FF6 Hacking
Where do I begin? - Printable Version

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Where do I begin? - the_randomizer - 10-24-2011

Okay, so some of you may or may not know that I mentioned my desire to learn how to do some very basic ROM hacking last week. I spoke with Ryusui on youtube about how I wanted to re-translate Breath of Fire, only to learn that even someone as good as Ryusui encountered many problems with his project (like how the ROM's structure is disorganized and would require some complex workarounds) and has since put it on hiatus. During our conversation, he also mentioned that it would be a very daunting task for me to do such a thing, seeing as I know virtually nothing about hacking, much less ROM programming.

So I ask you, the FF6 Hacking Team, where do I go from here? What can I do to get familiar with ROM hacking as a whole? Find tutorials on how to use WindHex32? Learn more about hex, binary and ASCII in general? Looks like I made a foolish mistake for wanting to do such a task like ROM hacking. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself right now, but, suffice to say, this realization has been very sobering.

I need to learn how to crawl before I learn how to walk. Where should I begin?


RE: Where do I begin? - SSJ Rick - 10-24-2011

well for hacking something breath of fire is something out of almost everyone's reach here

even successfully hacking FF6 is something only a handful of us are able to do

my best advice is to learn how to use windhex32, you can never go wrong

but you need to test out what certain offsets do, studying binary and ASCII is essential as well

it will help you learn what you need to change and what 00 and FF mean and whatnot

I hope my advise is at least somewhat helpful to you


RE: Where do I begin? - the_randomizer - 10-24-2011

Thanks for the advice! I really should have thought this through before delving into such a task as this (ROM hacking), but, like all new/complicated things, I need to start with the basics of the basics. I really need to stop overreacting in my posts.

Heh, just found this http://www.romhacking.net/start Too bad I haven't seen too many WindHex tutorials. Meh. Better to have hands on experience I guess.


RE: Where do I begin? - Angelo26 - 10-24-2011

(10-24-2011, 05:54 PM)the_randomizer Wrote: I really need to stop overreacting in my posts.
Nothing personal against you, but I agree :p

I would suggest you think about what is it that you want to do. For what purpose do you want to hack a game? To insert custom characters? To change the whole storyline? to change the dialogue? You need a goal in mind before you start.


RE: Where do I begin? - the_randomizer - 10-24-2011

Yeah. There are a lot of things I didn't do that I needed to do, all of which I learned the hard and painful way. What goals do I have in mind? Well, first things first, I need to learn the basics, and maybe start of with something simple like sprucing up some text in games with simple text (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest), or perhaps changing a few item names to fit, and eventually, want to do some music hacking, but that won't be for months at least. And don't worry, I'm not offended about what you said.


RE: Where do I begin? - LordSutebenu - 10-24-2011

Though this is specific (mostly) to hacking FF6 here is a link to our tutorial sub-forum where a good deal of your questions can and probably might be answered:

https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=25


RE: Where do I begin? - the_randomizer - 10-24-2011

Cool! Thanks everyone, for your feedback!


RE: Where do I begin? - SSJ Rick - 10-25-2011

no problem and good luck to you


RE: Where do I begin? - Zeemis - 10-25-2011

(10-24-2011, 12:32 PM)Poco Loco Wrote: well for hacking something breath of fire is something out of almost everyone's reach here

even successfully hacking FF6 is something only a handful of us are able to do

my best advice is to learn how to use windhex32, you can never go wrong

but you need to test out what certain offsets do, studying binary and ASCII is essential as well

it will help you learn what you need to change and what 00 and FF mean and whatnot

I hope my advise is at least somewhat helpful to you

I could probably hack the graphics of the game, even though I've not really tinkered with it yet. Tongue


RE: Where do I begin? - the_randomizer - 10-25-2011

Now then, I hope to eventually do what I always wanted to do; make Breath of Fire 2 only use one battle theme! Tongue