[HN Gopher] Nintendo GBA and DS ROM hacking guide (2016)
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Nintendo GBA and DS ROM hacking guide (2016)
Author : kiisupai
Score : 94 points
Date : 2023-01-02 18:24 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gbatemp.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (gbatemp.net)
| steponlego wrote:
| Back in the '80s there was a lot of save game file hacking going
| on. My buddy and I would look at save game files for all the hot
| fun games in the hex editor and try to figure out what values we
| could change. Bard's Tale had a fairly simple layout, which we
| painstakingly figured out by, for example, using one item and
| seeing which values decremented. BTII or III, can't remember,
| went to some length to prevent this easy hacking of the save
| state. By the 1990s it was common for save game files to be
| obfuscated in various ways, making the process much more of a
| pain in the ass.
| beebmam wrote:
| These days it's far easier to read/edit the memory of running
| programs than the serialized data saved to disk in save files.
| lostgame wrote:
| Well; isn't that why a lot of traditional ROM hacks
| historically (at least in the SEGA Genesis/MD hacking scene I
| was involved with) used savestates as rudimentary ROM hacks?
| EG - hasn't it been easier to manipulate data in runtime
| memory, eg in a savestate; than within the ROM?
|
| Asking because I don't actually know, I'm just recalling a
| lot of _my_ early ROM hacking, and indeed discoveries in
| ROMs, by manipulating memory and savestate rather than the
| ROM itself.
| deaddodo wrote:
| I couldn't tell you without a specific example, but I would
| suspect distributing an edited ROM would be much easier
| than save state hacking.
|
| In a general sense, I suspect the latter is more popular
| because it's not illegal to modify/distribute save state
| data; ROMs certainly can be.
| helf wrote:
| This is a surprisingly well written /book/. Thanks for the link.
|
| I used to do game save file hacking on palmOS as a teen. Was a
| hoot. Eventually turned to full blown "cracking" of software.
| That was a fun hobby.
| dang wrote:
| Is there any URL we can switch the top link to, that contains
| some of this information but doesn't do an automatic file
| download as https://gbatemp.net/download/gba-and-ds-rom-hacking-
| guide.33... does? (Those make annoying links for frontpage
| submissions, even when the content is good.)
| kiisupai wrote:
| I dislike them myself and actually tried looking for one but
| the only alternative I found was scribd, which would require a
| login to download (even more annoying).
|
| Open to hear any good suggestions for PDF hosting.
| dang wrote:
| Your efforts are much appreciated and good content even more
| so!
| wereallterrrist wrote:
| Yeah, even just a(n automatic) "[pdf]" in these submission
| titles would help. Or the site could just not force download
| since most browsers can natively read PDFs, etc.
| everly wrote:
| Seems like just taking out the word download after the slash
| does the trick:
|
| https://gbatemp.net/download/gba-and-ds-rom-hacking-guide.33...
|
| The info isn't embedded on the page, but the download button
| for the PDF is unforced but available
|
| Edit: Looks like this thread has the info from the PDF
| embedded:
|
| https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentatio...
| dang wrote:
| Nice catch. Changed from https://gbatemp.net/download/gba-
| and-ds-rom-hacking-guide.33.... Thanks!
| jayofdoom wrote:
| The 3DS hacking scene is still pretty active. Great form factor
| devices, fully jailbroken. Guide is pretty easy to follow at
| 3ds.hacks.guide :)
|
| I've got mine as the best form-factor emulation station (for
| older games) you could imagine :).
| haunter wrote:
| +1 it's worth it for the NSUI [0] alone. The 3DS, especially
| the New 3DSXL is the best handheld to play NES/SNES/GB/C/A
| games, pixel perfect!
|
| 0, https://3ds.eiphax.tech/nsui
| messe wrote:
| > The 3DS, especially the New 3DSXL is the best handheld to
| play NES/SNES/GB/C/A games, pixel perfect!
|
| For me at least, I think the Steam Deck has it beat these
| days, although I'll admit I miss the smaller form factor
| sometimes.
| idonotknowwhy wrote:
| Love my New 2DS XL with cfw, but the best form factor for
| me for those you mentioned is the Miyoo Mini.
|
| I have it in my pocket all the time and put has save
| states, fast forward and low power standby with instant
| power on.
|
| I can play it in short busts whenever I have a few minutes
| spare instead of using my phone.
|
| I recently beat Pokemon Emerald for the first time thanks
| to this and I'm further through dk county than I've ever
| been
| loupol wrote:
| Very comprehensive resource for someone trying to get into rom
| hacking in general.
|
| The GBATEK specification [0] mentioned several times in the guide
| (not limited to the GBA, it also covers Nintendo DS, DSi and 3DS)
| feels like a real treasure trove of technical data.
|
| [0] https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm
| lostgame wrote:
| This appears to be a phenomenal document containing a lot of
| fascinating info on ROM hacking in _general_ - while the document
| does explicitly appear to cover GBA and DS most specifically (at
| 300+ pages, I could only skim through it, here) - it covers
| surprisingly fundamental basics about game development, emulation
| and core programming concepts.
|
| This will be a document I'll keep around for the foreseeable
| future. Amazing work.
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(page generated 2023-01-02 23:00 UTC)