Hacking the Tamagotchi game for GB

SA311 · Jul 10, 2015

Hello,

One day, I ~~was bored~~ decided to replace every character in the Tamagotchi game for the GameBoy.

As it isn't a very popular game, unfortunately, I could only use a general tool that could edit graphics from every GameBoy game. This tool, however, was very boring to use (you had to search for the sprites yourself and you couldn't import / export images among other things...) and it would have taken much longer if I had actually used it.

So... I decided to create my own tool using the programming language Python. (It was the first language that I found that could be used to hack a game.)

It was surprisingly easy to find out how the sprites worked on the GB just by making some modifications on the general tool and a HEX editor, so I could finish the tool relatively fast.

With this tool you can:

Edit every sprite from every character, except the icons that appear on the memory screen, when your Tamagotchi dies.
Edit the sprites from the eggs, but you CANNOT edit the eggs as they appear on the egg selection screen.
Edit the sprites from food and medicine, once again you CANNOT edit them on their selection screen.
Edit the clock and the one font.
Edit the first 12 palettes, which belong to the main screen the stats screen and the food selection screen (4 for each).

The sprites that you can edit are the dynamic sprites, which are basically the ones that change constantly while they appear on screen. The other graphics were tiles and background images, which were compressed in the ROM and harder to understand. As I was only interested in editing the character sprites, I didn't bother to figure these out yet...

The tool also allows you to export and import sprites, so you can edit them in a normal image editor. (Remember to specify an extension when exporting!)

When editing a sprite on the tool itself, you can only use the "Pencil" option and select two different colours from the colour colour chooser at a time.

You can also choose which palette you want to use to view the sprites.

You can download the installer here.

I think the tool is easy to use and install so there shouldn't be any problem, but feel free to ask anything!

I made a hack using this tool. I did some slight modifications that cannot be made with the tool though, like the title screen.

I replaced every character with one that appeared in the Tamagotchi Connexion (V1), the V2 or the Tamagotchi Keitai.

Old growth chart:

New growth chart:

I'm not a good spriter, so sorry if the sprites are bad or lazy.

You can download it here.

Please tell me if you notice ant bugs in the tool or you have any question.

Bye!

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 10, 2015

I can't download it because I need a Dropbox account. DX

SA311 · Jul 10, 2015

~SkrillexGotchi~ said:
I can't download it because I need a Dropbox account. DX

Changed the links, can you do it now?

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 10, 2015

It's a GB file. Is this supposed to run on computers or mobile phones that have an emulator for a Game Boy or Game Boy Color?

SA311 · Jul 10, 2015

~SkrillexGotchi~ said:
It's a GB file. Is this supposed to run on computers or mobile phones that have an emulator for a Game Boy or Game Boy Color?

I don't know if there are emulators for mobile phones, but you can easily find an emulator that runs GB files on a computer. Visual Boy Advance, for instance.

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 10, 2015

SA311 said:
I don't know if there are emulators for mobile phones, but you can easily find an emulator that runs GB files on a computer. Visual Boy Advance, for instance.

I'll see what I can do. I'm gonna try and download the GBC emulator I used to have on my phone.

UPDATE: IT WORKED! I'm having so much fun with Sonny!

UPDATE 2: I killed him. DX Sorry SA. DX

WarOmnimon · Jul 10, 2015

Holy COW! This is just plain awesome, thanks for sharing this piece of programming GENIUS.

Question is, what to do with it... *Goes to work on GB style Mariotchi sprites*

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 10, 2015

WarOmnimon said:
Holy COW! This is just plain awesome, thanks for sharing this piece of programming GENIUS.

Question is, what to do with it... *Goes to work on GB style Mariotchi sprites*

Ooooh, good luck!

SupahCow090 · Jul 10, 2015

This is amazing! I'll need to make a version with the version 4 characters.Thanks for making and sharing this! Will update with my progress and experiences with the program.

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 10, 2015

SupahCow090 said:
This is amazing! I'll need to make a version with the version 4 characters.Thanks for making and sharing this! Will update with my progress and experiences with the program.

I tested the game with the V2 characters and there doesn't seem to be any bugs as of right now. So go ahead! Make it the best game ever!

SA311 · Jul 11, 2015

I'm really happy to see that you like the program!

I hope too see more hacks soon!

I forgot to mention on my first post that using the light colour when editing a character sprite could cause problems.

When the game runs in colour, something like this happens:

As you can see, it replaces the colours of the image depending on the position.

If a sprite is between two different colour regions and it has the light colour, it wouldn't look right.

For example, I changed the ShiroBabytchi sprite above so it would have the light colour.

When we play the game, as the sprite passes between two colour regions the colours get mixed up...

The top part looks yellow while the bottom part looks blue, even though I used the same colour for both.

Please remember this while making your sprites!

Bye!

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 11, 2015

SA311 said:
I'm really happy to see that you like the program!

I hope too see more hacks soon!

I forgot to mention on my first post that using the light colour when editing a character sprite could cause problems.

When the game runs in colour, something like this happens:

As you can see, it replaces the colours of the image depending on the position.

If a sprite is between two different colour regions and it has the light colour, it wouldn't look right.

For example, I changed the ShiroBabytchi sprite above so it would have the light colour.

When we play the game, as the sprite passes between two colour regions the colours get mixed up...

The top part looks yellow while the bottom part looks blue, even though I used the same colour for both.

Please remember this while making your sprites!

Bye!

How do I even use the sprite editor? Because I am very clueless on this stuff. lol Can you post steps?

SA311 · Jul 11, 2015

~SkrillexGotchi~ said:
How do I even use the sprite editor? Because I am very clueless on this stuff. lol Can you post steps?

It's very easy.

First, you have to open a Tamagotchi GB ROM. You have to select "Open file..." on the "File" menu, then a window will appear and you can search for the ROM you want to edit there. (It has to be the English version of the game) If you choose a wrong file an error will appear.

Then you have to select the sprite by using the combo boxes and it should appear in the grey square below.

Now you can edit the sprite in two different ways:

Edit the sprite directly on the canvas provided by the tool (the grey square) by using the right/left button, like when you use the "Pencil" option in a normal image editor. You can change the colours for each button by clicking on the colour on the "Colour chooser" at the bottom of the tool.
Export the sprite by choosing "Export image..." on the "Image" menu. Then edit it in any image editor that can index images (set a palette). To avoid problems with the colours, put the colours that you used (Maximum 4) on the top left corner in order (as they appear in the tool) as in the image below. Then index and save the image and import it back to the tool ("Import image..." on the "Image" menu). Erase the palette on the tool (as in 1).

After you edit the image, you must save before closing the tool or changing of sprite. The "Save" is under "File" on the menu.

After you saved the image, it should look like you wanted on the game.

I don't know if I explained it properly, but I hope it helped...

Bye!

~SkrillexGotchi~ · Jul 11, 2015

SA311 said:
It's very easy.

First, you have to open a Tamagotchi GB ROM. You have to select "Open file..." on the "File" menu, then a window will appear and you can search for the ROM you want to edit there. (It has to be the English version of the game) If you choose a wrong file an error will appear.

Then you have to select the sprite by using the combo boxes and it should appear in the grey square below.

Now you can edit the sprite in two different ways:

Edit the sprite directly on the canvas provided by the tool (the grey square) by using the right/left button, like when you use the "Pencil" option in a normal image editor. You can change the colours for each button by clicking on the colour on the "Colour chooser" at the bottom of the tool.

Export the sprite by choosing "Export image..." on the "Image" menu. Then edit it in any image editor that can index images (set a palette). To avoid problems with the colours, put the colours that you used (Maximum 4) on the top left corner in order (as they appear in the tool) as in the image below. Then index and save the image and import it back to the tool ("Import image..." on the "Image" menu). Erase the palette on the tool (as in 1).

After you edit the image, you must save before closing the tool or changing of sprite. The "Save" is under "File" on the menu.

After you saved the image, it should look like you wanted on the game.

I don't know if I explained it properly, but I hope it helped...

Bye!

Then I'm gonna have to find the original game ROM and try to do it that way to edit the sprites and make my own Tamagotchi GB game.

Hacking the Tamagotchi game for GB

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