Commissioning a hack tool - good idea or bad?

[annath]

So, I really like the old Dragon Warrior Monsters games for GB/GBC. Unfortunately, they were never as popular as Pokémon even when they were current gen, so they never developed a or hacking community.

I would love a sort of tool like PokeHex for them, but I know nothing about programming.

Would it be feasible to commission such a tool? If so, where would I ask?

Or, is it pretty unfeasible to start such a project?

 

[AncientBoi]

A game cheat hack? Yes. All others, No

 

[annath]

A game cheat hack? Yes. All others, No

What I would like to do:

Edit monsters’ stats (HP, MP, etc)
Edit which monster was in my party (change Slime to Golem for example)
Edit player money/items

There are some monsters which were only available via promotion events, so being able to add them to the party would be fun.

Additionally, the sequel to DWM, DWM2, had 2 “versions” (again aping Pokémon) that each had some unique monsters, so completing your monster catalog was only possible via link cable trading/breeding, which is difficult nowadays lmao.

Would this fall under “game cheat hack”?

 

[AncientBoi]

Basically, yess

 

[annath]

Basically, yess

Cool.

Any thoughts on where I could talk to someone about starting such a project?

 

[AncientBoi]

I'm waiting for the others to help you on that.

 

[GentlemanPotato]

Romhacking.net forums would probably be your best bet.

 

[RHOPKINS13]

There's already a save editor for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker2. It's in Japanese though. It might be worth looking at.

 

[annath]

There's already a save editor for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker2. It's in Japanese though. It might be worth looking at.

Thanks, but I'm looking for something for the GBC games.

 

[esmith13]

What I would like to do:

Edit monsters’ stats (HP, MP, etc)
Edit which monster was in my party (change Slime to Golem for example)
Edit player money/items

There are some monsters which were only available via promotion events, so being able to add them to the party would be fun.

Additionally, the sequel to DWM, DWM2, had 2 “versions” (again aping Pokémon) that each had some unique monsters, so completing your monster catalog was only possible via link cable trading/breeding, which is difficult nowadays lmao.

Would this fall under “game cheat hack”?

Dunno if this would help you at all but here you go:
https://dragon-warrior-monsters-2-modding.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Warrior_Monsters_2_Modding_HomePage

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/525414-dragon-warrior-monsters-2-cobis-journey/65397899

https://forum.gamehacking.org/forum...-hacking/14092-dragon-warrior-monsters-gb-gbc

 

[FAST6191]

Commissioning is fraught with difficulty.

Three main concerns.

Legal. ROM hacking is a bit of a legal grey area most of the time and money is where lawyers perk up. Thus many would avoid it.

Payment. This is not an afternoon website customisation and while not as radical as some things some have proposed then this is still a fairly skilled programmer (z80 capable/whatever your chosen embedded reverse engineering is not a common skill or one that comes cheap in industry) putting in some time. You might get the beer money project and you might find the genius kid in Vietnam that will live like a king on your few hundred dollars, or maybe you are inclined to drop big boy money.

Doing the work. Take the money and run is a concern but take the money and take ages to deliver is far more of one. Known people, proof of concepts, milestones and more can be implemented but that gets to be more tricky to sort out.



Have you tried doing anything here yourself? There are some lesser versions that might be easier -- disabling save hashes (open save in emulator and save game again, will be sorted) and potentially inserting illegal monsters is way easier than reverse engineering the hash and figuring out the bounds for each and every monster. The trade only (though do be aware of any obtained by link) and promotion ones should not be that bad within that either -- chances are it is just another number in the list rather than fancy data contained elsewhere, though if you can find a save with one then so much the better.