Press Start

Do you like Pokemon? Do you like to read blogs? Do you have an interest in creating (or at least transforming an existing game into) your own Pokemon game? Well, dear reader, do I have news for you!

If you couldn't tell from the title, in this blog I will be examining and going over the basics and fundamentals to ROM hacking Pokemon games and creating my own in the process. Now, for those who have no idea what that is, allow me to explain: ROM hacking refers to modifying the ROM file of a video game to alter dialogue, graphics, maps/levels, gameplay, and more. ROM hacking is typically done through hex editors and various tools or applications. The mainline Pokemon games on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance have arguably the most accessibility to hackers due to the wide variety of tools and support for hacking the games.

 Many different kinds of ROM hacks exist. Some ROM hacks are created to remove instances of censorship and restore a game to its original state. Other hacks are created as "fan-translations" for games that were never shipped to certain countries. The Mother 3 English translation hack is one such example. Since Nintendo had no plans to port Mother 3 overseas, a dedicated team of hackers decided to translate the game themselves so English-speaking audiences could experience the game themselves. Most interesting and creative, however, are ROM hacks that aim to completely transform and revitalize a video game. There currently exist hundreds of Pokemon ROM hacks that deviate from their original game's design and focus to the point where one could consider them to be entirely new games and experiences. 
A compilation of screenshots from Pokemon Glazed, a ROM hack of Pokemon Emerald, featuring custom Pokemon, sprites, and map

Now, in this blog, I will not be attempting a ROM hack on the scale of a hack like the above picture; ROM hacks like this take as much time to develop as an actual game. In Pokemon Glazed's case, the author, redriders180, began work on the hack in 2012. A large beta for the game released in 2014, and the author continued development on it until April 2018. Thanks to the time spent developing it, Pokemon Glazed boasts more content, Pokemon, events, regions, and battles than the original Pokemon Emerald game on the Game Boy Advance. 

In this blog, I will be hacking Pokemon FireRed for the Game Boy Advance in particular. 

To start, I'll go over some of the tools and software we will need to actually begin ROM hacking: (Note: This is not a final list of every tool or application I will be using. As I progress through this blog, this list may be updated in the event I utilize more tools to accomplish more complex tasks in hacking the game)

  • Pokemon FireRed ROM
    • This is pretty self-explanatory; you can't ROM hack a game if you don't even have it. Please not that you should not download a ROM if you do not own a legal copy of the game. Piracy is bad.
    • You can technically use whatever Pokemon ROM you want, but I will be using Pokemon FireRed in particular for this blog. Some Pokemon games have less support in hacking than others, so be careful with your selection.
  • A Game Boy Advance Emulator
    • Not required per se, but needed if you want to see your work in action.
    • I recommend Visualboy Advance for emulation purposes. If you need help installing it, there are plenty of tutorials of how to download emulators on the web.
  • Pokemon Game Editor
    • A very handy all-in-one tool compatible with all the mainline Pokemon games on the Game Boy Advance.
    • The tool was started in 2010 by author Gamer2020.
  • eXtreme Script Editor (XSE)
    • A tool that helps with editing in-game scripts, such as cutscenes or interactable objects, developed by HackMew.
  • Advance Map
    • As the name implies, this tool will allow for editing in-game maps and areas. Although the process may seem fairly simple at first, there is a decent amount of depth to it.
    • This tool was created by LU-HO of PokéCommunity.
This blog will be updated weekly detailing my experience with hacking the game and lessons on how to do so. In my next post, I will be showing off setting up these tools for use and getting to work on hacking. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to let me know!

Comments

  1. AshleyOctober 9, 2019 at 9:53 AM

    I'm really excited to see your progress on this project. Will you be explaining the tools more in depth when you start using them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevin EnnisOctober 13, 2019 at 9:13 AM

      Of course! I'll be focusing primarily on the core functionality of the tools and explaining how they work/what they do in more detail as I progress.

      Delete
  2. domdevOctober 9, 2019 at 2:09 PM

    This sounds awesome, I have been using Rom pokemon games for the last couple years. The only question I have right now is if you prefer any websites in particular for downloading your Rom hacking tools. I am exciting to follow your blog and start Rom hacking myself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevin EnnisOctober 13, 2019 at 9:20 AM

      Thanks for your interest in the blog! I have no preferences in terms of websites for the tools, although this site (https://www.pokemonhacking.com/) has a good collection of tools available. The site also features tools available for Pokemon games outside of the Game Boy Advance games, like the DS.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pokemon Game Editor: Part 1

Image
In this post, I will be looking at the Pokemon Game Editor (PGE) tool. This lovely little tool works across all the mainline Pokemon games on the Game Boy Advance, otherwise known as Generation III of the Pokemon games. Specifically, these include Pokemon Ruby, Pokemon Sapphire, Pokemon FireRed, Pokemon LeafGreen, and Pokemon Emerald. This hacking tool was created by Gamer2020 and published onto GitHub originally in 2010. The tool was last updated on May 13, 2017. I will be using this tool often throughout the blog, so, if you wish to follow along, be sure to download it from the above hyperlink. Once downloaded, extract the contents of the .zip file and run PokemonGameEditor.exe. This is how the screen should look upon initial startup. Now, before the tool can actually be used, a ROM must be loaded with it. Simply click the big button that says "Load ROM" and select the .gba file of your Pokemon FireRed ROM. NOTE: If you see an error upon loading the ROM, then the
Read more

Pokemon Game Editor: Part 2

Image
Hello again. In my last post, I discussed the various features and hacking capabilities that comes with the Pokemon Game Editor hacking tool. Please view my last post if you need a refresher, because, for this post, I will be showing off how to use the tool to create our own custom Pokemon! First, follow my last few steps in my previous post until you create a new spot for a Pokemon in the Pokemon Editor. Your screen should look like this From here, we can begin actual progress. The first (and easiest) step is renaming our new Pokemon. As you can see from the "Pokemon Selection" drop-down menu, our Pokemon's current name is just a bunch of question marks. Choose whatever name you would like, but, since I am hungry, I will dub this Pokemon as "HAMBURGER". Note: in the Game Boy Advance Pokemon games, all Pokemon and characters have their names spelled with capital letters. For consistency, I recommend you do the same with this new Pokemon, unless you want
Read more

Advance Map: Part 1

Image
Hey all. For this week's blog post, I'll be taking a look at Advance Map, a map editor for each of the five Generation III Pokemon games. Advance Map was created by LU-HO of PokéCommunity, and it was originally released in 2008 on the same website. The latest version of the tool can currently be downloaded from here . Here is how the program will look upon loading the Pokemon Emerald ROM. In one of my last posts, which you can access here , I briefly explained how to add external programs to the Pokemon Game Editor tool. Using that same process, let's make sure the Advance Map program is added as an external program to PGE. The below screenshot is how your External Programs tab in PGE should look. As you can tell, its a fairly straightforward process. With that out of the way, let's load up the Pokemon FireRed ROM we've been using and open Advance Map through PGE.Upon starting up the program, we'll be greeted to a blank screen with various tabs and m
Read more