[Gen I] Modifying the Preset Names

[RPD490]

Hi!

I was hoping to know how I can change the preset names when you start a new game in Red/Blue?

I made a small player replacement hack in Red where I replaced Red with Green so people can play as a female protagonist.

[Luna]

These are really simple to edit, you just need a hex editor (like GoldFinger) and a copy of the table file. I don't have it handy, but you can probably find it with google (and if not, I'll just upload my copy).

All you have to do is:

0. Make a backup of your rom just in case something goes wrong somehow.
1. Open Goldfinger
2. Load your rom in Goldfinger
3. Load the table file
4. Click on Edit -> Search
5. Press CTRL + TAB to switch from Hex entry to Character entry
6. Search for RED in all caps. This should take you to a list of names, separated by x50.
7. Press CTRL + TAB again to switch to character entry instead of hex
8. Type the new name. They can be of different lengths, but you need to separate them with x50 like the original names and you want to have the same number of names in the list and not go past the end of the old name list. So if you make one name longer, just make another shorter to make up for it.
9. Go back to the search and look again. If I remember, Red Version has more than one copy of this list. One list is what it shows in the menu, the other is what it actually stores as your name. So you'll need to make both lists match.
10. Save the rom
11. Test it out.

[RPD490]

Thanks a bunch Mateo :3

[Miksy91]

Originally Posted by Mateo

5. Press CTRL + TAB to switch from Hex entry to Character entry.

Strange... I never realized the editor was capable of doing that!
I have been manually editing all the text by writing them as bytes because....Why not?

But seriously, I didn't know GoldFinger could do that (odd, since I have used that tool a lot and even though it doesn't have many functions, I haven't noticed that), but since I remember pretty much all the hex codes for the "necessary" text characters off my head, there is no problem really.

[RPD490]

Yeah I didn't know that either. XD But seems easier though. Also by x50 do you mean the blue # that seperate the names? Cuz the x50 part confused me but I assume thats what you mean by the #'s right?

[Luna]

@RPD490 - Right, x50 is its hex value, and it will just show up as a blue # since it isn't defined in the table. You can type it by switching back to hex entry temporarily (CTRL + TAB again to switch back and forth).
@Miksy91 - Oh wow, I thought I mentioned that years ago! Guess not, my bad! But yeah its a lot faster and easier that way even if you do know most of the relevant characters off top of your head (and you would still need to switch back to hex in order to use things like the "POKé" character or the "HIRO" or "SILVER" name bytes, etc.)

[RPD490]

@Mateo Okay that was confusing me. This would have been easier if the names I thought up were between 3-4 letters. Afterall I just wanted to replace the list with Green and two other random female names without having to go into doing the rival's names. It just gets me off then. XD

[Luna]

Well you don't necessarily have to edit the rival's names. And you could still use Green and random girls names. It would just be a bit more annoying since RED, ASH, JACK are all short. Although since NEW NAME is part of the list, you could do:

NEW
GREEN
REI
TABITHA

or something. By shorting NEW NAME to just NEW it would give you some extra letters to play with. Just a thought.

[RPD490]

Holy **** it all fits XD

[Miksy91]

Hey, that's a good start.
Once you understand enough about pointers and a little bit of assembly, you could do even more neat tricks with player naming. But it's not like it would necessarily need any improving.