Total Newbie

NO.

Naw, I just kid. I'm no tech member, but I know a wee bit about this kind of stuff. Indeed, there is alot of coding involve. I would suggest you learn how to hex edit a little bit before you do anything "extreme". A good start is learning how to kill off sprites (see the "Learn How to Kill Tails" topic). And I suggest that you trying editing Sonic 2 first, as it is the easiest Sonic game to hack.

Sorry, I'm not really that helpful. Just trying to give you some advice.

EDIT: Reworded some things.

 

You just use SonED to edit the levels

 

I would recommend ESE II instead. SonED always, and I mean ALWAYS, eats my roms. They're still playable, oh yes. But they cannot be edited anymore. They cause illegal operations in any editor I open them with.

 

yeah, ESE is your best bet, try starting out with the easy stuff like pallete and sprite hacking (for sprite hacking you will need a program called SoniK Sprite)

 

E.S.E. has a level-editing function in it as well.

 

ESE bloats your ROM up something horrible. Use SonED.

 

Only all the versions previous to the latest ESE. The latest ESE and ESE II don't superhugeify the rom. (at least not as bad.) For instance, ESE II modified my rom from 1.00 MB to 1.43 MB. Not all that bad if you ask me.

 

ESE = Level Name Changes, palette changes, level music changes, special stages changes (S3&K only), checksum fixing
SonED = Tile editting, object placement, tile placement (Level and backround), writing to ROM without checksum needed

They are both validly equal, so use them both. I do , and nothing bad has happened at all.

Oh, and use Sonik Sprite to edit the sprites.

 

That's exactly what I MEAN. That's a crapload of useless repeated junk tagged onto your ROM. It's annoying, and it bloats your ROM.

 

Quick Man, everyone understands that you don't like ESE and you would prefer hexing and 68K assembly over anything else. But not everybody is a prodigy and therefore they use these tools for their first time. Not every ROM is perfect and not everyone has to use these, but those programs are quite good for first timers until they decide to hex edit and program with 68K. So until then yes, hacks will probably be "bloated".

 

I don't really think that. 43 MB is "bloated". It's really not that much. Now of course that strictly IMO but still. I don't think file size really matters. (Not with files that are less than 3 MB anyway.) It's the quality of the hack that matters. Therefore, less than 1/2 of a megabyte shouldn't really make a difference.

 

For SONED: http://stealth.emulationzone.org

For ESE, ESE II, Sonik Sprite, and practically all the hacking tools you'll ever need: Sonicology

Also, tools such as SONED and ESE are very easy to use. You simply select the level 128x128 tile (basically, a level "piece" you can place), and place it somewhere. It can also move objects around, and change what object they are.

As for your attempting to restore Hidden Palace, I wouldn't suggest that. You would have to do a LOT of hex editing, for the collision data (what parts of the 128x128 tiles are solid) and level tiles.

Finally, I recommend hacking Sonic 2 first. It's the easiest to hack, and many tools are designed for it. Good luck on your hacking!

 

Try Googling for SonED. That's how I found it.

[edit]Waitaminute, it's in my favorites menu! Here you go: http://stealth.emulationzone.org/SonED/index.html [/edit]

 

Click the boxes to the side and then click to place them on the map.

Sonik Sprite, and a LOT of patience.

Yep, you'll want a palette editor.

 

1. The reason that nothing was different was because you didn't write your changes to the ROM, so you were effectively copying your ROM. To write the data, just go to File-Write-All-[Zone Name].

2. People have already done what you're talking about with Hidden Palace, and it's exactly the same, except that Sonic auto-spins in the tube near the beginning.

 

Well, seeing as they hardly even worked on HPZ after our prototype, I would say that they are pretty much the same size. But don't take my word for it :P. All I know is 4E 75, 70 00, jmp $200, and ILLEGAL. XD