ROM Hack AP-patch preservation

[Devinlion]

Does anyone have a Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Sings AP patched tomorrow? If so please send me a link to it

 

[RocketRobz]

Does anyone have a Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Sings AP patched tomorrow? If so please send me a link to it

If you don't see a patch for it, then it's included in TWiLight Menu++.
If you have TWiLight Menu++ (with a Memory Expansion Pak, or a DSi, or a 3DS/2DS), then you can just use a clean ROM.
(It's against the rules to link to commercial ROMs anyways. )

 

[Devinlion]

If you don't see a patch for it, then it's included in TWiLight Menu++.
If you have TWiLight Menu++ (with a Memory Expansion Pak, or a DSi, or a 3DS/2DS), then you can just use a clean ROM.
(It's against the rules to link to commercial ROMs anyways. )

I have a rom of it on my 3ds but it is not working. On TwilightMenu++ it keeps staying on the black screen after you see your character falling through the sky.

Is there a way to download it directly to your 3ds like you can with Virtual Console games?

 

[Devinlion]

I have a rom of it on my 3ds but it is not working. On TwilightMenu++ it keeps staying on the black screen after you see your character falling through the sky.

Is there a way to download it directly to your 3ds like you can with Virtual Console games?

Got it working. Went to check for more updates and updated to Nightly on TwilightMenu and BootStrap and that fixed it

 

[Elbart]

If you don't see a patch for it, then it's included in TWiLight Menu++.

Are the patches from "RetroGameFan Flashcart Game Patches v1.9" (not available unfortunately) and "RetroGameFan TwiLight Menu ++ AP Patcher v1.0" part of TWiLight too?

 

[RocketRobz]

Are the patches from "RetroGameFan Flashcart Game Patches v1.9" (not available unfortunately) and "RetroGameFan TwiLight Menu ++ AP Patcher v1.0" part of TWiLight too?

Should be.

 

[Elbart]

Alright, thanks!

 

[Niccu]

I've been trying to figure out why the AP patches weren't working, and looking through the files I noticed I don't have the apfix folder. Was the way the patches are stored changed in an update? I can't get some games to work properly.

 

[RocketRobz]

I've been trying to figure out why the AP patches weren't working, and looking through the files I noticed I don't have the apfix folder. Was the way the patches are stored changed in an update? I can't get some games to work properly.

Yes. The patches are now stored in a .pck file.

 

[Niccu]

Yes. The patches are now stored in a .pck file.

Oh, thank you. I was asking because I got random freezes in Warioware: Touched! and Last Window, both EUR versions at transitions.
But after some testing, it looks like Twilight Menu was detecting and probably patching them, since after I manually patched Last Window to test, I get a warning before starting it about how it needs an AP patch.

I'm not sure what the problem is then. I'm using a new 3DS XL.

btw, is there a place to report games that don't work and aren't in the nds-bootstrap compatibility list? I found two games that work perfectly on R4 but they don't even start in Twilight Menu.

 

[RocketRobz]

Oh, thank you. I was asking because I got random freezes in Warioware: Touched! and Last Window, both EUR versions at transitions.
But after some testing, it looks like Twilight Menu was detecting and probably patching them, since after I manually patched Last Window to test, I get a warning before starting it about how it needs an AP patch.

I'm not sure what the problem is then. I'm using a new 3DS XL.

btw, is there a place to report games that don't work and aren't in the nds-bootstrap compatibility list? I found two games that work perfectly on R4 but they don't even start in Twilight Menu.

You can request access to edit the compatibility list.
Also, card read DMA is a bit buggy and can cause freezes, so try turning it off.

 

[Niccu]

You can request access to edit the compatibility list.
Also, card read DMA is a bit buggy and can cause freezes, so try turning it off.

Thanks I'll try that.
And on second thought, I better not touch anything about the compatibility, I don't know enough about this.

 

[Nikokaro]

Hi.
Playing Puzzler Brain Games (E)(M5) on YSMenu I always encounter random freezes; does it depend on an anti-piracy measure?

This is one of the most underrated of the brain games, yet it is one of the most interesting, and beautiful in graphics and colors.

Could you provide me with a link to download an ap patch for this game, assuming it exists?
I've searched everywhere but I'm afraid none exist, perhaps because no one has ever been interested in this game.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RocketRobz]

Hi.
Playing Puzzler Brain Games (E)(M5) on YSMenu I always encounter random freezes; does it depend on an anti-piracy measure?

This is one of the most underrated of the brain games, yet it is one of the most interesting, and beautiful in graphics and colors.

Could you provide me with a link to download an ap patch for this game, assuming it exists?
I've searched everywhere but I'm afraid none exist, perhaps because no one has ever been interested in this game.

Thanks in advance.

Does it work with nds-bootstrap?
If so, then it's probably not AP-related.

 

[AngealSnow]

I tried yo play the spanish translation of Devil survivor (ver 2.0.1) But the Game still having the Dhube error; I aplied the spanish patch in a clean ROM, But when i tried to aply the AP patch of the Game, DSscene Saya there isn't patch for the Game, But when i Saw the compatibility list, there is already a patch for the game

 

[RocketRobz]

I tried yo play the spanish translation of Devil survivor (ver 2.0.1) But the Game still having the Dhube error; I aplied the spanish patch in a clean ROM, But when i tried to aply the AP patch of the Game, DSscene Saya there isn't patch for the Game, But when i Saw the compatibility list, there is already a patch for the game

Apply the AP-patch to a clean ROM first, then apply the Spanish patch.

 

[AngealSnow]

Apply the AP-patch to a clean ROM first, then apply the Spanish patch.

Isn't possible, the patcher don't allow me to patch the Game, after i aply the APpatch

 

[FAST6191]

Isn't possible, the patcher don't allow me to patch the Game, after i aply the APpatch

You might have to combine patches, which can get fun as it is quite possible for a translation patch to mess with the same binaries/overlays as the anti piracy patch. If it does you get to figure out how to combine things; a lot of AP stuff should be in place so you can probably get away with things there, though you might have to learn how to decompress and recompress binaries which is different to boring and basic type 10/type 11 LZ that is most DS compression.

I have a rough overview around here somewhere. General idea is grab the base ROM and your two patches.
Make two ROMs from those.
Unpack both new ROMs and the base.
Compare files between the new ROMs and the base to see what changed in each case. Any number of tools will allow you to compare two directories to see changed files, up to and include just zipping everything up and comparing CRC32 values.

Hopefully the translation got away with a few external text files, a font and maybe a graphic or two. In which case copy those across to the AP patched file and rebuild, or maybe if the AP file is just an ARM9 change then inject the modified ARM9 into the translated ROM (same for any overlays they might have buried other checks in).

If they both edit the ARM9 or overlays then you get to figure out how to combine the two. Again I hope the AP stuff is just a matter of every AP checking being patched to not happen/take the positive for the player result regardless of outcome. In which case you can merge things easily enough, give or take compression; for the merging then after any compression I would actually just use IPS as it is simple and dumb enough to dodge the input issues. If the AP and the translation both add extra code (possible in some cases but I don't think it is likely on the DS) and collide on locations changed for it then we get to come back here and work out how to do things properly.

 

[AngealSnow]

You might have to combine patches, which can get fun as it is quite possible for a translation patch to mess with the same binaries/overlays as the anti piracy patch. If it does you get to figure out how to combine things; a lot of AP stuff should be in place so you can probably get away with things there, though you might have to learn how to decompress and recompress binaries which is different to boring and basic type 10/type 11 LZ that is most DS compression.

I have a rough overview around here somewhere. General idea is grab the base ROM and your two patches.
Make two ROMs from those.
Unpack both new ROMs and the base.
Compare files between the new ROMs and the base to see what changed in each case. Any number of tools will allow you to compare two directories to see changed files, up to and include just zipping everything up and comparing CRC32 values.

Hopefully the translation got away with a few external text files, a font and maybe a graphic or two. In which case copy those across to the AP patched file and rebuild, or maybe if the AP file is just an ARM9 change then inject the modified ARM9 into the translated ROM (same for any overlays they might have buried other checks in).

If they both edit the ARM9 or overlays then you get to figure out how to combine the two. Again I hope the AP stuff is just a matter of every AP checking being patched to not happen/take the positive for the player result regardless of outcome. In which case you can merge things easily enough, give or take compression; for the merging then after any compression I would actually just use IPS as it is simple and dumb enough to dodge the input issues. If the AP and the translation both add extra code (possible in some cases but I don't think it is likely on the DS) and collide on locations changed for it then we get to come back here and work out how to do things properly.

thanks for your help, in the end i was able to modify the rom using crytaltile2 by modifying some offsets to match the ones in the ap patch, the rom works fine now
Edit: the part of Dhube works fines, But when the day ends and Start the next, the Game freeze, i don't know if this is a problem of the translation or if is caused by the AP

 

[FAST6191]

Try it on an emulator and see. The compatibility layers on the DSi/3ds are not as hot as some things (as evidenced by the fact we are here however many years after anti piracy was a solved problem for everything else discussing this). You can also try the straight AP patched version for long enough to get to that point and see what goes there (sounds like it is reasonably early into the game).

Also are you sure you got everything? Anti piracy patches can be buried deep with ARM9 and overlays getting involved. Miss an overlay and it crashing a bit later into the game is reasonably in line.