[Other✓] What exactly is action replay code?

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

I know we can use action replay codes to add some kind of features to games, but with the digital nature of things now, I've seen posts around the internet about people making their own new action replay codes, and then putting them in emulator games to do what they want.

and I'm looking at the codes and now I can see that its in hex, and they seem to be applied to offsets just like assembly would be for a binary hack.

So I'm thinking are action replay codes translated into asm, how are they applied, do they have a built in callasm script?

If you can activate and deactivate the code on button press I'm assuming it is indeed a custom asm routine, since calling once activates them,
and calling again will turn it off.

The reason I was curious is because I wanted to implement some action replay effects into my rom, without having to need a cheat, if I could write an asm & script to do the same thing, it would probably run better/faster.

For example black and white, has an iv /ev checker you can set to work on certain button presses, but it's slow.

To get the cheat to work, I have to keep going in and out of the menu, till it actually shows all the iv/evs for all the stats.

If it could be translated into an asm routine/script, then it could probably be translated into any romhack that's at-least base gen 3, with only minimal repointing required.

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

I've heard that vba *visual boy advance works similarly, you can go to the cheet menu, and look at the memory, or something, and by repeating actions the emulator can find where the memory things are actually changing to isolate the effect, then you can turn it into a code to change how you will.

Is it an asm routine?

 

[Anon822]

Cheat codes can be thought to be commands given to the cheating device in a format specific to that device.
So to implement their effect to a rom you would look up the code format to understand what the code does and try to replicate it. Codes often modify values in ram instead of modifying the rom directly, so "porting" them can be a bit complex.

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

Cheat codes can be thought to be commands given to the cheating device in a format specific to that device.
So to implement their effect to a rom you would look up the code format to understand what the code does and try to replicate it. Codes often modify values in ram instead of modifying the rom directly, so "porting" them can be a bit complex.

I see, so when you say code format you mean for the rom or for the emulator, I assume the rom, since action replay works regardless of emulator as far as I know. So are you talking source code language like C or something?

I don't know much about ram yet, but it has to translate into a sequence of hex somewhere right?

You know another doc I could take a look at to help get me started?
I was able to find a "RAM map" here, so I'm looking through that.

There was a doc post around here I lost track of that would have really helped i think,
can't remember who wrote it jpan or someone else, but it was an indepth explanation of asm, ram wram, the stack etc.
You wouldn't happen to have that saved somewhere would you?

 

[Mkol103]

I see, so when you say code format you mean for the rom or for the emulator, I assume the rom, since action replay works regardless of emulator as far as I know. So are you talking source code language like C or something?

I don't know much about ram yet, but it has to translate into a sequence of hex somewhere right?

You know another doc I could take a look at to help get me started?
I was able to find a "RAM map" here, so I'm looking through that.

There was a doc post around here I lost track of that would have really helped i think,
can't remember who wrote it jpan or someone else, but it was an indepth explanation of asm, ram wram, the stack etc.
You wouldn't happen to have that saved somewhere would you?

Action Replay affects RAM. RAM is basically where the current gameplay is stored. It's things like party data, player coordinates, etc. Action replay works like asm, but since you have the source code available to you, going this route would just waste time. Additionally, since you make edits to the source code which moves around offsets, you couldn't just copy over an Action Replay code and expect it to work on a modified ROM. I think you should specify what exactly you were planning on doing with Action Replay codes. Whatever you were planning on doing would probably be better off done via C programming, so you can get help with that here.

 

[Anon822]

I see, so when you say code format you mean for the rom or for the emulator, I assume the rom, since action replay works regardless of emulator as far as I know. So are you talking source code language like C or something?

I don't know much about ram yet, but it has to translate into a sequence of hex somewhere right?

You know another doc I could take a look at to help get me started?
I was able to find a "RAM map" here, so I'm looking through that.

There was a doc post around here I lost track of that would have really helped i think,
can't remember who wrote it jpan or someone else, but it was an indepth explanation of asm, ram wram, the stack etc.
You wouldn't happen to have that saved somewhere would you?

I mean code format of the cheating device like action replay or codebreaker. For reference, here is a site detailing the formats for the different gba cheating devices: https://doc.kodewerx.org/hacking_gba.html#gsa
You can find information for other devices by searching on google.

I don't have the thread you're referring to but I think it was an asm tutorial. So maybe you can find it by googling "pokecommunity asm tutorial".

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

I mean code format of the cheating device like action replay or codebreaker. For reference, here is a site detailing the formats for the different gba cheating devices: https://doc.kodewerx.org/hacking_gba.html#gsa
You can find information for other devices by searching on google.

I don't have the thread you're referring to but I think it was an asm tutorial. So maybe you can find it by googling "pokecommunity asm tutorial".

Much appreciated as always, I've had no luck with searching it in the past, I usually find an fb-i or shiny quagsire post, but I think it was by F-BI now that I'm recalling. Eitherway I'll keep an eye out hopefully I come across it again.

Thanks for the advice, and info.

alright my memory came back a bit, and I was able to find it, the doc was a asm tutorial by touched over on git.