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

[RadioShadow]

however, with the Wasabi festival, we have seen unreleased japanese games in europe, which obviously should run at 60hz
you could try injecting roms in these ones instead, they will certainly run at 60hz too

Puyo Puyo 2 Pal VC despite being a Japanese game that runs in 60Hz, only ran in 50Hz and man it ran slow. Thanks Sega for making me waste 900 Wii Points. >_<

All Sega had done was changed the Region Settings in 00000005.app to JP (so it would run the Japanase rom) and let the emulator run the rom in 50Hz. They didn't put any effort in to make it run in 60Hz.

 

[HowardC]

Well, I had a rather productive morning.


I confirmed that the master system vc games have the same structure as genesis ones. I went ahead and looked at c64 iamges as well... they are lz77 compressed, but otherwise a regular old tpl file. So I updated my Icon generator to support genesis, mega drive, master system and c64 save images. The icon generator generates wte files for the sega consoles. I did it this way because it's so simple to make them and I'm saving those slots in the icon injector to change the save name.

Of course I realize that we haven't even figured out how to inject c64 roms yet, but this way I don't have to add support later. As for the master system, it's data fomat is the same as the genesis, so I'll be writing an injector for it myself.

Speaking of which, that'll be my next task. I've decided to go ahead and give the icon injector slots for all systems and on the systems in which the save icon is in a standard format, it simply edits the save name instead. Of course it also changes the save name for neogeo and nes, but in those cases the name is actually inside the save icon's file. For the other consoles, the user will set the path to the text file (or sometimes app) that the data resides in instead of the file to inject the save icon into.

The ccf tool and upate u8 tool are on their way btw... I just need to test the ccf more to make sure it works and due to a suggestion from a user I'm going to go ahead and add lz77 compression to the u8 pack function as apparently on dvds you need the same filesize.

I'll look into buttoning all of this up later this week.

p.s. (The c64 has the UGLIEST save icons I've ever seen.... don't they take any pride in the look of those icons?)

 

[HowardC]

Sorry, still no releases, but I'll post progress anyway because if don't, people ask "when are you ____?"

I went ahead and updated my save icon injector to set the titles on all cosoles except the c64 (can't find the title) and the snes (nobody ever answered my question about the snes save title structure).

I took at break from the ccf and u8 tools because dealing with bits and bytes and reversed bytes gets on my nerves. I should have those fnished and released for you guys to play with before the week is out though.

At this point all the tools are in place for the vcfe with the exception of a good command-line injector for neogeo and master system roms (and of course c64 if we ever figure it out).

The one thing I'm a little stumped on is adding "automagic" support for the non-neogeo consoles. For neogeo I use info from a mame.dat to automagically fill in the name and number of players fields. Back in the day, clrmamepro dats were released for the other consoles, which are essentially the same as an old mame.dat and they contained the player and year data. I can't seem to find them anymore. Any ideas on where I can find this data? (In a file format that I can parse, I don't want to make a file manually.)

Other than that things are moving smoothly....... Don't hold your breath or anything, but I'd expect vcfe to be ready before september.

(p.s. I've polluted this thread enough.... maybe it's time for me to start a new one?)

 

[masud]

(p.s. I've polluted this thread enough.... maybe it's time for me to start a new one?)

I think you should start a new one, this one is getting too big now. BTW, how can i manually change the name of the save icon on a n64 wad?

 

[RadioShadow]

Sorry, still no releases, but I'll post progress anyway because if don't, people ask "when are you ____?"

I went ahead and updated my save icon injector to set the titles on all cosoles except the c64 (can't find the title) and the snes (nobody ever answered my question about the snes save title structure).

Where are you HowardC? WHERE ARE YOU?


For the SNES Save structure, it seems to always be located after the WAD ID. You can easily find it if you uncompress the 00000001.app using wwunpacker tool. I was on holiday when you asked about the SNES Save Structure so I never got round to testing any of it. I can have a look tomorrow about the question once I locate it.

(p.s. I've polluted this thread enough.... maybe it's time for me to start a new one?)

I think you should start a new one, this one is getting too big now. BTW, how can i manually change the name of the save icon on a n64 wad?

They are located in the 00000005.app in the 'savecomment_xx' files (xx = language). Edit them using a Hex Editor.


EDIT 2:
QUOTE

On the tutorial on the first page it tells you to search inside the 1.app for the save title and change it there (twice). From looking in the hex editor, the titles to ALL the games appear to be there in one big list.

A typical entry would be:

Super Mario World(SNS)...............JAAE...................................................
.........................................Super Mario World

And then it'll be repeated again, this time with "Super Mario World(SPAL)" and the pal ticket code.

Finally It'll be in the 1.app a thrid time, this time just in a list of titles under what appears to be a list of error messages.


So my questions are these:

1. Which one(s) out of the three are we changing here?
2. Are you guys changing the save title before or after the new rom is injected?
3. Has this section of the tutorial been confirmed to work if you do it before a rom is injected if the ticket code is changed?


I ask this because from just guessing, it looks like the name string can have as many entries as you like in any order and how the emulator knows which one to use is determined by the ticket code in the middle of that particular entry. If this is the case I can easily Change the title with my app, but if the ticket code is actually important then it'd have to be done AFTER the rom is injected as a rom injector would obvioulsy change the ticket code.

1 - The one it seems to be using is the one after the WADs ID (the one the rom inside 00000005.app uses, in other words the 4 letters the the rom is named). This can be easily be found after you uncompress the 00000001.app using the wwunpacker tool. I'll need to confirm this but it worked when I was trying to find the Japanese Super Mario RPG Save name thanks to that jarapadrox (the Spanish guy).

2 - Both.

3 - The ticket code ID can be different to the rom and save ID. I got a variety of different ticket code IDs in the Super Mario Picross SNES wad (this allows the same wad to be installed more the once) but the rom and save ID are the same.

Basically, when you inject a SNES Rom into a SNES Wad, the rom ID must be the same but the ticket code ID can be changed (well only the two middle letters).

 

[IceClimbers]

I tried this, but didn't have a hex editor xD

Was able to edit the sound, though. Worried about bricking since we just barely got it around x-mas.

 

[lolsjoel]

So just curious, but you do or don't have a manner of inserting the GEN save icons into a WAD?

 

[HowardC]

Sorry, still no releases, but I'll post progress anyway because if don't, people ask "when are you ____?"

I went ahead and updated my save icon injector to set the titles on all cosoles except the c64 (can't find the title) and the snes (nobody ever answered my question about the snes save title structure).

Where are you HowardC? WHERE ARE YOU?


For the SNES Save structure, it seems to always be located after the WAD ID. You can easily find it if you uncompress the 00000001.app using wwunpacker tool. I was on holiday when you asked about the SNES Save Structure so I never got round to testing any of it. I can have a look tomorrow about the question once I locate it.

(p.s. I've polluted this thread enough.... maybe it's time for me to start a new one?)

I think you should start a new one, this one is getting too big now. BTW, how can i manually change the name of the save icon on a n64 wad?

They are located in the 00000005.app in the 'savecomment_xx' files (xx = language). Edit them using a Hex Editor.


EDIT 2:
QUOTE

On the tutorial on the first page it tells you to search inside the 1.app for the save title and change it there (twice). From looking in the hex editor, the titles to ALL the games appear to be there in one big list.

A typical entry would be:

Super Mario World(SNS)...............JAAE...................................................
.........................................Super Mario World

And then it'll be repeated again, this time with "Super Mario World(SPAL)" and the pal ticket code.

Finally It'll be in the 1.app a thrid time, this time just in a list of titles under what appears to be a list of error messages.


So my questions are these:

1. Which one(s) out of the three are we changing here?
2. Are you guys changing the save title before or after the new rom is injected?
3. Has this section of the tutorial been confirmed to work if you do it before a rom is injected if the ticket code is changed?


I ask this because from just guessing, it looks like the name string can have as many entries as you like in any order and how the emulator knows which one to use is determined by the ticket code in the middle of that particular entry. If this is the case I can easily Change the title with my app, but if the ticket code is actually important then it'd have to be done AFTER the rom is injected as a rom injector would obvioulsy change the ticket code.

1 - The one it seems to be using is the one after the WADs ID (the one the rom inside 00000005.app uses, in other words the 4 letters the the rom is named). This can be easily be found after you uncompress the 00000001.app using the wwunpacker tool. I'll need to confirm this but it worked when I was trying to find the Japanese Super Mario RPG Save name thanks to that jarapadrox (the Spanish guy).

2 - Both.

3 - The ticket code ID can be different to the rom and save ID. I got a variety of different ticket code IDs in the Super Mario Picross SNES wad (this allows the same wad to be installed more the once) but the rom and save ID are the same.

Basically, when you inject a SNES Rom into a SNES Wad, the rom ID must be the same but the ticket code ID can be changed (well only the two middle letters).

Well I'm going to assume with my utilities that people are using an official wad as a base so it should all be the same and that point. Correct? It's simple to determine either way though.

I had never heard of wwunpacker until now. I found a copy on a Japaneese site but it won't unpack 1.apps for me. When I run wwcxtool on one it says "Error: Unknown File Structure!"

Thanks for the help man.... that should be enough info to finish up the save icon injector.

 

[HowardC]

So just curious, but you do or don't have a manner of inserting the GEN save icons into a WAD?

I think I've been pretty clear in that I DO. The app is buggy atm though so I can't release it yet.

 

[lolsjoel]

Yeah, I was quite sure that you did, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything! My Genesis WAD will be fine for now without a save icon!

 

[RadioShadow]

Well I'm going to assume with my utilities that people are using an official wad as a base so it should all be the same and that point. Correct? It's simple to determine either way though.

I had never heard of wwunpacker until now. I found a copy on a Japanese site but it won't unpack 1.apps for me. When I run wwcxtool on one it says "Error: Unknown File Structure!"

Thanks for the help man.... that should be enough info to finish up the save icon injector.

The tool's proper name is: wwpacker15 (can't remember where I downloaded it from) but you seem to have found it. You have remembered to place the common-key.bin in the folder?

I'm not sure if the save names are at the same offset in the 00000001.app in the official SNES wads. I'll just need to check that.

 

[HowardC]

I downloaded wwpacker16 (which i'm assuming is a newer version) but yeah, the common-key is there. It'd give an error about the common-key.bin being misssing if it wasn't.

Are you sure that you guys didn't manually hack the 1.app in some way first because I haven't been able to open ANY 1.apps, snes or otherwise.

 

[Bo Frost]

i made a modified channel for commodore 64 even it is not possible to inject roms yet.
the channel works fine so far, icon,sound etc.
but the banner is somehow not right. the borders look weird, you cant read the title,r elease date etc. and the "commodore 64" logo looks distorted too.
i scaled the image to 256x192 pixels using gimp.
never ever had this when modding hombrew channels...

hope you guys have an idea, i already tried several images.

 

[Tichinde925]

Theres too many pages in this topic.

Is there a Hex Editor Tutorial anywhere?

Thats the only thing that I cant perform well. Everything else is 100%, including my Custom Sound.

 

[canuckcub]

use hex workshop it pervents a lot of errors ...

 

[Tichinde925]

EDIT: Wookie completed this task for me

---
Thats what I have been using. The pictures on here just show 1 screenshot on what to edit.

Can I not just copy and paste the Game Title six times or do I have to manually type it in?

If my game title took up less space than the previous game, do I delete the left overs or just leave them there?


P.S.

Anyone mind editing a banner.brlyt for me.

Just have it say:

Players: 1 - 4
NINTENDO64
GoldenEye 007

(Its my hoax, I want it!)

P.P.S.

If your edit doesnt work, then I guess its my method of packing everything up that is wrong.

 

[HowardC]

i made a modified channel for commodore 64 even it is not possible to inject roms yet.
the channel works fine so far, icon,sound etc.
but the banner is somehow not right. the borders look weird, you cant read the title,r elease date etc. and the "commodore 64" logo looks distorted too.
i scaled the image to 256x192 pixels using gimp.
never ever had this when modding hombrew channels...

hope you guys have an idea, i already tried several images.

I have... it happens on certain neogeo and tg16 titles as well. My guess is the banner files for these systems are written more strictly than others and thus when we change something it has a cow and reads the tpls wrong. My new brlyt editor should offer a work-around. It's going to let you change the color scheme/logo of a banner. What we'll do is use a snes banner, which ALWAYS displays properly, and change the logo and color scheme to match the c64. I suggest you start following my VCFE wip.

 

[Rockman GFF]

I'm having problems with Naming in Hex Editing. How do I make an NES Game be longer than just naming it as Punch-Out (The only type of Duration in Text that seems to work for me)? How exactly would I know where it ends and going about Two Lines for Name?

I tried Hex Fields for the Master Quest on my modified Punch-Out!! just to see what would happen and that didn't work. Trying to either go for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! or Punch Out!! / Featuring Mike Tyson [Like Official VC Formatting for Release]. Can VC NES Hex Name Editing only go so far?

 

[HowardC]

I'm having problems with Naming in Hex Editing. How do I make an NES Game be longer than just naming it as Punch-Out (The only type of Duration in Text that seems to work for me)? How exactly would I know where it ends and going about Two Lines for Name?

I tried Hex Fields for the Master Quest on my modified Punch-Out!! just to see what would happen and that didn't work. Trying to either go for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! or Punch Out!! / Featuring Mike Tyson [Like Official VC Formatting for Release]. Can VC NES Hex Name Editing only go so far?

You can't. The format is far more complex than just being able to replace text. (Unless you use text of the same size of course). Follow my vcfe wip.... a brlyt editor will be released soon that will allow you to have larger text entries without hex editing.

 

[Beta1]

When you mean "Set the Region", you mean what TV Settings used? At least it might be possible to fix the controls on Sonic The Hedgehog and Streets of Rage to use the Analogue Stick.

Is the rom stored in there as well?

Well you tell me..... I haven't been able to adjust the settings and try them out yet because I haven't added packing ability to my ccf tool yet. My guess is it's the region AND the tv settings.

here's the config file from comix zone:

========================
country="us"
romfile="ComixZone_USA.SGD"
dev.mdpad.enable_6b="1"
========================

As you can see, it's pretty straight forward..... the pad settings seem to enable the optional 6 button genesis controller (emulated of course). My guess is that sonic and the others with analog stick problems are using the 3 button setting. Changing it to 6 button should activate the stick assuming it doesn't crash the thing.

Yes, the rom is in here as well.
Once you extract the data.ccf you basically have the normal contents of a 5.app, except the manual is man.arc instead of html.arc and instead of a banner.tpl you have a misc.ccf, which has all the banner stuff in it.

It looks like sega did this to save file space on your wii (this file appears to be decompressed upon launch of the game into system memory). It makes me wonder why nintendo didn't do this to all of the vc titles.... it'd save a lot of space on your hd.



Also at first glance at least, master system vc titles are setup EXACTLY the same way. Has anyone tried injecting a mastersystem wad by using the genesis settings? You might have to change the file extension of the rom, but I'll bet it works.

hello everybody

I've found a translation of the injection tutorial on a french site and I come here to learn more about data.ccf
By the way the tutorial is good and I've made my custom frogger VC channel from an us rom home patched to EU and Sonic VC channel but I wanted to complete it with icons, pics and so.

So here come my question, Does you think suitable to release your CCF tools ?

Thank you.