Intro to Pokeemerald. What can I use after converting?

[MattCatDad]

Okay, I think I'm finally going to bite the bullet and get Pokeemerald.

I've got a running hack of Pokémon emerald right now, I love using programs like NSE, PGE, HXD, HMA, APE etc.
I wonder, what programs will I be unable to use once converting?

Also, I patch my current rom to flash cart and play on my gameboy. Would I still be able to do that?

 

[ellabrella]

you won't use any of those programs in the decomp. you should never directly edit the ROM file in your decomp project, the whole point is to edit individual files in simple formats and have compiling tools do the work of placing them into a ROM for you.

mostly, you will use a text editor to accomplish the things hex and data editors used to accomplish. i use notepad++, visual studio code is another popular choice. for graphics, they are stored as png files and pal files, i recommend using graphics gale since it can handle these files with more care than most graphics editors.

as far as i know, there's no reason a ROM compiled with pokeemerald won't be playable on real hardware.

 

[MattCatDad]

Thank you for the help. Is there one particular resource that people go to to learn the basics of navigating through the text?

 

[ellabrella]

not really, but it's not as daunting as it seems once you get into it. like if you want to edit data, you go to src/data/, and then all the files are named pretty descriptively, e.g. trainer_parties.h or pokemon/base_stats.h.

following tutorials from the pokeemerald wiki or simple modifications directory might help you get the hang of things.

 

[MattCatDad]

I appreciate the pointers!