Thanks MisterNero for the info. Didn't even know about this method of patching. I used google, got back some old posts about it.
Found this site and an arm7 tool with a gui. You can even use it to extract.
http://www.omgrofl.com/index.php
Didn't have Simcity (j), but read another article on extracting a working rom's arm7 to be patched works just as well. FYI, I used Lego Star Wars : Complete Saga to patch.
Time spent seeking this info out: 20 minutes. Learning something new: Priceless.
*note: The cheat.dat won't recognize this patched rom.