Someone may be able to do this using a simple rehash of active topics, i tried but i know so little about perl that i couldnt do it.
If you strip out all the code that relates to the normal display options, and leave just the code that writes the headlines, and then at the point it would usually output the html to the browser, it instead writes it to a .html file on the server.
I got it doing that no problems, if i hit the active topic cgi script it would create the file and everything, but getting it to execute and update the html file when a user was posting a message was where i got stuck, it just kept saying unable to execute specified program. I was using the system command which i noticed was the way it was done in the old version 5 hack.
If anyone wants to take what i got and finish it off then please do, i dont want any credit, i just want recent topics displayed on my homepage, some credit should be given to Active Topic Author though because its that rehashed.