User:Kimbles/Medarot 2 Core Hacking Notes

Text table

The text tables for the English and Japanese versions of the game are different. You can download them both here:

• Japanese: http://www.mediafire.com/file/xjydoxmztnt/2core.tbl
• English: http://www.mediafire.com/file/l2ll4jnjmnt/medabots.tbl

Use these to view/edit the text in a hex editor.

Control codes

• F7?? = Changes the text speed. Lower numbers are faster, but using 00 will make the game freeze. F7FF makes the text appear instantly.
• F8 = In the English version this enables and disables italics. In the Japanese version it does nothing.
• F9?? = Inserts a piece of variable text from RAM. F900 inserts the player's name, and F901 is used for other variables in battle.
• FB?????? = This sets the dialogue portrait:
  • First byte: Decides if it appears on the right (00) or left (01) of the text box. Left is used for Ikki and flips the portrait horizontally.
  • Second byte: Decides the character. There are 97 (60 in hexidecimal) possible characters in the English version, and 98 (61) in the Japanese version since they added a face for Koishimaru. Using FF makes it not display a portrait.
  • Third byte: Decides the expression. These can range from 00 to 08, meaning 9 possible expressions for some characters. Most minor characters only have one possible expression (00).
  • Example: FB-01-00-04 displays Ikki's 04 expression (smiling) on the left side of the text box.
• FC = Starts a new text box.
• FD = New line character. Using this on the second text line will start a new text box.
• FF?? = Ends a string. FF00 is the most common, but FF02 and FF04 get some use as well.

Japanese-only events

The Japanese version of the game added a few extra events to the postgame:

• Robottles with your Mom, Dad, and Salty at home.
• A Robottle with Rintarou at Medarot Island
• A Robottle with Koishimaru (from M5, via time travel nonsense) at Medarot Island. He uses a copy of the player's team.

The data for these encounters does not exist in the English version.

M2 Core script vs. original M2 script

Compared to the original GBC game, the dialogue script in Medarot 2 Core is almost completely unchanged. The main changes seem to be:

• Modifying line breaks to make use of the wider text boxes
• Removing references to GBC-only features or mechanics.
• Removing unused text (i.e. unpointed lines).

Like the original Medarot 2, Medarot 2 Core doesn't use kanji in its script even though Medarot 3-5 and Navi did previously. (For what it's worth, Shingata doesn't either.)