Newb Hacker with a few Q's

[Wolfz]

I decided to start my own little line of hacked SNES games, Starting off with Super Mario Kart. And I have some questions.

1. How do you edit the text on a course name?
2. How do you change what the drivers look like?
3. How do you edit the items?
4. How do you change the beginning of the game? (Big Super Mario Kart Sign, along with the nintendo logo at the beginning)
5. How do you change the name of a racer?
6. How do you change the music
(Like removing one and replacing it with another, or Swapping them.)

If anyone can answer these questions It will be truly appreciated.

[k0k0them0nkey]

I'd suggest you start small, with the NES, and then as you learn how to edit palettes, text, use tile editors, change music on that platform, move up to the bigger boy, the SNES. Starting on the SNES, unless you're using a level editor or something, is like learning to swim in a current filled ocean rather than a nice swimming pool. Get your feet wet with the NES, then jump onto the SNES once you're comfortable there. That's my opinion though. Not sure what someone who is more "experienced" might say. I've only been messing hacking roms for about a year and a half.

[InVerse]

Approximately half of your questions are absolute beginning ROM Hacking 101 type of questions. As such, I would strongly recommend that you start by reading some absolute beginning level general ROM hacking documents.

Obviously, I'm a bit biased, having written them, but I would strongly recommend reading The Definitive Guide to ROM Hacking for Complete Beginners and then The Definitive Guide to ROM Hacking Tables. Both of these can be found in the documents section of Suicidal Translations (http://www.suicidaltranslations.com/).

Once you've read those and understand the very basics, there is an editor for Mario Kart by the name of 'MAKE'. I can't tell you much about it because it crashes on my system when I attempt to run it, but I know some experienced hackers who have had good results with it. I'm also not providing a link to it because, to be honest, if you aren't able to find it yourself, having been provided the name, you most likely don't have the skills it takes to pull off a successful hack.

I would presume that MAKE can edit items, but if it can't, there is another editor known as 'MK Items' that can do so. There's also another utility by the name of 'SMK Mashup' that allows you to edit the statistics of the drivers, in the event that MAKE can't handle that particular task. There are also a couple of other track designers, aside from MAKE, but from what I've heard, they're not nearly as good. (One of them can edit the tracks but not teach the computer controlled racers how to drive on it, so they act like it's the same old track.)

Starting on the SNES, unless you're using a level editor or something, is like learning to swim in a current filled ocean rather than a nice swimming pool.

In the old days, that was the automatic response to anyone trying to start outside of the realm of NES. These days, there is enough documentation that someone with the necessary skills should do just fine with SNES. And if they don't have the necessary skills, all they'll do with NES is create shitty hacks anyway. I know of one guy who got tired of trying to convince someone to translate a particular SNES game, so he decided to do it himself and released a completed patch in a matter of a couple of months, having never hacked anything before. I also know of at least one person who started out on PSX and is making good progress as well, most likely releasing a translation sometime this year that people have been trying to do for years.

There are certainly advantages to starting on the NES, but it also poses certain limitations that can stifle the learning curve, (it's easier to find stuff on the NES but once you do find something on SNES, you can do much more with it) so it really comes down to the abilities of a particular person (and by abilities, I'm referring to thought processes and such, not hex editing skills) and what they're hoping to accomplish.