Recent Posts

This looks amazing, as always, even under the BigT deadline.  Great job!

Comments:
File > Export HUGE png (lol)
Are the numbers in the hex editor supposed to be that gray?  I can barely see them...

[Version:]

Version: 0.05

New Features

• Built-in Hex Editor
• Automatically downloading and using lists (currently only works for music)
• Migrating the map editor to use the editing component plugin system
• Patches now must be applied manually through use of the patching system (auto-detects files; uses IPS format and an optional ".desc" file containing menu properties)
• Clipboard is much bigger

Notes:

• You must apply the "256-Bank Maps" patch before editing for your maps to save correctly
• Since the system for map editing was completely redone, there might still be some issues. None have been found since fixing all discovered bugs, but it's a beta release, so some might occur
• The Oracle of Nature patch is included with this build just to show the patch system works with existing patches
• Area editing under "Map General" currently doesn't work, nor does setting the map's music. This is because these features were going to be migrated to use the component plugin system but unfortunately didn't make it in the BigT-driven deadline

Download: http://www.zeldahacking.net/downloads/zohs/0.05.zip

Great! That helps a lot. Unfortunately, I just ran into a new problem a few minutes ago. I just finished the last dungeon for a hack of Link's Awakening and I seem to have broken the warp in the Wind Fish's Egg. Since I used the book in the library to give directions for a complex puzzle instead of directions through the egg maze, I wanted to rig the egg so that it would warp the player directly into the boss room, bypassing the maze entirely. When I changed the warps, the game crashed on entering the Egg. I've changed the warps back to their original settings, based on the settings I found on a clean rom I had for just that purpose, but the crash persists. I get the error message "Unknown opcode fd at 675a." Is there any way to reverse this? The project is already complete besides a few textual revisions; this is the last obstacle before I have a new game.

If you are seeing a portion of text you've written and nothing else then it is probably exactly what you said (the text was longer than the original length). There are no set lengths for text in Link's Awakening, the game just has pointers as to where to start reading text from and then a marker so it knows where to stop. For the Lanmola text the game is still reading from its original location which is the owl statue text now.

To fix this you will have to use the repoint tool that is a part of the text editor. Basically you find a new address (for this you could just go to whatever location is after your owl statue text, which would probably be the remnants of the Lanmola's text) and then you will repoint the Lanmola's text to that location. Then you can just edit the text at that location and the game will read it from there. Alternatively you can open the ROM in a hex editor and look for free space (00s) and repoint to a location that has adequate space for the text you want.

I started using LALE a few days ago and am about halfway through a revising of the eight dungeons. I have attempted to edit the owl dialogue for the sake of atmosphere and add some textual hints here and there (the new dungeon order is 12384576, which warrants some rerouting), but I'm having some trouble getting it to stick. I know that you need to click save as well as click "accept" in the text editor for any change to be saved, but when I pull up the game on VisualBoy, the new text does not appear. I've already had some success, getting some lines of text to change and get rendered correctly. In fact, the text I'm having trouble with, the Lanmola text, is the tail end of an owl dialogue I wrote. I think the problem might have something to do with me exceeding the original length of that owl dialogue, and the extra text overwriting other lines of text.
I know the traffic here is pretty light--which is surprising, considering how excellent this tool is--but I wanted to ask. Are there any ideas what might be the problem?

Okay, thanks

No problem

Okay, thanks

Simple. Static objects appear in all rooms because of a design choice. Since they're consistent in every dungeon and only a couple here and there, it's much easier to be able to see all of them at once. So when you choose to display them, what you see is every static object in that dungeon. If one appears red, it means it's located in another room. If it's green, it means it's in the room you're viewing.

Index: This is like interaction index. Which static object are you editing? is what this means. -1 means none, 0 means the first, 1 means the second, etc.
Map: The map the static object is located at by default. Where it starts.
Unknown: I can't remember. It seems to commonly be 3. Play around with it and see what happens.
ID: If memory serves me right, this is just the first byte in an interaction ID. It controls what kind of object appears. 16 is a cart.
Object factor: I don't remember, but something tells me ID and object factor should go together. I believe they're basically just an interaction ID. Like to spawn a static ZOSE script object, ID would be 72 and object factor would (likely) be the index of the script.
X and Y: Pretty obvious.

Feel free to pop in the IRC for any additional questions, or just post them here. And thank you. It is getting old now which means Fatories and I didn't know as much when making it, but it did have a lot of neat dungeon puzzles. My favorite are the level 2 any-order-challenge thing, where each time you completed one of the challenges a platform on the ground floor before the boss would appear. Level 3 was my favorite, with the (WARNING SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED IT) Link's Awakening boss key puzzle and Pokemon 1st generation switch "puzzle". There were quite a few assembly hacks and nifty scripts overall.

Thanks!

I have some questions about Zelda hacking:

Can I insert more characters than the originals from Oracle of ages? If the answer is no, can I use the same character in different maps with a different text?
Is the text from the signs editable from ZOTE? Because I can´t find sign's text there...

(Sorry for my english, I'm spanish)
And thanks for this great application! I prefer Zelda Oracles Hacking Suite since I'm a beginner, but it has less options...

Yes, but not like you'd expect. First off, there is no inserting anything. You'll have to edit what exists or repoint data and add what you want. But it's nothing like adding characters in GBA Pokemon games. NPCs are interactions, which are pointers to assembly. NPCs are mostly untouched in hacking, so there isn't much documentation on them. It doesn't help that very few of them follow a specific format. I tried making an NPC editor that controlled the sprite and such but it only worked for a small selection and wasn't worth using. So it's best to just try and use existing ones and editing their text.

That said, it's very difficult to find just a random NPC you can use. Most of them only appear when certain flags are set in the memory, and then their text sometimes changes based on that. So you can try that and use ZOTE to find and edit their text.

If you're looking for an easy way to edit NPCs, the decompile interaction feature does rarely work with NPCs. You can use it to try and find their scripts, which can then be edited to control what they say and how they act. I think that's what Fatories and I did in Nature's intro event.

Lin, you probably eventually saw this question coming
Okay, hopefully this will be one of the last things I need to know, even though I probably said that in the last post, too.  Static objects are dungeon-only, stay where they are until you leave the dungeon, etc.  Correct me if I'm wrong:  they work kinda like interactions with the index basically being the identifier of the object (you know what I'm trying to say). I know the map, X, and Y values of them.  But I was taking a look around in the Nature demo you sent me (the primary reasons I wanted Nature were so I could get some motivation for my own hack, and so I could check what you did with some interactions and scripts so I could figure some things out on my own without asking so many questions here) and I was looking at the first floor on Level 2.  I noticed that the same three static objects were in every room here in the same location, showing as red boxes.  Why is this?  I'm assuming they only get interacted with in one room (makes sense).

In some rooms, there are objects marked as green boxes.  These seem to only appear in one room.  Besides that, what's the difference between the two colors?

Finally, could you give a basic tutorial on how to add one?  The things I basically don't know are the object factor, unknown (obviously, no pun intended), and ID.  Well, I know that the ID is the actual object, but what are IDs of common static objects, like the colored block and mine cart, and what are some other static objects commonly used in dungeons?

BTW, Nature is amazing, if I haven't already mentioned that in the IRC.  Besides getting enjoyment out of playing the hack, I've found out a few things about ZOSE and hacking I didn't know before just by example, like getting the arrow shooters on the wall to actually shoot arrows.  I'm sure I'll figure out a lot more too.  Awesome hack and thanks for it!  Too bad it'll never be finished