Tables
A table is a special lookup used in a binary file to convert encoded information into viewable information. It is most commonly used for viewing and changing the text of a game. Here are some of the tables I have
made. You can use your favorite hex editor that supports lookup tables. I recommend Hexecute 3 (613 KB).
Low Hex
This table is merely used as a tool for helping find certain information. It merely writes out a 0-F for the first 16 hex values.
Abadox - NES
Abadox has a main game set consisting of letter, numbers, and a few symbols. There is also a special title screen set with limited characters, and one during game play that only features numbers and the word "pause".
The Adventures of Bayou Billy - NES
This game is pretty dialogue happy for an action game. It has a three character sets. A limited one for the title screen, a full upper and lower for the dialogue in the cut scenes, and a smaller set with numbers for
the menus and game play screens.
Bad Dudes - NES
Bad Dudes has a pretty straight forward table. The only real text is the intro and the ending. FF is used for the end of a line.
Battletoads - NES
Battletoads has a rather unique table. It uses ASCII for its text, but it also uses an identical copy set just for end-of-line letters. Currently only the intro and ending is listed, the conversations use a special
encoding that I haven't figured out yet.
Bionic Commando - NES
Bionic Commando has a very strange table. The letters are jumbled up in a bizarre offset, most likely due to poor translation (which the game's text also suffers from). There are two files, one for the title screen
the other for the game. The extra characters in the game file are (^ - Bullet, a - Alpha, b - Beta, g - Gamma, d - Delta).
Blades of Steel - NES
There is a limited title screen table and a full game table, although the game table is incomplete with just the letters.
Blaster Master - NES
Nothing unusual in this table; just some standard ASCII characters.
Bomber Man - NES
Bomber Man has a very simple set with letters, numbers, and a few symbols.
Bomber Man II - NES
Bomber Man II is a bit more complex. There is a special title character set and a game set. The graphics are not stored in the common graphical form as with most NES games, so tile viewers are of little help.
Boulder Dash - NES
Aside from the really messed up title screen character set, Boulder Dash has a simple game set of numbers letters and a few symbols.
A Boy and His Blob - NES
This table only contains the text for the menus including the game messages, jellybeans, and mutations. The ending text is still unknown.
Captain America and the Avengers - NES
This character set has the usual letters, numbers, and symbols. It also still has several kanji carried over from the original Japanese game.
Contra - NES
Contra uses standard ASCII for it letters, but the numbers and the symbols are different.
Contra Force - NES
A fairly typical set. Letters, number, and a couple symbols. I used Western quotes in the table to represent Japanese quotes.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - NES
The ROM contains a set of numbers, letters, and symbols, but it also contains a large kanji set left in from the translation. The CHR graphics are repeated in several of the memory banks in order to lower memory
swapping.
Darkwing Duck - NES
Darkwing Duck is a pretty simple ROM. The text is in a normal order and there is a decent amount of symbols.
Devil World - NES
Devil World's character set is nominal with the letters and numbers and symbols just like most games.
Donkey Kong 3 - NES
This game uses a slimmed down alphabet with several unused letters removed. A full number set, and a couple symbols exist. Roman numerals are in the graphics so Î and Ï are used for I and II.
Double Dribble - NES
Double Dribble uses a seperate table for the title screen and the game. The game table has a full alphabet, but the title screen is limited.
Dragon Warrior - NES
Dragon Warrior has a complicated character set. There are three sets, two of them overlap each other to save space. They are then interpreted at a bit level when drawn, it seems like only one of them is actually
used though because a third, more straight forward, set is used for all the dialogue.
Duck Hunt - NES
Duck Hunt is a nice primitive game with a single character set. It is missing the less common letters J, Q, X, and Z. Note, that this table is for the single Dunk Hunt ROM, not the Super Mario Brothers / Duck Hunt
ROM.
Duck Tales - NES
Duck Tales has a small character set with just letters, numbers, and only few symbols. They even skipped the letter O and used the number 0 everywhere to save space.
Excitebike - NES
Excitebike is another game that has very little text. There isn't even an ending or credits. 00 is used as an end of line marker.
Galaga - NES
Galaga has a limited character set that is missing the less-used letters. The game itself has very little text.
Gauntlet - NES
Gauntlet has a good amount of text. It has a full ending as well as plenty of quips by the evil wizard. The text is quite simple to work with.
Gauntlet II - NES
The usual letters and numbers exits, but there are also several different symbols for the various power-ups in the game.
The Goonies - NES
A terribly simple character set consisting of letters, numbers, and only a few symbols.
The Goonies II - NES
There are two tables, one for the title screen and one for the in-game text. The character set is quite complete and contains several characters that are not used in the game (a few held over from the Japanese
version) I've included every character seen in the American version and a couple others.
The Guardian Legend - NES
A simple table, the text includes the title, the credits, the status bar, and the back story.
Gun.Smoke - NES
The character set in Gun.Smoke is pretty straight forward. The letters and numbers are all in order, and there are a few common symbols as well.
Gyruss - NES
Gyruss uses memory banking so the character set exists multiple times in the ROM. The title screen differs a little with some extra characters, but the set is pretty standard throughout.
The Immortal - NES
The Immortal has a wonderful game font using both upper and lower case letters, as well as using more than one tile per letter, and a variable width character set. The set contains a full alphabet, numbers, and a
decent amount of punctuation. It uses standard ASCII for most of the characters, which makes sense because it's a port from a PC game. The only inconsistency is that the title and password screens use 60 for an
apostrophe and the game uses 2B for an apostrophe.
Jackal - NES
Jackal uses a single table for the whole game. It all the letters and numbers and a few symbols.
Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Champ. Golf - NES
There is a seperate alphabet for the introduction screen and the title screen, but most of the game uses a full table with letters, numbers, and symbols.
Kung Fu - NES
Kung Fu uses a limited set that is missing several less common letters. The copyright symbol and exclamation point are displayed by code, not by the lookup.
Kid Icarus - NES
There are three tables for Kid Icarus. The bulk of the text in the uses an full set of upper and lower case letters with numbers and symbols. The title screen uses it's own set, and there is a set with only numbers
for during game play.
The Legend of Zelda - NES
The Legend of Zelda uses a single character set throughout the entire game. It features letters, numbers, and some symbols. However, it uses the 8th bit as a carriage return / linefeed flag, so the entire character
set is duplicated in the table, the first set is normal letters, the second set is end-of-line letters. Also, EC is a period that causes a full stop in the interpreter.
Legendary Wings - NES
Legendary wings has a single basic character set with numbers, letters, and a few symbols.
Life Force - NES
Life Force has a very limited set that only has the characters on the title screen. I had to write a program to figure out the set.
Little Nemo: The Dream Master - NES
Little Nemo nice full character set for the game play as well as a second, more limited, set for the title screen. All of the Japanese characters are also still in the American
version of the game as well, but I haven't created a table for them.
Marble Madness - NES
This game's kind of funny. The letters and numbers are ASCII, but there is a bunch of letters and numbers in the unused portions of the CHR graphics as well. It's almost as if they started with one character set, and
then switched later on, but forgot to remove the old one. I checked and verified that the character set in the rest of the CHR data is indeed unused in the ROM.
Mega Man - NES
Mega Man's character set is a bit strange. The graphic set only contains one set of characters, but the game adjusts their memory location depending on where you're at in the game which is why there are three
different table lookups.
Mega Man 2 - NES
Mega Man 2 has an even harder to deal with than the original. There are a couple of character sets in the ROM including a full Japanese set. The sets are loaded into various locations in memory when they're used, so
the tables are even more useful than normal for hacking the game text.
Metroid - NES
Metroid has both uppercase and lowercase letters, although the lowercase set is only used in passwords. It's a fairly simple set, like most games made by Nintendo.
Might and Magic - NES
Might and Magic uses a very full character set. Upper and lower alpha, numbers, lots of symbols, and some Japanese characters. There is even a secondary upper case alphabet, but it doesn't seem to be directly used
anywhere in the ROM.
Rampage - NES
Rampage uses a fairly simple character set of numbers, letters, and symbols.
Robocop - NES
Robocop's set has the typical letters and numbers, but it also has a large verity of special symbols.
Rygar - NES
There are the typical letter, numbers, and common symbols in this set, but there is also a set of kanji still in the US version.
SCAT - NES
SCAT has two character sets. A nice big alpha numeric with upper and lower case letters along with a nice amount of symbols, and then a more limited set for the title screen.
Side Pocket - NES
Side Pocket has a good sized character set with letters, numbers, and plenty of symbols. There are two main sets one for the title screen and the other for the majority of the game. There is also a small one for
setting up shots.
Section Z - NES
There are four character sets in the Section Z ROM. One for the title screen and a couple of messages, one for another set of messages, one for the end game credits, and one for the push start message. The people who
laid out the graphics created a section to make a copyright on the screen, but the final title screen doesn't use the graphics for it. Most likely they decided to increase the title screen's text and switched to the
full alphabet later in the game's design.
Skate or Die! - NES
There are two tables for Skate or Die! They both use the same alphabet and number set, but they each have different symbols.
Soccer - NES
Standard ASCII for credits, but a unique set for the game. Less used letters like Q, X, and Z are not even used in the game set.
Spy Hunter - NES
Not much text, just the opening screens and the score and game over message.
Super C - NES
A very straight forward table. Numbers, letters, and a couple of symbols.
Super Mario Bros. - NES
Super Mario Bros. has a simple and clean character set with letters, numbers, and a few symbols.
Super Mario Bros. 2 - NES
Similar to the first game. Letters, number, and a few symbols. Although the character set is repeated several times in the ROM with minor variations in each one, the variations are not important.
Tecmobowl - NES
Tecmobowl uses the standard ASCII for letters, but has its own encoding for numbers and symbols. Fairly basic overall.
Tecmo Super Bowl - NES
There are two main sets for Tecmo Super Bowl. Both share the same letters and numbers, but the extra symbols differ on each one. One is used in the title, and during game play, the other is used in the menus.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES
TMNT uses several character sets in the ROM, but most of them are identical. There are minor variations to each one like a missing character or an added character. The set I've made contains the most variable set.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - NES
TMNT 2 uses two major sets that are very similar. One is used in the title and contains legal symbols, the other is used during the game. There are a couple of minor sets used in the ending, but I don't feel like
beating the game to figure them out.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 - NES
After two games with over used character sets, the programming team for TMNT 3 actually wised up and used a single character set for the entire game. It's alpha numeric with some added symbols.
Tetris - NES
Tetris uses three main character sets. The title screens has a full set with some symbols, the messages have another set with different symbols, and the screen during game play has its own limited set.
Times of Lore - NES
The story for Times of Lore is encoded with standard ASCII which there is a table for (makes sense because the game was originally written for home computers), but the conversations are encoded differently and I
haven't figured them out yet.
Top Gun - NES
Top Gun has several different encoding styles. For the most part all of the characters are the same, but for each major section (missiles, title, story line, etc.) certain characters are switched around. Also, to
save space, the text uses the numbers 1 and 0 instead of the letters I and O.
Top Gun 2 - The Second Mission - NES
Top Gun 2 is setup similarly to the first Top Gun. 1 and 0 are used instead of I and O. Also, certain symbols are switched out during different points in the game.
Trojan - NES
Trojan uses a character set very similar to ASCII with the majority of the set's characters intact. It uses a slightly different number set during game play and has some Japanese characters in the USA ROM as well,
but I've ignored those.
Ultima 3: Exodus - NES
As an RPG, Ultima has a large amount of text (much of it repeated in the ROM). My current tables have the game text (menus, story, credits, messages, items, etc.), but not the conversations, which I assume are
compressed. I also have a nice dungeon table that makes remapping the dungeons fairly easy. For that table # - Wall, = - Door, H - Hidden Door, ^ - Ladder Up, v - Ladder Down, : - Ladder Up/Down, M - Mark (Changes),
f - Fountain (Changes), m - Message (Changes), w - Chill Wind, g - Gremlins, $ - Gold, t - Trap, Space - Floor, T - Timelord. For the map values that change there must be a pointer in the ROM somewhere that explains
which type they are.
Willow - NES
Willow has two character sets, one for conversations, the other for everything else. The conversation set is simply letters, numbers, and a few symbols. The remaining set is upper and lower letters, number, and a
large amount of symbols, many repeating. The set is in a very sporadic order, and the game doesn't even make use of the lowercase letters.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - NES
Each memory page of graphics in this ROM has the character set in it, and for each one there are minor variations. The letters and numbers are constant, but some of the symbols change depending on the section in the
game so be wary of which symbols you use. Also, FD is used as a line break and FF is used as the end of a conversation.
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