Hacking The M3 Sakura FAQ

Lathlas · Sep 30, 2009

I reformatted and reinstalled on my card. Now everything loads just fine, and I get the 'View Guide' option in the RTS menu, but when I click it it just says 'File not found'. I tried this on several games with *.txt files named exactly the same as the rom, some filenames with spaces and some without, but nothing actually worked.

Matt140 · Sep 30, 2009

Lathlas said:
I reformatted and reinstalled on my card. Now everything loads just fine, and I get the 'View Guide' option in the RTS menu, but when I click it it just says 'File not found'. I tried this on several games with *.txt files named exactly the same as the rom, some filenames with spaces and some without, but nothing actually worked.

I've got the same problem, I had it working earlier so I'll post back in a bit if I find anything out.

Densetsu · Sep 30, 2009

Lathlas said:
I reformatted and reinstalled on my card. Now everything loads just fine, and I get the 'View Guide' option in the RTS menu, but when I click it it just says 'File not found'. I tried this on several games with *.txt files named exactly the same as the rom, some filenames with spaces and some without, but nothing actually worked.

I still haven't had a chance to actually try this out for myself (very busy lately), but I have a few ideas:

1. Have you tried putting the .txt file on the root of the card? Maybe it searches for them on the root.
2. If that doesn't work, try downloading just TouchPod by itself and see if you can get the in-game guide to display. If you can, then we're missing some files from the Sakura/Touchpod combo. There's a folder called "FONTS" that has some files in the TouchPod SYSTEM folder that aren't used by Sakura. I'm not sure if those files have anything to do with it though.
3. If you still can't get the guide to display even using the standalone TouchPod, then I guess that's why they call it "beta"

Lathlas · Sep 30, 2009

I keep all of my roms in the root directory, so that's where the txt file was as well. Maybe trying it in /NDS would work, since Touchpod prefers that.

I don't actually plan on using this feature anyway, so I think I'm done messing with my card for now.

dsrules · Sep 30, 2009

Beta usually means that it's not fully tested of it's not perfect, where on some games , after using the View Guide, it could cause the game to freeze on some games.

and View Guide works fine on mine in Both Sakura and Touchpod using the Megaupload file posted above

Lathlas said:
I keep all of my roms in the root directory, so that's where the txt file was as well. Maybe trying it in /NDS would work, since Touchpod prefers that.

I don't actually plan on using this feature anyway, so I think I'm done messing with my card for now.

nope, it doesn't matter where you put your nds files as long as the txt and nds files are under the same name and are inside the same directory then the View Guide will work

Densetsu · Oct 1, 2009

dsrules said:
Beta usually means that it's not fully tested of it's not perfect, where on some games , after using the View Guide, it could cause the game to freeze on some games.

and View Guide works fine on mine in Both Sakura and Touchpod using the Megaupload file posted above

I was finally able to get the file to upload to GBAtemp. It's identical to the MU file, so it should work. Thanks for testing it out dsrules!

stab244 · Oct 1, 2009

If I were to update the SYSTEM folder in iSakuReal 1.7a with the SYSTEM folder here, would I run into any problems? Or should I just copy over the newer files?

Lathlas · Oct 1, 2009

Now I have a new problem. I can't seem to load GBA games in Sakura anymore. They load up fine in Touchpod, but whenever I try to load them in Sakura it just hangs on the 'Loading... Please wait.' screen (mini_load).

dsrules · Oct 1, 2009

Lathlas said:
Now I have a new problem. I can't seem to load GBA games in Sakura anymore. They load up fine in Touchpod, but whenever I try to load them in Sakura it just hangs on the 'Loading... Please wait.' screen (mini_load).

GBA game works fine on mine...tested with Super Street Fighter GBA
so there must be something wrong with your files

Joe88 · Oct 1, 2009

touchpod is really buggy in this release (guess they werent kidding when said said beta)
Ive had it crash alot and sometimes sakura crashes when hitting select to go too the file select

Flame · Oct 1, 2009

the link here http://www.handheldsources.com/M3DS/Download_M3DSR.html for System V4.5Beta X seems dead, i cant seem to download.

kobykaan · Oct 1, 2009

Flame™ said:
the link here http://www.handheldsources.com/M3DS/Download_M3DSR.html for System V4.5Beta X seems dead, i cant seem to download.

They are having file hosting issues here's a mirror I made for that download link

Flame · Oct 1, 2009

thanks mate.

GreenBanana · Oct 1, 2009

Wow, they seem to be having a LOT of issues, don't they?

DeltaBurnt · Oct 1, 2009

GreenBanana said:
Wow, they seem to be having a LOT of issues, don't they?

Who the hosting site? The really only seem to have broken links every now and then.

Densetsu · Oct 2, 2009

<a name="guide"></a><div align="center"><a href="#guide">The M3 Sakura Guide</a></div>
<a name="basics"></a><a href="#basics">The Basics</a>
The bare minimum you should know about using M3 Sakura.<ol type='1'><li>Loader Setup: Format a MicroSD card (it is recommended that you use the <a href="http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.04.12-HDD-Low-Level-Format-Tool" target="_blank">HDD Low-Level Format Tool</a> or the <a href="http://filetrip.net/f1380-SDFormatter-Version-2-0-0-2.html" target="_blank">Panasonic SD Formatter</a>), <a href="http://filetrip.net/file.php?id=4374" target="_blank">download</a> and copy the SYSTEM folder to the root of the newly-formatted (FAT32) card, then insert the card in your M3 Real / M3i Zero flashcart. For the M3 Real, that's all you have to do! For the M3i Zero, <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=168862" target="_blank">you have to flash it</a> before you can use it.</li><li>File Setup: Place skins, TXTs, MP3s, DPGs, DSMs, JPGs, PNGs, GIFs, BMPs, and NDS files anywhere on the MicroSD card. You may organize folders any way you want, but if you use TouchPod as well, it is convenient to place your NDS ROMs in a folder called "NDS" and your GBA ROMs into a folder called "GBA" on the root of your MicroSD card. If you have GBA ROMs, you can only run them if you have a <a href="http://www.realhotstuff.com/expansion-pack-real-p-266.html" target="_blank">GBA Expansion Pack</a> or similar Slot-2 expansion such as the <a href="http://realhotstuff.com/-c-124_58_107.html" target="_blank">EZFlashV 3-in-1</a> (the GBA Expansion Pack is highly recommended over any other Slot-2 solution). It should be noted that the DSi (using an M3i Zero) does not have a Slot-2, so at this point it is impossible to load GBA ROMs on a DSi. </li><li>Dual-Boot: The first time you run Sakura, you are presented with a <a href="http://www.gbalpha.cn/China/GBalpha_Download/UploadSoftPic/20081214175337644.jpg" target="_blank">loader selection screen</a> where you can choose between two loaders: Sakura and TouchPod (the original loader for M3 Real). Once you've selected a loader, your DS will always boot into that loader and you will not see this screen again. To access this screen again and switch back and forth between Sakura and TouchPod, hold down the A button when turning on the DS. Although TouchPod doesn't look as nice and isn't as responsive as Sakura, TouchPod tends to have better ROM and homebrew compatibility and is updated faster than Sakura. The only reason you would ever want to use TouchPod would be if you can't run certain homebrew or ROMs in Sakura.</li><li>Basic Controls: The default skin for Sakura has button controls listed in the top screen. Many of the custom skins contain these controls as well, so make sure that you read them to learn some of the basics of navigating Sakura. Some people have posted questions asking how to show the MP3 controls, change the brightness level, etc. when all they had to do was LOOK AT THE TOP SCREEN. Just make sure you don't have any <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=137545" target="_blank">custom wallpapers</a> set as the background or you won't be able to see the controls (see "Skins and Wallpaper" below for more information). </li><li>Files and Folders: Access your files and folders by either sliding your stylus over them or highlighting them and pressing A. Pressing B will go back to the previous directory / menu. </li><li>NDS and GBA ROMs: To load a ROM, slide a ROM to the left or highlight it and press A. To access the Sakura NDS/GBA Settings, slide a ROM to the right or highlight it and press X or Y. </li><li>Skins and Wallpaper: To change skins, place a <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=89197#sknen" target="_blank">.skn file</a> on your MicroSD card and simply slide it with your stylus or highlight it and press A. To set a custom wallaper, open a <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=137545" target="_blank">wallpaper image file</a> and press START to set it as the background. To remove the wallpaper, press START from the main Sakura GUI and select Restore Default Wallpaper.</li><li>File-Specific Menus: Press START while viewing a text file to access the Text Display Mode Settings menu. Press SELECT while viewing an image file to access the Image Display Mode Settings.</li></ol><hr /><a name="settings"></a><a href="#settings">M3 Sakura NDS/GBA Settings</a>
You can access the settings menus by sliding a ROM to the right or highlighting it and pressing X or Y.<ol type='1'><li>Select Cheat File: M3 Sakura comes with a <a href="http://cheats.gbatemp.net/" target="_blank">massive cheat database</a> maintained by <a href='http://gbatemp.net/member.php?name=Narin' target=_blank title='View profile for member Narin'}>Narin</a>. This option points to the database (cheat.db) in the SYSTEM folder by default, but if you want to <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=116242" target="_blank">create your own</a> <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=95774" target="_blank">custom cheat files</a> and use them in Sakura, use the Select Cheat File option to set a different cheat file. For GBA ROMs, you'll need to download the cheat files <a href="http://cheats.gbatemp.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=9" target="_blank">here</a> (SIDE-NOTE: You can create <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=80151" target="_blank">cheat text files for NDS ROMs</a> as well).</li><li>Select Cheats: This option allows you to select cheats to activate for a particular ROM. Place a check next to the desired cheat to activate it. As a general rule of thumb, do not activate too many cheats at once or you may introduce bugs and instability into the ROM during gameplay. If this happens, simply reboot the DS, remove some cheats and try again. </li><li>Cheat Switch: Use the On/Off[Sel+←/→] to toggle cheats on and off during gameplay. <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?s=&showtopic=188211&view=findpost&p=2359326" target="_blank">Here's an explanation of the Always On and Instant Codes options</a>. </li><li>NDS-GBA Link: Some NDS games have unlockable features that are available only if you have the original NDS cartridge in Slot-1 and a GBA cartridge in Slot-2 that the NDS game will recognize. You can find more detailed information <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=107629" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_DS_games_with_GBA_connectivity" target="_blank">here</a>. M3 Sakura allows you to do this with NDS and GBA ROMs as well. You can only take advantage of this feature if you have a Slot-2 expansion, such as the GBA Expansion Pack. Tap the NDS-GBA Link button, navigate to the folder that contains the desired GBA ROM and select the ROM. Now you can unlock special bonus features! Currently there is no way (via the Sakura GUI) to unlink two ROMs once they have been linked, but you can unlink them by deleting the .opt file for the NDS ROM from your MicroSD card. This only applies to the DS Lite/Phat; the DSi (using an M3i Zero) can't accept a GBA Expansion Pack due to its lack of a Slot-2, and therefore can't take advantage of this feature. </li><li>Soft-Reset: This option allows you to exit out of a game and return to the M3 Sakura GUI without having to physically turn off the DS power switch and turn it back on (known as a hard-reset). You can trigger soft-reset with a button combination that you set. Under the Soft-Reset / Real-Time Save Switch, select either SR: LR+ABX or SR: LR+ABY to turn on the soft-reset feature. During gameplay, press the button combination LR+ABX or LR+ABY to soft-reset back to M3 Sakura. NOTE: You can not enable this feature at the same time as RTS (see #6 below), <a href="#sr-rts">but you can still soft-reset if RTS is active.</a></li><li>RTS: RTS stands for "Real-Time Save." This feature allows you to save at any point during gameplay, even when the game normally wouldn't allow you to save. For example, many games have save points or checkpoints that you must reach in order to save so that you can resume at the same spot at a later time. With RTS, you can save, for example, in the middle of a battle in an RPG. When you load an RTS, it will pick up at precisely the point where you saved it. To turn it on for NDS ROMs, select either RTS: LR+Select or RTS: LR+Y from the Soft-Reset / Real-Time Save Switch. In order to create two additional real-time save (RTS) slots, tap the RTS Backup button. This will generate an .is1 and .is2 file for the ROM. Each RTS backup is 4.81MB, so use this feature sparingly in order to avoid using up too much space on your MicroSD card (you can also just <a href="#delete">delete them</a> if this happens). NOTE: You can not use this feature at the same time as soft-reset (see #5 above). To use RTS with GBA ROMs, turn it on in the M3 Sakura GBA Settings, and while playing press A+B+L+R to call up the RTS menu.</li><li>Play Mode: It's safe to keep this option on the Standard setting for the most part. If you want to play with multiple DS users, select Download Play if you're having connection problems. </li><li>Slow-Motion: This option is only visible if you have Soft-Reset enabled (see #5 above). You can toggle it on and off using the button combination that you've selected (either L+Select or R+Select). Slow-Motion Level refers to the degree of slowdown, with "1" being the fastest and "5" being the slowest. Slow-motion only works with selected ROMs. </li><li>Universal Settings (for NDS ROMs only): Also known as "Global Settings," this option allows you to apply cheats, soft-reset (SR), and real-time save (RTS) settings to every ROM on your MicroSD card, rather than having to set these options individually for each ROM. Once you have enabled the desired settings, tap Set for All Games to instantly apply the current settings to every ROM. NOTE: The Set for All Games option will lock your settings for every ROM so you won't be able to change the settings individually. To unlock the settings, select Set for New Games Only.</li></ol><hr /><a name="start"></a><a href="#start">START Menu</a>
Access this menu by pressing START from the Sakura main GUI.<ol type='1'><li>1-Line/2-Line Mode Toggle: This toggles the display mode of your file names. 1-Line Mode is more compact and displays more files on the screen. 2-Line Mode shows the file names on two lines, and uses larger icons. </li><li>GUI Settings: </li><li>Restore Default Wallpaper: If you have a custom wallpaper set as the background, tap this option to remove it. </li><li>Language Settings: Select this option to change the language of the GUI.</li></ol><hr /><a name="video"></a><a href="#video">Video Player Viewing Modes</a>
While watching a DPG or DSM file, you can toggle through different viewing modes. Pressing SELECT once while viewing a video will hide the video player controls. If you keep pressing SELECT, you will cycle through the different viewing modes. To display the video player controls again, simply tap the bottom screen. 
<a name="hide"></a><a href="#hide">How to Hide Files</a>
You can hide files and entire folders in Sakura so that they will be invisible and inaccessible via the GUI. To do this, you have to make the file hidden in Windows. Right-click the file on your PC, click on Properties, and under Attributes check the "Hidden" box and click OK. To un-hide a file, open any folder in Windows, click on "Tools," then "Folder Options..." and then click on the "View" tab. Scroll down to the radio button that says "Show hidden files and folders" and click on it. Typically one might want to hide the SYSTEM folder since you never have to access it from within Sakura, and hiding it serves to reduce GUI clutter. 
<a name="rtg"></a><a href="#rtg">Real-Time Guide (RTG)</a>
The basic concept of RTG is that when you're playing a game and you get stuck, you can pause the game and access a walkthrough right on your DS, then close the walkthrough and return to the game right where you left off. This feature is available in M3 Sakura (as well as TouchPod), and is simply an expanded use for RTS. Here's how to use it:
1. Place the game guide (in the form of a .txt file) in the same folder where the ROM is located. The ROM and the text file must have exactly the same name (e.g., ROM Title.txt and ROM Title.nds).
2. Enter the ROM settings and turn on RT Save using either L+R+Select or L+R+Y.
3. Load the ROM, then press the button combo you chose for RT Save.
4. At the RTS Menu, select "VIEW GUIDE" to load the text file.
5. When you're done viewing the text, press B to go back to the RTS Menu, then B once more to go back to the game.

When formatting the text file, you can save it either as ANSI (the default format) or as Unicode. Press the X button in the RTS menu to switch viewing between ANSI and Unicode.

The Real-Time Game Guide displays up to 43 characters on a line:
*******************************************<--43 Characters
Parsing the text accordingly allows for optimal viewing of the text file. Use this <a href="http://mytexttools.com/Add-Remove-Line-Breaks.html" target="_blank">online tool</a> to format your game guides. Some general instructions:
1. Paste your game guide in the top box, then remove all line breaks. The text will appear in the bottom box with all line breaks removed.
2. Paste the formatted text from the bottom box back into the top box. Set it to Wordwrap Line Breaks every 43 characters, and click the button.
3. Your game guide is now formatted for viewing in Sakura.
You may have to tweak some settings in the text tool depending on how the game guide is originally formatted. For obvious reasons, formatting text in this way is not recommended for ASCII art (e.g., maps and other walkthrough diagrams drawn in ASCII).
<a name="delete"></a><a href="#delete">How to Delete Files in Sakura</a>
As of v1.41, you can delete files from within Sakura. While navigating the GUI, highlight a file and press L+Select. You'll get a dialog asking if you want to delete the file, at which point you can either confirm or cancel the file deletion. At this time there are no other file management options available (cutting, copying, pasting, moving files) in Sakura; however, you can back up save files in TouchPod by highlighting a ROM and pressing SELECT. NOTE: Some files are hidden in the Sakura GUI by default. If you want to view them, press START to access the <a href="#start">START Menu</a>, go into the GUI Settings and un-check the box that says "Hide unsupported files."
<a name="backup"></a><a href="#backup">How to Create Backup Save Files (TouchPod Only)</a>
This can't be done in Sakura, but it can be done in TouchPod. To switch from Sakura to TouchPod, hold the A button down when you turn on the DS. Then highlight the ROM for which you want to back up your save, and press SELECT. You'll see some choices:
Default->1: Make a backup for the current .sav file. This will create an .sa1 file containing your backed up data.
Default->2: Make a backup for the current .sav file. This will create an .sa2 file containing your backed up data.
1->Default: Restore a .sav file from the .sa1 file.
2->Default: Restore a .sav file from the .sa2 file.
Blank: Erase your save data from the current .sav file.
Create is1: Create an RTS file. This will create an .is1 file containing your RTS data.
Create is2: Create an RTS file. This will create an .is2 file containing your RTS data.
<a name="saverestore"></a><a href="#saverestore">How to Restore Old Saves (Sakura Only)</a>
NOTE: This only works with Sakura v1.47 (1st Edition) and below. It no longer works with v1.47 (2nd Edition).
Sakura keeps a log of the last several times you saved for every game, even if a game normally only allows you to have just one save file.
1. From Sakura's main GUI, press SELECT. This takes you to the File Launcher.
2. While in the Recent Applications tab, select the ROM for which you want to restore an old save (do not tap the ROM, just highlight it by pressing Up/Down).
3. Press START to enter the Save File Restore menu.

Using this feature, you can return to any time that you saved in the game (up to the last several times), even though you wouldn't be able to access the saves normally through the game itself. This is a great feature for doing emergency save restorations. Note that the most current save data (accessible in-game) will be lost if you restore an old save.
<a name="sr-rts"></a><a href="#sr-rts">Soft-Reset and Real-Time Save</a>
<a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=182018#f5" target="_blank">The official GBAtemp.net review of M3i Zero</a> states that you can't select Soft-Reset and Real-Time Save at the same time. While it is true that you can't use the button combination to soft-reset back to the Sakura main menu, it is possible to soft-reset with RTS active. If you enable RTS, you can soft-reset by accessing the RTS menu and selecting the MAIN MENU option.
<a name="diskcheck"></a><a href="#diskcheck">How to Disable Sakura's DiskCheck on your PC</a>
Usually you can disable DiskCheck through the firmware via the GUI Settings in the <a href="#start">START Menu</a>, but what happens when the check freezes before reaching 100% and you're locked out of the firmware? When this happens, it usually means there's something wrong with your files (corrupt files, too many files in one folder, etc.). The solution is to disable DiskCheck via your PC:
1. Download and extract <a href="http://filetrip.net/f9164-M3-Sakura-Disk-Check-Disabler-1-0.html" target="_blank">this file</a>.
2. Copy the SYSTEM folder to the root of your MicroSD card and overwrite the existing file when asked. This disables DiskCheck.

Although this file allows you to bypass DiskCheck, you shouldn't leave the corrupt files sitting on your MicroSD card. <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=89197&st=600&p=1763665#20" target="_blank">Follow these steps</a> to find and remove the file(s).

If you can't find any corrupt files, then you probably have too many files (perhaps hundreds of them) in one folder. In this case you'll have to remove some of the files, or just create additional folders on your card and break the files into more manageable numbers.
<a name="cheat"></a><a href="#cheat">Updating the Cheat Database</a>
The <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=4808" target="_blank">firmware download on the first post</a> will always have the latest <a href="http://cheats.gbatemp.net/" target="_blank">cheat database</a> released by <a href='http://gbatemp.net/member.php?name=Narin' target=_blank title='View profile for member Narin'}>Narin</a> and the Cheat Code Crew (updated about once every month), but there's also a temporary cheat database that's updated more often by <a href='http://gbatemp.net/member.php?name=elixirdream' target=_blank title='View profile for member elixirdream'}>elixirdream</a>. It's only posted to the main cheat database when the CCC decides it's ready. <a href="http://cheats.gbatemp.net/Temp/" target="_blank">You can (sometimes) download it here</a>. Just replace/overwrite the current cheat.db file in your SYSTEM folder with the one you get from the temporary cheat database.
<a name="application"></a><a href="#application">How to Customize the Application Menu</a>
Pressing SELECT while using Sakura will take you to the Recent Applications and Accessories menus. Press L or R to toggle between the menus. By default, the Accessories menu contains "Check disk for NDS ver0.4" and "Morning timer Ver1.2." You can customize this list by dragging any .nds file into the "SYSTEM\m3sakura\launch" folder on your MicroSD card. This folder should not contain any more than 5 .nds files. Any additional files after the first 5 simply will not show up in the Accessories menu. You may delete all of the contents of the "launch" folder, but do not delete the folder itself.

dsrules · Oct 2, 2009

Densetsu3000 said:
How to Use the In-Game Guide in TouchPod 4.5 Beta
Since this only works in TouchPod and not Sakura,

if it works in Touchpod, it should also work in Sakura..at least it works on mines

Densetsu · Oct 2, 2009

dsrules said:
Densetsu3000 said:

How to Use the In-Game Guide in TouchPod 4.5 Beta
Since this only works in TouchPod and not Sakura,

Click to expand...

if it works in Touchpod, it should also work in Sakura..at least it works on mines

That's weird...here's what happened when I tried it:

I loaded the new system files onto my MicroSD card and and booted into Sakura, and kept getting a "File not found" error whenever I tried to view the guides.

So I booted into TouchPod, then tried to view the guides again. It worked. I was able to view the text files for two different ROMs, NSMB and DQIV (in that order). That's when I thought that maybe it only works in TouchPod.

To confirm my theory that it only worked in TouchPod, I held A when turning on the DS to select Sakura again. The weird thing was that only after viewing the text files in TouchPod, did it start working in Sakura. But in Sakura, I encountered a bug where I could only view the guide that I most recently accessed while in TouchPod (DQIV). When I tried to view the guide for NSMB, it would keep showing me the guide for DQIV.

I should note that I tried this on the Japanese M3 Real, so maybe that would explain why I got different results (or maybe it was due to an error on my part in copying files, who knows?). I'll try to see if I can duplicate the bug with the U/E firmware. But for now I'm going to change the In-Game Guide instructions based on your results.

Flame · Oct 2, 2009

Densetsu3000 you can remove the In-Game Guide from Suggestions.

GreenBanana · Oct 2, 2009

Maybe under suggestions we can add "up-to-date Sakura firmware" for our "M3 Sakura FAQ" thread. You know, in lieu of all the not-Sakura TouchPod stuff.

Hacking The M3 Sakura FAQ

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