ROM Editing

[Legendary]

I've done some searching on this subject, but I haven't gotten any results other than what people have done with ROMs, so I'd like to ask what utilities I need for changing ingame text, modifying/swapping textures, changing music files, etc. The main reason for this is that the dialogue in many Nintendo games, Paper Mario in particular, have bothered me by being too kid-friendly. So I decided to do some searching, and after finding a Chrono Trigger ROM patch that changed a lot of character dialogue (whoever made it went way overboard with sexual references, which made it seem immature), I figured I could do something like that with Paper Mario, only less deluded, and changing certain textures to make combat a little more 'M' rated. Any help with this would be well-appreciated.

 

[CF2]

You need a hex editor my friend! Google "frhed" and download that. Open up the Paper Mario rom (back it up first) and use the search feature to find the string you want to replace. You can type in it, as long as it remains the same length (spaces count, so you can make a string shorter by putting spaces at the end). Do not overwrite anything that isn't a string, including the gaps between strings, and the rom should work. Textures are replaceable with Rice's video plugin (look in the 1964 forum), but the other stuff cannot be done right now.

 

[Legendary]

Will Hex Workshop do? I'll check out frhed, and thanks.

EDIT: Okay, I'm going to use Hex Workshop... now I'd like to know how to change ingame text with it. I don't really know how hex editors work, so can somebody get me going in the right direction?

 

[CF2]

OK, open the rom in hex workshop. The raw data will be i the middle, and anything that translates into text will appear on the right. Open the find dialog box (usually in the edit menu) and search for the string of text you want to replace. If you replace it with a string of equal length, the rom will still work. If the string you are replacing it with is too short, you can lengthen it with spaces.