[Other] ROM Hacking Help? (Your Assistance is Needed!)

[Zapdos86]

Hello everyone, I created this thread for a simple purpose. I would liked someone, anyone, to explain what exactly is ROM Hacking? All I ever heard of was the normal Pokemon games, then one day a friend from school tells me about this community where they make hacked Pokemon games. I thought it would be pretty cool to check this out, and eventually make my own hacked Pokemon game if I could. The problem is though, I have no idea how to get these Pokemon hacked games working, and I don't know how to make them either. Can anyone help me?

 

[Shiny_Houndoom]

ROM hacking is a process that involves editing memory (hex) addresses in a game which can ultimately lead to having a new game entirely if the hacker is devoted enough. By changing these hex addresses you can alter the layout of the game, what events happen, what characters say, what pokemon look like, how the graphics are, or how the region appears. Basically, everything about the game.

When one makes changes to a ROM they are actually altering hex addresses (memory). This is what is really going on at a deep level. Every single program for editting ROMs is changing hex addresses in the game.

Here I describe two popular programs that one can get pretty far into making a complete hack with:
-Advance Map (This is probably the main program you'll use to change anything, there is so much that one can change in a ROM with this)
-XSE (eXtreme Script Editor) (This is to make people, items, and events happen in the game. Works in tandem with Advance Map)

So, I've talked about editting a ROM, but how do you actually get a ROM? For that, a common method is to download them from a site which a simple Google search will do. I'd recommend firered or ruby to start with as most people use those so much more is known about them than their mirrored version.

So all that covers making your own hack. If you want to play a hack or perhaps test a ROM you would use the emulator VBA (Visual Boy Advance) that I talked about. You probably need the ROM that the hack is based on and in order to play the ROM you usually need to apply what's called a patch and as I recall LunarIPS patch is a program that is often used for that.

I hope my description of ROM hacking has helped you. At the very least you know what terms to search for and read up on. There are also lots of helpful tutorials on youtube. (That's where I learned basically everything) Let me know if you have any further questions I can help with.

 

[Zapdos86]

ROM hacking is a process that involves editing memory (hex) addresses in a game which can ultimately lead to having a new game entirely if the hacker is devoted enough. By changing these hex addresses you can alter the layout of the game, what events happen, what characters say, what pokemon look like, how the graphics are, or how the region appears. Basically, everything about the game.

When one makes changes to a ROM they are actually altering hex addresses (memory). This is what is really going on at a deep level. Every single program for editting ROMs is changing hex addresses in the game.

Here I describe two popular programs that one can get pretty far into making a complete hack with:
-Advance Map (This is probably the main program you'll use to change anything, there is so much that one can change in a ROM with this)
-XSE (eXtreme Script Editor) (This is to make people, items, and events happen in the game. Works in tandem with Advance Map)

So, I've talked about editting a ROM, but how do you actually get a ROM? For that, a common method is to download them from a site which a simple Google search will do. I'd recommend firered or ruby to start with as most people use those so much more is known about them than their mirrored version.

So all that covers making your own hack. If you want to play a hack or perhaps test a ROM you would use the emulator VBA (Visual Boy Advance) that I talked about. You probably need the ROM that the hack is based on and in order to play the ROM you usually need to apply what's called a patch and as I recall LunarIPS patch is a program that is often used for that.

I hope my description of ROM hacking has helped you. At the very least you know what terms to search for and read up on. There are also lots of helpful tutorials on youtube. (That's where I learned basically everything) Let me know if you have any further questions I can help with.

This really did help me, because I managed to get VBA-M which works wonderfully, and I am researching a lot more to help my current situation. Regarding what you put, what did you mean when you said Fire Red and Ruby's 'mirrored' versions?

 

[Christos]

He means Leaf Green and Sapphire, as in, choose Fire Red over Leaf Green or Ruby over Sapphire because they have better documentation and tool support, and they're essentially the same game anyway. Though I'd suggest going with Fire Red, or Emerald instead of Ruby.

 

[Zapdos86]

He means Leaf Green and Sapphire, as in, choose Fire Red over Leaf Green or Ruby over Sapphire because they have better documentation and tool support, and they're essentially the same game anyway. Though I'd suggest going with Fire Red, or Emerald instead of Ruby.

I see, thank you for clarifying. :)