ROM Hack [Release] GBA VC Banner and Icon Generator

[TheNerdWIzard]

Edit: Crap, I meant to type GBA not GBC for the title. Thank you Sicklyboy for fixing the title!

I have programmed a useful tool for creating the images that are needed for GBA VC cia creation. Just provide an image of the title screen and the title of the game, and the program does the rest.

Please check out this (the one linked) thread for more about creating GBA VC cias. This thread (the thread you're currently on) is strictly about creating the needed images for the footer.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-agb_firm-signature-patcher-gba-rom-converter.390313/

WARNING: If you click the Create and Save Images button multiple times before loading a new image, it will ruin your banner1 and icon image, so click once and everything should be fine. Will work on a fix. Meanwhile, just load the image again if you clicked twice.

Make sure the .jar file is in its own folder. This is for organizational purposes. The program will generate a folder with the same name as the image you provided. This folder will contain your images once they are created.

Step 1: Obtain a title screen image of the gba game you want banners for. This can be with an emulator's screenshot capabilities, or you can just google for one, it doesn't really matter.

Step 2: Click "Load Image" and select the image you want to use.

Step 3: Enter the title of the game into the input boxes above this message box. If you want the title on a single line on the banner, use only the top box. If you want to split it up on two lines, use both input boxes. There is a max of 24 characters line.

Step 4: Click "Create and Save Images", A folder will be created in the same folder where the .jar file is. This folder will contain your images. There is no prompt to save, the program will do it for you.

DONE!

TL;DR version: Load an image, enter a title, click create and save images, done.

If you don't like that banner2 image it generates for whatever reason, I have provided a template so you can create your own. I might add an option to change the font if people want it.

If you encounter any problems/issues/bug/glitches/whatever please don't hesitate to post them.

If there is any interest for a GB/GBC/NES version, please tell me otherwise I won't consider making one.

Text used for banner2 is arial bolded btw.

One more thing, if there are any programmers reading this, please look though my code and give suggestions on how to improve it. I know some of my code is inefficient, and some of you might facepalm at some or at lot of it. I had to learn a bunch of new things while creating this program.

Changelog:

June 26 2015:
Version 1.0.1:
The Banner1 image generated is now a 128x128 image, the only size acceptable by Riku's program for cia creation.


GUI

Banner1:

Banner2:

Icon:

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

Nice job on this!

I might add an option to change the font if people want it.

Thumbs up from me. I would think people would want that text to look exactly like everything else, and that font isn't real difficult to find.

 

[Digital.One.Entity]

Wow nice app here gonna put this bad boy to the test THX a million fellow Temper

 

[Keylogger]

The program says "Error" when I click "Create and save images"..

Tried with another image and it's OK

 

[TheNerdWIzard]

Wow nice app here gonna put this bad boy to the test THX a million fellow Temper

Test that heck out if it till it breaks! I want to know any problems. Try to make it crash or break everyone!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Nice job on this!

Thumbs up from me. I would think people would want that text to look exactly like everything else, and that font isn't real difficult to find.

Maybe I'll add an option for people to load the official font from their computer. First I'm going to wait how people like this program.

 

[conradcervantes]

I'm pretty anal when it comes to how the banners and icons look in relation to the legit eShop purchases, so this will be a program I'll be using. Thanks a lot for your work.

 

[TheNerdWIzard]

I'm pretty anal when it comes to how the banners and icons look in relation to the legit eShop purchases, so this will be a program I'll be using. Thanks a lot for your work.

Same here. Remember if you don't like how the banner2 image comes out, just use the template and make it to your liking. I forgot to mention, the icon might be a little bright and a little hard to read, but it's a 48x48 image, so there is little room for detail. I heard for a better way to scale the image, but is it worth going though all that trouble for the icon? I'm sure most people will be ok with it as it is, I hope.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

So, someone from that iso site pointed out that the banner1 images created isn't accepted by Riku's program. It has to be 128x128 even though the image is a rectangle, not a square, so blank spaces or whatever the proper term is needs to be added.. I will work on a fix right now.

 

[TheNerdWIzard]

So, someone from that iso site pointed out that the banner1 images created isn't accepted by Riku's program. It has to be 128x128 even though the image is a rectangle, not a square, so blank spaces or whatever the proper term is needs to be added.. I will work on a fix right now.

Fixed! Now on version 1.0.1. The banner1 image is now accepted by Riku's program. I even made a cia and installed it to make sure the banner1 image was displaying ok.

 

[davhuit]

Thanks.

It'll spare me a lot of time for a better result (not the best at graphic editing).

Edit : Tested, works fine.

 

[hippy dave]

Looks great, I'd love to see it with the right font or the ability to choose it

 

[Ekaitz]

Same for me, I would love to see it with the real Virtual Console title fonte used by Nintendo.
Also, on my VC games from eshop, there is a third line with written "Publié en 19XX" (Published in 19XX). It is smaller than the game title, it would be great if we could add this line using your program.

Otherwise, it's still useful to create blank images with no titles and add it with a picture editing soft.

 

[TheNerdWIzard]

Added the a template for the banner2 image because I just realized that I forgot to include that file in with the latest update.

 

[Deleted User]

Awesome! This will make it a lot easier for the others, but i'm still gonna make it myself. For some reason it feels better to do something by yourself, but this is an amazing tool!

 

[3DxMan]

Edit: Crap, I meant to type GBA not GBC for the title. Thank you Sicklyboy for fixing the title!

I have programmed a useful tool for creating the images that are needed for GBA VC cia creation. Just provide an image of the title screen and the title of the game, and the program does the rest.

Please check out this (the one linked) thread for more about creating GBA VC cias. This thread (the thread you're currently on) is strictly about creating the needed images for the footer.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-agb_firm-signature-patcher-gba-rom-converter.390313/

WARNING: If you click the Create and Save Images button multiple times before loading a new image, it will ruin your banner1 and icon image, so click once and everything should be fine. Will work on a fix. Meanwhile, just load the image again if you clicked twice.

Make sure the .jar file is in its own folder. This is for organizational purposes. The program will generate a folder with the same name as the image you provided. This folder will contain your images once they are created.

Step 1: Obtain a title screen image of the gba game you want banners for. This can be with an emulator's screenshot capabilities, or you can just google for one, it doesn't really matter.

Step 2: Click "Load Image" and select the image you want to use.

Step 3: Enter the title of the game into the input boxes above this message box. If you want the title on a single line on the banner, use only the top box. If you want to split it up on two lines, use both input boxes. There is a max of 24 characters line.

Step 4: Click "Create and Save Images", A folder will be created in the same folder where the .jar file is. This folder will contain your images. There is no prompt to save, the program will do it for you.

DONE!

TL;DR version: Load an image, enter a title, click create and save images, done.

If you don't like that banner2 image it generates for whatever reason, I have provided a template so you can create your own. I might add an option to change the font if people want it.

If you encounter any problems/issues/bug/glitches/whatever please don't hesitate to post them.

If there is any interest for a GB/GBC/NES version, please tell me otherwise I won't consider making one.

Text used for banner2 is arial bolded btw.

One more thing, if there are any programmers reading this, please look though my code and give suggestions on how to improve it. I know some of my code is inefficient, and some of you might facepalm at some or at lot of it. I had to learn a bunch of new things while creating this program.

Changelog:

June 26 2015:
Version 1.0.1:
The Banner1 image generated is now a 128x128 image, the only size acceptable by Riku's program for cia creation.


GUI

Banner1:

Banner2:

Icon:

this would be great to have one for nes vc thanks in advance

 

[badger_vm]

I'd love to have a NES/GB/GBC tool too, i have tried making my owns but I find bugs everytime

 

[Baggy Scraggy]

How do I run this. I've tried running every file in the folders you've included, but nothing comes up.

 

[TheNerdWIzard]

How do I run this. I've tried running every file in the folders you've included, but nothing comes up.

Sounds like you downloaded the source code, not the program. The program is next to the source code at the bottom of the first post. Please download "
GBA_VC_Banner_and_Icon_Generator"

 

[Baggy Scraggy]

Sounds like you downloaded the source code, not the program. The program is next to the source code at the bottom of the first post. Please download "
GBA_VC_Banner_and_Icon_Generator"

I figured it out. It kept registering as a winrar archive instead of a .jar file, so I kept extracting it.
I ran it with java and it worked. Thank you!

 

[MichiS97]

Dude, a GBC version of this would be really really nice

 

[Aurora Wright]

Dude, a GBC version of this would be really really nice

A gb/gbc/nes tool would need to include copyrighted GB/GBC/NES banners (I think Riku's tool actually does include a copyrighted empty gba ambassador game banner ) and would require considerably more efforts than generating two PNG images. And besides, you need to unpack the whole GB/GBC/NES NCCH to replace the ROM in the romfs... so at that point, you can as well edit the banner.