[jkas789]

Credits to the author Tony Hedstorm. What a lad!

For anyone interested you can download it from here.

Description from download page:

This is an editor that lets you customize many parts of Duke Nukem 64, and will patch your changes into the ROM.

Features:

-Can adjust the strength of the pistol. You can make it weaker, or make it one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

-Can change the firing rate of the pistol. If you set it to the fastest firing rate, it will empty a 12 round clip in less than one second.

-Pistol clip size is adjustable. Higher values mean you don’t have to change clips as often, which is useful in the middle of a gun fight.

-Can adjust how many bullets you get from the pistol ammo pick-ups.

-Starting health and maximum health are adjustable (from 50 up to 200).

-The amount of health you get from medkits is adjustable (from 0 to 90). Editor also changes the on screen text that shows up when you pickup a medkit, so it matches the value you entered.

-Can adjust the amount you get when you pickup armor, and you can adjust the maximum amount of armor you’re allowed.

-Can turn a checksum bypass on or off in needed (the game runs fine without any checksum bypass when using Project64 emulator).

A few Help/Info buttons should answer any questions.

Several buttons show you handy preset values, which can help you decide how to adjust your settings. The “Show amounts from ROM” buttons will display the current values in the ROM. This is useful if you want to make changes to your previous settings, but you forgot what they were.

ROM must be in .z64 format (Big Endian). You can use tools like Tool64 to convert your ROM if needed.

Only works on the USA version of the game (won’t work on the European version). Program checks to make sure you have the correct version, and won’t let you open the wrong one.

Your edited ROM will work fine with a new game, or when using “in-game” saves. Should work on all levels. Will NOT work with most pre-existing emulator save states.

[Phredreeke]

So does this work by patching CON bytecode in the ROM?

[jkas789]

Phredreeke, on 17 May 2021 - 06:58 AM, said:

So does this work by patching CON bytecode in the ROM?

Good question, it does not say in the readme. I sent him a email asking your question because I'm curious as well.

[Fox]

Phredreeke, on 17 May 2021 - 06:58 AM, said:

So does this work by patching CON bytecode in the ROM?

No, many of these values are not from CON.

Editing the CON is possible, however. I have done a few tests with it.

[jkas789]

Got a response from the author. Here is a copy of the text from the mail:

Hi XXXX, I played Duke Nukem 3D on a PC back in the day and I remember very well making changes to the CON file. The way the Nintendo 64 version is done is completely different for the most part. The editor does patch the ROM, but none of it looks at all like the old CON files. Some of the changes made with the editor are in tables in the ROM, and some of them are changes to programing instructions.

There is a ton of other stuff that can be edited in the ROM, but I thought I would just release this current version and see if there was any interest in it before I spent more time on it. Some of the other stuff I found was enemy health (HP), all of the same stats for the pistol but for the other weapons, how much ammo you can carry for each weapon, etc.

Tony Hedstrom
Visit the Code Hut at:
http://codehut.gshi.org/
or
http://www.angelfire...games2/codehut/

[The Battlelord]

I'll wait for a more updated version (if there will be one, hopefully).

This is probably what many end users are waiting for, to customize the game in their own way, without big knowledge on the modding field.

Always thought that would be nice to have a similar tool for eduke32 aswell.


Imagine a more elaborate version able to scroll weapons fast as it works on eduke32.

Integrated weapons (plus sprites and behaviour) from other games to customize your weapon set individually, eg: Blood Weapons, but you would like to import/inject only a pair of weapons from Blood in DN 64/3D, or just add Altfire and/or another weapon in the interested slot instead of replacing the default weapon.
Similar feature for sounds from the other games, as ogg files are quite light weight should be possible (no that is so hard to do it manually, but sometimes can be annoying).Or just add simple features like visual recoil, save babes in DN3D (yes am mixing arguments on purpose )

But maybe am dreaming as usual.


However, i tried to search for something like this countless times, nothing really interesting ever popped up, this is the begin of an interesting tool, once again Thanks for sharing!

[Fox]

jkas789, on 17 May 2021 - 02:04 PM, said:

but none of it looks at all like the old CON files

Huh, yes it does.

[Phredreeke]

There's a huge difference between changing constants to get a different behavior (higher ammo count, more pistol damage) versus injecting the code necessary for a brand new weapon.

[The Battlelord]

Phredreeke, on 17 May 2021 - 02:41 PM, said:

There's a huge difference between changing constants to get a different behavior (higher ammo count, more pistol damage) versus injecting the code necessary for a brand new weapon.

Well, ofc not on the DN64 version, but if there is any chance to get a similar tool on eduke32, would be good to start from something that is already part of the code? (other Build engine games)

[Fox]

It's very simple to rewrite the CON in the ROM, If anyone is interested:


For example, if you open the ROM in a hex editor and look at 0x000AFF90, you will find this sequence:

00 00 EE 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 10 00 00 00 11 00 FB 02 80 6A 00 00 65 00
00 00 00 01 00 00 2E 00 00 00 00 03 FB 02 80 AB
00 00 47 00 FB 02 80 AB 00 00 1D 00 00 00 58 00
FF FF FF FF 00 00 1F 00 00 00 5E 06 00 00 28 00
00 00 01 01 00 00 0B 00 00 00 D0 07 00 00 18 00
FB 02 B4 A5 00 00 4D 00 00 00 C8 0A 00 00 1E 00
00 00 11 00 FA 02 A4 F5 00 00 04 00

In mid-big endian (INT32):

750 0 0 0 16 17 50031232 101 256 46 768 50047872 71 50047872 29 88 -1 31 1630 40 257 11 2000 24 50046388 77 2760 30 17 50001316 4

These are the values for each command in GAMEDEF.C:

Spoiler

char *keyw[NUMKEYWORDS] =
{
    "definelevelname",  // 0
    "actor",            // 1    [#]
    "addammo",   // 2    [#]
    "ifrnd",            // 3    [C]
    "enda",             // 4    [:]
    "ifcansee",         // 5    [C]
    "ifhitweapon",      // 6    [#]
    "action",           // 7    [#]
    "ifpdistl",         // 8    [#]
    "ifpdistg",         // 9    [#]
    "else",             // 10   [#]
    "strength",         // 11   [#]
    "break",            // 12   [#]
    "shoot",            // 13   [#]
    "palfrom",          // 14   [#]
    "sound",            // 15   [filename.voc]
    "fall",             // 16   []
    "state",            // 17
    "ends",             // 18
    "define",           // 19
    "//",               // 20
    "ifai",             // 21
    "killit",           // 22
    "addweapon",        // 23
    "ai",               // 24
    "addphealth",       // 25
    "ifdead",           // 26
    "ifsquished",       // 27
    "sizeto",           // 28
    "{",                // 29
    "}",                // 30
    "spawn",            // 31
    "move",             // 32
    "ifwasweapon",      // 33
    "ifaction",         // 34
    "ifactioncount",    // 35
    "resetactioncount", // 36
    "debris",           // 37
    "pstomp",           // 38
    "/*",               // 39
    "cstat",            // 40
    "ifmove",           // 41
    "resetplayer",      // 42
    "ifonwater",        // 43
    "ifinwater",        // 44
    "ifcanshoottarget", // 45
    "ifcount",          // 46
    "resetcount",       // 47
    "addinventory",     // 48
    "ifactornotstayput",// 49
    "hitradius",        // 50
    "ifp",              // 51
    "count",            // 52
    "ifactor",          // 53
    "music",            // 54
    "include",          // 55
    "ifstrength",       // 56
    "definesound",      // 57
    "guts",             // 58
    "ifspawnedby",      // 59
    "gamestartup",      // 60
    "wackplayer",       // 61
    "ifgapzl",          // 62
    "ifhitspace",       // 63
    "ifoutside",        // 64
    "ifmultiplayer",    // 65
    "operate",          // 66
    "ifinspace",        // 67
    "debug",            // 68
    "endofgame",        // 69
    "ifbulletnear",     // 70
    "ifrespawn",        // 71
    "iffloordistl",     // 72
    "ifceilingdistl",   // 73
    "spritepal",        // 74
    "ifpinventory",     // 75
    "betaname",         // 76
    "cactor",           // 77
    "ifphealthl",       // 78
    "definequote",      // 79
    "quote",            // 80
    "ifinouterspace",   // 81
    "ifnotmoving",      // 82
    "respawnhitag",        // 83
    "tip",             // 84
    "ifspritepal",      // 85
    "money",         // 86
    "soundonce",         // 87
    "addkills",         // 88
    "stopsound",        // 89
    "ifawayfromwall",       // 90
    "ifcanseetarget",   // 91
    "globalsound",  // 92
    "lotsofglass", // 93
    "ifgotweaponce", // 94
    "getlastpal", // 95
    "pkick",  // 96
    "mikesnd", // 97
    "useractor",  // 98
    "sizeat",  // 99
    "addstrength", // 100   [#]
    "cstator", // 101
    "mail", // 102
    "paper", // 103
    "tossweapon", // 104
    "sleeptime", // 105
    "nullop", // 106
    "definevolumename", // 107
    "defineskillname", // 108
    "ifnosounds", // 109
    "clipdist", // 110
    "ifangdiffl" // 111
};

The sequence above can be translated as:

750 0 0 0
  fall
  state <50031232>
  cstator 256
  ifcount 768 <50047872>
    ifrespawn <50047872>
    {
      addkills -1
      spawn 1630
      cstat 257
      strength 2000
      ai <50046388>
      cactor 2760
    }
  state <50001316>
enda

The code is in compiled state, but an experienced CON user can handle it.

Use rn64crc2 to get a new CRC value for the ROM. Remember the filesize must keep the same number of bits.

[Hendricks266]

For anyone interested, my tools for extracting and decompiling the CON bytecode could be modified to compile CONs back into 64 and TM's bytecode formats. This would be more of a novelty than anything since it would only allow modding somewhere between what was possible with 1.3D (no useractors) and 1.5 (full set of Atomic CON commands).