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Guide: Beginners' Directory

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ROM Hacking: Where do I start?

Mapping: The process of creating areas for the player to explore; you could create your very own region if you wanted. You can also add custom tiles to give your hack a new look!
Scripting: How you create your gameplay - NPCs, trainers on routes, Gym battles, etc are all done through scripting.
Pokémon Editing: Almost all Pokémon data is easy to change, including but not limited to movesets, abilities and evolutions. You can even add new Pokémon to your hack, from later generations or of your own creation!
Editing & Adding New Items: Maybe you'd like to add your own evolutionary stones or later generation item? Or something with a custom function?
New Features: You have the potential to add tons of new features to your hack, whether it be engine upgrades to match later games or something completely original.
Graphics Editing: As well as being able to add new tiles, you're also able to tweak other in-game graphics to your liking; e.g. trainer sprites and textboxes.​
For more in-depth guides, this thread and this thread might be worth having a look at! Both are a bit outdated by today's standards, but contain good points nonetheless. If you're here to play hacks, this post explains how to apply a patch to a ROM. ROM hacks are distributed in .ips or .ups format - asking for commercial ROMs or linking to them is strictly forbidden.

Common Terms

I'll go ahead and quote esperance who has explained common terms within ROM Hacking already:
Spoiler:

Toolbox

Here are some links to popular tools. If you're interested in programs for NDS/3DS hacking, check out this post. You can find more tools here.
  • VisualBoyAdvance/no$gba: Emulators that can run GBA ROMs.
  • Lunar IPS: A patching tool. For expanded 32mb ROMs, NUPS is the best option.
  • HxD: A straightforward hex editor.
  • GraphicsGale: Graphics editor that can work with indexed images and GBA palettes.
  • Porymap by Padz/ShantyTown/Diegoisawesome: A map editor for Pokéruby & Pokéemerald (still in its early stages but worth mentioning).
  • PolishedMap by Rangi: A map editor for Pokécrystal & Pokéred.
  • AdvanceMap 1.92/1.95 by LU-HO: Map editor for Gen III binary hacks.
  • XSE by HackMew: The best scripting tool for Gen III binary hacks.
  • THUMB Editor & Assembler by HackMew/karatekid552: Compiles ASM routines for insertion into a ROM.
  • Nameless Sprite Editor by link12552: A tool for editing and inserting sprites and other graphics.
  • G3T by Kurapika: This tool has several functions - editing Pokémon data, trainers and items.
  • Hopeless Trainer Editor by esperance: A tool for editing trainer data.
  • GBA Music Studio by Kermalis: A music editor for the Gen III games.

Tutorials Directory

This is a list of recommended tutorials to get you started, although these are by no means all the guides we have! Many more tutorials covering a wide range of topics can be found here if what you are looking for isn't listed.

ROM Hacking Resources

You'll find more resources for your ROM hack here.

Tips

#1: Keep a changelog, update it after every change you make; no matter how small. Keep it safe! In the case that you run into an annoying bug, knowing exactly which changes you've made and when will help you A) identify it and B) squash it.​

Where do I go from here?

Are you new to the forums and don't quite know your way around yet? Here are some directions!
 
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