Advanced
How to find sprite numbers
Sprite numbers are found easiest by trial and error. I made two files to facilitate this.
Download MenuTest to get them both.
Please note that this only works with the old menu system before version 7a, so use this with PocketNES version 7 or older.
Exctract the files into a directory with the nes file you want to test and pocketnes.gba. If there is more than one nes rom in the dir it won't work. You need to test one rom at a time.
Double click nes2gbatest.bat. This creates NESTest.GBA. Flash this and run it on the GBA for testing. When there is only one nesrom but several menu items the emulator always use the one rom, but with the different options in the menu, nifty, isn't it? :D
The first single numbers in the list (1-12) are for testing speed hacks alone. Try these if you are having speed problems or flickering graphics.
The ones that follows are for finding sprite numbers for screen following. 016-2516 tests sprite following (16) that is 16|0, 16|1 etc.
The most common sprite numbers are 0-3,8, and 11. Try these first before going down the whole list.
Once you find the best options for speed hacks and/or sprite following, write the variables down, and mail them to me ;D Well write them down so you can use them for your menu as described above
Sprite number following doesn't always work, some games change the sprite order around. Sometimes the screen start to shake or break up or other problems. If this happen you can try finding the sprite's memory location instead, see below.
How to find sprite height memory location
This is for use with the |32 option, and it's kind of advanced so it's best to try and find the sprite number first instead.
I like to use the NESten emulator. You can find this at Zophar's Domain.
Load the rom and start the game. Open the Cheat Console from the CPU menu. New search, click on the empty search, search type "change", start search. It will now say too many results. Don't worry this is to be expected. Jump up, or go up, whatever, while your sprite is still higher than before, click on "changed" in the cheat window. Make sure you can see both windows at the same time! Jump down, or go down, and click changed again. If there are other sprites moving onscreen (there usually is) click equal a few times to try to eliminate them. Go left and right a few times (WITHOUT changing your height if possible), click Equal in between. Remember we are looking for the height so this hopefully eliminates the horisontal memory location. Jump up to a higher location and repeat... It takes a while to get the hang of it, but once you understand the logic it's a lot easier.
Once you get the list down to a few numbers (1 if you're lucky, 10 if you're not) you need to convert these numbers to decimal, as they are now in hexadecimal. If you have a hex-editor or something else that can do this, use it. If not I put a simple little page with javascript to do it here.
When you have all your address numbers in binary turn them into a test menu as the one used above, but put like
32-1035|32|1035
32-1281|32|1281
etc
Go down the list to test the addresses you found, and with a little luck, one of them will work!
Questions
Still need help?
If you still don't get it to work, or need more help, take it to the forum!
Thanks to loopy, flubba, Warder1, Gba_boy, proveaux and the rest of the PocketNES community for some of this info!
