======Text Editing======
Metroid 2 has a very simple text system. Most text is made of tilemaps, while some are made of sprite data.
=====Tilemaps=====
Each character is one byte, and you are limited to 16 characters per item and 6 for the save message (you can go above 6, but it will overlap the "Press Start" text). The format is listed here:
C0-D9 = letters, in order
DA = .
DB = ,
DC = '
DD = -
DE = 3 dots, 1/2 (for the save text)
DF = 3 dots, 2/2
FF = Space
00-BF and F0-FE are assorted graphics and empty space. You'll find the text between 0x05911 and 0x05A10 in Bank 1:
0x05911-0x05920 - " SAVE... " or D2 C0 D5 C4 DE DF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
S A V E ...
0x05921-0x05930 - " PLASMA BEAM" or FF FF FF FF CF CB C0 D2 CC C0 FF C1 C4 C0 CC FF
P L A S M A B E A M
0x05931-0x05940 - " ICE BEAM " or FF FF FF FF FF C8 C2 C4 FF C1 C4 C0 CC FF FF FF
I C E B E A M
0x05941-0x05950 - " WAVE BEAM " or FF FF FF FF D6 C0 D5 C4 FF C1 C4 C0 CC FF FF FF
W A V E B E A M
0x05951-0x05960 - " SPAZER " or FF FF FF FF FF D2 CF C0 D9 C4 D1 FF FF FF FF FF
S P A Z E R
0x05961-0x05970 - " BOMB " or FF FF FF FF FF FF FF C1 CE CC C1 FF FF FF FF FF
B O M B
0x05971-0x05980 - " SCREW ATTACK" or FF FF FF D2 C2 D1 C4 D6 FF C0 D3 D3 C0 C2 CA FF
S C R E W A T T A C K
0x05981-0x05990 - " VARIA " or FF FF FF FF FF D5 C0 D1 C8 C0 FF FF FF FF FF FF
V A R I A
0x05991-0x059A0 - " HIGH JUMP BOOTS" or C7 C8 C6 C7 FF C9 D4 CC CF FF C1 CE CE D3 D2 FF
H I G H J U M P B O O T S
0x059A1-0x059B0 - " SPACE JUMP " or FF FF FF FF D2 CF C0 C2 C4 FF C9 D4 CC CF FF FF
S P A C E J U M P
0x059B1-0x059C0 - " SPIDER BALL " or FF FF FF D2 CF C8 C3 C4 D1 FF C1 C0 CB CB FF FF
S P I D E R B A L L
0x059C1-0x059D0 - " SPRING BALL " or FF FF D2 CF D1 C8 CD C6 FF C1 C0 CB CB FF FF FF
S P R I N G B A L L
0x059D1-0x059E0 - " ENERGY TANK " or FF FF FF C4 CD C4 D1 C6 D8 FF D3 C0 CD CA FF FF
E N E R G Y T A N K
0x059E1-0x059F0 - " MISSILE TANK" or FF FF FF CC C8 D2 D2 C8 CB C4 FF D3 C0 CD CA FF
M I S S I L E T A N K
0x059F1-0x05A00 - " ENERGY " or FF FF FF FF FF FF C4 CD C4 D1 C6 D8 FF FF FF FF
E N E R G Y
0x05A01-0x05A10 - " MISSILES " or FF FF FF FF FF CC C8 D2 D2 C8 CB C4 D2 FF FF FA
M I S S I L E S
=====Sprites=====
This section will focus specifically on how the sprites are used for text. Refer to [[return_of_samus:technical_information:metasprites|here]] for more specific information on the sprite format.\\
Each character is made from a sequence of four bytes. The third one points to which tile to use. \\
Only the two saving texts after the "Save..." prompt are constructed in this way.\\
0x04093 - "COMPLETED" 00 00 C2 80 - C
00 08 CE 80 - O
00 10 CC 80 - M
00 18 CF 80 - P
00 20 CB 80 - L
00 28 C4 80 - E
00 30 D3 80 - T
00 38 C4 80 - E
00 40 C3 80 - D
FF
0x040B8 - "PRESS START" 00 00 CF 00 - P
00 08 D1 00 - R
00 10 C4 00 - E
00 18 D2 00 - S
00 20 D2 00 - S
00 30 D2 00 - S
00 38 D3 00 - T
00 40 C0 00 - A
00 48 D1 00 - R
00 50 D3 00 - T
FF
=====Full Text Table=====
For a more organized text-editing experience, copy-paste the following list of characters into a text editor and save the document as a ".tbl" file, which can be used for a hex editor or other program that supports them.
FF=
A0=0
A1=1
A2=2
A3=3
A4=4
A5=5
A6=6
A7=7
A8=8
A9=9
C0=A
C1=B
C2=C
C3=D
C4=E
C5=F
C6=G
C7=H
C8=I
C9=J
CA=K
CB=L
CC=M
CD=N
CE=O
CF=P
D0=Q
D1=R
D2=S
D3=T
D4=U
D5=V
D6=W
D7=X
D8=Y
D9=Z
DA=.
DB=,
DC='
DD=-
DE=..
DF=..