Does anyone know how to change the text/music in Streets of Rage 2?

[Cupcom5/NGKFlower]

I know that it requires some skill with this, but I would be very willing to learn if I knew how.

I've been wanting to this sort of thing for a while, but I have no idea where to start.

Another thing is that most of the hacking tools needed are ONLY for windows, and I have a Mac.

I have tried that half windows-half mac thing before, but it mentioned something about taking or deleting most of my files in order to install it, so I left it alone and stuck with Wineskin. SORPancake 2 and 3 works fine on my mac without Wineskin, so I use that at any will/time.

The only problem is that some of those windows tools for hacking does not work period for the wineskin, maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I'm more of a visual learner, but any kind of help would be great.

[FAST6191]

You are going to need Windows for most of this, or to write your own code to handle it (and probably the code to handle the basics there as well). For some things and people macs have their purpose but most of the time they are ignored.

You don't need to dual boot (used to go under the name parallels on macs) and can instead use a virtual machine (mac folks seemed to really plump for vmware, everybody else until they need big boy toys tends to go for virtualbox). It will not have to delete anything to install that.

Compatibility layers like Wine and Cedega might get you somewhere but for ROM hacking purposes will come up short sooner rather than later.

All this said. Have you tried Beats of Rage or the various fan remakes? Those are often open source or more readily hacked, and usually play pretty well too.

Music wise. On older systems music can be harder still to hack, and here you have Yuzo Koshiro on top form (back then most computer game music people were also programmers, and he is a legend among those).

[Psyklax]

If you're lucky you can find the text in a hex editor in ASCII, though I wouldn't count on it.

Of course, if you need a Windows PC just pull an old Dell out of a dumpster. But seriously, my point is that you can hack old games perfectly well with a 15-year-old Windows XP machine, so it might not be such a bad idea to get one that somebody doesn't want.

Then again, hex editors are ubiquitous and Tile Molester is Java-based...

[4lorn]

I can't help with changing music. However, SoR2 has nearly all its text visible and editable.



Here's some data with examples:

Code Select Expand

OFFSETS  // TEXT

5CE2: PRESS START BUTTON
5D1E: MUSIC @ YUZO KOSHIRO

646E: VERY EASY
      EASY
      NORMAL
      HARD
      HARDEST
      MANIA

657C: THE BEST 10 PLAYERS

65AC: RANK SCORE RD NAME LEVEL

65D4: RANK SCORE RD NAME K.O.

65F2: 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH 8TH 9TH 10TH
      MAX- AXEL- BLAZE- SAMMY-  MAX- AXEL- BLAZE- SKATE-

7452: 1 PLAYER  2 PLAYERS  DUEL  BATTLING  OPTIONS

74C6: MAX    AXEL    BLAZE   SKATE
      MAX    AXEL    BLAZE   SKATE
      POWER  TECHNIQUE  SPEED  JUMP  STAMINA

75BC: STAGE  SPECIAL ON  SPECIAL OFF  PRESS B BUTTON TO EXIT

8F92: CLEAR BONUS 000000 PTS  TIME BONUS 000000 PTS  LEVEL BONUS 000000 PTS

BA62: CONTINUE  GAME OVER  NEW GAME  NAME

FE30: OPTIONS  LEVEL  PLAYERS  BGM  SE  VOICE  ROUND  EXIT  VERY EASY   EASY
      NORMAL     HARD       HARDEST    MANIA

FF73: Numbers from 00 to 99, I assume for the level countdowns

249A7: Intro text ("ONE YEAR AFTER THE BATTLE", etc.)

223EA: Credits (MAIN PLANNING, etc.)

In fact, it's this simple:



Here, check the video I did:

https://youtu.be/f8aKvyNbJf0

It's been a while since I touched a MAC, and I can't even remember if they have simple text editors. I think they do, so if your changes to the actual text of the game aren't that big, you can make changes that way, then save the file maintaining the extension of your ROM file (*.bin, etc).

On the other hand:



Note that "text" like "GAME DESIGN" in the end credits isn't text per se, rather an image. You'd need an image editor for that, something like Tile Molester or Tile Layer Pro.

[Psyklax]

Aw, I saved the city.

But looks like I was right about the text being in simple ASCII - I think quite a few Genesis games are like that. Changing the text is no problem at all, then.

The music, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish, and unless you know someone who has done something like that before, I wouldn't make the effort, really.

[Cupcom5/NGKFlower]

You don't need to dual boot (used to go under the name parallels on macs) and can instead use a virtual machine (mac folks seemed to really plump for vmware, everybody else until they need big boy toys tends to go for virtualbox). It will not have to delete anything to install that.

Compatibility layers like Wine and Cedega might get you somewhere but for ROM hacking purposes will come up short sooner rather than later.

All this said. Have you tried Beats of Rage or the various fan remakes? Those are often open source or more readily hacked, and usually play pretty well too.

Hmm, I never heard of VMware, but I will definitely look into it. yeah I got my mac from college when I was doing animation classes, and I have been thinking of Beats or Rage, but some of the stuff I found seemed really confusing. I'll look into it some more.

Yuzo Koshiro is legend when it comes to this stuff, and here I am being a noob. lol

Thank you.

[Cupcom5/NGKFlower]

I can't help with changing music. However, SoR2 has nearly all its text visible and editable.



Here's some data with examples:

Code Select Expand

OFFSETS  // TEXT

5CE2: PRESS START BUTTON
5D1E: MUSIC @ YUZO KOSHIRO

646E: VERY EASY
      EASY
      NORMAL
      HARD
      HARDEST
      MANIA


FF73: Numbers from 00 to 99, I assume for the level countdowns

249A7: Intro text ("ONE YEAR AFTER THE BATTLE", etc.)

223EA: Credits (MAIN PLANNING, etc.)

In fact, it's this simple:

Are you by any chance using Hexecute? I recently stumbled across it, so I know only a little of it. That is comforting to know that the text is easy to change. I have tried 3 times by changing and by following the example you shown in the pic and video, and when I try to play the rom it turns red as an error.

Am I doing something Wrong? :/

[Jorpho]

Compatibility layers like Wine and Cedega might get you somewhere but for ROM hacking purposes will come up short sooner rather than later.

Cedega's been dead for a long time now, if I'm not mistaken.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedega_(software)

I think Wineskin and BoxedWine are popular options now.

[4lorn]

Are you by any chance using Hexecute? I recently stumbled across it, so I know only a little of it. That is comforting to know that the text is easy to change. I have tried 3 times by changing and by following the example you shown in the pic and video, and when I try to play the rom it turns red as an error.

Am I doing something Wrong? :/

I actually use HxD for hex editing.

As for the screen turning red, it's most likely the checksum. Whenever you make changes to a ROM, its internal checksum will mismatch the data chnges. Some emulators will bypass that, but others are very precious about it. There's a Sega Genesis/32X checksum fixer here at Romhacking.net, actually.

[Cupcom5/NGKFlower]

I actually use HxD for hex editing.

As for the screen turning red, it's most likely the checksum. Whenever you make changes to a ROM, its internal checksum will mismatch the data chnges. Some emulators will bypass that, but others are very precious about it. There's a Sega Genesis/32X checksum fixer here at Romhacking.net, actually.

do you by any chance know what it's called?

EDIT: Nevermind I found it

[peixemacaco]

Ese fix Checksum

The best

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/342/

Success,
Nelson

[Cupcom5/NGKFlower]

Ese fix Checksum

The best

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/342/

Success,
Nelson

Thank you. I am so new to all of this, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can.