POKÉMAP
version 1.2
Released 18th November 2000

By PR Translations
(http://prtranslations.cjb.net)

contents

  1. Requirements
  2. Version History
  3. Instructions
  4. Compatibility
  5. Known Bugs
  6. The World Famous Talking Cactus
  7. Credits
  8. Disclaimer
requirements

To use this program, you will need the following things: If you do not have both of these things, the program will not work.

version history

Version 1.2
18th November 2000
I have added support for every Gym plus the Fighting Dojo (including events), except for Saffron Gym and Cinnibar Gym, which use a different tileset (probably the one I'll add next). Also, the maps which didn't work on Blue before now do (I've added a dialogue box at the beginning which asks you which version the ROM is).

Version 1.15
6th November 2000
I've added support for the Oak's Lab map. This isn't a huge update. In fact, someone sent me the details of that tileset and map! The hard part is getting the tile pictures though, lol :D

Version 1.1
28th October 2000
I've added support for Item and Trainer events, and events are now supported in every town, the first five Routes, Route 9 (I needed to edit it for the talking cactus game, lol) and Viridian Forest. I've added support for all three Unknown Dungeon maps. I've also updated The World Famous Talking Cactus! :D

Version 1.05
25th October 2000
I've added support for another tileset (the one used for caves), and along with it I've added all three Mt. Moon maps (and they have everything except event support). I've also added event support for Routes 1, 2 and 3 and Viridian Forest.

Version 1
24th October 2000
The first version released! ^_^ So far it supports 4 tilesets out of the total 19. You can edit every town and every route (except for Route 23, since that uses a different tileset), as well as Ash's House, Viridian Forest, the Safari Game and a few other places. You can edit the warps for almost every supported map that has them. You can edit two types of events (Signposts and Normal People) in every town. Have fun! ^_^

instructions

Pokémap is a program for editing the maps in Pokémon Red and Blue. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's much easier than using a hex editor and doing it all manually! Here is some information about how to use each part of the program.

I'll just say now that Pokémap is not a text editor or a graphics editor, it is a map editor. Text and graphics editing can already be done without doing complicated hex editing, and I think it's a waste of my time to reinvent the wheel. If you don't know how to edit text or graphics, read the tutorials at http://fly.to/vale. Please don't e-mail me for help unless you've read and understood those tutorials and you have more specific questions. Unfortunately, the kinds of people who can't use Thingy won't ever see this message, since the only real reason for someone finding Thingy complicated is if they haven't read the Readme file *sighs*

Anyway, onto what the program can do. When you open the program, select an English Pokémon Red or Blue ROM (other versions of these games, and Pokémon Yellow, may work to some extent, but haven't been fully tested - see Compatibility section, below). It takes a while to load, but that's just because of the graphics, and they only need to load once. The program itself runs fine.

Map Editor

The window the program starts on is the Map Editor. This is where, surprisingly enough, you edit the maps! It's also where you select which map you're editing, and switch between the other editors.

At the bottom, there are two list boxes for selecting the map. Select which category of map you want to edit, then select a map. The program will display a message about how well that map works with Pokémap. If you want to edit the map, click on 'Go'!

Now onto editing the maps. The maps in Pokémon work in a slightly odd way. To the right of the map, you can select from Building Blocks. Building Blocks are what the maps are made up of. Scroll down this list, and select the Building Block you want to place down. Then place it where you want on the map by left-clicking. Sometimes a quicker way of selecting a Building Block is right-clicking on one that's already on the map. When editing the map, the Undo feature (Ctrl+Z) can be very useful! :D

You can also edit the border of a map in the same way. The border is what appears around the outside of a map (unless the map's connected to another one). The grass to the left and right of Pallet Town is the border. One thing to be careful of is making sure that the player can't walk onto the border. If this happens, the game crashes. So, always make sure that either the border is made of something solid (like on Route 2) or there is a wall around the edge of the map where it touches the border (like in Pallet Town).

To save what you've done, go to 'Save' on the 'File' menu (or press Ctrl+S). Like Hex Workshop, it'll ask you if you want to make an automatic back-up.

The 'Options' menu lets you turn the grid on and off. And the 'Mode' menu lets you switch to one of the other editors!

Building Block Editor

The Building Block Editor lets you change the Building Blocks that the maps are made up of. Each Building Block is made up of 16 tiles sized 8x8 pixels.

When you open the editor, it will let you edit the Building Blocks for the Tileset of the map that is currently selected. A Tileset is a different set of tiles, and a different set of Building Blocks to go with them. If a map looks very different to another map, chances are it uses a different Tileset.

Scroll down the list, and select the Building Block you want to edit. Then click on tiles and place them where you want on the Building Block. Once again, you can also select tiles by right-clicking on tiles that are already on the Building Block.

Event Editor

Here it is, the Event Editor, what kept this program from being released for so long! :D

Events are (in most cases) what make things happen in the game. Things like people, and signposts, and item balls, without which nothing much would happen. So far Pokémap supports four types of events: Signposts, Normal People (people who walk, talk and do nothing else), Items (which includes people who give you items) and Trainers. To select which type of event you want to edit, just select it from the list and click 'Go'.

Every event of that type will now be displayed on the map with a marker that says 'Event'. If you click on one of these markers, that event will be selected. By clicking on the map you can now move that event. Also, the details of it will appear at the bottom, so you can change what the event does to some extent (more 'user-friendly' support for changing the event details will be added at some point).

Warp Editor

This is where you can edit the Warps and Warp-To Points. Warps are what take you places when you walk into a door or stairs. Warp-To points are the places the warps take you to. As of yet, I haven't figured out why these need to be separate things, but they are.

This editor works in exactly the same way as the Event Editor. In fact, the only reason I don't treat them as events in Pokémap is because Warp-To Points work a bit strangely (also because I made the Warp Editor first :).

Wild Pokémon Editor

Here is where you can edit which wild Pokémon appear on the Routes! I think this is pretty self-explanatory. Ten Pokémon appear on each Route, just select which one you want to change and change it. One thing you might not know is that a Pokémon is rarer if it's lower down in the list of ten.

compatibility

Pokémap is only designed to work with the English Red and Blue versions of Pokémon. Here is some information about how much other versions are supported. Unofficial translations count as the original language they were translated from.

Pocket Monsters Red/Green/Blue (Japanese)

All the towns work apart from Cinnabar Island and Lavender Town. None of the routes work apart from Route 20, Route 22, Route 24, Route 25. And none of the buildings work except for Ash's House/Copycat's House (Upstairs) and House 4. This has only been tested with Green, but it almost definitely applies to Red and Blue too. I forgot who found this out, if it was you please e-mail me and I'll give you credit here!

Pokémon Yellow (English)
Pocket Monsters Yellow (Japanese)

These versions have not been tested, but they are probably partially supported.

Pokémon Gold/Silver (English)
Pocket Monsters Gold/Silver (Japanese)

These do not work at all, and never will. Jigglypuff is making a map editor for Gold and Silver (look on the PR Translations Message Board for more information).

Pokémon Red/Blue (German, French, Spanish, Italian)

These work to some extent, but have not been tested very much.

known bugs

If 'Run-Time Error 50003' appears when you run Pokémap, try downloading the VB Runtime Files and comdlg32.ocx from my site, and putting them in C:\Windows\System. If it still doesn't work, there's nothing I can do, sorry. It happens to quite a lot of people, unfortunately :(

In general, the program can be temperamental at times. For example, there is a bug with the Wild Pokémon Editor that only happens some of the time (although it's not hard to work around). Also, the Warp-To Points may screw up from time to time (they shouldn't do though).

the world famous talking cactus

The World Famous Talking Cactus is a short demo I made. Just apply the patch to an English Pokémon Red ROM and play it using an emulator. It shows some ways that you could use Pokémap to completely change the game, and even make it have nothing to do with Pokémon (although as you will see, the end result is a very pointless game, lol). I probably won't expand this game any more (you'll see why if you 'complete' it).

credits

This program was written by me, Philip Reuben. My e-mail address is:
Philip@stepsonline.co.uk

BIG thanks to Mad^Dogz, who found out how the building blocks are stored, and PokéEdit (he's shut down his site - I hope it wasn't because of Pokémap, after all I did ask permission!), who found out how to rearrange the building blocks and some information about editing the warps and events (and also about the pallettes, which I'll add in a later version). Also, thanx to Gamerboy64, who helped to find some of the maps, Thundercloud, who found most of the wild Pokémon data and Serebeii 2, who found some of the map and tileset data.

You can also contact me by writing a message on the PR Translations Message Board (which is on the PR Translations website, where you probably downloaded this program)! The address is:
http://prtranslations.cjb.net

You may distribute this program freely, as long as this Readme file is included with it. This program is freeware, though, so you must never charge any money for it other than the cost of the medium on which it is being distributed.

disclaimer

The program supplied with this Readme file, Pokémap, is provided AS IS, and I will take no responsibility for any harm which may come to you or your computer as a result of using or installing it.