If you don't mind my asking, is there a simple way to cause the game to skip over the party setup screen when starting a new game?  That is, is it easy to "lock" the characters used for the game to a pre-set lineup?  I've been giving thought to doing a Final Fantasy hack myself but my current idea is somewhat dependent on being made to play as specific characters as opposed to general character types (the difference between "Shadow" and "a ninja," in other words).

Using the space previously used to store the alphanumeric table on the Name Select screen for my own routines, I've made a patch to force a default party of your choosing (With some editing):

Patch

Just mention me in the readme or something if you use it.

Apply the patch, and consult the Readme on how to edit the ROM to configure the party (Names/Classes).

Please use the edit buttons instead of doubleposting, unless you have a [very] good reason not to.

I might have oll of S-X old notes, and a backup of the FF1 Hacking thread at Acmlm's on my backup CDs. I can search for the two as soon as i get home tonight.

Pointers in this bank act like so:

Take an address, drop the 3 from the beginning, subtract $10, add $4000, then swap
the bytes.

Naturally, you can find an address from a pointer by reversing this process.

36810: Bridge Crossing Pointer, First Screen
36812: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Second Screen
36814: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Third Screen
36816: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Fourth Screen

After this, the credits for the game are elsewhere in ROM (And even use a different character set, not that that stops you from using standard text in the area they're located).

37B10: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Fifth Screen <-This triggers a game killing checksum if edited; See previous post for fix.
37B12: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Sixth Screen
37B14: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Seventh Screen
37B16: Bridge Crossing Pointer, Eighth Screen


Also, you'll have to be aware of the line formatting codes, else you'll start spilling text out of the box. $01 is Blank Line, $05 means Carriage Return, and $00 is End of Text Block.

First four screens of text are located between $36842 and $368F2.
Last four are between $37B18 and $37B9D.

Of course, knowing where the pointer tables are can allow you to map the text to anywhere in this bank, assuming you can find room.

And for the sake of it, the Ending:

Pointers: 36818 - 36841 (21 pairs)
Text Location: 368F3 -36DB1

And:

So, I was wondering, SilverX, how did you make the intro graphic of Omega II?

The title screen? Or the "Centuries ago, blah blah blah..." screen? The title screen is a super kludgy trick with standard text (There were so few weapon/armor icons eventually used in DXOII I was able to utilize them for the Omega II graphic, as well as doing squishy tile tricks with a few enemy names).

If it's the Intro, I made it with that program I linked earlier in the thread (NSA). I've packaged it to where it's stupid easy to do the same thing. One thing I forgot the mention is that you'll also have to splice your new CHR for either the Bridge Crossing or Ending back into the ROM; if this is a problem, you need to brush up on the low level basics of ROM hacking some more.

No, I meant the big-ass Omega symbol. I'm getting a little more than pissed off at the intro screen. As far as the opening, I kinda like having to play a little BEFORE getting that screen.

Does it take away the ability to do the princess/bridge quest?

...F-z-king awesome!

I'll definitely have to do that. Now, with that, do I have to sacrifice character selection, or did you do something special? I don't want to limit that out. And also, will that kill that f-z-king blue intro?

[EDIT]

Now, I had been trying some of the code you mentioned, and I have only two questions for Silver.

1 - With that tool, can you make both screens that ending screen? I really like it.

2 - Is there a way to make the intro screen just read some words without that fading in effect? I keep screwing it up and I'm not exactly sure how I'm doing it.