Basics
of Rom Hacking
By
CataclysmX
History
version 1.0
Document was written by
CataclysmX.
Immediately ported to HTML
Posted on the J2e Homepage
and my homepage (both links down at the
bottom!)
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.
® All Rights Reserved
©Copyright 1998, CataclysmX
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