Uncharted Waters (SNES Emulator Version)

Uncharted Waters (SNES Emulator Version)
Alternative Mates Tutorial

By: Paul MacPherson ([email protected])
Version Date: September 29th, 2003

Please view this guide in a 10-point courier font to have it look proper.

Copyright
=========
This tutorial is copyrighted to me, Paul MacPherson. It took me a lot of time
fiddling with a hex editor to figure this stuff out, so I would appreciate
being credited where it's due. I don't think there'll be too many updates, but
this tutorial can only be updated by me, and will only be posted to
www.gamefaqs.com. If you'd like to use it on your site, please email me
and I'll explain to you my conditions for doing so.

Disclaimer
==========
This guide is to be used at your own risk. If you accidentally open your hard
drive and overwrite the boot sector trying to change Marco's picture to the
King of Spain, that's YOUR problem. I am not responsible for anything you do
as a result of reading this guide.

Important!
==========
Using a hex editor is a lot like doing open heart surgery. You can do
incredible things if you know what you're doing, but all it takes is one slip
to create BIG problems. Before you do ANYTHING else, make a backup copy of the
ROM image! All it takes is one byte out of place to make the game nothing more
than a 1MB splotch of gobledeegook, and it's easy to screw up until you get
the hang of things.

Now that we've gotten all that foolishness out of the way...

Introduction
============
This tutorial will tell you how to change the mates into basically anybody you
want - the other fleet captains, pirates, the kings, the waitresses (if you
want a little more "co-ed" fleet) - basically anybody who has a face in the
game. To do this you're going to need a copy of the SNES Rom image, and a
decent hex editor.

To use this tutorial, you're going to need the following:
- a working copy of the ROM image of the game
- a SNES emulator
- a decent hex editor
- a working knowledge of hexadecimal (how to convert decimal to hex)

All of those things except maybe the ROM image can be found on the internet
fairly easily. Please don't email me asking exactly where, or for copies of
them.

The process is fairly simple. Pick an existing mate to replace, then change
all his stats around to suit your preferences.

==========
Step 1
==========
First, you need to pick a mate to replace, and change his picture to another
face in the game. If you just want to change the mate's name or stats, skip
this step. Open the ROM file in a hex editor and go to the offset (in decimal)
shown next to the mate's name below:

64758 - The Hero* 64765 - Fernando 64772 - Alfonso
64779 - Christopher 64786 - Americus 64793 - Dias
64800 - Benedetto 64807 - Vicente 64814 - Cyran
64821 - Regis 64828 - Jose 64835 - Roberto
64842 - Rinaldo 64849 - Francisco 64856 - Oswaldo
64863 - Nicolas 64870 - Ammul 64877 - Miguel
64884 - Aljeuna 64891 - Conrad 64898 - Marco

* You can change yourself around a bit, but sometimes your picture will still
come up as the default picture (like in the opening story).

At the offset, you need to change two bytes to something else to change the
picture. For pictures of the main characters of the game (mates, waitresses,
kings, etc) all you need to change is the first byte (the second one is always
00). There are, however, 1024 other possible faces to use. For these, you need
to use the byte at the offset, as well as the next one (offset +1). Use the
following table of picture codes to find the value you need to put in.

If you want to change the mate's starting sailing or battle level, you can do
that here, too. A mate's sailing level is their picture offset -1, and their
battle level is their picture offset -2. Make sure you enter a value in hex.

Picture Codes - Main Characters
===============================
These are the values needed for the first byte of the picture. The second one
is 00 for all of them.

00 - The Hero 01 - King of Portugal 02 - King of Spain
03 - Sultan of Turkey 04 - Guild Master 05 - Shipyard Guy
06 - Marketplace Owner 07 - Innkeeper 08 - The Old Sailor
09 - Harbour Master 0A - Palace Guard 0B - Old Woman at the Lodge
0C - The Princess 0D - Carlotta 0E - Marguerite
0F - Selma 10 - Maria 11 - Isabel
12 - Sharee 13 - Rosanna 14 - Paulina
15 - Matilde 16 - Nina 17 - Julia
18 - Bonita 19 - Clara 1A - Patoria
1B - Lucetta 1C - Sharon 1D - Preetha
1E - Oharu 1F - Mei Ling 20 - Olivia
21 - Fernando 22 - Alfonso 23 - Christopher
24 - Americus 25 - Dias 26 - Benedetto
27 - Vicente 28 - Cyran 29 - Regis
2A - Jose 2B - Roberto 2C - Rinaldo
2D - Francisco 2E - Oswaldo 2F - Nicolas
30 - Ammul 31 - Miguel 32 - Aljeuna
33 - Conrad 34 - Marco

Picture Codes - Custom Faces
============================
There are 1024 other faces you can use, but you need to sort of put them
together first. Each face consists of eyes, nose, mouth, coat and
hat/hairstyle, and you have four options for each.

European Guy #1
---------------
Byte 1: (add up then convert to hex)

192 - wide open eyes
128 - squinting eyes
64 - scowly eyes
0 - normal eyes

48 - wide nose
32 - small nose
16 - "Harrison Ford" nose (you'll see what I mean)
0 - long nose

12 - small black mustache
8 - handlebar mustache
4 - smiling
0 - normal

3 - blue coat over white collared shirt, small pointed beard
2 - green coat with yellow collar, full beard
1 - blue coat with green/yellow collar, sideburns
0 - Blue coat with white collar, clean shaven

Byte 2:
10: blue hat
11: no hat
12: blue headband (looks ridiculous)
13: brown hat

Can you follow it? A guy with scowly eyes (64), a long nose (+0), a handlebar
mustache (+8), green coat (+2) and blue hat would have the code 4A 10. (64 + 0
+ 8 + 2 = 74 = 4A in hex). Nothing to it.

European Guy #2
---------------
Byte 1: (add up then convert to hex)

192 - angry eyes
128 - sad/worried eyes
64 - normal eyes
0 - scowly eyes

48 - short nose, BIG upper lip
32 - big nose
16 - small nose
0 - normal nose

12 - extra frowning
8 - open mouth
4 - almost smiling
0 - frowning

3 - green coat over white shirt
2 - gold coat over green shirt
1 - frilly gold collar thing (looks like something clowns wear)
0 - green coat with yellow/red collar, clean shaven

Byte 2:
14: blue, metallic looking hat, red hair
15: green "robin hood" hat, red hair
16: no hat, reddish black hair
17: no hat, poofy red hair

The Turkish Guy
---------------
Byte 1: (add up then convert to hex)

192 - almost squinting eyes
128 - almost angry eyes
64 - closed eyes
0 - normal eyes

48 - flat nose
32 - small, thin nose
16 - long nose
0 - normal nose

12 - mouth almost open, almost frowning
8 - almost smiling, mustache and beard aren't connected
4 - almost frowning
0 - open mouth

3 - green coat over blue/white shirt
2 - green robe
1 - red/green robe
0 - blue robe

Byte 2:
18: green turban
19: blue turban
1A: red turban with gold stripe
1B: reddish/orange turban

The Pirate
----------
Byte 1: (add up then convert to hex)

192 - eyepatch
128 - squinting eyes
64 - shifty eyes
0 - normal eyes

48 - normal nose
32 - long nose
16 - wide nose
0 - normal (slightly rounder) nose

12 - smiling, small neat mustache
8 - frowning, long mustache
4 - smiling, mouth almost open, small neat mustache
0 - sticking tongue out

3 - blue coat with gold trim
2 - green coat with red/gold collar
1 - green coat with yellow collar
0 - blue shirt, yellow beaded necklace

Byte 2:
1C: green hat over wild black hair
1D: blue "pirate" hat
1E: bald with scar, black hair in back
1F: green hat with yellow on it

==========
Step 2
==========
Having a woman's face and the name "Christopher" is a little silly, so this
step covers how to change a mate's name. Go to offset 68583 ("Leon Franco")
and you'll see a list of all the mates' names. Just go to the first letter of
their name, and type the name you want (up to 11 letters) over the existing
one. Be careful not to change the length of the file! If you want to enter a
shorter name than the one that's there, just type the name, then put in hex
values of 00 to cover over the other letters.

For example, to change "Fernando" to "Bob":
- Go to offset 68583 to see the table of names.
- Go to the first letter of Fernando's name.
- Type a letter then press delete to erase the former one.
- Type "Bob" (B-DEL-o-DEL-b-DEL)
- You should now have "Bobnando".
- On the hex side of the screen (usually the left), go to the byte for the
first lower case "n"
- Change it and the next four bytes to 00. Simple.

==========
Step 3
==========
There wouldn't be much practical use to changing all this stuff around if the
mate was exactly the same as he used to be, albeit cosmetically different.
This section tells you how to change the mates stats. If you ever wanted
Rinaldo to be useful, here's your chance.

The following offsets are where the mates ages are stored.

66414 - The Hero* 66424 - Fernando 66434 - Alfonso
66444 - Christopher 66454 - Americus 66464 - Dias
66474 - Benedetto 66484 - Vicente 66494 - Cyran
66504 - Regis 66514 - Jose 66524 - Roberto
66534 - Rinaldo 66544 - Francisco 66554 - Oswaldo
66564 - Nicolas 66574 - Ammul 66584 - Miguel
66594 - Aljeuna 66604 - Conrad 66614 - Marco

The other stats are stored thusly:
Charisma - Age offset +1
Wisdom - Age offset +2
Intelligence - Age offset +3
Courage - Age offset +4
Strength - Age offset +5

* Changing any of the hero's stats other than age is pointless, since you have
to "roll" them at the beginning of the game anyway.

I mentioned back in the picture step that if you wanted to change the mate's
starting sailing or battle level, the sailing level is stored at their picture
offset -1, and their battle level at their picture offset -2.

And that's it!

Here's a couple of walkthroughs to get you started:

How to Change Marco into Olivia
===============================
Here's an example to help you get started. This will show you how to change
the mate Marco (the easiest mate to find and get) into Olivia (the waitress in
Antwerp).

First, go to offset 64898, where Marco's picture information is stored. Change
the 34 that's there into a 20 (Olivia's face). Leave the 00 in byte 2 of the
picture alone.

Next, go to offset 68883 and change the name "Marco" to "Olivia", being
careful not to increase the length of the file by one extra byte.

Finally, go to offset 66614, change Marco's age from 14 to something a little
older (say, 20), and fine tune the other stats if desired.

How to Change Francisco into a Pirate
=====================================
Francisco, although a great sailing navigator, is just plain lousy when it
comes to battle. Here's how to make him into the bloodthirsty pirate you
always wanted.

First, go to offset 64849 and change the two bytes from 2D00 to DB1E. That's a
pirate with an eyepatch, wide nose, long mustache, blue coat and blue hat.

Now, go to offset 68778 and change "Francisco" to "Ol Evil Eye" or something
else that sounds like a pirate name.

Finally, go to offset 66544 and change his age from 18 to something like 40.
Obviously, the other stats are going to have to change to reflect his new
career. His courage and strength (offsets 66549 and 66550, respectively) need
to be increased, but since pirates are pretty stupid, be sure to drop
intelligence and wisdom a bit. Now, change his sailing level (offset 64848) to
something like 7, so he can sail that galleon pirate ship without it drifting
all over the place, and put his battle level (offset 64847) at something like
10 to make him a really good battle navigator.

Finishing Touch
===============
If you made one or more of the mates female, you might want to change a line
in the game's text to reflect this: If you have no mates but try to buy a
ship, the old sailor will tell you that "There's no man to navigate."

To fix this, go to offset 312608 and change "man" to "one".

There might be other instances of this, but I can't think of any at the
moment.

And that's it!
Hopefully this helped to make the game more interesting for you.

Paul
[email protected]