Some day I'll probably remake ZLADE, and make it just as good as ZOLE. Back then, I didn't know much about GB hacking, or even the slightest bit of Z80. Plus my programming skills weren't too hot then, so that had a huge impact on performance and stability. Though, that's going to take a long time because as soon as Oracles hacking is at its best, I'm going to be attempting to write an emulator, hoping to write a debugger greater than BGB's.

No. I really don't like Link's Awakening at all and the public ZLADE is beyond repair. And that has to do with the spriteset.

Indeed. Make sure you follow the tutorial on changing chests though, because it can get confusing.

Hmm... You've got a point. This would require a bunch of other work, but should take less time than a full tileset editor.

Can't decide which. But whichever it is, it probably won't be ready for quite some time.

~Lin

Well, I've been messing around with the text engine and there isn't much space to do things. According to the code, a LOT of work is done to get that final address of the dialogue. Apparently there is more than one reference byte to words, which probably means there are several word banks. The only problem is finding what does what. However, as long as we find a word in a word table and something that references it, we can do some math to get the result.

For example, word 0C in word bank 05 is at 0x777D8, which is "pirit". I don't know where else the word is used, but level one puts S in front of it to get the dungeon title. What probably happens is spirit is used so much but it saves space to insert the type of s rather than to use another word. AB in word bank 03 is Level.

I'm not really sure how high a byte has to be to be detected as an ASCII character, but I know it's atleast 0x20 (space). It also turns out if the amount of characters goes off the textbox (AKA you went too far without putting 01), the game inserts random graphics that require input for each "character", and some even change the music. This gets me thinking that the other opcodes in the text can control different things, like colored words (obviously), but maybe they can have some sort of events embedded in them.

~Lin

All a gameshark code does is change one value in a memory bank/address into another, so in the end you're going to have to write a value to the flute address. The only problem is, it's going to be hell to write. The dialogue code is all over the place so it's kind of gonna be really hard. However, you can do something easier like making the flute obtainable in a chest  and modify the chest loading code. You'd do something like checking the first chest value, and if it's xx, don't actually give you a weapon, but just modify the flute you have. Though, it'd be kind of hard when messing with dialogues, but you can place a check on those too. I don't know, but it should be more than possible.

Oh yea. I thought for some reason in OoH, the tide was lower at night. Thanks.

Specifically what you're talking about, no. That's not possible with any game, nor will it be unless the game knows what emulator is used and they have some form of messaging that controls outside-of-game events. But you can make an ASM script that modifies a memory address, which does the same as a gameshark code.

Well if we take a page from Oracle of Hours(a joke map done by somebody on vgmaps.com), there would be several events that are only active or suppressed during certain times.  Things like tides, blooming flowers, people appearing and disappearing.  The good news is that you could just copy and paste the map from present and past, and each have their own interactions set up.

Puzzles would have to take advantage of elements such as the sun, moon, temperature changes, and visability.

Maybe you can get some ideas from these maps: http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/April2008/index.htm#LegendOfZeldaOracleOfHours

Actually, I had talked to Jon Leung a while ago and I got permission to remake them, but he doesn't remember much about the maps, like starting points, NPCs, and all that. The dungeons look kinda boring too, and the Sky map is a nightmare with all the portals. Plus, we would need to code in a spinner, which wouldn't go very well. And finally, those maps are definitely for a Seasons hack.

Let me start off by saying that the maps look good, although I'm not sure if I like the idea of going between day and night because wouldn't that mean your just travelling on the same maps but in a darker setting? At least thats what I think of when you mean day and night.
Also just my opinion, but don't you think it would be more fun (I guess you could call it that) if you made the player have to do something in order to get the sword rather then just walk outside and open a chest?

Seriously though, so far it looks really good, and I'd definitely play it.

Different palette for sure, but I wanted to copy the idea of the Oracle of Hours maps. Like Jigglysaint said, water subsides in the night, flowers close, etc...

This is a hack I've been working on while testing ZOLE. Basically, time has frozen and you will be switching from day to night. Currently I've created 10 overworld day maps, and 2 indoor/cave maps.

You get the sword from the chest outside your house, the shield from the house (Which is hard to afford xD), and the seed satchel from under the shop. There are enemies in only two of the maps (Excluding the cave), but are pretty simple enemies. Here are the maps so far.



Hopefully I should have the first dungeon started soon.

~Lin

No problem. And that person is most likely going to be me. I've already cracked the text engine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJXHJ0ZkzgY As you can see there with the old man dialogue) but there's a lot of stuff I haven't figured out, and judging by the code that's used to get the text location, I'm not looking forward to finding the rest of it.

After seeing this list, I presume there is a map music changer built in with the editor? Because that would be very helpful, and good.

Yup.

I also altered sprite 2B so that it's presence(F6 control code) will let you fall down to the screen below in a sideview area instead of catching you at the bottom.  Right now I'm not working on any hacks untill the fixed version comes out, but things are going to be sweet!

I PMed you the latest build, which has the breaking events fixed, the script detector fixed, and other bugs fixed. If you don't find anything wrong with that build I'm going to release it.

[Note: You need to know how to use a hex editor and know binary.Be sure you have applied the "Remove Beginning Locks" patch or this will NOT work!Also, this won't work properly if you use an existing save file. A new one must be made AFTER this has been done.]

Note: You need to know how to use a hex editor and know binary.
Be sure you have applied the "Remove Beginning Locks" patch or this will NOT work!
Also, this won't work properly if you use an existing save file. A new one must be made AFTER this has been done.

Welcome. This is a tutorial on how to change the seed the seed satchel starts out with. If you're a beginner hacker, this tutorial might not be for you.

Okay, so first off you need a hex editor (Obviously). You also need a calculator that can convert binary to hexadecimal and do bit-wise operations. I recommend Windows Calculator in Scientific Mode.

Step 1: Okay. This is pretty much the most important step. Open your calculator and in binary mode, enter "100000". In hexadecimal, this is 20. Now, basically the game uses the upper 5 bits in this value to add to a base address to get the memory address to write to. The lower 3 bits are the bit index (0-7). Right now, the default value is 20, which sets bit 1 on C69E. Now, in another calculator window, in decimal or hexadecimal mode, hit the number of the seed you want and convert to binary. Here's a list.

00 - Ember
01 - Scent
02 - Pegasus
03 - Gale
04 - Mystery

So if we wanted to start with Pegasus Seeds, we would enter 02. Now, convert it to Binary and we'll have 10. Now go back to the other window, and on the binary tab, click the OR button and enter the binary code from the other window and hit =. You should end up with 100010, or 22.

Step 2: Now lucky for us, the value is in the ROM and just sitting there begging to be edited. In your hex editor, goto address 0xFC53B. There, you'll find 20. Change that to the value we got. For this demonstration, we'll enter 22.

Step 3: Well, now we changed the default seed, but it by default isn't set. Instead, you'll see an Ember seed with 9L-  and it will be unusable. Well, we're going to need to write a custom ASM script for this one, but lucky for you I already have!

Now, in your hex editor, go to address 0x1FF08. You should see C9. If you don't, you haven't applied the "Remove Beginning Locks" patch. Now, make sure your hex editor is on OVER mode, which means it will overwrite the existing data when you type. Now, type in this code, or bytes, in the data section of your editor, which is commonly the left. However, replace the ** with the index of your seed (Like 02 would be Pegasus). Remember to not hit backspace if you mess up! Use the arrow keys instead!

Code:

FA 9E C6 FE 00 C0 3E ** EA C4 C6 C9

Alright, so basically that's an ASM code that checks if the only seed you have is the starting one (**), and if it is, it equips it. This allows us to also keep the way the saving was before where the seed would stay equipped after we shut the game off.

But that's it. Here's some screenshots.



Hopefully it wasn't too complicated. Some time I'll make a tool to do it instead. Oh, and right now you can't change the "Ember" to something else. You're going to have to either wait for a text editor or hex edit the text instead.

~Lin