Gaming Daigasso! Band Brothers P

[twede86]

Hey everyone! Back in the day it seemed there used to be a lot more support for Band Brothers. I remember there was a whole community that were uploading songs and putting them online so others could play. Is there anyone who still plays this series?

The 3DS version is really amazing. The problem is that the game only gives you four songs to play and the rest need to be downloaded from Nintendo's servers. I tried this game out on my Gateway and I am considering importing it. The game requires you to be online, which is possible with .3dz files, however the game has a 1.3 update that needs to be downloaded from the eShop in order to connect. Even if I import the game, will I be able to get that update file and be able to download new songs?

The game uses a currency of tomatoes in order to get new songs. When you buy the game you get a code that gives you 100 free tomatoes. It's pretty bizarre.

Nintendo's Japanese site for the game has a list of the songs that can be downloaded. Some of them sound like they'd be really fun to play. Many of them come from other video game series as well.

Is there anyone else out there who still plays the game? What are your thoughts on the new 3DS version? What songs do you think would be fun to play?

EDIT: Here are a couple gaming songs that I quickly found:
F-Zero
Super Mario Bros
My Neighbor Totoro
New Super Mario Bros Wii BGM
Kokiri Forest

And for those of you unfamiliar with it, it's a rhythm game that has songs divided into different instruments. Here's a gameplay video:

 

[hippy dave]

i believe you won't be able to download the update unless you're using a 3ds from the correct region (Japan).

 

[l13f4k3]

sadly there is no way to play it :C i love the game as well, but unless you have a jap3ds the game cannot be updated. hopefully in a distant future the scene will give us the ability to update games from crossed regions

 

[twede86]

I had an idea. Since there is no way to access the download service, I wonder if there is a way that we can share songs back and forth that we compose with the song editor. I found where they live on my SD card, and I know that there is encryption with the 3DS, but I'm wondering since we are both using the same rom and using the Gateway that it might be compatible.

I made a test file. In my SD card, the songs are in the following folder:
SD/Nintendo 3DS/1aed3fa66b60df4986019b5d7e5e942a/023500ac4760a2b3534430320002544d/extdata/00000000/00000a0b/00000000/

http://www.filedropper.com/00000034

This is just a test of a song that I just created. Maybe someone can put it in their corresponding folder to see if it works. If it does, maybe I can put together a new website for a song exchange.

 

[Deleted-236924]

Sounds inferior to the DS version to me.

 

[twede86]

Here's something that I put together as a test to share between different users. It's not completed, but rather a proof of concept. You can download the file here: https://www.mediafire.com/?a466ynyy7uze5ys to try to put it on your own system. Those were the folders that were associated with my Nintendo 3DS, but yours might be a little different. I don't know the it will work, so it'd be great if someone could give it a try and see if we can exchange songs this way. Let me know what you think and if it works on your system.

 

[Spikey]

There was a huge 2.0 update that adds a lot of stuff, and changes a lot of other things. It has changed about as one can change a game before it becomes its own sequel. On the bright side, hopefully there might be a new 2.0 dump at some point considering how much is different. Would help you flashcart users get with it a little. If anyone has a Japanese 3DS, I have some codes for a demo for the game as well to get from the eShop.

 

[Neobeo]

Hey everyone! Back in the day it seemed there used to be a lot more support for Band Brothers. I remember there was a whole community that were uploading songs and putting them online so others could play. Is there anyone who still plays this series?

I remember those days well, and hope we get something similar for this!

I love the Daigasso series so much that I am considering getting a Gateway just to play this (it's cheaper than a Japanese 3DS after all, though I might possibly end up getting the latter). What kind of new features will I be missing from the 2.0 (or even 1.3) update?

 

[Spikey]

You'll be missing most of the game. You can't obtain additional songs, or play online, without having the latest version. It's best to think of this game as a rhythm game SERVICE due to its frequent updates and ever changing library and features.

 

[cearp]

What kind of new features will I be missing from the 2.0 (or even 1.3) update?

well, i only started playing with the 2.0 update, i did not play before, i'm pretty sure you need the update to even go online, so without it the game will not be much fun at all, you can try it without the update to see how far you can get, but if you can't get online i would just forget about it

 

[Spikey]

On the plus side, people who own the game can give out codes that you can redeem on a Japanese 3DS for a free to play version of the game. Serves as a demo, but you can also buy additional songs if you'd like, or play online or local multiplayer without spending a single yen. You don't get the vocaloid portion of the game with this version, however. If you have a Japanese 3DS, you can PM me for a code.

 

[Lookie401]

Oh wow. Thought I'm the only person here who own this game. Nintendo with its region locking really puts a damp on importing this game.

And yeah, this game is a no-go for Gateway user as it require online/internet to get the most out of it (or just compose LOTS of song until the 3DS is hacked lol). Speaking of hack, all files on the SD card are encrypted so we can't share anything by up/downloading each other files.

Anyway, if you have a Japanese 3DS and would like a download code for the "debut" version of this game feel free to PM me.

 

[cearp]

Oh wow. Thought I'm the only person here who own this game.

out of the 305,938 members on gbatemp, you thought you had the only one?
i'm a gateway user, i use the game just fine, you can go online with gateway.
just, if you happened to have a 3ds that is not japanese, you cannot download the updates for the game, which are pretty necessary.
i expect in the future people will be able to use updates for games of different regions anyway, very recently we have been publicly able to decrypt 3ds games, eshop games (maybe updates too) might be close too (publicly).
hopefully one day we will be able to share songs, that would be really cool.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I remember those days well, and hope we get something similar for this!

I love the Daigasso series so much that I am considering getting a Gateway just to play this (it's cheaper than a Japanese 3DS after all, though I might possibly end up getting the latter). What kind of new features will I be missing from the 2.0 (or even 1.3) update?

Without the update (and tomatoes in order to download songs), you'll only the 3 or 4 songs that are built in to the game, making it nothing more than a short game demo. However, it's a fun game demo, but once you've played the songs a few times you'll get bored and not touch it again in a while

 

[Neobeo]

Without the update (and tomatoes in order to download songs), you'll only the 3 or 4 songs that are built in to the game, making it nothing more than a short game demo. However, it's a fun game demo, but once you've played the songs a few times you'll get bored and not touch it again in a while

I see. Well, I only ask because I'm thinking of jumping into the 3DS hacking scene, just for this game (I wrote Degausser before for DX). I was mainly wondering whether it would be worth the effort looking into the v1.0 rom when the entire game/file formats might have possibly changed by the new version. I've looked at the list of changes on http://wikiwiki.jp/bandbrosp/?%B9%B9%BF%B7%A5%C7%A1%BC%A5%BF but I wouldn't even recognise half of those features without having played the game. All the same, I'm sure there will be advancements in savegame-hacking in the near future, but for now I'm attempting to "import" the four songs back into DX (i.e. figure out as much of the file format as possible at this stage).

 

[cearp]

I see. Well, I only ask because I'm thinking of jumping into the 3DS hacking scene, just for this game

that is great of you, cool, well if you have a 3ds that can run homebrew you will be able to decrypt the rom.
do you have a 3ds that can do this? if not you will have to rely on someone else to provide the game files etc...
maybe i can help you with that, if you want, you can pm me etc

 

[Lookie401]

out of the 305,938 members on gbatemp, you thought you had the only one?

Okay, maybe I over exaggerated. lol

... but for now I'm attempting to "import" the four songs back into DX (i.e. figure out as much of the file format as possible at this stage).

Wow, I wish you good luck but you are going to run into some problem doing it.

Like:
- 10 instrument track
- song can have both "piano" and "guitar" chords track
- guitar chords track is much more advance
- song can go up to 150 measurement for 4/4 time signature or 200 measurement for 3/4
- two sets of effects for each track

So, yeah...

 

[Neobeo]

that is great of you, cool, well if you have a 3ds that can run homebrew you will be able to decrypt the rom.
do you have a 3ds that can do this? if not you will have to rely on someone else to provide the game files etc...
maybe i can help you with that, if you want, you can pm me etc

No problem, already did this on the first day. For this one rom only .

Okay, maybe I over exaggerated. lol

Wow, I wish you good luck but you are going to run into some problem doing it.

Like:
- 10 instrument track
- song can have both "piano" and "guitar" chords track
- guitar chords track is much more advance
- song can go up to 150 measurement for 4/4 time signature or 200 measurement for 3/4
- two sets of effects for each track

So, yeah...

Yeah, I'm aware of the 10 instrument track (but not the others), and was thinking of just truncating whatever there is. I guess what I really mean to say is that I want to figure out enough of the format to play it on Degausser (sans Vocaloid), the way it does BDX files.

 

[Neobeo]

Double post, but the good news is that the file format hasn't really changed significantly from BDX. It's largely an extension of the BDX format rather than a complete rewrite. There are some parts I'm not 100% sure of but which would probably be solved relatively easily by spending some time in composer mode rather than guessing.

On the other hand, I'm pretty much out of material to mess around with. For those with actual downloaded songs on a japanese 3ds, do you know if these songs are saved individually on the SD card? If so, are they all encrypted with the same key on the same console (meaning if we know one song exactly we can figure out the other songs)?

Technical details:

Spoiler

\Gak3\8001000x\pack contains 2 GZip'd streams: the 85564-byte record, and a 864168-byte Vocaloid thing which I haven't really looked at.

Address  Size(bytes)   Description
 00000           2     Magic1 / major version
 00002           2     Magic2 / minor version
 00004           4     Record ID
 00008           4     Date created
 0000C           4     Date modified
 00010         504     Song title
 00208           1     Number of lines [plus 6]
 00209           1     Time signature [3 or 4]
 0020A           1     Master volume?
 0020B           1     Main instrument??
 0020C         480     Instrument info (10 * 48 bytes)
 003EC       24000     Musical notes (10 * 2400 bytes)
 061AC       12000     Unknown mask??? (10 * 1200 bytes)
 0908C         512     Tempo changes
 0928C       10240     Volume changes (10 * 1024 bytes)
 0BA8C        5120     Range(??) changes (10 * 512 bytes)
 0CE8C        5120     Effector changes [0 or 1] (10 * 512 bytes)
 0E28C          80     More instrument info?? (10 * 8 bytes)
 0E2DC         128     Guitar chord stuff??
 0E35C        1056     Guitar original chords? (48 * 22 bytes)
 0E77C        4800     Guitar chord stuff???
 0FA3C         240     Piano chord stuff? (120 * 2 bytes)
 0FB2C         256     Piano original chords (64 * 4 bytes)
 0FC2C        6000     Karaoke lyrics
 1139C        6000     Karaoke timing
 12B0C        6600     Unknown??? (11 * 600 bytes)
 144D4        1204     Piano chord change table (4 + 300 * 4)
 14988        1204     Guitar chord change table (4 + 300 * 4)
 14E3C   -----------------END-----------------

 

[Spikey]

Recently remade this Phoenix Wright medley from DX I had in P. I wish there was an easy way to exchange user made songs online... x_x Licensing or otherwise are severely holding back my library of songs! Need more game songs, especially medleys!