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Thread Number: 154
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Original Message
"Wizardry 1 NES version modify characters"
Posted by jaelwood on Jan-05-14 at 07:27 AM
Does anyone know a resource for descrambling the HEX values in the NES version of Wizardry 1? I found the save location and located the characters in the file. Below is a sample.

01 08 46 49 47 48 54 45 52 32 00 00 00 0B 08 07 08 08 09 00 00 00 00 00 30 00 00 00 00 02 06 00 01 00 08 00 01 00 10 18 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 80 80 00 00 00 00 00 01 08 0B 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C9 A6 21 40 3A 0C 08 08 08 89 1C 0B 08 08 05 41 EB AF 7F 7F 4F 3E 67 7F 7F 7F 3F 5C FB ED 95 63 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF CF FF FF FF FF FF 4F 7F EF FF FF FF FF FF F7 F7 F7 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF BF 7E FE FF EF FF 7F FF EF FF 9F DF FF FF FF FF FC FF FF FF FF FF 6F 7F 7F 8F 7F 4F FF FF FF DC DA AB BA 7B 8B 6B 9B 7F EF

At first I thought it was going to be easy to modify because it starts out just like all the HEX guides that others have posted (the character name in the example above is FIGHTER2). Unfortunately, I've discovered the NES version completely ignores the first part of the above HEX (I'm not sure why it's even there). The part that the NES version actually reads starts with C9 A6, etc... Do you know anyone that's figured out the key to this?

I created a character with the name "1" and then changed it's name to "2" through the UI to see what changed in the HEX.
Below is the HEX when the character's name is 1.
DB 6F 22 6D 43 12 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 B3 7F 08 C4 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F DE CB 29 DD 09 42 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 5F 7E 1F FF EF FF 5F FF 5F FF FF FF FF FF FF FF A9 EF FF FF FF FF 6F 7F 7F AF FE DE FF FF FF FD FD FD FD FD FD FD EC EF EF

Below is the HEX when the same character's name is 2.
C9 A6 21 40 3A 0C 08 08 08 89 1C 0B 08 08 05 41 EB AF 7F 7F 4F 3E 67 7F 7F 7F 3F 5C FB ED 95 63 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF CF FF FF FF FF FF 4F 7F EF FF FF FF FF FF F7 F7 F7 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF BF 7E FE FF EF FF 7F FF EF FF 9F DF FF FF FF FF FC FF FF FF FF FF 6F 7F 7F 8F 7F 4F FF FF FF DC DA AB BA 7B 8B 6B 9B 7F EF

I didn't expect this many values to change when just changing the name from 1 to 2 so there is something relatively complex going on.

If anyone has information I would appreciate it. This is a game I love from my childhood and thanks to the wonderful OpenEMU project I can play it again.

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"RE: Wizardry 1 NES version modify characters"
Posted by Llevram on Jan-06-14 at 07:23 PM
Well, I don't know about the NES version, but the old school was more straight forward. I don't see a "1" (31) in the set of hex for that character, so that is either not where the data is stored or they are doing something funky with it, like using half bites to conserve storage space.

And if this is a saved game file, there can be other stuff going on, like time elapsing in the game ... that could account for the other changes.

Tools for Wizardry(r) 7