Continuing to Make a Hack; Need help with Title Screen

[MoeChicken]

Hello everyone,

I came by some time ago looking for help with a Super Metroid hack that inserted a mascot character from my YouTube show. I'm happy to say that, with the help of folks here, it is coming along well! I've got the Samus sprite completely redone and functional, and I'm making strides to update the status screen as well. This leaves only three more things I'd like to be able to change: the title screen, the ending sequence, and the intro portrait of Samus. I was hoping I'd be able to use yy-chr for these, but I haven't been able to find any of them in the tile file.

So, once again, I turn to you, dear forum viewer: can you point me in a direction of how to replace/modify these elements? I found a tool in the resources section that offered to add a subtitle to the title screen, but I'm looking for something that will let me change it up wholesale. From other hacks, I've seen at least two of these done (the Ice Metal hack has a new title screen and the Justin Bailey hack changed the ending bit). But I can't figure it out, and I'm still very new to modding roms. Please, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

~MC

[TobiMikami]

Good to hear your hack is going well! Should drop some pictures of your progress for us!

You said tile file, are you trying to export those graphics from SMILE? If that's the case, that's where your problem is coming in, they're not exportable files, they're in the ROM itself!  I used TLP for my hack, to change the "Nintendo" logo seen here: https://youtu.be/HoTDtXvB_xU as you can see that's an old hack, I've since moved to working on an independent game like AM2R, but the title screen should be in the ROM itself, as well as all the enemy sprites and such. I thought the title was at the top actually. I've never used YY Char, only TLP so that may be different. Also I can't remember exactly where to extract the palette for that from, but that's a start.

[Noxus]

Check out the Mode 7 scene editor in Smile RF:

[MoeChicken]

Thank you both! To answer the first question, I'm using YY-CHR to attempt to edit the status screen, and it's going well enough so far. The flow goes like this:

1. Make a new status screen image in GIMP using the original as a guide (downloaded from Spriters' Resource).
2. Load the rom in YY-CHR to get the complete volume of tiles in the game (as far as I know).
3. Find the tiles related to the status screen and meticulously change them out with the new status image (pixel by pixel).
4. Save the rom and test it in an emulator.

So far it's working, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm using a hammer to screw in a bolt. I tried TLP at first and something made me lean toward YY-CHR, but I'll give it another look. And thanks for the info about SMILE; I thought that was primarily a level editor, I didn't know it could be used to adjust the graphics (although that makes sense when you think about it). Once I've made some more progress, I'll post some pics. Thank you again!
~MC

[FelixWright]

Why not cut out the middle man and edit just in yy-chr?

[MoeChicken]

Well, I'm trying to (again, very much a noob at all this). It would be easier to get it all done in YY-CHR since that has been working so far, but I wasn't able to find the references in the tile table to either the title screen or the opening sequence. And I don't know where to find the ending sequence sprites. I was considering running the Justin Bailey hack through YY-CHR to see if anything shows up.
~MC

[TobiMikami]

I've been doing graphics with GIMP for, fuck 13 years now, I feel old now dammit. I've also done direct edits in TLP back in the day and needless to say compared to GIMP, it's like using MSPaint. I don't even like to use the Game Maker Studio graphics editor unless it's for specific things it tends to do better (like rotating sprites with probably the least amount of blur of any editor I've seen). Plus the crop tool returns an x,y origin from the top left corner of the crop, with a 16,16 grid and/or guidelines for proper scale and spacing, I can mockup my screens in GIMP and input the values into the game engine. No matter how you go about it though, if you're succeeding that's what counts man.

[MoeChicken]

Hello again!

Good news! I have completed my initial adjustments to the map and status screens in my Super Metroid hack. I was hoping to attach screenshots, but I honestly couldn't figure out how to work with the image tags (I'm sorta new to forums, really...). If someone wants to point me to how they work, I'll gladly share how things are coming along.

Now that the status screen is coming along well, there are still three major changes I'd like to make:

• Changing the "Super Metroid" title graphics (not the background, the actual orange and yellow title)
• Changing the Samus portrait from the opening sequence where she talks about her history with Metroids
• Changing the sprites involved with the ending sequence (where Samus shows up, potentially removes her suit, and jumps away and shoots)

Of these, I have seen other hacks that changed elements 1 and 3 above, but I don't think I've ever seen 2 changed. To continue my search for these, I was thinking of loading up those hacks in yy-chr to see if I could find any clues. Failing that, though, I don't have a lot of ideas. If anyone has any ideas about how to get my hands on those elements? I'd appreciate any advice! Thanks!

~MC

[MoeChicken]

Update! I FOUND THEM! Well, two of them. I found the background images for Samus in the intro and I found the title logo. Unfortunately, changing the title involves my changing the associated GFX file, which is new to me. I tried opening it in the tried-and-true GIMP, but it threw up its hands in confusion. A cursory search on Google suggested a text editor, but that returned gobbledygook. Anybody got any ideas on how to edit a GFX? In the meantime, I'll keep digging for that ending sequence...I'm making progress and it's fun! Wheeee~!
~MC

[nodever2]

You need a tile editor to open the .gfx file. Tile Layer Pro, Tile Molester, or yy-chr are editors which can edit these. You'll need these a lot, to edit pretty much any graphics in the game, it's all this format - usually 4bpp snes graphics.

[MoeChicken]

Hello again everyone!
Good news! My efforts continue to bear fruit! With the help of the folks here and the good people on the SM Randomizer Discord, I have successfully changed out the title screen logo and the opening sequence background picture! That means I only need to change the ending sequence to meet my original goal!
...operative word there being "original." As I was working on the intro bit, I started wishing I could change the intro text and filenames, too. Maybe get the files to say "Maria 1" instead of "Samus 1", and maybe change the opening to be a bit more tailored to Moe and Maria.
My first guess was to open up a hex editor and try to track the necessary text directly, but that didn't work out. And I've seen roms with the intro text changed, so I know it can be done.
So, once again, I thought I'd throw my request up here: Anybody got any ideas on how to change those bits of text? To be clear, I'm trying to change the save file names (which would normally be "Samus 1", "Samus 2", and "Samus 3") and the green text in the intro where Samus talks about her history with the metroids.
If anyone's got ideas, lay 'em on me! Until then, I'll keep noodling around. Thanks!
~MC

[P.JBoy]

The green intro text can be edited in SMART or SMILE RF, the SAMUS text in the file select screen comes from these tilemaps https://patrickjohnston.org/bank/81?just=B40A