Super Mario Bros. NES Title Screen HELP

[RandomManA]

For Christmas, I thought it would make a unique gift if I could hack Super Mario Bros. Peach Edition to star my best friend and her daughter instead of Peach and Daisy, have it put into a repro cart that she can play on her NES. Editing the text was easy, and I'm sure editing the sprites will be interesting, but I'm having zero luck editing the title screen. I tried using the Very Easy Title Screen Editor, but I don't have Microsoft Excel, and it appears to be incompatible with OpenOffice. Using SMB Title Editer (god, that misspelling drives me crazy) I'm able to get the title screen the way I want it, but I'm completely unable to save it to the rom properly. After editing the title screen the way I want it, (see INTENTION below) I try to apply the saving process per the instructions, and I get what I assume is an error message that I can't read. Trying to save the changes to the rom gets the same unreadable message. Loading the rom into an emulator after this results in the normal Super Mario Bros. title screen.

But while it won't let me save the changes to the rom, it will let me save the changes to a file. So I tried that, restarted the editor, loaded the rom, loaded the file with the changes, and now the palette's wrong, it's gone entirely green (see FILE CHANGES below). I thought, 'well, whatever, she likes green, I suppose I can put up with it.' So I go through the saving process - no message now. Save the changes to the rom, and I get a question with yes or no (I assume it's 'are you sure?'), so I click yes, and the changes appear to have been applied. But when I load the rom in fceux, a large block of the title screen has been changed to a THIRD palette (see RESULT below).

Can somebody help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Or maybe point me to an editor that doesn't suck? I'd really appreciate it, and I've got a month and a half to get everything done, so time is a factor.

Clueless Aaron

INTENTION


FILE CHANGES


RESULT

[dougeff]

Smb is odd, in that it stores title screen data in the graphics.

Here's what i want you to do. Open the changed ROM in FCEUX and open the Hex Editor tool, set "view" to PPU and have it so it shows 001ec0 through 001fff. Take a screenshot and post it here.

I think it's overwriting the Attribute Table, but I need to see the code to tell you how to fix it.

By the way. For a personalized SMB it might be nice to change the end of game text, too.


...also, still in PPU view, while on the title screen, scroll down to 003f00 and type all the numbers on that line and the next line (the color palette). I'm wondering if that tool changes the palette colors (and is doing it wrong). (Or take another screen shot).

November 15, 2015, 07:17:06 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Oh, and another stupid thought. The Title Editor you're working with was probably designed to work with an unchanged SMB ROM. Are you trying to use it on a hacked version?

[RandomManA]

Didn't think about that. Sigh. I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, so I thought it'd be easier if I started with a rom hack that already changed Mario and Luigi to Peach and Daisy, so yeah, it was not an unchanged ROM. If it's possible to save it, I'd rather do that, as I'm pretty sure I won't be able to make decent-looking sprites on my own.

The PPU:


Thanks,
Aaron

[Dr. Floppy]

The miscolored area in question corresponds to the attribute data defined by PPU locations $23CC (d7-d4), $23CD (d5-d4), $23D4 (d3-d0) and $23D5 (d1-d0).

Given the nature of your layout (and the precious little space remaining), I'd suggest the code: 23 CC 4A 00

Assuming the file you're working with is the same size as the original game, this data should be written to $A00A-A00D in-ROM.

[dougeff]

I couldn't find an easy fix, so I just redid it for you...
Open the ROM in FCEUX, and open the hex editor, put it on view = ROM. Scroll to the very bottom. Highlight 009ed0 (ie, click on the first number after 009ed0). Cut and Paste this into the ROM. When done, click 'file' 'save as'.

20A6542620C6542620E6542621065426
2085014420865448209A014920A5C946
20BAC94A20A60AD0D1D8D8DED1D0DADE
D120C60AD2D3DBDBDBD9DBDCDBDF20E6
0AD4D5D4D9DBE2D4DADBE021060AD6D7
D6D7E126D6DDE1E1212614DE25DADBDE
25DADE25DA26DE25DAD0D1D0E8D12621
4614E142DDDBDBDDDDDBDDDD26DBDDDD
DBDBDBDBDB2621661426DB26DBDE25DA
DE25DA26DE25DADEBBDBDBDB26218614
26DB26DBDBDDDDDBDDDD26DBDDDDDBDB
DBDBDB2621A61426DB26DBDB2626DB26
2626DB2626DBDBDBDBDBDB21C5165F78
95789595787895787878957878959595
9595957A21ED0ECF0109080524171217
1D0E170D18224B0D012419150A220E1B
24100A160E228B0D022419150A220E1B
24100A160E22EC041D18192822F60100
23C9565523E20499AAAAAA23EA0499AA
AAAA00FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF


(edit, I made 1 tiny mistake. Fixed at 12:37pm)
November 16, 2015, 01:05:41 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
.

Basically, what I think is happening is...the tool ran out of room, so it omitted the attribute table information off the end of the data stream...
these lines...
23C9 5655
23E2  0499AAAAAA
23EA  0499AAAAAA

I've never used the SMB Title Editer tool, but it doesn't seem very smart. Your data is all over the place, probably because you were changing things a little here, a little there, etc. I think you would have gotten better results if you started at the top line and went left to right, and repeated (left to right, left to right) to the bottom. I don't think it would have run out of room then. But, again, I've never used this tool, so that's just a guess.

[Dr. Floppy]

Hacking with Utilities can be like performing surgery with boxing gloves. It's a sad reality we tend to learn the hard way.

That said, using Utilities for strategic analysis (making one simple change to a level and comparing the resultant ROM to the original) is a very good way to systematically deconstruct how undocumented games handle their business.

[KNDFRL]

hi everyone! i'm having the exact same problem as RandomManA. here's a pic:



what line should i change in the Hex Editor of FCEUX, to fix it?
cheers!

[dougeff]

Start over. Start at the top left of the C, and go left to right, filling in the tiles. Drop 1 line down. Start at the top left, fill left to right. Continue exactly like that till done.

It may or may not fix it. It may be helpful overwriting the BROS as well, with identical tiles as what's there.

[TheHappyFaceKing]

I am having this very same problem but with NES_TitleEditor (it works pretty much the same) Would you mind please fixing mine?





January 24, 2017, 01:18:47 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Never mind... I fixed it AND redesigned it

[Easy]

I am having this very same problem but with NES_TitleEditor (it works pretty much the same) Would you mind please fixing mine?





January 24, 2017, 01:18:47 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Never mind... I fixed it AND redesigned it

How to fix this?

[sics]

 Hello here a small tutorial SMB title screen hacking for which it is still unclear how the application works (English Translator)

[akuslick222]

help my smb title screen to is all green HELP!!!!!...

here's  a link to a pic

https://imgur.com/x4qUVaR