RELATIVEFUL SEARCH
Version 1.2
Released 12th April 2000

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

CONTENTS

  1. Requirements
  2. Version History
  3. Instructions
  4. Credits
  5. 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
16th April 2000
You can now save your results (as well as the file you searched and the date and time you did it) into a text file. I'm working on 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit value support, but it doesn't work yet (and the pull-down box for selecting it isn't there in this version). Luckily that hasn't made 8-bit searching stop working too.

Version 1.1
15th April 2000
Added a lot of stuff. You can now open files using a normal Windows dialogue box, and you can save and load your values. You can also enter whole strings of Ascii text at once if you just want to search for English words. I have added an About box. Finally, I have made it quite a bit faster by making it tell you how many bytes it's checked less often. In the next version I plan to add support for 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit values.

Version 1
12th April 2000
The first version released. In the next version, I will probably make the program remember your settings after you close it (which will mean you don't need to type the location of the file every time).

INSTRUCTIONS

If you're a ROM hacker, you've probably used a program for relative searching at one time or another. I have, but none of them have really been as useful as they could be. The purpose of this program is to make the job of relative searching easier by letting you do everything you need to do in a nice Windows interface! Although this Readme will tell you how to use Relativeful Search, it will not tell you what relative searching is or why you need to do it. That is the job of the many tutorials on the web. If you do not know how to hack a ROM, I recommend Jair's tutorials, which you can find at his site, The Vale (http://fly.to/vale).

The first thing you need to do when you run Relativeful Search is open the file you want to search. Actually, you can do this any time before you start searching, but it's easier to remember if you do it now. You can either type the location of the file in the box at the top of the window, or click 'Open File' and find it.

Next you need to enter the values you want to search for. There are two ways to do it - by entering each value individually or by entering a string of text. If you just want to hack an English game and you're not too confident with relative searching, I recommend entering a string. If you're translating a game and you need to search for Japanese relative values or you're a bit more confident with relative searching, I recommend entering each value individually. At any time you can switch between the two modes without losing the values you have entered so far.

To enter each value individually, select 'Values' (if you've just opened the program that will be selected anyway). Select whether you want to enter decimal values (the best thing to use if you want to search for Japanese text), hexadecimal values (I don't know why anyone would want to use this, but it's there anyway) or Ascii values (the best thing to use if you're searching for English text, because it allows you to just enter letters). Then type in the box the value you want to enter (either a decimal number, a hex number or a letter) and press Return or click 'Add Value'. You'll see the decimal version of the value come up in the list box below! You can add as many values as you want to search for, and you can change which type of value you're entering at any time. You can also delete values (by clicking 'Delete Value'), although you can only delete the last value you entered. If you need to miss out a value which doesn't relate to the letters in any certain way (such as a space), click 'Skip Value'.

To enter a whole string of text at once, select 'String'. Then enter some English letters in the box. You can actually enter any Ascii values, but you probably won't find anything if you enter anything other than letters since the other symbols don't relate to the letters in any certain way. Click 'Add String' to add your string, and it will be converted to decimal values and written in the list box below. You can still use the other buttons in this mode (see above), but they won't be as useful in String mode.

When you're ready to search, click 'Relativeful Search'. You will see a counter at the bottom of the window, which will count up the number of bytes which have been searched. Whenever the program finds a match, it will display the address of it (in decimal and hex) in the list box on the right. This is where the bad part of the program comes into action - it's quite slow. Unfortunately, Visual Basic can be like that sometimes! The search will automatically stop when it gets to the end of the file, but if you want to stop before that you can do so by clicking 'Stop'.

In Relativeful Search, you can save the values you have entered and search for them another time. I'm don't really know when this would come in handy, but I'm sure it will at some point. Also, once you have searched and found some results, you can save them into a text file which will tell you the file you searched, the day and time you did it and what results you got! This will definitely be useful, because it will allow you to perform other relative searches and not lose your previous results.

There you have it, simple (hopefully) instructions for how to use this program! I hope you like it!

CREDITS

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

You can also contact me by writing a message on the PR Translations Guestbook (which is on the PR Translations website, where you may have 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, Relativeful Search, 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.