Hey Everyone, If one was to modify an NES rom with a hex editor so that text read something different like "Happy Birthday" or something like that, are there any adversed side effects I should be worried about? Such as, CRC checks or something that might make the game unplayable on a real console?
Short answer: You should be fine doing this. Long answer: It depends on the game and where the text is located and how it's used (control codes used? RLE?) but you should still be fine.
I got bit once when making changes to a ROM that had a game-specific hack in the emulator I was using. When the checksum changed, the hack was no longer triggered, and weird things started happening. Fortunately it was an easy fix once I knew what was going on!
Most games doesn't care about being modified on NES. However some Konami games do such as Kid Dracula. Usually changing text strings isn't a big deal, unless compression is used which may be in RPGs or other text heavy games. Romhacking is a great resource.
Hrm... Ok, so as an example I took the game Rivercity Ransom and decided to modify one of the main characters names. However, viewing the data from within a HEX editor I don't see any ascii words showing up. Perhaps the text is encoded in a diffrent method? I can see the tileset of the fonts being used from within tile editors, but it seems text strings arn't represented in ascii anyways from within the rom itself. Anyone with more experience have any ideas?
It probably needs a Table file for viewing it in ASCII as you would expect, some Windows hex editors support tables files, WindHex does I think, don't remember which other ones, I haven't used Windows primarily in several years. As for a table file, you're in luck: http://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/River_City_Ransom:TBL
Ah, thanks! I kind of figured that out after a bit of logical thinking. However, using a premade table would save me a lot of time for sure.
Use an NES emulator which has an PPU pattern viewer. You can count the pattern slots and build the conversion table from that. :thumbsup:
You can use hexposure for NES ROM HACKING When using the program press F6 to bring up the text box to type in. Then after that type in a word that you know thats in the game then the hexposure will ask you yes or no about text strings if im not mistaken. Press Y for yes then all the ASCii will be translated into english that you can edit. Be sure not to.write over graphic code or make the word longer then what is there. If you do write over a word that is.longer then what you want to insert the graphics will be all.screwed up when you.get to that part of the game. If you need anymore help on this topic please PM me back. Viper
