ROM Hack [Release] Picross S (Picross E9 mod)

Vulpes-Vulpeos · Jul 11, 2020

Hello. This is Picross S for Nintendo 3DS.
Mod is based on Picross E9. Saves from Picross E9 are compatible (clean save with special puzzles unlocked).
It uses titleID from Picross E (Jap).

About mod:
- all puzzles from Picross S for Nintendo Switch.
- music and sfx from Picross S for Nintendo Switch.
- all graphics was drawn/redrawn/adapted for Nintendo 3DS.
- because of limitations, I had to sacrifice look of some elements. For example, to get picross info to look like on switch I had to sacrifice the look of the top screen when you solve the picross.

Picross E9 has 15 special puzzles and 3 micross puzzles, which Picross S doesn't have. I need advice what to do with them.
There is a collection of Picross S 1-3 with exclusive puzzles released in China, but I can't find normal info about it or .nsp. If someone has this collection, please, send me screenshots of this exclusive picrosses (complete pictures + picross fields).

Getting it on 3DS:
1. You'll need to extract and rebuild the .cia. The loading times with LayerdFS patch are horrible.
2. You can read how to do it here.
3. "Romfs" archive has files that go into extracted romfs folder.
4. "Banner and id change files" archive has banner files and files to change game name and titleid.

Download:
MEGA

Dash_Ravishing · Jul 31, 2020

Hey, this is fantastic work. I've been a big Picross player for a while now; I find the puzzles are perfect during my commute.
Did you have much difficulty decompiling the ROM, and figuring out how puzzles are structured?

Vulpes-Vulpeos · Aug 1, 2020

Dash_Ravishing said:
much difficulty decompiling the ROM

No, it's easy process. Guide.

Dash_Ravishing said:
figuring out how puzzles are structured

It wasn't that difficult. The structure of picross files is relatively simple: [size][picross body][numbers] and [size][picross body][columns and rows with mega numbers][numbers]. You can edit picross files with any hex editor.
Also you'll need custom tool to work with .jtex files that contain picorss images, as Kukki from Kuriimu can't open them.

I wanted to port all picross s games (only modes that are supported by Picross E9), but because of lack of interest I put this project on hold.

CMDreamer · Aug 1, 2020

Great! This looks fantastic!

I'm a fan of puzzle games and actually I've been playing Picross for DS on my DSi XL.

Now I need to get this to work (on my 3DS ofc)... will read the tutorial provided and might post back in here just in case I get stuck at some point.

Thanks for sharing!

Dash_Ravishing · Aug 1, 2020

I wouldn't mind forward-porting the two Gameboy Picross games, and the 9 SNES Picross games; or perhaps write a puzzle generator that takes 15x15 snippets of sprites from NES spritesheets, and formats them into Picross puzzles. The same could be said for larger sprites and Micross puzzles.

Hipcheck7 · Nov 15, 2020

I am unable to recompile the cia.
If I use packhack 12, I get a "program unable to start" error and no cia is created
if I used packhack 9, the cia is created, but has an error when installing with fbi

Any help you can provide is appreciated.

MattyXB · Feb 16, 2021

Thank you very much for all your english translations from the 3DS Picross games. I like most the Pictlogica Final Fantasy. Never heard from that befor and found it, because of your translation. Thanks.
Also thanks for this hack.

I have one small problem with this hack here. Game itself work fine, but it didn't show the Titles from the Levels, when they finished. Your picture shows the Title Key from the first Level, but in Citra (tested more versions) it didn't show them for me, I open some Levels and noone shows the Title after finish. Unfinished its "????????" and finish its empty. Is this an Emulator problem, or did I miss some files?

The translated e9 Version show the Title (Door is the first). But the hacked Version didn't.
Also the first Touch screen "Let's play! Let's Smile!" is only white in this hack for me, what is no big problem. Not sure if this is the same problem, or just an Emulator problem?

Vulpes-Vulpeos · Feb 16, 2021

MattyXB said:
Is this an Emulator problem, or did I miss some files?

Sorry, but I have no idea. On real hardware it works perfectly.

HelpTheWretched · Jun 28, 2021

Thanks a lot for making this mod, I wish I had seen it sooner.

I got it working as a .3ds file and it plays perfectly in Citra!

Unfortunately I can't seem to get a working .cia file. I've tried 4 different source copies of Picross e9 (including a GodMode9 dump of my own copy) and every time I compile the .cia, it's completely invalid according to FBI. No title or icon appears, and it always shows this:
Title ID: 0004000000642000
Region: Unknown

It's really weird because your other translation patches worked fine!

I'm using an older version of HackingToolkit9DS (from when it was still called 3DS), but like I said, it worked for other patches. And when I try using the latest version, it doesn't extract any of the decrypted partitions to "Extracted_____" folders.

I know you aren't here for HackingToolkit troubleshooting but if you happen to know what would cause either problem, that would be great to know.

[EDIT]
Somebody in the HackingToolkit thread reported a similar problem (different game though) and I think it might be the cause. Gonna try with v9.

[EDIT 2] Yeah it didn't work with v9 either.

HelpTheWretched · Jul 2, 2021

Just wanted to report that I got this (mostly) working!

Could not figure out why HackingToolkit9DS (V12) wouldn't rebuild, but it's apparently a really common problem.

So I looked at the differences between the various Header .bins dumped by V12 and your edited copies to see what the differences were, then applied those differences to the ones dumped by V9, which it turns out, had a couple bytes different. Notice in my post above, applying your patches previously resulted in a TitleID ending in 00642000, when it should have been 00064200. It probably threw off a few other important things too.

The only thing that didn't work was the custom banners, but I recall from working on my Tri Force Heroes mod that V9 also requires banner.bin to be edited, so I'll try that soon.

If anybody else is having trouble compiling this mod due to HackingToolkit9DS being fickle, feel free to message me.

skroops · Nov 11, 2021

Just downloaded this to put on a 2DS I got my mom for Xmas for Picross! Thanks!

Could you fill out the missing extra puzzles with puzzles from Mario's Picross?

YukidaruPunch · Dec 18, 2021

I will have to say I absolutely love this. Had forgot about it because of life, turned on my 3DS to find out this existed, and now I'm hooked. I wondered if there were conversions of the other S games, but as you mentioned, there was a lack of interest by the big public... however, thank you very much. I love it.

mujie · Mar 28, 2022

Vulpes-Vulpeos said:
No, it's easy process. Guide.

It wasn't that difficult. The structure of picross files is relatively simple: [size][picross body][numbers] and [size][picross body][columns and rows with mega numbers][numbers]. You can edit picross files with any hex editor.
Also you'll need custom tool to work with .jtex files that contain picorss images, as Kukki from Kuriimu can't open them.

I wanted to port all picross s games (only modes that are supported by Picross E9), but because of lack of interest I put this project on hold.

Which ones are the the picross files? The BDPC files?

Cocojuju13 · Jul 7, 2022

I've finally found a way to install this hack on real hardware, here's a small tuto :

Using V9 version of HackingToolkit3DS and a cia rom of Picross E9 (can be converted with GM9), extract the CIA file, replace everything from the romfs and banner archives and rebuild the CIA.
Then install the CIA on Citra Nightly (the game should be working), open the Citra folder using the File tab and copy-paste the folder 00642000 located in sdmc/Nintendo 3DS/<lots of 0>/<lots of 0>/title/00040000/ into the 3DS SD card.
Finally, using GM9, press A on 00000000.app located in 00642000/content then NCCH image options... > Verify file. It will give a bad crypto flags error, so select Attempt fix this time. Once done, press A again > NCCH image options... > Install game image, reboot and the hack should be correctly installed !

But for some reasons, the banner isn't modified on my console (EUR FR language) (it doesn't work with the other Picross translations too, I don't know what I'm doing wrong...)

smudgethefirst · Feb 26, 2023

This is amazing work. I can understand why the project is on hold, but being able to install this alongside the full picross e 3DS collection is extremely satisfying. I'm working my way through them all now.

ROM Hack [Release] Picross S (Picross E9 mod)

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