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Rings of Saturn
Personal blog · 32bits.substack.com · on HN as bbaylesgamesprogramming
Rings of Saturn is a personal blog at 32bits.substack.com about games and programming. Since 2023, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 26 times, most often “What you can't say in a Saturn game”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
In-depth writeups of my explorations in retro game reverse engineering, with a focus on games from the 32-bit era.
Most-linked posts?
- What you can't say in a Saturn game2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-03-23
What Hacker News says?
Agree on video games! I recently found a "developer photo insert" Easter egg in an old 3DO game: https://32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-microscope-total-ecl...
Comment linking /p/under-the-microscope-total-eclipse?back=%2Fpublish%2Fposts%2Fdrafts
on “Finding a 27-year-old easter egg in the Power Mac G3 ROM”Submitted Using Ghidra and Python to reverse engineer Ecco the Dolphin as a story · 458 points
HN discussionFantastic game! The same development studio, Sega AM2, recently had a developer reveal that he had put an Easter egg into Fighters Megamix for Saturn. However, he mistakenly introduced a crash bug in it. This set me off looking for the Easter egg. After a couple days of reverse engineering, I finally found it [0]! I love looking for this stuff. [0] https://32bits.substack.com/p/bonus-fighters-megamix
Comment linking /p/bonus-fighters-megamix
on “Shenmue (1999) reverse engineering reveals possible sun position oversight”Submitted How many video games include a marriage proposal? At least one as a story · 342 points
HN discussionWell, I knew from looking at a previous game that this development team liked to put Easter eggs on the About menu. That's why I looked there first! https://32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-microscope-three-dir...
Comment linking /p/under-the-microscope-three-dirty-f1f
on “Unearthing a 31 year old Easter egg in Ecco the Dolphin”Submitted Reverse Engineering "DNA Sequences" in the Lost World: Jurassic Park Video Game as a story · 95 points
HN discussionI've been writing up my findings here: https://32bits.substack.com/ So far I've focused on the Sega Saturn because it is notorious for having a difficult-to-understand assembly language (SH-2). That means there are lots of things to discover, because people haven't really looked yet!
Comment linking /
on “FPGAs and the Renaissance of Retro Hardware”Submitted Under the Microscope: Three Dirty Dwarves as a story · 61 points
HN discussionSubmitted Attacking the hashing function in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 as a story · 50 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unearthing a 31 year old Easter egg in Ecco the Dolphin as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted Sonic R: The R&R mod – Hacks the Saturn Racing Game into a Platformer as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted An unknown Sega Saturn project has come to light after 29 years as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using Ghidra to correct the record on a 24 year old PlayStation game as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Under the microscope: Batman Begins (Playstation 2, GameCube, Xbox) ) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Burning Rangers: co-op mod as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The QA Tester's Mentality as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted An insulting cheat code showed up in the wrong Sega Genesis game as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Star Wars-themed Easter eggs hiding in Alone in the Dark 2 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What you can't say in a Saturn game as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Recovering video game cheat codes from a long-defunct phone hotline service as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Every cheat site has the wrong code for Michelin Rally Masters as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unlocking hidden features in prototype demos of Saturn Bomberman as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Christmas NiGHTS into Sonic as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted "greets" to the Amiga demoscene in a 1996 PlayStation game as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Censorship on High Score Screen as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Extending the Demo: Destruction Derby as a story · 1 points
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