Hello guys, this is my first post here! I just got a MIG Switch card out of curiosity and I was tinkering with it. For those who don't know, it's used by placing XCI dumps as well as other game specific bin files in the sd card of the MIG Switch, and are obtained from the original cartridge by using an app like nxdumptool. Two of these bin files are mandatory to get the game to boot: Initial Data.bin and Certificate.bin. They stay the same for every cartridge of a specific game. Now, if you want to use an XCI dump from a shady website it's impossible to get it to work without those files. By using the Certificate.bin from another game it has no problem, but this does not count for the Initial Data.bin. So I looked for a way to obtain this Initial Data from an XCI file and read a bit of the XCI file documentation from switchbrew dot org. Here's what I understood so far: The Switch checks if the cartridge is valid by doing a challenge–response authentication on the Initial Data. The Package ID is contained both on the XCI and the Initial Data, on positions 0x110 and 0x0 respectively. The Initial Data hash is on the XCI at position 0x160. It is calculated by doing a SHA-256 hash on the full Initial Data content. So I was wondering, is there a way to to construct a functional Initial Data file starting from an XCI dump? I also tried a reverse approach by editing the Package ID in the Initial Data from another game, generating the Initial Data hash and putting it in the XCI file but is not enough to get the Switch believe it's a real game. Sorry if this may seem stupid but let me know what you think.

duckstation for Switch

catlover007 · 2024-04-22T04:06:40+00:00

duckstation is an excellent Playstation 1 emulator by Stenzek. It has a very good compabiility and it is quite performant. It also supports all kinds of enhancements such as high resolution rendering and PGXP which can lessen the "wobble" and...

Gaming Nintendo now fully owns the Astral Chain IP

Thread starter Bryon15
Start date Jan 30, 2021
Views 1,460
Replies 3
Likes 1

Bryon15

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 9

Jan 30, 2021

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...tendos-ip-after-fans-notice-copyright-change/

I thought this was interesting. I wonder what it means. Hopefully platinum games will continue to develop any sequels.

Reactions: Jayro

Jayro

MediCat USB Dev

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Level 26

Jan 30, 2021

Very cool. I just hope they do more with it, and don't shelf it forever like F-Zero.

Bryon15

Well-Known Member

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Level 9

Jan 30, 2021

Come to think of it, has Nintendo ever done something like this before? I can only think of two reasons why.

1. This was just a simple trade off. Nintendo allowed platinum games to make the wonderful 101 multiplat, and in exchange they (nintendo) get full ownership of Astral Chain.

2. Nintendo did this as a defensive move to secure the rights to the franchise, ahead of a possible buyout (if Tencent or microsoft buys platinum games). To avoid a case where an IP is owned by competing platforms.

Salron

Member

Newcomer

Level 1

Mar 19, 2021

Astral Chain wasn't as enjoyable as other games made by Platinum to me but the concept of the gameplay is pretty cool so I hope they can follow up with a sequel that does things better in the future.