How to patch a rom and play the randomizer
Using the website is the recommended way to generate a seed and play the randomizer. Before you start, you'll need a Paper Mario (U) rom in .z64 format. If your rom is in a different format, you can use Hack64 to transform it in the proper format.
Once you have your rom ready, you're ready to use the website. On the main page, you'll have a wide range of different settings to use from. We have default presets to make things easier, but it's still preferable to go over the settings to know what you're getting into. Once you have confirmed your settings, click the Generate Seed button at the bottom of the page and wait while your seed is being generated. This could take up to a minute.
After generation is completed, you'll be redirected to your seed's page. You can save the link to access it later if you need to, or share it with others. This page allows you to patch and download your rom, override cosmetic settings and view/download your spoiler log. To play the game, all you need to do here is click the Rom Select button and select the .z64 file on your device.
The website will analyze the file and confirm it's a proper Paper Mario (U) rom in .z64 format. If it is invalid, an error will be displayed, in which case you should check if you have the right rom in the right format. If it is valid, the Patch button will become enabled. Clicking it will patch your rom and trigger a download of the patched rom in your browser. Find your patched rom on your device and load it up to play! For help on emulator and console support, checkout this guide.
You can also clone this repo and generate seeds via python command line. This approach is less straightforward and only recommended if you wish to make changes to the generator and test locally or generate a huge amount of seeds beyond the website's limits.
This project requires python 3.9 with a handful of additional dependencies. Furthermore a base-modded US-ROM of Paper Mario 64 is required and has to be provided by the user; automatically patching the base mod is not part of the generator. For this purpose the patch file for turning the vanilla US ROM into the base mod is provided within the project's /res folder.
First, install dependencies (or run the project inside of a virtual environment
like pipenv).
Then, to generate a game with default settings:
py randomizer.py -t PATH_TO_PREMODDED_ROM
To generate a game with custom settings, create or modify a settings yaml file and then:
py randomizer.py -c PATH_TO_SETTINGS_YAML -t PATH_TO_PREMODDED_ROM
Note that the seed generator writes to the provided file destructively, so make a backup of your pre-modded ROM.
