Official hakchi2 - NES Mini very simple pimp tool

[Cobra83]

I have tried RA before with NES etc on a diff build but was not sure if it would get rid of the stock emulator completely. I suppose I will just install RA and have it use the best of both worlds in a sense. Thanks for the response and for clearing that up.


**Edit&*** Thank you and I installed RA and got it sorted. I appreciate the help. I was unsure if that was my issue as I figured the stock NES emulator was loading it last time I tried it. Anyways, all good, thanks!

One last question I have: Is there anyone that can help change the navy blue color on the menu background to just black? I know there are many themes I came across such as the Zelda one posted in here, the Gold theme etc. I did download the skin maker someone posted which allows you to extract the nes.png but I know the file I am asking about is stored in a script file which I am not too savvy with. Thank you to anyone that can assist me! I am just hoping someone can make a hmod with JUST the navy blue in the background changed to black, everything else the same!

 

[NeoRame]

I want you let you know, i'm still alive. and at the moment i work on a few Folder variations (thx @dfarkus aka br1ans and the other guy withe the yellow/red Famicom Folder for the inspirations)

 

[titan4life]

Does anyone happen to know if there is an Amiga H.Mod available to work on the NES?

I would love to get SWOS (Sensible World of Soccer) running on the NES.

 

[youngtune27]

Does anyone happen to know if there is an Amiga H.Mod available to work on the NES?

I would love to get SWOS (Sensible World of Soccer) running on the NES.

How good are Amiga games? I have a lot on my ras pi. Haven't tried them yet tho

 

[DaveRo]

Is anyone able to explain the auto save state / auto load state options in Retroarch? Meaning, what are they for? I've got it into my head that, with them being enabled, it is 'automatically' creating save states at some pre defined interval, but I think I'm confusing this with SRAM saves. I've currently got it turned off as I'm concerned that it is running up loads of saves but I think this is probably incorrect. What is this feature and should I just stick it back on again? To be clear, the settings I have turned off are: saving: save state auto index, off, auto save state, off, auto load state,off, save states thumbnails, off.

 

[ByteThis]

One last question I have: Is there anyone that can help change the navy blue color on the menu background to just black? I know there are many themes I came across such as the Zelda one posted in here, the Gold theme etc. I did download the skin maker someone posted which allows you to extract the nes.png but I know the file I am asking about is stored in a script file which I am not too savvy with. Thank you to anyone that can assist me! I am just hoping someone can make a hmod with JUST the navy blue in the background changed to black, everything else the same!

I dont think so...I read you can access all the files in 2.16 using FTP or Telnet, but the background color is in a compiled .lua file, and nobody knows how to uncompile it and make changes.Even cluster himself.

 

[ByteThis]

Nothing for commodore yet...not even the 64..nothing runs stable..

 

[maande80]

I'd love to see more creative themes, please...
Cmiiw, so far we have 8-bit Zelda, Famicom, Gold, and Breath of the Wild.
Other variety of colorful themes would be a great collection.

@ByteThis, my controller is on its way!

 

[DaveRo]

Is anyone able to explain the auto save state / auto load state options in Retroarch? Meaning, what are they for? I've got it into my head that, with them being enabled, it is 'automatically' creating save states at some pre defined interval, but I think I'm confusing this with SRAM saves. I've currently got it turned off as I'm concerned that it is running up loads of saves but I think this is probably incorrect. What is this feature and should I just stick it back on again? To be clear, the settings I have turned off are: saving: save state auto index, off, auto save state, off, auto load state,off, save states thumbnails, off.

Or, does this mean, if these options are 'on', then retroarch will allow you to 'automatically' save / load using a predefined key if you were using a pc / keyboard?!

 

[Mamertos]

If someone is interested, I found a way to change the time clock in GBC pokemon serie. I share it with you.

Pokemon gold/silver: Press DOWN + SELECT + B in the title screen

Pokemon Crystal: It's more complicated here
- Press DOWN + SELECT + B
- While holding SELECT, let go of DOWN + B, and press LEFT + UP
- Now let go of SELECT

After that, the game ask you for a password. There 3 possible codes: your current money (without the money lent to your mother), yout ID trainer or your name's character.

I checked it and works.

This is because the real time clock doesn't work in the mini, you lose your progress when you turn it off.

 

[ewzzy]

Not sure if anyone here can help, but I've used Hakchi2 to pull the original rom files over FTP. That worked surprisingly well, but the classic shows text changes that aren't in the rom files. That means the roms are being patched live by the emulator. Can anyone help me find where the patches would be or where the emulator itself is?

 

[rhester72]

Not sure if anyone here can help, but I've used Hakchi2 to pull the original rom files over FTP. That worked surprisingly well, but the classic shows text changes that aren't in the rom files. That means the roms are being patched live by the emulator. Can anyone help me find where the patches would be or where the emulator itself is?

Not aware of this happening - can you be more specific on which ROM and what the altered strings are?

Rodney

 

[ewzzy]

Not aware of this happening - can you be more specific on which ROM and what the altered strings are?

Rodney

Of course. I first learned about the changes here:
http://legendsoflocalization.com/a-look-at-nintendos-recent-changes-to-zelda-1/
That link isn't working for me right now (database error) but the cache works:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...changes-to-zelda-1/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

It's been updated to the 2003 gba version's script with the addition of Peninsula being spelled correctly.

 

[MrTea]

Does anyone happen to know if there is an Amiga H.Mod available to work on the NES?

I would love to get SWOS (Sensible World of Soccer) running on the NES.

No amiga emu yet sadly. Closest I have is Sensi Soccer running great on the nes mini with the megadrive version.
I've got quite a few amiga games (ports to other systems) running perfect on my mini though.. Monkey island 2 (sega cd rip), ik+ (psx rip and also gba version), jimmy white
Snooker (megadrive), Pang (mame), Cannon fodder (megadrive)... Etc etc.

 

[titan4life]

No amiga emu yet sadly. Closest I have is Sensi Soccer running great on the nes mini with the megadrive version.
I've got quite a few amiga games (ports to other systems) running perfect on my mini though.. Monkey island 2 (sega cd rip), ik+ (psx rip and also gba version), jimmy white
Snooker (megadrive), Pang (mame), Cannon fodder (megadrive)... Etc etc.

Yea me too, I have the last version (International) for the MD working fine.
It Would be brilliant if there was some sort of Amiga emulator working but here's to wishful thinking for the future.

Wouldn't even mind a shot at the 'Jaguar' version as supposedly that was the best console port for the series, but no Emulator for that either.

 

[rhester72]

Of course. I first learned about the changes here:
http://legendsoflocalization.com/a-look-at-nintendos-recent-changes-to-zelda-1/
That link isn't working for me right now (database error) but the cache works:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...changes-to-zelda-1/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

It's been updated to the 2003 gba version's script with the addition of Peninsula being spelled correctly.

EDIT: Ignore everything I wrote earlier. You're right, the ROM from the Mini has a md5sum of 337bd6f1a1163df31bf2633665589ab0, which matches the 'original' Zelda. It has to be patched at runtime by kachikachi, but I would have bet against it...nobody before had observed this as far as I know.

Final edit: Yep, it's in /usr/bin/kachikachi (Nintendo's emulator).

The broken spelling, PENNINSULA, is at offset 0x5c093. The substitution is at offset 0x5c0cf. The in-memory patches appear to be hardcoded directly into the emulator.

Good catch!

Rodney

 

[marioxb]

EDIT: Ignore everything I wrote earlier. You're right, the ROM from the Mini has a md5sum of 337bd6f1a1163df31bf2633665589ab0, which matches the 'original' Zelda. It has to be patched at runtime by kachikachi, but I would have bet against it...nobody before had observed this as far as I know.

Final edit: Yep, it's in /usr/bin/kachikachi (Nintendo's emulator).

The broken spelling, PENNINSULA, is at offset 0x5c093. The substitution is at offset 0x5c0cf. The in-memory patches appear to be hardcoded directly into the emulator.

Good catch!

Rodney

I apologize for my earlier rants. I was just soooo sure that I played the modified roms on my PC. The verion of Zelda I played, however, it turns out was not from the NES Classic Edition. It was a very similar rom ripped from 2003's The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition (CE) on the GameCube. That particular version of the rom was modified, unlike the "on the fly" version on the Classic. It doesn't make sense that Nintendo would do this, rather than use the version they already hacked in 2003. I know they changed the title screen back to the original (the CE version's title screen has a copyright date of 1986-2003) and made the additional "peninsula" change.

This, coupled with the fact that the Tecmo Bowl, Kid Icarus and Excitebike roms actually are modified roms, rather than "on the fly" patched. They are most likely the same versions available on the Virtual Console. The modfifed Excitebike rom, much like the Kirby's Adventure example Rodney noted above, does not play on emulators other than the one built into the Classic (and probably the Virtual Console emulators as well).

Again, I'm sorry if I came across as an idiot, even though I am in some regards. Personally, I'd rather document changes via gameplay instead of looking at "behind the scenes" md5 hashes. But that's just me. I'm not really all that technical, as you could probably tell. On the programming side at least, I can hook up a VCR with the best of em, which makes me a technical genius to some of my friends and family.

 

[ewzzy]

Thank you so much Rodney. Hopefully we'll be able to document all the changes and conceivably even create IPS patches that match the updates.

Marioxb, the rom files rhester72 and I pulled from our Classics over ftp don't have the changes. How did you get yours?

 

[rhester72]

I honestly don't know how you guys got your information. The roms 100% ARE patched. F%#* the md5. It means nothing. Have you actually PLAYED the extracted roms? That's how I determine changes. Again, F__%$ md5s. They somehow must've gotten them to be the same, even with the changes. I can 100% confirm the changes are in the roms and appear when played on my PC in FCEUX. Zelda 1 and 2 have the updated text and title screens. Tecmo Bowl is missing the player names and NFL Players license. Kid Icarus passwords like "ICARUS FIGHTS MEDUSA ANGELS" don't work. Excitebike now lets you save tracks. Punch-Out!! removes the NHK TV or whatever reference in Piston Honda's dialouge. Don't compare things by md5 alone. It means ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING. By the way, if you want the roms, check piratebay for the entire filesystems, US and Japan versions. That's where I got my roms. On my Classic, I replaced Kid Icarus with the original and (Mike Tyson's) Punch-Out and Tecmo Bowl with the PlayChoice-10 versions (in NES format, of course). MTPO on the PC10 allows you to save your initials. I also replaced DK with DK Original Edition ripped from the Wii and DK Jr with DK Classics. That way I can play Jr and play DK with or without the extra 2nd stage.

They aren't patched, and no, you can't say "eff the md5", because that's the definitive *PROOF* they are unpatched.

I didn't have to play through Zelda to prove it, I then took a look at the ROM itself and saw the string PENNINSULA in it, and _then_ found the *actual code* in Nintendo's emulator that patches the ROM in-memory, along with the source string PENNINSULA and the corrected string PENINSULA.

The title screen from the Mini isn't patched - it is, in fact, the title screen from the original release, which was _not_ what was presented (again, in memory-patched form) on VC.

Anecdotal evidence has no value. If you look at the actual ROM and code, it is _very_ obvious.

To that point, I'm going to do in-memory dumps, just as the author of the web page wanted to do, to find the precise bytes that are being altered in memory for all 30 NESCE games, to then determine exactly what is being patched by kachikachi (and hopefully why).

Rodney

 

[marioxb]

Thank you so much Rodney. Hopefully we'll be able to document all the changes and conceivably even create IPS patches that match the updates.

Marioxb, the rom files rhester72 and I pulled from our Classics over ftp don't have the changes. How did you get yours?

From the piratebay filedumps. And you only have to play for 2 seconds to see the changes. I prefer doing it that way versus md5s.