Official hakchi2 - NES Mini very simple pimp tool

nesito said:

You can always report me or my posts if you consider that they(the posts) don't meet the rules of the forum. Maybe I also supports the autor of the tool Clusterrr , in 2 ways. You probably in no one.

Rgd.

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darkxero said:

I like the videos, makes the waiting for the next version iteration way more exciting

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jelmer said:

Or he could put up the link to the videos on YouTube. I don't mind them as much but it keeps the pages somewhat cleaner. Like that everybody is happy. Cheers

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Cluster said:

Hi.

I developed ROM-management tool for NES Mini.

View attachment 74050

It's very-very simple to use.

Current version: 2.10
Download link: https://github.com/ClusterM/hakchi2/releases/tag/2.10

Requirements: Windows XP+, .NET Framework 3.5
Also working on Wine.

• It's very easy to add games, just select .nes files
• You can change any game settings - publisher, release date, etc.
• Automatic online search for boxart via Google
• It can fix incorrect iNES headers using fceux database
• Automatic verification of supported mappers
• You can hide 30 default games in one click

Spoiler: FAQ

Q: What is it?

A: This application can add more games to your Nintendo Classic Mini. All you need is to connect it to PC via microUSB cable. No soldering, no disassembling.


Q: So you are hacked NES Mini?

A: No! It was my russian сomrade madmonkey. He created original “hakchi” tool. It was not very user friendly so I decided to create tool which is simple for everyone, not only Linux users. I named it “hakchi2” because I don’t like to coming up with names. So first version was 2.0


Q: How to use it?

A: Basically you need just to unpack it somewhere (installation not required), run it, press “Add more games”, select some ROMs and press “Synchronize”. Application will guide you.


Q: How it’s working?

A: You don’t need to worry about it. But if you really want to know it’s using FEL mode. FEL is a low-level subroutine contained in the BootROM on Allwinner devices. It is used for initial programming and recovery of devices using USB. So we can upload some code into RAM and execute it. In this way we can read Linux kernel (yes, NES Mini runs on Linux), write kernel or execute kernel from memory without writing it to flash. So we can dump kernel image of NES Mini, unpack it, add some games and script which will copy them to flash, repack, upload and execute. But games directory is on read only partition. So we need also to create and flash custom kernel with special script that creates sandbox folder on writable partition and mounts it over original games folder. So your original files are safe. You can’t delete or harm original files in any way. For kernel patching my application just executing other applications, that’s why there is “tools” folder.


Q: Which games are supported?

A: On this moment confirmed that emulator of NES Mini can run this mappers:

• 0 (NROM) - very simple games like Ice Climber, Pac-Man, etc.
• 1 (MMC1) - many good games, this is the second most popular mapper.
• 2 (UxROM - UNROM/UOROM) - games like Castlevania, Contra, Duck Tales, etc.
• 3 (CNROM) - mostly simple games but with much graphics, like Adventure Island, Friday The 13th, etc.
• 4 (MMC3) - most popular mapper, used by huge bunch of great games.
• 5 (MMC5) - very complex and most powerful mapper on NES, used only by Castlevania 3 and few japanese games. Is there at least one default game using it? I’m surprised that NES Mini can emulate it.
• 7 (AxROM - ANROM/AMROM/etc.) - simple mapper used by games like Battletoads.
• 9 (MMC2) - used only by Punch Out!!
• 10 (MMC4) - used by few japanese games.
• 71 (Codemasters/Camerica) - since version 2.08 mapper #71 games are automatically patched to mapper #2.
  
• 87 - some Japanese games.
• Famicom Disk System images - japanese ROMs with .fds extension, like original Super Mario Bros. 2, Doki Doki Panic, japanese version of Metroid, etc.

It is possible that emulator supports some other mappers too. You can add those ROMs but application will warn you and game likely will not work. If it WILL work please report me about this game. I’ll add this mapper to list of confirmed.

Also if you will patch unsupported game with mapper hack/patch/conversion it should work. There are many MMC3 patches over the Internet. Also it's easy to port games from Codemasters/Camerica to UNROM.

But there is no way to make support for unsupported mappers. Please stop asking me about it.

But even game’s mapper is supported some games are not working good without patches. Emulator in NES Mini tested only on default 30 games and actually sucks.
Known problem games:

• Battletoads - crashed on second level. Patch available: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2528/
• Robocop 3 - it should work but not working at all. MMC3 port is working fine. There are many weird code in this game. I created my own patch.
• Snow Bros. - When the CPU writes to the serial port on consecutive cycles, the MMC1 ignores all writes but the first. This happens when the 6502 executes read-modify-write (RMW) instructions, such as DEC and ROR, by writing back the old value and then writing the new value on the next cycle. It's very easy to fix. I created my own patch.
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - same as Snow Bros. My patch.
• Startropics II - actually it uses MMC6 mapper which is very similar to MMC3. The only difference is PRG protection. It's very easy to create patch. This my one: patch.

Those games will be automatically patched since version 2.09.


Q: Can I find list of games with mappers?

A: http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777 and http://tuxnes.sourceforge.net/nesmapper.txt


Q: Can I play european/PAL games?

A: NES Mini can emulate only NTSC NES. There is command line argument to enable PAL emulation but it’s not working for some reason. All european NES Minis actually the same as USA versions and they are running NTSC versions of games. So you can play not all PAL games and this games will run faster. Use “(U)” and “(J)” ROMs if possible.


Q: How many games can be uploaded to NES Mini.

A: Internal storage in NES Mini is really huge for ROMs (about ~300MB) but seems like it’s cannot allocate so much RAM when loading cover and savestates images. It's not recommended to upload >90~100 games.


Q: Will it work with Famicom Mini too?

A: Yes, It’s confirmed. But you can't use extended font and hide selected original games. Maybe somebody will create Japanese font?


Q: I can’t install driver!

A: If you are using Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10 disable driver signature verification (Google it) and try again.


Q: It says that MD5 checksum is unknown! What I need to do?

A: There are two possible reasons:

• You have some unique unknown revision of NES Mini. Please send me your MD5 checksum is this case. You can continue flashing custom kernel on your own risk.
  
  
• You are using hakchi2 not the first time with this NES Mini (used it on another PC e.g.) and your kernel already patched. Of course it has unknown MD5. It’s safe to continue in this case.

In any case it’s better not to lose kernel image. It is stored in the “dump” folder. Backup it somewhere. But don’t worry if you still lost it. This kernel image is near the same for all NES Minis.


Q: Can I brick my NES Mini?

A: It’s pretty hard to brick it. You always can flash original kernel back (via menu). Even if your flashing process was terminated for some reason you just can do it again. But flash memory can handle only 100,000 erase cycles for any sector typical.


Q: How to update hakchi2 to new version? I don’t want to lose my games, kernel image and settings.

A: Just copy all files of the new version into the folder of old version with replacement. Or just copy folders “dump” and “games” into the directory of new version. Also copy “config.ini” if it’s exists.


Q: Some games are displayed with an incorrect name, some characters are missed. Why?

A: Nes Mini doesn’t contain some characters in their font. But I created my own font. You can use it on the latest version. Don’t forget to enable it in “Settings” menu (enabled by default).


Q: Can you modify emulator so the combination of buttons on gamepad will trigger reset?

A: I̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶s̶s̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶o̶r̶y̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶a̶s̶s̶e̶m̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶b̶i̶n̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶e̶m̶u̶l̶a̶t̶o̶r̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶l̶l̶.̶
I made it. Just enable this hack in menu and sync.


Q: Can I use savestates on added games?

A: Yes, you can. Battery backed games can use their internal saves too. Note that saves are stored on writable partition along with other savestates. When you delete a game, all savestates remains in the memory. You can delete them at once using factory reset. But they take only few kilobytes.


Q: Your english is awful! Can we do something about it?

A: hakchi2 is opensource: https://github.com/ClusterM/hakchi2

So you can clone it, fix, upload and make pull request. Same way you can add other languages and some cool features.

Or just send me list of fixes.


Q: How to uninstall it?

A: There is uninstall feature since version 2.08.


Q: I want to upload games to my brother's/sister's/mother's/father's NES Mini on the same computer as the one I used to flash my NES. How to do it?

A: hakchi2 is a portable application. Most safe way is just extract the hakchi2 to a second separate folder, and run hakchi2 from there. Doing so should allow to backup kernel, and add games to his liking/flash accordingly. You don't need to install driver.
99% safe way: just flash custom kernel and sync games in same application. This is shouldn't break anything but I can't 100% guarantee it.


Q: How to delete game?

A: If you want to delete game from NES Mini just uncheck it in list. If you want to delete it from hakchi2 list do right click on game and select "Delete".


Q: Stop... You are uploading to NES Mini .nes files in iNES format which was developed by authors of first NES emulators... So Nintendo officially using stuff developed by pirates?

A: Yes. And probably they are using pirated copies of their own games %)


Q: I just got black screen. My NES Mini is not working anymore! Can you help me?

A: Don't panic. Just flash original kernel back. Everything should work again.
Try to unpack application and do everything again. Make sure that all files in place and not corrupted.


Q: How to disable this weird epilepsy protection?

A: I think that it's looking cool! But you can disable it. Just remove "--enable-armet" command line argument. Or you can disable it via menu since version 2.09.


Q: Where I can find list of all command line arguments?

A: Internal emulator of NES Mini has many command line arguments. Seems like some of them are not working but there is full listing of "--help" output:

Spoiler

Code:

root@CLOVER:/# /usr/bin/clover-kachikachi --help
+ export MALI_NOCLEAR=1
+ exec kachikachi --fullscreen --sync-guest-with-host --fds-initial-disk-insert-on-keypress --fds-auto-disk-side-switch --fds-disable-host-guest-sync-on-disk-op --keep-aspect-ratio --help
Core needs an UTF-8 C locale, we set it to "en_US.UTF-8" instead of "C".
This is a global side-effect and is subject to change, please don't rely on this.
Kachikachi - v28.0.20160804.dev
===============================
Kachikachi
==========
--help, -h                                                       Print usage and exit.
--command=<file>                                                 Use file as the contents of the command line (one arg     per line).
--log=<file>                                                     Log to file instead of stdout. Defaults to stdout
--ask, -a                                                        Ask for a rom and execute it.
--scale=<1..16>                                                  Specify the initial scale of the window.
--topmost                                                        Do not put window topmost.
--fullscreen                                                     Enable full screen display.
--keep-aspect-ratio                                              Stretch the display while keeping the correct aspect     ratio. (default)
--stretch                                                        Stretch the display to the maximum size available.
--pixel-perfect                                                  Stretch source pixels while keeping an integer target     size.
--mute                                                           Start ROM with mute sound.
--pause-on-lost-focus                                            Pause the emulator when the window loses focus.
--dont-show-debug-infos                                          Disable debug display on screen.
--sync-guest-with-wall                                           Synchronize emulation with wall time.
--sync-guest-with-host                                           Synchronize emulation with host.
--sync-guest-none                                                Don't synchronize emulation, run as fast as possible.
--load-state-slot=<index>, -lss<index>                           Load save state by index.
--load-state-file=<filename>, -lsf<filename>                     Load save state by filename.
--delete-after-load                                              Delete save state after a successful load.
--dim-screen-after=<s>                                           Dim screen after <s> seconds of inactivity.
--volume=<0..100>                                                Set sound volume (default: 100).
--nes-version=[ntsc|pal]                                         Specify the NES version (default is NTSC).
--graphic-filter=<index/name>                                    Specify the graphic filter (refer to code for     values).
--mem-init-pattern=[zero|type_1|type_0]                          Memory initialization pattern.
--fds-auto-disk-side-switch                                      Automatic disk side switch detection
--fds-auto-disk-side-switch-on-keypress                          When a disk side switch is detected, only insert the     other disk side on the next keypress
--fds-initial-disk-insert-delay=<value in frame count>           Set initial disk insertion delay
--fds-initial-disk-insert-on-keypress                            Initial disk insertion on keypress
--fds-bios-file-name=<fds bios file name>                        Specify bios file to load (default to fds_bios.bin)
--fds-disable-host-guest-sync-on-disk-op                         disable host/guest synchronization during disk     operation
--fds-disk-switch-side-delay=<delay in frames>                   Delay in frames between disk ejection and insertion
--delete-previous-record,                                        Delete previous input records (if it exists).
--record-inputs=<filename>,                                      Start or resume the specified input capture.
--replay-inputs=<filename>,                                      Replay the specified input capture and exit.
--input-record-checkpoint-period=<period>,                       Save checkpoints during input recording at the     specified period, in number of guest frames.
--input-record-exit-frame=<frame>,                               Save a checkpoint during input recording at the     specified guest frame and exit.
--input-record-cache=<directory>,                                Enable checkpoint cache during input recording and     set its path the specified directory.
--input-replay-screenshot-period=<period>,                       Take guest screenshots during input replay at the specified period, in number of guest frames.
--input-replay-screenshot-path=<path>,                           The path where replay auto-screenshots will be saved.
--input-replay-screenshot-to-stdout,                             Put the screenshot to stdout (works only with build that have no other outputs.
--input-capture-cut-path=<directory>,                            Set the directory where input capture cuts will be saved.
--input-replay-print-total-duration,                             Print the duration of the input replay.
--save-data-backing-file=<filename>                              Use the specified file for save data (SRAM or FDS writes), specifying an empty filename disable save data management.
--save-on-quit=<filename>                                        Save state to the desired location on quit event.
--save-screenshot-on-quit=<filename>                             Save screenshot to the desired location on quit event.
--enable-crt-scanlines, -sc                                      Enable CRT-like scanlines.
--enable-armet                                                   Enable Armet filter.
--armet-threshold=<t>                                            Armet Detection Threshold (default is 20).
--set-dac-filters=[APU_FDS_14kHz|APU_14kHz_FDS_2kHz|none]        Set DAC filters (default: APU_FDS_14kHz).
--guest-overscan-dimensions=<l,r,t,b>                            Set the number of black PPU pixels on the four screen borders.
--initial-fadein-durations=<t0,t1>                               Set the initial fadein durations in 1/10 of seconds. t0=blackscreen duration, t1=fadein duration.
--ppu-palette=<index/name>                                       Specify the PPU palette (refer to code for values).
--ppu-palette-file=<filename>                                    Specify the .pal palette file.

Q: How can I donate you?

A: My PayPal: [email protected]

Thank you! Maybe I’ll buy my own NES Mini one day. All this time experimenting with NES Mini of my friend, lol.

Spoiler: Changelog

2.00:

• It's first version actually

2.01:

• Added type of two players selection.
• Bugfixes.

2.02:

• Many bugfixes.

2.03:

• Another bugfixes.
• Added MD5 for Famicom Mini kernel.

2.04:

• Some fixes for dinosaurs with Windows XP.
• Kernel size check.

2.05:

• FDS support.
• Settings moved to config.ini file.
• Automatic driver installer removed due to annoying false virus reports.

2.06:

• Finally 'pipe read' problem solved!
• Some fool-protection.
• Now you can't run two copies of app accidentally.

2.07

• Driver installer added again.
• Now you can hide selected default games.
• Font fix with all missed characters.

2.08:

• Fixed unhandled exception bug when game with unsupported mapper selected.
• Fixed bug when NES Mini is not detected on some computers.
• Select all/unselect all feature, just right click on games list.
• Uninstall feature just in case you want to remove all hakchi traces.
• Four-screen check (it's not supported by NES Mini).
• Mapper #71 games automatically patched to mapper #2 , so you can play Camerica/Codemasters games: Micro Machines, Bee 52, Dizzy series, etc. One exception: Fire Hawk.
• Fix for Google search (thanks to Bin4ry!). This feature should work for all now.
• Added Drag&Drop support. You can just drag&drop .nes file to list of games.
• Help menu with links to FAQ and GitHub.

2.09:

• 'Can't repack ramdisk' error on some systems should be gone now.
• Device detection bug fixed (thanks to David Winter!)
• Automatic file attributes fix (e.g. "WinRAR" bug fixed).
• Game selection presets. Now you can create presets for favorite games, party games, etc. It's useful since NES Mini don't like huge amount of games at once.
• Search by first letters of game, just press Ctrl+F.
• Much better PNG compression for covers, x4 more disk space.
• NES carts database with release dates, publishers, etc. Just add game and all fields will be filled automatically if it exists in database.
• Automatic IPS patches. Now you don't need other application to patch problem games. Patch files stored in "patch" folder. Problem game will be detected automatically by CRC32 checksum. Release already contains patches for "Battletoads", "Robocop 3", "Snow Bros.", "Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure" and "Startropics II". You can add and your own patches too.
• Game Genie support. Just enter your codes (comma/spaces/semicolon separated) in special field and sync. Cheats will be activated automatically.
• Mapper #87 added to list of confirmed mappers.
• Epilepsy protection settings - you can disable epilepsy protection for original 30 games or for all games at once.
• Clovercon hack! Now you can exit to menu using "Down+Select" combination. All you need now is controller cable extension...
• Some interface improvements - you can delete games using del key, etc.
• Many minor bugfixes.

2.10:

• Press Shift+F5 to update all your ROMs library info using database.
  
• Extended font working on Famicom Mini again.
• Now you can select button combination for reset.
• Some FDS improvements: correct cover size, automatic header fix, "--fds-auto-disk-side-switch-on-keypress" argument by default.
• 8bit PNG compression is optional now since image quality is not so good.
• Now you can remove thumbnails at the bottom of screen (via settings menu).

Please send to me any bugreports and suggestions.

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bojr1005 said:

I clicked the link and downloaded the file. I extracted it, it opened and went to add games...but there are not any games in the folder/file. Where do I find these?

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Retro arcade said:

LOL providing roms is illegal. You handle that yourself

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bojr1005 said:

I clicked the link and downloaded the file. I extracted it, it opened and went to add games...but there are not any games in the folder/file. Where do I find these?

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jelmer said:

Anyone tried the release of 2.11 already. Through Reddit I read it has been posted like 2 hours ago. With such a big release I like to hear some experiences before I try it to be honest. Curious about the auto-fire especially on Wii classic controller as well.

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nesito said:

I'm using the auto feature (You upload too many roms [190] XD) in a minutes i give more info of the tests.

EDIT:It's rare, the system On but take more time to it, and appears All menu with any info, no images no folders(maybe it's the for the transparent thumbnails or something). The console can be power off corrected and appears Shutting down message

Rgd.

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jelmer said:

Google "nes roms" and you will be fine. there are websites that offer you the roms (games). Good luck

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jelmer said:

Thanks Nesito,

How long does it take with more roms for the system to boot? Thanks a lot Keep us updated on your progress. Cheers

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nesito said:

You can always report me or my posts if you consider that they(the posts) don't meet the rules of the forum. Maybe I also support the autor of the tool Clusterrr , in 2 ways. You probably in no one.

Rgd.

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nesito said:

@Cluster I tried but get a Menu screen without any cover, and the music plays, but no response of any button of controller. If I power off Mini NES appears to shutdown ok.

Rgs.

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