Total Beginner - Not Exactly Short Series of Questions That I Can't Find Answers For Elsewhere :)

StevenC21 · Apr 2, 2020

Just as a preface, I recognize that starting a rom hack from scratch is a big endeavour. I am using this as much as a learning opportunity as a creative project. Understanding lower level computing is something I am lacking in.

First off, there seem to be a massive amount of guides to ROM hacking on this site. That is truly wonderful! But it seems, especially with the mapping guides, that they no longer have pictures! In some cases, the image hoster has removed the pictures, but other times there are just no images where there are clearly supposed to be.

I would post links but this is my very first post so I cannot do that yet.

Are there any newer guides I'm just missing? This is a relatively minor nitpick, however, I can learn without many pictures.

But I have many more questions that I hope can be answered.

First of all, just some advice for how to go about it. Should I be editing pre-existing maps to be whatever I want? Should I delete all the maps in the banks and start fresh? Stuff like that.

Second, how do I do things like change the names of different areas? When I create a new map, in Advance Map there are only options to change it to pre-existing names (I have no idea how to create a pointer to a new thing for example)

Also, do I need a decompiled Firered rom? I have a .gba file but there are many referenced to a decompiled version (my rom hack base would be Firered).

Are there any guides that actually walk me through just the general things you'd need to be doing frequently to make a hack? I recognize there are very complicated things that you need to do, but I don't even know what questions I need to ask, let alone how to get answers. I found a guide by Linkandzelda... (would link but again, very new), but only the introduction and part 1 are complete. Part 2 is nonexistent and Part 3 appears to have existed at one time but currently is completely nonfunctional :(

I was very sad to see that so many resources for learning how to do this are gone. I was hoping that somebody here knew what I need to do? Obv. some sort of mentorship would be amazing but that is very unlikely and I am not asking for that, simply a guide of some kind on getting started.

Another thing is I don't know how to find the right memory addresses or pointers or offsets for different things, none of that stuff makes sense to me, but I don't know where to go to learn either. I'm a huge noob.

That is all, I hope you guys can help me learn. :)

Pyxal · Apr 2, 2020

StevenC21 said:
Just as a preface, I recognize that starting a rom hack from scratch is a big endeavour. I am using this as much as a learning opportunity as a creative project. Understanding lower level computing is something I am lacking in.

First off, there seem to be a massive amount of guides to ROM hacking on this site. That is truly wonderful! But it seems, especially with the mapping guides, that they no longer have pictures! In some cases, the image hoster has removed the pictures, but other times there are just no images where there are clearly supposed to be.

I would post links but this is my very first post so I cannot do that yet.

Are there any newer guides I'm just missing? This is a relatively minor nitpick, however, I can learn without many pictures.

But I have many more questions that I hope can be answered.

First of all, just some advice for how to go about it. Should I be editing pre-existing maps to be whatever I want? Should I delete all the maps in the banks and start fresh? Stuff like that.

Second, how do I do things like change the names of different areas? When I create a new map, in Advance Map there are only options to change it to pre-existing names (I have no idea how to create a pointer to a new thing for example)

Also, do I need a decompiled Firered rom? I have a .gba file but there are many referenced to a decompiled version (my rom hack base would be Firered).

Are there any guides that actually walk me through just the general things you'd need to be doing frequently to make a hack? I recognize there are very complicated things that you need to do, but I don't even know what questions I need to ask, let alone how to get answers. I found a guide by Linkandzelda... (would link but again, very new), but only the introduction and part 1 are complete. Part 2 is nonexistent and Part 3 appears to have existed at one time but currently is completely nonfunctional :(

I was very sad to see that so many resources for learning how to do this are gone. I was hoping that somebody here knew what I need to do? Obv. some sort of mentorship would be amazing but that is very unlikely and I am not asking for that, simply a guide of some kind on getting started.

Another thing is I don't know how to find the right memory addresses or pointers or offsets for different things, none of that stuff makes sense to me, but I don't know where to go to learn either. I'm a huge noob.

That is all, I hope you guys can help me learn. :)

UPDATED (Regarding kalarie's {see below} point outs):
I am sure this will help. ALOT. As for the questions...

First: You SHOULD NOT delete existing maps AT ALL. Just edit the EXISTING maps. And it is HIGHLY advisable to not insert new maps as it takes ALOT of space.
Second: As I said, DO NOT make new maps. As for changing names, just go to the "Header" in Advanced Map and change the name of the map/area.
Third: .gba files are PERFECTLY fine.
Fourth: As for the Linkandzelda's guide and existing guides being OLD, try the link I gave you above.
Fifth: EVERYONE is a noob in the beginning. Don't worry about it.

HELPFUL TIPS TO GET STARTED:
Insert Complete FireRed Upgrade for a better hack.
If you want to edit Pokémon Sprites and various items, try here.
Use Advance Map 1.92 for mapping and XSE for scripting.
Use a Firered v1.0. Do not use v1.1 as it isn't supported well. I would link Firered v1.0, but it is not allowed on PokéCommunity.

I hope you find ALL OF THIS useful. Good Luck.

@kalarie
Thank you very much for the obvious point outs.

kalarie · Apr 2, 2020

@StevenC21
I remember that first part of a guide by Linkandzelda was pretty helpful to me when I started. I'd suggest checking it out, you might not understand everything right of the bat, but it gives a pretty good understanding of how ROM hacking works. After you've done so, I'd recommend following the tutorials by Anthroyd as @Pikachu37 said.
For binary hacking a Fire Red 1.0 (Squirrels) ROM would be fine;)
If you're interested in decompilation, I'd suggest checking out that part of the forum here (I barely have any knowledge about it)
@Pikachu37
Don't suggest Mr. Dollsteak ROM Base please, it's outdated and has a couple of known bugs. It's not being worked on anymore. The same goes for PGE in terms of messing up your ROM.
I'd suggest not using any ROM base in patch form, but import stuff yourself.

Pyxal · Apr 2, 2020

kalarie said:
@StevenC21
I remember that first part of a guide by Linkandzelda was pretty helpful to me when I started. I'd suggest checking it out, you might not understand everything right of the bat, but it gives a pretty good understanding of how ROM hacking works. After you've done so, I'd recommend following the tutorials by Anthroyd as @Pikachu37 said.
For binary hacking a Fire Red 1.0 (Squirrels) ROM would be fine;)
If you're interested in decompilation, I'd suggest checking out that part of the forum here (I barely have any knowledge about it)
@Pikachu37
Don't suggest Mr. Dollsteak ROM Base please, it's outdated and has a couple of known bugs. It's not being worked on anymore. The same goes for PGE in terms of messing up your ROM.
I'd suggest not using any ROM base in patch form, but import stuff yourself.

That information may be faulty... MrDollSteaks ROM base is excellent with minor changes to offsets and such. Most of the bugs are fixed and it allows you to patch it to the ROM easily. Many hacks support his ROM base. As for PGE, it allows you edit a CLEAN ROM without disruption, destroying and ruining your game. It also supports MrDollSteaks ROM base.

kalarie · Apr 2, 2020

@PokeChu
It's not excellent, it's buggy. Iirc even MrDollSteak himself recommends not to use it. The same goes for PGE. it has a reputation of messing up your pokedex. I'd recommend Gen III Hacking Suite or G3Tools instead, they also have flaws but at least they don't have a reputation of messing up your ROM too badly. I would only recommend to use PGE for more advanced ROM hackers, but certainly not for a beginning ROM hacker.
To get back to the ROM bases, if you really want to use one as patch (which I definitely not recommend), I'd say use Leon's Fire Red ROM Base instead. It's newer and fixes some bugs that were present in MrDollSteak's base. Even better would be to use the complete Fire Red Upgrade (CFRU) by Skeli.
Again, please don't recommend this kind of stuff if you have no idea. Beginners can't judge whether anyone has any experience in ROM Hacking or not and don't know who to believe.

Pyxal · Apr 2, 2020

kalarie said:
@PokeChu
It's not excellent, it's buggy. Iirc even MrDollSteak himself recommends not to use it. The same goes for PGE. it has a reputation of messing up your pokedex. I'd recommend Gen III Hacking Suite or G3Tools instead, they also have flaws but at least they don't have a reputation of messing up your ROM too badly. I would only recommend to use PGE for more advanced ROM hackers, but certainly not for a beginning ROM hacker.
To get back to the ROM bases, if you really want to use one as patch (which I definitely not recommend), I'd say use Leon's Fire Red ROM Base instead. It's newer and fixes some bugs that were present in MrDollSteak's base. Even better would be to use the complete Fire Red Upgrade (CFRU) by Skeli.
Again, please don't recommend this kind of stuff if you have no idea. Beginners can't judge whether anyone has any experience in ROM Hacking or not and don't know who to believe.

Thank you for the obvious point outs. I have edited my original post.

StevenC21 · Apr 2, 2020

Hey guys, I have come across another strange thing that might be really advanced (not sure, again, new to this :P)

So just as a small experiment for myself, I wanted to add a pokemon from gen 4 to the end of the dex just to see if I could. I have a Pokemon Firered 1.0 ROM and I used Gen 3 Hacking Suite to 'expand pokemon', adding one pokemon and incrementing the total dex entries by one. I let it find free space and then just kind of picked the first free address (I don't really know how free space works tbh, that is another thing on my list of stuff I probably should learn sooner rather than later!), and it created the new pokemon. So I scrolled down and began editing it. All I really did was scroll over to 'sprites' and dump some of the Palkia sprites from the big community project as well as a Palkia icon. It all looked good in the editor. But then problems happen! When I go to them save, it says something confusing about 'multiple pointers detected' and that multiple pointers point to the sprite I am using??? I just added it though, so I don't see how there could be any other objects pointing to this... anyways, I hit change anyways and ignored that error because I didn't know what to make of it. I can get the exact wording if you guys want. I then proceeded to open advance map and test to see if I could add this pokemon to an encounter table. And the new pokemon did not show up anywhere in the list.

Is there something obvious I did wrong? I could not find any information on this that was relevant to Gen III Hacking Suite, which seems to be the tool of choice. Hope I was clear as this is not my area of expertise.

Edit: Here is a list of errors I received with Gen III Suite. Please note that this is a clean ROM that has had no modification to it whatsoever. It is completely fresh, and I have opened it in no other programs. I have reinstalled G3Suite and copied a new ROM from my backup so I could repeat all my steps exactly. Here is what I have done, as clearly as possible:

Open G3Suite. Open Firered Rom. Error Number 1 Occurs: "At rom offset 0xfffffe there is an unknown rom id. This means that your rom has a number at the offset of the rom id that is not in the ini. Would you like to overwrite this number with a new one?" I hit 'Yes' because otherwise I cannot open this at all, and I admittedly apparently risk data loss. Next, I hit "Expand Pokemon". I set "New 'mons" to 1, and Total Dex Entries to 388. I chose the specific offset 0x720000 because it was the first in the list, and it seemed as good as any.

I scroll down the pokemon list and view the new addition at the bottom, 0x1b8. I click the Sprites tab and add my sprites. Without doing anything except loading the two images, I hit 'Save Tab', and it informs me that I must repoint sprites. I choose offset 0x740000 because it is at the top of the list. Then I receive error 2. "Multiple Pointers Detected: You have chosen to fill the 'sprite and palette' with free space. However, I have detected that there are multiple pointers to this image outside of the one that you are using. That means that there may be multiple things using this image. Overwriting it could cause issues. Should I continue and fill it with free space?" I choose Yes to complete my save, and then close G3Suite. I then open Advance Map, go to route 1, attempt to place TEMP (the default name for the new pokemon) in a encounter list, but I cannot as it is not in the dropdown.

I hope my long-winded explanation of my actions was helpful :)

And of course, if this is something that is simply too complex for a new person to ROM hacking, feel free to tell me. I understand if it is better to learn things in a certain order.

kalarie · Apr 3, 2020

Certainly, it's a good idea mess around with AdvanceMap a bit and following the tutorials mentioned above first. However, I don't believe what you described is featured in any of them.

AdvanceMap is an old tool (there is no better one to date) that doesn't dynamically track whether you expanded the dex or not. Therefore you'll need to make those changes by hand. Check either this or this thread to see your expanded pokemon in de drop-down menu and it should work.

Pyxal · Apr 3, 2020

StevenC21 said:
Hey guys, I have come across another strange thing that might be really advanced (not sure, again, new to this :P)

So just as a small experiment for myself, I wanted to add a pokemon from gen 4 to the end of the dex just to see if I could. I have a Pokemon Firered 1.0 ROM and I used Gen 3 Hacking Suite to 'expand pokemon', adding one pokemon and incrementing the total dex entries by one. I let it find free space and then just kind of picked the first free address (I don't really know how free space works tbh, that is another thing on my list of stuff I probably should learn sooner rather than later!), and it created the new pokemon. So I scrolled down and began editing it. All I really did was scroll over to 'sprites' and dump some of the Palkia sprites from the big community project as well as a Palkia icon. It all looked good in the editor. But then problems happen! When I go to them save, it says something confusing about 'multiple pointers detected' and that multiple pointers point to the sprite I am using??? I just added it though, so I don't see how there could be any other objects pointing to this... anyways, I hit change anyways and ignored that error because I didn't know what to make of it. I can get the exact wording if you guys want. I then proceeded to open advance map and test to see if I could add this pokemon to an encounter table. And the new pokemon did not show up anywhere in the list.

Is there something obvious I did wrong? I could not find any information on this that was relevant to Gen III Hacking Suite, which seems to be the tool of choice. Hope I was clear as this is not my area of expertise.

Edit: Here is a list of errors I received with Gen III Suite. Please note that this is a clean ROM that has had no modification to it whatsoever. It is completely fresh, and I have opened it in no other programs. I have reinstalled G3Suite and copied a new ROM from my backup so I could repeat all my steps exactly. Here is what I have done, as clearly as possible:

Open G3Suite. Open Firered Rom. Error Number 1 Occurs: "At rom offset 0xfffffe there is an unknown rom id. This means that your rom has a number at the offset of the rom id that is not in the ini. Would you like to overwrite this number with a new one?" I hit 'Yes' because otherwise I cannot open this at all, and I admittedly apparently risk data loss. Next, I hit "Expand Pokemon". I set "New 'mons" to 1, and Total Dex Entries to 388. I chose the specific offset 0x720000 because it was the first in the list, and it seemed as good as any.

I scroll down the pokemon list and view the new addition at the bottom, 0x1b8. I click the Sprites tab and add my sprites. Without doing anything except loading the two images, I hit 'Save Tab', and it informs me that I must repoint sprites. I choose offset 0x740000 because it is at the top of the list. Then I receive error 2. "Multiple Pointers Detected: You have chosen to fill the 'sprite and palette' with free space. However, I have detected that there are multiple pointers to this image outside of the one that you are using. That means that there may be multiple things using this image. Overwriting it could cause issues. Should I continue and fill it with free space?" I choose Yes to complete my save, and then close G3Suite. I then open Advance Map, go to route 1, attempt to place TEMP (the default name for the new pokemon) in a encounter list, but I cannot as it is not in the dropdown.

I hope my long-winded explanation of my actions was helpful :)

And of course, if this is something that is simply too complex for a new person to ROM hacking, feel free to tell me. I understand if it is better to learn things in a certain order.

When you do get it right (hopefully), you should use Advance Map 1.95 to edit Pokémon and Advance Map 1.92 to edit maps, scripts, and what not. Don't use Advance Map 1.95 to edit anything else except Pokémon.

StevenC21 · Apr 3, 2020

Thanks for the tips guys! I am glad that you have been so willing to help me. For the record, I have admittedly asked a couple questions that I think I could have figured out myself. I did this not because I want to be spoon-fed, but rather because I think it would be good to possibly add to the already vast sea of knowledge with respect to ROM hacking. Cheers!