Hacking Banner/Icon Edit,Save Edit, Manual Edit VC Games

[crwys]

Well then it's something on your end.

The template file I use for the n64 is the one for ocarina of time.

This app makes a banner.brlyt file and then you have to use the ut8 tools to add it back into the 0000000.app file

I suggest you give the readme a read.

I am unable to find a readme

I clicked on the 2 links to download the files i needed. The links were on the first post on the first page. The links said
tools
N64 (thnx to bobitos)

Neither of the downloads contained a readme file. Where can i get one?

 

[HowardC]

I think you are confused. There isn't a link to my utility on the front page yet, it's a few posts above
(vcinfo 1.0) I am referring to the readme to my utility, not the 00000000.app files.

 

[HowardC]

Ok Vc info 2.0 is out! (See above for details)

VC Info 2.0


the alignment issue is fixed and thanks to feedback I've added multi-line support as well as null support (see readme).


Btw... I noticed that the NeoGeo banner included on this site is actually a hacked snes banner. Anyway to fix that? Maybe I'm just picky, but the gradient and tab colors are wrong for a neogeo game.

 

[sr_corsario]

Btw... I noticed that the NeoGeo banner included on this site is actually a hacked snes banner. Anyway to fix that? Maybe I'm just picky, but the gradient and tab colors are wrong for a neogeo game.

Yes, it is. (and was reported) but it works very well. (in case you want to use a short name use an original file... because kof94 banner doesnt work) Have you ever try your files and make a banner? xD

Test it.

I had done a banner pack using another program, similar to yours. (made by devilken). And mine works XD

Any way, good job. (test it before post to look for problems... and i subjest you to add a "banner pack" with your program, there are strange problems with some vc systems.)

At least someone interested to do something...

Sorry for my english/spelling

 

[HowardC]

Yeah I figured as such, but I wondered how you got the neogeo logo extracted (Perhaps from the manual?)

So the issue lies in the U8 extractor, which is fixable. (I'm probably gonna have to write one anyway.) If nothing else I can manually pull the tpl files from a proper banner.bin and replace the snes ones, it'll just take some time for me to "see" them.

 

[sr_corsario]

Yeah I figured as such, but I wondered how you got the neogeo logo extracted (Perhaps from the manual?)

The "logo" its in icon.bin. you dont need to modify it. The first time i used snes banner for it and the "logo" appears bigger than usual... (look at game ) it is because every icon have a "center" option. In case you use a n64 icon file you will get a "slim" image... because the n64 icon image is placed in center of the icon...

....


PDelete manual... anyone is looking/asking for it?

 

[davhuit]

Yeah, it's easier.

I was asking that because it's fail for me when I try to modify a NeoGeo banner so i'm searching an alternative way to do it.

I was so starting to think the ".app" included in the tools archive for the NeoGeo Roms wasn't good, as I saw the gamename twice contrary to the others, and so was wondering if the original .app could be kept.

Thanks for your answer, I'll try to do it with the original searching a tutorial.

Finally managed to modify the banner with this file "NeoGeo_V3_00000000.app".

Would just need to find how to change the logo and save name for Neogeo and it's okay (as it's seems different than the snes), but that's really important so I'll search later.

 

[HowardC]

Been investigating the various wad files for the app I'm building....

I noticed on the front page that the information for a the neogeo save image/txt is missing.

Well I found it, but I'm not so sure about the image........

Extract the 0000000006.app and there's a banner.bin (amoung some other interesting things)

My guess is this is the save icon stuff and a view in a hex editor seems to support this.... the game name is in there, but the archive won't extract with the public tools. Maybe the sdk tools can open it?

 

[lolsjoel]

HowardC, thanks for the tool. I'll definitely get some good use out of this.

Tell me though, what's the null function do?

 

[HowardC]

It's basically for "power" use.

In the hex files, there's often some empty space after the game name... space that sometimes can be used to make a longer game name. If one were to add some "nulls" in the defaults.ini for a game name it would replace not only the exact game name, but the few free bytes after it, which would, in theory allow you to define a longer game name.

Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to investigate each particular template and see how far we can stretch it though. Right now I'm working on command-line wrappers for the various apps in this thread's toolset so I can make my "turn key" injector.

 

[RadioShadow]

Well yes and no...... Japanese characters are beyond the english unicode scope, so my app can't display them BUT if you type them or can manage to copy and paste them into the text boxes (using the command line might be easier) then it should work. (It may show jibberish) With that being said, I can't really read any of the asian languages so if it doesn't work, don't expect me to spend a whole lot of time working on it.

Just out of curiosity, what are you trying to inject? (Afaik even the Japaneese titles are in english in the banner files.)

It's no big deal about the support for Unicode Japanese letters as I can easily add them using a hex editor. On one of my Wads, I have the English name on top and the Japanese below like so:

Panel De Pon
??????

But you included the ability to add a new line which saves the trouble of opening a hex editor.

Nut anyway, as for the banner.tpl save images, they are located in 00000001.app for a NES wad. In Ninja Gaiden, this is what I found:

1AFD20 - Start of the banner.tpl

1BA61F - End of the banner.tpl

1BA620 - Text that appears below the Save Image and when the Wii Hand Highlights the save file.

If I open the tpl file in the 'Image to TPL' tool, it loads the image better than the Super Mario Lost Levels one:

But it's still a bit gibberish. I actually just now went and put a F-Zero banner.tpl over the one in Ninja Gaiden and it works fine.

So I just got to figure out how to rip the images and replace them in a SNES banner.tpl.

 

[KeithNJ]

No matter what, it wont let me overwrite the 00000000.app file, it comes up with an error (In spanish) But it is linked to Sound.bin somehow. Hopefully RadioShadow can help me tommorrow.. since he WAS abe to do it with his EarthBound Wad..

 

[RadioShadow]

^ I'm not sure why you keep getting that error. Hopefully if I give tools I use on my computer, the problem will be fixed.

I've started to make the save NES banner.tpl:

The first image is official. The firth image is my quick edit attempt.

It looks like the images in the NES wad are saved in a different format to the SNES ones but the SNES format can be used. It looks like to obtain an official, I'm going to have to edit the hex bytes in the data to make it display correctly.

What fun I'll have.

 

[KeithNJ]

Well, i've just translated the error message, and this is what it reads:
"The file sound.bin can not be compressed LZ77."
Anyone know why?

 

[HowardC]

^ I'm not sure why you keep getting that error. Hopefully if I give tools I use on my computer, the problem will be fixed.

I've started to make the save new banner.tpl:

The first image is official. The firth image is my quick edit attempt.

It looks like the images in the NES wad are saved in a different format to the SNES ones but the SNES format can be used. It looks like to obtain an official, I'm going to have to edit the hex bytes in the data to make it display correctly.

What fun I'll have.

That sucks that it's going to have to be done manually. Maybe you can take a look at the neogeo save file? The banner.bin (in 6.app, not 0.app) it's in has some sort of hash on it that makes the u8 extractor crap out, so it's hard for me to extract the files manually as I don't know the exact file structure. My guess is once we get all the files we can use a standard, banner.bin and all will be well.

On the front-end side of things I've managed to make command-line wrappers for all the tools except the u8packer (which I'll do tonight). All that is left is to make an image generator (so you don't have to go into photoshop to make the save icon) and the actual front end itself... the latter of which will be easy.


Then if my help is still need I'll start working with you guys on fixing the imperfect banners/save icons so we can have proper templates.

 

[RadioShadow]

HowardC, I'll have a look at the Neo Geo save banner as soon as I download one.


I've just finished extracting the NES Save Images and placed them in one of the snes save banner.tpl file. How I managed to extract them, I'm not sure myself. XD

I'll give a guide tomorrow how to insert a NES save banner.

EDIT: I'm aware of the green dot in the corner. I've just gone and fixed that.

 

[deba94]

Well, i've just translated the error message, and this is what it reads:
"The file sound.bin can not be compressed LZ77."
Anyone know why?

I'm betting you checked off the box where it says "Comprimir con LZ77". Uncheck the box since you shouldnt even be using that option and select the circle "Archivo U8 con Banner info con MD5".

 

[HowardC]

HowardC, I'll have a look at the Neo Geo save banner as soon as I download one.


I've just finished extracting the NES Save Images and placed them in one of the snes save banner.tpl file. How I managed to extract them, I'm not sure myself. XD

I'll give a guide tomorrow how to insert a NES save banner.

EDIT: I'm aware of the green dot in the corner. I've just gone and fixed that.

That's great! When you get a chance, please post the tpl file.
I've just finished an app that generates save icons (you give it a screenshot and it inserts it into the base bitmaps in the right places and does the blending for 2-5 ect....) but obviously I don't have all the base images yet.

I probably won't release this app yet, as my front-end application will probably be done within the week and I intend to release all of this as a toolkit.

 

[masud]

HowardC, I'll have a look at the Neo Geo save banner as soon as I download one.


I've just finished extracting the NES Save Images and placed them in one of the snes save banner.tpl file. How I managed to extract them, I'm not sure myself. XD

I'll give a guide tomorrow how to insert a NES save banner.

EDIT: I'm aware of the green dot in the corner. I've just gone and fixed that.

Hi! I've been waiting so long for someone to discover a way to modify the nes save icons that i want to say thank you very much! Do you think a tool to replace on wad save icon with the icon from another wad? I am converting my 50hz pal nes games to 60 hz and it would be great to copy the save icons from one wad to another!

Thank you!!!

 

[RadioShadow]

If you want to use a nes save icon from an original wad and place it in a different wad, using hexecute you extract the data (once finding where the data starts and ends) from the 00000001.app and then insert it back into the different 00000001.app where the the data starts (most likely in a different location) using hexecute.

I'll explain it better tomorrow and I'll post the nes banner.tpl too.