Essential tools of ROM-hacking.

[Toki_Fujibayashi]

I'm going off to rural wisconsin this summer. The place I will be staying has no internet. I will be leaving for wisconsin on Monday morning. I need to know whether I have all the essential tools for ROM-hacking on my laptop, if there are any I'm missing. Also, I know diddly squat about hex editing, so should I just:

a) Learn how to hex

~and~

b) Get myself a good hex editor (suggestions?)

~or~

c) Jus go with what I know and leave the hex-editing part alone

The tools I have now are:


Advance Map
Advance Starter
A-Text
Bewildered
Dexter
Elitemap
fonted
patted
pet
PokeCryGUI
PokePic
rkc
RSBall
Scripted
SnesEdit
spread
TLP
unLZ.GBA
Overworld Editor Rebirth Edition
RHEA
StartMap
An emulator (duh)

Am I missing anything important?
Should I bother learning how to hex edit?
Which hex editors are good?

All answers are much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Ultima Super]

the hex editor you shouldget would be hex workshop google it
and to hex edit learn how to us ScriptEd go to the tutorial section for some helpful info

[Toki_Fujibayashi]

Does hex workshop work on vista? Just checking to make sure I'm not downloading something I can't use.

Also, is there a free version? Because I don't have 45.99 to shell out for a hex editor.

[Hiidoran]

First off, don't double post! It's against the rules and the mods get pretty mad about it, just use the edit post option. Secondly, in my opinion a hex editor is vitally important to hacking, I do most my work with hexecute... and Advanced Map.
I suppose since your going to a place without internet it's good to have all the programs you can get...but most of those (like dexter) nobody really uses, as they are out-of-date.

Tip: You said you aren't going to be able to access the internet? Well...If I were you I would save as many tutorials to word documents as you can find! Your going to encounter many many many problems along the way that you may not no how to solve. Hope my info helped, as for Vista I'm not sure... I run Windows XP.

[Blazichu]

Also there are free hex editors out there, you don't need to buy one and they all do the same stuff like change the hex codes.

[BlackDragonite]

Hmm, one good program is Amplifier 2006 Ae. You can find the link in the tool ressource thread from Treecko lvl.100.

[Teh Baro]

The hex editor I use is Thingy32. I have an spanish version but there is an english one. I looove it.

It's simple once you know that you edit the file by pressing space twice. One at the begging of the text you want to edit and other at the end of it. Also AltGr+2 (@) lets you write a specific byte in hex (01, 02 [...] FE, FF)

[SytheXP]

Thingy32 meh its ok dont really like it to much being as my spanish kinda stinks but still recomend it as a good program. Hope the link I sent you helped you out. You can get pretty much EVERY tool there. ^.^ Well if you need pm me or email you BTW Im going to send you the OWs.

[Teh Baro]

Thingy32 meh its ok dont really like it to much being as my spanish kinda stinks but still recomend it as a good program. Hope the link I sent you helped you out. You can get pretty much EVERY tool there. ^.^ Well if you need pm me or email you BTW Im going to send you the OWs.

well, as I stated, I know there's an english version since the spanish one is a translation. Anyway the only spanish that you might need to know is that "Abrir archivo de datos" means "open data file" "abrir tabla" is "open table", "Buscar" mens search, Saltar is jump to, rebuscar is search again, espacio=seleccionar is space=select. Extract and Insert are rarely used.

[needhexcodehacs]

go to hexworkshop.com and download it

[Xenon54]

I would advise getting hexworkshop and translhexsion. These are probably the best hex editors I use. Make sure you get a table file for translhexsion too, it eases thing up. Also for your programs, get Sappy 2006 for the music editing. Playing around with the music player itself is entertaining, lol. Rural Wisconsin huh? That sucks, even if you did have an internet connection there, it would be 56K that runs at 20K, lol. Glad I don't live there anymore.

[11235]

Just as far as a hex editor goes, XVI32 is a pretty good one, and can load really big files as well. And, it's free! I don't know if it can use table files, though.

[Lin]

b) HexEdit

And you should get Gold Map 1.6 if you plan on hacking Gold/Silver, it's a great tool. It's just like AdvanceMap, only easier, like you can make a person a trainer, make something give an item, etc...

xD

[Latieon]

yup the tools mentioned in the first post are compulsary to make a good rom hack.Also the hackers creativity is needed.The hacker must be creative,analyze stuff...know what to add....know what scripts to put in where....
the key to a good map is a harmony of natural as well as man made elements.

[bobbob]

thanks didnt even know about hacking

[CyberCDragonTamer64]

ME neither! But do Now CyberCDragonTamer64 OUT!

[Shiny_link]

dont ever hack the same ROM with elitemap and advance map DONT it screws up bad and all your work will be gone