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README.md

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+# exhal / inhal
+## HAL Laboratory NES/SNES/GB (de)compression tools
+by Devin Acker (Revenant), 2013
+
+These programs are released under the terms of the MIT license. See copying.txt for legal info.
+
+exhal and inhal are tools designed to decompress and recompress/insert data used by several NES,
+SNES and Game Boy games developed by HAL Laboratory. 
+
+Due to the design of the original decompression algorithm (and hardware limitations), the size of
+a file to be compressed is limited to 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes). Please note that depending on
+which system you are working with, the actual useful limit may be much smaller.
+
+To use exhal (the decompressor):
+exhal romfile offset outfile
+
+To insert compressed data into a ROM:
+inhal [-fast] infile romfile offset
+
+To write compressed data to a new file:
+inhal [-fast] -n infile outfile
+
+Offsets can be specified in either hexadecimal (recommended) or decimal.
+
+Using the -fast switch results in compression which is about 3 to 4 times faster, but with
+slightly larger output data. Use this if you don't care about data sizes being 100% identical
+to the original compressed data.
+
+This is a list of games which are known to use the supported compression method, or are assumed
+to, based on a binary search of the games' ROMs:
+
+Adventures of Lolo (NES/GB)
+Adventures of Lolo 2 (NES)
+Adventures of Lolo 3 (NES)
+Alcahest (SNES) 
+Arcana / Card Master (SNES)
+EarthBound / Mother 2 (SNES)
+Ghostbusters II (GB)
+HAL's Hole in One Golf / Jumbo Ozaki no Hole in One (SNES)
+HyperZone (SNES)
+Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 (SNES)
+Kirby no KiraKira Kids (SNES)
+Kirby Super Star (SNES)
+Kirby's Adventure (NES)
+Kirby's Dream Course / Kirby Bowl (SNES)
+Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
+Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
+Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)
+Kirby's Pinball Land (GB)
+Kirby's Star Stacker / KiraKira Kids (GB)
+NES Open Tournament Golf (NES)
+New Ghostbusters II (NES)
+Othello World (SNES)
+Okamoto Ayako to Match Play Golf (SNES)
+Revenge of the Gator / 66 Hiki no Wani Daikoushin (GB)
+SimCity (SNES) [unused?]
+SimCity 2000 (SNES)
+Special Tee Shot (BS-X)
+Super Famicom Box BIOS (SNES)
+Trax / Totsugeki! Ponkotsu Tank (GB)
+Vegas Stakes (SNES/GB)
+
+Also note, unfortunately, that exhal cannot automatically detect or locate compressed data.
+The included file "gamenotes.txt" contains an incomplete list of decompression routine addresses
+to make searching easier.
+
+These tools were originally used in the development of my Kirby's Dream Course editor. I hope you
+find your own exciting use for them. (I'm not the only Kirby hacker in the West, right? *sob*)
+
+## Contact me
+
+ Email : d at revenant1.net
+ IRC   : "devin"     on irc.badnik.net
+         "Revenant"  on irc.oftc.net
+         "Revenant`" on irc.synirc.net
+                    and irc.dal.net
+ Forums: http://jul.rustedlogic.net/profile.php?id=504
+         http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=10455
+
+## Special thanks to
+
+ - andlabs for helping me make the list of supported games
+ - BMF54123 for naming the programs
+ - Tiiffi for misc. Mac OS X build fixes
+ - You for downloading (and using?) my software