Apple II line of computers had an amazing run, from 1977 to 1993. In that time, hundreds of thousands of pieces of software were written for it, including many tens of thousands of games. Like any platform, however, the number of truly great games within that range is much smaller. If you ask any former (or…

116

Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

When I announced my Black Ops 3 integrity bypass, someone commented that my research was not impressive and I should try analyzing Denuvo instead. That kinda stuck with me, so I did what everyone would do and spent the last 5 months of my free time reverse engineering and bypassing the Denuvo DRM in Hogwarts Legacy. I…

117

Generating the Alphabet

My current generative artwork-in-progress includes text, but I don’t want to use a font. In browser based art work, using a “web safe” font could produce inconsistent results, while including a font file would mean a large file size. Additionally, I don’t want a visual element of the project to be s

118

Ultima (2012)

When we left Richard Garriott, California Pacific had just released his first game, Akalabeth , a substantial windfall for the 19-year-old university student. In between classes and SCA events, he spent his sophomore year at the University of Texas writing a new, much more ambitious game, which CP published just as…