Hacking ARM7Fixa

[cracker]

ARM7Fixa by cracker

Since it doesn't seem like the ARM7 fix is ever going to go out of style for some carts I figured there should be a better way of applying an ARM7 fix. Yes there already are ways of doing this fix but the problem is a) they are too complicated for 'casual users' , b) ndstool has a bug that renders some games useless , and c) no need for .NET framework. (Also note that it takes way less time to ARM7 fix games with my program.)


What you need to run ARM7Fixa:

A game that needs to be ARM7 fixed

A game that doesn't need to be ARM7 fixed or an arm7.bin that isn't protected


Usage:
Put the unprotected arm7.bin or game that doesn't need to be fixed (named donor.nds) into the same directory as arm7fixa.exe. Drag and drop the game that needs to be fixed onto arm7fixa.exe. Done!

Get it here

 

[papyrus]

this is wat i need, i can't seem to use .net framework so this will do fine thnx cracker.

 

[jagerstaffel]

Say, I've been meaning to ask, what other arm7.bin's are unprotected, other than Sim City (J) and Hoshigami (J)? I appreciate any help.

Edit: Forgot to add my sincere thanks, you are right, this program is hella fast! A solo-core processor am I, it easily beats DSLazy and Arm7GUI.

 

[sirhiro]

Thanks for this release cracker, may I ask what you wrote it in?
Here is my report:
Card: EDGE
Attempted:
Sonic Dark brotherhood with Children of mana as donor. Took less then 30 seconds. Put onto flash cart and it started up but didn't recognize my save. I tried to save and it froze at the save screen. I thought this might have been conflicting with my current save, so I deleted it and tried to save fresh and it continued to not work, so it made this game unable to save.
Result: Failed..

Kirby super star ultra with Children of mana as donor. Took alittle over 30 seconds. Put onto flash cart and it stated during loading it was unable to load the game
Result: Failed...

**Also tried using them with the patched arm7.bin and still the same result. It is most likely my fault its not working, but so far 2:2 have failed for me.

( Im not even sure if COM[Children of Mana] is an appropriate donor, but I figured if I can load and save in it, it should work )

 

[cracker]

Thanks for this release cracker, may I ask what you wrote it in?
Here is my report:
Card: EDGE
Attempted:
Sonic Dark brotherhood with Children of mana as donor. Took less then 30 seconds. Put onto flash cart and it started up but didn't recognize my save. I tried to save and it froze at the save screen. I thought this might have been conflicting with my current save, so I deleted it and tried to save fresh and it continued to not work, so it made this game unable to save.
Result: Failed..

Kirby super star ultra with Children of mana as donor. Took alittle over 30 seconds. Put onto flash cart and it stated during loading it was unable to load the game
Result: Failed...

**Also tried using them with the patched arm7.bin and still the same result. It is most likely my fault its not working, but so far 2:2 have failed for me.

( Im not even sure if COM[Children of Mana] is an appropriate donor, but I figured if I can load and save in it, it should work )

It's written in c++.

I just tried SCDB with CoM (both US) as the donor and it worked fine. The fixed game is 130,426,144 bytes and has a CRC32 of 4A18B204. Does this match yours?

 

[cracker]

I updated ARM7Fixa to read the original game in 10M chunks. I think there was a problem with bigger games on some systems (with limited resources and/or Win98) that caused games to be rebuilt improperly despite no errors being shown.

 

[aznkirby890]

I'm trying to fix Kirby SSU, but when I do, it runs the save, but after the PRESS START screen, it freezes. I checked, and noticed that the "fixed" file was about half the size of the original. (Orig- 128mb New- 72mb) I used The World Ends with you (U) (128mb), but it still dosent work. help plz

 

[cracker]

That's the right size for the output file for KSSU. The games are always padded to the nearest MB that is a power of 2 (ex: 4/8/16/32MB) so there is ~56MB of garbage (padding) at the end of the file for KSSU.

Now onto the real problem...

I don't think that KSSU needs an arm7 fix. But it does require a patch to prevent the input from freezing when new modes are unlocked.

As for The World Ends With You it is probably a matter of using a different arm7.bin/donor.nds. Googling around should find you a good one.

 

[ryuragnas]

Tried this with a few games I was having problems with. I used Summon Night Twin Age (U) as the donor, yet on the two slot-2 cards I have as spare the games didn't work. On the eWin2, they white screened, and on the eWin2 Pro, they loaded, but didn't keep the save file. Dragon Quest IV (E) couldn't even get passed the loading the save file error. All the others I tried, Digimon World Championship (U) (Xenophobia), From The Abyss (U) (VENOM), Spore Creatures (E) (M6) (XMS), or Sonic Chronicles - The Dark Brotherhood (E), didn't keep the save.

Is there a way I can get these to work, as I have family and friends who want to play them?

 

[Mentz]

IMHO:

Maybe the problem is that non all unprotected arm7.bin are suitable for all protected arm7 games...
A universal mode to unlock all these games is to find tha arm routine that control the memory type and make a bypass... (like no cd crack do...)
A ds debugger will do the trick...

However....Thanks for your work, cracker...

 

[cracker]

Tried this with a few games I was having problems with. I used Summon Night Twin Age (U) as the donor, yet on the two slot-2 cards I have as spare the games didn't work. On the eWin2, they white screened, and on the eWin2 Pro, they loaded, but didn't keep the save file. Dragon Quest IV (E) couldn't even get passed the loading the save file error. All the others I tried, Digimon World Championship (U) (Xenophobia), From The Abyss (U) (VENOM), Spore Creatures (E) (M6) (XMS), or Sonic Chronicles - The Dark Brotherhood (E), didn't keep the save.

Is there a way I can get these to work, as I have family and friends who want to play them?

Try different games as donors. See below.

QUOTE(Mentz @ Oct 2 2008, 08:49 AM) IMHO:

Maybe the problem is that non all unprotected arm7.bin are suitable for all protected arm7 games...
A universal mode to unlock all these games is to find tha arm routine that control the memory type and make a bypass... (like no cd crack do...)
A ds debugger will do the trick...

However....Thanks for your work, cracker...

Absolutely correct. Not all unprotected games are suitable for donating their arm7.bin. Sometimes they work great for some games, other times they give the same results, and many times they cause the game to whitescreen. It's just a matter of finding the right game to be a donor. Someone should really make a database...

 

[Mentz]

There are any difference between arm7.bin of same game with different region ?

[1159] Sim_City_DS_EUR (donor) works for -> [1368] Worms_Open_Warfare_2_EUR

 

[cracker]

It doesn't seem to be a problem using an arm7.bin from a game of a different region.

 

[cracker]

I added more detection for bad reads/writes, cleaned up the code, commented a little bit and included the source in the newest version. Now Mac and *nix users can share in the joy.

 

[Mentz]

I'l will try this new release ASAP...

 

[Dragon-chan]

I don't think that KSSU needs an arm7 fix. But it does require a patch to prevent the input from freezing when new modes are unlocked.

How might I go about installing this patch, if I may be so bold?

 

[Mentz]

I don't think that KSSU needs an arm7 fix. But it does require a patch to prevent the input from freezing when new modes are unlocked.

How might I go about installing this patch, if I may be so bold?

It's an IPS patch...
Use the appz on this page...
http://www.zophar.net/utilities/patchutil.html

 

[Dragon-chan]

Nevermind, I got it. =3

 

[LufianGuy]

Would this allow me to play Kirby Super Star Ultra on my M3 Lite (Slot-2)?

 

[cracker]

If it is the protected arm7.bin that is making it now work then it will (if you can find the right donor).