[Need Hexadecimal Help!] Final Fantasy V Non-Main Character Name Change

[Spindaboy]

Downloaded a clean a version of the same ROM and made changes. Started the game and nothing was different once again. I'm really at a loss for what is going on >~<

[DackR]

I believe the place you want to look for the main character's name should be @: 0x203143

This is where it pulls the name for the character naming screen.

Edit:
For other names, you will need to dump the script and re-insert it after you manually change the names (find-and-replace should do it).

[SunGodPortal]

Edit:
For other names, you will need to dump the script and re-insert it after you manually change the names (find-and-replace should do it).

Does that mean that the script in this game is compressed?

[Spindaboy]

For other names, you will need to dump the script and re-insert it after you manually change the names (find-and-replace should do it).

What does it mean to dump the script?

[DackR]

Does that mean that the script in this game is compressed?

Not necessarily. I don't really know as I've not done much with this game before.

What does it mean to dump the script?

In this case, it means using a tool such as Cartographer: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/647/

If you have a complete table file, and you've identified crucial information such as where the text pointers are located, control codes, etc., it can be relatively simple to dump the script to a text file for easy editing and then to insert the script with the changes.

I've found it's helpful to dump the script and then try reinserting without changes to verify everything is working correctly before moving forward with any edits.

To reinsert the script after you've made the edits, you would use a tool like Atlas: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/224/

I've rarely used these tools because I like to create my own, so I cant really be of much more help with these tools specifically, but check the readme files.

Edit: I'm operating under the assumption that the other character names are hard-coded into the script. But hopefully what I've written points you in the right direction.

[samurai goroh]

I know how to change the characters names in RAM but not in ROM. noisecross has done some work with text routines for this game, so I'd say he would be able to help you out. He has made a tool but I've never used it before...

You can check the thread here:
http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=1933.0

[Spindaboy]

I know how to change the characters names in RAM but not in ROM.

Wait... what's the difference between ROM and RAM? Also, coincidentally enough I found codes on your site that actually worked! Could you explain how you managed this?
Check it out!!
http://imgur.com/NposCBn

[tvtoon]

FF5 dialogue script lasts exactly one "bank" (65535 bytes), from 0xA0000 to 0xAFFFF in the "good dump", and as you can check out with the table at the Wiki, it is not compressed.

Get that info, paste into "ff5.tbl", use a script dumper and you can replace the names at your risk!

[samurai goroh]

Wait... what's the difference between ROM and RAM? Also, coincidentally enough I found codes on your site that actually worked! Could you explain how you managed this?
Check it out!!
http://imgur.com/NposCBn

The ROM is where the game is programmed. As the acronym goes (Read-only memory), normally you can only read from that area and not write on it. Hacks modify the ROM in order to introduce new elements to games (hence why they are called romhacks).

The RAM is where data is temporally processed. As the acronym goes (Random-access memory), you can temporally store data and access it in order to read and write over it. Codes usually work on this region only, but there are some that also read the ROM too.

As for finding codes (like I have for the SNES and GBA versions), you reach the point you desire to find, in this case naming the main character. Then make several save states that have different naming of the character, then you compare them to find which memory address is the one that is being affected. Text usually increments as they are arranged, so is easy to trim the search once you have some practice finding addresses...

[Spindaboy]

Hmm... I see. That's an interesting way of doing it. Got any ideas as to why the names won't change even when the ROM is modified?