Dragon Quest Delocalized Projects

[abw]

abw, you've done it again. I never would have imagined such a complex issue being resolved by four bytes of data. I've implemented it, tested it (at least with the princess of Moonbrooke so far) and it works wonderfully. I really like being able to get different names for your companions without having to switch the name of your main hero.

It's actually only two bytes - this reminds me of the old story about knowing where to tap . For testing, note that Cannock/Moonbrooke's names get generated as soon as you finish entering Midenhall's name (as opposed to when you meet them in the story), so instead of playing through the game, you can just look in the Hex Editor around $0118 / $700D (with a table file that FCEUX will accept, which in particular means no end tokens; it'll tell you which line of the file it doesn't like whenever you try to load a file) to see that the names are right in RAM. If you enter the same Midenhall name over and over again, you'll get randomly different Cannock/Moonbrooke names each time, subject to the limitations of the RNG not being truly random.

Btw, it was brought to my attention by a player that the extract/insert routine you helped me with to fix SHILD and DEFENC caused a bug with UNCURSE at the priests/healers. It moved the word one tile to the left out of alignment and made the cursor become N. I was actually able to play around with the atlas file and fix it myself (another small miracle, right?) But you may want to take a peek at that in your version to see if it needs a fix.

Ha, good catch - the trailing space on the " DETOXICATE " line was being combined with the leading space on the " UNCURSE[line]" line into a single "  " token (<$82> instead of <$81><$81>), but DW2's menu code doesn't carry the excess space into the body of the next line. The original game probably should have used " DETOXICATE[line]" (<$80>) instead. The downside to an optimal insertion algorithm is that it's hard to be intentionally sub-optimal . I didn't come across that issue with my translated menus since I was rewriting everything anyway and always used the newline code instead of filling out the rest of the line with trailing spaces. Congrats on fixing it yourself, though!

[Chicken Knife]

It's actually only two bytes

I clearly meant 4 nibbles. 

Ha, good catch - the trailing space on the " DETOXICATE " line was being combined with the leading space on the " UNCURSE[line]" line into a single "  " token (<$82> instead of <$81><$81>), but DW2's menu code doesn't carry the excess space into the body of the next line. The original game probably should have used " DETOXICATE[line]" (<$80>) instead. The downside to an optimal insertion algorithm is that it's hard to be intentionally sub-optimal . I didn't come across that issue with my translated menus since I was rewriting everything anyway and always used the newline code instead of filling out the rest of the line with trailing spaces. Congrats on fixing it yourself, though!

I actually reformatted it as precisely that way after looking at all the other menu text and recognizing the pattern.

@everyone

The 1.09 update is submitted with the name randomization improvement, UNCURSE bugfix, and some additional minor tweaks to the intro text. There are certain things I can never seem to stop working on. 

[LadyCannock]

So much hard work!  And after seeing the run the last few weeks, I really need to find time in my schedule to play those delocalized games !

[Chicken Knife]

Welcome to the RHDN forums LadyCannock! I'm delighted to hear about your interest in playing, along with any further interest in working on the project.

LadyCannock was part of our cracker jack team of musketeers that put the spell names together. 

[Ray572]

Glad you appreciated that improvement! I whipped up a quick little title only patch this morning for DQ1 https://www.dropbox.com/s/pkgyll8k2845yeu/dw1_titleonly.ips?dl=0

If you also want a title only patch for DQ2, let me know if you want me to include my changes to the design and animation for the title sequence or just the title logo.

Thanks, I tried it and it was as I wanted.
It would be great if you also included only the title patch, the logo of 2, 3, and 4. Since I have these titles in Spanish and I get an error
re-patch with the ones you have.

[Chicken Knife]

Thanks, I tried it and it was as I wanted.
It would be great if you also included only the title patch, the logo of 2, 3, and 4. Since I have these titles in Spanish and I get an error
re-patch with the ones you have.

We didn't do the title screen for DW3 and DW4 yet.
So let's go back to my question--I had changed the Prince of Laurasia/Midenhall to appear closer to Toriyama's art with the bomber cap and ear cuffs instead of the horned helmet. Do you want my to include those changes or only the name DRAGON QUEST: GODS OF EVIL?

[Ray572]

We didn't do the title screen for DW3 and DW4 yet.
So let's go back to my question--I had changed the Prince of Laurasia/Midenhall to appear closer to Toriyama's art with the bomber cap and ear cuffs instead of the horned helmet. Do you want my to include those changes or only the name DRAGON QUEST: GODS OF EVIL?

Now I understand,
and yes, I would be very grateful if you included those changes.

[Chicken Knife]

Now I understand,
and yes, I would be very grateful if you included those changes.

Here is a link to the DW2 title only patch

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fo41ckms6d3bmqg/dw2_titleonly.ips?dl=0

[joe73ffdq]

I just took the time to finally read through this thread...

There is a project I have been gradually working on, and some of the text related things will be very helpful...

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=28255.0


Chickenknife... I can relate to the frustration of understanding or finding code, and various language used to define things at a programmers level... It took quite a while to find the following...

Jailors key to open all
New spells and abilities for enemies (by replacing 3 of the 6 heal spells)
Creating new items - Panacea, Yggsdrasil Dew, and Bunny Tail
Expanding the effects of Dragons Bane, to both equipped and unequipped Shield of Strength


All of that said...

The idea initially, was to uncurse items to have a full roster, and create enemies I would like to see. It expanded past that as it went along, and Im hoping for a release for testing before months end... I also could face the loss of internet if I dont find work soon, which would impede my ability to adequately follow up...

Take all the info in that link for your own use...

---

Now a couple questions...

Do you have a graphics only patch, which would uncensor churches and coffins (not sure what else there is for non battle graphics)

Where do I find the text for Gremlins Tail... It says Bunny Tail in the menu (drawn from 1b2da/1ba52), and then when you equip it, it still says gremlins tail... Same with Power Shield...

There is a text and graphical error with Panacea and Yggsdrasil Dew... They both use the Leaf of World Tree dialogue to restore life... They both use the Heal/Healmore/Healall routine, and will display your HP restored on the bottom of the screen in green, and not within a text box. Similar text occurs in battle...

---

When I was reading through the thread, I noticed that you were struggling with moving code to other banks... Here is the bank swap for DW1, which should be identical for DW2...

A9 xx
20 96 FF - bank swap to desired bank
20 xx xx - JSR to new location
A9 00
20 96 FF - swap to bank 00 each time?
60

Disch helped me with this a few years ago when I was working on DW1. I was able to jump in another bank to add defensive properties to more armor, and then jump back, not having to carry other routines involved... Someone with more knowledge on this could explain much better... If I tried to jump to another bank for more inventory in DW2, I surmise that other routines would need to be involved. Adding full plate and magic armor in DW1 for fire defense, and then swapping back, worked perfectly fine from what I remember...

Last thing... The one thing I would like to figure out, but havent been able to... Expanding enemy HP...

There are 15 bytes for each enemy... The 2nd byte is for x/64 evade. This is the left nybble... The right nybble is for enemy HP 256... But has no instruction to RAM... Tried several things, and cant figure it out...

Check out the link above for all the data I have... There is a partial disassembly for banks 4 and 6, and detailed info for where I am at with my mod...

Adding more HP for several enemies would be very helpful, especially for enemies in the last area... Having to use the shield of strength or panacea to frequently, and final bosses spamming healall, could be reduced with higher HP options.

---

Very last thing

When I spotted this thread a few months ago, it helped me to re continue what could become a really good mod.

If someone could help me with text locations to fix a few errors, that would be awesome 

If someone could help me figure out the omitted HP options, that would be epic   

[darthvaderx]

Here is a link to the DW2 title only patch

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fo41ckms6d3bmqg/dw2_titleonly.ips?dl=0

Could you do the same for DW?

[Chicken Knife]

Could you do the same for DW?

I put the DW1 link up on this thread several posts earlier but here it is again. https://www.dropbox.com/s/pkgyll8k2845yeu/dw1_titleonly.ips?dl=0

joe73ffdq
Congratulations on getting close to finishing your project! It seems like a whole new era of DQ relating hacks going on. Very exciting and much deserved for such a great series.

I can work on making you a separate patch for just the graphics. I don't have it now. There is actually one thing I didn't get to change yet, maybe you could even help if possible. In hargon's castle, the secret passage to progress from the initial area is still in the altered English localization form in my hack where a white square is in that room and a grey tile is in the center that you search for the passage. I would want to edit the nametable to restore the original white cross where you search the intersection of the white beams. In theory, if we could find the sections in the English and Japanese code that relates to this area, we could just swap out the data?

For the item names you mentioned having an issue with, you have to understand that the game has those items named independently in the script. The game is not using an opcode in the text to refer to the item name. Therefore you'd have to change the item name on the lists and also change the text in the script. I'm not sure if you were planning to make other script changes or not but you'd have to use an extract and insert method due to script compression. There is a whole lot about this in a separate connected thread: http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=27053.0

Once you look that over, if you have questions or need help let me know. There is a lot I don't know but abw helped me successfully extract and insert so I should be able to help you do the same.

[Ray572]

Here is a link to the DW2 title only patch

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fo41ckms6d3bmqg/dw2_titleonly.ips?dl=0

Thank you

[joe73ffdq]

Here is the data for DW1 you asked for + all the DW2 data I have as well 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hw1t95sp392xtwm/DW1%262%20note%20collection.zip?dl=0


I checked out Hargons Castle and went to the passage, and used Eye of Malroth... Im not seeing the text error that you mention???

One thing I am wondering... The text errors in my mod are due to compressed text that is drawn... Do you have a list of pointers from bank 03 that draw the text from bank 05... Decompressing a few lines of text might be something I can accomplish, if I knew where the pointers were...

Any suggestions for how to make finding things in RAM easier. Several things are going on, and even if I pause emulation, Im not always sure what to look for... If I want to add ram instruction for the x256 HP amounts, I imagine it will be an 85xx or a5xx STA, but it could also be in the $6000 area or $100-$500.... Its been a while since I last tried, but finding anything through RAM is very difficult... I remember that quote from AlexKC on that Gamefaqs post from 2011. There is a place in RAM for x256 HP amounts for both Characters and enemies, but no instruction to do so...

Jailors key for all - done, but with text errors
Panacea and Yggsdrasil Dew... Revive + Heal - done, but with text errors
Dragons Bane extended to Shield of Strength - works with no errors

Inventory space saved, and new useful items available...
Double the amount of enemy fire attacks for variety...

Just need that HP expansion to make the options even better

---

With the things you have uncovered here in this thread + the data I put together... All the key data for both DW1 and DW2 are pretty much there now... And in one place here on this thread    >

Specific thanks to AlexKC and Gameboy9 for the majority of the data found in DW2 
Also thanks to many here for help, and patience when I dont quite grasp something 

Im going to keep working on enemy stats and formations, and hopefully I can figure out this HP thing, along with possibly fixing text errors...

Last thing for now...

There is an editor for DW1-4 to edit world maps... It works while using it, but it comes out a garbled mess, which indicates it doesnt correct the pointers involved... Adding some map edits would make this even more epic 

[Chicken Knife]

Here is the data for DW1 you asked for + all the DW2 data I have as well 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hw1t95sp392xtwm/DW1%262%20note%20collection.zip?dl=0


I checked out Hargons Castle and went to the passage, and used Eye of Malroth... Im not seeing the text error that you mention???

One thing I am wondering... The text errors in my mod are due to compressed text that is drawn... Do you have a list of pointers from bank 03 that draw the text from bank 05... Decompressing a few lines of text might be something I can accomplish, if I knew where the pointers were...

Any suggestions for how to make finding things in RAM easier. Several things are going on, and even if I pause emulation, Im not always sure what to look for... If I want to add ram instruction for the x256 HP amounts, I imagine it will be an 85xx or a5xx STA, but it could also be in the $6000 area or $100-$500.... Its been a while since I last tried, but finding anything through RAM is very difficult... I remember that quote from AlexKC on that Gamefaqs post from 2011. There is a place in RAM for x256 HP amounts for both Characters and enemies, but no instruction to do so...

Jailors key for all - done, but with text errors
Panacea and Yggsdrasil Dew... Revive + Heal - done, but with text errors
Dragons Bane extended to Shield of Strength - works with no errors

Inventory space saved, and new useful items available...
Double the amount of enemy fire attacks for variety...

Just need that HP expansion to make the options even better

---

With the things you have uncovered here in this thread + the data I put together... All the key data for both DW1 and DW2 are pretty much there now... And in one place here on this thread    >

Specific thanks to AlexKC and Gameboy9 for the majority of the data found in DW2 
Also thanks to many here for help, and patience when I dont quite grasp something 

Im going to keep working on enemy stats and formations, and hopefully I can figure out this HP thing, along with possibly fixing text errors...

Last thing for now...

There is an editor for DW1-4 to edit world maps... It works while using it, but it comes out a garbled mess, which indicates it doesnt correct the pointers involved... Adding some map edits would make this even more epic 

Here is the pointer information from my atlas file that covers the strings that include the lines of text you want to edit:

//POINTER #16 @ $B782 - STRING #16 @ $14F46
(includes references to giving and taking items from ghosts, which should be changed to coffins)

//POINTER #17 @ $B784 - STRING #17 @ $1504F
(additional ghost / coffin text)

//POINTER #18 @ $B786 - STRING #18 @ $15153
(Dragon's Bane, Gremlin's Tale, Fairy Water, Charm of Rubiss, etc)

//POINTER #19 @ $B788 - STRING #19 @ $152AC
(Eye of Malroth, Leaf of the World Tree, key related text,

//POINTER #20 @ $B78A - STRING #20 @ $15409
(Wizards Ring)

And the thing I asked you about has nothing to do with text; it's a change to the nametable (background tiles) within Hargon's Castle. Here are some pics to convey the idea:

This is the current version, censored in the English game:

https://tcrf.net/images/d/dc/Dragon_Warrior_II_-Hargon%27s_Castle.png

Here is the japanese nametable, which I would love to incorporate:

https://tcrf.net/images/8/87/Dragon_Quest_II_-Hargon%27s_Castle.png

As far as your other changes, they sound great for your hack but for Delocalized, we are specifically taking a conservative approach. We are all for fixing bugs and uncensoring but we don't want to alter the gameplay of the original experience.

[joe73ffdq]

I was confused what to look for, and now I see what you mean. This would require a map editor from the looks of it, which isnt available... I could do a compare search with JP vs US, and see if the graphics could be transferred. The only problem is unknown pointers, and if it would actually work...

Thank you for the clarification of your work here on this thread... I did mix what I was doing into a different topic, and even though one of the same games is involved, it veers from the specific topic material. This is why I waited a few months to respond here.

You opened up code I did not find, and it ended up being the entire dialogue routine now available 

Figured I would add all the code I also have, now that its organized and close to completion 

Im going to look into the graphics and dialogue, and see how much I can find...

Last thing... There is a DW2 tbl file in that file above... There is also an index that shows every letter/number/symbol, and a few surprises, like 7-8 Japanese letters, and a few colored blocks.

Lets see what I can find over the next few days... 

[Chicken Knife]

I was confused what to look for, and now I see what you mean. This would require a map editor from the looks of it, which isnt available... I could do a compare search with JP vs US, and see if the graphics could be transferred. The only problem is unknown pointers, and if it would actually work...

Thank you for the clarification of your work here on this thread... I did mix what I was doing into a different topic, and even though one of the same games is involved, it veers from the specific topic material. This is why I waited a few months to respond here.

You opened up code I did not find, and it ended up being the entire dialogue routine now available 

Figured I would add all the code I also have, now that its organized and close to completion 

Im going to look into the graphics and dialogue, and see how much I can find...

Last thing... There is a DW2 tbl file in that file above... There is also an index that shows every letter/number/symbol, and a few surprises, like 7-8 Japanese letters, and a few colored blocks.

Lets see what I can find over the next few days... 

Don't worry! I'm not complaining about anything being off topic. I was under the impression you were thinking we would want to incorporate some of your changes and I was just trying to explain our thought process towards these projects.

Thanks for taking a look at the graphical stuff! It sounds like you have some capabilities that at this point I am missing. When I get a chance, I'll make a patch of just those changes that I accomplished so far. There is one palette fix for the coffins in Rondarkia/Rhone that I will have to dig around for where it was again.

[abw]

Yeah, we should definitely pool our knowledge.

You've been working on Dragon Warrior II for a while now and have managed to identify the purpose/use/format/etc. of large swaths of the game's non-text data. I was actually meaning to go back through your old posts and consolidate/summarize your findings, but that zip file saves me a lot of work there . The files you provided contain a lot of information, but some of the notes are a little bit cryptic (e.g. the data tables with no column headers or explanations) and I'm not sure how much of your documentation applies to the base game vs. your hack.

On the other hand, we've been working primarily on the game's text (which makes up about 20% of the ROM, even more if you include the related code), so we're coming at the game from fairly complementary angles. I've also got an accurate and nearly complete (probably about 95%) disassembly of the entire ROM; it's not labelled and is only partially commented, but it's still pretty useful, especially since it catches all the places where DW2 stores data in between sections of code (for instance, 0x103A8 - 0x103B2 and 0x18074 are really data, not code, which throws off your disassembly's alignment).

One thing about your enemy names that caught my eye was the new Pink Puff; do your battle formations allow the player to encounter more than one of those at a time? If so, the base game's pluralization rules will result in text like "Two Pink Pufves appear.". If you haven't already dealt with that, I posted a commented disasembly of the monster name pluralization code on the wiki which should be helpful.

[joe73ffdq]

Having all the data pooled together was the idea    I was just being honest, and being cautious not to digress too much, or ask for too much help with code I am looking for... I have started or jumped into topics, and have ambition, but very slow progress, and have poor concentration also...

I played DW2 heavily from 11/90 through winter 1992, at least 7-8 times. (Very first purchase with my own money, along with Castlevania 3. Received both on 11/2/90 in the mail)... I just randomly remembered that, and then there is the memory of what I called "Playable D&D"... DW1 was just a tease... FF1 was epic... And DW2 was love hate... Then there is that Zelda 3 / D&D hybrid, a few of us tried to create in late 89, with a map I made that has Rhone, almost to the tee.

I drew out a map on gamefaqs last year actually. It is all typed in with text, but you will see the NE section is identical to Rhone.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916386-nes/76478402


Ok... That was a pretty cool random moment, and then I looked for that thread 

---

With what you are seeing as cryptic... It was a complete mess and incomplete for DW1. I fixed and organized it. For the patch I gave, it allows for 5 armors to have damage reduction, instead of just 2. The charts there should make more sense now. The added effects for items should be easy to adjust now also.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lssn7p0iw9h508g/DW1.zip?dl=0


Anything that might look cryptic with the DW2 stuff, is the charts for damage variables, special formations, and a few chicken scratches that can be ignored... My text and organization skills, are worse then my hacking skills, lol.

---

How much is different in DW2...

All the data has been changed quite a bit in my notes, and now that I think about it, I was lucky to have 300+ free bytes to create things without bank swapping.

There is a partial disassembly for DW2 with #04 and #06 which has no altered code (that I know of). In the original link above.


---

You mention that you have your own disassembly of DW2... Im trying to think of whats left to try and find... I really want to find the HP 256 options, which requires an instruction to RAM. The 2nd byte of enemy data is for evade (left nybble), and the right nybble for 256 HP...

For now, I am going to go over all the text code throughout this thread, and see if I can organize and add it to my notes... It looks like you guys found the whole dialogue routine in bank #05, and stuff in #03 that goes with it... Enemy graphics are roughly from 4010-5500 in bank #01... With the combined effort, a lot has been unearthed 

---

1c816 : 00 - Pink Puff - add s

---

One more thing I wanted to mention... There is a program for DW2-4 that does map edits... It works while you are using it, but expands the code to 700 something, nearly tripling it... The area of code effected with just a few edits, was from a500-a700 roughly... I have used it a few times, and then I got runtime error 73 and 76, from moving files while it was open... It was working, and I was trying to see what I could find, and then I screwed something up by moving the folder, and failing to realize it was still open... Its an ancient program that was temperamental, but how did it screw with system32 ???

Here is the link for it at Zophars domain.

https://www.zophar.net/utilities/neslevel/dragon-warrior-x-overworld-editor.html


---

Ok... That covers everything for now... Kind of went all over the map, but Im glad the DW1 texts are fixed for you guys 

Hope you guy enjoy that story from 1989-90 

There was a friend that had DW1 before I got the system in Christmas of 89, and I was also familiar with Zelda 1&2... My friend Pete drew up enemies and statistics, and I drew all the maps and perceived locations... I thought of DW1... Level 5 in Zelda... And Tibet... A final area enclosed by mountains... DW2 was a letdown after playing FF1 at the time, but now you can see why it has such a strong nostalgic significance 

I was dancing between 7-8 mod ideas over the past few years, and then I was determined this past winter to finally follow through...

And then this thread came up at the same time 

AlexKC found the initial stuff in 2011 
Gameboy9 found 70% of what I have presented thus far 2 years ago 

Right off the heals of DQ 11, now the blacksheep in the DQ series, is close to having a much needed makeover 


---

Good day everyone


Now to look into text from here, and work on the enemy build for a very close project   


April 19, 2019, 01:49:40 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
---

Yikes... 

https://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/Dragon_Warrior_II:TBL#Table_for_menu_data

I was trying to decipher this, and cant figure it out...

B762-0B7C1... Main script pointers.

From there I saved when the king says... Hear me, oh king.'... This is somewhere between 1481d-14cfe... Im trying various things one byte at a time, and it garbles the whole text routine...

How do I actually change individual words?


I would like to manually map this out also, ie...

#00 : -- stood guard.             
#02 : But it wasnt real.           
#03 : -- attacked!                 
#04 : Before -- was set for battle.
#05 : But the -- did not see thee.

If someone could give me a starting point, that would be great 

[abw]

I played DW2 heavily from 11/90 through winter 1992, at least 7-8 times. (Very first purchase with my own money, along with Castlevania 3. Received both on 11/2/90 in the mail)...

Ah, if only I had money to spend in the 90s and/or a time machine... good old games tend to be expensive these days, especially if they're also rare!

You mention that you have your own disassembly of DW2...

It's definitely still a work in progress, but here is what I've got at the moment for bank 6 - there's not a single unused byte in that bank (though there are some useless bytes, but that's a different matter) . If you compare it against yours, you'll see there are a large number of places where DW2 stores data in between instructions (e.g. every call to $EB76, $F6EA, $F6F0, $F6F6, $FA2A, $FA2E, $FA32, and maybe others is followed by a byte of data before the next code instruction), and every time that happens, your disassembly of the next few bytes is incorrect.

I really want to find the HP 256 options, which requires an instruction to RAM. The 2nd byte of enemy data is for evade (left nybble), and the right nybble for 256 HP...

Some quick work with FCEUX's debugger and some light experimentation with its hex editor suggests that Midenhall's current HP at $63B-$63C and enemy current HP at $693-$694 are both functional 16-bit values, but only the low 8 bits get displayed. Slimes don't go down quite so easily when they have 512 HP . So the game has at least partial support for HP values up to 65535 internally (see e.g. $04:$AF31-$04:$AF7E, particularly $AF73-$AF7C where it updates both bytes of the target's current HP), but you'd have to update the display code and menu widths to get the high byte to show up on screen.

1c816 : 00 - Pink Puff - add s

Yup, that'll do the trick .

Yikes... 

https://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/Dragon_Warrior_II:TBL#Table_for_menu_data

I was trying to decipher this, and cant figure it out...

B762-0B7C1... Main script pointers.

From there I saved when the king says... Hear me, oh king.'... This is somewhere between 1481d-14cfe... Im trying various things one byte at a time, and it garbles the whole text routine...

For the main script, you have to understand that the text isn't stored in entire bytes (8-bit values), it's stored in 5-bit values (with some 10-bit values depending on how you want to think of things), so that 'Hear me, oh King.' starts at bit 3 of 0x14871 (the first 3 bits are part of the previous string) and is encoded like this:

Code Select Expand


%10101='
%1110000111=H
%01001=e
%11010=a
%10110=r
%01111=
%10001=m
%01001=e
%1110110001=,
%01111=
%00111=o
%01100=h
%01111=
%1110001010=King
%1111101011=[.'][wait][line]\n

So... changing the main script for DW2 is a bit more complicated than it was for DW1. I've included a full text extraction script for DW2 and the skeleton of a corresponding insertion script (fill in the rest with whatever text you want to insert) in the latest version of abcde, so you can use that to edit all the text in the game.

For the menu data, you can update that in a hex editor fairly easily if you really want to (the format is explained here), but the output of the sample extract script also gives you a working example of how the menu table setup works, and having an insert script also takes care of pesky issues like updating all the pointers when you change a string length.

[joe73ffdq]

Ok... I got a little ahead of myself, and burnt my brain out a little 

Thank you for the info and help 

I had to simplify where I am at, and not take too much on all at once... I have a remix and rebalance in the works... And then I spotted this thread, which will help with text errors, and the unexpected plural, ie Pink Puff, which I wasnt looking for...

I realized what I need to do, which will help me to be able to complete this...

#1 - Finish up the bulk of my work, and at least get a functioning beta, that can be reviewed by others who are following DQ in general  ... Also, I would want to offer all 3 translations... Original... Delocalization... And another thread which aims to modernize... That is where I got side tracked initially with this thread... I want to incorporate both new script rewrites into my work  ... I just have to finish up the last part I am doing first... I am actually burned out from the magic routine and building enemies... 64+5+19 formations, and I keep erasing it the past few days... I want the encounter part to be varied and epic... Dragons will be everywhere from Alefgard forward, but in 1-2 formations only, so its never a wipe out situation... I also have planned, for the ocean area north of Rhone, to be a hunting ground for gold and experience. I will have to label the map, because there will be several PNEOP type areas...

#2 - Then come back here, and attempt a disassembly of the dialogue routine, and apply text fixes I wouldnt have found, that were discovered here 

#3 - From there, I can attempt to figure out the HP thing... I am interested in enemy HP specifically, which AFAIK, would only require an instruction... $693 and $694 I knew about, but have no idea what to change...

Thank you for the specific locations and bank 6 info 

I can now try and figure some things out when I have a chance 

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Hope everyone liked that story from 1989... Mario 3 on Playchoice... And that incomplete D&D project...

Im going to describe part of it that I can remember... In the northwest quarter, it was going to be similar to Zelda 1 and Festers Quest, with below ground areas connecting places... The southwestern area would have been similar to Secret of Mana. We had a weapon/armor upgrade system, that was based on multipliers. Zelda meets Final Fantasy in concept, a few months before seeing FF1, and 3 years before SOM... The southeastern section, is where magic first appeared. 4 specific places had to be revisited, to obtain (onyx, sapphire, emerald, and ruby)... Then you had to go to a great sage (Rygar was the game for the concept of a sage), in the very far northeastern part of the map, to obtain a spell that could break the seal... Now we are at the Cave to Rhone entrance. It was a combination of CTR, and Turtle Rock in ALTTP... Once on the plateau, Rhone is almost too identical. The shrine is where a Tiamat type dragon was going to be. About 12-15 blocks SW of Hargon's castle, was a tower that resembled the lunarian home in FF4, or more specifically, the empress tower in the Neverending Story... Almost like a 2nd CTR was required to go through (about 10 blocks NW of Hargon's castle), and then 8 stories to this final tower, in which again, a Tiamat type dragon..... Final description... Maps from DW1... Fighting from Zelda, mixed with some D&D elements... Dragons, Gannon, and He-Man, were the sources of story line material, and names for many things... The first castle was named Gray Hawk, instead of Grayskull... The river to east if you look at that rough map, is where a Festers Quest type cavern was, and you retrieve an item that helps you reach the south. Someone similar to Teela in He-Man, opens up the way to the south with the amulet? IIRC... The next area was SOM and Zelda 1 related, where said number of items needed to be found, and you then learn your first spell to move east... Learn spells, retrieve the 4 stones, visit the sage, and then proceed to Rhone / Turtle Rock / and the Lunerain Home / Phantasia.....

Ok... There is some filler there, but that describes it very well. It was a D&D concept that went from 9/89 through early summer 1990. I drew well over 30 maps, and he created 10-12 functioning enemies... We experimented with a map I made, that mirrored Tantegal to Garinham. With a D6 to move 2-6 places, and D8 to determine encounters... There was a huge dragon fly, a large spider, a rabid wolf, and a slime that was a mix of DW1 and Festers Quest... Cant think of many others, except for many dragon concepts...

Form there, I can remember well, that we just parted ways gradually... He graduated in 1990 and went to college the next fall... Games like Zelda 1, Battle of Olympus, Crystalis, and then FF1 in mid summer... Video games were fulfilling a lot of my ideas, and then its pretty wild to see the concepts actually be used...

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I guess I could close by saying this...

I had that small window of die hard gaming... Spring of 86 through about mid 93... 1989 and 1990 were the epic years 

Most epic moment in all of gaming... Reaching 5-2 in SMB3 on roughly 10/25/89... At Price Chopper of all places. We accumulated around $30, and made it that far without knowledge of warps.

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That was fun 

I kept revisiting this over that past few hours...

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From here I am going to finish up what I am working on...

And then come back here, and see what I might be able to help with 

Good day Everyone