how flexible is today's debug ROM?

[modman]

i guess easier put, what can and cant be done with this ROM and with the tools that are at todays users hand? from what ive learned with the tools we have today, you can currently:create and import your own mapsedit your main characteredit existing characterscreate and import your own charactersedit/create textedit musicimport your own musiccreate and edit cutscenesedit itemscreate and import your own itemscreate your own/edit existing scripted sequences

editing GUI's and title screensis anything on my list wrong, or am i missing anything else?

 

im curious to know, if someone put in the time and work, is it possible to turn a zelda rom into a totally different game? 

[Antidote]

If you're wanting to go that far, it's easier just to start from scratch. But from what I can tell, it's not quite THAT far yet.

[Arcaith]

Most of what's on that list can be done, if not completely, then at least in part. It would be possible to create a different game using the Zelda engine, but how far you can go toward that goal depends on how much you need to modify.

[DeathBasket]

I would go as far as saying you can do anything you want with the tools we have now. What's really needed imo is a better map of the functions in the games to make programming for them easier. What would also be nice is an N64 emulator that's good enough for you to know whether or not your hacks will work on a console, since there is none that I know of right now and this is probably one of the major factors that made me lose interest in hacking.

[HeavyZ]

Could someone experinced enough at hacking OoT  make a tool that detects things like pointers that need to be fixed, CRC, and ect. giant maps, or edited values that would crash it on real hardware?..

Ya know just based on what we've learned already does that, and if more things turn out to crash on real hardware, just add it to the program. It wouldn't help until they have already done something that will crash it, but that's why you always make a back-up rom before modding it again. A master list on hacking tools that could screw it up would also help.

[Agnostic Priest]

its a contortionist provided you know how to bend it properly. only a few people know how to bend it properly though.

[SoulofDeity]

create and import your own maps - easy (SharpOcarina)

 

edit your main character - intermediate (hex editor / f3dzex knowledge or Hylian Toolbox)

 

edit existing characters - intermediate (hex editor / f3dzex knowledge or Hylian Toolbox)

 

create and import your own characters - hard. people have written actors before just not extensive ones.

 

edit/create text - easy (ZTE)

 

edit music - easy (Instred)

 

import your own music - easy (Instred)

 

create and edit cutscenes- intermedate, has to be done with a hex editor with scene format knowledge

 

edit items - swapping models is intermediate; writing assemble code to change how they work is hard.

 

create and import your own items - hard. you'd have to adjust your link script to pin variables to certain addresses as not to break functions for the items you're replacing.

 

create your own/edit existing scripted sequences - intermiate / hard. depends on how much control you need; this ties hand in hand with cutscene editting

 

editing GUI's and title screens - easy,can be done with gs codes and there's a tool written by flotonic (can't remember the name) that can do it

[Antidote]

@heavy the checksum is an easy fix: https://github.com/DragonMinded/libdragon/blob/master/tools/chksum64.c#L151

All dev's would have to do is convert it to their language of choice.

[HeavyZ]

@heavy the checksum is an easy fix: https://github.com/DragonMinded/libdragon/blob/master/tools/chksum64.c#L151

All dev's would have to do is convert it to their language of choice.

CRC? I knew that I was just listing it as an example.

[DarthDub]

I remember when someone took Super Mario World and turned it into a space shmup (shooter). Same thing for the original Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm sure it's possible, just more knowledge is needed on how everything works in the game.