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Another basic hacking skill is graphics hacking, which is changing the appearance of the game's environments, characters, fonts, or other such things. The format of graphics data varies from console to console, but most of the early ones (NES, Super NES, Game Boy, etc.) store graphics in [[Tile-based video game|tiles]], which are 8x8-[[pixel]] units of data, which are arranged on-screen to produce the desired result. Editing these tiles is also possible with a hex editor, but is generally accomplished with a tile editor (such as [http://segaretro.org/Tile_Layer_Pro ''Tile Layer''] or [https://github.com/toruzz/TileMolester ''Tile Molester'']), which can graphically display the ROM data, as well as finding and editing tiles.
Graphics hacks can range from simple edits (such as giving [[Mario]] an [[afro]] or [[Luigi (character)|Luigi]] a [[golf club]]) to "porting" characters from one game to another (such as creating [[pixelation|pixelated]] ("retro-styled") sprites of later generation [[List of Pokémon|Pokémon]] for use with Generation I-V Pokémon games<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2019-04-13 |title=Pokemon Rom Hacks List: GBC, GBC & NDS - PokemonCoders |url=https://www.pokemoncoders.com/pokemon-rom-hacks/ |access-date=2023-03-08 |website=PokemonCoders |language=en-US}}</ref>), to full-blown thematic changes (usually with accompanying palette changes; see below).
More sophisticated graphics hacking involves changing more than just tiles and colors, but also on how the tiles are arranged, or tile groups generated, giving more flexibility and control over the final appearance. This is accomplished through hex editing or a specialized tool (either for a specific game or a specific system). An example of this approach was the incomplete ''Pokémon Torzach'', a [[Pokémon FireRed]] hack of that attempts to add a whole new generation of Pokémon and tiles to the game. It was able to achieve some desirable results with the tools that were currently available at the time.<ref name="Pokemon FireRed ROM Hacks">{{cite web |title=Pokemon FireRed ROM Hacks |url=https://www.pokemoncoders.com/pokemon-fire-red-rom-hacks/ |website=PokemonCoders.com|date=11 March 2019 }}</ref> ''Super Mario Land 2 DX: 6 Golden Coins'' is another example of graphics hacking, which is an enhanced version of the [[Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins|original game]] that added, among others, full-color support (the original game was greyscale-only) and some quality-of-life improvements, such as fixes with screen flickering issues from the original game.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/12/a-christmas-gift-from-game-boy-rom-hackers-super-mario-land-2-in-color/|title=A Christmas gift from Game Boy ROM hackers: ''Super Mario Land 2'' in color|last=Machkovech|first=Sam|date=25 December 2017|website=Ars Technica|access-date=18 February 2023}}</ref>
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