Hacking Certain games not updating

[D34DL1N3R]

I have come across a handful of titles that do not auto-update at first launch, despite them having updates available. These are the games in question, thus far anyway, along with the update version that is available:

Devil's Third (v16)
Kirby & the Rainbow Curse (v16)
M & S at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (v16)
Mario Party 10 (v16)
Star Fox Zero (v16)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (v81)
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (v16)

As you can see, all but one are v16 patches. I did have one game (The Wonderful 101) with a v16 patch auto-update when launched, and every other game (with the exception of Twilight Princess HD) with an update that was NOT a v16 also auto-updated fine.

Does anyone have any clue as to why these others aren't updating?

Edit: They are all USA versions. I just had a brainstorm to check the EUR versions to see if they had updates & they actually do not, except for The Wonderful 101 which just happens to be the one that worked. I posted here because the author of Wii U USB Helper was uncertain as to why that might happen, but now I'm pretty sure it's because there are no actual updates that are supposed to be pushed. So now the question is.... why do the updates exist on Nintendo servers for the USA versions, but not the EUR versions. And what is actually being installed and/or what it happening to the games after people have been installing possible erroneous updates?

 

[fenderjaguar]

think I had this happen with minecraft. Since my nephew couldn't figure out why there wasn't a portal after he'd killed the ender dragon. turned out the game was just completely virgin 1.0.

I ended up going into system settings > internet > automatic software downloads marked as "receive". Then I lauched the game and it updated.

I switched it back off afterwards

 

[D34DL1N3R]

think I had this happen with minecraft. Since my nephew couldn't figure out why there wasn't a portal after he'd killed the ender dragon. turned out the game was just completely virgin 1.0.

I ended up going into system settings > internet > automatic software downloads marked as "receive". Then I lauched the game and it updated.

I switched it back off afterwards

Never thought of that. Will try now and report back...

Edit: No go. Still not updating. I did notice that the ones that aren't updating also have the updates available for Japan.
So USA & JAP, but they don't even exist at all for EUR.

Edit 2: Also, that setting is for Spot Pass. It auto downloaed Wii Sports Club and Reavers Notice or something of that nature when I enabled it, lol. The other setting to auto download updates is already enabled.

 

[Ryccardo]

The update for Fire Emblem Love Live only includes a new rpx and manual; wildly guessing (I don't have the main app installed), they probably just changed the copyright year

 

[D34DL1N3R]

I have come to the conclusion that a lot of these updates probably shouldn't even be applied, because no one knows exactly for sure what they are for. People should just connect to their internet when launching a game for the first time, instead of blindly relying on one of several apps to determine if a game actually has an update or not.

Why? Because I went and bought used physical copies of Kirby and Mario Party 10.... they didn't update either. Just because these programs have "updates" available on N servers doesn't mean they are actual game patches. There has to be a reason that NONE of them exist for EUR versions of the same exact games. Why would copyright dates or manuals be updated for USA & JPN, but not EUR?

I would like someone with much more knowledge of game files and the likes to look into this, but who would be the best person around GBATemp to contact about it, that may be even slightly interested? Evidently the parches aren't causing any issues or everyone would be talking about it, but why update games that don't need to be updated, and why use up the extra space if they aren't needed.

 

[moops44]

try this
if there is one delete the update from your wiiu , download the latest update with wiiusbhelper and install them with wupinstaller

http://gbatemp.net/threads/wii-u-breath-of-the-wild-not-updating.463300/

 

[nexusmtz]

titles that do not auto-update at first launch, despite them having updates available.

Naturally, titles don't auto-update when they're already at the version of the latest update. But it sounds like you're assuming that the disc or NUS download that you have would always be the earliest version that ever existed. I think that for the titles you mention above, v16 is an update for someone. I don't work for Nintendo, so I don't know their development cycles, but it's feasible that v16 is the designation they give for day1-final-status. That would explain why the Breath of the Wild has a version of 0 on disc and NUS - because they knew they wanted to force data onto storage with the v16 update.

So, ignoring the v16 ones for now, there's ZeldaTP at v81. But the US NUS version is v81, so it wouldn't need an update. The EUR disc I see is also v81.

Basically, I think Nintendo knows what versions they sent out to people, so they know what versions would be updates for anyone. I suspect that their testers (or whoever gets pre-retail) have US region devices and that's the reason they only have to put the those v16 updates in US.

a lot of these updates probably shouldn't even be applied, because no one knows exactly for sure what they are for.

Well, they're for updating older versions.

but why update games that don't need to be updated, and why use up the extra space if they aren't needed

We know that the WiiU itself is smart enough to not get an update it doesn't need, so it's comparing what it has against what updates are available.

So, from the perspective of the development community, where should those smarts be applied? WiiU USB Helper has an opportunity there, because it's meant to be a one-stop application. If you've flagged a title and its update, Helper should check the title's version against the updates before grabbing the update. With other true utilities like jnustool, those should just do as they're told and not second guess what someone wants. If the user isn't checking the version they have before they download an equal or older update with a utility, the wasted space and bytes against their data cap are their fault/problem.

On the installation side, the WUPInstallers could be smarter, but again, they are utilities, not applications. If someone wants to move into the application arena, their program could find the installed version of a title and decide whether to install the update or not. That would, however, require iosuhax in order to go stomping through the file system unless there are exposed mcp-type functions that will provide the installed-title information.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

@nexusmtz Thank you for your insight. That makes 100% complete sense. Sometimes on ones quest to find the answers, the most obvious things are missed. But why would the disc versions I bought of Mario Party and Kirby not update either? I would think that the discs are pre-update versions of those games. Also, when I compare for example Captain Toad game files vs it's v16 update files... The game folder has 25 files and the update folder has 35 files. Have some insight on those two things to share? What would be in those 10 extra files if the NUS version is already at v16?

 

[Ryccardo]

I would think that the discs are pre-update versions of those games

As far as I understood his post, he means that v0 is a preview copy, and v16 is retail - so, the 0day update is integrated into the mass market versions (like how in previous consoles. not like there would have been any alternative, they ended production of the original rom/disc and replaced it with a patched one), while the few with a preview copy can just update it!

The game folder has 25 files and the update folder has 35 files. Have some insight on those two things to share? What would be in those 10 extra files if the NUS version is already at v16?

Which files exactly are added? From the FE spinoff I extracted yesterday, I found a lot of curiously blank (as in 1 byte) jpegs that according to the names should have the age rating stickers (and they're all empty, even the American ones!)

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Which files exactly are added? From the FE spinoff I extracted yesterday, I found a lot of curiously blank (as in 1 byte) jpegs that according to the names should have the age rating stickers (and they're all empty, even the American ones!)

00000009.h3 - 20 bytes
0000000d.app - 128 kB
0000000d.h3 - 20 bytes
0000000e.app - 128 kB
0000000e.h3 - 20 bytes
0000000f.app - 128 kB
0000000f.h3 - 20 bytes
00000010.app - 3.8 MB
00000011.app - 4.2 MB
00000011.h3 - 20 bytes

Now the thing that concerns me is this. These are the files that co-exist on both the game & in the v16 update. The sizes on the left underneath local are the game files from NUS, the sizes on the right underneath remote are the v16 update files from NUS. So a user that manually updates to v16, is installing for example, a 128 kB file over the already existing 502.9 MB file? There are three files that would be drastically reduced in size by using the update.

 

[Ryccardo]

Oh, you can't tell much from the .app files - you have to compare the extracted contents

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Oh, you can't tell much from the .app files - you have to compare the extracted contents

I can extract them with which app?

 

[Ryccardo]

I can extract them with which app?

You can use JNusTool or CDecrypt to extract them on PC, or you can install them on your console and backup with ftpiiiu-everywhere (faster than you think for these small updates, if you don't already have java installed)

 

[D34DL1N3R]

You can use JNusTool or CDecrypt to extract them on PC, or you can install them on your console and backup with ftpiiiu-everywhere (faster than you think for these small updates, if you don't already have java installed)

Thanks. Will work on it either later today or tomorrow sometime and report back with findings.

Edit: How do I extract the app packages that are already on my PC? JNusTool doesn't have a file browser to select a specific app. I can look at the contents of game updates using it - but hw do I extract the ones I already have for the main game? The tool is only for the updates it seems.

 

[Ryccardo]

Thanks. Will work on it either later today or tomorrow sometime and report back with findings.

Edit: How do I extract the app packages that are already on my PC? JNusTool doesn't have a file browser to select a specific app. I can look at the contents of game updates using it - but hw do I extract the ones I already have for the main game? The tool is only for the updates it seems.

Jnustool can extract anything - as long as you put the wupinstaller files in the correct folder: in the official topic you can see a lot of examples, follow the one "put the files in a titleid_tmp folder..."