Homebrew Saturn emulation using Cotton/Guardian Force testing and debug

[Levine91]

Sory for that, I have forgotten to add ImageMagick download during the update process of the function by the update manager, now if you update it again this should be fixed.

So I have everything set to always check for updates and I've re-tried a few times now, but now the script keeps kicking me back to the Saturn game inject main menu after Step 2 pops up.
SS Game Inject shows 4.3.186 and the hack script shows 4.3.187

 

[kite21]

my Switch Setup:
AMS 1.1.1 HOS FW 13.0.0
in emuNAND eMMC HIdden Partition, to avoid Nintendo Ban
my SysNAND only shows my purchased legal NSP
you can do this methood in SysNAND, i dont recommend it if you play online

without Fullscreen


Fullscreen and stretch applied - i did not edit and replace the .tex Wallpaper for screen below
if you dont like Stretched widescreen, change it in the settings.ini file



Assuming you never played Cotton2 Saturn Tribute and dont have a game save
if you played the game and have a game save, Delete it before using the shared file

add your game iso.bin to file (do not rename your game .bin file)
rename .cue file that was bundled with your new iso and rename it to Cotton2.cue
rename the .cue file

copy the file into SD Card/Atmosphere/Contents/
should look like this:
External SD Card\atmosphere\contents\0100A18015268002\romfs

https://gbatemp.net/attachments/cotton2_romfs_0100a18015268002-zip.279083/ has the following changes that was already made, to avoid spamming the topic with how to add the file or how to make it wide screen or where is the decrypted settings etc
lower menu setings removed, thanks to: cucholix
View attachment 279086
this file needs a few more changes and asset removal, its better if we keep a master file template until we have a clean template and then use it to rebuild the NSP and strip it from all Cotton2 Assets

if anyone has the skills to edit the NSP and rebuilt, or make a script to edit or replce .tex files
i prefer to have a script or Gui to make these changes, i plan to make20 saturn templates or pre built NSP files with 20separate games

send me a PM, we can talk in real time in Discord and share assets

Credits to cucholix for the Decrypted System settings.ini and cleaning the intro .tex

i suggest the OP of this Topic to take the File and keep updating it with new Assets

Hi, sorry to bother you. I wanted to try this so I got Cotton 2. Now the only thing was the game ID folder had a slightly different name. Instead of 0100A18015268002 it was 0100A18015268000. I used your files regardless but nothing's changed. Game still boots as Cotton 2. I deleted my save file but still nothing. The game I am trying to play is Magic Knight Rayearth. I copied the contents of your file in the folder and replaced Cotton2.cue for the Magic Knight cue which then I renamed into Cotton2.cue, I also included the bin file in the same folder, didn't change the name for that one, left it as it is. Finally I changed the value of the widescreen from 1 to 0 since I wanted the original aspect ratio. Here's a screenshot:

Am I doing something wrong? or do I need another version of Cotton? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Thorhax]

Hi, sorry to bother you. I wanted to try this so I got Cotton 2. Now the only thing was the game ID folder had a slightly different name. Instead of 0100A18015268002 it was 0100A18015268000. I used your files regardless but nothing's changed. Game still boots as Cotton 2. I deleted my save file but still nothing. The game I am trying to play is Magic Knight Rayearth. I copied the contents of your file in the folder and replaced Cotton2.cue for the Magic Knight cue which then I renamed into Cotton2.cue, I also included the bin file in the same folder, didn't change the name for that one, left it as it is. Finally I changed the value of the widescreen from 1 to 0 since I wanted the original aspect ratio. Here's a screenshot:

View attachment 279181

Am I doing something wrong? or do I need another version of Cotton? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

You're making the same mistake I did for like 2 days, the folder should end in 002, not 000.
Try it, believe me it'll work.

Apparently it has to do with the rom actually having 3 romfs folders and the 3rd one being the valid one where 0, 1, 2.
So 2 is the third.

 

[kite21]

You're making the same mistake I did for like 2 days, the folder should end in 002, not 000.
Try it, believe me it'll work.

Apparently it has to do with the rom actually having 3 romfs folders and the 3rd one being the valid one where 0, 1, 2.
So 2 is the third.

So like, should I change the name of the folder? Or should I look for whatever version of the game that has that?

 

[Thorhax]

So like, should I change the name of the folder? Or should I look for whatever version of the game that has that?

just change the name of the folder, all you have to do is change the last 0 to a 2

make it
0100A18015268002

 

[kite21]

just change the name of the folder, all you have to do is change the last 0 to a 2

make it
0100A18015268002

Oh wow you were right! I had a hunch before posting about changing the name but I thought that would be silly. Now I indeed feel silly for not trying. Thanks!

 

[Siem]

yes its in japanese, but when I remove texture.tex from romfs the menu works fine.

changing it to english does not help.


when you boot up a game, the initial save file created sets the language to "0" japanese or "1" english.

I had the same issue.. you need to use the 3-in-1 game for modification, then everything is in English.
If you replace the Texture.tex in the single game versions then you get the weird looking menu's in Japanese.

 

[Thorhax]

Oh wow you were right! I had a hunch before posting about changing the name but I thought that would be silly. Now I indeed feel silly for not trying. Thanks!

The problem is that it's not obvious unless you've done it before, because the ID online says 000 and the ID inside tinfoil says 000

 

[kite21]

The problem is that it's not obvious unless you've done it before, because the ID online says 000 and the ID inside tinfoil says 000

Ah I see, will keep that in mind next time. Game is running perfectly with no input lag nor frame drops as others have already confirmed.

 

[Thorhax]

Ah I see, will keep that in mind next time. Game is running perfectly with no input lag nor frame drops as others have already confirmed.

It's amazing just how polished this secret emulator is.

 

[antonyfirst]

Hi guys, I wanted to add my input: yesterday I tested a version of Elevator Action Returns made of multiple bin files and it worked perfectly (I am using the Cotton game collection).
So, apparently, there is no need to join them together in a single bin.

Whjat a great (and unexpected) emulator. I will be curious to see if it's possible to play multiple games.

 

[kite21]

It's amazing just how polished this secret emulator is.

Indeed, there is another game I want to test. Silhouette Mirage. I've not seen anyone testing it yet so I might as well try it tomorrow.

 

[ZER-O]

Hi guys, I wanted to add my input: yesterday I tested a version of Elevator Action Returns made of multiple bin files and it worked perfectly (I am using the Cotton game collection).
So, apparently, there is no need to join them together in a single bin.

Whjat a great (and unexpected) emulator. I will be curious to see if it's possible to play multiple games.

you are half correct, i still had some games with multiple .bin and they did not work until i used anyburn app and merged them
also make sure you dont have iso Names in CAPS, big letters are not recognized, i had to rename everything, including the names inside the.cue to reflect the changes i made

 

[antonyfirst]

OK, thanks for the correction. So, it also depends on the games?

 

[ZER-O]

OK, thanks for the correction. So, it also depends on the games?

i only tested games with multi .bin files, 2 bin files almost always worked, games with 3 or more never worked unless i merged them in a new iso Image, games with wav tracks must be converted, did not test games with MP3 files, those were ripped for emulator sue
i rip my own CDs as i have most of the games purchased already since Saturn Release,

 

[Siem]

Anyone got the scanlines settings to work?

 

[xYuunax]

I had the same issue.. you need to use the 3-in-1 game for modification, then everything is in English.
If you replace the Texture.tex in the single game versions then you get the weird looking menu's in Japanese.

Thanks for confirming! I figured that was the case.

 

[hackotedelaplaqu]

Anyone got the scanlines settings to work?

No as far as I am concerned. I asked for others but get no answer. The setting is missing in the options too so I guess it was disabled with this port.

 

[Levine91]

Thanks for confirming! I figured that was the case.

Wait so the texture file to hide the options icon doesn't work on the standalone games? I haven't bothered with it yet.

 

[xYuunax]

Wait so the texture file to hide the options icon doesn't work on the standalone games? I haven't bothered with it yet.

It works, just the text is a garbled mess. though if you remember the position, you can change the settings.