DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

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DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby Cyclone » April 6th, 2022, 12:32 pm

Hi all,

This is a Text editor for Donkey Kong Country. It's not that great but does the job. You can edit most of the text in the game. Level Names, Character Dialog, Fake Credits and Actual Credits. I still need to add the load functions though.

Hopefully this makes it easier for hackers to add custom text to their hacks without having to use a HEX Editor.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks!

v_0.28 → Text can now be backed up and loaded from a text file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5najbq1w ... 2.zip/file

v_0.26
https://www.mediafire.com/file/1my7q60d ... 2.zip/file


If you have suggestions on improving the editor. Let me know.
Thanks for looking.

UI_Screen1.jpg

UI_Screen2.jpg
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.18 *Dialog Editor. Work In Progress

Postby rainbowsprinklez » April 6th, 2022, 11:08 pm

I'm sure you did not intend this, but you distribute a DKC ROM with your program Image
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.18 *Dialog Editor. Work In Progress

Postby Cyclone » April 7th, 2022, 1:05 am

what the heck. how did that happen???
I re-uploaded it without the rom
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.18 *Dialog Editor. Work In Progress

Postby Cyclone » April 7th, 2022, 9:16 am

I still don't know how that ended up in the folder. very strange.

rainbowsprinklez did you try out the program?
Thanks.
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.18 *Dialog Editor. Work In Progress

Postby Cyclone » April 21st, 2022, 1:29 pm

Hi, I just have a question about the location of a pointer for Cranky's dialog.

I have this text block....

Gnawty the beaver can
be rolled or jumped on!

I can't seem to find the pointer for this text block.

Any ideas? Thanks!
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.24 *Dialog Editor. UPDATE

Postby Mattrizzle » May 7th, 2022, 10:20 pm

Cyclone wrote:Hi, I just have a question about the location of a pointer for Cranky's dialog.

I have this text block....

Gnawty the beaver can
be rolled or jumped on!

I can't seem to find the pointer for this text block.

Any ideas? Thanks!

That text block isn't used anyway.
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.24 *Dialog Editor. UPDATE

Postby Cyclone » May 8th, 2022, 11:32 am

Thanks for the info Mattrizzle. Yeah I thought that was the case.

Has anyone actually tried the editor? Does it work. Should I make changes to it?

Also Where can I post it so more people will see it. The Atlas is very quiet lately.

Thank you!
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.24 *Dialog Editor. UPDATE

Postby Cyclone » May 18th, 2022, 3:40 pm

Hi all,

This is a Text editor for Donkey Kong Country. It's not that great but does the job. You can edit most of the text in the game. Level Names, Character Dialog, Fake Credits and Actual Credits. I still need to add the load functions though.

Hopefully this makes it easier for hackers to add custom text to their hacks without having to use a HEX Editor.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1my7q60d ... 2.zip/file
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby rainbowsprinklez » July 26th, 2022, 2:26 am

Did you ever find a way to change the length of the credits?
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby Cyclone » July 27th, 2022, 3:24 pm

rainbowsprinklez wrote:Did you ever find a way to change the length of the credits?


No I haven't. Did you?

rainbowsprinklez wrote:I DON'T want to call you out in front of others, but I tried and really don't like your program. My biggest thing is the fact that it alters the file directly on the disc. What if an error is thrown in your program? Then there is permanently that error in rom. The easiest way to get around this is by reading the file into a byte array. Make all your changes to that array. When you press 'Save', that entire byte array is written to the file.


That's ok. Is that the only thing you don't like about my program? What else is an issue? I wish someone mentioned that a long time ago....! I would have to re-write a lot of code...

Can't I just make a 'Backup Copy' of the current ROM before it's written to the disk?'
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby rainbowsprinklez » July 28th, 2022, 9:05 am

Cyclone wrote:I wish someone mentioned that a long time ago....! I would have to re-write a lot of code...


Not to argue.... but...
rainbowsprinklez wrote:Pro-tip. I have seen your past work. Best practice is to NOT directly edit a file on the disk. What you should do, is instead read the file into a byte array.


viewtopic.php?f=37&t=2523&p=45115#p45115
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby Cyclone » July 28th, 2022, 5:18 pm

That’s true. Sorry

Is making a backup copy when the user saves the changes ok.. instead of what you suggested?
Thanks
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby rainbowsprinklez » July 28th, 2022, 11:16 pm

Cyclone wrote:Is making a backup copy when the user saves the changes ok.. instead of what you suggested?


That is a band-aid fix. That might work, but it isn't good practice. Trying to make this work is more trouble than just refactoring your code. Trust me, you will be thankful when you make the change. Otherwise, unforeseen problems may arise.

For context, a friend was using my program. His computer crashed, and for some reason, his rom file was all 00s. If a backup and the original are both manipulated by your program, you run the risk of losing both.
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby rainbowsprinklez » July 30th, 2022, 2:40 pm

Cyclone wrote:
rainbowsprinklez wrote:Did you ever find a way to change the length of the credits?


No I haven't. Did you?


Spoiler!
$7f36b5
$7f376f
$7f376b


Check these 3 values. These are important.
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby Cyclone » August 4th, 2022, 9:05 pm

Those are ram addresses? Not sure what to do with them
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Re: DKC Editor V_0.28 *Text Editor Updated June 5th

Postby rainbowsprinklez » August 4th, 2022, 10:09 pm

Cyclone wrote:Those are ram addresses? Not sure what to do with them


That's because I was pretty vague. Sorry. There is a much easier way to do this. 0x01d5b7 holds the 16-bit pointer where credits start. Offset 0x01d5c9 holds the 16-bit pointer where credits end.

Those RAM addresses...
$7f36b5 - I think holds the current text pointer. Idr.
$7f376f - The last word of the credit's pointer is written here.
$7f376b - This value gets updated whenever a word hits the top of the screen.

In Geiger's, set a breakpoint on write to those RAM addresses and start logging right before credits start. Those values are written now.

Now, fake credits are done identically with the same RAM addresses. Can you figure out what values to change here??
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