Hacking Any progress on a VC region patcher?

[CambridgeGuy]

While we wait for the glorious program to do the hard work for us, i'll post my results so far of making NTSC/U games region free and then playing them on my PAL Wii...

Starfox 64 - working, 50hz
Super Mario 64 - working, 60hz
Sonic 1 - not working!
Sonic 2 - working 50hz

I'm not sure why Sonic 1 doesn't work at all. Maybe I just did something wrong. It's *such* a shame that Sonic 2 is 50hz though, the Sonic games *need* 60hz
Mario 64 in 60hz is a MASSIVE improvement, as the 50hz version had a horrible inconsistent frame rate and the whole screen looked blurred due to stretching it to fit the higher resolution of 50hz.

 

[CambridgeGuy]

EDIT: succes for one wad under linux, im gonna upload de source now and do a windows build after a few more tests (i'll have to restart to winblows for that)
and afterwards i'll need a brave tester because i cant use mi wii right now.

I'll happily be your brave tester

And yes, I am using Windows XP, sorry

So indeed you will have to restart windows for this.

 

[kknn]

Great!

just for proof, here is the source, for anyone who might be curious, and for linux users who can compile it right away

(NOT TESTED!)
gcc -o freethewads freethewads.c -lcrypto

http://pastebin.com/d304f934f

rebooting to windows, i'll be back in a few with updates

EDIT: the first, UNTESTED, windows build. any brave windows testers, please confirm
if this is working using freethewads.exe
Linux users: Use the source, luke.

usage: just run freethewads.exe target.wad

 

[CambridgeGuy]

I have an exam tomorrow morning, and it's almost midnight. I'd better get some sleep. I'll tests this as soon as a get t chance tomorrow morning! Goodnight!

 

[apcarr]

Great!

just for proof, here is the source, for anyone who might be curious, and for linux users who can compile it right away

(NOT TESTED!)
gcc -o freethewads freethewads.c -lcrypto

http://pastebin.com/d304f934f

rebooting to windows, i'll be back in a few with updates

EDIT: the first, UNTESTED, windows build. any brave windows testers, please confirm
if this is working using freethewads.exe
Linux users: Use the source, luke.

usage: just run freethewads.exe target.wad

 

[Cocytean]

first of, kknn, thanks for all your hard work. Maybe I'm being a total idiot, though - downloaded free_the_wads, but everytime I click on the application, it opens for a fraction of a second and then closes. Is this çause I'm running Vista, or just because I'm stupid?

Cheers

 

[retroguy]

first of, kknn, thanks for all your hard work. Maybe I'm being a total idiot, though - downloaded free_the_wads, but everytime I click on the application, it opens for a fraction of a second and then closes. Is this çause I'm running Vista, or just because I'm stupid?

Cheers

that is because you have to open the command prompt, and then type: freethewads yourfilename.wad

 

[Cocytean]

nope, still an idiot. Did exactly as retroguy said, now telling me 'freethewads' does not exist. Can anyone help?

 

[TaxiTitan]

While we wait for the glorious program to do the hard work for us, i'll post my results so far of making NTSC/U games region free and then playing them on my PAL Wii...

Starfox 64 - working, 50hz
Super Mario 64 - working, 60hz
Sonic 1 - not working!
Sonic 2 - working 50hz

I'm not sure why Sonic 1 doesn't work at all. Maybe I just did something wrong. It's *such* a shame that Sonic 2 is 50hz though, the Sonic games *need* 60hz
Mario 64 in 60hz is a MASSIVE improvement, as the 50hz version had a horrible inconsistent frame rate and the whole screen looked blurred due to stretching it to fit the higher resolution of 50hz.

when getting sm64 to work in 60hz. Did you use the sin & punishment emu? think all the other Pal emus will force 50hz 576 interlace mode by default even when fed with US roms.

 

[jan777]

edit:nevermind,wrong post

 

[kknn]

first of, kknn, thanks for all your hard work. Maybe I'm being a total idiot, though - downloaded free_the_wads, but everytime I click on the application, it opens for a fraction of a second and then closes. Is this çause I'm running Vista, or just because I'm stupid?

Cheers

try dragging the .wad over the .exe

 

[CambridgeGuy]

While we wait for the glorious program to do the hard work for us, i'll post my results so far of making NTSC/U games region free and then playing them on my PAL Wii...

Starfox 64 - working, 50hz
Super Mario 64 - working, 60hz
Sonic 1 - not working!
Sonic 2 - working 50hz

I'm not sure why Sonic 1 doesn't work at all. Maybe I just did something wrong. It's *such* a shame that Sonic 2 is 50hz though, the Sonic games *need* 60hz
Mario 64 in 60hz is a MASSIVE improvement, as the 50hz version had a horrible inconsistent frame rate and the whole screen looked blurred due to stretching it to fit the higher resolution of 50hz.

when getting sm64 to work in 60hz. Did you use the sin & punishment emu? think all the other Pal emus will force 50hz 576 interlace mode by default even when fed with US roms.

No, we're not doing ROM injection here. We're taking the NTSC wad files and changing their region to region free, then running them on a PAL wii.

So no, SM64 did not use S&P, it used SM64.,.. if you know what i mean.

 

[dydy]

Question the tool freethewads.exe is for convert VC game US to PAL or region free?

 

[apcarr]

Question the tool freethewads.exe is for convert VC game US to PAL or region free?

It will convert any region to region free with the command freethewads.exe title.wad or with the command freethewads.exe title.wad manutd you can choose which region to patch it to.

NOTE: you dont have to put manutd you can put anything you like and it still works!

 

[Pici]

kknn this app works FLAWLESSLY on windws, I succesfuly converted comix zone USA to PAL !
i'm going to try kirby 64 (it exists on pal but it's a bad dump)

 

[Jdbye]

You can also use my tool:
http://jdbye.mtveurope.org/wii/TOOLS/VCFri...tcher.Jdbye.rar
Does not need .NET or any other dependencies. I hate those things.
And it's not command line!
The difference though is that it patches the .tmd and .tik files, not the .wad

It can patch the game code too, so you can have multiple channels of different injected games of the same wad.
It's easy to use when injecting games, you just do the patching before you press y to inject the rom (there should be a title.tmd and title.tik in the Injectuwad directory)
Not as easy for just region patching wads without injecting, but I primarily made it for changing the game code when injecting games.

 

[CambridgeGuy]

The next thing we need to do is to patch games to make them 60hz.
It seems very few games actually run in full-speed 60hz mode when run on a PAL wii, even if the games are NTSC.
Does anyone have *any* ideas about this?

 

[NL_Patrick_D]

works for n64 games
did 1080 and cruisin
but doesn´t work on nes for instance
tested with castlevania 2 and donkey kong and adventures of lolo 2
the channel installs but isn't playable

 

[Kyokokoko]

Thanks to the guy who found out how to do it, to the people providing info here, and to kknn and jdbye for the tools.

What about the compatibility issue that Patrick mentioned? I'm going to try too as soon as I get a hold of a classic controller.

 

[rockbmi]

cannot open file /cygdrive/c/free_the_wads_/freethewads

i have the title.wad file in the smae folder as the other files im loading up the exe with command prompt and my wad is sonic the hedgehog 2, im typing in c:\free_the_wads\freethewads.exe title.wad its still not working i get the above error. Can someone help please