What is PK Hack?
PK Hack is a program used to make modifications to EarthBound. There are few limitations to what can be changed; the greatest restriction is usually the hacker's free time. The program itself is written in Java. AnyoneEB did most of the coding, but as a whole it's the work of hundreds of hours of lots of people's efforts.
What is CoilSnake?
CoilSnake is the next generation of EarthBound hacking. That is to say, it is basically the tool-of-choice for hacking EarthBound. PK Hack is a fantastic little program...but sadly, it is also incredibly prone to destroying ROMs. You see, PK Hack directly overwrites data in the ROM when you edit the game using it. This results in an unstable ROM that can easily be glitched up by the program. CoilSnakes extracts the data from the ROM, where you can edit it using an external text editor, then insert it back into the ROM. The result is that the old data is replaced with the new data, and if the new data is bigger than the old data, it gets moved into whatever extra space there is at the end of the ROM image. This allows you to safely edit the data in EarthBound without messing up anything. (unless you make a mistake, that is!)
Then which program should I use?
We VASTLY recommend using CoilSnake for all your editing needs. However, CoilSnake cannot expand the ROM properly, so you'll need to use PK Hack in order to expand the ROM.
Where can I get a copy of EarthBound?
An EarthBound ROM can be found on the Internet without much difficulty. However, for legal reasons, we cannot provide a link to the ROM here at starmen.net. We can give you the link to Google. Any requests for the ROM here will be removed and the requester will get a stern talking-to.
Will I be arrested for hacking EarthBound?
None of us here at PK Hack are lawyers (for so many reasons), but we promise you, none of us have had any trouble with the law for our art. While making copies of intellectual property and altering it certainly isn't expressly allowed by any law, it isn't a very serious matter. The Super Nintendo is an old system, and Nintendo will not break down your door and take you away for hacking its games. They have many more serious offenders to worry about. Here at PK Hack, we're just having good clean fun. The webmaster here wouldn't let us put this page here if it was anything different. It's all just appreciation of this awesome game.
Can you make your own game with PK Hack?
Yes. Yes you can. Long ago, that was only a dream, but we become more advanced every day. At this point, plot events can be created from scratch. Of course, making an original EarthBound hack is completely different from writing a game with a programming language or the like. Your hack will still use the EarthBound engine, which means something at the center of the screen will walk around, talk, and fight things. You'll have (unless you get really crazy with hardcore hacking) similar menu systems and battle systems. From there, though, you can do whatever you want. Should you choose, you may wipe EarthBound clean of all data - towns, enemies, items, people, stats, PSI, text, etc - and build a game from scratch. Or you could simply change all the enemies into Pokémon. The only way to really see what's possible is to get the utilities and play around. It's your game.
How do I get started?
The PK Hack community is a friendly bunch, and we're always glad to welcome newcomers. The best start is to download the programs and play around. And be sure you're never without our massive Tutorial - if there's anything at all it doesn't cover, let us know. The community itself thrives on the forums, as well as on the IRC channel #pkhax on the Thinstack IRC server.
How do I use an IPS patch?
The answer to this very common question lies right here in our tutorial.
PK Hack is a program used to make modifications to EarthBound. There are few limitations to what can be changed; the greatest restriction is usually the hacker's free time. The program itself is written in Java. AnyoneEB did most of the coding, but as a whole it's the work of hundreds of hours of lots of people's efforts.
What is CoilSnake?
CoilSnake is the next generation of EarthBound hacking. That is to say, it is basically the tool-of-choice for hacking EarthBound. PK Hack is a fantastic little program...but sadly, it is also incredibly prone to destroying ROMs. You see, PK Hack directly overwrites data in the ROM when you edit the game using it. This results in an unstable ROM that can easily be glitched up by the program. CoilSnakes extracts the data from the ROM, where you can edit it using an external text editor, then insert it back into the ROM. The result is that the old data is replaced with the new data, and if the new data is bigger than the old data, it gets moved into whatever extra space there is at the end of the ROM image. This allows you to safely edit the data in EarthBound without messing up anything. (unless you make a mistake, that is!)
Then which program should I use?
We VASTLY recommend using CoilSnake for all your editing needs. However, CoilSnake cannot expand the ROM properly, so you'll need to use PK Hack in order to expand the ROM.
Where can I get a copy of EarthBound?
An EarthBound ROM can be found on the Internet without much difficulty. However, for legal reasons, we cannot provide a link to the ROM here at starmen.net. We can give you the link to Google. Any requests for the ROM here will be removed and the requester will get a stern talking-to.
Will I be arrested for hacking EarthBound?
None of us here at PK Hack are lawyers (for so many reasons), but we promise you, none of us have had any trouble with the law for our art. While making copies of intellectual property and altering it certainly isn't expressly allowed by any law, it isn't a very serious matter. The Super Nintendo is an old system, and Nintendo will not break down your door and take you away for hacking its games. They have many more serious offenders to worry about. Here at PK Hack, we're just having good clean fun. The webmaster here wouldn't let us put this page here if it was anything different. It's all just appreciation of this awesome game.
Can you make your own game with PK Hack?
Yes. Yes you can. Long ago, that was only a dream, but we become more advanced every day. At this point, plot events can be created from scratch. Of course, making an original EarthBound hack is completely different from writing a game with a programming language or the like. Your hack will still use the EarthBound engine, which means something at the center of the screen will walk around, talk, and fight things. You'll have (unless you get really crazy with hardcore hacking) similar menu systems and battle systems. From there, though, you can do whatever you want. Should you choose, you may wipe EarthBound clean of all data - towns, enemies, items, people, stats, PSI, text, etc - and build a game from scratch. Or you could simply change all the enemies into Pokémon. The only way to really see what's possible is to get the utilities and play around. It's your game.
How do I get started?
The PK Hack community is a friendly bunch, and we're always glad to welcome newcomers. The best start is to download the programs and play around. And be sure you're never without our massive Tutorial - if there's anything at all it doesn't cover, let us know. The community itself thrives on the forums, as well as on the IRC channel #pkhax on the Thinstack IRC server.
How do I use an IPS patch?
The answer to this very common question lies right here in our tutorial.
