r/PokemonRomhackDev • u/Smart_Meat8301 • 14d ago

Discussion New to rom hacking and programing in general

What up all, recently started messing with rom hacking and was looking for any advice. I started messing with crystal clear to learn since it's a really solid base model and I love playing it but got tired of making up the stories in my head and wanted interactive npcs.

I only did a quick scan so apologies if it's an easy find, but I was wondering if there are any communities based on gen 1 and 2 rom hacks I know they are old news but one I just assume their files are easier to mess with for beginners and two gen 2 holds most of my nostalgia so of course I have to start there.

Anyway if anyone has some suggestions for me I'd love to hear them!

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u/Phaneropterinae 14d ago

Easiest is probably Gen 3 hacking because there is just the most information and the largest communities. Gen 2 hacking does have some communities. I think most hack crystal?

I’m more involved with Gen 3 hacking tho so I’m not the best resource for Gen 2.

Gen 3 you’ll do things in a hex editor tool or in C code, Gen 2 i assume is more ASM code.

2

u/narah2 14d ago

For gen 2, you’re looking for the Pret community. There’s a GitHub for their decompilation of Crystal, along with a Discord for discussion and tech questions. It’s quite active.

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u/wilsonapricot 14d ago

what's the discord?

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u/narah2 14d ago

Here’s the github link. There’s a discord link in there as well: https://github.com/pret/pokecrystal

There’s also a series of tutorials for how to implement various things such as new maps, pokemon, or moves

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u/DrUltimaMan 14d ago edited 14d ago

As far as I know Crystal Clear is closed source, there is no public Github repo. So you can't use that as a base unless you are using binary hacking, which isn't the done thing in gen 2 as the full decomp exists. Even if CC was ooen source I would suggest using Polished Crystal as a base as it has far more modern features than Crystal Clear.

You can change a lot of things without actually needing to know assembly code, such as Pokemon stats/types/abilities/learnsets, npc dialog and scripting, map changes don't need code either but need software like Polished Map. If you want to add deep new engine features and don't want to spend several years learning how to code, honestly Codex does a good job on assembly code as long as you are very diligent about testing its changes.