gba_dumper - NeoRHDN

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NeoRHDN - Utilities - Utility Information

gba_dumper

Data Extraction / Insertion

Description

gba_dumper is a set of utilities designed to make text modifications for Game Boy Advanced (gba) roms easier. Since gba games don't use ASCII and instead each use their own homebrew-encoding, gba_dumper streamlines the approach of translating rom byte-codes into human-readable characters.

Intended workflow

[list]
[li]Search for a string of text.[/li]
[li]Using the matches, let gba_dumper create a translation file. If there are multiple conflicting matches, gba_dumper will prompt you to choose the matching set.[/li]
[li]Using that translation file, dump a "translated" version of the rom.[/li]
[li]Using that dump, add special characters (:!@#, spaces, etc.) to the translation file and re-translate.[/li]
[li]Using the dump, note the areas of memory that hold strings you want to edit, and note the character used as a newline character in the game.[/li]
[li]Dump the memory noted in 5, edit all the strings you want, and re-upload them to a new dump.[/li]
[li]Using the modified dump, create a new rom.[/li]
[/list]

Building

Archive includes the source code which can be built for Linux or Mac systems. Should also work on Windows running cygwin. Simply cd into the directory and run make.

Code can be found at:
https://github.com/attilathedud/gba_dumper

Title

gba_dumper

Author

attilathedud