Preview GC Backup Launcher for Wii

[quote name='WiiGator' post='1757812' date='Feb 7 2009, 05:11 AM']A tester made a comparison of modchip, old delta version and new zeta version of the gc backup launcher:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HOSRDXJA

The game is Zelda Collection. This game starts DOLs, so the patcher is required to stay alive and need to check all DVD transfers. So it can patch itself into the new game loaded. This method makes it really slow. There is the possiblity to put a configuration into it. So the patcher knows the memory addresses to patch. An USB Gecko is currently required to get this information. A game of this type will load fast, if someone uses a USB Gecko to get this information. You can also try to guess the addresses. A few tries could lead to success. In the video you can see a game which was optimized as described (it runs at full speed). It is possible to configure it, to disable the patcher after the final DOL is loaded, so the gameplay is not disturbed. There is no other way to get around this problem, so you will need to collect the desired information.[/quote]


Well would it be possible to collect the necessary infomation with another program and write it on the gamecube memory card? Or is it only possible to collect the data during runtime?

[quote name='kashin' post='1758059' date='Feb 7 2009, 10:40 AM']What's funny is that i've read this whole thread and there were maybe 1 or 2 posts that should at worst be discarded as ''unnecessary'' (mods took care of that).

Yet there are atleast 5 pages filled with people cracking down on, what seems as, hallucinations of offencive posts.
I usually try to avoid posting about/reacting to people who get offended and feel the need to ''defend'' Wiigator, Waninkiko, or whatever developer and whatever project, but i think it's really getting annoying.

EVEN IF someone posted a suggestion that's unnecesarry, or was asking for more when they didn't have the right to, Wiigator, i'm sure, has the brains to realize this himself and just not bother to react to it at all.
So... Yeah.[/quote]

Just for the sake of contradiction. Your post isn't any different, and neither is mine.

[quote name='dbkdbk' post='1758076' date='Feb 7 2009, 10:18 AM'][quote name='kashin' post='1758059' date='Feb 7 2009, 10:40 AM']What's funny is that i've read this whole thread and there were maybe 1 or 2 posts that should at worst be discarded as ''unnecessary'' (mods took care of that).

Yet there are atleast 5 pages filled with people cracking down on, what seems as, hallucinations of offencive posts.
I usually try to avoid posting about/reacting to people who get offended and feel the need to ''defend'' Wiigator, Waninkiko, or whatever developer and whatever project, but i think it's really getting annoying.

EVEN IF someone posted a suggestion that's unnecesarry, or was asking for more when they didn't have the right to, Wiigator, i'm sure, has the brains to realize this himself and just not bother to react to it at all.
So... Yeah.[/quote]

Just for the sake of contradiction. Your post isn't any different, and neither is mine.
[/quote]


I realized the irony while writing it, but i suppose it's for my own sense of peace.

I guess my biggest concern is, without trying to sound overly greedy, is that an internet sh*tstorm ensues and before we know it. Dev's crack it with the lack of support they're receiving and either delay their release or simply say stuff it all together.

Call me over-zelous. But I've had my fingers crossed for something along these lines for quite some time. Ever since my little sister scratched the living daylights out of my Twin Snakes a while back.

THREAD SUMMARY WITHOUT THE CRAP

I am going to bed now and will finish editing this post tomorrow. In many cases "I" is used, this is simply because I have copy+pasted from Wiigator, Waninkoko and testers. This will be fixed in due time. I will atempt to keep this post up-to-date until the loader is released. I sincerely hope that someone creates a Wiki page with a compatibilty list, known info, and once it is out setup info.

This thread, in its current form, is almost completely unusable as a source of information to anybody who doesn't have an hour to search through it. For those people, and for my own sanity, I have compiled what I have deemed relevant to the topic of Wiigator's GC Backup Launcher for Wii. The current thread is filled with thank you's, congratulations, requests for release, stupid questions, and in my opinion, the most annoying of all, the people who tell others to be patient. Why do these people infuriate me? Maybe 10 people have asked when the launcher will be out. Around 50 have said to be patient. This clutters an already long thread, and thus this post.
-Praetor

The last days I was working on a loader for GC backups. This is only a preview. The release will be within the next week.

Click to expand...

- A video showing it in action:
[yt]http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=YhheQgAoZbo[/yt]

Notes:

I tested it with the games I have. All games seem to be fully working. There may be games which are not working.

Click to expand...

It is not intended to work with SD cards. The DVD is much faster (at least what I can see when comparing to SD-Boot). In general it works as SD-Boot. It patches the DVD read function in games.

Required:

IOS249 with backup support need to be installed (e.g. my cIOS r7 from backuplauncher 0.3 gamma).

You will need to copy the following files to a SD card, if you don't have a internet connection (either Version 5 or Version 6, both is working). There are problems with the nintendo servers in the last time. You may not be able to download it.

MIOS:
MIOS Version 4 is also supported.

MIOS Version 5
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...100000101/tmd.5 -> /00000001/00000101/v5/tmd.5
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...0100000101/cetk -> /00000001/00000101/v5/cetk
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...000101/00000005 -> /00000001/00000101/v5/00000005
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...000101/00000006 -> /00000001/00000101/v5/00000006

MIOS Version 6 seems not to be available from the nintendo servers. I thought that I have used it in the past.

MIOS Version 8
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...100000101/tmd.8 -> /00000001/00000101/v8/tmd.8
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...0100000101/cetk -> /00000001/00000101/v8/cetk
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...000101/00000007 -> /00000001/00000101/v8/00000007
http://nus.cdn.shop.wii.com/ccs/download/0...000101/00000008 -> /00000001/00000101/v8/00000008

Latest MIOS is v8. It's the one I'm using for testings here.

There is only one version required and it makes no difference, because the MIOS is not even really started. The GC Backup Launcher takes the full control very early.

The MIOS patcher will download MIOS and you can select the version to install.

The MIOS patcher allows you to choose between 2 version:
1. MIOS with homebrew and DVD-R support.
2. MIOS with homebrew and DVD-R support and GC Backup Launcher included.

Limitations:
DVD speed is still limited to 3x.

There are sometimes problems with the DVD read speed. So there is sometimes a very short delay in a few games. The game play is only barely influenced. This was only the case for one of my games.

If you eject the disc, no disc can be detected after it. For 2 disc games use the second disc to boot, if you need to change the disc.

It will not support games reloading itself. All games which are running with SD-Boot should also work.

Tested games so far:
Buffy the Vampires Slayer
Kao The Kangaroo Round 2
Super Mario Sunshine
Zelda 4 Swords
Crash Nitro Kart
Resident Evil 1 (2 discs)
Luigi's Mansion
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Zoids: Battle Legends
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Naruto: Gekitou! Ninja Taisen EX 3
Mega Man X Collection
Mega Man X: Command Mission
Mega Man Battle Network Transmission
and the game you can see in the video.

Question:
What about the games with streaming audio (ones that require audio fix)?

Like these... http://www.openwii.org/wiki/GameCube_Games...Streaming_Audio

Answer:
When you start it up, it'll tell you that the game may need an audio fix. and gives you a couple of options to fix it. Some games I have tested that work are:

Zoids: Battle Legends
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Naruto: Gekitou! Ninja Taisen EX 3
Mega Man X Collection
Mega Man X: Command Mission
Mega Man Battle Network Transmission

Question:
Will you have to patch the MIOS every time, or is it a one time deal?

Answer:
Just one time (except if you update your Wii and MIOS gets replaced).

Question:
Is this regionfree?

Answer:
Yes it is Region Free, I was able to play Naruto: Gekitou! Ninja Taisen 3

The audiostream config command is not support for DVD-R, but it seems not to be required. Games seem to work.

I saved game states from different regions. It seemed to be working, but then I lost all data on my memory card. Maybe this happens because I changed the region. Everybody that will use it should take care and backup the savegames.

I will check if MIOS v8 is working, then I will support it and you can download the latest version.

The DVD-R must be burned with a minimum size. 600 MB games are not working. I assume the minimum is 1GB (DVD standard). So you will need fstfix to generate bigger images.

Again: DVD speed is 3x. Patched MIOS and cIOS is required.

It will overwrite any installed MIOS. If installation fails with error -1017, it will delete using IOS249 the installed MIOS and install the patched MIOS (Files are already downloaded in this state). No uninstallation is required. It includes support for GC homebrew (Wii (GC) Homebrew Launcher will work).
The MIOS is currently nearby the same as the MIOS of WGHL. There is only one Bit which is different in MIOS. The complex part is the launcher and the game plugin code.

rename .GCM to .ISO and you can burn it with Imgburn or an another burn program that can burn iso files

It runs in GameCube mode. It runs not in Wii mode. It is started from Wii mode.

I meant that it takes early control of PowerPC part of MIOS. The ARM/Starlet part runs normally (except one Bit).
Theoretically it is possible to add Wii Remote or SD card support to ARM code, but there need to be very much code written. Don't expect this to be done. You need a GC controller and a GC memory card, if you want to save. You can play without a GC memory card. I know a guy, who never saved game states. It was really painful to see him always starting from the beginning. I invoked him to use a memory card and he finally did save.


The good news is that we haven't find yet a game which is not working. Arm the Homeless need still to post his results and his video.

The second version can be started from Wii Backup Launcher 0.3 gamma and from the Wii disc channel (Rebooter from Backup Launcher 0.3 gamma).
I don't have tested it, but it should work with the CIOSCORP stuff. If the GC game is started from disc channel, the power off button will work. Otherwise it will only reset the Wii.

The good news is that we haven't find yet a game which is not working. Arm the Homeless need still to post his results and his video.

When this is released without support for it, we get multigame support a short time later.

MIOS installation is same as cIOS installation, regarding the location of the files on the SD card. It will automatically download the files from internet, if any of the files is missing.

Regardless which MIOS version you install, Action Replay should start if it is a backup. I don't think that my code patcher is working with this disc. When you insert an original disc, it will only start if you have the old MIOS version. There is one problem: You can't change the disc. So you can't use it. When this problem is solved, there is another problem: The game need to be patched. This type of patcher is not patched into any started game. The short answer is, it will start but not work.

Waninkoko told me that he hasn't yet written the multigame stuff. He thinks that linkinworm misunderstands something.

I worked on multigame support and I got it working in my loader. The first games are working and playable including Resident Evil Disc 1. The last game (Resident Evil Disc 2) on the disc should tell me to insert disc 1, but I only got a black screen. I didn't checked this yet.

As you can see by test reports, some games are not working and I need to check these games first.

I want to release it with source code.

well, since linkinworm has already posted vids of the gc backup launcher, I'll tell you that I made some small fixes to Wiigator's code and got multidiscs working. I got Smash Bros to play from a multidisc (gcos 4f).

About Pokemon and other problematic games: emu_kidid said that some games have more than one executable file the needs to be patched to used an altered dvd read command. However, even he hasn't gotten these games to work on sdboot, so if Wiigator can do it, he'll be the 1st! (ignoring psoload+modding).

There might also be some issues with pal games as well, but it's probably easily fixed.

It works with softmii

A tester made a comparison of modchip, old delta version and new zeta version of the gc backup launcher:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HOSRDXJA

The game is Zelda Collection. This game starts DOLs, so the patcher is required to stay alive and need to check all DVD transfers. So it can patch itself into the new game loaded. This method makes it really slow. There is the possiblity to put a configuration into it. So the patcher knows the memory addresses to patch. An USB Gecko is currently required to get this information. A game of this type will load fast, if someone uses a USB Gecko to get this information. You can also try to guess the addresses. A few tries could lead to success. In the video you can see a game which was optimized as described (it runs at full speed). It is possible to configure it, to disable the patcher after the final DOL is loaded, so the gameplay is not disturbed. There is no other way to get around this problem, so you will need to collect the desired information.

I am going to bed now and will finish editing this post tomorrow. In many cases "I" is used, this is simply because I have copy+pasted from Wiigator, Waninkoko and testers. This will be fixed in due time. I will atempt to keep this post up-to-date until the loader is released. I sincerely hope that someone creates a Wiki page with a compatibilty list, known info, and once it is out setup info.

Thanks for that Praetor192, really helpful for those people who haven't really followed the thread!

Great Work fellas ! Capcom VS SNK 2 will be awesome.

[quote name='dbkdbk' post='1758042' date='Feb 7 2009, 02:23 AM']Yes. So, Makora's Mask doesn't get emulated, right, so it should work on the GC Backup Launcher right?[/quote]
No, it won't.
For the same reason it won't work on VC, it won't work on the GC.
The emulator included with the Collection disc was made for OoT, so it DOESN'T emulate the expansion pak.

It is better to stop ask too many questions and wait for the .dol/wad release first before we ask any more questions.

But Majora's Mask is included in Zelda Collector's Edition (not that one with Mater Quest).

[quote name='Miles' post='1758482' date='Feb 7 2009, 04:35 PM'][quote name='dbkdbk' post='1758042' date='Feb 7 2009, 02:23 AM']Yes. So, Makora's Mask doesn't get emulated, right, so it should work on the GC Backup Launcher right?[/quote]
No, it won't.
For the same reason it won't work on VC, it won't work on the GC.
The emulator included with the Collection disc was made for OoT, so it DOESN'T emulate the expansion pak.
[/quote]

Well i have 2 original cube collectors discs here.

The disc which came with Zelda - TWW --> The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (DL-DOL-D43P-EUR)
And the other labeled "The Legend of Zelda - Collectors Edition" (DL-DOL-PZLP-EUR)(Here, this disc was
bundeled with Mario Kart Double Dash + GameCube and through the "Club Nintendo Shop".)

The Collectors Edition disc consists of The Legend of Zelda(NES), Adventure of Link(NES), Ocarina of Time(N64), Majora's Mask(n64) and a Windwaker Demo.

The disc which came with Zelda - TWW has Ocarina of Time and Master Quest

Both discs work on Wii...

I'm dumping them at the moment... I'll see if they'll work with the loader when it's out.

I've got a copy waiting to test as well. I do hope it works. I've been wanting to go through Majora's Mask again for awhile now, and couldn't be bothered with emulators. They don't work so well on my computer.

[quote name='Miles' post='1758482' date='Feb 7 2009, 05:35 PM'][quote name='dbkdbk' post='1758042' date='Feb 7 2009, 02:23 AM']Yes. So, Makora's Mask doesn't get emulated, right, so it should work on the GC Backup Launcher right?[/quote]
No, it won't.
For the same reason it won't work on VC, it won't work on the GC.
The emulator included with the Collection disc was made for OoT, so it DOESN'T emulate the expansion pak.
[/quote]

I'm not very convinced. Even if the Collector's Edition emulated Majora's Mask, shouldn't the GC BUL just load whatever is on the disc as if it were an original, and so load the emulation of Zelda MM on the Wii.

Anyway, I guess there's no point in arguing, we'll find out soon.

whaha everybody is ready for the launch
there are channel previews
a tutorial to make good iso's

[quote name='--=ZerO=--' post='1758529' date='Feb 7 2009, 10:10 AM']The Collectors Edition disc consists of The Legend of Zelda(NES), Adventure of Link(NES), Ocarina of Time(N64), Majora's Mask(n64) and a Windwaker Demo.[/quote]
I see now, I was under the impression that there was only OoT and OoT Master Quest on the GC.


[quote name='dbkdbk' post='1758582' date='Feb 7 2009, 10:52 AM']I'm not very convinced. Even if the Collector's Edition emulated Majora's Mask, shouldn't the GC BUL just load whatever is on the disc as if it were an original, and so load the emulation of Zelda MM on the Wii.

Anyway, I guess there's no point in arguing, we'll find out soon.[/quote]


I just found that out, sorry.

Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (Disc 1) works

Yay!

Cool man. How'd you get the Konami logo to not freeze?

Also, I don't need any patching right?
I figured I'd start burning some of these games, I don't need to do anything to them do I?

[quote name='Sstew' post='1758818' date='Feb 7 2009, 11:40 AM']Cool man. How'd you get the Konami logo to not freeze?

Also, I don't need any patching right?
I figured I'd start burning some of these games, I don't need to do anything to them do I?[/quote]
1. Got a new version of loader

2. Booted the game with Patched MIOS (Used for Homebrew DVD....) instead of booting NTSC

For this game, I would wait before burn, but. I didn't need to patch anything, but I don't think that switching to Disc 2 will work . Weather the game will need to be patched (I doubt it) I don't know.

So I guess it's up to you.

[quote name='Mrkinator' post='1758832' date='Feb 7 2009, 02:51 PM'][quote name='Sstew' post='1758818' date='Feb 7 2009, 11:40 AM']Cool man. How'd you get the Konami logo to not freeze?

Also, I don't need any patching right?
I figured I'd start burning some of these games, I don't need to do anything to them do I?[/quote]
1. Got a new version of loader

2. Booted the game with Patched MIOS (Used for Homebrew DVD....) instead of booting NTSC

For this game, I would wait before burn, but. I didn't need to patch anything, but I don't think that switching to Disc 2 will work . Weather the game will need to be patched (I doubt it) I don't know.

So I guess it's up to you.
[/quote]


I meant just for single disk games, like WindWaker, Lego StarWars, ect.
Those don't need to be patched? or should I just wait on those as well?

[quote name='Sstew' post='1758833' date='Feb 7 2009, 11:52 AM'][quote name='Mrkinator' post='1758832' date='Feb 7 2009, 02:51 PM'][quote name='Sstew' post='1758818' date='Feb 7 2009, 11:40 AM']Cool man. How'd you get the Konami logo to not freeze?

Also, I don't need any patching right?
I figured I'd start burning some of these games, I don't need to do anything to them do I?[/quote]
1. Got a new version of loader

2. Booted the game with Patched MIOS (Used for Homebrew DVD....) instead of booting NTSC

For this game, I would wait before burn, but. I didn't need to patch anything, but I don't think that switching to Disc 2 will work . Weather the game will need to be patched (I doubt it) I don't know.

So I guess it's up to you.
[/quote]
I meant just for single disk games, like WindWaker, Lego StarWars, ect.
Those don't need to be patched? or should I just wait on those as well?
[/quote]

Oh Sorry, I getcha. No Patching Required!

Edit: Making a Video right now, stay tuned!