Hacking Gateway 3DS Cheat Search Assistance

[vinnyboiler]

Hello,

I've been messing around with the Gateway cheat support and so far so good. I have a few questions related to it though which I can't seem to find answers for. Firstly I cant seem to find the timer variable in Smash Bros, I'm trying to freeze Smash Run's timer so it's not stuck as 5 minutes.

The timer shows up as 5:00.00 with minutes, seconds and milliseconds. I've tried searching anything that I could think of that might be related from hoping that the minutes, seconds and milliseconds might be their own variable to thinking that it might all be stored in seconds and searching for 16 bit on the menu.

Secondly, what's the difference between a unsigned and a signed search?

Hopefully I am making sense, if you don't understand just say what you are having troubles understanding and I'll try to clarify.

 

[Slade.AU]

Point 1: The value may not be stored as an integer, but a floating point number. If the value is stored as a Float, then doing an Int search isn't going to help you. On top of that, the value may well be stored as a whole number representing the minutes, seconds and fractions of a second. It may well be stored as 'ticks' (1000th's of a second). The best way to possibly find this location is to do ram dumps and take screen shots (use your mobile phone) and use Cheat Engine to search for the various value types (Float, Double, Integer). There's still no guarantee you'll find the value.

Point 2: Signed Integers are both positive and negative values (so a signed 8bit search goes of -255 to +255), where as unsigned Integers are positive only (therefore a signed 16bit search is from 0 - 65,535).

I hope that helps.

 

[artur3004]

gateways's in game cheat menu only support system applications and .3ds/.3dz. what about eshop games?

 

[Scarlet]

gateways's in game cheat menu only support system applications and .3ds/.3dz. what about eshop games?

It supports installed files, so eShop games are supported.

 

[vinnyboiler]

Point 1: The value may not be stored as an integer, but a floating point number. If the value is stored as a Float, then doing an Int search isn't going to help you. On top of that, the value may well be stored as a whole number representing the minutes, seconds and fractions of a second. It may well be stored as 'ticks' (1000th's of a second). The best way to possibly find this location is to do ram dumps and take screen shots (use your mobile phone) and use Cheat Engine to search for the various value types (Float, Double, Integer). There's still no guarantee you'll find the value.

Point 2: Signed Integers are both positive and negative values (so a signed 8bit search goes of -255 to +255), where as unsigned Integers are positive only (therefore a signed 16bit search is from 0 - 65,535).

I hope that helps.

Thanks, I tried what you suggested but I'm not having any luck. It looks like these sort of cheats will just have to be out of my reach for now. Do you happen to know anyone that might be up to taking suggestions for searching for cheats?

 

[Slade.AU]

Thanks, I tried what you suggested but I'm not having any luck. It looks like these sort of cheats will just have to be out of my reach for now. Do you happen to know anyone that might be up to taking suggestions for searching for cheats?

If you're going to do the ram dump, then I believe that Gateway does't dump the whole ram (which is somewhat frustrating). And a trick to help: When searching for values using Cheat Engine, do a range search. So if you're looking for 4:30.28 (4 minutes, 30.28 seconds), then search between 4:29 and 4:31. You may need to convert that to seconds (ie 269 and 271), then repeat the search with subsequent ram dumps. In these weird instances, I usually do around 10 ram dumps.

Also of note, the memory location may well not be static for time, that is, it moves around in memory. This might move every level you load, every time you load the game, or in some rightfully painful times, it might move every few seconds. If that's the case, you've got no hope.

One last thing, even if you do find the memory location, if the value is stored as something other than an integer, you may not be able to write an integer value to it using Gateway and have it work.

I'd love to see Gateway expand the search parameters to include Float, Double and ranged searches.

Which Smash Bros game ? I can spend a few minutes looking at it, but can't promise anything.

 

[cearp]

Point 1: The value may not be stored as an integer, but a floating point number. If the value is stored as a Float, then doing an Int search isn't going to help you. On top of that, the value may well be stored as a whole number representing the minutes, seconds and fractions of a second. It may well be stored as 'ticks' (1000th's of a second). The best way to possibly find this location is to do ram dumps and take screen shots (use your mobile phone) and use Cheat Engine to search for the various value types (Float, Double, Integer). There's still no guarantee you'll find the value.

Point 2: Signed Integers are both positive and negative values (so a signed 8bit search goes of -255 to +255), where as unsigned Integers are positive only (therefore a signed 16bit search is from 0 - 65,535).

I hope that helps.

wrong advice about signed and unsigned...
signed shows whether positive or negative... yes, but 8bit signed can't be +255 or -255... only up to 128, 127 i forget

 

[Slade.AU]

wrong advice about signed and unsigned...
signed shows whether positive or negative... yes, but 8bit signed can't be +255 or -255... only up to 128, 127 i forget

Good call. I honestly didn't check. Bad assumption on my part !

 

[vinnyboiler]

Which Smash Bros game ? I can spend a few minutes looking at it, but can't promise anything.

Either EUR or US, whatever is more convenient, it's on update 1.1.3 if that's relevant.
I appreciate you having a look.

 

[Zidapi]

@Slade.AU I'm going to quote both of your posts here over in the official GateShark thread.

I want to try and keep informative posts like yours in one place, so that people like myself who are trying to learn more about code creation have a single place to learn and discuss techniques.

Do you happen to know anyone that might be up to taking suggestions for searching for cheats?

You should post in the official GateShark thread, there's plenty of helpful people there that can help with code creation and testing.

 

[vinnyboiler]

@Slade.AU I'm going to quote both of your posts here over in the official GateShark thread.

I want to try and keep informative posts like yours in one place, so that people like myself who are trying to learn more about code creation have a single place to learn and discuss techniques.


You should post in the official GateShark thread, there's plenty of helpful people there that can help with code creation and testing.

Oh my apologies, I didn't notice the GateShark thread , I'll make sure to post any future queries there.

 

[Slade.AU]

One last thing (I always forget this), just because the screen timer is going down, don't assume that the actual timer is doing the same. I've seen a lot of games where you see 5...4...3...2...1..., but in the background the game is going 1...2...3...4...5...

Edit: I've had a good look, and I'm not able to find it. Part of the problem is that the ram dump memory locations don't correspond to the ram locations that are available in the Hex Editor.

I have 115 Locations, most of which are not likely viable, but a half a dozen or so that could have some bearing, but no way of testing them out.