Can't find introductory materials

dan131m · Post by **dan131m** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:04 am

Hi, I'm completely new to this, so feel free to go ahead and shout "RTFM N00b" or whatever at me. My question is where this manual is... I've seen a lot of references to the site romhacking.com, which has apparently gone offline. I'm looking for any introductory material about existing tools for romhacking, or advice on what to do from here. I've only been doing this for about three days; sorry if I come off as a complete idiot, but I've looked through google and I can't find much of anything.

My situation: I'd heard of Tokimeki Memorial and wanted to try it out, but I don't speak Japanese, or know much of anything about the language. I looked up the stuff about kana on Wikipedia, and then I took a hex editor to some save files and figured out the character map, and then I wrote a little program that went through the ROM file and dumped any text that it found (sans Kanji, because I don't know how to transliterate them, although I do have a series of .GIF files I made that show the two-byte number associated with each Kanji in the game). So basically, I have a very inefficient method for searching for text and replacing it with the same number of English characters (the game's fonts already include English characters, so I don't need to mess with that). Also, I know that most, if not all, of the text occurs in one of several blocks of strings throughout the file, which I have the addresses of, although I don't quite understand why there are several blocks rather than just one.

From here I'd like to know what you generally do when you need to make a string longer than the one that's already there. Also, I hear that occasionally input screens are reprogrammed to support longer names, if anyone knows about this I'd like to know what some of the tricks are -- I've never tried to locate subroutines in assembled code before. Finally, I'd again like any information on preexisting tools or common motifs in the design of SNES programs that would help me out.

Thanks in advance for tolerating a newcomer.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:13 am

Try this:

Louis Cypher wrote:
Kuroikaze wrote:Whirlpool's discussion board is closed off to the public, and they don't have any technical documents either.
Donut's board is open to the public. The public just needs to email (wraith) with a username and password! It was set up this way to prevent spammers and such, no hard feelings or anything.

http://donut.parodius.com/

Try asking for help there.

Cidolfas · Post by **Cidolfas** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 3:42 am

But be warned that you *will* get several replies that make no sense at all.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:48 pm

We've got a definite problem in 'the scene' right now as far as newbie romhackers getting information. Romhacking.com may have been outdated and rarely updated, but it was still the most comprehensive source in one place for beginner information. Now that it's gone, it's difficult to find good information.

We really need a new successor site or something to take it's place. First, we need to see what happened to romhacking.com. A few people have told me the domain did not expire and is still registered to Parodius(Koitsu). Then, I really feel some immedate action should be taken to put up a new central site. I would participate in this myself if I had somewhere to host a site like that. It's certainly going to be a bandwith consumer once it gets going.

In the meantime, there's some documents on Zophar's domain.

http://www.zophar.net/trans/docs.html

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:01 pm

Nightcrawler wrote:We really need a new successor site or something to take it's place.

Something like an extended SNESCentral?

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:34 pm

Yeah.. something along those lines.

ThunderClaw · Post by **ThunderClaw** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:04 pm

Necrosaro has had a project open to translate Tokimeki Memorial for a very long time. Specific questions about the game should be directed at him.

LobStar · Post by **LobStar** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:15 pm

dan131m wrote:Hi, I'm completely new to this, so feel free to go ahead and shout "RTFM N00b" or whatever at me. My question is where this manual is... I've seen a lot of references to the site romhacking.com, which has apparently gone offline. I'm looking for any introductory material about existing tools for romhacking, or advice on what to do from here. I've only been doing this for about three days; sorry if I come off as a complete idiot, but I've looked through google and I can't find much of anything.

My situation: I'd heard of Tokimeki Memorial and wanted to try it out, but I don't speak Japanese, or know much of anything about the language. I looked up the stuff about kana on Wikipedia, and then I took a hex editor to some save files and figured out the character map, and then I wrote a little program that went through the ROM file and dumped any text that it found (sans Kanji, because I don't know how to transliterate them, although I do have a series of .GIF files I made that show the two-byte number associated with each Kanji in the game). So basically, I have a very inefficient method for searching for text and replacing it with the same number of English characters (the game's fonts already include English characters, so I don't need to mess with that). Also, I know that most, if not all, of the text occurs in one of several blocks of strings throughout the file, which I have the addresses of, although I don't quite understand why there are several blocks rather than just one.

From here I'd like to know what you generally do when you need to make a string longer than the one that's already there. Also, I hear that occasionally input screens are reprogrammed to support longer names, if anyone knows about this I'd like to know what some of the tricks are -- I've never tried to locate subroutines in assembled code before. Finally, I'd again like any information on preexisting tools or common motifs in the design of SNES programs that would help me out.

Thanks in advance for tolerating a newcomer.

First of all, welcome to the board. Sounds like you really did some research before you came here, thats a definate BIG plus. Unless you want to muck with the ASM code, I highly suggest you learn about pointers. SNES pointers are 24 bits typically unless the game is seriously crazy. For someone just starting out, I would suggest padding (expanding) the ROM by 512kb, locating th epoitner tables and pointing the text blocks to the expanded area so you have ample room for text. A program can easily be rewritten to adjust the pointers in the table as well. Theres several seasoned ROM hackers here as well that I'm sure would have no problem helping you out provided you have exhausted documents on the subject. As for myself, I'm not around all that much anymore, many different commitments right now, but if I can be of assisstance, I'll add my 2 cents where I can. Once again, welcome to the boards and best of luck ^^;

Louis Cypher · Post by **Louis Cypher** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 7:42 am

SNES pointers are -not- generally 24 bit. They tend to be in my hacks, 'cuz I hack 'em to be 24 bit so I have more space for text :p

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:18 pm

Louis Cypher wrote:SNES pointers are -not- generally 24 bit. They tend to be in my hacks, 'cuz I hack 'em to be 24 bit so I have more space for text :p

That's debatable. Many times there is a 24-bit master pointer(although many times it's calculated via other offsets) to a block that has many more 16-bit pointers.

Honestly.. I'm not sure I would call ANY format of pointers the 'general' acceptance. I have seen so many variations of text storage I would have to bite my toungue to call any of them general.

The only thing that can be said for sure is somewhere, somehow a 24-bit address is created to get to the text. Whether it's calculated, uses the DB register, contained in RAM, taken from ROM etc.. is up in the air.

Sonofmog · Post by **Sonofmog** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:47 am

I have a question, I am an aspiring web master (read: I don't get paid), and was wondering if I provide the space would you guys like to set up a new tutorial collection?? I was looking for a way to give back to the comunity, and this may be my chance...

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 1:24 pm

Sonofmog wrote:I have a question, I am an aspiring web master (read: I don't get paid), and was wondering if I provide the space would you guys like to set up a new tutorial collection?? I was looking for a way to give back to the comunity, and this may be my chance...

Well, until somebody can start making a new site and get it up to par for public release, a temporary home for the contents of romhacking.com would suffice. I need to ask around and see who actually has archived backup of the site's content and if it can be put up somewhere.

It's a pretty large site you realize, right?

Sonofmog · Post by **Sonofmog** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:12 pm

As long as it doesn't hit 50 gigs, I'm cool (webhostingnetwork.com)*

* This will only be a temporary host until I get my server's dedicated DSL line in, which should be late October...**

**Unless you guys feel like that host will be enough...

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:22 pm

How much bandwith would be available for it? I'm just making sure we have a suitable location. I'm trying to get the details on how big the site actually is and how much bandwith it consumed. I don't have that data yet.

I just started inquiring about the status and possibility of me getting an archive of the site from those individuals related to the site. I should have some replies in the next few days.

Sonofmog · Post by **Sonofmog** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:56 pm

The host I mentioned only gives you 75 GB monthly bandwidth...

rlbond · Post by **rlbond** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 3:53 am

RTFM N00b!!!

Post by **badinsults** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:23 am

I can set up a section on my site for any snes specific rom hacking things. However, it would be up to the authour to maintain that part of the site, and I don't really want it to take up much space (I really don't know how much space edgeemu is actually giving me to begin with).

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:19 pm

Well things aren't going too well so far. The best I can come up with right now is an archive of the site from 2000. But in all honestly, not alot was added since then anyway. Perhaps that would be a starting point.

The last owner of the site, InVerse has not responded to any e-mails, and everyone is telling me he's the only guy who may be able to help further.

The romhacking.com domain did expire, however it is currently on Registrar hold for an undisclosed amount of time to prevent domain squatting.

I have been told the total size is around the 50meg mark.

Sonofmog · Post by **Sonofmog** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:19 pm

So, a 50 gig web host would be a touch of overkill, huh.... Since it is that small, I can get a host with less space but more bandwidth. I'll report in when I find something useful...

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:30 pm

Ok let me know. I'm going to go ahead and take up the offer and see about getting that archive from 2000 in my posession. That's the bulk of the site. Worse comes to worse, any new utilities made in the last 5 years can be added again if people actually take interest in the site.

If anybody else reading this is interested in hosting, maintaining or helping out in anyway, let me know. It seems I'm one of the few people actually willing to take action to bring back romhacking.com(or at least the content of it!).

Louis Cypher · Post by **Louis Cypher** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:53 pm

My own pet project isn't going anywhere fast, anyway

Lack of PHP support by anyone trustworthy is really hurting it.

I should nag Rascyc (in my channel) about that.

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:59 am

Cidolfas wrote:But be warned that you *will* get several replies that make no sense at all.

haha, nice euphemism.

Sonofmog · Post by **Sonofmog** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:11 am

Anyone here have any experience with powweb.com?? They come highly recommended from another board I'm on, and they offer 300 GB monthly bandwidth... but it is only for 5 gigs of space...

But if you don't mind sharing webspace, I should have space on the first host by this weekend.... (I have a client setting up a small shop on it, leaving at least 25 gigs open...)

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:03 pm

I am supposed to be receiving a copy of the site tonight. I will report back here tomorrow with the actual size of things.

I don't care about sharing space. You're talking sizes in gigs, the site should be nowhere near a fraction of the space you're alotting to it. It should be more than enough.

I'm just looking for a home for it with adaquate bandwith and features. It be nice to bring the forum back as well. And I think the site already sued a PHP based update system(not sure if it did in 2000 though). So support for CGI, Perl, PHP and maybe SQL should be availble. But can't be too picky though. Something is always better than nothing is still my thoughts on bringing the site back.

As for what 'adaquate' bandwith it.. I'm really not sure. I can't get an accurate number from anybody.

I guess one problem that was mentioned to me about bandwith was the site used to have a problem with 'archivers' or something to that effect. I guess there are programs that could download the entire website? People who tried doing things like that sucked up unnecessary bandwith.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:38 pm

Just an update. Things took longer than expected, but I got the copy of the site. It is several years and old and could use some updating.
The public can help with that I guess. It was ~28 megs zipped, but since i'm not at home right now, I can't recall the unzipped size at the moment. I'm drawing a mental blank.

So, I guess I should ask, what's next?

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Can't find introductory materials

Can't find introductory materials

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