If tiles from the old map get messed up during the transition, that's because you're using two different tilesets that don't have blending tiles. This is present in Link's Awakening but not in the Oracles (by default) because they designed maps around the issue. If you're talking the full map is garbage but gets fixed if you pause and unpause... well huh, I thought I fixed that. After the update in ZOLE where it decompressed tilesets and edited assembly to make them load uncompressed, this issue would occur at random due to my lazy programming and not storing the bank. Interrupts would rarely happen during the time of loading the tiles and the bank would change so the graphics loaded afterwards would be wrong. It's like a 4-byte assembly fix, and I thought I fixed it in the latest ZOLE update. Maybe I only fixed it for Nature because nobody was using ZOLE. If you want it fixed, you'd have to personally send me your send me your ROM so I could fix it or wait for me to write a guide on it because ZOLE 4 isn't getting anymore updates.

Wow, you map really fast. Looking pretty sweet.

Hey guys. So for the longest time, ever since the introduction of ZOLE 4 Live, I've been unsatisfied with ZOLE 4. It's not programmed terribly, but it became hard to add onto and Live really built onto that. There are many Ages-only things about ZOLE that would make Seasons support really difficult to add, especially regarding the assembly patches. Those are other things bothering me - the assembly changes are... not so good. Before the introduction of my own assembler I made, I had to use a hex editor and BGB and do a lot of things by hand. This is the primary reason most of the programs can only be used for Ages.

However, now I have my assembler, a lot of experience regarding both games, and had a long break since the last time I worked on ZOLE. For some reason, a few people decided to pick up ZOLE and use it, which is really inspiring - just enough to breathe life into the forums.

So you might be asking yourself what's with the title. Oracles Suite? ZOLE 6? What ever happened to 5? Well, in regards to ZOLE 5, I dropped it because of the plugin system. The way I designed it was extremely flexible - but too flexible. It might've just been called "Gameboy Tool Making API" because you could literally use the system to make tools for any game. Eventually this got to be really annoying and I stopped working on it. I like the ideas of plugins, but nobody would honestly write them except maybe Fatories. As for ZOLE 6, that's the next number up. ZOLE 4 was the first functioning editor for the Oracles I made and actually tried 3 other times. You can read about that all Here.

But anyway, the title of the next editor for the Oracles would be the Zelda Oracles Suite. ZOLE stood for Zelda Oracles Level Editor and the rest of the programs had their own names. This was proven to be inconvenient for many and the idea for this program is to combine everything into one - making it a suite. Every design, tool, assembly patches and custom formats would be written from scratch. While the current layout of ZOLE is decent, there are some things it can improve on (like removing the area editor window since it's useless). Unfortunately, this means old hacks won't work with the new editor. My solution is to have data transferring from old ROMs to new, but for some custom additions like sprite changes will have to be done manually. It will be way too much work to convert the old ROMs.

"Why now, Lin? And how do we know you'll stick with this one? You let us down with ZOLE 5. We will not forgive. We will not forget." Well honestly, about 3 years ago I released ZOLE 4 and in just over one short month I'm off to college to start my life. I don't know if I'll ever get a true opportunity to dedicate myself to hacking the games that made my childhood and stood as the reason I started programming seriously. I can't just leave ZOLE in its current state. My primary starter motivation will come from playing both Ages and Seasons in the next couple days - something I haven't done in many years. And as usual, people using ZOLE and creating hacks is the best way to do it directly. Seeing Radz's creation reminded me of a user by name of Mue, who created an amazing past-style overworld, which then took me back to the days of the scene's prime. I want that feeling back again, and I can't do it alone. If the forums or IRC are dead, then I lose motivation. But as soon as someone shows me something they edited, I feel that spark in me and want to work with the games. I promise to try and hold my part if you guys do the same. Join the IRC and actually make it #ZOLE! (the server is irc.caffie.net #ZOLE port 6667)

So with all that to read, I give you news regarding Fatories's and my hack, Oracle of Nature. It's dead. For good. It's not completely because we don't want to work on it, but the path we took after level 3 was disastrous and we don't like it. We also did a poor job with the overworld and could make a significantly better hack now. The dungeons are all really cool still though, so we might still use those if we ever make another hack.

~Lin

Just so you know you don't have to edit posts - double posting is acceptable here.

Looking pretty... Rad... But seriously, that's awesome. I can't wait to see what you do in terms of plot and events, but that's great mapping. Few people have actually been able to do a good job placing tiles together, especially around mountain areas, but you nailed it. I'm looking forward to the present map! Let me or Fatories know if you need any help.

Yes, and it's actually pretty easy - but note the script will never function again unless you revert the change. In the map script chooser, below the second box you'll see a label containing 0x#####. In a hex editor, go to that address and replace the byte there with C9. If you care to know why, map scripts use assembly and the address is the start of the procedure it uses. C9 in assembly is return, so as soon as it starts the procedure it quits it.

Regarding the in-game map, you can't edit the overworld tiles, icon that comes up on them, or text that's associated with them. The game should still change whether or not they've been explored though, so I'm not sure what the deal is. You can access the map in-game by pressing Select. I take it you've used the "remove beginning locks" patch, right?

You can access the interaction's position, but only to write it. Unfortunately, you'll have to create a separate condition in your script. So you don't have to have multiple types of 72s, you can do a jump3bytemc for each gravestone position. If it is possible to check the interaction's position, I don't have the opcode covered.

The way a script works, if you do "checkmemory" it will only pause the script until the condition is met. This means as soon as you push anything, the script continues forward and will never go back. The way you could solve it is to put the position check first (also, there is a memory address dedicated to the tile the player is currently on). At the end of the script, check to see if link is NOT pushing and jump back to the beginning where the position check happens. This way it loops indefinitely without freezing the game.

It seems the activity of the forums depends on the progress of ZOLE. Since ZOLE hasn't had updates in a while, people stopped coming. Though, that might change with Fatories's sudden splurge of motivation and my want to make a new Oracles level editor.

This day marks the 3rd year ZOLE 4 has been around. It really is hard to believe, but the dates don't lie.

Well I suppose Lin and I have been doing fine. Zero development has been done to ZOLE 4 and there likely wont ever will be any more development to be honest. Forums are dead, IRC is more or less dead. That about sums it up.

Pretty much. With real life just around the corner, I don't see it changing anytime soon. Glad to hear from you though!

Not through ZOLE unfortunately. However, since each tileset gets decompressed, you can paste the data in a hex editor or through tile layer pro. However, I don't actually remember where ZOLE decompresses them due to not using it in a long time. If you look through a tileset editor like TLP and match it with the tiles in ZOLE's tileset editor, you should be able to find them just fine.

Fatories would be glad to help you! Join us in the IRC at irc.caffie.net #ZOLE

Post something like this, message him, or join the IRC at irc.caffie.net #ZOLE

I fixed this yesterday

Recently I played Zelda Minish Cap for the first time and after getting through the first dungeon I realized the game was just like the Oracles and needed a level editor. I've only attempted GBA hacking once before but regardless I dove right in and now it's a project that's made decent progress. Right now it only has map viewing, which I'm pretty sure is flawless but I'm not entirely sure since I haven't even beaten the game yet! Here's a screenshot.



The layout isn't official or anything but to actually get the maps displaying took a few days. The compression used is the regular GBA LZ77 for everything. Before releasing it, I plan on having the basic stuff for a hack - character editing, warp editing, map property editing (I already have this data figured out), connection editing, level editing (obviously), chest editing, and anything else I feel is necessary.

~Lin