Hacking Your Way to Superstardom with the NESticle Emulator
Hacking Your Way to Superstardom with the NESticle Emulator
Version 1.2
written by aStROcReEp 2000
Due to the fact that I get many people asking me how to make their own ROM hacks - I decided to create this file. I hope it helps give people some idea of what to do to hack ROMS. Granted there are many other ways to hack ROMS that sometimes usually produce better results - but this is a method that anyone can use. As long as your version of NESticle is 0.30 or later...and the game must contain VROM. To check and see if it does, quickly open the game in NESticle and use the menu bar to go under File and Write VROM. Any kind of error message means you're out of luck.
First, you should have a copy of the original ROM you want to modify in NES format. As well as an idea of what you want to call your hack and what you want to do with it. With these things in mind...it is now time to make a copy of the original ROM and re-name it to what you want your hack to be named. Remember that when I do guides like this, I assume you know minimal things about your computer - not to insult intelligence but to make sure I have as few questions as possible from other people.
Alright, there are 2 different ways to accomplish the task of making another copy of the original ROM, based upon which operating system you are using. You'll want to be in Windows though...
If you're in Windows 95 it's as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Just press those key combinations (you can also use the Edit section of the menu bar to Copy and Paste) in order from within your Windows Explorer program, with the file highlighted. You should see a new file created called "Copy of xxxyyy.nes", with xxxyyy being the name of the ROM you copied. Go over to this copied file, and click the right button of your mouse when the file is highlighted. This will bring up a small menu to the side of the file. Drag the mouse down to "Rename" and let go of the button. Type in the name of what your hacked ROM will be! You can also do this by highlighting the file, clicking on File from the menu bar, and click on Rename.
If you're in Windows 3.x, not only should you go out and buy a Windows 95 upgrade to improve your computer's performance, speed, and ease of use by tenfold...but you'll also have a bit harder time acheiving this goal. Seeing as how I don't know how to do such a thing from Windows 3.x... but that's okay. Make a directory on your hard drive and copy the ROM into this directory. It would be preferable to make it a subdirectory of your NES directory containing your NESticle emulator. Now, go into this directory and rename the file from there by using the File menu on the menu bar and clicking on Rename.
Alright, so now you have a new *.nes file with a name corresponding to what you want your hack to be called. Now here comes the fun stuff, the real action. Load up the ROM image in NESticle, and play 'til ya get to a point where the sprite or graphic you want to modify is in front of your face. (this way you will be sure you're making everything look how you want it to) It may also be a good idea to pause the game, unless, like Batman or Megaman or something, pausing the game brings up a screen that makes the character or sprites obsolete. In this case just use Alt+P to pause the emulation instead.
Anyhow, now just click on Settings from the menu bar, and click on Pattern Tables. A huge window will be brought up from which you may be able to actually recognize some of the funny looking things on - it's a table of all the graphics the game uses at the particular part of the game you're at!!! No joke! Just look around and look for something you might recognize!!! Here's where it gets easy...
From here, once you've found the sprite or graphic corresponding to what you want to modify, keep your eye on it and click the right mouse button on the Pattern Table window - you'll see colors changing before your eyes. Do this until the colors match what you're looking for FOR THE SPRITE YOU ARE MODIFYING. Now, click on a part of the sprite (notice you can't click on but only an 8x8 section at one time). At the right of the new small 8x8 window brought up are 4 colors aligned - the colors the sprite uses! Highlight one and go to town at the left like you would in a Paint program!!! You'll obviously have to do this with just more than one sprite or more than one 8x8 window. But if you close your windows and look at your screen, whatever changes you made to that sprite should be visible on the screen now!
To save your work, click on File from the menu bar, then Write VROM. That's it!!! NOTICE : If you get an error that says "Error writing VROM" or "No VROM exists" - take those words to heart!!! The game has no VROM (video ROM, ROM is ReadOnlyMemory), only pure ROM and with NESticle you can only modify games with VROM. In this case, you'll need to grab the PasoWing editor instead, so in turn you'll need NES Image and the game in Paso format...it is not fun! But everything can be grabbed from my Hacker's Guide. Another method, which saves frustration of converting file formats - is to use X-Late and change the graphics, if you can figure X-Late out.
Notice you can only use those 4 colors when editing the sprite...the only other way to use different colors instead of the 4 given...is to change the palette the game uses with a hex editor program. This is all explained in a seperate text file of mine entitled "Palette Modifications of an NES file using a Hex Editor". Anyhow, go to it and hack your way to super-stardom!
If you ever have any questions or problems concerning the procedure explained in this document, ALWAYS feel free to e-mail me at the following address : jasonl@ipa.net. INCLUDE A COMPLETE, DETAILED, ELABORATE description of the problem. I'll do whatever I can to help :) It's especially good to let me know what game you're modifying and what you are trying to modify, I may be able to do it in my own time and get back to you. Also, feel free to distribute this document fully and freely to any and all persons who might need it, but do NOT change any words unless you throw credits in my direction. Last, but not least - if you think you can do a better job of explaining it - GO FOR IT. AND LET ME KNOW. Thank you, good evening, hold on to the bars, hands inside the car at all times, and exit stage left when the ride is over. ;)
