CGE Adventures Hacking Help thread.

[indieseoul]

Scott mentioned during the live news that we should all start hacking around with CGE Adventures. I found a cool tool that lets you change the sprites to different shapes. (Bit Hacker)

Bit Hacker
Hack O Matic

FocusRS and I played around with Bit Hacker and Hack O Matic III however we weren't able to alter any of the sprite colors. We have both been looking around for ways to do it. We know that Eldphm did a funny Socal nude hack and we were wondering what is the best tool and the easiest way for non code monkeys to get involved. If you have any tips hints or suggestions then please post them in this thread.

Hack it up!

[Byte Knight]

I don't know much about hacking binaries, but you could create your own sprites with Visual bB, send me the code it generates, and I could put it into the game. The sprites in CGE Adventures use two frames for animation. Make sure to check the DPC+ sprite box as well.

Someone could create a Liberace sprite, then he and nude Socal could have a rendezvous in the game!

[eldphm]

I did it my hack with a hex editor and screenshots of the "sprites" (so I could calculate the values and search for them in the data).
So all I did to alter the "sprites" was to change some of the hex-values. I actually only changed the sprite data where the two buttons on his shirt were.
Most of it was colour changes, the colours are stored close to the "sprites".

As you might imagine, it is much scarier to be chased by hosts in speedos (I left a line of green in the middle to keep it PG13) than fully clothed hosts.

I am going to post a explanation how I did it and where to find the sprite data and colour data, and a tips how to find the rest of the data, because I am not sure that the NTSC ROM has the data on the same place as my PAL ROM.

Be adviced that this is my first try at a Atari 2600 ROM, so I have some learning to do too.

Do not worry, we will find a way for non-"Code monkeys" to alter the ROMs of CGE Adventures.

[Burgertime]

Lol yeah, I'm certainly not a "Code monkey", but I would be very interested in learning how to code. Somewhere in my box of computer stuff I have a book to each you how to code in C, and it comes with a C++ 6.0 introduction disc.

The most "programming" I've never done is creating events in RPG Maker.

[indieseoul]

Awesome Byte Knight! I might take you up on that offer assuming I can figure out how to use Visual Basic. It's a cool little program that is quite fun to mess around with. I ran the tutorial and had fun playing around with making a simple game for the Atari. Who knows hacking around with the rom just might make a few people decide to learn how to program for the Atari.

Eldphm I can't wait to read your tutorial on binary hacking the rom. Do you have a preferred Hex editor that you use?

I messed around with the debugger in Stella and was able to change the colors however they were only changing the sprites to a single color. I assume that the colors for the sprites are in a data table but I'll be damned if I know how to find it.