How to change text in NES games - by maggie

(or how i foolishly jumped into hex editing)

Do you want your beloved games to say this?

If you do, then look no further than this (pseudo) guide on how to do it.

Requirements

1. any ROM
2. an NES emulator (ideally FCEUX, we will be using it in this tutorial, it includes a Hex editor)
3. TBLater (program for creating tables, is Windows only, but works in Wine)

Part 1: Setting up tables

1. Open FCEUX and load your ROM
2. Open the PPU viewer. (Debug -> PPU viewer)
3. Take note of where the numbers and letters are.

4. Open TBLater, then autofill the numbers and letters as they are shown in the PPU viewer

After you are done, save your file where you want it to be and check if the numbers/letters match in both as shown here:

Congratulations! Your tables are now set up!

Part 2: Hex Editing

Here is where the fun begins.

1. Open the Hex editor in FCEUX (Debug -> Hex editor)
2. Change View to ROM
3. Import TBL file (File -> Load TBL file)

If you have done everything correctly, you should notice that the characters in the editor have changed.

4. Find the text you wish to change
5. Replace it with your string. (if there are any spaces, note the other text and use the same hexadecimal for spaces as is used in the original game. in Zelda's case, it's 24)

6. Enjoy!

This is my first time making a tutorial like this, so please contact me if any info is missing, i will work hard to fix any mistakes. Thank you for reading!