pkmn-rom-extract

This project is in early development. Don't expect things to work.

Rust library and utility for extracting graphics and other assets from Pokémon games.

Goals

• No unsafe code.
• no_std compatible. Build with no-default-features if you want this.
• Endianness safe: usable on both little- and big-endian targets.
• Support all official international releases and revisions of supported games.

Non-Goals

• No spinoff games: Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, etc.
• No PC fan games: RPG Maker, etc.
• No downloading online assets, such as from PokéAPI. There exist other crates for this.
• No ROM editing. Use other tools if you want to do this; the Pokémon ROM hacking community is quite large and there are many options.

Currently Supported Games

• Generation 3 (GBA)
  • All titles: Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen
  • All language versions: Japanese, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian
  • All official GBA ROM revisions (44 total)
  • Some ROM hacks may work but others will not.

Currently Supported Assets

• Front sprites: the large sprites that represent each Pokémon in the summary screen, hall of fame, opponents in battle, and more.
• Box/party icons: the small sprites that represent each Pokémon in the party list and PC box view. (Gen3 and later)
• Item icons: the sprites used to represent every item in the bag screen. (FRLG and later)
• Box wallpapers: the background graphics displayed in the PC box view. (Gen3 and later)
• Base stats: data for each Pokémon species including not only stat calculations but also types, abilities, gender ratio, exp growth curve, and more.

Usage

Use this crate as a library dependency by adding it to your Cargo.toml. If you build with no standard library, omit the "std" feature but note that alloc is required.

[dependencies]
pkmn-rom-extract = {version = "0.0.1", default-features = false, features = ["std"]}

Binary

This crate also includes an executable binary that can be installed with cargo install pkmn-rom-extract.

This program will extract all supported assets to a specified target directory. Sprites and other graphics are written as PNG files. Other data is written as JSON files.

$ pkmn-rom-extract "Pokemon - Ruby Version (USA).gba" ruby_extracted

TODO

• Add C and C++ bindings (locked behind a feature flag which permits unsafe)
• Support for a wider variety of GBA ROM hacks.
• Game Boy games: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal
• DS Gen4 games: Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver
• DS Gen5 games: Black, White, Black 2, White 2
• Extract strings: Pokémon names, item names, move names, ability names, Pokédex entries
• Extract more graphics: Pokémon back sprites, trainer sprites
• Extract more data tables: evolution info, move learnsets
• Extract music

Possible further future

These are not a priority and may not ever be implemented.

• Other asset types like map data, battle tower parties, etc.
• Extract non-3D assets like box icons and base stats from 3DS and/or Switch games.
• Extract graphics from Pokémon Home (Switch and/or Android)