Title Screen Hacking Made Easy

*-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*
 +                                                                   +
 *                  Title Screen Hacking Made Easy                   *
 +                                                                   +
 *                              v1.00                                *
 +                                                                   +
 *                            by InVerse                             *
 +                                                                   +
 *                             02/28/03                              *
 +                                                                   +
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*
 
 Introduction:
 
 The purpose of this document is to explain my personal method of
 hacking title screens. This may or may not be the best method for you
 to use. I offer no guarantees other than that this technique will
 definitely result in a hacked title screen, as long as you follow my
 directions correctly.

 I've been hacking ROMs for approximately five years and have done a
 dozen or so title screens for my own projects as well as for such
 illustrious ROM hackers as Spinner 8 and WakdHacks. As a result, I've
 developed certain techniques that work well for me and have decided
 to write this document so that new ROM hackers can learn to do their
 own title screen hacks.

 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Table of Contents:

    I. Introduction
   II. Table of Contents
  III. Document History
   IV. Required Tools
    V. Getting Started
   VI. Locating Title Screen Data
  VII. Title Screen Design
 VIII. Title Screen Insertion
   IX. Anomalies, Quirks & Suggestions
    X. Conclusion
   XI. Credits
  XII. Resources
 XIII. Contact Info

 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Document History:

 02/28/03 - v1.00 - Initial Release

 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*
 
 Required Tools:

 To hack a title screen, you'll need a hex editor with relative search
 capabilities and a tile editor. A tile editor with the ability to
 import bitmaps and a graphics editor will make things much easier but
 are not required.
 
 My personal recommendations are Hexposure or Hexecute as a hex editor
 and Tile Layer Pro as your tile editor. GiMP is my graphics editor of
 choice but Microsoft Paintbrush or just about any graphics editor
 will work.
 
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*
 
 Getting Started:
 
 So you've hacked a ROM and now you want to change the title screen.
 This might seem a daunting task, at first. So far, all you've hacked
 is text and sprites. How do you go about hacking an entire title
 screen? Well, it's not as hard as you might think.
 
 First of all, you have to learn to look at the title screen as
 nothing more than a big graphic. That's all it is. Hacking a title
 screen is no different from removing Mario's pants, it's just that
 you have to edit more tiles. And no, I don't need to hear any
 comments regarding size and Mario's pants.
 
 The first step is to make sure that your title screen isn't
 compressed. To do this, simply open the ROM you're wanting to hack in
 a tile editor and look for tiles that match up to your title screen.
 Chances are good that they're going to be scrambled around, so you
 just have to keep your eyes open and scroll slowly. If you think that
 you've found the title screen tiles but aren't sure, try editing one
 of the tiles in an obvious manner, save your changes, then load the
 ROM and see if the changes appear. If they do, you've found the title
 screen tile location. If they don't, keep trying. 
 
 If you simply can not find the title screen tiles, your title screen
 may be compressed. In this case, you have 3 options. You can solicit
 the help of someone who does ASM hacking for your particular system,
 you can learn the corresponding assembly language yourself or you can
 do what I normally do, which is give up.
 
 Once you've located the tiles in question, it's time for the boring
 part. What you want to do is "erase" each of the tiles in the title
 screen and then draw numbers on them. In other words, paint the
 entire tile the background color, then draw numbers on them with
 another color. The reason you do this is so, once you're finished,
 you can see exactly what order the tiles are laid out in the ROM.
 
 Most titles will have the tiles laid out horizontally from top to
 bottom, but I've seen title screens that had the tiles laid out
 vertically as well. Once I've numbered all of the titles, I take a
 screen shot for reference purposes. As well as showing you the
 layout, these numbers will also show you exactly how many tiles you
 have to work with and make it easier to use relative searching to
 locate the title screen data within the ROM.
 
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*
 
 Locating Title Screen Data:

 Now that you've located the tiles for the title screen, it's time to
 figure out where the title screen data is located within the ROM. You
 do this by relative searching with a hex editor. (If you don't know
 how to relative search, look for a document on the subject on one of
 the sites listed in the reference section.)
 
 I normally start with the data from the top left corner of the title
 screen when relative searching, but sometimes there are sections that
 are a lot more obvious.
 
 It's a rare occurrence when your tiles are laid out in a uniform
 manner such as this:
 
 01 02 03 04 05
 06 07 08 09 0A
 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
 10 11 12 13 14
 15 16 17 18 19

 Most likely, there are going to be gaps between tiles and sometimes
 a tile might be repeated, such as this:
 
 01 02 ?? 03 04
 05 06 06 07 07
 08 ?? 09 10 11
 12 13 02 14 15
 16 ?? ?? 17 18

 In the second example, I would most likely try relative searching for
 the second line or, if that resulted in too many matches, perhaps the
 first.

 Using the second example, what you would want to relative search for
 would be 5 6 6 7 7. Make a note of the matching locations and then
 go through the ROM and change them one at a time, saving your changes
 and running the ROM after each edit. When you see your changes occur
 in the title screen, you've found the data.
 
 Make a note of the offset at which you found the data then experiment
 with it to see just how things are laid out. If there are gaps in the
 screen, see if they're they same tile used as a space in the font (or
 another blank tile) or if they use control codes to place a specific
 number of spaces at a given point.
 
 If the gaps are normal blank tiles, you'll be able to change them
 easily. If they're produced by control codes, you'll likely have less
 control over them depending on exactly how the title screen is
 arranged. Also make a note of how they go from the last tile of one
 row to the first tile of the next. Some ROMs will have a control code
 that specifies a new line and others will automatically drop down to
 the next line after so many tiles.
 
 Take note of the values around the main focus of the title screen, as
 well. Most of the time, you'll only be able to edit the graphics
 within the amount of space allotted to them on the screen. However,
 on a couple of occasions I have lucked out and there was a hex value
 corresponding to every single space on the screen. This made for some
 very easy editing, as I didn't have to worry about how much space my
 title screen hack required.
 
 Once you've figured out how the title screen is set up, it's time to
 start designing a replacement.
 
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Title Screen Design:

 Now comes the fun part, creating a new title screen design. You can
 either do this directly in your tile editor or you can draw the new
 title screen in a graphics editor and then import it to your tile
 editor.

 Keep in mind that you're limited to the number of tiles already in
 use by the title screen, so you generally can't get much more lavish
 than what already exists.
 
 If you're somewhat artistic, you can draw your new title screen right
 in the tile editor. Most tile editors have a clipboard so you can see
 what your new title screen looks like before you insert it into the
 ROM.
 
 If you would prefer to use a graphics editor to design your title
 screen, the simplest thing to do is start with a screen shot of the
 original title screen. Set guides so that you won't go out of the
 bounds of the original graphic and this will normally prevent you
 from using too many tiles, though take any gaps or repeated tiles in
 consideration.
 
 Once your title screen is designed, it's time to insert it back into
 the ROM.
 
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Title Screen Insertion:
 
 Well, we've done the hard part and we've done the fun part, now it's
 time for the apathetic part. While not as fun as actually designing
 the title screen, insertion isn't nearly as tedious as numbering all
 of the tiles, either.
 
 First you need to get your new title screen into the tile editor. If
 you designed your new title screen directly in the editor, you can
 skip this part. Otherwise, open another ROM in your tile editor (I
 keep a blank ROM on hand specifically for this task) and use your
 editor's import ability to import your new title screen graphic into
 the editor. Now copy the new title screen to the clipboard so that we
 can put it into the ROM you're trying to hack. (Note: Chances are
 good that the colors aren't going to matchup after the import. You'll
 just have to draw over the imported title screen by hand with the
 correct colors.)
 
 Once your title screen is on the clipboard, it's time to start
 pasting it into the ROM. This is where the screen shot you took of
 the title screen with numbered tiles comes in handy. Using that
 screen shot as a reference, begin pasting your new tiles over the
 corresponding tile in the ROM. That means, if the top left tile of
 your original tile screen is numbered 1, you paste the top left tile
 of your title screen over the tile numbered 1 in the original ROM. If
 the 3rd tile of the 4th row is numbered 15, you paste the 3rd tile of
 the 4th row of your new title screen over the tile numbered 15 in the
 original ROM. This will ensure that your new title screen is mostly
 in order once you're finished pasting it in, limiting the amount of
 hex editing required to clean up the finished product.
 
 In the case of gaps or repeated tiles in the original screen, I
 normally make a note of the new tiles that match up to that location
 and then paste them after all of my other new tiles are in place.
 Once the tiles are in place, take a look in an emulator and then go
 into your hex editor and fix any problems, such as the aforementioned
 repeated tiles or gaps or any left over tiles that you don't need.

 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Anomalies, Quirks & Suggestions:
 
 Hacking title screens is a pretty straightforward process, but there
 are still a few oddities that you might encounter.
 
 One of the biggest problems you'll encounter (aside from compression)
 is when a title screen uses control codes to place gaps. Sometimes,
 you'll have no choice but to leave the gaps in place.
 
 Keep in mind that you don't have to hand draw the graphics if you
 use a graphics editor.	Just select a font, size it to match the title
 screen and type in your title. Presto, insta-neat title screen.

 Just as the original title screen can repeat a tile multiple times,
 so can you. This is particularly useful if you're using blocky
 letters or if your title has the same letter repeated multiple times.
 It takes a bit of hex editing to reuse the tiles but can save a lot
 of space as well.

 If you have a lot of tiles left over that weren't used in the title
 screen, consider reusing them for other things if necessary. When I
 finished hacking the Tabo's Tactics title screen, I was left with an
 additional 40 tiles (lots of title recycling went on) and those 40
 tiles were all available to be used as font tiles as well, since the
 title screen and font were in the same memory space.
 
 Also, remember that your new title screen doesn't have to be limited
 to text. Feel free to spice it up with graphics from the game or a
 new border.

 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Conclusion:
 
 So there you have it. Hopefully, you have an understanding of how to
 hack title screens now. There are probably other methods that you can
 use, possibly even better methods, but as I said at the beginning of
 this document, this is the method I've used and it has worked well
 for me.
 
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Credits:

 This document was entirely written by me (InVerse) using techniques
 that I developed myself. If you want to see some examples of my work
 using the techniques described in this document, try the following
 ROM translations:
 
 Sanrio Carnival 2 - This was one of my first title screen hacks. I
 used the numbered tile method but drew the entire thing by hand in
 Nesticle's VRAM editor.
 
 Hotman - I did this title screen at the request of SixFeetUnder. I
 once again used the numbered tile method but designed the new title
 screen in Tile Layer.
 
 Riddle of Murasame Castle - Spinner 8 asked me to hack this title
 screen for him. I used the numbered tile method once again and drew
 the new title screen in Gimp, pasting it in with Tile Layer Pro.
 
 
 Special Thanks To The Following People:
  
 Snowbro - for creating Hexposure & Tile Layer


 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Resources:

 My Website
 ----------
 Suicidal Translations - http://www.pigtails.net/ST


 ROM Hacking Information
 -----------------------
 The Repository - http://www.romhacking.com
 RPGd - http://rpgd.emulationworld.com
 SGC - http://sgc.jandar.net
 Whirlpool - http://donut.parodius.com
 Zophar's Domain - http://www.zophar.net 

 Programs
 --------
 Gimp - http://www.gimp.org 
 
 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*

 Contact Info:
 
 I'm not an exceptional ROM hacker. I wrote this document in hopes of
 helping some people learn to ROM hack and to save time in answering
 the same questions over and over again on messageboards. If you have
 questions regarding ROM hacking, you're going to get a lot more help
 by asking on a messageboard than you will by e-mailing me. 
 
 If you find an error in this document, then contact me and I'll most
 likely fix it. Do NOT under ANY circumstances e-mail me asking to
 translate a game and if you e-mail me a ROM, you will suffer
 horribly. If you can comply with these rules, my e-mail address is
 inverse@pigtails.net
 
 The most recent copy of this file can always be found at my website
 Suicidal Translations (http://www.pigtails.net/ST) along with other
 documents and utilities I've written and my own ROM translations.

 -InVerse

 *-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-=*=-=-*
 02/28/03      -      Title Screen Hacking Made Easy      -      v1.00