This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
(Continued from page 33)
To edit the image, simply put your
cursor over the image in the tile
editor and left click. This will
change one pixel to the primary
color selected in the palette editor
box. If you would like to use a dif-
ferent color, just left click the color
in the palette editor box that you
would like to use. To make a part of the tile transparent, simply right click the image, the secondary color is auto-
matically set to the color used for transparency. You will notice that you can edit only one tile at a time. In order to
change the tile, you are editing, just left click a different tile. Go ahead and try it out. Take a look at the picture in
which I changed the Super Mario Bros. 3 start-up screen to say Super
Wario Bros. 3. When you are finished go to File/Save, to save your
altered ROM. Then play the ROM in your emulator to view the results!
Tile Layer Pro will also allow you to import and export bitmap images.
To export a bitmap image, right click an area in the graphics box and
drag the cursor to select the tiles you would like to export. When you
are finished, select Edit/Export Bitmap, and you will be prompted to
save your selected tiles as a bitmap image. To import, go to Edit/
Import Bitmap and select the bitmap image you would like to import.
The image you have chosen to import will then appear inside the
graphics box, drag the image to the tiles you would like it to replace,
and then click elsewhere in the graphics box. The imported bitmap will
then replace the tiles it is above. This is a handy feature that will allow
you to take images from one game, and import them to another!
I will warn you, if you try to do something silly, like import a bitmap
image of your head to replace Megaman‘s head, it will show up as
white noise. The imported image must be stored in the correct bits per
pixel (Bpp), which is 2Bpp for NES games. Also, it cannot contain
more than four colors. Don‘t believe me? Go ahead and try it!
Finally, no tutorial on graphical ROM hacking would be complete without this final note. Remember all the white
noise I was talking about at the beginning of the article? That white noise can provide a bit of entertainment for the
bored at heart. While you‘re in the tile editor, try rearranging some of the white noise. Since that noise is really
game data, messing with it can have interesting, fun, and completely random results. Be sure you have a back-up of
your original game, and your graphical hack if necessary, as messing with the data can render the game unplayable.
Messing with the game data is called corrupting the game, and there are a lot of videos on YouTube devoted to this
popular pastime.
There you have it; you are now officially a ROM hacker! Okay, maybe it‘s a little soon to call you a hacker, as you
haven‘t learned to edit hex yet, but at least you know something. If you would like to go ahead and get your hands
dirty by editing hex, I would suggest visiting http://www.romhacks.net, they have several great tutorials for begin-
ners that will teach you more advanced ROM hacking techniques, and they even have a graphic editing tutorial in
case you need a recap.
Enjoy!
Q-Bert themed version of Donkey Kong for Tiny Toon, I mean, Super Mario Adventures
NES
Mega Man (NES) in the Mushroom Kingdom
34 | Video Game Trader Magazine | June 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com
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