Getting Started with hacking

[deadmeow]

To hack any EA sports title, you must first have a pre-hacked version, or you must disable the checksum data which will make a hack load up to a black screen.

The most sure way of this for any rom is to do a search for the values 4E75. You may get 4 to 8 or so of these values. Usually one of the later ones is the one to change. So do a search for hex value "4E75" and edit the last one to B0FC. And then load the rom, if black screen, change the data back to 4E75, and then proceed up the list changing the next 4E75 to B0FC.

You can also do this by having the Game Genie Master code for the game rom, and convert it to hex. I will go over this at a later point in time.


example : hacking philadelphia

put in "find text" into hex editor
find "philadelphia"
there will prob be 2 or 3 results, one of them will contain team roster data below it, and team colors above it.

Madden92/93/94/BW are easier to hack at first glance, because you can search for the team name and find team data. Also, you can see the player jersey # as the first bit of player data.

Madden91 you need the address for the team data, and there are no jersey numbers, just 00 as the first bit of data.

Madden94 the team color data seems to be compressed, and cannot be found or
edited at this time.

Joe Montana1 was designed by Madden91 creators, similar to Madden91.

*PLAYER ATTRIBUTES*
WT ST - SP AG - CT BT (MADDEN91/MONTANA1) CATCHING SHOULD BE 0 TO 3
WT 00 - SP AG - 00 BT (MADDEN92/93) STRENGTH, CATCHING SHOULD BE 0 (FOR OFFENSE)
WT 00 - SP AG - CT BT (BILL WALSH) STRENGTH SHOULD BE ZERO, CATCHING 0 TO 3 (FOR OFFENSE)

SPECIALTY PLAYERS
QB > WT ST - SP AC - RG SC (MADDEN91, MONTANA1)
QB > WT ST - SP 00 - RG SC (MADDEN92/93/94/BW) ACCURACY SHOULD BE 0
K > WT RG - SP xx xx AC
OL > WT-PB SPD-RB RB-XX

**IMPORTANT NOTES**
AC (accuracy) should be set for zero on Madden92/93/94/BW. It serves no purpose but putting this value at 1 or above will break the passing, causing the receivers to immediately come to a full stop when the ball is thrown.

CT (catching should be set from 0 to 3 in Madden91/94/BW)
CT (catching should be set at 0 in Madden92/93 to prevent free hail marys/lob cheese exploit)
ST (RB/TE/WR strength should be set at 0 in Madden92/93/94/BW to prevent free hail marys/lob cheese exploit)

TK (Tackling) should be put at 0 in Madden92/93 so that quarterbacks to have the ability to scramble. Quarterbacks in the pocket in 92/93 will fall at the slightest touch if tackling is above 0.

In Madden91 the tackling should be limited from 0 to 5 in order for running backs to be effective. There are no limits on running backs breaking tackles.

For Madden94/Bill Walsh make sure not to have tackling to high across the board for all teams, or you may limit the running game. Refer to previous ratings for good examples.
****

First the team rosters are shortly below

the data looks like this in the hex editor

QB = 12 4F CA B9
QB= 2 digits jersey number, 4=wt, F=strength, C=speed, A=accuracy, B=range, 9= Scrambling

HB= 23 4A BC 6A
23=jersey, 4=wt, A= strength, B=speed, C=agility, B=catching, 9=breaking tackles

On defenders , the last digit is tackling

You can find the team colors slightly above the team name.

For colors it is simple, in Sega Genesis EA games the colors look like this 0B GR, zero, blue, green, red. In hex, zero is black, where F= brightest color available. So 00 00 = black, 0F FF = white. Bright Red would be 00 0F, and bright yellow would be 00 FF.

In Madden91 there is one set of team colors, when a team is chosen as visitors, they will be given white pants.

In Madden92/93/BW, there are home colors and visiting colors.

In Madden92/93 these sets of data will preceed the team colors
026A 004A, then the next 9 "sets of colors" are correct to change, a set of colors starting with a zero, followed by 3 digits.

So for example Phiadelphia, find the first set of 026A 004A, and then change some color values (the numbers after these) and see your results. The first set above will be visiting uniform, the set above that home.

Phil Visitor colors = 0CCC 00A0 0060 0EEE 0AAA 0666 0EEE 0AAA 0666

For Madden92/93 color data is as follows:
HELMET STRIPE
HELMET TOP/BODY
HELMET LOWER/BODY
PANTS TOP
PANTS INNER BODY
PANTS OUTER BODY
SHIRT CTR TOP
SHIRT BODY
SHIRT TOP/OUTLINE

For BW
HELMET(MID HELMET)
HELMET(LOWER HELMET)
HELMET(HELMET STRIPE)
SKIN 024C <--- use these values to find team color data
SKIN 0006 <---
SHIRT(CTR TOP)
SHIRT(BODY)
SHIRT(TOP/OUTLINE)
PANTS TOP/HIGH
PANTS MORE BODY
PANTS LESS BODY

For Madden91, you need to know the team addresses to find player data, the addresses will lead you to the start of player data, with the colors above them, which you should be able to spot once you understand colors, and You can see the


M91
SF------2D3E
PHI-----2DE8
MIN-----2E92
LA------2F3C*
ATL-----2744
NY------27EE
WASH----2898
CHIC----2942
DENVER--2FE6
HOUSTON-3090
BUFF----313A
CINC----31E4*
MIA-----29EC
NE------2A96
KC------2B40
PIT-----2BEA
ALLM----2C94

Here is the player order in Madden 9x/BW and Madden91

M9X M91

1 QB (01)QB
2 QB2 (02)FB
3 HB1 (03)HB
4 HB2 (04)HB2
5 FB (05)WR1
6 LT (06)WR2
7 LG (07)SE1 (HB2/WR3)
8 C (08)SE2
9 RG (09)TE1
10 RT (10)TE2
11 WR1 (11)C
12 WR2 (12)LG
13 WR3 (13)RG
14 WR4 (14)LT
15 TE1 (15)RT
16 TE2 (16)PLB
17 KR (17)LT
18 PR (18)LE
19 K (19)RE
20 LE (20)LLB
21 LT (21)RT
22 RE (22)MLB
23 LLB (23)RLB
24 MLB (24)FS1
25 RT (25)FS2
26 RLB (26)SS
27 PLB (27)RCB1
28 LCB1 (28)RCB2
29 LCB2 (29)LCB1
30 RCB1 (30)LCB2
31 RCB2 (31)P
32 SS (32)K
33 FS1
34 FS2
35 P

There is more information on the Hacking reference found in the Madden roms, I will attach it here.

Attachments:

[goldglv]

I know this thread is really old but I wanted to ask how you knew which positions in the file were weight, strength, speed....ect. Also, which positions were helmet stripe color, pants color?

I looked everywhere online and never found anything regarding this. Just started getting into rom hacking and was curious.

Thanks....

[deadmeow]

If you hack Madden92/93/94/BW, you can simply do a search for a team name "Buffalo", and above that is the color data, and below that is the player data, which is easy to see (player jersey number and numbers corresponding to player data in ratings booklet.

But I started the hard way. I started by hacking Madden91, which has no team city or player numbers (no player numbers at all) near the player ratings/colors. What I did originally was take a snapshot of a Madden91 team, and then use a paint program to find the exact color of a team, convert that into hex code, and then look through the hex code for that color, and then edit the color in the hex code, and see if it changed the team color in the game rom. Then luckily looking below the team colors, was info that looked like player ratings, then the ratings match up in the player rating booklet, and so on.

[goldglv]

Very impressive.

I'm assuming someone has asked this already but would it be possible to play a full season in Madden 93? I think the full season option didn't start until Madden 94 but would it be possible?

[goldglv]

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to edit the team colors of ANY team. Anything I'm changing isn't working. I took this code from the original john madden nfl .BIN file

Where are the hex codes to change the colors? I've highlighted the team codes you specified but I can't locate those codes again in the file. So I'm assuming the teams are listed in order of how the team codes appear in the file, just as you specified. But no matter what I do, nothing seems to change for San Francisco...

12 14 10 11 15 13 16 17 04 19 18 12 14 10 11 16 15 08 18 19 09 17 12 14 10 11 15 13 16 08 19 09 04 12 14 10 11 1E 1A 1C 1B 17 19 18 1D 12 14 11 00 00 2D 3E 00 00 2D E8 00 00 2E 92 00 00 2F 3C 00 00 27 44 00 00 27 EE 00 00 28 98 00 00 29 42 00 00 2F E6 00 00 30 90 00 00 31 3A 00 00 31 E4 00 00 29 EC 00 00 2A 96 00 00 2B 40 00 00 2B EA 00 00 2C 94 0C CC 0C CC 02 22 04 44 04 44 02 22 00 00 02 22 04 44 00 3B 4D 93 00 4C 34 72 00 41 43 B0 00 44 35 80 00 28 D5 75 00 02 82 04 00 4C 67 88 00 13 82 30 00 3D 59 57 00 5C 25 54 00 9B 5B 70 00 79 79 70 00 8C 0B A0 00 AF 29 70 00 9A 03 50 00 39 75 9C 00 89 6E 00 86 22 03 00 75 24 43 00 6A D0 33 00 69 75 66 00 53 87 0A 00 6A B0 22 00 23 96 01 00 38 C4 33 00 2C A4 07 00 2C FF C8 00 32 94 32 00 25 BF 81 00 20 C4 92 00 62 36 48 00 1A 55 24 00 00 62 64 00 00 5E 04 00 00 34 E2 FF FF FF FF 00 00 4D 9C 00 00 57 24 0C CC 00 0A 0C 00 0A AA 0C CC 0C CC 0A 00 0C 20 0C 20 00 4C 6B C4 00 5D 56 75 00 28 8C 3B 00 34 66 3A 00 48 A5 73 00 35 66 65 00 2A 69 59 00 13 58 65 00 6E 5A 83 00 69 33 03 00 78 A9 70 00 8A 58 70 00 9F A7 70 00 AC 53 70 00 86 04 70 00 3E 75 B8 00 84 83 96 00 84 A4 94 00 9F 6B 88 00 5B DB 00 55 3B 69 00 6B FC A8 00 6C 33 25 00 38 E4 94 00 32 96 63 00 4A E4 5C 00 33 E4 53 00 30 B5 81 00 37 FB C8 00 32 94 42 00 67 77 75 00 1A 55 96 00 00 60 F0 00 00 5A B4 00 00 5B B0 FF FF FF FF 00 00 4B 0C 00 00 56 32 00 06 00 2A 00 6C 00 04 00 06 00 28 00 04 00 08 00 2A 00 5E 6A E7 00 5E 64 77 00 4C 7B 7A 00 59 53 54 00 2D CD AC 00 2A BD A9 00 4E 9F BB 00 17 67 74 00 69 68 75 00 69

[deadmeow]

I do not know what rom you are working with? John Madden Football (original aka "madden91")? Madden NFL 94 ? 94 was the first year NFL was used in the name. In the past, I searched all over for the Madden94 color data, could not find it, probably in compressed data, player data is the same as 92/93/BW

If you are working with Madden91, here is a screen shot of Madden91 with the color data highlighted for San Fran, starting at 2D3E, followed by the player ratings below...

Attachments:

[goldglv]

Sorry, meant I was working with the original Madden91.

I did see these entries but the colors don't seem to match up. 004A00 is showing me a green color, I was expecting the gold on the helmets?

[deadmeow]

004A = 0BGR (0,BLUE,GREEN,RED)
004A = gold

[goldglv]

Does the 'A' need to be converted to a 10? 0BGR(0,0,4,10)

Sorry, just lost with this.  I thought Hex color codes had to be 6 digits?  FF0000?  So I can't figur eout how to get the color out of only 004A?

[deadmeow]

A=10,B=11,C=12,D=13,E=14,F=15

16 BIT = 16 data points 0 to F

[goldglv]

Is there an online calculator I can use to plug in 004A (00410) where it would show me gold? Say I wanted to change the helmet color to blue? How would I know what hex values to enter in the .bin file to accomplish that?

[deadmeow]

if you look up RGB calculator, that can help you, but remember the colors in the Madden rom are in the Blue-Green-Red order, when you actually input them.

[goldglv]

I'm still not getting the gold color.....I'm obviously doing something wrong, just trying to figure out what it is.

And still not sure how a hex color value which is 6 positions would fit into that space 004A which is only 4 positions (or 5)?

And trying to get the helmet color to Blue, there's no sure way to know what blue is?  You just have to keep making changes starting from 0000 and keep dialing it back until you find blue?

So I would have to just keep changing the values, save the file and launch the game in the emulator again after each time I modify the values?

There's no easier way to figure out what values I need for blue for example?  

Sites like color-hex.com you can input a 6 value hex color code and see what color it is.

[deadmeow]

if you want a middle blue color, that is 0800, darker blue is 0400, brighter blue is 0C00, do you see? 0BGR.

[goldglv]

Yes, completely understand.

But there's no calculator I can use and plug in 0835 to see what color it is? That's what I was confused about.

Or is it just trial and error on getting the right color?

But yes, I have a much better understanding now on how to change the colors, thank you for your help and patience.

[deadmeow]

There might be a calculator like that somewhere, but you can still use the calculators like this:
www.calculatorcat.com/free_calculators/color_slider/rgb_hex_color_slider.phtml

RGB calculators on the net use 0 to 255, so if you divide 256 / 16 = 16

To convert each color, you need to take the decimal number add 1, then divide by 16, and then minus 1
Middle blue would be about 131 on that scale, 131 +1 =132/16 = 8.25 -1 = 7.25 , and you use 7 for that shade of blue.

[deadmeow]

I added these notes to the above hacking guide, and I will post them down here also, for those already familiar with the basics of Madden rom hacking. These are important for your rom to play well

*PLAYER ATTRIBUTES*
WT ST - SP AG - CT BT (MADDEN91/MONTANA1) CATCHING SHOULD BE 0 TO 3
WT 00 - SP AG - 00 BT (MADDEN92/93) STRENGTH, CATCHING SHOULD BE 0
WT 00 - SP AG - CT BT (BILL WALSH) STRENGTH SHOULD BE ZERO, CATCHING 0 TO 3

SPECIALTY PLAYERS
QB > WT ST - SP AC - RG SC (MADDEN91, MONTANA1)
QB > WT ST - SP 00 - RG SC (MADDEN92/93/94/BW) ACCURACY SHOULD BE 0
K > WT RG - SP xx xx AC
OL > WT-PB SPD-RB RB-XX

**IMPORTANT NOTES**
AC (accuracy) should be set for zero on Madden92/93/94/BW, as putting this value at 1 or above will break the passing, causing the receivers to immediately come to a full stop when the ball is thrown.

CT (catching should be set from 0 to 3 in Madden91/94/BW)
CT (catching should be set at 0 in Madden92/93 to prevent free hail marys/lob cheese exploit)
ST (RB/TE/WR strength should be set at 0 in Madden92/93 to prevent free hail marys/lob cheese exploit)

**More Important Notes**
If you want quarterbacks to have the ability to scramble in Madden92/93 I recommend putting all tackling to zero, and having offensive players breaking tackles from 0 to 10. Quarterbacks in the pocket in 92/93 will fall at the slightest touch.

In Madden91 the tackling should be limited from 0 to 5 in order for running backs to be effective. There are no limits on running backs breaking tackles.

For Bill Walsh make sure not to have tackling to high across the board for all teams, or you may limit the running game. Refer to previous ratings for good examples.
****

[goldglv]

Was looking through the Madden 93 manual and noticed the player ratings are displayed a little differently in the manual as opposed to what's here. For instance:

QB WT-ST SP-AC RG-SC
RB WT-ST SP-AG CT-BT

In madden 93 manual:
QB RG-AC SP-SC
RB SP-AG BT-CT

I am planning on doing a roster update based on the Madden 16 ratings and wanted to be sure these ratings were in the correct order. I know chuck did a roster update already but I wanted to try and tweak some of the ratings.

So how did you come up with the ratings in this order if the manual has them in a different order? Here is a screenshot:

Attachments:

[deadmeow]

The published player ratings have nothing to do with the order that it is found in the hex code.

[goldglv]

Ok, thanks. And all of the following areas that are 'XX', are not any ratings?

The RB is used twice? Just weird that for the Kicker, 2 spots are skipped then the Accuracy is specified?

QB > WT ST - SP AC - RG SC
K > WT RG - SP xx xx AC
OL > WT-PB SPD-RB RB-XX

[deadmeow]

For the kicker/punter, the XX values are probably agility and catching, which don't mean much. For the OL, the XX is maybe tackling/breaking tackles.

[goldglv]

OK, sounds good. I changed the attributes for 2 teams based on the madden 16 attributes. Game was pretty competitive, I actually lost 17-14. I may go ahead and do the rest of the teams and then post the revised rom. Just having an issue now running Chuck's version, using Raspberry Pi to play and game keeps crashing when you are trying to exit the final screen. Also game crashes om exit of playoff after first game is complete.

Will check the original Madden 93 tonight to see if it's the emulator or the rom.

There is no way we can use the NHL program to edit the Madden player attributes, is there? Just going to take forever doing this in the hex editor....

[deadmeow]

Hex editor is not bad once you are used to doing it, and that is the only choice right now. Joe Montana 1 has the most challenging one player mode of all the football roms, but the others can be challenging too, when you use a slow team.

[goldglv]

Just checked, original Madden 93 is fine when playing through Retropie, Chuck's keeps crashing on exit of game, this really stinks.

Was really hoping to use chuck's version to do the roster update as he has all 32 teams.....

I've only EDITED the hex files, is it easy to add an entire new team?

[deadmeow]

You can only edit teams on the rom, you cannot add extra teams. So you could just overwrite one team on Madden93, and test it on your emulator, before you proceed.

[goldglv]

So do you know how Chuck added the 2 expansion teams (Panthers, Jaguars) to the regular season teams on his rom?

I know Madden 93 has the 72 Dolphins, 84 49ers and so on but it seems as though the Panthers and Jags are part of the regular season team?

Unless I miscounted but it seems the original has 38 teams (including the older teams) and chuck's has 36?  One looks like 'N/A' and he has AFC and NFC teams that seem to be compressed.

Are you able to run chuck's version using new playoffs without it crashing after the game is over and you try to get to the next round of playoffs?  I tried 2 different emulators and they both crash with his version.

[deadmeow]

From the way I understand it and am guessing, there are still 28 regular season teams and 10 extra teams. It seems Chuck changed the playoff tree/structure to let the extra teams play the regular 28 teams.

I know that this can make the NHL roms crash when this is done, so this may be why you experience this issue.

[goldglv]

I finished all the rosters, game is playing a little bit fast, may try and tweak some of the speed ratings for all players but overall seems pretty good. I should have something ready soon.

[deadmeow]

I made a minor edit in the guide to clarify a couple things.
For player attributes strength and catching in Madden92/93 should be zero only for the OFFENSE and strength zero and catching 0 to 3 for OFFENSE only in Bill Walsh/Madden94. Defense should always have normal strength across all the roms, and catching does not seem to help interceptions for the defense, so this is not really important.

Madden92/93 should have zero tackling for a playable rom. If tackling is above zero, you cannot scramble with the QB, as any touch slams him to the ground instantly. The one exception is to have the 2 defensive tackles at 1 tackling. This prevents too easy QB sneaks. I would recommend breaking tackles no higher than around 11.

*PLAYER ATTRIBUTES*
WT ST - SP AG - CT BT (MADDEN91/MONTANA1) CATCHING SHOULD BE 0 TO 3
WT 00 - SP AG - 00 BT (MADDEN92/93) STRENGTH, CATCHING SHOULD BE 0 (FOR OFFENSE)
WT 00 - SP AG - CT BT (BILL WALSH) STRENGTH SHOULD BE ZERO, CATCHING 0 TO 3 (FOR OFFENSE)
TK (Tackling should be zero 00 on Madden92/93 with defensive tackles at 01)

SPECIALTY PLAYERS
QB > WT ST - SP AC - RG SC (MADDEN91, MONTANA1)
QB > WT ST - SP 00 - RG SC (MADDEN92/93/94/BW) ACCURACY SHOULD BE 0
K > WT RG - SP xx xx AC
OL > WT-PB SPD-RB RB-XX

[goldglv]

I created a very basic Editor for Madden, here is the link, instructions are in the small user manual I created to help you guys use the editor.  Just create a folder on your pc and copy all files into that folder that are in the zip file.  Then just run the exe file.  Please make sure you read the user manual, I try and explain the best I can on how to use the editor and it's features.  

Again, a very basic editor but it helped me speed up the roster update I just completed (I posted the link in the Edited Roms thread).

Please email me with any suggestions/ideas/improvements/issues with the editor and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

[e-mail]

Thanks,
Rich

www.dropbox.com/sh/h1bil5hltkoikzm/AAAs5g0MJXAcH7I2bEdN3Xkna?dl=0