User:Kimbles/Medarot DS Hacking Notes
I have no idea who'd be insane enough to try to hack this game, but then again there did seem to be a lot of interest in making a translation patch for it so I guess I'll record what I've found.
General notes[edit]
In order to view/edit the files in the ROM you first need to unpack it. (I used DSbuff, but other programs probably exist.) The game seems to use Shift-JIS for all of its text.
Text locations[edit]
Most of the dialogue in the game seems to be stored in script files (.spt), with the majority existing in the data\field\spt folder. Most seem to only contain a couple lines of text. :/
Other important pieces of text are stored in binary files (.b) in the data\param folder. These have straightforward filenames and seem like they would be simple enough to edit, although text space might be an issue for some of them.
| Files in the param folder (all contain some text) | |
|---|---|
| Filename | Contents |
| AreaName.b | Location names with formatting? |
| ArmLParts.b | Left arm part names and data |
| ArmRParts.b | Right arm part names and data |
| Atkmsg.b | In-battle messages explaining certain move effects |
| btlmsgset.b | Other battle messages (most of them) |
| HeadParts.b | Head part names and data |
| HelpInfo.b | Help contents page (actual help pages are elsewhere) |
| ItemData.b | Item names and descriptions |
| LegParts.b | Leg part names and data |
| MailInfo.b | Mail messages from throughout the story |
| MedaData.b | Medarot model numbers, names, and genders |
| MedaiteData.b | Medalia names and descriptions |
| MedalData.b | Medal names and data |
| medalink_1.b | Names and data for Medalink Medarotters? |
| MFData.b | Medaforce names in kana and kanji? |
| MFmsg.b | In-battle messages when Medaforces are used |
| PartsText.b | Stat page info and descriptions for all medals and parts. |
| TuneData.b | ???? Debug stuff? |
Parts data[edit]
As mentioned above, part names and data are stored in binary files in the data\param folder. There are four files: HeadParts.b, ArmRParts.b, ArmLParts.b, and LegParts.b.
Each contains parts for all 70 Medarots in the same order as the Medarot list, as well as an extra set of 70 parts that appear to be duplicates. The extra parts are named identically but with reversed case (katakana -> hiragana, hiragana -> katakana) and some have slightly different stats. (Apparently some actually appear in the game as enemies, but their parts are unobtainable.)
Each part has 36 bytes of data, broken down like so:
- Number - 1 byte, from 0 to 140 (8C)
- Name - 20 bytes, 10 characters in Shift-JIS with extra space filled with in 00's
- Stats - 15 bytes. I haven't figured out the format yet. :(
(The duplicate parts are numbered 71 to 140.)
(That's all I have for now!)
