Homebrew Any way to get saves from Project64 (PC) and use them on Wii U N64 VC?

[EmulateLife]

Topic. Just need to know if it's possible and how.

ty

 

[EmulateLife]

Where are Wii U VC saves located at? I looked in game management but there were no saves for a game that I made in game saves and save states, an N64 game but the only option under management is to delete the game there's no saves. Only thing I can think of is it either saves on the sd card or on vwii?

Edit: just looked in vwii and there's nothing. So I'm thinking it's either on the sd card or hidden.

 

[akatoosh]

Yes you can, but it's not seamless and involves things like byte swapping and homebrew. I've thought about writing a guide on it since I figured it out, I think I'll do that this week.

Essentially though you need Savemii on your Wii u to manage saves. That's the first step in transferring. I'll link to the guide when I do it.

 

[EmulateLife]

Yeah I did the savemii part.

I'll wait for your guide i guess, thanks.

 

[EmulateLife]

I found out the game I want to carry the save over, Castlevania Legacy of Darkness won't work because I played several hours without saving in game (on Project64, I just used save states) and I went to try to save it properly but I found out because i didn't select a save note in the beginning you cannot save the entire game. Incredibly stupid. Although I could still use this guide for Majora's Mask I have a save for it too that I'd like to carry over.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

Some years ago, I made a byteswapping tool for N64 savegames that is compatible with Project64 (PC), Sixtyforce (PPC Mac), Wii N64 VC and Wii64/Not64. Maybe that could help simplify things up?

I would gladly add support for Wii U N64 VC if the file format and/or padding turns out to be different than the one from Wii N64 VC (as long as you provide me samples).

 

[EmulateLife]

Some years ago, I made a byteswapping tool for N64 savegames that is compatible with Project64 (PC), Sixtyforce (PPC Mac), Wii N64 VC and Wii64/Not64. Maybe that could help simplify things up?

I would gladly add support for Wii U N64 VC if the file format and/or padding turns out to be different than the one from Wii N64 VC (as long as you provide me samples).

I know its a long shot but do you think its possible to convert a save state on project64 to wii u vc? I know i can provide the sample for project64 not sure if i could send a save state through savemii on wii u or not. Its because as i mentioned above i didnt save legit in the beginning and so on this particular game ive lost my ability to do in game saves.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

I know its a long shot but do you think its possible to convert a save state on project64 to wii u vc? I know i can provide the sample for project64 not sure if i could send a save state through savemii on wii u or not. Its because as i mentioned above i didnt save legit in the beginning and so on this particular game ive lost my ability to do in game saves.

Sorry, that's just way off my league. Save state formats vary between emulators and platforms alike.

 

[EmulateLife]

No problem. I still have a few other games that do have legit saves ill send the samples from both p64 and wii u tomorrow. Thanks

 

[akatoosh]

I have an old thread on the topic, when I figured it out, but I guess I can't post a link because I haven't posted enough. You should be able to find it through my profile.

Basically you need to make a save in the game on the Wii u, back it up with Savemii, pull it onto a PC and byte swap/replace files like I say in the post, and then restore it in Savemii.

I'd imagine DarkMatterCores tool should work for this. Just remember to delete the save state before you restore with the new save, or it will load that instead of the save from pj64.

 

[EmulateLife]

The problem is I dont know how to delete save states and they seem to make them automatically.

 

[EmulateLife]

Didn't work for me but I might be doing it wrong IDK. One game Donkey Kong 64 Darkmattercore's program said the save size didn't match, one Banjo Kazooie seemed to work as far as the computer program but I had a save state that was made automatically and I don't know how to delete it, and Zelda Majora's Mask just didn't work. Here are the project64 saves and Wii U VC saves. 0005000010101950 = Banjo Kazooie, 0005000010104841 = Donkey Kong, 0005000010104938 = Zelda Majora's Mask.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

Data structure in Wii U N64 VC saves is either really weird, or you made some mistakes before uploading the files. Nonetheless, here are my findings:

Banjo-Kazooie (0005000010101950):

• You seem to have a little endian Flash RAM save of Majora's Mask ("Unkte0.024.sav") in the Banjo-Kazooie save directory, for some reason. A quick look using a hex editor gave it away.
• The file "Unkte0.024.rs2" seems to hold the savedata we're looking for. It uses the same 128 KiB EEPROM save size as Wii N64 VC titles and the same 0xAA padding, so it should work right away using these commands:

Convert Wii U save to PJ64:

sbn64 -i "Unkte0.024.rs2" -o "BanjoKazooie.eep" -s wiivc -d pj64
___________________________

Convert PJ64 save to Wii U:

sbn64 -i "BanjoKazooie.eep" -o "Unkte0.024.rs2" -s pj64 -d wiivc

Donkey Kong 64 (0005000010104841):

• The files "Undoe0.556.sav" and "Undoe0.556.rs2" are identical. However, even though this game actually uses a bigger EEPROM chip than the one from Banjo-Kazooie, the save file size is drastically lower. It has no padding at all and doesn't match any valid N64 save size, which is why my program threw that error.
• The save file could be probably padded up to match a 2 KiB EEPROM save to make it compatible with Project64. I have created a test build for this purpose, you'll find it attached to this post.
• I don't know if the Wii U will accept a Donkey Kong 64 save file with features like the one from Banjo-Kazooie. It's strange than even though both games use EEPROM chips, the save file size isn't standardized like in Wii N64 VC titles. It's worth a shot, though.
• If you want to run the test build on the Donkey Kong 64 save file, use these commands:

Convert Wii U save to PJ64:

sbn64 -i "Undoe0.556.rs2" -o "DK64.eep" -s wiivc -d pj64
___________________________

Convert PJ64 save to Wii U:

sbn64 -i "DK64.eep" -o "Undoe0.556.rs2" -s pj64 -d wiivc

Majora's Mask (0005000010104938):

• This is the strangest one. First of all, the save directory holds two subdirectories: "0" and "1".
• The "0" directory holds a "UNZSP1.755(1).rs2" file that is simply way too big to be a proper N64 save file, so I'm *not* gonna take it into account - it could probably be a save state. However, the "UNZSP1.755.sav" file is indeed a proper big endian Flash RAM save file for Majora's Mask. If you wish to work with this file, use the following commands:

Convert Wii U save to PJ64:

sbn64 -i "UNZSP1.755.sav" -o "MajorasMask.fla" -s wiivc -d pj64
___________________________

Convert PJ64 save to Wii U:

sbn64 -i "MajorasMask.fla" -o "UNZSP1.755.sav" -s pj64 -d wiivc

• The "1" directory holds two files that are identical: "UNZSP1.755.sav" and "UNZSP1.755.rs2". However, they don't match a typical Flash RAM save size, and most importantly, they're in little endian (PC) byte order. They could be padded up to 128 KiB and see if they work with Project 64. Why aren't they in big endian byte order, as they should be? Beats me.

 

[EmulateLife]

Thank you I will try it shortly. I messed up I should have given you clean Wii U saves, but I tried messing with them and sent those. I tried changing Zelda from big endian order to little on a different byte swapping program.

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Also the reason I made the .sav identical as the .rs2 is in his tutorial on another thread Akatoosh said he did that, unless I misunderstood what he meant.

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For some reason now I get

Error opening "BanjoKazookie.eep" for reading.

Error opening "MajorasMask.fla" for reading.

I copy pasted what you posted exactly.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

Thank you I will try it shortly. I messed up I should have given you clean Wii U saves, but I tried messing with them and sent those. I tried changing Zelda from big endian order to little on a different byte swapping program.

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Also the reason I made the .sav identical as the .rs2 is in his tutorial on another thread Akatoosh said he did that, unless I misunderstood what he meant.

No problem. I'd like to check the clean Wii U files, though, if it isn't too much to ask.

For some reason now I get

Error opening "BanjoKazookie.eep" for reading.

Error opening "MajorasMask.fla" for reading.

I copy pasted what you posted exactly.

You should have both sbn64.exe and the input save file you want to work with (pointed by the "-i" command line parameter) in the same directory. Otherwise, it's not gonna work.

 

[EmulateLife]

I do I have all 3 saves in the same folder as sbn64.exe in sbn64_test_build_20190128.

But it said the same for the older build too.

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I even tried running as administrator, and I recopied the saves from Project64 same error.

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Nevermind I'm stupid. I'm copying your way and my roms are named differently lol. Sorry about that.

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I'm still having the issue of automatic save states taking the place of the saves. I tried wiping data from savemii didn't help. So until I can delete the save states, I'm boned.

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I never made a restore point, it did it automatically.

You go to manage your games and none of them have saves you can delete, only the game itself.

SaveMii you can wipe save data but the save states still happen.

I don't know if there is a way to delete save states.

When I hit ZR there is no load save state. So maybe we're turning legit P64 saves into save states unknowningly? IDK.

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I figured out part of the problem. RS2 stands for Restore. So we're converting the save to restore points on the Wii U. Only the .sav and the key should exist. Still working on it.

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I'm hoping @akatoosh could chime in here. I believe .rs2 is the restore point so I tried deleting it and restoring just the .sav but it says no saves found. It's like it only wants to restore a save point which screws up the game it won't play.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

How about making both files identical?

 

[EmulateLife]

No problem. I'd like to check the clean Wii U files, though, if it isn't too much to ask.



You should have both sbn64.exe and the input save file you want to work with (pointed by the "-i" command line parameter) in the same directory. Otherwise, it's not gonna work.

How about making both files identical?

I did, that's why you said they were the same when you first posted after seeing them. Didn't help. Just gives you a frozen screen sometimes you have to unplug the Wii U power and plug it back in sometimes you can exit to the menu.

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Holy crap, tried it again and it worked on Banjo. Can't get the other two to work, but appreciate it anyway.

 

[akatoosh]

I did, that's why you said they were the same when you first posted after seeing them. Didn't help. Just gives you a frozen screen sometimes you have to unplug the Wii U power and plug it back in sometimes you can exit to the menu.

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Holy crap, tried it again and it worked on Banjo. Can't get the other two to work, but appreciate it anyway.

Which two are you still having issues with? DK64 and MM? I'll take a look.

 

[EmulateLife]

I finally got MM to work and DK64 appears to be a problem with the save on Project 64 with the memory pak. I made a new .eep save but it says I only played 1 minute but the save state is fine but only makes the 1 minute save. The Wii U loads it appropriately so it's only a problem with my memory pak on P64. I'll just settle without it because I didn't make it very far like an hour. So I appreciate all the help from both of you.