I still need help with this.
I also have some little questions - of which are mentioned in tutorials, and everyone just assumes you know what they are/how to do them but there aren't actually any explanations as to what they are/how to do them:
- What are pointerswhat does it mean to re-point?
- How do I 'read' the numbers and letters in a hex editor? (I only know how to find empty bytes, and I'm not even all that sure what a byte is despite finding a few vague explanations)
- How do I know what the bytes do/how do I find the correct locations for pokemon/moves/cries in a hex editor, assuming I need to do this?
- Is there any tutorials... anywhere... that offer the basics of what one needs to know in order to hack ROMs? I feel I'm fumbling in the dark, all tutorials I ever find assume you already know the basics.
1) Pointers is the hex that tells the game where to look within the rom. It differs from game to game, but I assume you're using the advanced gen Pokemon games. In hex they usually appear like this.
ef cd ab 08.
Which if you were to write it out normally, it would appear 08abcdef. And you would be able to search in your hex editor using the 'goto' function to get to that pointer. (Except you have to cut off the "08" and just use the "abcdef".
2) A byte is just how everything is stored. I'm not too sure how to explain it, but the way I see it is, that the meaning of the byte depends on what is around it.
3) There aren't too many hex editing tutorials anymore. People have just made tools for everything and no-one seems to learn the way to do it in hex anymore. You'd have to figure out the layout of what you're looking for to know what it is. For example, the moveset data appears, [Attack] [level * 2] [attack] [level * 2]... etc. and it just keeps repeating until it hits an FF which marks the end of the moveset.
If you go the tutorial section here, I've written a tutorial on hex editing in DP, most of what's there is set out in the same way in GBA Pokemon games.
There's also some other little hex editing tutorials in the Documents and tutorials section, you just have to look and not use Cheesepeow's reference because it doesn't contain all the tutorials.
4) Like I said above look, and don't just go to Cheesepeow's reference. Also don't limit yourself to just GBA tutorials. Gamefreak didn't change too much between each game, and things in Red/Blue tutorials are still pretty applicable to 3rd gen games.
Hopefully that answers the questions and I didn't just lose the point.
