DKC Atlas Forum

I need some SERIOUS help. I am making a DKC hack in a hex editor. I need to change text values, among other things. I found bank $3c on my own, but am confused by the extra text sections. Why do banks $3d and ($26? $27?) contain additional text. Is this unused? Could I use that space for ASM hacks?

can't you just expand the rom to 6mb or something and use the 2mb for ASM? that's what i do sometimes

Yes, I could. If I were pressed for space, I would. I guess I just want to know if that space is re-writable or if the game somehow pulls from it

Fortunately, an ample amount of bytes in the US version 1.0 of DKC are never touched by the game's code. Here's a list of offsets that I've gathered over the past several years:

Code: Select all

007A21-007FFF (0x5DF bytes)
00FE81-00FFAF (0x12F bytes)
0174BA-017FFF (0xB46 bytes)
01F3E8-01FFFF (0xC18 bytes)    Very weird data; pattern doesn't exist in version 1.2
02F7ED-02FFFF (0x813 bytes)
04FDB2-04FFFF (0x24E bytes)
08D9C1-08FFFF (0x263F bytes)   Duplicate sound sample data from 7C030
0A6561-0A7FFF (0x1A9F bytes)   End of bank containing graphics and tilemap of Vine Valley (1st Map); contains fragment of early graphics!
10E87C-10FFFF (0x1784 bytes)
13E1A9-13FFFF (0x1E57 bytes)
17FA3C-17FFFF (0x5C4 bytes)
18EED0-18FFFF (0x1130 bytes)
1CE9E0-1CFFFF (0x1620 bytes)
1DEC90-1DFFFF (0x1370 bytes)   Early uncompressed Mine Cart Level Graphics
1FE186-1FFFFF (0x1E7A bytes)
21E8A7-21FFFF (0x1759 bytes)
22E58F-22FFFF (0x1A71 bytes)   Padded with unused Puftup/etc. (Graphics)
24EC4F-24FFFF (0x13B1 bytes)
25F23B-25FFFF (0xDC5 bytes)
280000-28047F (0x480 bytes)    Language Select Screen (Tilemap)--unused in U v1.0
280480-280EBF (0xA40 bytes)    Language Select Screen (Graphics)--unused in U v1.0
280EE6-282465 (0x1580 bytes)   Unused jungle foreground trees (Graphics)
282466-282665 (0x200 bytes)    Unused jungle foreground trees (Tilemap)
282666-287A49 (0x53E4 bytes)   30 unused D.K. sprites
28E5B8-28FFFF (0x1A48 bytes)   Padded with Mode 5/Mode 6 Graphics: EOPRS, Nintendo Logo
29E2CC-29FFFF (0x1D34 bytes)
2AD145-2AFE9E (0x2D5A bytes)   16 unused Cranky walking sprites
2AFE9F-2AFFFF (0x161 bytes)
2BE1B4-2BFFFF (0x1E4C bytes)
2DE076-2DFFFF (0x1F8A bytes)   Padded with unused text
2FE8EA-2FFD47 (0x145E bytes)   4 unused Queen B hurt frames
2FFD48-2FFFFF (0x2B8 bytes)    Contains a fragment of early 8BPP title screen graphics!
31EAE5-31FFFF (0x151B bytes)
32F152-32FFFF (0xEAE bytes)
33F908-33FFFF (0x6F8 bytes)
357D92-357FFF (0x26E bytes)   
35FE0B-35FFFF (0x1F5 bytes)    End of object code bank
38A17E-38A1E1 (0x64 bytes)     German level name pointers--unused in U v1.0
38A246-38A507 (0x2C2 bytes)    German level names--unused in U v1.0
3979DE-397FFF (0x622 bytes)
39E145-39E344 (0x2C2 bytes)    Early Jungle Palette
39FF65-39FFFF (0x9A bytes)
3AE09F-3AFFFF (0x1F61 bytes)
3BB154-3BC7FF (0x16AC bytes)
3BF790-3BFFFF (0x870 bytes)    End of sprite pointer bank--could be used for additional sprite pointers (five hundred and forty more, but only 323 can be used due to hitbox pointers)
3C35CA-3C5839 (0x2270 bytes)   German dialogue text--unused in U v1.0
3C5C4D-3C7FFF (0x23B3 bytes)   Could be used for custom sprite graphics
3CFB4B-3CFFFF (0x4B5 bytes)    End of object palette data bank (40 custom palettes could fit here)
3D72D0-3D7FFF (0xD30 bytes)    Padded with unused text
3DFFDC-3DFFFF (0x24 bytes)
3EEF51-3EFFFF (0x10AF bytes)   End of animation script bank
3F6261-3F7FFF (0x1739 bytes)   End of bank containing graphics and tilemap of Kremkroc Industries, Inc. (2nd Map)

Oh wow! I was just going off zeroes, and I thought THAT was a good amount. Also, minor, but there's like 30 bytes each of free space BETWEEN a lot of object maps. There's a lot of meaningless object codes in there... I wonder if these were objects that were never made? I think I found some mini drums based on their codes and pointer in bank $35, but they crash the game. Object pointer c54b for one. Unfortunately, I have no idea why. I saw these in the $3d81cc-$3d9fff range. Probably more later, but I haven't gotten there yet.

***EDIT***
I am currently going through every byte from $3d8000-$3df1dx. I'm creating a hack where I mess with object maps and some other things. Terrain though, is NOT something I'm messing with Thank you Giangurgolo and Simion32. Couldn't have been doing it without you. Also, currently, I'm only working in hex, so forgive my "noobiness".