Pokémon Generation III ROM Hacking: Tutorial 1: Basics of Mapping 

Hello from October 29, 2023, seven years after this video was published! Most of the tools in this tutorial series have been replaced by the modern all-in-one tool called HexManiacAdvance. Please note that, generally speaking, the concepts explained in these videos are not outdated! The non-tool-specific knowledge you gain here is applicable regardless of how you continue your hacking journey. Additionally, the Pokémon ROM hacking developer community recently split between "binary hacking" and "decomp hacking." If you don't know what that means, then please see the final video in this tutorial series which explains the difference. These videos discuss binary hacking since the decomps did not functionally exist back in 2016. The final video will be uploaded to the "Pokémon Generation III Rom Hacking" playlist sometime in November 2023. If you have questions, would like to engage in friendly discussion, or are interested in participating in the well-known MAGM (Make a Good Map) hacking contest, please see my channel's About tab or the bottom of this video's description for an invitation to my Discord server. There are plenty of knowledgeable people there who would be happy to point you in the right direction.

When a friend of mine got his degree in software design, the first thing he told me was " have a degree in asking questions. When you and I approach a new program we havne't seen before, the difference is that I know what questions to ask. If you have a tutorial, you could do a decent amount of what I do. I know how to ask the questions to make a tutorial for myself when none exists." I had done some basic scripting to tweak mods and such, but didn't quite believe him. With this series you've made me realize he was right, by answering the questions I didn't know to ask I've made great headway into my project and am confident I can complete it. Thank you, Anthroyd.

dude you are sooooo underrated i wish i had this skill of production quality

Your series is the best I've seen so far, you're a bit slow for my tastes but I'm happy to deal with it since you're going for a wide audience. I really appreciate the effort and quality. Thanks.

This video is very old, so I don't know if you still read these. I've been using this set of tutorials on and off for years now when I want to learn something new or just need a refresher on how something works. It's been a great tool and I now can do pretty much anything I'd like with Emerald. Thank you

Judging by the first 3 minutes of the video, I can already tell this is gonna be a good series.

Great tutorial!!!! I was actually searching for a tutorial for changing texts in any Pokémon game so I could translate games to Dutch so my 8 years old brother can enjoy them. But you explained things so good that it inspired me to make some more complicated Rom hacks THANK YOU!!!!!

so far these tutorials have got me in a place where i feel like i can finally get started on a romhack. your work so far is impressive and makes everything seem so simple and bite sized.

Just starting this series, but I can already tell that this is easily the best rom hacking tutorial series available. You speak clearly and concisely, and the video is very easy to follow. Subbed.

Finally Ive searched for tutorials like this for so long and Im so glad you've decided to help us beginners. I love the quality of your video and content and Im gonna be referring back to these videos a lot. Also its wroth mentioning that unless you mind me not doing so Im going to refer anyone who's wanting to start Rom hacking to your videos, once again Thank you so much.

By far the most informative and useful tutorial I've seen. You're to the point, you speak well and you present even better. Well done dude!

This is the most coherent Pokémon rom hack series. The fact that the sound quality is proper is a plus too.

Just an addition to encoutner rates - if you set a patch of grass with wild encounters, but you set the encounter ratio to 0, you are still able to find pokèmons inside the grass if you use Sweet Scent. Just a clarification for those who want to use that strat to let the players find otherwise rare pokèmons :D

this is pretty great, Easy to understand, logically explained. I'm excited to make something now

Thanks for this great video ! You're explaining very well, you are an amazing teacher.

thank you so much i will use this playlist for a long time im new to romhacking and im lovin it

For your first tutorial, you were clear and concise and I stuck around for the whole thing, which is something I can't typically do on RU-vid. Liked and Subbed, thanks

I was messing around with Gen 2 hacking thinking of doing a Gen 3 project. These guides are so well done! (AdvanceMap looks a lot like JohtoMap for Gen 2)

I love the bit at the end. Failure is the key to success.

finally got my programs to work on mac! glad i found this video!! so helpful!

This video is amazing! I've been looking for a guide to start ROM hacking and this video is extremely well made and formatted.

Man thank you so much for all this tutorials !!!I started learning this stuffds and your tutorials are the best that i found !I will subsribe and keep watching your videos till i master rom hacking :D

Thank you very much for this nice intro tutorial! I just wanted you to know that your hard work is still appreciated years after posting!

dude, thank you, really, thank you, because of the quarantine i'm trowing myself at the romhacking scene and your tutorials were the only decent tutorial i understood

OMG, this was amazing! Thank you, now i'll make a Rom hack with all of my loved ones in it!

Screw that fucking dislike. U put so much work on this video and its great and helps a lot

Thanks. This Tutorial Litterally made me a pokemon game

beautiful....like idk why but this explanation was flawless and beautiful

So far so good man im very new to this but your tutorial is the best ive come across plus you actually cover things i was the most confused about. I hope to make something fun thanks to you =]

Me and my brother have started our Fire red extended cut! And this has been very helpful!

Wow finally a good tutorial for Advance Map

this is very inspiring. While i have no idea about ROM Hacking, i've always had a drive to do so since about 9 years ago when i first got on the internet and saw people were actually doing so. With these tutorials, I hope that I myself can contribute my dreams and ideas to the Pokemon community in whatever ways I can. Subscribed, I'll be keeping an eye out, and in the meantime, I'll take what you have to teach and apply it to my work. :)

Thank you for this. I really needed this! This is a great quality video that explains everything.

Absolutely love your tutorial!! Awesome job!!

Thank you for the tutorial. You really helped me I'm really looking forward the tutorial where you show me how to add those own textures because I just coulnd't figure out how to.

I've just downloaded Advance Map, I'm going to try this out!

I’m subbing, I plan to use this tutorial when I start gen 3 hacking, I have some experience with fire emblem hacking so I hope this goes smooth

This series really help me get into Rom hack making, Thank you so much!

Hey man thanks for doing this it’s a big help!

Excellent video, well-explained and narrated.

You really helped me out I really appreciate the time you spent in this type of videos thanks :)

i Really like this helpful tips since I want to create my own pokemon from hack and its my project to some of my school work.

Hello Anthroyd! I am a regular at Pokecommunity. I have started planning for my ROM Hack and I am looking forward to your lectures!

Thanks, this tutorial has been very helpful, but I'm having one issue. Following your instructions at 8:24, I click Expand. However, once I check "Grass" and hit okay, it pulls up a new box called "Wild Pokemon Data" which contains boxes for me to enter bytes and stuff. I have no idea what to put here, and if I just click okay it says "Search done!" and does nothing. I'm guessing this is a new update? I have no idea what to do with it.

WHAT BUTTON DO I USE TO PLACE MORE THAN ONE TILE LIKE YOU DID IN YOUR MAP DESIGNING

God bless you!I mean really!I have this project that i really wanna make and you will be a big part of my information soucprce!I can use only one word to decribe you!Awesome

a whole 5 years later and AM is still the best all in one rom PKM ROM editor

good job man, I'm starting my onw hack soo this helps a lot.

That sounds amezing maybe same time on the future to try to make my own pokemon rom hack But if make my own pokemon i will use my own tail map for sure

Dope video, awesome stuff

hi, good morning, I would like to ask a little about this WARP event, how do you teleport characters to a new maps using programming. and at the same time get all the programming of this new map?

Thank you so much for the guide, but quick question how do I use tiles from other maps and add them to somewhere else because I want to add the sand tower from route 111 (emerald) into little root town but I won't let me

Thanks for the guide really needed it

Amazing vid man

Okay, so im gunna get into game design one day, since its my dream job, and im taking a college course for it (im in uk) and i thought rom hacking a Pokemon Game such as fire red or leaf green would be a good place to start since i haven't made anything really before. And Advance Map (from your video since i haven't used it yet) seems really good, but i wanna make my maps bigger, such as more routes and towns than in the actual rom from the start, is this possible? Can i add more Pokemon from say gen 6 to my encounters or starters? Can i make mega evolution possible? Or have i just not seen enough of this series yet? Im really interested to know so any help would be amazing. :)

Sir could you please teach us how to magnify those tiles in the map menu which are too small to understand clearly?

Get this man a like and sub

If i am using gen 3 engine can i still use modern pokemon centers from gen5 that have the poke mark already inside it?

I'm a little confused, i made a map and it is in a folder called Map Files, but i need to move it to the folder called 4 so i can warp the player from pallet town to my map. How do i change the location of my map.

How did you get a different block type than the typical gen 3 style?

Thank you so much man! I've just started and your videos are making it feel a lot less daunting. I'm having trouble with warping. I've changed the interior of the house into a cave, and now the warp is not acting how it should, I have tried emulating the warp charactertistics I've seen in other caves and houses but my guy just don't wanna go outside. Is this because of coronavirus? Jks I'm actually having trouble

I've only just started and am working on a new Pallet Town. Made a backyard for the main character's house that is fenced in so naturally I need a back door to the house. However, the warp tile functionality doesn't work unless you are placing it on specific tiles. Is there any way to add this functionality to the back end of a house so that I can walk in and out? Not sure if this is covered in a later video or not, but if so could you point me in the right direction?

I love this tutorial!!!!

This is pretty good tutorial for newcomers. Sub

Can you do a series on Ds version of this (you said GBA was the easiest) so I'm assuming it's different

I got my main warping issue sorted out yet everytime i warp from lets say outside my house I go back into my house i end up in the center of the lower floor of my house

How do you change what an npc can say? Great video by the way!!

Is it possible to delete a map I accidentally inserted?

Hi man, first of all, awesome tutorial. I had a question, when I tried to expand the wild Pokemon option to grass, another window popped up, when I closed it, an error screen opened up. Can you help me with this. Thanks

Please help! I tried downloading advance map but every link i found was expired ,corrupted, not working or something.can you tell me how to download advance map

So wait am I limited to the amount of maps in the rom I’m using? Or is there a way to make my own custom map sizes with an unlimited size

how do you do that fill in tiles thing, like the paint bucket in windows paint?

you are an god for me.

what script language does the application uses, is it javascript?

Thx dude ur awesome

Found convinient movement permission list on the Pokecommunity forums: www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=152499 It was posted by THM10. It's pretty damn detailed, along with neat examples to boot.

Could you make a tutorial on how to create a new region with gyms, trainers and routes? Like on that connects to kanto that doesn't unlock until you are the champion?

can I just try and find the infinity gauntlet to snap my very own rom hack into existence? god damn...this takes tons of time @_@ gonna watch through your tutorial

I simply want to know how to fix a problem I have with the events. I have a map, but can't see it in the events tab, nor can I intact with it.

How do tou change the music of locations?

Hey I don't know if you're still active on this channel, but is it possible to put Pokemon emeralds map added to Pokemon Fire Red without deleting any maps already in the game, I've tried to put in tiles palettes from Emerald onto Fire Red but every time I do it it keeps messing up (FR) tiles that are already in the game, and also too I would want to know if it's possible to take the sound bites from Emerald and put it onto Fire Red without replacing for deleting anything, I want to have it to wear when you enter Hoenn region all the soundtracks will play for that region.

How to create a map? I just can change map's look. It's not creating a new one. (sorry for my bad english)

oh i recognise that map, you made pocket gaiden, im playing that now

Is it possible to import map data from emerald to fire red ?

Okay, i have...a clue, but how do i make a particular map longer?. as in i'm trying to edit route 101 in Pokemon Ruby (right outside the Games "pallet town" name escapes me), i found an option to change the maps dimensions but i can only make it longer from the bottom down, the bottom of the map being connected to the starting town and the top of the map is connected to the first small town you enter. i want to increase the length of the map from the top up so as to make it much longer to traverse.

Hi! I must say that this tutorial is amazing. Still, I have a question: why do caves not show up in the maps list? Like Mount Moon, Rock Tunnel, Victory Road, Mount Ember? I would like to change the wild pokemon encounters in those areas, but can't seem to find them in the list!

im a pretty good map dude but yo this is nice man

well the trees of pallet town is better than the grass in the original red & green

This series is great, but every link I can find anywhere to the download for the tools points to an offline website

Super late, is there an undo button for when you make a mistake? Or a way to shift something up a tile if you put a house in the wrong place for example?

Best tutorial on youtube

God I fucking like your tutorials

I dont know what happened but after I created half my game my header tab got weired and now I can't categorise or rename the maps and if I resize the map,then I open it again then it says this map bank does not exist. please help me with this

i cant load a rom since i dont have one and i dont know how to make one, i tried googling it and nothing helpful came up. I know this is 4 years old but if your seeing this can you help

Hey, hopefully I get an answer to this considering how old this video is and I’m not sure if this is in a later video but, can I add more nodes or areas to the game? Like not being restricted to how many is present in the game already? Being able to add my own if I don’t find enough of them? Thank you in advance

Do u think anyone will make rom editing tools for andriod.

Very awesome!!!

Great tutorial! I'm just getting in to rom hacking and when I try to open up advanced sprite editor, It says It can't find Inni files. I know you weren't going over installing the programs, but this is one of the only recent videos and I can't seem to find a solution anywhere. Do you know a solution for this? I'm using firered btw.

is there a empty rom where i can start the map or must i take an existing rom and clear everything out?

where do you get the pokemon editing roms and programs?