Homebrew New Utility idea (I'm no programmer)

[choconado]

Hey there tempers

As the topic title says, I'm no programmer, so bear with me. This is an idea I've entertained over at the GBA section, and was told would be totally doable. For non NDS games, it's a pain if you want to use a cheat device, because up until now the only option appears to be to take the rom (whether it be for GBA, SNES, or whatever) and take it to a cheat-code program on your computer, attach the cheat codes there, save it, and put it back on your cart with the cheats hardwired into the rom. With the GBA especially, your average DSL cart (For example) will disable all activity from the DS side of the system, making a "turn cheats on" style set-up in the menu not work.

My idea is wondering why someone hasn't thought to try to make a utility program that can do that straight on the cart. Not an in-menu option for the game, but a program that hard-wires the rom without having to involve the computer at all. Seems like it should be easy to me... then again, I am no programmer and haven't the slightest idea of how to implement such a plan.

 

[avenir]

Actually I have a usrcheat parser, but it requires a lot of memory (approx 10MB); cannot be ported to NDS. sad.

 

[loco365]

Actually I have a usrcheat parser, but it requires a lot of memory (approx 10MB); cannot be ported to NDS. sad.

What if you had a RAM expansion card like an EZ Flash 3-in-1?

 

[avenir]

Actually I have a usrcheat parser, but it requires a lot of memory (approx 10MB); cannot be ported to NDS. sad.

What if you had a RAM expansion card like an EZ Flash 3-in-1?

aww... slot2 memory's bus is 16Byte. my parser is written in STL, so it is unusable.

 

[choconado]

But my idea is still sound if someone wanted to do the work, right?

 

[Sicklyboy]

Actually I have a usrcheat parser, but it requires a lot of memory (approx 10MB); cannot be ported to NDS. sad.

What if you had a RAM expansion card like an EZ Flash 3-in-1?

aww... slot2 memory's bus is 16Byte. my parser is written in STL, so it is unusable.

I code, but I have done absolutely nothing for the DS. But what about keeping a (small) text file (usrcheat.txt?) on the card, or even better, a cheat file for each gameID on the card (so from the menu, pick the game, then the text file with the same gameID in the file name is loaded)

Like I said, I've done nothing for the DS. Just throwing ideas out there.

 

[iSubaru]

You can always construct such expansion pack that will have more memory in 32-bit mode so You will be able to use it
Impossible? Get lost, one of DSLinux coders made Expansion Pack that had twice as much 3-in-1 memory (and probably faster a bit)

 

[Rydian]

... Or it could just be re-built to not use so much RAM by not reading as much at once.

 

[choconado]

Plasma Dragon, that's kinda how I understand the DS cheat engines work (like for example, in AKAIO), but it wouldn't work for the GBA loader slot, because when it activates, it disables the DS half of the cpu, making anything on the menu/card inactive. That's why if people want to add cheat codes to their gba games, they have to patch the rom on their computer first, which is a pain imho. Also that's why I had the idea of a small utility that patches the rom from within the card, taking out the middleman of having to use your computer first.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Plasma Dragon, that's kinda how I understand the DS cheat engines work (like for example, in AKAIO), but it wouldn't work for the GBA loader slot, because when it activates, it disables the DS half of the cpu, making anything on the menu/card inactive. That's why if people want to add cheat codes to their gba games, they have to patch the rom on their computer first, which is a pain imho. Also that's why I had the idea of a small utility that patches the rom from within the card, taking out the middleman of having to use your computer first.

I think I kinda figured that, but this post was a few days ago and not really fresh in my mind now.

What I was thinking, however, is as long as a program can be written to READ the gba rom (note: READ, not PLAY), I would think you could write a DS program that would read info from the rom and the individual file you have created, then patch the rom on the cart with the cheats (and do whatever else you need to do, whether it's make a diff file or a list of whatever values were changed from their original values). You're cutting out the computer and getting everything done from the DS, with the advantage that you're using the DS's hardware instead of just the gba part.

 

[choconado]

so it is fully possible--HUZZAH! :::Throws confetti about the room, then realizes that this in no way means anyone will make the utility:::
D'oh, now I made myself sad.

 

[Deleted member 282441]

Plasma Dragon, that's kinda how I understand the DS cheat engines work (like for example, in AKAIO), but it wouldn't work for the GBA loader slot, because when it activates, it disables the DS half of the cpu, making anything on the menu/card inactive. That's why if people want to add cheat codes to their gba games, they have to patch the rom on their computer first, which is a pain imho. Also that's why I had the idea of a small utility that patches the rom from within the card, taking out the middleman of having to use your computer first.

I think I kinda figured that, but this post was a few days ago and not really fresh in my mind now.

What I was thinking, however, is as long as a program can be written to READ the gba rom (note: READ, not PLAY), I would think you could write a DS program that would read info from the rom and the individual file you have created, then patch the rom on the cart with the cheats (and do whatever else you need to do, whether it's make a diff file or a list of whatever values were changed from their original values). You're cutting out the computer and getting everything done from the DS, with the advantage that you're using the DS's hardware instead of just the gba part.

So like an action replay that we can use on the DS, but it works for gba only.