Who Are We?

We're not gonna hide it. We're hackers. There, I said it. Sounds bad? Well, consider this:

• Microsoft bought out GitHub, a major code repository site where many hacks exist to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, and even Windows itself.
• There are hackathons where companies allow hackers to use proprietary code bases to create new software.
• GBAtemp is one big homebrew site, where you can make mods to your video game consoles that purposely break the warranty.

When people think of a hacker, they think of somebody with malicious intent, like a cryptocurrency miner or data thief. That's not a really accurate description of us, however, and yet we identify as "hackers". A hacker, in its most basic form, is merely someone who alters something for a different use than what it was originally made for.

A Time-line of Events

February 2019

Harvey Houston (aka HarvHouHacker) tries out Rock Band 3 for the first time on the Wii U console, ironically right after the closing of the Wii Shop. He then does research during the following weeks, and discovers the Custom Creators Collective, GBAtemp, Rock Band ScoreHero, and the abandoned RawkSD project.

March 2019

Frustrated with the unorganized chaos of hacks, cracks, and mods, Harvey decides to open up a GitLab repo, initially dubbed Rock Band 3 Custom Songs, to collect software for himself and others who might run across his repo. It then becomes clear that this repo could expand to cover more than just Rock Band 3, so Harv decides to start covering other Wii editions of Rock Band. He also joins GBAtemp and C3.

July 2019

Harvey joins Rock Band ScoreHero, only to find that it is a mostly dead forum site.

August 2019

Harvey creates the Rock Band Customs Discord server.

September 2019

Harvey opens up the Discord server for Rock Band hacking on other platforms (mainly Playstation and Xbox).

October 2019

Harvey uses an old RawkSD DLC list to start composing his own lists on his repo's wiki.

May 2020

The Discord server reaches 100 members looking to find help for Rock Band hacks. Plus, Harvey adds more to the DLC lists and expands on the basic guide on hacking the Wii and Wii U consoles for Rock Band custom songs due to various other discoveries.

June 2020

Harvey adds guides for The Beatles and Green Day versions of Rock Band. Also, bored with the grueling tasks of trying to find software, Harvey starts various fun events within the Discord server that are short-lived.

July 2020

Harvey adds more to the DLC lists, and makes various adjustments in the Discord server to make it easy for administrators to talk in private.

September 2020

The Discord server suffers its first spam attack, so Harvey adds new rules.

December 2020

The Custom Creators Collective is renamed to Rhythm Gaming World, and several changes are made to the forums, making it difficult to post content and browse for software that people posted in threads. This change is mainly done to focus on their C3 Universe Database, a database dedicated to custom songs for Rock Band, but in doing so, it majorly crippled the forum site, and work on the site is postponed due to lack of people/interest. Also during this time, C3 opens up a Discord server for support on their database, and Rock Band Customs' Discord server reaches 250 members.

January/February 2021

Rock Band Customs refreshes its logo, and makes itself more friendly to customs authors. Harvey also teases PROJECT DELUXE, which is revealed to be the rebranding of the project, now known as the Rock Band Customs Project, a more general-purpose Rock Band hacking GitLab group which adds in support for PlayStation 3 hacks, and also features its very own website.

April 2021

The Rock Band Customs Project starts a support thread on Rhythm Gaming World, which is taken down by the mods due to claims of supporting piracy. This is the beginning of the end of C3 support which is never dealt with despite several attempts to contact the mods. In an effort to please the mods of C3, links of downloads to Rock Band DLC and software downloaders are removed from the project.

May 2021

Support for more programs is added to the already-existing support channels, now including other Harmonix Games, Clone Hero, FretsOnFire, Phase Shift, and even minimal Guitar Hero support.

September 2021

The Rock Band Customs Project Discord server reaches 500 members.

November/December 2021

GBAtemp introduces group forums, of which the Rock Band Customs Project becomes one of the early adopters of the feature. Because previous issues between the Rock Band Customs Project and Rhythm Gaming World are never resolved, and nearly a whole year has gone by with very little improvements over the forums, Harvey announces cutting ties with RGW/C3, including all guides and software made by C3 executives. This would be known to members of the project as the C3 Purge. Harvey hurriedly removed all references to RGW/C3 by December 30th, leaving the project somewhat crippled.

March 2022

Redownloading content via the Wii Shop on respective consoles, including being able to reobtain purchased Rock Band DLC, is no longer possible due to changes made by Nintendo.

April 2022

RPCS3, the popular PlayStation 3 emulator that was only for Windows, releases a Mac edition, allowing Rock Band hackers to test customs on their Mac computers.

June 2022

After leaving the project crippled for six months, Harvey returns to the project, adding the long-awaited programs RockBiink and MiloMod by StackOverflow0x.

July 2022

Harvey discovers that GitLab plans on changing the Free Tier of SaaS to limit public and private groups to five top-level namespaces. To combat this, all private groups are opened to the public, joining restrictions are loosened, and RBCP Team Groups are formed.

September 2022

After a public outcry, GitLab partially reverses their decision, making it only where private groups are restricted.

October 2022

After three years of struggling to maintain the Rock Band Customs Project practically solo, Harvey Houston announces his retirement as owner, stepping down to an administrator position of GitLab and Discord. Knight Rider is declared the new owner on Halloween.

November 2022

Knight Rider replaces text channels in Discord in favor of the new Discord Forums feature. Unfortunately, much info on PlayStation and Xbox hacks submitted by the community is lost in the process, but users are encouraged to repost any info in the new forum channels.

Meet the Team

Owners

Richard Jerome De Vries (knightindustries21)

Also goes by "Knight Gaming" or "Knight Rider", he maintains the RB4 to RB3 project as well, and runs a YouTube channel featuring various Rock Band custom songs of popular artists, movie soundtracks, and even video games! He owns the Discord server and co-owns the GitLab group.

Harvey Houston (HarvHouHacker)

Founder and owner of much of the Rock Band Customs Project. Likes Nintendo (d'uh!), and also is quite fond of LEGOs. He has been a part of the hacking scene since the Wii Shop closed in February of 2019, and has an interest in programming, Samsung smartphones, smartwatches, Wii/vWii and 3DS homebrew. He co-owns the GitLab group with Knight Rider, and also maintains the project's presence on GBAtemp.

Maintainers

Ethan Gordon (ekgordon)

A student from the University of Washington with several awards in robotics, he definitely knows how to code! He's knowledgeable in GitLab CI/CD, and is quite helpful in Wii/vWii hacking. He is here to help with software for the Wii/vWii repo, as well as add to the wikis and make them more accurate.

Customs Testers

Nathan Paterson (Scooberto126)

A friend of Harvey from New Zealand, and new to the customs scene, he's got the role just to test Rock Band 3 customs.

We're Looking for Members!

Currently, we need GitLab users for all available positions. See the Join The Team page for more details.