Help for marriage proposal

Hi all,

I would like to get some guidance to edit the game "The Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past" to propose to my girlfriend. This is her favorite game and I know it is a detail that she will love. However, I am a newbie to ROM Editing and have no idea where to start. Many links on the internet lead to hacking the console hardware and not specifically a tutorial on how to edit the games.

I am an electronics engineer so I have the basics of what a ROM is, hex files, assembly language, and other basics that are required to do this. However, some concepts are difficult for me because my specialty is more oriented to microelectronics.

I would appreciate if someone could guide me in this mini-project, give me some material to read, help me with specific questions, point me out to where I should start. What I want to do is something simple (maybe my ignorance leads me to think that what I want to do is simple): I want to do a very simple level, with only a few enemies, maybe a final Boss a little more difficult. After defeating him, I would like Link to approach Zelda and display the text: "It is dangerous to go alone, do you want to marry me?" or something like that, I still have to think better about the text.

At the moment I am reading some forums and watching some videos on how to edit games. Most of those tutorials are for people who want to dedicate themselves to this for the long term. I just want to do something simple that doesn't take months of development. I don't know if I'm very optimistic, but I would like to think that it will only take two weeks to develop what I want. I sincerely appreciate your advice and the help you can give me.

PS: My native language is Spanish, I would like to present the last part of the proposal in this language. I do not know if this requires add some difficulty (I think it should not because the alphabet is the same, but I prefer to put all the details to avoid duplication of work)

¡Holà! ¡Es una buena ocurrencia!

Simple edits as such could be done within a week with some experience with the editor, maybe much longer time if you're new at this, namely because the editor is not so much user friendly and can easily corrupt or crash your edits if you're not careful enough. Being that is for a good cause though (a marriage proposal), I could probably give you a hand at this. Just give me all the ideas you have in mind and I'll cook something for you this weekend, completely in spanish as well if you can provide me the dialogues you want changed.

¡Saludos para ti y buena suerte con el matrimonio!

SePH wrote:¡Holà! ¡Es una buena ocurrencia!

Simple edits as such could be done within a week with some experience with the editor, maybe much longer time if you're new at this, namely because the editor is not so much user friendly and can easily corrupt or crash your edits if you're not careful enough. Being that is for a good cause though (a marriage proposal), I could probably give you a hand at this. Just give me all the ideas you have in mind and I'll cook something for you this weekend, completely in spanish as well if you can provide me the dialogues you want changed.

¡Saludos para ti y buena suerte con el matrimonio!

First of all, I want to thank you for your desire to help me. As you said, the editors that I downloaded are not very intuitive and I have crashed the game several times. However this has helped me get a better idea of ​​what I would like to achieve. By the way, sorry for the delay. I have been busy thinking about the design of what I wanted and the text to put at the end.

I will explain in sequential order how I visualize my idea. Each step that I am going to list will work as a design guide, that way you can tell me if something cannot be implemented just by indicating the number. Hope this helps simplify the job.

1. The game starts normal, as if it were the original game. The initial dialogues about Zelda asking for help, etc. Link begins his normal journey where he enters the castle, receives the weapons from his uncle, etc.

2. The first modification is that Link does not receive the original shield and sword but the most powerful weapon in the game together with everything necessary to defeat Ganon. This can be done whether he finds it on the floor, in a chest, or is dropped by his uncle.

3. If I remember correctly there is a door in the castle that leads to the throne. I would like that before entering the throne room I find Zelda and she says the following dialogue "Yese, crossing this door you will face one of the most important questions of your life. If you can overcome fear and be calm, you will find the answer."

4. Next, the battle against Ganon begins. I don't want the fight to be extremely harsh. I would like it to be something that anyone could achieve but without being very obvious that it is easy.

5. The final screen starts, and I would like it to be replaced by the following text (I have used the same number of characters as the original script):

Welcome Yese. Sorry to interrupt your game, but I have chosen this special place because I need to tell you something very important. Please read everything to the end and don't stop. Our story began 15 years ago and, in this time ,, you have filled my days with love and happiness. Living with you these years has taught me a lot about myself and has inspired me to be better every day. I want you to know that what I feel for you is as strong and as intense as it was at the beginning of our relationship and that I can no longer imagine my life without you. That is why I have made the decision to ask you a single question that you will find in front of the box that I have left in front of you. “It’s Dangerous To Go Alone! So Let's Go Together ".

6. The game ends showing the credits.

Thank you very much in advance for your help. Let me know if you need any extra information, or if you need me to simplify the idea. Thanks

Nice idea, but it will not work exactly the way you want it. You see, you need to flip the game from beginning mode to part-1 to be able to normally see credits and end the rain. Also Zelda is by default in her cell, moving her requires to also move the starting location in case you get defeated, can not be throne room, since here srm3 is triggered when moving the Mantle. Uncle should give you sword-1 and shield-1, but you can then upgrade to sword-4 and armor-3 from chests, same for lamp and silver arrows, but defeating Ganon means you also need a lot more health - which can be done by either giving heart containers or hacking the beginning srm to start for instance with 7 heart containers +some from chests.

The same with the throne room. Not wise to make Ganon-drop here. 3rd srm is triggered here and you need to rescue Zelda at least to the priest to come to part-1 mode. If you hack the game to start in part-1 mode, Zelda is already rescued so no good again. Thus Zelda must be rescued to priest. Then she can say: falling down this pit will face one of the most important questions of your life. Now you can place a pit in the church to drop to room-0, which is Ganon, while in part-1 mode of the game. Defeating Ganon now will trigger normal ending (no rain, which would otherwise be bugged). So it is definitely doable the way I just described it without any ASM or HEX editing, just Hyrule Magic editing. You also need to remove some monologues first (like from crystal maidens) to free up some monolgue hex block space to then be able to insert custom monologues where needed. And then of course you can also make the final message in spanish (using non accented letters only). If you want accents, this requires some GFX editing.

I have simplified your ideas. It will be easy and no fight necessary to trigger the triforce shrine message you want to tell.

You start the game with no rain in beginning mode.

You find Zelda in the throne room.

You get a dialogue when you approch the mantle.

Then drop down to Ganon's room, although changed to look like the church.

Then walk north to the Triforce room.

Your marriage proposal message appears.

Jump straight to credits.

The End.

If you reset the game and restart, you restart in your house with Zelda, still in beginning mode, so you can return to the Triforce room if you want.... no issues at all.

All that remains to do are the dialogues you gave me and I'm going to send the hack to you if you can provide me an e-mail adress via a private message.

I hope you'll enjoy what I came up with (did the assigment in less then one hour otherwise, so you won't need to wait two more weeks lol).

SePH wrote:P.S. If you provide me with a proper spanish translation of the final message, I'll gladly wait for it!

Thank you so much for help me. Your idea is much better than mine. Regarding the text in Spanish, I think I prefer to leave it in English, I like how it sounds better and she will understand it. I wrote you a private message with my personal email. I would just like to ask if it is possible to change the text I indicate to the following:

"It’s Dangerous To Go Alone! So Let's Go Together".

Welcome Yese. Sorry to interrupt your game, but I have chosen this special place because I need to tell you something very important. Please read everything to the end and don't stop. Our story began 15 years ago and, in this time, you have filled my days with love and happiness. Living with you these years has taught me a lot about myself and has inspired me to be better every day. I want you to know that what I feel for you is as strong and as intense as it was at the beginning of our relationship and that I can no longer imagine my life without you. That is why I have made the decision to ask you a single question but first let me tell you a story about The Claddagh Ring. The Claddagh ring has its origin 300 years ago in an old fishing village in Claddagh, just outside Galway City, on the west coast of Ireland, where it was first manufactured and designed in the 17th century. Legend has it that a Galway man named Richard Joyce emigrated to the East Indies to seek his fortune and marry his beloved upon his return. However, the ship was captured and Joyce was sold as a slave to a Muslim goldsmith from Algeria, where he learned this trade. When King William III ascended the throne, he petitioned the Muslims to release all the prisoners in his kingdom. As a result, Richard Joyce was released after 14 years in captivity. The Muslim oefrebe had acquired such respect for Richard that he tempted him by offering him half his fortune and his daughter in marriage if he stayed with him. However, Joyce resigned and returned home to marry his beloved. During all that time, Joyce did not forget his girlfriend, and designed a ring as a symbol of his love for her. The Claddagh is characterized by its implicit symbolism: two hands surrounding a heart, complemented by a crown, is the expression of true love and eternal friendship. The heart symbolizes love; hands are friendship; and the crown represents loyalty and fidelity. This is why I have chosen this symbol to ask you the long-awaited question. The chest in front of you opens by joining the two halves of the Claddagh Ring. Look inside this game to find the missing half".

However, if it's a lot of text, we can use the one I told you originally. No problem. Thank you very much again.

I can probably fit all that and more but will need to change some events.

I have a good idea how I'll do all that (no spoilers till you try), but I'm going to need your name, provided Yese is your girlfriend name's. Thanks!

As I said in the other thread, since I work all weekend, will try to do as soon as I have freetime.

SePH wrote:I can probably fit all that and more but will need to change some events.

I have a good idea how I'll do all that (no spoilers till you try), but I'm going to need your name, provided Yese is your girlfriend name's. Thanks!

As I said in the other thread, since I work all weekend, will try to do as soon as I have freetime.

Sounds good to me, thank you very much. Yes, correct, my girlfriend's name is Yese, and my name is Oscar.

You could also record a MSU track (pcm) for the proposal in the triforce chamber. So she can
both listen and read it...this gives a personal touch (just a thought)...

While this could be a great idea, it would also be a much longer project. It took us forever to adjust Erock's spoken dialogue in CHRT to match the lines of dialogue. Let's not forget, the text was also going at the same speed, I can't imagine if it's in-game dialogue, it might be more nightmarish!

Not that I'm against the idea or anything, but I personally wouldn't involve more time in the project then necessary. With the events changes I planned, it will be an overall amazing enough marriage proposal. She surely won't refuse him!

I am nearly done with everything and will send you your own personalized romhacked marriage proposal to the e-mail you provided very soon.

Here's a bunch of teasers in the meanwhile!


Navigating outside, generic areas.


Inside the church, meeting with Oscar.



This is what Ganon room now looks like.


The rest of the message as told by the essence of the Triforce.

Was a small yet fun and totally original romhack to make, hopefully you'll love what I came up with!

Conn wrote:Lol* yes... I totally occur we both are not into audio editing.

But I am!

I'd be more than willing to do any PCM audio work for this project, should you want to go the MSU route.

If the text is setup to autoscroll, I can get the audio to match the text, so long as the text is scrolling at a rate at least similar to rate of the audio (I have experience doing this from the various version of the FFVI opera I've converted).

If that's too much work to code, I can do things like having a custom PCM track playing while the proposal and/or credits are scrolling (her favorite song?).

It shouldn't be any real delay either; I can have everything done same-day, or by the next day, depending on when I get the list of what needs doing.

The text in triforce chambers unfortunately is button press forward, so it cannot be synced. I could maybe hack something with autoadvance and timer but this is not trivial.

It's up to Oscar and his desires

Instead of spoken text I may suggest using the msu lite patch (that without video) and make the typical marriage music as looped pcm in the triforce chamber? That ain't much work.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sqLK0Ys0VAg

Like I said in a previous post, the text in the Triforce chamber can be set to autoscroll. It is a matter of adding a command before the line of text in HM.

If you people want to give it a shot with your own voices beforehand, I can probably upload the ips here as well and you can take this msufied project under your wing!

For my part I am almost done, just need to fix a few things and will be ready.

SePH wrote:Like I said in a previous post, the text in the Triforce chamber can be set to autoscroll. It is a matter of adding a command before the line of text in HM.

If you people want to give it a shot with your own voices beforehand, I can probably upload the ips here as well and you can take this msufied project under your wing!

For my part I am almost done, just need to fix a few things and will be ready.

Quick question, would the autoscroll you can add be a flat speed, or can you adjust it so some lines display longer than other lines?

If only flat speed, than voiced might not be feasible, because the adjustments to sync up the audio and text would distort the voice too much and too unevenly (and we don't want her laughing during the proposal, lol).

You can adjust each line accordingly to the speed you want. If you are crazy enough, you can even have each letter display at a different speed lol. You just need to play with the [Speed XX] value. Goes from 00, instant speed to 09 much much slower. Default like it is set right now is 02.

Preloading message and titlescreen are done, just applying final polishing touches and will release the ips.

In that case, I just have to wait for ohskr27 to chime in on his prefered audio, and/or to provide a voiced recording.

That's good to hear that it can be set to autoscroll
I hope oscar is chiming in as well and gives directions where to go.

If you go for msu1, be sure to apply the short alttp_msu1_short.ips patch from
lite(noVideo)_pal_ntsc_allVersionsComapaible folder
(and not the one with video). It also has spc fallback, so no worries.
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/zelda3_msu.zip

Great will apply the patch in any case!

I think I'm done otherwise.

I've expended the gameplay a bit, while still short, but I'm sure Oscar will appreciate the overall results, for it is an impressive proposal. I'll send him a pm and point him to this thread for future collaborations with you guys!

Proposed script change:

Take the line "It’s Dangerous To Go Alone! So Let's Go Together." and move it from before they move the altar to right after the line "Look inside this game to find the missing half!" In other words, move it to be the last line of the game. And right before the 3 parts of the triforce join together.

Also makes sense to end the game with the line that best represents the actual proposal.

Makes absolute sense and fits better also with the full Triforce together lol.

Alright, new patch with bonus sound added at the end!



If you need to adjust the speed of the dialogues, open the rom in HM and then open the monologues and look for 371. Then change the [Speed 02] tags to the speed you want accordingly.



Don't touch the [Speed 01] tags nor the blank spaces, they are there to erase the text after lines of text are done, just like in the original Triforce Shrine message.



Try again in-game and thanks for the improved suggestion!

Conn wrote:That's good to hear that it can be set to autoscroll
I hope oscar is chiming in as well and gives directions where to go.

If you go for msu1, be sure to apply the short alttp_msu1_short.ips patch from
lite(noVideo)_pal_ntsc_allVersionsComapaible folder
(and not the one with video). It also has spc fallback, so no worries.
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/zelda3_msu.zip

I really like this idea, it is very creative. So basically I can input my own audio and even voice the texts? That sounds great. If you and Edale can help me with this, I would greatly improve the proposal. I have some ideas about the music to play but I need to review a bit and I will come back to you with the idea. But in general I imagine this: One song for outworld, another for church (the wedding melody is perfect here) and some other for the tri-force scene. Is it possible to do that? Implement three songs?

Regarding the voice, I don't know if it is a good idea. Although my pronunciation in English is good, it is not perfect.

I have an additional question, and maybe this is not so easy to achieve, but I just want to know. I'm going to run the game on my PC with an emulator. Is it possible that when you reach the end of the last scene, you will be asked to press a button on the control (button A for example) and write a command through one of the USB ports? I have already done this before from a C / C ++ program and I write on the serial port of the PC that has a bluetooth module connected to it. The command I write is as simple as the letter "E" for example. The bluetooh device is paired to a HC-05 module (another bluetooth module) that can read the ASCII code of the letter E and use it as input for a microcontroller. After that, the rest is a piece of cake. If you can make pressing the A button on the game controller write the letter E on one of the USB ports, I can do everything else. Writing the letter E is really just send the ASCII code.

The point is that there is a wooden box that contains a magnetic repulsion levitator inside. On that levitator will be the wedding ring. The half of the heart that I talk about in the game is actually a switch. When that half of the heart is placed on the box it will activate a servomotor that will open the box little by little revealing the ring levitating in the air. However, the process of placing the heart half on the box is manual. It would be great if there could be a link between what I do in the game and the activation of the mechanism that opens the box. This would be achieved in a very simple way by telling the microcontroller that when it reads the letter "E" it activates the mechanism. The letter "E" can be read from a bluetooth module connected to the microcontroller. But I would need to send the activation signal (letter E) from another bluetooh device (the PC).

Of course, I can write a C / C ++ program that reads the letter E from the keyboard and writes over the USB port to send the signal. But can the same be achieved by running something from the video game?

If it can't or is too complicated, no problem. I just want to know how difficult it is to achieve.

Thanks for your willingnes to help me. I did not expect to find so many people willing to help me.

SePH wrote:Makes absolute sense and fits better also with the full Triforce together lol.

Alright, new patch with bonus sound added at the end!



If you need to adjust the speed of the dialogues, open the rom in HM and then open the monologues and look for 371. Then change the [Speed 02] tags to the speed you want accordingly.



Don't touch the [Speed 01] tags nor the blank spaces, they are there to erase the text after lines of text are done, just like in the original Triforce Shrine message.



Try again in-game and thanks for the improved suggestion!

I know I already thanked you for PM. But I would also like to do it here. Thank you very much for your help, the result is simply wonderful. I know she will love this and remember it. You are very talented, not only editing the game but also in creativity

ohskr27 wrote:So basically I can input my own audio and even voice the texts? That sounds great. If you and Edale can help me with this, I would greatly improve the proposal. I have some ideas about the music to play but I need to review a bit and I will come back to you with the idea. But in general I imagine this: One song for outworld, another for church (the wedding melody is perfect here) and some other for the tri-force scene. Is it possible to do that? Implement three songs?

Regarding the voice, I don't know if it is a good idea. Although my pronunciation in English is good, it is not perfect.

I have an additional question, and maybe this is not so easy to achieve, but I just want to know. I'm going to run the game on my PC with an emulator. Is it possible that when you reach the end of the last scene, you will be asked to press a button on the control (button A for example) and write a command through one of the USB ports? I have already done this before from a C / C ++ program and I write on the serial port of the PC that has a bluetooth module connected to it. The command I write is as simple as the letter "E" for example. The bluetooh device is paired to a HC-05 module (another bluetooth module) that can read the ASCII code of the letter E and use it as input for a microcontroller. After that, the rest is a piece of cake. If you can make pressing the A button on the game controller write the letter E on one of the USB ports, I can do everything else. Writing the letter E is really just send the ASCII code.


Thanks for your willingnes to help me. I did not expect to find so many people willing to help me.

Right now, I believe these are the different songs in the mod:

Title screen/name entry
Overworld
Church
Castle
Triforce
Credits

With 1 additional songs playing if you return to the starting house immediately after exiting it at the start of the game, and another if you return into the tunnel after entering the castle courtyard. (both of these I believe are bugs, but minor enough to not actually need fixing)

So that's 6 distinct tracks.

Personally, if you were going to use the traditional 'bridal march' wedding song (first song on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqLK0Ys0VAg ), then I'd use it for the credits (after the actual proposal).

For the castle (since that's where part 1 of the Claddagh speech happens), I'd use something like 'Ave Maria'. And I'd use 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' for the Church (both songs also on that playlist).

But yea, I can convert any song into a PCM for the mod, including any audio you record yourself. So pick whatever music you feel most appropriate.

---

Creating a command in-game to trigger a command over USB isn't really something that can be done easily, as it would require recoding portions of snes9x itself to make work... And I don't think anyone here has the skills for THAT.  You could always just set the box to open from a remote signal, and just have you hit the button to pop the box open at the appropriate time.

------

Oh, and slight maybe bug? If you beat the mod, then load the save again, you start back up right before joining link in the church, but it skips the king's speech about the Claddagh ring, and lets you walk straight into the triforce section.

You can make any music into pcm... since SePH already put in the auto speed, I'd suggest you record the voice timed. Means you play until the credits and read the lines in a mic when they appear and send it to edale - he can merge it with the bg music and would do much easier than copy/paste each line in the exact position.

It's not possible to send a command out of the emulated game into the computer (lol, that would also give some great opportunities to stuff some viruses inside a snes rom )
I think you sit next to her when she is playing... maybe you can tinker on a remote control and secretly hit a switch so it opens when she's at the desired place?