Sonic Battle/Technical information

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Text

Several instances of text can be found in the game. The format goes as follows:

• For capital letters, use the character table below.
• For lowercase letters, use capital letters.
• Put 00 between each letter.

For the rest of the guide, we will refer to the lowercase letters as the capital letter part and the uppercase as the formatted letter part.

FE FF indicates that the text box now becomes blank, and will be followed by the next line of text in the ROM. Use FE FF at the end of text boxes.

FD FF ends a line of text.

FB FF ?? is a value for changing colors. Here is a table:

03	Black
04	Red
05	Blue
06	Green
07	Purple

• 00 is a space for the capital letter part.
• 0E is a period for the capital letter part.
• The periods in the format = 0e
• 1f = ? and 01 = ! in the capital letter part.
• 07 = ' in the capital letter part
• 02 = " in the capital letter part
• + = 1 and / = 0 in the capital letter part
• a` ff indicates string advance.
• 08 = ( and 09 = ) in the capital letter part.
• 0a = ... in the capital letter part

For example, the string for 'Chaos Emeralds' would look like the following in hexadecimal:

23 00 48 00 41 00 4F 00 53 00 00 00 25 00 4D 00 45 00 52 00 41 00 4C 00 44 00 53 00 FB FF

In your hex editor, it looks like:

#.H.A.O.S...%.M.E.R.A.L.D.S..

Offsets

All these offsets are for the English text, not the foreign language text; you'll have to search for the foreign language yourself, since I only know English and therefore can't list any offsets.

Description	Offset (EU)	Offset (US)
Sonic's story text	1DC290 - 1E2269	1DB468 - 1E1469
Tails' story text	1E2300 - 1E7E29	1E146A - 1E6FA7
Rouge's story text	1E7E29 - 1EE145	1E6FA8 - 1ED2C3
Knuckles' story text	1EE145 - 1F5000	1ED2C4 - 1F417F
Amy's story text	1F5000 - 1FAB5D	1F4180 - 1F9CDB
Cream's story text	1FAB5D - 1FF6F5	1F9CDC - 1FE86F
Shadow's story text	1FF6F5 - 206F70	1FE870 - 206103
Emerl's story text	206F70 - 20DA83	206104 - 20B131
Prof. Gerald's Journal	20DA83 - 2104B9	(see below)
Battle win/lose/start text	2104B9 - 212115
Phi text	212115 - 2121A9
Miscellaneous text	2121A9 - 212585
SONICTEAM access text	212585 - 212715
Journal & Misc. Text		20CC1A - 2118A7

NOTE: 1E2269 - 1E22FE may be lost text. It reads "Find out the forgotten secret of Emerl in the next episode, 'Tails'!"

Character Table

Note that if you add $20 to a character from the ROM, it will give you that character in ASCII. Hence all lowercase letters are uppercase in the ROM and will not be listed here.

Here is the character table:

Character	Hex Value	Character seen in a hex editor
!	01	N/A
"	02	N/A
#	03	N/A
$	04	N/A
%	05	N/A
&	06	N/A
'	07	N/A
(	08	N/A
)	09	N/A
*	0A	N/A
+	0B	N/A
,	0C	N/A
-	0D	N/A
/	0F	N/A
0	10	N/A
1	11	N/A
2	12	N/A
3	13	N/A
4	14	N/A
5	15	N/A
6	16	N/A
7	17	N/A
8	18	N/A
9	19	N/A
:	1A	N/A
;	1B	N/A
<	1C	N/A
=	1D	N/A
>	1E	N/A
?	1F	N/A
@	20	Space
A	21	!
B	22	"
C	23	#
D	24	$
E	25	%
F	26	&
G	27	'
H	28	(
I	29	)
J	2A	*
K	2B	+
L	2C	,
M	2D	-
N	2E	.
O	2F	/
P	30	0
Q	31	1
R	32	2
S	33	3
T	34	4
U	35	5
V	36	6
W	37	7
X	38	8
Y	39	9
Z	3A	:

Art Editing

Decompressed art

Most of the art in Sonic Battle is decompressed, which is good. You can find many instances of decompressed art while browsing through the game with Tile Layer Pro. This art includes attacks, card text art, and more. I don't really know the format for decompressed art (and it would be pretty useless if I told you; why learn the format of decompressed art when you can just browse and edit with TLP?) , so it will not be covered here.

Offset	Art
7AA00	ASCII characters (for the dialogue scenes)
8DDD0-A1400	Attack Text
A1400-A1600	Numbers for HUD
10FE00-00113200	Unknown (Dialogue sprites?)
?????-1A5258	Central City "SONIC"
31FE00	"Go" in a battle's start.
333200-333E00	GAME SET
320000-322E00	Health bars. Very repetetive tiles.
322E00-323200	Looks like numbers. Poorly mapped numbers, that is.
323200-3237D4	Life icons
3237D4-323E00	POW and DEF icons. No recognizable AIR icon.
323E00-324200	GROUND, DEFEND, AERIAL
324200-324800	PRESS START (as in demo)
338000-363E00	Text in the credits.
366A00-3D2800	Unknown (A beach or a map).
3D5000-3DEE0	"Now you can play the new episode" info.
3E1000-3E1400	"Ground Aerial Defend", before the start of battle.
3E3400	"Ground Aerial Defend", before the start of battle(2).
3ED000-3EF600	"Comunication error" info.
423800-426A00	Title screen art.
47B800-A8C600	Character battle sprites.
A8F000-BE6600	Attack effects and other animated stuff in battle.
BE8400-BF1200	Chao (in battle?)

3D Map Editing

3D Maps are stored as little 2D grids on the BG2 and BG3 maps. They are made into fully-fledged 3D worlds on runtime. The texture for the bottom of the platforms are stored as sprites. Tiles are represented by a byte value and go along in rows. When one row is done, the tiles go on to the next. There are 2 maps for a battle map; the texture map and the ground map. The texture map contains the textures above the ground (except in the Crater map), and the ground map contains the textures and shadows at ground level.

Texture Map Section

Here are the offsets for all of the texture maps:

Offset	Texture Map
456FA5 - 457FA5	Emerald Beach
44BC96 - 44CC96	Tails' Lab
47AB45 - 47BB45	Chao Ruins
42D405 - 42E405	Battle Highway
4449C5 - 4459C5	Club Rouge
454BA0 - 455BA0	Amy's Room
4353C5 - 4363C5	Metal Depot

NOTE: I can't find the Library texture map offset.

Each map has a set of tiles, represented by values from 00 to FF (obviously!), though not all of the slots are used. Here is a incomplete texture value list:

As a global value, 00 = Blank tile. Anything above values used = Black tile

Tails' Lab

Tiles use values from 01 to 10.

Value	Tile
01	Cylinder Part 1
02	Cylinder Part 2
03	Cylinder Part 3
04	Cylinder Part 4
05	Cylinder Part 5
06	Cylinder Part 6
07	Cylinder Part 7
08	Cylinder Part 8
09	Cylinder Part 9
0A	Cylinder Part 10
0B	Cylinder Part 11
0C	Cylinder Part 12
0D	Cylinder Part 13
0E	Cylinder Part 14
0F	Cylinder Part 14
10	Cylinder Part 15

Crater

Tiles use values 00 to 1C.

Value	Tile
01	Icepit Part 1 / 52
02	Icepit Part 2 / 53
03	Icepit Part 3 / 7 / 54 / 58 / 62
04	Icepit Part 4 / 8 / 55 / 63
05	Icepit Part 5 / 9 / 56 / 60
06	Icepit Part 6 / 10 / 57 / 59 / 61
07	Icepit Part 11 / 64
08	Icepit Part 12 / 65
09	Icepit Part 13 / 17 / 27 / 66 / 70 / 74
0A	Icepit Part 14 / 18 / 28 / 67 / 71 / 75
0B	Icepit Part 15 / 19 / 68 / 72
0C	Icepit Part 16 / 18 / 20 / 69 / 73
0D	Icepit Part 21 / 76 / 80 / 84
0E	Icepit Part 22 / 77 / 81 / 85
0F	Icepit Part 23 / 26 / 31 / 39
10	Icepit Part 24 / 32 / 37 / 40
11	Icepit Part 25 / 33 / 38
12	Icepit Part 26 / 34 / 39
13	Icepit Part 40 / 96 / 100 / 104
14	Icepit Part 41 / 97 / 101 / 105
15	Icepit Part 42 / 46 / 50
16	Icepit Part 43 / 47 / 51
17	Icepit Part 44 / 48
18	Icepit Part 45 / 49
19	Icepit Part 86 / 90 / 94
1A	Icepit Part 87 / 91 / 95
1B	Icepit Part 98 / 102 / 106
1C	Icepit Part 99 / 103 / 107

Emerald Beach

Tiles use values 00 to 6C. Due to the huge texturization used in Emerald Beach, this has been divided into parts for your convenience.

Grass Texture

Value	Tile
01	Grass Part 1
02	Grass Part 2
03	Grass Part 3 / 6 / 9
04	Grass Part 4 / 7 / 10
05	Grass Part 5
06	Grass Part 11
07	Grass Part 12
08	Grass Part 13
09	Grass Part 14
0A	Grass Part 15 / 18 / 21
0B	Grass Part 16
0C	Grass Part 17
0D	Grass Part 19 / 22
0E	Grass Part 20
0F	Grass Part 23
10	Grass Part 24
11	Grass Part 25
12	Grass Part 26
13	Grass Part 27 / 30
14	Grass Part 28 / 34
15	Grass Part 29 / 32
16	Grass Part 31
17	Grass Part 35
18	Grass Part 36
19	Grass Part 37 / 40 / 43 / 46
1A	Grass Part 38 / 41 / 44
1B	Grass Part 39 / 42 / 45
1C	Grass Part 47

Rock Texture

Value	Tile
1D	Rocks Part 1
1E	Rocks Part 2
1F	Rocks Part 3 / 7
20	Rocks Part 4 / 8
21	Rocks Part 5
22	Rocks Part 6
23	Rocks Part 7
24	Rocks Part 8
25	Rocks Part 9
26	Rocks Part 10
27	Rocks Part 11
28	Rocks Part 12
29	Rocks Part 13
2A	Rocks Part 14
2B	Rocks Part 15
2C	Rocks Part 16
2D	Rocks Part 17
2E	Rocks Part 18
2F	Rocks Part 19
30	Rocks Part 20
31	Rocks Part 21
32	Rocks Part 22
33	Rocks Part 23
34	Rocks Part 24
35	Rocks Part 25
36	Rocks Part 26
37	Rocks Part 27
38	Rocks Part 28
39	Rocks Part 29
3A	Rocks Part 30
3B	Rocks Part 31
3C	Rocks Part 32
3D	Rocks Part 33
3E	Rocks Part 34
3F	Rocks Part 35
40	Rocks Part 36
41	Rocks Part 37
42	Rocks Part 38
43	Rocks Part 39
44	Rocks Part 40
45	Rocks Part 41
46	Rocks Part 42
47	Rocks Part 43
48	Rocks Part 44
49	Rocks Part 45
4A	Rocks Part 46
4B	Rocks Part 47
4C	Rocks Part 48
4D	Rocks Part 49
4E	Rocks Part 50
4F	Rocks Part 51
50	Rocks Part 52
51	Rocks Part 53
52	Rocks Part 54
53	Rocks Part 55
54	Rocks Part 56
55	Rocks Part 57
56	Rocks Part 58
57	Rocks Part 59
5A	Rocks Part 60
5B	Rocks Part 61
5C	Rocks Part 62
5D	Rocks Part 63
5E	Rocks Part 64
5F	Rocks Part 65
60	Rocks Part 66
61	Rocks Part 67
62	Rocks Part 68
63	Rocks Part 69
64	Rocks Part 70
65	Rocks Part 71
66	Rocks Part 72
67	Rocks Part 73
68	Rocks Part 74
69	Rocks Part 75
6A	Rocks Part 76
6B	Rocks Part 77
6C	Rocks Part 78

Chao Ruins

Tiles use values 00 to 20.

Value	Tile
01	Rocks Part 1
02	Rocks Part 2
03	Rocks Part 3
04	Rocks Part 4
05	Rocks Part 5
06	Rocks Part 6
07	Rocks Part 7
08	Rocks Part 8
09	Rocks Part 9
0A	Rocks Part 10
0B	Rocks Part 11
0C	Rocks Part 12
0D	Rocks Part 13
0E	Rocks Part 14
0F	Rocks Part 15
10	Rocks Part 16
11	Rocks Part 17
12	Rocks Part 18
13	Rocks Part 19
14	Rocks Part 20
15	Rocks Part 21
16	Rocks Part 22
17	Rocks Part 23
18	Rocks Part 24
19	Rocks Part 25
1A	Rocks Part 26
1B	Rocks Part 27
1C	Rocks Part 28
1D	Rocks Part 29
1E	Rocks Part 30
1F	Rocks Part 31
20	Rocks Part 32

Battle Highway

Tiles use values 00 to 20.

Value	Tile
01	Metallic Boxes Part 1
02	Metallic Boxes Part 2
03	Metallic Boxes Part 3
04	Metallic Boxes Part 4
05	Metallic Boxes Part 5
06	Metallic Boxes Part 6
07	Metallic Boxes Part 7
08	Metallic Boxes Part 8
09	Metallic Boxes Part 9
0A	Metallic Boxes Part 10
0B	Metallic Boxes Part 11
0C	Metallic Boxes Part 12
0D	Metallic Boxes Part 13
0E	Metallic Boxes Part 14
0F	Metallic Boxes Part 15
10	Metallic Boxes Part 16
11	Stripes Part 1
12	Stripes Part 2
13	Stripes Part 3
14	Stripes Part 4
15	Stripes Part 5
16	Stripes Part 6
17	Stripes Part 7
18	Stripes Part 8
19	Stripes Part 9
1A	Stripes Part 10
1B	Stripes Part 11
1C	Stripes Part 12
1D	Stripes Part 13
1E	Stripes Part 14
1F	Stripes Part 15
20	Stripes Part 16

Amy's Room

Tiles use values 00 to 60.

Value	Tile
01	Amy Confused Face Part 1
02	Amy Confused Face Part 2
03	Amy Confused Face Part 3
04	Amy Confused Face Part 4
0D	Amy Confused Face Part 5
0E	Amy Confused Face Part 6
0F	Amy Confused Face Part 7
10	Amy Confused Face Part 8
19	Amy Confused Face Part 9
1A	Amy Confused Face Part 10
1B	Amy Confused Face Part 11
1C	Amy Confused Face Part 12
05	Amy Shocked Face Part 1
06	Amy Shocked Face Part 2
07	Amy Shocked Face Part 3
08	Amy Shocked Face Part 4
11	Amy Shocked Face Part 5
12	Amy Shocked Face Part 6
13	Amy Shocked Face Part 7
14	Amy Shocked Face Part 8
1D	Amy Shocked Face Part 9
1E	Amy Shocked Face Part 10
1F	Amy Shocked Face Part 11
20	Amy Shocked Face Part 12
09	Amy Angry Face Part 1
0A	Amy Angry Face Part 2
0B	Amy Angry Face Part 3
0C	Amy Angry Face Part 4
15	Amy Angry Face Part 5
16	Amy Angry Face Part 6
17	Amy Angry Face Part 7
18	Amy Angry Face Part 8
21	Amy Angry Face Part 9
22	Amy Angry Face Part 10
23	Amy Angry Face Part 11
24	Amy Angry Face Part 12
25	Amy Talking Face Part 1
26	Amy Talking Face Part 2
27	Amy Talking Face Part 3
28	Amy Talking Face Part 4
2D	Amy Talking Face Part 5
2E	Amy Talking Face Part 6
2F	Amy Talking Face Part 7
30	Amy Talking Face Part 8
35	Amy Talking Face Part 9
36	Amy Talking Face Part 10
37	Amy Talking Face Part 11
38	Amy Talking Face Part 12
29	Amy Posed Face Part 1
2A	Amy Posed Face Part 2
2B	Amy Posed Face Part 3
2C	Amy Posed Face Part 4
31	Amy Posed Face Part 5
32	Amy Posed Face Part 6
33	Amy Posed Face Part 7
34	Amy Posed Face Part 8
39	Amy Posed Face Part 9
3A	Amy Posed Face Part 10
3B	Amy Posed Face Part 11
3C	Amy Posed Face Part 12
3D	Amy ??? Face Part 1
3E	Amy ??? Face Part 2
3F	Amy ??? Face Part 3
40	Amy ??? Face Part 4
49	Amy ??? Face Part 5
4A	Amy ??? Face Part 6
4B	Amy ??? Face Part 7
4C	Amy ??? Face Part 8
55	Amy ??? Face Part 9
56	Amy ??? Face Part 10
57	Amy ??? Face Part 11
58	Amy ??? Face Part 12
41	Amy Goofy Face Part 1
42	Amy Goofy Face Part 2
43	Amy Goofy Face Part 3
44	Amy Goofy Face Part 4
4D	Amy Goofy Face Part 5
4E	Amy Goofy Face Part 6
4F	Amy Goofy Face Part 7
50	Amy Goofy Face Part 8
59	Amy Goofy Face Part 9
5A	Amy Goofy Face Part 10
5B	Amy Goofy Face Part 11
5C	Amy Goofy Face Part 12
45	Amy Sad Face Part 1
46	Amy Sad Face Part 2
47	Amy Sad Face Part 3
48	Amy Sad Face Part 4
51	Amy Sad Face Part 5
52	Amy Sad Face Part 6
53	Amy Sad Face Part 7
54	Amy Sad Face Part 8
5D	Amy Sad Face Part 9
5E	Amy Sad Face Part 10
5F	Amy Sad Face Part 11
60	Amy Sad Face Part 12

Library

Tiles use values 00 to 10.

Value	Tile
01	Bookcase Part 1
02	Bookcase Part 2
03	Bookcase Part 3
04	Bookcase Part 4
05	Bookcase Part 5
06	Bookcase Part 6
07	Bookcase Part 7
08	Bookcase Part 8
09	Bookcase Part 9
0A	Bookcase Part 10
0B	Bookcase Part 11
0C	Bookcase Part 12
0D	Bookcase Part 13
0E	Bookcase Part 14
0F	Bookcase Part 15
10	Bookcase Part 16

Metal Depot

Tiles use values 00 to 30.

Value	Tile
01	Lined Metal Part 1
02	Lined Metal Part 2
03	Lined Metal Part 3
04	Lined Metal Part 4
05	Lined Metal Part 5
06	Lined Metal Part 6
07	Lined Metal Part 7
08	Lined Metal Part 8
09	Lined Metal Part 9
0A	Lined Metal Part 10
0B	Lined Metal Part 11
0C	Lined Metal Part 12
0D	Lined Metal Part 13
0E	Lined Metal Part 14
0F	Lined Metal Part 15
10	Lined Metal Part 16
11	??? Metal Part 1
12	??? Metal Part 2
13	??? Metal Part 3
14	??? Metal Part 4
19	??? Metal Part 5
1A	??? Metal Part 6
1B	??? Metal Part 7
1C	??? Metal Part 8
21	??? Metal Part 9
22	??? Metal Part 10
23	??? Metal Part 11
24	??? Metal Part 12
29	??? Metal Part 13
2A	??? Metal Part 14
2B	??? Metal Part 15
2C	??? Metal Part 16
15	Vent Metal Part 1
16	Vent Metal Part 2
17	Vent Metal Part 3
18	Vent Metal Part 4
1D	Vent Metal Part 5
1E	Vent Metal Part 6
1F	Vent Metal Part 7
20	Vent Metal Part 8
25	Vent Metal Part 9
26	Vent Metal Part 10
27	Vent Metal Part 11
28	Vent Metal Part 12
2D	Vent Metal Part 13
2E	Vent Metal Part 14
2F	Vent Metal Part 15
30	Vent Metal Part 16

Club Rouge

Club Rouge is *still* incomplete, but it will be complete soon, I promise.

Value	Tile
01	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 1
02	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 2
03	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
04	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 11
05	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 12
06	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 13
07	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 14
08	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22
09	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 23
0A	Rectacircular Platform Rotated > Part 24
0B	Rectacircular Platform Rotated ^ Part 1
0C	Rectacircular Platform Rotated ^ Part 2
0D	Rectacircular Platform Rotated ^ #2 Part 1
0E	Rectacircular Platform Rotated ^ #2 Part 2

Ground Map Section

Ground maps are the maps of things at ground level. Except for the Crater area, the BG3 Map is always the ground map(In the Crater, the maps are reversed; the texture map, BG3 is the stuff underground, and the ground map, BG2, is the stuff aboveground.

Offsets:

• Emerald Beach: 46DC70
• Tails' Lab: 44A664
• Cyberspace: 4721B4

Cyberspace

NOTE: Cyberspace has constant cycling palette effects, so a fully accurate list is impossible. This list is based on the semi-squares at the corners being the Raster 0 (lightest) color. In other words, the colors start as light colors, gradually go on to dark colors, and then gradually come back to light at the ends. Raster 0 is the lightest color, and Raster 5 is the darkest. (Of course, I shouldn't call it Raster, because the color cycling isn't a rasterization effect, though I originally thought it was.)

Value	Raster Effect
01	Upgoing line, Raster 0. Also acts as | for Raster 0 square
02	Upgoing line, Raster 1. Also acts as | for Raster 1 square.
03	Upgoing line, Raster 2. Also acts as | for Raster 2 square.
04	Upgoing line, Raster 3. Also acts as | for Raster 3 square.
05	Upgoing line, Raster 3. Also acts as | for second Raster 3 square.
06	Upgoing line, Raster 2. Also acts as | for second Raster 2 square.
07	Upgoing line, Raster 1. Also acts as | for second Raster 1 square.
08	Upgoing line, Raster 0. Also acts as | for second Raster 0 square.
09	Rightgoing line, Raster 0. Acts as lines between Raster 0 square corners.
0A	Upleft square corner, Raster 0.
0B	Rightgoing line, Raster 1. Goes at end of Raster 0 square. Acts as corner.
0C	Upleft square corner, Raster 1.
0D	Rightgoing line, Raster 1. Acts as lines between Raster 1 square corners.
0E	Rightgoing line, Raster 2. Goes at end of Raster 1 square. Acts as corner.
0F	Upleft square corner, Raster 2.
10	Rightgoing line, Raster 3. Acts as lines between Raster 2 square corners.
11	Upright square corner, Raster 4.
12	Upleft square corner, Raster 4
13	Rightgoing line, Raster 4. Acts as lines between Raster 4 square corners.
14	Upright square corner, Raster 2. Goes at end of Raster 4 square.
15	Rightgoing line, Raster 2. Goes after the second Raster 2 upright corner.
16	Rightgoing line, Raster 2. Goes at end of second Raster 2 square.

OAM editing

The OAM is a listing of the tile numbers of the sprites that are onscreen. It also lists the Y position of the sprite, the X position of the sprite, the flags, and the palette number. The OAM, in a way, is a sort of sprite map. This can be useful when editing battle maps; you'll usually have to edit the sprite map to get your work done. It can also be useful when editing sprite mappings; the OAM usually IS the mappings. Not only that, it determines the screen position for each part, so you can have a mapped part of a mapped sprite outside the sprite.

But sadly, the OAM changes every second, so lasting changes to the OAM are, as far as I know, impossible.

The OAM format

aa bb cc dd ee f? gg hh (next entry in OAM)

aa = Y Position on Screen
bb = Flags
cc = X Position on Screen
dd = Flags
ee = Tile Number
f = Palette No. (Backwards)
? = I have no idea what this is, but on some sprites it can do strange things when changed.
gg = I don't know what this is, but it does nothing.
hh = This byte is always either 00 or 01. But it doesn't do anything.

The default values in the OAM are:

• Position: 0,0
• Mode: 0
• Colors: 16
• Palette Number: 0
• Tile Number: 0
• Priority: 0
• Size: 8x8
• Rotation: 0
• Flags: R

In other words, an empty slot will look something like:

00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00
OR
00 02 00 00 00 00 00 01
OR
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
OR
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01

The unused slots all use these values, making it easy to spot them.

You can also add to the OAM by changing the unused slots as you wish. Unused slots usually all have the same bytes, and therefore unused slots in the OAM are marked by a handful of redundant (except for the gg and hh bytes) space.

The end of the OAM is easily recognizable; the redundant space suddenly changing to all-unredundant space.

In VBA, the XY positions, the tile number, and the palette number are shown as decimal values, so it is helpful to have a calculator that can convert from Decimal to Hex and back. The Windows Calculator supports all of that and more.

Here is the value list for the two flags:

00 / 10 / 20 = Nothing happens
01 - 10 = Tile with same tile as following
11 - 20 = Tile with same tile as following
21 = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image
22 / 23 = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image R
24 / 25 = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image D (???)
26 / 27 / 2F = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image R and D (???)
30 / 40 = Same tile as following
31 / 38 / 39 = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image mirrored
32 / 33 / 3A / 3B = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image M and R
34 / 35 / 3C / 3D = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image MD(???)
36 / 37 / 3E / 3F = REALLY glitchy 32x32 image R and MD(???)
41 / 48 / 49 = Nothing happens
42 / 43 / 4A / 4B = R
44 / 45 / 4C / 4D / 4E = D(???)
46 / 47 / 4F = R and D(???)
50 = M
51 = M
52 / 53 / 5A / 5B = R and M
54 / 55 / 5C / 5D = MD(???)
56 / 57 / 5E / 5F = R and MD
58 / 59 = M
60 / 68 / 69 = Random position, glitchy tile
61 = Glitchy tile
62 / 63 / 6A / 6B = Glitchy tile R
64 / 65 / 6C / 6D = Glitchy tile D
66 / 67 / 6E / 6F = Glitchy tile R and D
70 = Random position, glitchy tile M
71 / 78 / 79 = Glitchy tile M
72 / 73 / 7A / 7B = Glitchy tile R and M
74 / 75 / 7C / 7D = Glitchy tile MD
76 / 77 / 7E / 7F = Glitchy tile R and MD
80 = Double-tile
81 - 8F = Glitchy tile R and MD, Y = 4 and on 81, X = 129 and goes up from there
90 = Double-tile M
91 - 9F = Glitchy tile R and MD. Y = 4 and on 91, X = 145 and goes up from there
A0 = Double-Y glitchy tile
A1 - AF = Glitchy tile R and MD; Y = 4 and on A1, X = 161 and goes up from there
B0 / B1 / B8 / B9 = Double-Y glitchy tile M
B2 / B3 / BA / BB = Double-Y glitchy tile R and M
B4 / B5 / BC / BD = Double-Y glitchy tile MD
B6 / B7 / BE / BF = Double-Y glitchy tile R and MD
C0 / D0 / E0 / F0 = Same tile as following one
C1 - CF = Same tile as following one
D1 - DF = Same tile as following one
E1 - EF = Same tile as following one
F1 - FF = Same tile as following one

That's a lot of values! The glitchy tiles, by the way, can be unglitched into good 256-color tiles by changing the tile number into the 256-color tile you want it to show.

Here is an example OAM slot:

0F 50 01 10 04 1C F2 01

This will produce the tile number 04, with the XY location 1,10, the flag R, and the palette in slot 1. The offset for the OAM in memory is 0x7000000. There are no offsets in the ROM.

Palette Editing: Beauty and the Binary

There are two ways to palette edit. One is to use Icy Guy's excellent program, GBA Color Picker; the other option is to convert RGB values into binary. Which one would you rather do?

Each palette line can hold 16 colors, but the first seems to be reserved for transparency reasons, so you've got 15 colors available in each palette. Counting from the 2nd second color to left (this one is often white), the colors are numbered according to standard hex numbering, sans 0, so that's 1-F. Palettes are byteswapped, meaning that 2700 shows up as 0027 in a hex editor. The first color in each palette controls transparency, for your information.

Here are the offsets for each palette.

Offset	Description
1A7F90	Text/speech box palette
1A8E25	Emerald Beach
41A218	Title screen "background" palette
468A18	Emerald Beach shadow (on grass) palette
468A38	Emerald Beach shadow (on sand) palette
47AB78	Gray/"imposter" Emerl's in-fight palette
47AFB8	Sonic's in-fight palette
4CADD8	Knuckles' in-fight palette
5283F8	Tails' in-fight palette
58D818	Shadow's in-fight palette
5F3E38	Rouge's in-fight palette
636458	Amy's in-fight palette
681A78	E-102's in-fight palette
6F6A98	Cream's in-fight palette
7336B8	Chaos' in-fight palette
7822D8	Robotnik's in-fight palette
787CFA	Emerl's in-fight palette
BF2058	Dust cloud (from end of combo) palette
BF2078	In-fight shield palette ("opening" animation, when purple)
BF2098	In-fight shield palette/Tails' gun's power ball
BF20D8	Sonic's mine palette

VBA hacking

Visual Boy Advance is THE ultimate tool for ROM hacking, when combined with Hex Workshop. This is especially true for Sonic Battle. These are steps that will let you do some radical stuff with VBA too for any game compatible with it:

1. Open up the respective viewer and get the offset of the data you want.
2. Open up the Memory Viewer and go to that offset.
3. Take notes on the format and experiment with it.
4. Now that you've gotten the format into a file, do a search for the original hex values using Hex Workshop. Record the offset.
5. Change as you please.
6. If you want to distribute your results, make an IPS patch with StealthPatch.

Strange Things

There are many strange objects in Sonic Battle as can be seen by looking at the OAM. (What the heck is that messed-up Emerl doing there? Or the 1 1/2 Eggman?) This gives the location, the position, the color mode, the palette, the tile number, the priority, the size, and the description of each strange object I've come across so far.

NOTE: This would probably go in a glitches guide, but these slots can also serve as extra object places, I think.

Messed-Up Fire Thingy

• Where: Emerald Town Map Cutscene 1 (Sonic Finds Emerl), OAM Slot 6
• Position: 97, 160
• Color Mode: 16-Colors
• Palette: 2
• Tile: 236
• Priority: 3
• Size: 32x32

Description: Sonic is covering up this object, but it's there.

White Sonic with ACH

• Where: Emerald Town Map, OAM Slot 3
• Position: 155, 160
• Color Mode: 16-Colors
• Palette: 0
• Tile: 424
• Priority: 2
• Size: 32x32

Description: This White Sonic moves as Sonic moves. Now, you might be saying "It's the ACH in Emerald Beach with a wrong-palette Sonic! DUH!" It does become the slot for the ACH in Emerald Beach, but it might be relevant to note that the ACH is in a different location, and that we don't ever see this object.

Event Place with Arrow

• Where: Emerald Town Map

(NOTE:There are two of these, so I have seperated them by slots.)

• OAM Slot 6
• Position: 98, 160
• Color Mode: 16-Colors
• Palette: 2
• Tile: 116
• Priority: 3
• Size: 32x32
• Description: N/A

• OAM Slot 10
• Position|107, 160
• Color Mode: 16-Colors
• Palette: 2
• Tile: 116
• Priority: 3
• Size: 32x32
• Description: N/A

*.SGM Savestate hacking

Palette editing

Like the ROM, palettes are stored in an RCGB value. R is Dark Red, C is Contrast, G is Green, and B is blue.

• .sgm files are compressed. Heh, I spent a month trying to crack the format, only to find that they could be decompressed with WinZip. Here's how:

First, add the "*.gz" extension to your file. Then open up WinZip, decompress, and voila. You don't even have to recompress.

The offset for the palettes in the *.sgm savestate is 0x05000000. Edit heartily.

RAM Breakdown

If you want to make savestate hacks the easy way, you need to know the memory and what goes where, and where where you want to put something is. Wow, confusing sentence, huh? If you don't know this, the chances of you making a savestate hack that accomplishes something OTHER than crashing the game is not that high, unless you use VBA (See "Hacking with VBA" section for info about that.). VBA is the ultimate tool for RAM editing, too. Get it or be doomed to not knowing what you're doing in the savestate.

Palettes in the RAM

The palette is located at 0x05000000, and it, like the game itself, uses an RCGB value. Many beautiful (or messy, ^_^) results can be made with palettes. And if yours is messy...;_;

Map Editing in the RAM

Map editing is a tile-by-tile grid, like the game. Here are RAM offsets for BG0, BG1, BG2, and BG3 maps:

In Battle Mode:

Value	Map
600E000	BG2 Map(Texture map)
600F000	BG3 Map(Ground map)

In Menu Mode:

Value	Map
600F800	BG0 Map(Mode)
600F000	BG1 Map(Fiery Thing)
600E800	BG2 Map(Menu BG with "SONIC BATTLE" on t)
600E000	BG3 Map(Rolling background behind menu BG)

In Episode Select Mode:

Value	Map
600F000	BG0 Map(Drawings map)
600E800	BG1 Map(2 Semitransparent lines, below-screen lines)
600E000	BG2 Map(Two things, one at bottom and one at top)
600D800	BG3 Map(Rolling background behind everything)

In Training Menu Mode:

Value	Map
600F800	BG0 Map(Semitransparent curviness at top)
600F000	BG1 Map(Black thing that menu is on)
600E800	BG2 Map(Menu)
600E000	BG3 Map(Rolling background behind everything)

In SEGA/SONICTEAM Mode:

Value	Map
6007000	BG2 Map (Blurry Map)
600F000	BG3 Map (Non-Blurry Map)

In Intro Mode:

Value	Map
600F800	BG0 Map(BG with the background)
6000000	BG1 Map(Glitchy-glitchy map)
600B800	BG2 Map(Drawings map)

In Title Screen Mode:

Value	Map
6007800	BG0 Map(Top Background Cover)
600B800	BG1 Map(Bottom Background Cover)
600F800	BG2 Map(Rolling Background)
600F000	BG3 Map(SONIC BATTLE)

In Cutscene Mode:

Value	Map
6009800	BG0 Map(Text Box with Text)
600A000	BG1 Map(Darkened version of things you can walk behind on map)
600C000	BG2 Map(Darkened version of things that are solid on map)
600E000	BG3 Map(Darkened version of the basic map)

In World Map Mode:

Value	Map
6009800	BG0 Map(A text box? What the...)
600A000	BG1 Map(Things you can walk behind on map)
600C000	BG2 Map(Things that are solid on map)
600E000	BG3 Map(The basic map)

The OAM in the RAM

Yeah, corny huh? OAM, RAM! O-AM, R-AM! How funny, right? ^_^ Anyway, the offset in memory is 0x070000000.