Hacking Inserting save from EUR to US Animal Crossing

[zb123]

Hi everyone, earlier with the help of bkifft I extracted the save from my EUR Animal Crossing at offset 0x3AF80000 and length 7892992 and inserted it into my US Animal Crossing (with same offset and length), but I received a save corruption error. I presume the save location is different for the US Animal Crossing then.

Could anyone help me find the offset and length where I need to insert the EUR save into the USA version of Animal Crossing? Any help is appreciated!

 

[gamesquest1]

Hi everyone, earlier with the help of bkifft I extracted the save from my EUR Animal Crossing at offset 0x3AF80000 and length 7892992 and inserted it into my US Animal Crossing (with same offset and length), but I received a save corruption error. I presume the save location is different for the US Animal Crossing then.

Could anyone help me find the offset and length where I need to insert the EUR save into the USA version of Animal Crossing? Any help is appreciated!

have you tried using one of the programs here?
http://gbatemp.net/threads/way-to-distribute-the-removed-hidden-pokemon-from-power-saves.364150/

this is assuming the US and EU save are cross-compatible

 

[zb123]

have you tried using one of the programs here?
http://gbatemp.net/threads/way-to-distribute-the-removed-hidden-pokemon-from-power-saves.364150/

this is assuming the US and EU save are cross-compatible

Yes, I used the cart2sav program, so unless the offset and length that bkifft provided was accidentally incorrect, the saves aren't cross compatible.

Would it be possible though, to have somebody with a US copy of Animal Crossing find the offset of the US save and then I could insert my EUR save there?

 

[gamesquest1]

just make a save on the US version then extract it and see if they are the same size.....if the game still loads with the save injected its likely the offsets are correct at least

 

[zb123]

just make a save on the US version then extract it and see if they are the same size.....if the game still loads with the save injected its likely the offsets are correct at least

Well considering the game did still load with the EU save injected into the US game, could it just be that they aren't compatible at all?

Also, should I have made a save on the US version before attempting to inject the EU save?

 

[gamesquest1]

Well considering the game did still load with the EU save injected into the US game, could it just be that they aren't compatible at all?

Also, should I have made a save on the US version before attempting to inject the EU save?

well i just figured you could see how big the programs say the save is on the US copy to see if they are the same size XD

 

[zb123]

well i just figured you could see how big the programs say the save is on the US copy to see if they are the same size XD

Ok I tested and they are both the same save size (120mb)

edit: Also tried moving the save again with the same offset and length and I still get the save corruption error.

 

[gamesquest1]

thats a lotta mega bytes XD

 

[bkifft]

well, they use CARD2 in order to save bigger savegames than the spi accesed nand chip on CARD1 can handle, but 120MB sounds kinda wrong none the less.

anyways: i haven't tinkered around with AC (not my type of game), and i've taken the save offset from the proper note of the EU scene release:

We released Animal Crossing months ago, but after some checks we can't consider
it as a "clean" dump. Here's a repack for the archivers' pleasure!

Technical part: Animal Crossing or Pokemon X/Y are using Macronix NAND chips
to store the game, but also the game save on the same support. Our previous
release got this save area filled (0x3AF80000 to 0x3B706FFF) and it had no
reason to be included in the game dump. Here's a proper version, without trash.
JPN release suffers from this problem too and save can be found at same offsets.

I have to admit, 0x3B706FFF seems kinda iffy as the end marker, so most likely the save is longer than that (I'm just spewing opinions like an einstein again here).


Advised course of action:

Begin a new save on an untouched, vanilla, virgin US rom, save the game.

Do a binary diff (for example using hxd) with this now saved to US rom and the untouched, vanilla, virgin US rom to get the aproximate save offset.

Do the same with an untouched, vanilla, virgin EU rom (save on fresh rom, compare it to fresh rom). check if the offsets are the same, if not calculate the relative offset (e.g. "US: 4983 bytes later" (number pulled out of thin air/my arse))

Finally do a binary diff between the untouched, vanilla, virgin EU rom with the EU rom that contains your save to get the right size of your save.

If it will not work then the saves are incompatible.


edit: might have been a good idea to tag zb123 and gamesquest1 -.-

 

[zb123]

well, they use CARD2 in order to save bigger savegames than the spi accesed nand chip on CARD1 can handle, but 120MB sounds kinda wrong none the less.

anyways: i haven't tinkered around with AC (not my type of game), and i've taken the save offset from the proper note of the EU scene release:



I have to admit, 0x3B706FFF seems kinda iffy as the end marker, so most likely the save is longer than that (I'm just spewing opinions like an einstein again here).


Advised course of action:

Begin a new save on an untouched, vanilla, virgin US rom, save the game.

Do a binary diff (for example using hxd) with this now saved to US rom and the untouched, vanilla, virgin US rom to get the aproximate save offset.

Do the same with an untouched, vanilla, virgin EU rom (save on fresh rom, compare it to fresh rom). check if the offsets are the same, if not calculate the relative offset (e.g. "US: 4983 bytes later" (number pulled out of thin air/my arse))

Finally do a binary diff between the untouched, vanilla, virgin EU rom with the EU rom that contains your save to get the right size of your save.

If it will not work then the saves are incompatible.


edit: might have been a good idea to tag zb123 and gamesquest1 -.-

Thanks, I get the idea of what you're saying but I've never dealt with a program like hxd before. I guess it would be worth it if the Happy Home Academy and some online features began to work as a result.

 

[bkifft]

Thanks, I get the idea of what you're saying but I've never dealt with a program like hxd before. I guess it would be worth it if the Happy Home Academy and some online features began to work as a result.

Well, doing this ain't that hard, just fiddly and time consuming.

Hex editors are just fancy text editors that show values from 0 to 255 (or in hex notation 0x00 to 0xFF) instead of letters, and binary diffs usually just put two files side by side and mark the differences. Hardest part mostly is finding the binary compare feature (analysis -> filecompare ->compare for hxd).

But: switching to the US rom will most likely not enable the online features, all you would gain is getting rid of the parental control check and the ability to use a software update from the US eshop (if there should ever be one released).

 

[gamesquest1]

from another thread, not sure if its relevant, but its worth a shot

Try deleting any pokemon "extra data" from the system settings menu that was already there from a previous playthrough. I switched from EUR to USA with animal crossing, and I couldn't load my save until I did that.

 

[zb123]

from another thread, not sure if its relevant, but its worth a shot

Wait so is he/she saying to delete data from the US Animal crossing and then insert the EU save? Kind of a confusing post.

 

[gamesquest1]

i think he means to delete the extra data from the system settings menu i.e stuff the game creates that is not stored in the save

 

[zb123]

i think he means to delete the extra data from the system settings menu i.e stuff the game creates that is not stored in the save

So clear the extra data from the US rom, then insert save, or the opposite?

Also, will this affect my current EUR save at all?

 

[gamesquest1]

So clear the extra data from the US rom, then insert save, or the opposite?

Also, will this affect my current EUR save at all?

i think its in data management, and sorry i'm not sure if it will effect your game idk whats in the extra data, but it shouldn't effect it it much, if i had the game i would have a go myself but i have never really played it

 

[zb123]

i think its in data management, and sorry i'm not sure if it will effect your game idk whats in the extra data, but it shouldn't effect it it much, if i had the game i would have a go myself but i have never really played it

Damn, so close to getting it to work, but I don't want to take the chance and remove my extra data in the case that it does break.

If anyone else would be willing to make a quick save and delete the extra data to see the effect I'd be really grateful.

 

[zb123]

i think its in data management, and sorry i'm not sure if it will effect your game idk whats in the extra data, but it shouldn't effect it it much, if i had the game i would have a go myself but i have never really played it

Actually, looking at http://www.animal-crossing.com/newleaf/faq/ apparently it won't affect the save. I'm going to try it.

 

[b17bomber]

All I meant was that if you played the EUR rom, then tried the USA rom (as I did). The USA one might not load the save because it will be confused about which "extra data" to load. This has nothing to do with save conversions. Sorry.

 

[zb123]

All I meant was that if you played the EUR rom, then tried the USA rom (as I did). The USA one might not load the save because it will be confused about which "extra data" to load. This has nothing to do with save conversions. Sorry.

Hopefully it will still alleviate the problem. I'm trying soon.