Darthatron
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![[PokeCommunity.com] The New ROM Hacking Newsletter](https://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4978/newrhntcu1bj7.png "[PokeCommunity.com] The New ROM Hacking Newsletter")
Issue 23 - Sunday, 16th Feburary 2009
Introduction
Opening Notes
Well, it's finally here! What is it you ask? Well it is... The NEW ROM Hacking Newsletter!
Don't pretend to not be excited, because I know you are. Anyway, there are going to be some changes in the new RHN, first of all it will be released fort-nightly (every two weeks) instead of weekly. This will give the team much more time to get their articles in, and will make the RHN even better!
Also, if you find you have some free time inbetween hacks, and you have good grammar and some writing skills, why not join the RHN team? We are always looking for new reviewers.
Well, that about sums up the introduction for this issue, I guess I'll see you next time!
Don't pretend to not be excited, because I know you are. Anyway, there are going to be some changes in the new RHN, first of all it will be released fort-nightly (every two weeks) instead of weekly. This will give the team much more time to get their articles in, and will make the RHN even better!
Also, if you find you have some free time inbetween hacks, and you have good grammar and some writing skills, why not join the RHN team? We are always looking for new reviewers.
Well, that about sums up the introduction for this issue, I guess I'll see you next time!
Opening by Darthatron
Hacking News
Keep up with the latest in the ROM hacking scene
Tutorial boom!
This week has shown a rather dramatic increase in the amount of tutorials, and most of them are pretty good. They are detailed, and easy to read. You might want to check them out. Here's a list of some good ones.
HackMew's Knowledge (ASM Tutorial)
The ELF Method of inserting Music into a Rom
Take/Return Pokemon (ASM)
This week has shown a rather dramatic increase in the amount of tutorials, and most of them are pretty good. They are detailed, and easy to read. You might want to check them out. Here's a list of some good ones.
HackMew's Knowledge (ASM Tutorial)
The ELF Method of inserting Music into a Rom
Take/Return Pokemon (ASM)
Compiled by Darthatron
Hack Review
Spotlight on a special hack!
Pokémon Eclipse – Rise of the Moon [Link]Hack Author: Binary
Reviewed By: Vrai
The bland thread easily hides the greatness that this hack could hold.
It introduces one of the more opted-for baby evolutions (Lapras had a baby! :D), and it's a central piece of the story. The story, by the way, is a good one. Binary has spent a little while on this, and his effort shows through, quite well.
The story tells of the player's father dueling his rival for the leadership of the village. Through a close battle, the player's father wins, and his rival, named 'Eclipse', runs away from the village, hiding from the humiliation that he brought upon himself. Turns out the guy becomes a madman, writing about how he's going to show the player's father and his son what power is. I, personally, find this to be one of the more interesting stories to come across a hack. It's got good flow, and I don't really know of a whole lot of hacks that are similar to this. Good job on that, Binary.
As far as playing the game.. well, to be honest, Binary could've spent a little more time on working out the bugs out of the alpha. The spelling and grammar are somewhat poor in certain places, and a few scripting errors allow for some event s to occur too soon (i.e. I went upstairs to Violet's room before I even met her). There were a few other things that bugged me, like a female Picnicker who just happened to have a male Picnicker sprite, and an abundance of people with pink hair. Every other person in the game had pink hair. I'm pretty sure most people don't have naturally pink hair. :/
I was unable to "finish off" the alpha, as I accidentally got stuck in a little empty trigger script in the last room of the gym, and I was too lazy to go back through the whole hack. But I did like the idea of the gym leader being in the basement of the gym, forcing the player to explore the whole gym before finding the leader.
After playing through Eclipse, I realized how much Binary could improve on, and how much he had already to build off of. This is a hack that can become a lot, or it could break down and become a pile of nothing.. It all depends on how much Binary wants to make it work. It's a good hack, but it can be improved in every dimension.
Article by Vrai
Hack Review
Spotlight on a special hack!
Pokémon Turquoise [Link]Hack Author: Tropical Sunlight
Reviewed By: iPro.
Ohohoho, the first thing I notice about this hack is the cool tiles and fitting palettes. Rhevarhe_duh sure can make some cool tiles, I say. He's one of the new rising tilers, If I do say so myself. Ahem, enough on that subject. On to the review.
Mapping. Mapping is an ideal and needed skill in ROM Hacking, and this guy has it down. Yes, that's right, the maps in Turquoise look great. I have to admit, the first few maps were...err...not very polished, and really lacking. Tropical Sunlight apparently noticed this problem, because the maps as of late are pretty slick. The cave mapping really impresses me, it looks great as well as having plenty of walking room. On top of that, the caves look really natural, which is what most mappers aim for. Just the opposite of the cave mapping is the graveyard map. It is really symmetrical, which is a no-no. This is probably something he will have to compromise for the natural look, I mean, go to a graveyard, all the tombstones are symmetrically placed, like in this map.
There are some issues with the current maps, however, such as playability. The playability factor is sub-par on a few maps. There is one or two tiles to travel on, which is notsogood(I'm guilty of this also, but lets not get into that). As I said abouve, the tiles and palettes are pretty nice as well. That is, however, besides the grass path palette. A good rule of thumb with path palettes is to never make the border colour lighter than the inner contents. I really like the addition of Ruby/Emerald tiles, they mix well with rhevarhe_duh's tiles.
As far as scripting goes, Tropical Sunlight hasn't really shown anything except for a couple of beginning scripts, so there's nothing to really talk about on that subject.
I really like all the special additions Tropical Sunlight has implemented/plans to implement. Samson's wonderful Fakemon will make a great addition to the hack, as long as they are inserted properly, which Insecreep has been. It seems he plans to add a new item called "Pikachew". The Pikachew is a key item, so I'm assuming it deal with a quest of some sort or something along those lines.
There's nothing really left to talk about, so I'll just sum up the review now. Overall this hack has potential, and it looks great, but who knows where it will be in the future. I'll be keeping an eye on this hack, just to see what becomes of it.
Article by iPro.
Tips and Tricks
An interesting Tip or Trick that you may not know
Hello, today we are going to learn about how to use variables as flags!
You see, a flag is a two way thing, it is either set, or cleared. ( 1 is set, cleared is 0 )
But a variable can be used up to 65535 times! That is alot of different choices!
In this example, I will be using the variable 0x5000. That is a variable that is not used in the game, much like how flag 0x1000 is not used in the game.)
Now, a flag can be either set, or not, so a compare for a flag can only go 1 of 2 ways!
Click the spoiler for an example of a flag.
You will notice that only 1 of 2 possible messages can be displayed at any time.
But by using variables, we can get more results!
Also, when using variables, you can use more than just compare, with variables, you can use comparevars and more, but I'll get into that later.
Click the spoiler to see it in action
As you can see, variables have more versatility when it comes to determining events!
Now, you can also use a command called comparevars
What it does, is it compares 2 variables against each other, and then if they are equal, greater, less than, not equal, or a combination of them, then the game makes a different decision.
Finally, a variable can be set to a different value in different ways than a flag, a flag can use 'setflag' but a variable has a whole array of different commands! Much of these are like simple math problems.
Keep in mind, that variables can not be used as 'Person ID' in A-Map, only flags will work, and finally, if a variable is set to 0xFFFF, and you use addvar to it, and add 1 or more, then it will loop around back to 0x0, and start adding from there, same with subvar, if a variable is set to 0x0, and you subvar 1 or more, it will loop around to 0xFFFF, and subtract from there.
That is all for now, check in next week for another helpful beginners tip!
You see, a flag is a two way thing, it is either set, or cleared. ( 1 is set, cleared is 0 )
But a variable can be used up to 65535 times! That is alot of different choices!
In this example, I will be using the variable 0x5000. That is a variable that is not used in the game, much like how flag 0x1000 is not used in the game.)
Now, a flag can be either set, or not, so a compare for a flag can only go 1 of 2 ways!
Click the spoiler for an example of a flag.
Spoiler:
You will notice that only 1 of 2 possible messages can be displayed at any time.
But by using variables, we can get more results!
Also, when using variables, you can use more than just compare, with variables, you can use comparevars and more, but I'll get into that later.
Click the spoiler to see it in action
Spoiler:
Now, you can also use a command called comparevars
What it does, is it compares 2 variables against each other, and then if they are equal, greater, less than, not equal, or a combination of them, then the game makes a different decision.
Code:
comparevars 0x5000 0x5001
if b_== goto @equal
comparevars 0x5000 0x5001
if b_>> goto @greater-than
comparevars 0x5000 0x5001
if b_<< goto @less-thanFinally, a variable can be set to a different value in different ways than a flag, a flag can use 'setflag' but a variable has a whole array of different commands! Much of these are like simple math problems.
Keep in mind, that variables can not be used as 'Person ID' in A-Map, only flags will work, and finally, if a variable is set to 0xFFFF, and you use addvar to it, and add 1 or more, then it will loop around back to 0x0, and start adding from there, same with subvar, if a variable is set to 0x0, and you subvar 1 or more, it will loop around to 0xFFFF, and subtract from there.
That is all for now, check in next week for another helpful beginners tip!
Tip donated by 0m3GA ARS3NAL
Interview
An in-depth chat with...
Spoiler:
Interview by Disturbed
CSS by Darthatron
Last edited:
