Adventures in FE1 Modding!

[Polinym]

Hello! It’s me, the FE1 fanatic again, here to share my obsession with this crappy game with the world.

I often work on adding improvements or developing tools for this game, on-and-off. I thought it’d be a good idea to share the latest stable build of the ROM with the world in case somebody else wants to hack FE1. The vanilla game isn’t exactly set up well for additions to the game, so this might be handy if you’re looking to add your own content.

The first build originated as a 95% complete translation of the game, then came the Python compiler I wrote, then mods. Those mods were incorperated into the Time For Tom hack. After that, I took out the mods for a cleaner pure translation, and now I’ve put all the mods back in.

The Time For Tom mods include Magic stat (tomes/magic swords use it to attack), Genealogy Weapon Triangle, All units have Convoy, complete promotion table with Hunter->Horsemen, Armor->General, Resistance stat for players/enemies and mostly complete Resistance growth.

Here’s the most recent improvements:

• Expanded upper unit box to allow longer names/class names
• Improved graphics (sprites from Monshou, palette changes)
• Maps support compression. All maps must now end with byte 0x00, or the game will glitch out. If you want to compress your own maps, I can provide the Python script.
• Fixed the softlock that occurs when unit names are longer than 6 bytes. Also, player names can now be at most 9 bytes long.

For the next round, I’ve got my sights set on adding supprt for longer item names. I managed to make the box bigger previously. All I gotta do is figure out how to expand the Convoy list and decide what I want to do with shops.

Obviously, there will most likely still be bugs. I don’t have time to play through the entire 25-chapter game every time I compile. I do plan on giving each new feature a good test before I ship it out, too. Also, I might have missed some things I thought I brought over from Time For Tom, so “keep your eyes open” for my mistakes.

Get c00l FE1 here: GIMME FE1!
Patch to Japanese ROM.

I make no guarantee that this is compatible with Nightmare editors or translation patches. This modded patch comes complete with the latest English translation built-in.

Finally, I don’t really know what my end goal for this is. It’d be neat to make some sort of full game experience or hard mode or something. If you’ve got ideas, feel free to shoot.

[MegaCowsamMan]

FE1Builder…?
In all seriousness, it’s a pretty cool endeavor to be hacking an old classic such as FE1. Honestly crazy how the original game holds up!

Oh yeah, list of ideas:

1. Implementing the weapon triangle?
2. Adding in class promotions to classes that lack one?
3. Perhaps adding a few characters from FE11?
4. Maybe try adding the Wing Spear? Or the Hauteclere?

Just some food for thought.

[Polinym]

Yeah, I kinda have a private FE1Builder going on.

Already got a Weapon Triangle and promotions. I did once add a Wing Spear into the game, but since replaced it with a Slim Lance. Trying not to add IS’s fanfiction into Kaga’s world here (although, I have considered adding the 5-chapter prologue)

I also recently found out that for my public release, I miscompiled the combat lines, meaning that if you go to attack, you’ll just hear about how Darros is a man of the sea and the game will crash. I’ll either wait until I’ve added compression for item/menus names, or recompile the older version and release that first.

[Polinym]

Finally got to release some more updates to this! I’ve been extremely busy lately, and a hundred or so ideas and interests tug at me every day, so I can’t guarantee the next time you’ll get an update for FE1.

But first, some screenshots!

The New Feature(s)

The biggest thing I’ve added, and kinda the only big thing, is expanded item names! I increased the width for most boxes that item names can appear in and adjusted the code to account for it. This means basically every item in the game gets to have its whole, original Japanese name now (except the new items). Didn’t check whether the new items function exactly how they should, but it doesn’t matter if all you want to do is play vanilla since they won’t appear anyway. Note that you’ll have to hack in Master Proofs to promote if you plan on playing the vanilla campaign in this.

The only boxes not accounted for are the convoy list and convoy storage/withdrawl. Fortunately, thanks to the new code, the game no longer softlocks for them. Instead, they’ll just look a little funky, but should be usable.

I also made some edits to the translation. Small, but they’re there.

The Download Link

The old link probably still works, but just in case, here it is again:
“I’m a pantless prince and I wanna hack! Gimme gimme gimme!”
Apply patch to Japanese ROM still.

Why I don’t update more often:

“Hmm… you know what might be fun? Let’s add some ASM code to FE1 today!”

…
Three hours later…
…

(brain exhausted, feature partially added, sort of works, looks ugly, causes several issues, many other bugs not found yet, still have to save brainpower for other hobbies)

The Road Ahead

Lately, I’ve made up my mind to actually release my FE1 editor to the whole world. Soon, you’ll be able to compile the FE1 of your dreams, editing text, unit data, maps, items, and more. There’s still a few tiny things to work out (possibly including documentation), but the biggest thing I’m waiting on is the release of my indie game. All this time, I’ve been working on a game of my own, and am holding off on releasing the editor until I’ve finished fixing and testing my game. If you want Basilisk out faster, then consider supporting my work here!

[LordLouie]

Having worked with FE5 buildfiles for a few years now, I think having a dedicated FE1 editor would be a godsend. I’m so excited.