I need help finding a ROM hacking tool...

[AiNaKa]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this community as well as ROM hacking in general.

So I've decided to start a ROM hack project recently, and I want to attempt to hack Super Smash Bros. for the N64 to add more characters. I've been considering adding Marth, Bowser, Robin, Ganondorf, Peach, Sonic, and a few others, although I'm not sure how many I can fit in the file.

Anyways, I've run into a problem, I can't find any good tools for a ROM hacking the N64 and I have no idea how to do it myself. When I attempt to search for tools that can help me mess around with N64 ROMs, I always end up finding Super Mario 64 exclusive tools, and I run into the same problem when searching for ROM hack tutorials for N64. I would greatly appreciate it if someone experienced with this whole thing could help me find what I'm looking for. Please and thankyou!

[Valendian]

You gotta start somewhere. But your first game the best advice is:

Start with a simple 8bit game
Start with a game that has all the tools you need

If there are no tools then you need to make them, or you will need to apply generic tools and some simple scripts.

[FAST6191]

Start with a simple 8bit game

Why 8 bit? I would have said any device with a decent debugger. There could possibly also be some small hangups with 8 bit stuff (it is only 8 bit after all) that I have no problem dealing with now I know the 32 bit devices (it is just a reduction/simplification to me) but might impede learning a tiny bit.

[Valendian]

Sorry if I came off as rude. I don't doubt your ability or appetite. But there are no tools for what you want to do and thats a big blocker. Before investing the time in that, it may be worthwhile learning on a game that already has this support. It will pay off in the long run

[Jorpho]

So I've decided to start a ROM hack project recently, and I want to attempt to hack Super Smash Bros. for the N64 to add more characters. I've been considering adding Marth, Bowser, Robin, Ganondorf, Peach, Sonic, and a few others, although I'm not sure how many I can fit in the file.

I say things like this a lot, but it's true: Smash Bros is one of the most popular fighting game franchises ever, and you're not the first person to have an idea like this.  There are people out there with tremendous amounts of experience (I'm sure you've seen some of the things that have been done with Brawl and Melee) and even if it was really, really hard to add more characters to Smash Bros, someone would have done it by now.  I can't say it's necessarily impossible, but it would require an enormous effort – there's definitely no quick-and-easy "Add Any Character!" tool out there.  You'd practically be better off writing a new fighting game from scratch.

It certainly doesn't help that the N64 is notoriously difficult to work with in general; SM64 is a singular exception.  That's why there are so few tools for it.

[NERV Agent]

There has to be a dedicated Super Smash Bros. community out there, as I have seen plenty of hacks for the later entries. Also, the guy who made Doki Doki Literature Club started out as a Super Smash Bros. hacker.

Try looking for these communities. I'm sure they exist.

[bogaabogaa]

The Mugen community does Shamsh Bros too. Sure it is not the same but it does allow adding things and might fix your creative outlets. It is always nice to see when hacking community grows to a point where everyone can get involved doing things. Starting to hack new games is always a big barrier and people usually don't know what kind of work this backward engineering process is. And what amount of work it is to expand on s finished products like this. It would be nice to talk with a experienced hacker who did look at it and can tell why there been no successfull attempts. Sometimes you get lucky finding individuals like this in active community.

Much luck     

[AiNaKa]

I say things like this a lot, but it's true: Smash Bros is one of the most popular fighting game franchises ever, and you're not the first person to have an idea like this.  There are people out there with tremendous amounts of experience (I'm sure you've seen some of the things that have been done with Brawl and Melee) and even if it was really, really hard to add more characters to Smash Bros, someone would have done it by now.  I can't say it's necessarily impossible, but it would require an enormous effort – there's definitely no quick-and-easy "Add Any Character!" tool out there.  You'd practically be better off writing a new fighting game from scratch.

It certainly doesn't help that the N64 is notoriously difficult to work with in general; SM64 is a singular exception.  That's why there are so few tools for it.

Thankyou for all the good suggestions, but I think i like this idea instead. I'll see if I can dump the files for Super Smash Bros. 64 and I'll utilize them to program my own version of SSB64. It might not be the same, but I'll try my best. And that also means I won't have to deal with the limitations of the N64, and i can add as many characters as I want. This is probably the best thing to do, because I probably don't have the patience to try and reverse engineer the ROM by hand just to add like 4 characters, that would be a huge pain.