[Other] Any help will get you a hug

[Ermurgok]

Soooo...... let's start from the begging. For years I've been a fan of the Pokemon games (Heartgold in particular) and like most people I've imagined things like my own Pokemon gym, my own region and what Pokemon I would have IRL, recently I watch someone playing through the Pokemon RadicalRed ROM hack (Currently playing through is now myself) which made start wishing about making my own ROM hack.

I know that distributing things relating to ROM hacks is a bit of a "grey" area but that didn't stop me trying, I remembered that I got a VBA emulator a few years ago and now I have some ROM editing software. (list can be given) Unfortunately I am a complete and utter noob at it ☹️, which is why I'm asking everyone here for help and when I say "help" I mainly mean linking good tutorials or links to amazing software and ROM's.

Please 😳

I know/people have said that GEN3 games (FR,LG,R,S,E) are the most popular to ROM, which I have all available and I also know a number of thing in the list below are HARD but maybe I could work up to it.

Things a Pokemon game needs:
- Physical/Special split (NEEDED!)
- Fairy type + every other type (NEEDED!)
- Pokemon following player (A much loved feature but might not be possible for Pokemon past GEN4)
- More than one region to play (A much loved feature)
- Mega evolution (A much loved feature)
- More double battles (NEEDED!)
- Most regional forms "Alolan & Galarian" (A much loved feature)
- Some z moves & items (Most are needed)
- No more HM's (A nice GEN8 feature)
- In Pokemon center PC's (Old but good)
- Almost every Pokemon up to GEN7 (NEEDED!)
- Most of the newer items (Most are needed)
- GEN7 battle mechanics (The best IMO(In My Opinion)
- "All" abilities Most are needed)
- Updated Battle Frontier (NEEDED!)
- Updated Gym Leaders
- Updated Elite Four
- Updated Champion
- Horde encounters (A cool GEN6 feature)
Things to leave out:
- Ultra Beasts (Personally never really cared for them)
- Dynamax & Gigantamax (Preferred megas IMO)
- Triple battles (Never saw the point really)

 

[WiserVisor]

.....when I say "help" I mainly mean linking good tutorials or links to amazing software and ROM's.

Well, if you want to get into Pokemon ROM hacking, specifically gen 3, you need to decide whether you want to create your ROM hack via binary hacking or through the decomp projects.

Binary hacking is the process of taking a single file that contains a Pokemon game (almost always a .gba file), and then directly editing that file to make the changes that you want to make. This method uses tools like Pokemon Game Editor (PGE), AdvanceMap, and many others. This post has a series of videos that go in-depth on how to hack ROMs in this fashion. I'm not as well versed with this style of ROM hacking, but I know that a lot of what you want to have in your ROM hack has been done in the past using this method, like Mega Evolving, extra regions, physical/special split, etc. Going into Binary Hack Tools, Tutorials & Resources, as well as Binary Hack Research & Development will have all of the information you could possibly want for this method, although the tutorials section is more where you'll want to look, since you're just starting out. You can also get help from this ROM Hacking Help section as well, of course.

Decomps, on the other hand, is the process where you break down the ROM into actual code and basic data, edit that code, and then recompile it all into a playable .gba file. This is the method I'm more well-versed in, as I believe that it is more powerful and capable of doing complex, specific changes to the game, albeit a bit harder to get into at first than Binary Hacking. There are several decomp "bases", if you will, that already have the updated battle engine with physical/special split, Fairy type, mega evolutions, etc., along with updated items and Pokemon all the way through gen 7. If you use this tool, you can setup a decomp project fairly easily. If you type in "https://github.com/rh-hideout/pokeemerald-expansion" into the Custom Repository box, you'll get the Upgraded Battle Engine, which has Physical/Special split, fairy type, and mega evolution. You'll also get the Pokemon Expansion, adding all Pokemon from gens 4-7. Finally, you'll get the Item Expansion, which adds in all of the items from gens 4-7. You can also follow this tutorial if you'd like to get these bases for your decomp project without using that other tool. Then it comes down to you learning how to look through the code and make the changes you want to make. There are a couple of tools developed for this style of ROM hacking, them being Porymap and Decomp Trainer Editor.