• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

Simple Guide to Replacing Pokemon Sprites (FR/LG/R/S)

2
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Feb 5, 2013
Hello! First of all, your guide is fantastic, and for the most part worked perfectly for me. The only issue I'm having is that my sprite isn't showing up correctly once actually embedded into the game. I followed your guide exactly, although I did notice one thing that I seemingly "did not have to do". The section using IrfanView, the background color is already the first color in the pallet so I don't have to do any color swapping. I'm not sure if that is why I am having this bug...Anyways. I'm attaching a screen shot that includes the test sprite I am trying to use, and what is actually showing up in the game. Hopefully you can help!
 
1
Posts
10
Years
  • Seen Dec 30, 2013
Can anybody explain what I am doing wrong? I have indexed my image with IfranView. When I test out the sprite (to see if it is indexed) in unLZ it will work, but as soon as I go to paint to fix up the sprite (ctrl+a ctrl+c ctrl+v the original sprite on the new sprite) and then try it in unLZ it says the image is not indexed. Any help?
 
87
Posts
10
Years
I'm sure that this would have been said before but if you are uncertain about unLZ there are other ways of doing this. There is a program called Pokemon Sprite editor and if you download that along with YAPE, Pokemon Icon Editor and Pokemon Sprite Position Editor you can do the same thing is a fairly easy way and the Pokemon will look as they are supposed to whether they are 1st or 5th gen or inbetween. Also with YAPE you can adjust their movesets and data so that they are as they should be.
 

RemixinROMulus

Crit happens...
38
Posts
10
Years
First of all, good job! I love your tutorial! I have a suggestion, though.

There's a program I use for this called mtpaint, which is available for Windows and Linux. I find it more useful than Irfanview for formatting the sprites, and it allows you to skip all of that "mess up the colors a bit, open Paint, and copy-paste" stuff. There's a feature which can sort the palette colors for you so that the background color will be the first one. All you have to do is open your sprite, convert it to 16-color indexed if not so already, click on the background color on the palette to the left, and go to "Palette" > "Sort Colours". Tick the "Distance to A" box and click OK. This should make color A (the background color) the first color in the palette.

Also, I find that the Gen III Rom Hacking Suitedoes a better job of importing the Pokemon sprites than unLZ-GBA and is more user-friendly. I'm experiencing a bug in unLZ (may be a WINE issue, though), where it thinks the image is not indexed even though it is and refuses to import it. Gen III Suite does import the image, however. And it gives you a nice preview of what it will look like in the game.
 
1
Posts
10
Years
I did everything right and when I loaded up the rom it said something about i needed a certain bios. But my emulator works on every other rom I have. I'm using visual boy advance. Please reply..
 
14
Posts
9
Years
I have use the tutorial and a way around the windows 7 problem, and it has worked for all of the sprites I've put in so far excepted one. I tried to replace ratata with a custom sprite and every went fine until I found it in game. The battle worked fine, but the sprite was invisible. does anyone know how I can fix this?
 
1
Posts
8
Years
  • Age 24
  • Seen Jul 28, 2023
Excuse me, I need help with something. I'm trying to edit pokemon sprites from a game known as 'Pokémon Insurgence', but the problem is that it isn't a ROM Hack, it's an actual game by itself, no emulator needed. The problem being that there is no GBA file for me to use unLZ on, which completely nullifies this tutorial for me. Can anyone help me? I really want to change one of the pokemon sprites...
 

LucyRRoth

Smash player!
7
Posts
8
Years
I know this thread is kinda dead, but i'm not seeing a solution in the comments. unLZ is showing me that my sprite insertion is 100% correct, I replaced vulpix with aoloan vulpix and i had no problems running through the tutorial. However, when i check the sprite in-game, i only see the old vulpix. I've checked for another location where the sprite is located but it only has the one location on my rom?

Why would it continue to just show up as my old vulpix sprite?
 

INDIAN MEW(ARAZI)

THE WORLDS MOST DUMB MAN
399
Posts
9
Years
I know this thread is kinda dead, but i'm not seeing a solution in the comments. unLZ is showing me that my sprite insertion is 100% correct, I replaced vulpix with aoloan vulpix and i had no problems running through the tutorial. However, when i check the sprite in-game, i only see the old vulpix. I've checked for another location where the sprite is located but it only has the one location on my rom?

Why would it continue to just show up as my old vulpix sprite?

try pge or advance series.
 

SawkTheWarrior

SW-7387-7525-9201
380
Posts
3
Years
PGE Lets You Replace The Sprite Without Indexing And All That. Just Select The Png, Open It, And BAM! Your Done!
 
Back
Top