Arceny Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Okay, I'm new to the world of hacking, but I would like to partake in this interesting journey... But with every journey you need tools. What would I need to get started on hacking n64 roms? I know I need to know C programming language . (What programming languages? What tools? What other know how/terms?) Btw, if we do this correctly, this can serve as a guide to future people who just wanna know.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 haddockd Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 It really depends on what you need to do. ***Feel free to correct any of this as it has been awhile for me*** xDaniel has a number of helpful tools written in c#.net that are used for importing, converting, creating, etc Spinout, Jason777 et al have written a number of programs in python and/or C. These tend to be lower level applications that delve into rewriting actors or parts of the game after being disassembled Assembly - a must know if you plan on changing any low level part of the game such as physics, etc Hex editor - all modders worth their salt are comfortable with a hex editor such as XVI There are already a plethora of tools out there, although a comprehensive list eludes me (in my defense I spent all of 5 seconds looking for it). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Jason777 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Everything from scenes, rooms, cutscenes,game text, and some parts of code.zdata, and objects follows a format. You don't need to know any programming for these things unless you want to write a tool which modifies them for you. People usually use hex editors to modify these. This area of hacking isn't all that hard to understand and only requires for you to memorize file formats. Everything else (such as actors) is made up of code. You would need to know MIPS assembly and C programming to understand how these things work. Writing tools for these things may prove to be a lot more difficult than the files which follow a format. People usually use disassemblers to modify these. These area of hacking is much more difficult. Also, haddockd, I'm surprised anybody took notice of the things I have done Like spinout, I hardly get any feedback... Then again, I have only written one tool so far which deals with some of the low-level parts of the ROM. Anyways, the Wiki is a great place to start reading up on file formats: http://wiki.spinout182.com 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Arceny Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 I know this may sound kind of broad, but how long is one expected to learn all this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 xdaniel Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 haddockd is right in that it depends on what you want to do. I don't know everything either - quite frankly, I have no clue about assembly on the N64. The GB-Z80, sure, a bit of ARM Thumb on GBA too, but not N64. Think of something in particular you want to try. If it's about OoT, maybe changing one of the existing maps? For that there's several visual editors, like Utility of Time or my own SayakaGL, which allow editing of many things. However, there's certain settings you can't change with them - like background music, skybox settings, etc; especially Sayaka can't do this -, for which you'll need a hex editor, an understanding of hexadecimal numbers, and a document about scene/room headers (which the wiki has, see Jason's link). Don't worry about trying to learn everything right away. Start with one thing and learn what's necessary for that, like the map editing example, then move onto something else, maybe something a bit more difficult. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Arceny Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Okay. But, what would you recommend in steps? (Like in school, first you had to learn addition and subtraction, then multiplication/division, then the principal of decimals, then pre algebra, then algebra etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Jason777 Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Start off with simple things like actor placement and texture edits and gradually move on to more complicated things (what comes after would probably be text edits). Once you get to advanced concepts where no one can really teach you the exact way to go about doing those things (hacking with C and ASM), you should have a decent amount of knowledge of the various file formats of the game. The Z64 wiki is a great place to start looking for information. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 haddockd Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Quoting yourself...I lol'ed *wonders if you are going to "like" your own post too. Kidding. Jason 777 is right as is xDaniel. Pic one thing you need in your mod and go with it or you will be overwhelmed ant not accomplish anything (at least not effectively). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Question
Arceny
Okay, I'm new to the world of hacking, but I would like to partake in this interesting journey...
But with every journey you need tools.
What would I need to get started on hacking n64 roms?
I know I need to know C programming language .
(What programming languages?
What tools?
What other know how/terms?)
Btw, if we do this correctly, this can serve as a guide to future people who just wanna know....
Link to comment
Share on other sites
7 answers to this question
Recommended Posts