[NES]Can someone help me out hacking certain types of codes? Probably extremely easy.

[gamer89]

Hello, I'm pretty much a newbie to code hacking and I've been playing around with the NES FCEUX emulator and have been code hacking for the past couple of nights. Although I'm not completely new to this as i've made a couple of codes in the past for SNES games. I'm trying to step my game up a bit now to expand the possibilities

Here are some of the codes i've hacked (or in one case, tried to hack) in the past two days, so you can get idea of how much I know when/if I get some help around here. Please click spoiler below to view, as I don't want scare off any potential helpers here with all that text:

Spoiler Alert! Click to view...

Skate or Die 2 - Have lots of tacos, or other items. This is as easy as it gets since the item amount ## is right on screen..

Legend of Zelda - Max 254 rupies. Again very easy for same reason as above... lots of keys, buy items for cheap, etc.

Magic of Scheherazade - A whole bunch of exp pts after one kill. Although this one is sort of wack since I simply hacked the total amount of exp accrued , as opposed to just hacking how much exp that 1 kill gave.

I also tried to hack my coins total, but, unexpectedly, it did not work. Either because I tried to set the number too high, or I got careless somewhere and screwed up. Ahh who cares.

WCW Wrestling - Hacked a code for easy win because CPU/Player 2's health bar is completely red upon first grapple move. Simply knock down and pin or submission him. I would say this is only a slightly tougher hack than the previous above ones since there is no on screen number, just a health bar that appears momentarily upon doing a grapple move.

RBI Baseball - All P1's baserunners run extremely fast, extremely slow, or anything in between, however I want. No on screen number, stat, etc, like all the others hacked above. Clearly my most impressively unimpressive hack, to date. Also hacked a seperate code for P2/CPU2.

Also, some simple player name hex editing through the file, editing on sceen HR/.AVG text, infinite balls, strikes, etc, other silly stuff

Well, that took a long time to type. But anyway, the main reason why I'm posting here is because I want to step up my newbish code hacking skills.

Basically I need some advice and directions on how to go about hacking codes of the following nature, like:

1. in RPGs, how much exp/$$ an enemy kill would give me, for example 50 exp instead of 2 exp.
2. in fighting/action games, how much a punch/kick depletes the opponents health.
3. in sports games, like in football, a touch down being worth 10 instead of 6, or in basketball a made basket worth 5 pts instead of 2.

I'm sure you expert code hackers can get the idea from the above and how they all correlate to the type of codes i'm looking to hack.

So yeah that's basically the gist of what i'm trying to accomplish/learn. I'd really appreciate any help.

[Tony H]

Not exactly what you asked for, but it still applies: http://gamehacking.org/?s=faqs&id=159

It explains how to make weapons stronger. Would work the same for your #2 request above (how much punches deplete opponents health).

I'm sure other hackers here can help with your other requests.

[gamer89]

Thanks for the link, however, using the debugger seems a just bit outside of my current knowledge level, and quite frankly scares me off a bit :P. But, i'm sure if I follow along that guide and example it would make me more familar with it.

But I have one question, is there something that comes before "Part 1" in that example? I mean, what is the easiest way to go about getting the blue blob's RAM address if I don't already know it?
Like what if I wanted to get the red blob or orange knight's address instead?

I'm guessing first I get the enemy on screen, then I use RAM search and somehow narrow it down?

Hopefully you understand what i'm trying to say.

[Tony H]

I would recommend getting familiar with the debugger in FCEUX. That's the key to figuring out most of what you want to know (for NES games). Learning the assembly language for whatever system you're working on is also very useful. NES uses 6502 assembly.

Here's a link to a guide that explains how to use the debugger in FCEUD: http://codehut.gshi.org/DebuggerGGcodes.txt

The guide also tells you where to get info for doing RAM searching. In short, to find a RAM address for an enemies HP, just reset your RAM searcher, hit your enemy and search for "less than", move around some without hitting your enemy and search for "equal to", hit your enemy again and search for "less than", hit him again and search for "less than". Keep doing that until you narrow down your possible codes. Note that when you actually kill the enemy, the value for his HP will usually be zero.

[gamer89]

okay well now i feel stupid for asking because i already knew exactly how to get an enemy's address. I literally just explained about half of how to do so, in my previous post. so let's just pretend like I never asked lol. I must've been tired or something.

anyhow, I read through your site this morning, including about the debugger... extremely helpful, I feel much more knowledgeable already

[gamer89]

I was under the impression that each enemy had it's own RAM address (such as 00c5) but this is not true. Correct? I went to the first palace and fighting 2 of those skull heads and looked at the address one of them was 00c5, the othe was 00c7.

Do enemies have their own specific RAM address anywhere?

[rimsky82]

Typically, there can only be a certain number of enemies on screen before the game starts to slow down. There will be about that many RAM addresses allotted for enemies, and are used in turn as they appear.

[ReyVGM]

If an enemy screen has space for 5 enemies, then there will be 5 addresses.

[gamer89]

Is it possible to make an enemy modifier for this game?

[Helder]

If only we knew what game you were talking about. Rpg's usually have a table with enemy data such as hp, exp etc. but ram codes are usually a few lines or in some cases the exp is stored in one address and every enemy defeated has its exp added to it.