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Hacking Wii Karaoke U by JOYSOUND

  • Thread starter Thread starter lordelan
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GoopDog123 said:
How did you get the game running like this? I have the trial disc installed and the EU version of Wii Karaoke U that I downloaded from NUSpli, but it doesn't let me play any of the songs. Would you be able to help me?
Click to expand...
I have a physical trial disc that I purchased in Japan, and I'm using the JP version of Wii Karaoke U on a Wii U running JP firmware (originally a US console). This disc was never released outside of Japan so I don't see why it would work with the European version. I don't think JP firmware is necessary (that is to say I think this would work perfectly fine on a modded US/EU console) -- my console is region changed for unrelated reasons.

My guess is also that the game is checking for the physical disc and not something installed to system/SD, since that was never an intended 'route' for running the trial.

In other news, I've now acquired another Wii U (Japanese) and several more copies of the trial disc that I'm hoping are unused so that I can compare them. Worst case scenario I imagine the actual 'check' is done locally from the Wii Karaoke U software itself, and could hypothetically be modded out. This is well outside my level of expertise though.
Post automatically merged:

Update on the trial disc: I tried using it in another Wii U and it halted while reading the disc with the error "161-0101: 別の本体で使用したディスクです。　この本体では使用できません。　くわしくは、ソフトの説明書をご覧ください。".

So it looks like the disc is indeed being written to somehow and the Wii U is able to detect that it's already been used. Unfortunately I did not think to make a dump of this disc *before* it was used since I didn't think it couldn't possibly be written to, so here's hoping that any of the other trial discs I have are also unused.
 
Last edited by lilyuwuu,
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lilyuwuu said:
I have a physical trial disc that I purchased in Japan, and I'm using the JP version of Wii Karaoke U on a Wii U running JP firmware (originally a US console). This disc was never released outside of Japan so I don't see why it would work with the European version. I don't think JP firmware is necessary (that is to say I think this would work perfectly fine on a modded US/EU console) -- my console is region changed for unrelated reasons.

My guess is also that the game is checking for the physical disc and not something installed to system/SD, since that was never an intended 'route' for running the trial.

In other news, I've now acquired another Wii U (Japanese) and several more copies of the trial disc that I'm hoping are unused so that I can compare them. Worst case scenario I imagine the actual 'check' is done locally from the Wii Karaoke U software itself, and could hypothetically be modded out. This is well outside my level of expertise though.
Post automatically merged:

Update on the trial disc: I tried using it in another Wii U and it halted while reading the disc with the error "161-0101: 別の本体で使用したディスクです。　この本体では使用できません。　くわしくは、ソフトの説明書をご覧ください。".

So it looks like the disc is indeed being written to somehow and the Wii U is able to detect that it's already been used. Unfortunately I did not think to make a dump of this disc *before* it was used since I didn't think it couldn't possibly be written to, so here's hoping that any of the other trial discs I have are also unused.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to upload a WUP file of the Japanese software/app that would have been downloaded from the Japanese eShop. If this is possible, please let me know. Thank you.
 
GoopDog123 said:
Thanks for the reply. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to upload a WUP file of the Japanese software/app that would have been downloaded from the Japanese eShop. If this is possible, please let me know. Thank you.
Click to expand...
It is already dumped under the name "カラオケJOYSOUND for Wii U", I don't have anything unique other than the trial disc (which also has its data dumped already according to this thread's backlog).
 
Last edited by lilyuwuu,
Hey, it's been a little bit -- I figured I'd comment with an update on some findings primarily with the help of people smarter than me, just so that the information is out there in the public:

  • Pretty much all save data related to this disc is stored under /storage_mlc/usr/save/system/no_delete/00050000/10100d00. Inside of 10100d00is a folder called pairing and a file called data_secret.dat.
  • The data_secret.dat contains the remaining time and registered song counter. Most notably, deleting this file will have the game regenerate it on startup, resetting the time limit and registered song count. Since this data is separate from the actual game save data, normal game save data (scores, favourite songs/artists, etc) is still retained.
  • The pairing folder contains two files: dev_B1 and a 64-character long file. Both files are empty; the game is likely just checking the file names. It is the contents of this folder that the game checks on startup and compares with the data that was written to disc; if the data is not there it will throw 161-0101. Therefore, copying this folder to the same directory on any other console will make the disc usable on that other console.
  • My copy of the game is bit-identical to an existing dump, which indicates that wherever the pairing data is stored is not dumped by tools like wudd.

At the moment, this is where we're at:
  • If one has an unpaired (unused) disc, one can pair it to their console and then use it forever by just copying the pairing folder to any other console, and deleting data_secret.dat whenever the time or song limit has elapsed.
  • If one has a paired (used) disc, it should be theoretically possible to extract the pairing key and recreate the contents of the pairing folder. This would effectively 'revive' any paired disc. Such a program does not exist yet.
  • The game is checking for the physical disc and reading from the physical disc every time it tries to load a song. You cannot run the trial disc installed to the system or to external storage; the game will ignore it.

A few other idle thoughts, or details not divulged earlier:

  • In this "Disc Mode", most features are still available. The following things do not work:
    • Preview lyrics showing the first line of the song are not displayed.
    • The 全国採点オンライン ("national scoring online") mode is not available; this mode would ordinarily have online leaderboards for every song in the game that reset every month. This feature still exists in the Switch version.
    • Buying song use tickets (these relied on an online service which no longer exists)
    • Online song loading / movie loading / recording settings (these also relied on online services which no longer exist).
    • Everything else (custom stage design, Mii 'dress-up', setting favourite artists/songs, Mii stage, visualizer, karaoke movie, photo slideshow, party mode, analysis and basic scoring) still works fine.
  • In terms of 'preservation', this might be a bit less interesting than people may have been hoping. The 10,000 songs on the disc consist almost entirely of Japanese songs; filtering by 洋楽 (Western music) lists just seven songs (the most recognizable of which is probably Komm, susser Tod). The lyrics for all of the Japanese songs are obviously in Japanese, with many kanji not having any furigana (depending on the song); this means that, unless you know the song already, playing this game requires being able to read Japanese at an intermediate level, even if the rest of the game (menus) were translated.
    • Translating the game itself is generally trivial, as assets and text can be reused from the European release. The data primarily consists of Level5 compressed LZSS containing arc files, which is an identical file structure to the one used by the namco_museum.bms QuickBMS script. Text is compiled within MSBT files, and the vast majority of the game (even keyboard buttons!) uses text, not images.

Hopefully this clarifies most questions people might be having about this disc. If you want to procure a disc for yourself, they're floating around Japanese Mercari for as low as 2 USD. In Japan, you can sometimes find this disc in BOOK-OFF or HARD-OFF locations for around 1500 yen in a box set with a microphone, or 100 yen loose. At HARD-OFF, your best bet for finding this disc will be in the junk section.
 
Last edited by lilyuwuu,
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lilyuwuu said:
Hey, it's been a little bit -- I figured I'd comment with an update on some findings primarily with the help of people smarter than me, just so that the information is out there in the public:

  • Pretty much all save data related to this disc is stored under /storage_mlc/usr/save/system/no_delete/00050000/10100d00. Inside of 10100d00is a folder called pairing and a file called data_secret.dat.
  • The data_secret.dat contains the remaining time and registered song counter. Most notably, deleting this file will have the game regenerate it on startup, resetting the time limit and registered song count. Since this data is separate from the actual game save data, normal game save data (scores, favourite songs/artists, etc) is still retained.
  • The pairing folder contains two files: dev_B1 and a 64-character long file. Both files are empty; the game is likely just checking the file names. It is the contents of this folder that the game checks on startup and compares with the data that was written to disc; if the data is not there it will throw 161-0101. Therefore, copying this folder to the same directory on any other console will make the disc usable on that other console.
  • My copy of the game is bit-identical to an existing dump, which indicates that wherever the pairing data is stored is not dumped by tools like wudd.

At the moment, this is where we're at:
  • If one has an unpaired (unused) disc, one can pair it to their console and then use it forever by just copying the pairing folder to any other console, and deleting data_secret.dat whenever the time or song limit has elapsed.
  • If one has a paired (used) disc, it should be theoretically possible to extract the pairing key and recreate the contents of the pairing folder. This would effectively 'revive' any paired disc. Such a program does not exist yet.
  • The game is checking for the physical disc and reading from the physical disc every time it tries to load a song. You cannot run the trial disc installed to the system or to external storage; the game will ignore it.

A few other idle thoughts, or details not divulged earlier:

  • In this "Disc Mode", most features are still available. The following things do not work:
    • Preview lyrics showing the first line of the song are not displayed.
    • The 全国採点オンライン ("national scoring online") mode is not available; this mode would ordinarily have online leaderboards for every song in the game that reset every month. This feature still exists in the Switch version.
    • Buying song use tickets (these relied on an online service which no longer exists)
    • Online song loading / movie loading / recording settings (these also relied on online services which no longer exist).
    • Everything else (custom stage design, Mii 'dress-up', setting favourite artists/songs, Mii stage, visualizer, karaoke movie, photo slideshow, party mode, analysis and basic scoring) still works fine.
  • In terms of 'preservation', this might be a bit less interesting than people may have been hoping. The 10,000 songs on the disc consist almost entirely of Japanese songs; filtering by 洋楽 (Western music) lists just seven songs (the most recognizable of which is probably Komm, susser Tod). The lyrics for all of the Japanese songs are obviously in Japanese, with many kanji not having any furigana (depending on the song); this means that, unless you know the song already, playing this game requires being able to read Japanese at an intermediate level, even if the rest of the game (menus) were translated.
    • Translating the game itself is generally trivial, as assets and text can be reused from the European release. The data primarily consists of Level5 compressed LZSS containing arc files, which is an identical file structure to the one used by the namco_museum.bms QuickBMS script. Text is compiled within MSBT files, and the vast majority of the game (even keyboard buttons!) uses text, not images.

Hopefully this clarifies most questions people might be having about this disc. If you want to procure a disc for yourself, they're floating around Japanese Mercari for as low as 2 USD. In Japan, you can sometimes find this disc in BOOK-OFF or HARD-OFF locations for around 1500 yen in a box set with a microphone, or 100 yen loose. At HARD-OFF, your best bet for finding this disc will be in the junk section.
Click to expand...
Even if the majority of songs are in Japanese, it would still be interesting if someone were to make a tool to "Enable" the dumped version of the game to be working unlimited times, maybe replacing the Japanese songs with the european/western ones
 
eeL20 said:
Even if the majority of songs are in Japanese, it would still be interesting if someone were to make a tool to "Enable" the dumped version of the game to be working unlimited times, maybe replacing the Japanese songs with the european/western ones
Click to expand...
The main problem is that the european/western songs are not saved on the disc, so they would need to be imported from somewhere else (i.e. joysound festa, or the existing joysound for nintendo switch service).
 
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lilyuwuu said:
The main problem is that the european/western songs are not saved on the disc, so they would need to be imported from somewhere else (i.e. joysound festa, or the existing joysound for nintendo switch service).
Click to expand...
If anyone ever wants to do anything like that I'd be down to help/test (maybe there are ways of getting the network dump to see how the songs get saved or something)
 
I think there still have way to get or made a custom song to it. I'm glad to help if someone interested with it.
 

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