Basics of Rom Hacking

By CataclysmX

History

version 1.0

Getting Started

-What you need-
Naga v1.8 - Best graphics editor, for SNES and NES.
Hex Workshop - Best Hex editor, i use this to hack everything.
A Script dumper - Not a requirement for a translation of a action game or a scroller but its a must for anything bigger.
This is ment to help those who have little or no knowledge how to rom hack, hopefully it will help you.

Replacing the Font

First off, open the rom in Naga and see what the font looks like and if it has any compression or other unusual methods. (You can tell because its all garbled). If there isn't any of that stuff, then you can 'draw' over the font in Naga starting with the first japanese character just remember don't overwrite any numbers that are already in the rom because then all the scoring or h/p and m/p will be really messed up.
For NES games, don't use Nesticle to get the hex property of any given letter/number, I found out that it isn't always accurate.. usually in the font table it will start off with a black block in the top left corner that is *usually* 00 and work from there.
If you want a more 'fun' way of doing this, visit De-Jap. Its not fun doing it the all hex way.

Finding out what A is in Hexadecimal

NES/SNES(exclude Nesticle part)
I normally use SearchR 2.10 by J3d! it is probably the easiest way.. but it confuses some people (i don't know why). But here is 'another method'. Go into Nesticle click on 'the little black block' in the upper upper left top top corner.. It SHOULD be 00 then go into naga and follow the black block through the table *clear?* it starts with a couple of blocks and such then A B C D E F G. Simple enough?
During that, write up a battle-ship format table, you know what I mean with 0-F down the left and 0-F across the top then just right down A under 0-Left and 4 Top.

Basic Text Replacement

First of all, if the above 2 steps don't work for you, mail me and I'll see what I can do to elaborate it, and I will update the document at that time so that its easier to grasp. Anyhow, you basically find the text in the game lets say.. AhrE" (the E has the quote right over it which is some stupid thing that is in most games and I find it REALLY annoying) you cannot use your regular 'E' for this infact there is no one way to find these things it all depends on the rom, so you must look for 'Ahr' and you'll probably find it with little trouble. I hope I explained that well enough. And after you find 'Ahr' change it to whatever word you want using the SAME table you created before. Remember, don't go over the end of the line marker, yet. And if all works out right, then you finally have the skills of a basic rom hacker.

The Do's and Do Not's of B.T.R

One of the stupidest things i've seen people do is override the windows, most rom hackers do this without thinking I did it at first as well. There is a hexadecimal symbol that creates the window borders (in all the roms i've hacked anyway) and if you overwrite it the text will 'spill' out and it will run throw the window and probably off the screen, if you overwrite this marker accidently try and find it again then write down the symbol and back track with the text that went over and put the symbol back in.. in HexWorkShop its best to make a backup before you alter alot of text or something which your unsure of.
Another thing is to watch out for the end of line and end of paragraph symbols if you overright a end of line symbol the text will spill out the same goes for the paragraph symbol. You want to find these quickly if you want to use pointers. Which i will cover when i'm 100% sure of what i'm doing with them, well ok maybe 60%.

Pointers

This section will be done at a later date..

Greetings and Thank-You's

To conclude this document, i'd like to thank the following people for helping me when I needed it:
Dark Force
§hadow
AnusP
ChocoMan
Shujin-Rik
Blasted2/StoveTop
MakoKnight
TaskForce
P-Funk
Hoky
And anyone else i have forgetten.

Fuck You's

The first fuck-you goes out to;
Som2Freak: for his uncanny ability to sing in mIRC in japanese and isolate himself and alienate everyone else. Also for correcting numerous natives on how to speak japanese, considering he's American. Also for his ability to bitch loudly and proudly so everyone knows he's the queen around here, and for putting a little happy face after every insult to make himself think he hasnt alienated them, little does som2 know he has probably alienated everyone. Som2Freak has taken time off since Doraemon banned him, he is probably raising money for a trip to Japan to correct the natives on how to speak Japanese, by singing jpop in malls. Good luck in life Som2. (*snicker*)

But i will update. Oh believe me i will.

Contact Information

J2e Homepage

Blitznine Personal Page

E-mail

©Copyright Information®

This document solely belongs to CataclysmX, any unauthorized duplication of this document is forbidden, and modification and reproduction is strictly forbidden. Any excerpts taken from my document is illegal and forbidden if anyone does this they will be capitally punished by me and my ugly stick and i will beat you til you look like Som2Freak. Beware your in for a scare.

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©Copyright 1998, CataclysmX