Removing Teams from a rom

[swampymux12]

Question for the pros...

 

How do you remove a team from a rom?  I'm trying to knock my league down to 24 teams (2 divisions of 6 teams or 3 divisions of 4 teams in each conference).  I've been combing through roms and I see some that have 16 or so teams.  I know I can black out 4 teams from the original, but they still show up as selectable and they still basically "exist" as a blank team.  I want to realign the whole thing.  

 

I'm a super rookie at this editing/hacking stuff so I may be in over my head, but you gotta start somewhere.  I have basically all the editing software I could dig up, so I'm hoping I have the right stuff to make it work.  Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Dang, forgot to mention... NES version...

Edited May 18, 2013 by swampymux12

[swampymux12]

Or if someone was willing to drop in a 24 team rom (4 divisions of 6 teams or 6 of 4) that would be awesome.  I can take care of the editing of helmets and logos, just can't figure out the first part...

Edited May 18, 2013 by swampymux12

[pambazos88]

I dont remember seeing a 24 team Rom like that.

You say you are ROOKIE at this, but having "basically" all editing software. Then I guess you're a little familiar with HEX-Editors, right??

I'm not a PRO, but I can help you a bit with this:

 

First I recommend you to have your FCEUX EMULATOR. Load your ROM into it (drag&drop)

Then, On its Menu, theres an option that says DEBUG: go to Hex Editor:

 

then the HEX EDITOR will open in a NEW WINDOW. here, go to its menu and select  >VIEW/ Rom File

You can see all the HEX data stopped moving. You are viewing your ROM's data now.

THIS STEP CAUSED ME LOTS OF TROUBLE WHEN I BEGAN, THATS WHY I'M PUTTING IT HERE.

 

Now you can begin modifying your ROM in PresentTime and check the changes right away in your Emulator screen.

 

Removing a Team, I think is not possible (its data will still be there), however you can make it unreachable (unselectable) based on the many posts jstout and cxrom posted about this matter.

 

But first, there are many "screens" in which your teams appear, and you have to make them Unselectable in all of those.

 

 

 

[pambazos88]

I checked many roms that had 16 Teams in 2 Conferences. The problem I found (and I couldnt understand either) was that the original ROM has 14 teams per conf. and these roms have 8 in a conference and 20 in the other (just that 12 of those teams have become UNSELECTABLES).

 

Ok, first try the TEAM DATA screen of your ROM (cause it is the easier one):

go to offset x22c36 on your HEX-Editor window:

 

Here at offset x22c36 youll find this:

 

That "00" stands there for the first TEAM (BILLS), Now change it with a 01 (with the black cursor over the HEX editor, type 01 on your keyboard) and go to your Emulator window, open your TEAM DATA menu in the Game and select the BUF team. You will see the COLTS Team data instead of the BILLS one. This means in case you didnt notice, that youve eliminated the BILLS ROSTER from this screen (their Mini helmet is still there) and now you have to remove it from there to make the team completely UNSELECTABLE.

 

But the best way to start REMOVING teams is "backwards", I mean starting with the last team the Falcons.

You have the 00 (BILLS) then followd by many numbers in your Hex-Editor :

the best way to see the complete LEAGUE within this bunch of numbers

( 00 05 09 01 06 0A 02 07 0B 03 08 0C 04 00 0D 0E 13 00 0F 14 18 10 15 19 11 16 1A 12 17 1B)

is like this:

 

00  05  09

01  06  0A

02  07  0B

03  08  0C

04  00  0D

 

0E  13  00

0F  14  18

10  15  19

11  16  1A

12  17  1B

 

*00 ( you know it was for the BILLS) but as you can see on your Team Data corresponds to a blank space as well, and 1B stands for the Atl-FALCONS (last TEAM)

 

 

[DFM]

GREAT write-up! Thanks, pambazos88!

[pambazos88]

Now you can begin with that. Go to offset (Ctrl+A) x23B4B and there's the offset corresponding the "onscreen  x-y Coords" (CURSOR setup) for the Teams. provided by jstout.

 

To REMOVE the FALCONS from this screen go to offset x23B93 and youll see D8 C0, those are the coords. for this team. Input FF FF over them and go to your Emulator window to see that the Falcons have become UNSELECTABLE. The Mini helmet is still there, (you will need to remove it too) but theres no way you can reach it.

 

In order to remove a Mini Helmet go to offsets  x23D21-x23D58, where the "x-y" coords. for these helmets are set.

For the ATL helmet go to offset x23D57 and youll find these values: D0 58.  Now I dont remember whats the input value for these helmets (because if you input FF FF, the helmet is "re-positioned" to the left-upper-corner, and you can see its facemask over there) so try 00 FF, I Think that'll do the trick.

 

You will have the Helmet removed from that screen. But it still has the ATL. "text" There are many pointers for the text in this Screen, but at offset x1F8B5-x1F90A are "SOME" values corresponding this "texts".

Go to offset x1F908 and you'll see a D6, input "DD" over it and this will have this text (ATL.) removed from this screen, but also it has been removed from the PRESEASON, and the TEAM CONTROL screens (although the helmet is still there, and you need to remove it from those as well)

 

[pambazos88]

On those 2 screen (PRESEASON & CONTROL MODE) you CAN STILL select the FALCONS (because you have NOT YET worked on them) , but in the TEAM DATA, YOU CAN'T NOW!. It has been REMOVED from that screen completly.

[pambazos88]

Or if someone was willing to drop in a 24 team rom (4 divisions of 6 teams or 6 of 4) that would be awesome.  I can take care of the editing of helmets and logos, just can't figure out the first part...

 

Everyone in here will tell you best way to do it is if YOU DO IT YOURSELF!

So.. back to what you want: a 24 TEAMS (I think 6 teams per Division is almost impossible, but a 4-teams-per-division-rom sounds more feasable..)

In order to achieve what you want with your 24T-rom. At first sight, it would be very easy to REMOVE:  NYJ,- -, SEA,/ WAS, TB,  - - , and although most of the screens would "fit-to-your-wants", the TEAM RANKINGS screen (OF/DEF Rankings) would still be showing those teams you've removed on that particular screen, because it has a more complicated setup (dealing with CONFERENCE and LEAGUE as "blocks").

 

Or you could have it all rearranged like the 16T-roms, and re-assign AFC's last 4 teams to the NFC, and REMOVING NFC's last 4 teams.

THIS WOULD BE THE BETTER WAY to have it done and NOT SHOWING ANY UNWANTED TEAM on any screen, but I can not help you with the mess that is caused by "swapping" teams through Conferences during the Playoffs (Or you will end up with a "Major BUG" like in my Rom when triggering the search for the Wildcard into another Conference...) BUT anyway , you could ask for their help to see how they achieved the 16T-roms.

 

So, I'll give you the info. I have on this matter:

 

TEAM DATA screen:

22C36 - 22C53 - TEAM SELECTED  ROSTER shown when "accesed" , ordered by "ROWS" : 00  05  09...(EAST/ CENTRAL/ WEST)

23B4B - 23B94 - CURSOR SETUP (x:y coords) Every 2 bytes correspond a team. First offset "x", and the following the "y". (AFC: x23B4D, NFC: 23B53.) Teams start at offset x23B59 ordered by "ROWS" (E/ C/ W)

23D21 - 23D58 - MINI Helmets coords. every helmet uses 2 bytes (Y,X). the X seems to be multiplied by 2 to get the actual placement coordinate **THIS IS BUF-ATL ORDER, first all AFC, then NFC.

1E943 - 1E960 - TEXT POSITION and pointers (this however is set by Divisions)

1F8B5 - 1F90A - TEXT FORMAT, Every 3 bytes correspond a team. First offset is for the format, next is the team shown, and the final offset is for the "space" between texts..this data structure is variable length and is $FE terminated. so inputting FE will close the DIVISION, removing any text from that point. **THIS IS BUF-ATL ORDER, first all AFC, then NFC. *this will also affect the TEXT on the TEAM CONTROL/ PRESEASON screens.

 

PRESEASON screen:

1F8B5 - 1F90A - TEXT FORMAT

22C13 - 22C53 - TEAM SELECTED. Team that will appear on field  ordered by "ROWS" : 00  05  09...(EAST/ CENTRAL/ WEST)

23E95 - 23ED0 - CURSOR SETUP (x:y coords) Every 2 bytes correspond a team. First offset "x", and the following the "y". ordered by "ROWS" (E/ C/ W)

23CE9 - 23D20 - MINI Helmets coords. every helmet uses 2 bytes (Y,X). the X seems to be multiplied by 2 to get the actual placement coordinate **THIS IS BUF-ATL ORDER, first all AFC, then NFC.

*this will also affect the MINI helmets on the TEAM CONTROL screen

 

TEAM CONTROL screen:

1F8B5 - 1F90A - TEXT FORMAT

23CE9 - 23D20 - MINI Helmets coords.

328F3 - 3292E - CURSOR SETUP (x:y coords) Every 2 bytes correspond a team. First offset "x", and the following the "y". ordered by "ROWS" (E/ C/ W)

3292F - 32966 - SKP/MAN/COM/COA TEXT coords. First offset "x", and the following the "y". BUT it is set into Tile-BLOCKS.**THIS IS BUF-ATL ORDER, first all AFC, then NFC.

 

325BF - 325D9 - TEAMS ORDER ordered by "ROWS" (E/ C/ W)

 

NFL STANDINGS screen:

23ADB - 23AE8 - CURSOR SETUP (x:y coords) Here, it's the setup for the 3 Divisions for each Conf. + the PLAYOFF screen. (7 coords in total) ordered by "ROWS" (E/ C/ W), then the coords for PLAYOFF

23F6D - 23F78 - TEAM ORDER/ TEAMS PER DIVISION Every 2 bytes correspond a DIVISION. First offset will be the Division's FIRST team, and the following the NUMBER of teams this division has.ordered by "ROWS" (E/ C/ W) *WITH THE RESTRICTION THAT EVERY DIVISION MUST HAVE 4 or 5 TEAMS (unless you apply that other hack some roms have, which I don't know how)

 

TEAM RANKINGS screen:

NFL TOTAL OFFENSE: 2397C - 2397D 2 offsets. First offset corresponds to the FIRST team this screen will show, the second offset will be for the LAST team shown on this list. (default 00-BUF, 1C-ATL)

AFC OFFENSE: 23980 - 23981 2 offsets First offset corresponds to the FIRST team this screen will show, the second offset will be for the LAST team shown on this list. (default 00-BUF, 0E-SEA)

NFC OFFENSE: 23984 - 23985 2 offsets First offset corresponds to the FIRST team this screen will show, the second offset will be for the LAST team shown on this list. (default 0F-WAS, 1C-ATL)

 

NFL TOTAL DEFENSE: 23988 - 23989 2 offsets. First offset corresponds to the FIRST team this screen will show, the second offset will be for the LAST team shown on this list. (default 00-BUF, 1C-ATL)

AFC DEFENSE: 2398C - 2398D 2 offsets First offset corresponds to the FIRST team this screen will show, the second offset will be for the LAST team shown on this list. (default 00-BUF, 0E-SEA)

NFC DEFENSE: 23990 - 23991 2 offsets First offset corresponds to the FIRST team this screen will show, the second offset will be for the LAST team shown on this list. (default 0F-WAS, 1C-ATL)

 

*BUT, if you want to remove a team from one of this lists, you can only CUT it from, either the Top, or the Bottom. (making the teams in the middle shown as UNREMOVED)

 

**BTW, when I say this: ordered by "ROWS" : 00  05  09...(EAST/ CENTRAL/ WEST)  it means:

00=BUF, 05=CIN, 09=DEN

01=IND, 06=CLE, 0A=KC. 

02=MIA,    ..and so on. THIS IS ONLY FOR SHOWING THIS ORDER ON-SCREEN ( But the BUF=00 to ATL=1C ORDER is present all the time ) (1C in HEX language = 28 )

Edited May 19, 2013 by pambazos88

[swampymux12]

pambazos88,  Thanks for all the time man, I think that should give me a good start towards what I am trying to do.  Really appreciate it!!!

[Knobbe]

Also refer to this thread http://tecmobowl.org/topic/7850-removing-teams-from-the-menu/

[TheRaj]

I am posting a 24 team rom on Wednesday. Look for it if you need reference. I dropped the first 2 teams from the AFC (BUF and IND) and the last 2 teams from the NFC (NO and ATL). I added them as "secret" teams in pre-season though.

 

I don't have any of my documents but if you have questions let me know. Again my 24 Team Rom (titled TFO Football 2013) will be out this Wed.

 

Thanks

[TheRaj]

Added my 24 team rom today. Check it out and see if it helps you. If you have questions let me know

 

http://tecmobowl.org/files/file/354-tfo-football-2013/

[swampymux12]

Very cool!

 

The biggest questions I have (for now... ) are how to change the number of games on the schedule, and how to get your "hidden" teams to not show up on the team rankings screen.  Right now that is what has me baffled...

 

I dropped the Jets, Seahawks, Cowboys, and Buccaneers... is that going to be my problem ?

Edited June 1, 2013 by swampymux12

[TheRaj]

Ill look it up but the teams you have dropped will not work.

 

What you want to do is drop the first two teams from the AFC (Bills and Colts) and the last two teams from the NFC (Saints and Falcons). Then you need to reorganize the conference structure to reflect the changes.

 

The reason you have to drop the Bills/Colts/Saints/Falcons from the season is because they are the first and last teams. Then you can reorder the AFC and NFC easily by making them 2 more/less.

 

I'll find my notes and reply again later to help you out man, but for now know that it has to be the Bills/Colts/Saints/Falcons that are dropped. Then you have to go and reorder the team screens manually.

[TheRaj]

REFERENCE: http://tecmobowl.org/topic/51680-moving-teams-to-different-divisions/

 

For changing the size of divisions you want x23F6D-x23F78 but you'll have to move the teams as well as edit the team select screens. First byte is the team # for the first team in division and second byte is # of teams in division. You'll know its right by checking the season standings.

00 05 = Buffalo 5 teams
05 04 = Cincinnati 4 teams
09 05 = Denver 5 teams
0E 05 = Washington 5 teams
13 05 = Chicago 5 teams
18 04 = San Francisco 4 teams

[TheRaj]

Also I found out the Team Data information for each team's division is @2E822. You have to change these to have the right Division show in the Team Data area.

[TheRaj]

So for swampymux12:

 

x23F6D-x23F78 for my 24 team Rom shows (02 04 06 04 0A 04 0E 04 12 04 16 04) which is as follows:

 

02 04 = MIA 4 teams (MIA/NE/JETS/CIN)
06 04 = CLE 4 teams (CLE/HOU/PIT/DEN)
0A 04 = KC 4 teams (KC/RAI/SD/SEA)
0E 04 = WAS 4 teams (WAS/GIA/PHI/PHX)
12 04 = DAL 4 teams (DAL/CHI/DET/GB)
16 04 = MIN 4 teams (MIN/TB/SF/RAMS)

 

I then updated x2E822-x2E83D to place each team in the right division:

6A 6A 6A 6A 6A 6A 6B 6B 6B 6B 6C 6C 6C 6C 6A 6A 6A 6A 6B 6B 6B 6B 6C 6C 6C 6C 6C 6C

 

6A = East

6B = Central

6C = West

 

I didn't care about the first two teams or last two teams in x2E822-x2E83D because in my rom there is no way for someone to get to their Team Data Screens so I didn't care about what Division they are from.

 

Hope this helps. I will look up some more but the hardest part of the 24 team rom is fixing the Preseason/TeamData/TeamControl screens to look correct. That took me a VERY long time.

[TheRaj]

Oh I forgot to post this so you know how to fix the AFC/NFC split:

 

AFC CHANGES:

X2397c change from 00 1C to 02 1A
X23980 change from 00 0E to 02 0E
X23984 change from 0E 1C to 0E 1A

 

NFC CHANGES:
X23988 change from 00 1C to 02 1A
X2398C change from 00 0E to 02 0E
X23990 change from 0E 1C to 0E 1A

 

This will change the AFC to be 12 teams (from MIA to SEA) and the NFC to be 12 teams (WAS to RAMS). This will drop BUF/IND/NO/ATL from these conferences and their stats will not count in the mix for things like NFL Team Leaders.

 

I also removed those 4 teams from the schedule (I used TSB Supreme for my schedule changes) so that the players get no stats during the Season.

[TheRaj]

Also change x2331B to x0A instead of x0B. I had an issue with Playoffs not working and jstout found that it had to do with since we are using less teams the wildcard sorting needed to be lowered.

[TheRaj]

One last note (i posted alot...) is that you are FORCED to have 17 weeks in your schedule and you must have atleast 1 game per week. So you will need to split your schedule based on how many games you want. For my 24 team rom we did an 11 week schedule, but since I was forced to have 17 weeks in the rom I gave teams basically 6 weeks of bye weeks. You must have atleast 1 game per week. So my 11 week schedule looks like this when I put it into the 17 week schedule:

 

WEEK 1
patriots at dolphins
49ers at rams

WEEK 2
bengals at jets
broncos at oilers
steelers at browns
chiefs at raiders
chargers at seahawks
cardinals at redskins
eagles at giants
packers at bears
lions at cowboys
vikings at buccaneers

WEEK 3
seahawks at bengals
dolphins at browns
patriots at oilers
chiefs at steelers
broncos at raiders
jets at chargers
rams at cardinals
redskins at cowboys
giants at bears
lions at vikings
packers at buccaneers
eagles at 49ers

WEEK 4
steelers at broncos
cowboys at bears

WEEK 5
jets at dolphins
bengals at patriots
browns at oilers
chargers at chiefs
seahawks at raiders
eagles at redskins
cardinals at giants
lions at packers
49ers at vikings
rams at buccaneers

WEEK 6
steelers at patriots
raiders at bengals
chargers at browns
dolphins at oilers
seahawks at broncos
jets at chiefs
lions at giants
buccaneers at cardinals
49ers at cowboys
redskins at bears
rams at packers
eagles at vikings

WEEK 7
raiders at chargers
buccaneers at vikings

WEEK 8
patriots at jets
dolphins at bengals
oilers at steelers
browns at broncos
chiefs at seahawks
redskins at cardinals
giants at eagles
bears at lions
cowboys at packers
rams at 49ers

WEEK 9
cardinals at jets
packers at steelers
buccaneers at chiefs
vikings at raiders
patriots at redskins
giants at dolphins
cowboys at oilers
rams at chargers
bengals at eagles
browns at bears
broncos at lions
seahawks at 49ers

WEEK 10
oilers at browns
eagles at cardinals

WEEK 11
dolphins at jets
patriots at bengals
broncos at steelers
chiefs at chargers
raiders at seahawks
redskins at giants
cowboys at lions
bears at packers
buccaneers at 49ers
vikings at rams

WEEK 12
browns at patriots
raiders at jets
bengals at broncos
dolphins at chiefs
steelers at chargers
oilers at seahawks
cowboys at giants
49ers at lions
cardinals at packers
redskins at vikings
eagles at buccaneers
bears at rams

WEEK 13
jets at bengals
packers at lions

WEEK 14
dolphins at patriots
browns at steelers
oilers at broncos
seahawks at chargers
raiders at chiefs
redskins at eagles
giants at cardinals
bears at cowboys
vikings at 49ers
buccaneers at rams

WEEK 15
buccaneers at dolphins
cowboys at patriots
vikings at bengals
bears at steelers
packers at seahawks
raiders at redskins
broncos at giants
chargers at eagles
chiefs at cardinals
oilers at lions
browns at 49ers
jets at rams

WEEK 16
seahawks at chiefs
giants at redskins

WEEK 17
bengals at dolphins
jets at patriots
broncos at browns
steelers at oilers
chargers at raiders
cardinals at eagles
packers at cowboys
lions at bears
rams at vikings
49ers at buccaneers
 

-If you added them up every team has 11 games, and 4 teams are missing (BUF/IND/ATL/NO)

 

Hope that helps. If you have other questions let me know I'll try to help. I moved my TFO league to a 28 team 17 week season for next year so I no longer need to hack the rom in this way instead I'm gonna use the normal base rom.

[pambazos88]

Also change x2331B to x0A instead of x0B. I had an issue with Playoffs not working and jstout found that it had to do with since we are using less teams the wildcard sorting needed to be lowered.

Man, could you please give me a "deeper" explanation on this "issue" , because I just dont get it.

[TheRaj]

Man, could you please give me a "deeper" explanation on this "issue" , because I just dont get it.

 

Sure.

 

Since my rom (TFO Football 2013... go download TODAY) is a 24 team rom I had to cut 4 teams. After looking at the code and how teams were handled I found it best to cut the 2 first teams from AFC (BUF/IND) and last two teams from NFC (ATL/NO).

 

This was all fine until I ran into a strange and rare issue of a "tie" for a Wildcard spot. The spot was corrupted because when the Playoffs were checking who would be eligible it was looking at more teams then actually existed.

 

The day I found this out I went insane and finally posted on the boards looking for help (http://tecmobowl.org/topic/53993-help-playoffs-not-triggering-6th-wildcard-correctly/). jstout was kind enough to see the mathematical error in how the playoffs was calculating the last wildcard and gave me the x2331B address to change to x0A instead of x0B. That fixed the issue I was having.

[swampymux12]

Raja,

 

Thanks for the time man.  I'm not real good at this yet so i'm probably just going to have to leave it with some blank spots in the team ranking screen.  I just dropped the 4 i did for that reason, i didn't want to have to try and realign everything.  This is my first rom i am working on so I'm going around things as easy as I can  I'm to the point where i have all my large and mini helmets done, so I don't want to have to do a bunch of them over.  I got the teams off the schedule, so the only thing is I have 4 blank spots show up on my rankings screen, but it's really not a big deal, mainly cosmetic.  If i do another smaller rom, i'll def have to cut the right teams, i thought that may be the case when you were talking about your rom.

 

definitely appreciate the help, I'm trying to learn as i go, so any knowledge guys like you give is greatly valued!

[TheRaj]

NP man. Anything to help a fellow Tecmo'er

[Dusto]

Sorry to dig this up from the depths.  I think I've definitely got the removal of teams from the menu part down easily so that they aren't selectable.   My follow up question is,  if I then remove them from the schedule, is that enough to eliminate them from consideration in any playoff picture scenario and for leader board consideration.  

Example.  Buffalo is no longer selectable from team control.  They are removed from any games on the schedule.  Can the playoff trigger happen or does it error out on the fact buffalo is 0 and 0.

I'm guessing in extreme (probably QA/test only scenarios), where an entire division went  0 -16 that the Buffalo bills could suddenly appear as division winners. But I'm not so worried about that case.

 

TLDR:

Is Team Control, Team Data and Schedule effectively all that's required to remove a team?