- Hacking method: FEBuilder
So, I wanted to create a GBA remake of Shadow Dragon, and for this, I wanted to delete everything and start over from scratch so that I can learn the ropes of making romhacks with FEBuilderGBA.
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I assume that, by deleting everything, you mean deleting all the maps, their events, and all the characters and classes. Truly deleting everything would render the rom useless.
I’d strongly advise against this. Instead, you can reuse the resources that are already there.
You can use the vanilla events to see how the Great Old Ones at Intelligent Systems managed certain things like backgrounds, reinforcements, and such.
You’d lose all references to where the text is. I think FE8 has its text organised pretty damn well, all things considered. Are you going do delete everything? Or just the section of the text that manages the story? There’s a lot of tricks to make the dialogue feel natural, which IS uses a lot (they did code the game, after all) and you can learn.
It’s not worth. It’s better to write over things.
Even assuming that it’s best to have a blank hack to start (maybe it is, if you’re a veteran), there isn’t any “blank state” rom at the moment. I don’t think it’s worth the hassle of deleting everything, either.
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You can always rebuild the ROM after you’re done, and FEBuilder will delete the leftover FE8 garbage data.
You could delete the file you already have and create a new file that’s empty. If you use windows explorer you can right click → create new file.
That’s not what rom rebuild does at all - it moves data past 16mb into areas past 16 mb where there are a bunch of 00s (eg. space you wasted while always writing to end of rom with febuilder) - and it should be used only as a last resort when you hit 32 mb, as it is prone to creating bugs.
What? They’re talking about creating a romhack in febuilder.
There might be existing projects with this goal; consider having a look around at what has been done first. If you’re new to this, you should check out these resources:
Idk if or how you’d empty the ROM in FEBuilderGBA, but it’s very easy to create an empty file in Windows Explorer. It’s probably not a lot of effort in other file managers either. It might not be FEBuilderGBA, but I’d give it a whirl, OP.
Why is OP asking for FireShell in 2024
The easiest way to work from something resembling a blank slate is buildfiles, but uh… if you’re not already familiar with using IDEs that’s not gonna be easy
Forgive me, but either either I am missing something or you are. What good would an empty file with zero lines of code do for OP? Are you suggesting they entirely code the entire game from the ground up?
What OP is asking for is effectively a copy of, let’s say Sacred Stones, with all the events, chapters, maps, units, etc. scrubbed, but the base game so they can make their own units, maps, events, and possibly even classes.
While it is possible to go through FE-builder and effectively delete all that so there is a “blank file” with the ability to make a new game from it, as @RecursiveBow said in the first comment, that would be the most optimal approach. Let’s say you don’t end up using every unit slot 1 for 1 and some of the old characters are still there. Without any way to recruit them, no one playing the game would even know.
I’m just learning how to make a game myself and made a “Mary Sue” that’s totally busted just to meme around with. Never going to make it into the final result.
From what I can read in the oping post, OP wants to delete everything and start from scratch. I don’t see any mention of deleting specifically events, chapters, maps or units. I’m not suggesting they code the entire game from the ground up. I’m only trying to answer the question.
For FEBuilder to launch it first needs an input file, a rom that’s based on a FE GBA game. Any other input returns error.
Error code when trying to add Lyn to Super Mario Advance
I don’t know anything about the structure of BameGoy roms, but according to this error code there must be some hardcoded stuff that tells the system “yes, this game is Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones version 1.0 US edition”. FEBuilder also checks the size, for some reason.
You could create a .gba file, code it to have just the game version, and allocate just enough space for FEBuilder to recognise it. However, it’s virtually impossible, it’ll require absurd amounts of time and patience, and the program will most likely just crash.