I recently saw a post asking if Hacked Blocks are against the Scratch TOS. What are “Hacked Blocks”?? Thanks in advance!!!

hacked blocks are blocks that don't exist in the block palette, but are still usable by editing the project.json file (located inside the .sb3) directly. for example:

switch costume to [previous costume v]

does not exist, but you can still use it in your projects if you edit the project file (or if you backpack the block).

ametrine_ wrote:

hacked blocks are blocks that don't exist in the block palette, but are still usable by editing the project.json file (located inside the .sb3) directly. for example:

switch costume to [previous costume v]

does not exist, but you can still use it in your projects if you edit the project file (or if you backpack the block).

Oh, okay! Thanks for telling me!

They are not to be confused with hidden blocks, which are blocks that existed in older version of Scratch (for example 2.0 alpha) but are no longer available in the block palette. They even have a wiki page.

hotcrystal wrote:

They are not to be confused with hidden blocks, which are blocks that existed in older version of Scratch (for example 2.0 alpha) but are no longer available in the block palette. They even have a wiki page.

Ohhh okay!

l_heart_Roblox wrote:

hotcrystal wrote:

They are not to be confused with hidden blocks, which are blocks that existed in older version of Scratch (for example 2.0 alpha) but are no longer available in the block palette. They even have a wiki page.

Ohhh okay!

hidden blocks and hacked blocks are synonymous - if a block is added and it works, then it is a hidden block OR hacked block.

MagicCoder330 wrote:

(#6)
hidden blocks and hacked blocks are synonymous - if a block is added and it works, then it is a hidden block OR hacked block.

I wouldn't consider them synonymous - I would refer to hacked blocks as all blocks that can't be obtained through the official Scratch editor (so including things like the color-input join block or impossible dropdown values), while hidden blocks are specifically whole blocks that are implemented into the code but not in the default block palette (like the counter blocks). Though all hidden blocks are also hacked blocks.

MagicCoder330 wrote:

l_heart_Roblox wrote:

hotcrystal wrote:

They are not to be confused with hidden blocks, which are blocks that existed in older version of Scratch (for example 2.0 alpha) but are no longer available in the block palette. They even have a wiki page.

Ohhh okay!

hidden blocks and hacked blocks are synonymous - if a block is added and it works, then it is a hidden block OR hacked block.

Okay! Thank you for telling me!

Just going to clear up the confusion about hacked and hidden blocks:

All hidden blocks must be hacked into the project (assuming you don't backpack it from somewhere else), but all hacked blocks are not hidden blocks because they may not have been present in earlier versions of Scratch.

For example:

for [index v] in (10) {
}::control

is a hidden block, and a hacked block because to obtain it you must edit the project.json file, but

join (I would put a color code here but it's being filtered- pretend this is a color input, like in the touching color block) ()

is a hacked block because it does not, and never did, exist in the block palette. You can't obtain it through an earlier version of Scratch, so it's just a hacked block.
By the way, both of these do actually exist. The for loop acts how you would expect (basically a repeat (10) loop but you get a variable being incremented by 1 every iteration), and the join color block does exist as well- see https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1104993979/

BigNate469 wrote:

Just going to clear up the confusion about hacked and hidden blocks:

All hidden blocks must be hacked into the project (assuming you don't backpack it from somewhere else), but all hacked blocks are not hidden blocks because they may not have been present in earlier versions of Scratch.

For example:

for [index v] in (10) {
}::control

is a hidden block, and a hacked block because to obtain it you must edit the project.json file, but

join (I would put a color code here but it's being filtered- pretend this is a color input, like in the touching color block) ()

is a hacked block because it does not, and never did, exist in the block palette. You can't obtain it through an earlier version of Scratch, so it's just a hacked block.
By the way, both of these do actually exist. The for loop acts how you would expect (basically a repeat (10) loop but you get a variable being incremented by 1 every iteration), and the join color block does exist as well- see https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1104993979/

Okay! Thank you for telling me! I now understand it better

Are these allowed?

TL;DR: They're blocks that don't appear in the editor but still do something when used, and they're allowed but pretty useless.

GameCatastrophe0927 wrote:

TL;DR: They're blocks that don't appear in the editor but still do something when used, and they're allowed but pretty useless.

Not always. You can do things like hack a color reporter into a join block input, which outputs the hex color code of the selected color.

There's also the for and while loops- which are equivalent to

set [index v] to [1]
repeat (... :: grey)
...
change [index v] by (1)
end

and

repeat until <not <... :: grey>>
...
end

respectively, and several others.

They are allowed, but I would advise to explain how they work and how you used them in code comments so that it doesn't interfere with remixability.

Source: I explicitly mentioned that I used the hacked hex blocks in the description of my Amari game which was featured.

Guys, look what I found!

when @stopSign pressed :: hat events

songsdum wrote:

Guys, look what I found!

when @stopSign pressed :: hat events

You didn't find that and please don't necropost