Could it be done? How many new assets would it really need? I assume that the map would be largely the same, and the character would be largely the same...
I'm sure you've had this discussion on the forums before, but forgive me, I'm new here. How did the conversation go the last time you had it?
You are lucky Golden Sun Dark Dawn was on the NDS, so it can be done without the hassle of an encryption.
Most, if not all, 3DS games are encrypted, this means they can't be hacked without the decryption key. And it doesn't help that we don't have any emulators, either.
Stuff you would need: The ROM itself, and a hex editor. GBATEK as your source of information for learning about NDS hardware. DeSmuME for emulating. (Use tools like RAM Search and Memory viewer for randomly finding stuff in RAM.) No$gba Debugger for breakpointing, but it crashes/white screen with Dark Dawn, so it is rendered almost useless in this case. ; Also, I used to use Tahaxan to view the filesystem, which gives a lot of information already... (Tahaxan is even less needed now that DeSmuME added a tool to view the FileSystem.)
Also, I'm not sure we had that discussion before? (Aside from one or two references, but nothing as direct as this, as far as I know.)
Clarification: I'm talking about making a GBA sequel, not an NDS sequel.
Isn't that what most people here would be interested in?
Oh, thanks.
I must have read it wrong
Re: What are the challenges to hacking a sequel to the GBA Golden Sun games?
Re: What are the challenges to hacking the sequel to the GBA Golden Sun games?
If one is to hack GS2, then you need ROM, VBA, GBATEK, VBA-SDL-H, and an understanding of how to get around data (ASM knowledge may also be required.)
True dat. So what *more* would be required to make an actual game?
1) Plot; dialogue.
2) New characters?
3) New locations?
4) New psi energy?
Quote1) Plot; dialogue.
2) New characters?
3) New locations?
4) New psi energy?
So we're not just talking about the hacking side of things? Okay then...
1) Yes..
2) Possibly, unless you choose to recycle the same PCs.
3) Seems likely...
4) Possible... but not entirely required.
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You seem to have changed the topic from
challenges to
requirements....?
So are 2 and 3 doable?
@2: @Replacing PCs: yes. ; @Having more than 8 PCs: Not without a lot of work.
@3: There's no working map editor, so therefore, it's not yet easily doable. (But can still be done via decompressing some data in the ROM, editing it, and compressing it back.)
@ Characters: *Should* there be more than 8?
@ Locations: What about palette swaps? For example, Dark Dawn basically had a bunch of the map in darker colors. Could we just cover Weyard in a shadow of doom'n'gloom and be done with it?
@Character: I'm thinking there shouldn't. The more characters you have, the more work you'll need to do on adding character development... Etc.
@Locations: Palette swaps would require hex editing as well... ; You probably could, but what would you plan to do with the current maps? Would players feel like the sequel is a remake or something? Or what?
I'm just exploring what's feasible, not what's ideal.