How to make your own Splash Screen for RPG Maker 2000 games
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Intro
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Ending Notes
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  (Warning: This document contains information that maybe to 
advanced for some people, please read
   this document in full before taking the steps below, please make 
backups of your work before
   doing anything, I'm not responsible for anything bad that may 
happen while hacking your stuff
   , like deleting or corrupting your files, Use at your own risk)

Intro

  Hello RPG Makers, have you ever wanted to make your own splash 
screen for your RPG game
  you just made using ASCII's RPG Maker 2000? (Translated to 
English by Don Miguel)
  Well, it's not easy, but who said it can't be done?

  Well it can be done, but not without a bit of hacking, but it 
shouldn't be too hard, once
  you know what your are doing, all you need is the following 
tools,

  (1) An Image editor.
  (2) RPG Maker 2000 (http://rpgmaker.chat.ru )
  (3) Resource Maker (http://rpg2k.urpgrealm.com under Utilities)
  (4) A newly complied RPG game made with RPG maker 2000.

  Ok, after getting the tools needed, its time to get working

Chapter 1 (making the images)

  As you may not know ASCII uses the image format file .XYZ, no 
image editor can read .XYZ
  files, the XYZ files are used for the splash screen, now programs 
like Paintbrush or
  Paintshop pro won't save to .XYZ but don't worry, that will come 
later, but first to
  make our splash screen, we need to make some pictures, so lets 
fire up that image file editor,
  shall we?
  You can download a demo version of Paintshop Pro over at 
http://www.jasc.com or you can
  use Microsoft's built in painting program Paintbrush, you can try 
Adobe's PhotoShop or
  whatever its called but I prefer PaintShop, there are other Image 
editors available on the
web but there are to many to name on this file, anyway here we go.

  Open the image editing program & create a new 320x240 256 color 
picture, now paint what you
  want on it, like "your name here presents" or "a lamer production" 
eg or just draw yourself
  a logo or something. (See Chapter 5 for more info on what you 
should know about drawing)
  After drawing your image, save it as a .PNG file under LOGO1.PNG, 
this file will be the first
  part of our splash screen, you can do parts 2 & 3 if you wish, just 
do the same as above &
  when finishing, save the second part as LOGO2.PNG & the third 
part as LOGO3.PNG, MS Paintbrush
  only saves in .BMP but don't worry, just go to Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 (converting to .XYZ)

  Now we have our LOGO1.PNG LOGO2.PNG & LOGO3.PNG files saved, 
now copy the files into any
  directory (I use C:\temp), now startup RPG Maker 2000, go to 
"RAW Materials Settings", on
  the left side of the screen highlights the "Picture" folder, in the 
bottom right, select
  XYZ, now press the IMPORT button, find LOGO1.PNG, select it & 
press OPEN, then press OK,
  do the same with LOGO2.PNG & LOGO3.PNG.
  Now press the EXPORT button, pick XYZ on the "Save as type" slot, 
type LOGO1 in "File name"
  & press SAVE, now LOGO1 will be saved as a .XYZ file, do the same 
with LOGO2 & LOGO3.

  For you MS Paintbrush users, RAW Materials Settings also allows 
you to import .BMP images too.

Chapter 3 (Importing The Splash Screen)

  Now here's the moment that you should fear, we now have the .XYZ
 files, now we need to
  import them into the main exe files (RPG_RT.EXE), just a word of 
warning, make sure you
backup the original unaltered exe file (I recommend you backup the 
entire game, just in case)
  I can't be held responsible for what happens for doing the process 
wrong or losing your work,
  follow the instructions at your own risk, So please, backup your 
RPG, please :-)

  OK, lets do it, run Resource Workshop (Workshop.exe).
  Go to file & click "open project",
  Select "Exe Application" in the File Type bar, point the Directories 
box to the directory
  where RPG_RT.EXE is & 2x click RPG_RT.EXE in the files box.
  A little window should open containing the contents in the exe, 
look at the very top, you
  should see something like,

XYZ
   LOGO1
   LOGO2
   LOGO3


That's where the ASCII splash screen files are.
Now go to file & click on "Add to Project".
  In the File name bar, type *.XYZ & press return (don't press the OK 
button)
  Find the LOGO1.XYZ file we made & highlight it in the files box, 
press OK.
A "Custom Resource Type" window will popup, highlight XYZ in the 
"Resource Type" box &
  press OK.
Now it will go back to the contents, a new XYZ will be added, it 
should look like so

XYZ
   LOGO1
   LOGO2
   LOGO3
   XYZ_1     <-The New file we just added

  Now do the same with LOGO2.XYZ & then LOGO3.XYZ (make sure 
you do them in the correct order,
  I don't know what will happen if you don't, now it should look like 
below

XYZ
   LOGO1
   LOGO2
   LOGO3
   XYZ_1
   XYZ_2
   XYZ_3

  OK, Now delete the original LOGO files (Select LOGO1, press delete, 
press ok & do the same
  with the rest)
  Now we will rename the newly added files,
  Select XYZ_1, right click on it & select "Rename",
  in the new window type in LOGO1 in the "New Name" bar & press ok,
  Select XYZ_2 & rename it LOGO2 & then XYZ_3 to LOGO3.
  Now press "Save Project" in the file bar.
  Exit the program. (it's over now, I know it was spooky, but we did 
it & did it good)

Chapter 4 (Please work, please)

  OK, we did, now start up the newly modified RPG_RT.EXE, if you 
don't get an error massage
then that means it should be working, the screen will flash white 
(that normal) then the first
  splash screen will appear, then the second, third & lastly the main 
menu.
  You did it; you made your own splash screen.

Chapter 5 (Tips & Stuff)

  1. Make sure your work is 320x240 & 256 colors.

  2. Try not to do any full color eye candy pictures, like a big color 
picture that takes up
     the entire image, just do a small logo like you see in the original 
ASCII splash screens
     , taking a snap shot from a Dragonball Z episode, resizing to 
320x240, changing colors to
     256 & using that may not work.

  3. In Paintshop Pro, select New from the file bar, in the New Image 
window enter the
     following settings:
       Width = 320
       Height = 240
       Resolution = (leave it)
       Background Color = Black
       Image Type = 256 colors (8 Bit)

  4. In Resource Maker, when you import your XYZ file & you get the 
massage "Resource is too
     large to view as text" in the right window, then that means that 
the file has to much
hex code in it & may not work, if that happens then you have to 
replace the modified
exe file with the original unaltered exe file.

  5. Back up your work before you modify RPG_RT.EXE.

  6. Be careful, Resource Maker is a nice tool for looking thought exe 
DLL, eg, but one
     false move & you may destroy that file you opened.

  7. only use the latest version of RPG Maker 2000 
(v1.3 as of writing), you can easily get
     it over at Don's site http://rpgmaker.chat.ru

  8. You can't make extra splash pages to go after LOGO3, I 
tried making extra splash screen
     pages, but the game just ignored the 4th page went to the titles 
screen like normal.
Must be a .exe thing, all well.

  9. ASCII uses black backgrounds for there splash screens, you 
better do the same thing, I
don't know what will happen if you use another color as a 
background, hence, I never
     tried it.

 10. I think it's easy to make custom splash screens for RPG Maker 
95, but if your upgrading
from RPGm95 to RPGm2k & your RPGm95 has some custom splash 
screens, then I recommend
     you don't try import them to RPGm2k, just start again to scratch.

Chapter 6 (A sample)

  I've added a modified RPG_RT.EXE that includes the new splash 
screens I made; it's a rush job
  (I'm not a major graphic designer artist) but it should be good 
enough as a sample of a
  custom made splash screen, its just unzip it over your existing 
RPG_RT.EXE (please make a
backup of the unaltered RPG_RT.EXE &/or the whole game before 
over-writing) & run it.

Ending Notes

