[nesrocks]

I just had the idea that it would be cool to have a hex editor that would allow loading a list of single (or maybe double?) byte addresses from a file. Preferably, each address would have a field to add a comment (explaining what they are). The hex would have an interface that would display the loaded list with comments and that would allow easy change of value for each address and then saving the loaded file (ROM). Is there already such a tool? I have found a series of addresses for a game that refer to weapon damage, character health, etc, and it'd be neat to have a handy editor for when beta testing the hack. I feel like this would speed up the testing process.

edit: I imagine this would be almost like a patcher... You load a list of preset modifications, modify their values and then you can use it to patch a ROM file. Or you can load the list of addresses and a ROM file and it will show the default values for those addresses before you change them.

edit2: I think "cheat patcher" http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1112/ is very close to what I was looking for. I'll be testing that.

[FAST6191]

Many of the bigger hex editors will support defining your own format.
Hex workshop calls it a structure viewer and several hackers have made use of it over the years.
http://www.hexworkshop.com/onlinehelp/600/html/idhelp_struct_overview.htm

010 editor calls it a template
http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/manual/IntroTempScripts.htm

tiny hexer (a nice freeware editor) calls it a structure viewer like hex workshop, I have not really investigated this though.

http://www.catch22.net/software/hexedit I am told also has such functionality but I have not used the editor in some years where I know the others mentioned pretty well, at least outside the format/structure/file template side of things.

Frankly I am not a great fan of editing like this and there is a reason you probably do not see many things done this way but the options are out there for it.

[nesrocks]

Thanks for the reply, I'll look into those soon. I have been fiddling about xvi32 hex editor and apparently simple bookmarks suffice for what I want since I can comment them. Creating complex templates seem like a little too much work for what it's worth.

[BlackDog61]

On a parallel line of thought, I'd love if debuggers (in emulators) would load not just a list of symbols (which is a good start, to name functions) but also a list of comments (linked to addresses, exactly like you envisioned).