Background

My journey into software engineering began in 2005-2006 when I started teaching myself C/C++ language. Frustrated that there were no proper PSF rips for my favorite video game series, Resident Evil, I decided to create what later became known as the Generic Sequence Driver in C language for original Sony PlayStation hardware. It took many long, strenuous and sleepless nights of studying the C/C++ languages and PSYQ SDK to finally achieve my goal, but I finally had proper PSF rips for my favorite games to share with the world -- and an easier solution to rip game music to the PSF format. Eventually, this driver was built into the Generic PSF Utility and VGMToolbox which allows users to easily create PSF rips of their favorite games without the need of advanced knowledge of reverse-engineering, and is still widely used to this day.

With my newfound passion for software development, I began to focus my attention on reverse-engineering classic Resident Evil video games. With a basic hex editor and too much free time on my hands, I went hard at work on many apps such as BioFAT and BioClone in order to facilitate Resident Evil modification. One of my biggest discoveries during this time was Trevor's Notes; unaccessible, unused and previously unknown files that were written by the Spencer Mansion architect, George Trevor, that never made it into the retail PS1 version of Resident Evil.

I eventually learned how to read/write MIPS R3000A assembly language and found a new interest in locating hidden/unused stuff tucked away in PS1 games, such as a hidden level editor in RockMan 8 protos, a fully functional debug menu in the retail build of Mega Man 8 (PR), and a fully functional debug menu in the retail build of Overblood. Although not widely used and just for fun, I also wrote a 6502 Disassembler, reverse-engineered savegame formats for classic Metroid games, CRC checksum algorithms for Resident Evil 4, an ISO Builder for Sony PS1 Resident Evil games, an unreleased but fully functional Nintendo GCM Browser/Creator, and so many countless apps to help others. Along the way, I even managed to add support for Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2) and Resident Evil: Dead Aim support (and possibly others) to a much earlier version of vgmstream (when it was still just a Winamp plugin, in_cube).

With major help from one of my greatest teachers, Gemini, I reverse-engineered the Sony PlayStation version of Resident Evil 2 and began bending the game to my will through MIPS R3000A assembly: I completely altered the entire disk structure, allowing for both Leon and Claire's scenario plus RE1, 1.5 and 3 to play from a single ISO, and added Quick-turn. As I learned Ghidra, many of these features would later make their way into RE2-MOD-SDK-EXT, a vast expansion of Gemini's Classic Rebirth patch for PC versions of Resident Evil 2.

I stumbled harshly along the way but I had a lot of help from PmData, Gemini, Mortician and so many talented others, in addition to those who pushed me to be the very best that I can be, such as Joel Welsh, Aydan Watkins, 3lric, Cory Brown and many, many others who saw something in me that I failed to recognize in myself. Their teachings, kind words of encouragement, criticism and general support through the years helped me to believe in myself and did wonders for my self-esteem.