Skins, Smurfs and Skyrim A brief history of PC modding. From simple sliders and skins to full on, triple A like expansions, modifications have become the creative bridge thats combined developers and fans into one talent infused organism. Through a set of dedicated amateur programmers and designers, a game can live on when its creators move on to pastures new, or be reborn in a wildly different tangent. DeyKq/526x297-eRZ.jpg' alt='Gta V Full Pc Game Crack Registration Code' title='Gta V Full Pc Game Crack Registration Code' />Mods arent just playthings for closed communities, either. Some of the biggest games of the last decade or two have risen from such tweaked and remapped creations, including the glitchy brutality of Day. Z and the no scoping theatrics of Counter Strike. Today, mods have become the lifeblood of creative gamers who want to do more than just play a passive role. Theyve even inspired their very own subcultures, too even today, machinima and demoscene where users take game assets and use them to create short films have made helped some of the biggest games escape their original confines and reach new audiences. Minicom 3. The story starts, like most things connected to the genesis of gaming, in the 1. G51W3LpCSck/UlbNZyGKIuI/AAAAAAAAAaI/k5Yjvyo0_VE/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/gta-4-full-indir.jpg' alt='Gta V Full Pc Game Crack Registration Code' title='Gta V Full Pc Game Crack Registration Code' />TheINQUIRER publishes daily news, reviews on the latest gadgets and devices, and INQdepth articles for tech buffs and hobbyists. The Sims 3 Seasons is the eighth expansion pack for The Sims 3. It was released for Mac OS X and PC on November 13, 2012 in North America and November 16 in. Bored hackers who arent getting paid tend to get restless. And so, on Sunday, the cyber thieves behind the recent HBO breach leaked several unreleased episodes of. Some studios have even started monetizing user generated content which has thrown up its own controversies into the mix. But how did it all start, and how did the humble mod get to where it is now Smurf tastic. The story starts, like most things connected to the genesis of gaming, in the 1. More specifically, it started with The Smurfs. No, seriously, the proper beginning of the PC modding community really found its origins with a bunch of miniature blue characters with white hats and a penchant for mushroom based accommodation. Modding or cracking as it was originally called, referring to the idea of cracking open a games source code had slowly started appearing as early as the 6. Hardcore programmers, or crackers, were splitting open titles on the Apple II and Commodore 6. However, like most subcultures in their infancy, cracking was an ultra niche endeavour that was hardly going to bother the mainstream. Come the arrival of the 8. Muse Software developed Castle Wolfenstein had become a videogame hit, thanks in no small part to its WW2 setting, stealth mechanics and unique ranking system an element that was well ahead of its time in 1. Silas Warner one of the first people to be hired by the Baltimore based studio, building sprites of Nazis was just the beginning. Warner had already turned his hand to modding the lesser known Commodore 6. O14rEG5JI/UnKGOgVoqvI/AAAAAAAAABQ/0YZ4Fw-MSuc/w1200-h630-p-nu/1_GTA_IV_4_gtaiv_gta4_grand_theft_auto_cover_full__pc_by_SieL.jpg' alt='Gta V Full Pc Game Crack Registration Code' title='Gta V Full Pc Game Crack Registration Code' />Dino Eggs, by adding Smurfs, but now he wanted a bigger challenge. His experience developing Castle Wolfenstein a game that eventually inspired id Softwares Wolfenstein 3. D over a decade later gave him all the convincing he needed to start modding a much bigger scale. So out went the Nazis, and in came The Smurfs and his very own gun toting hero, Smurfbutcher Bob. Castle Wolfenstein was a terribly fun and addicting game but something was missing, comments Warner on the official, if slightly outdated, Castle Smurfenstein webpage. Nazis just didnt seem that threatening to a suburban high school kid in the early 8. Smurfs. That was the real threat now. Mu Technologies Mu Voice Vst Rtas V1 1 1. According to the veteran game developer, the conversion itself was actually pretty straightforward. To complete the entire mod, Warner used a paint program, a sector editor and The Voice a bespoke audio suite used by Muse Software to alter the babbling German voices of the Nazis. It also didnt take that long to complete the whole project, with Warner managing to Smurf ify the whole game in the summer of 1. Nazis just didnt seem that threatening to a suburban high school kid in the early 8. Smurfs. That was the real threat now. Silas WarnerSo we changed the game, adds Warner. The Nazi guards became Smurfs, the mostly unintelligible German voices became mostly unintelligible Smurf voices. We created a new title screen, new ending screen, new opening narration, and an opening theme, and changed the setting from Germany to Canada. Im still not too sure why we had this Canadian fixation, but then growing up near Detroit does expose one to a fair degree of Canadian culture. Castle Smurfenstein proved modding was a completely possible with the right skills and b had the potential to gain lots of traction with other gamers if it had the right kind of pop culture resonance. Okay, The Smurfs arent exactly going to start any viral revivals anytime soon, but back then, having a recognisable brand attached to an already popular videogame was a potent combo. As the decade trundled on mods started to pop up more and more, with crackers adding in updated or completely overhauled intros complete with new text, fresh animations and original music as the new calling card of a rapidly growing subculture. These intros eventually involved into another sub culture a sub sub culture, if youre keeping track known as demoscene, where creators modified existing game assets to create everything from new demos to short film esque presentations. Mount Doom. Cracking would also lead to some of the earliest examples of copy infringement and videogame piracy, with publishers and developers not taking too kindly to members of the public taking their assets, rebranding them and selling them on. Mods of Pac Man and Space Invaders two of the first proper gaming icons were pretty common in the right circles, and even eventually led to the rise in cracked consoles being able to play illegal copies of games in the 1. So the 1. 98. 0s proved to be the decade where modding really started to grow, but it would take a videogame megahit in the 9. Released in December 1. Doom became a landmark for the industry. Fast, brutal and dripping with gore splattered cyberdemons, the corridor shooter courted controversy in the mainstream media for its adult content and, naturally, proved you didnt need moustachioed plumbers or speedy blue mammals to succeed. It had blood, and lots of it. With Doom proving so popular, developer id Software realised modders and crackers were also taking a shine to its original source code just as they had with their previous shooter, Wolfenstein 3. D. With so many other studios not taking too kindly to having their intellectual properties being remade among amateur programmers, id founders Tom Hall and John Carmack decided to embrace the community of modders that passionately loved their games and released a WAD file later known as a software development kit that contained all the textures, sprites and map designs for Doom. The Doom WAD file changed modding forever. Rather than having to crack a game open to find all the juicy coded bits in the middle, modders were given everything they could possibly need to slightly adjust or completely overhaul their new favorite shooter. There was, however, some people at id Software who werent too happy that its founders were effectively giving the secrets of their game away for free.