ROM Hack HG / SS Patch discussion

[Tom133t]

Lock this or not, your call, but this is at least an attempt to bring a little bit of order into this mess.
I request that a mod sticky this thread, or make a new thread, where facts can be edited into the first post, as more news comes.
If nothing else, all of the super-duper leet hacker folks can inform us on their progress, and maybe we can have more than just hollow speculation. This thread could contain labeled links to other important threads, and/or lists of what does and does not work. This could establish a center of information for flashcard/emulator compatibility, stop the dumbass fix rumors, and coordinate efforts into a singular location.
Yes, no?


EDIT -
I'll try to contribute what I know.

What does not work:
-Unpacking the rom, deleting guru2.narc, and repacking
-Trying to patch a different variable into the event counter (at least, I couldn't make it work)
-Using the (J) patch
-Copying English text into the Japanese ROM
-Patching with Arm7 from: Sim City(J), Bowser's inside story(U), and Yugio 2010 World Champion(U), N+
-Removing the overlay 128 file
-Making a dummy overlay 128 file
-Copying the Japanese patched Arm 7 or Arm 9 to it
- Tried to move US files to JP one, to use that JP fix : Epic Fail
- Data folder from US was moved to the patched JP rom : Strange Result
- Tried to patch ARM7 with JP HG/SS one, Platinum one, D/P one : Fail
- Tried to patch ARM9 with JP HG/SS one, Platinum one, D/P one : Fail
- Defined "events" as "when you enter/exit a building/stairs/door or save or encounter a wild pokemon or start a trainer fight or end a battle (get back to the game) or when you end a cutscene"
- The number of events "needed" before the game freezes depend of the number of badges you have
- Replacing all the 00 00 00 46 in the rom by 00 00 00 00 : Fail
- Tried a lot of AR codes : Some from JP, K fix... No one working
- Unchecking DMA and reset : Fail
- Inserting patched JP overlays : Fail, but increase the number of events before freeze
- Deleting overlays : Fail

Events Info:
Freezes happen based on events. The more gym badges you have, the less time it takes to freeze.
Badges/Events - 
0: 24 events
1: 21 events
2: 15 events
3: 3 events
4+: Rumored to be unplayable.

Events are:
Saving, Entering new area, plost events, using cut, using bag items, battles
- This match with the equation y = -(1/2)*x^3 - (5/2)*x + 24 and with y = 27 - 3*(2^x) and certainly with some other ones.
- You replace x with the number of badges you have, and you find : 0 badges 24 events, 1 badges 21 events, 2 badges 15 event, 3 badges 3 events, more badges you have a negative value and the game do not want to load the save
- With this "events" needed we can think there is a countdown, each event add -1 to a var who doesn't support value below 1, that can explain the countdown crashes and the fact that the game won't start if the value is negative. If it's right, a AR code who lock this var must work..

What we know about the anti-piracy:
-Different from Japanese AP
-It's pissing all of us off and crushing our dreams like so much dust
-Not entirely graphics based(?)

Devices: (List stolen from Rxxxxxx thread)
Confirmed Working on the Following Cards/Emulators:
Freezing may still occur.ÂÂSave often.
- CycloDS w/ Firmware 1.58B1
- Acekard2i w/ AKAIO Firmware 1.5 and 1.5.1 and 1.6RC1
- R4i SDHC (RTS) w/ Firmware 2.6f
- EDGE w/ Firmware 1.8
- M3/G6 DS Real w/ Firmware 4.7h
- Supercard DSOne Evolution OS
- DeSmuME 0.9.5 x64
- Supercard Lite (Slot 2 card)
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂRom patched with Super Card utility on PC.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSettings -
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂUse soft reset
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂReal Time Save enabled
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSaver Patch
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂCheats Disabled
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂCompress disabled
- M3 Pro/Lite (Slot 2 card)
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂArm7 Patch on ROM
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSettings -
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ1xDMA
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂForce R/W
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTrim Rom
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSoft Reset
Confirmed Not Working on the Following Cards/Emulators:

- M3DS Real [Unreported Firmware]ÂÂ(Cannot save. Does get past name screens and allows you to play the game.)
- DSTT w/ Firmware 1.17a07 (Reported Freezing)
- DS One w/ EOS SP1 (Reported Freezing)
- R4 (Reported Freezing)
- All reported R4DS cards and clones (Reported Freezing), although, there have been some reports that the latest 1.31 firmware works.
- DeSmuME 0.9.5 x86 (Reported black screens after name selection)

Debunked theories:
-Bad dump (The ROM dump is confirmed clean)

 

[darkstar723]

A sticky would be really nice, with someone in a position of authority to update as a solution is found/seems like it might actually work.

 

[Olly]

It would be really nice for this thread to remain unlocked, thus promoting discussion.

Anyways. Should we recap what we know?

 

[Tom133t]

It would be really nice for this thread to remain unlocked, thus promoting discussion.

Anyways. Should we recap what we know?

Well, I would rather not, as of yet, because we don't know much. I want to keep this thread clean for now, so that it could be made into something of worth by the Mods.

 

[Olly]

It would be really nice for this thread to remain unlocked, thus promoting discussion.

Anyways. Should we recap what we know?

Well, I would rather not, as of yet, because we don't know much. I want to keep this thread clean for now, so that it could be made into something of worth by the Mods.

Well, we could avoid stupid posts like "why not put the u script onto the j version" if we had one in the first post.

 

[Hecatia]

Most flash carts ues 512kb saves when when the usa HG/SS retail cart uses 1m saves.
Mabey that has something to do with it.

EDIT:
Add this to the first post

Unpacking the ROM and inserting patched JP overlays doesn't work but can increase event count
Unpacking the ROM and deleting overlays doesn't work
Using JP AR codes doesn't work

 

[EvilMag]

It would be really nice for this thread to remain unlocked, thus promoting discussion.

Anyways. Should we recap what we know?

Well, I would rather not, as of yet, because we don't know much. I want to keep this thread clean for now, so that it could be made into something of worth by the Mods.

Well, we could avoid stupid posts like "why not put the u script onto the j version" if we had one in the first post.

why not put the u script onto the j version

jokes aside, you guys say that once you get the 3rd badge, the game crashes ever 2 events right? well why, is it because you get that badge differently then the other badges (you get the 8th badge differently as well so I'm wondering if Clarie makes the AP even more worse then Whitney) What I mean is that you don't get the badge directly like every other gym leader after you beat them (except for the 8th gym leader) that is what I'm wondering, is that what makes the AP even worse?

 

[Tom133t]

Most flash carts ues 512kb saves when when the usa HG/SS retail cart uses 1m saves.
Mabey that has something to do with it.

I'm no expert, but I don't think that has to do with it. If that was the case, we would be having save errors, not freezes.

 

[Augustus Osari]

Most flash carts ues 512kb saves when when the usa HG/SS retail cart uses 1m saves.
Mabey that has something to do with it.

Do you really think you would be the first person to think of that?

 

[Aezur]

This'll end up getting locked as well, just like the last thirty threads.

While I agree that there should be some place to discuss it and contribute ideas, I believe the problem is no one can stay on topic for more than five minutes, and people continue to troll the board.

 

[Olly]

It would be really nice for this thread to remain unlocked, thus promoting discussion.

Anyways. Should we recap what we know?

Well, I would rather not, as of yet, because we don't know much. I want to keep this thread clean for now, so that it could be made into something of worth by the Mods.

Well, we could avoid stupid posts like "why not put the u script onto the j version" if we had one in the first post.

why not put the u script onto the j version

jokes aside, you guys say that once you get the 3rd badge, the game crashes ever 2 events right? well why, is it because you get that badge differently then the other badges (you get the 8th badge differently as well so I'm wondering if Clarie makes the AP even more worse then Whitney) What I mean is that you don't get the badge directly like every other gym leader after you beat them (except for the 8th gym leader) that is what I'm wondering, is that what makes the AP even worse?

Not after the third badge, after three badges. If you could edit out the first two, it would freeze less again.
Also, it's every three events and not every two.

 

[Vidar]

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?s=&showto...t&p=2665569
This post is what we know/we tried/etc.

 

[Arkansaw]

just buy the damn game or use an emulator =.=

 

[Mana94]

HERE IS MORE:

-Unpacking the rom, deleting guru2.narc, and repacking
-Trying to patch a different variable into the event counter (at least, I couldn't make it work)
-Using the (J) patch
-Copying English text into the Japanese ROM
-Patching with Arm7 from: Sim City(J), Bowser's inside story(U), and Yugio 2010 World Champion(U)
-Removing the overlay 128 file
-Making a dummy overlay 128 file
-Copying the Japanese patched Arm 7 or Arm 9 to it

 

[EvilMag]

Ahh I see thanks for correcting me then, guess my theory was wrong.

 

[Olly]

This'll end up getting locked as well, just like the last thirty threads.

While I agree that there should be some place to discuss it and contribute ideas, I believe the problem is no one can stay on topic for more than five minutes, and people continue to troll the board.

You aren't helping the case much.


Also, we know about the extra overlay, and that it does nothing.
And that the guru thing is pointless.
There is a fix for No$GBA and DEsmume works.

 

[Squall Leonhart]

Most flash carts ues 512kb saves when when the usa HG/SS retail cart uses 1m saves.

Desmume supports 1MB(8mb) Flash, and Pokemon saves at 512KB, so its not 1MB.

 

[Chaotic Kitten]

Why don't the mods lock it and update it as we know more?

Now on topic; the freezes every half an hour or so or every 21 events.

In my experience it's frozen:
-Entering/leaving a room (BSOD no soft reset)
-about to talk to npcs (top screen frozen, touch still reacts when I use it, but doesn't actually DO anything... also able to soft reset)
-Pokemon battles, before/after (BSOD no soft reset)
-After saving when exiting menu (total freeze/BSOD) it varies
-After naming my rival. (just before the cop starts talking again. top screen only again.)

I'm using:

R4i
Version 1.17b Firmware
Heart Gold

Other freezes I've seen reports of:

-Invisible walls blocking your path
-Spinning pokeballs (loops)

 

[Olly]

Why don't the mods lock it and update it as we know more?

Now on topic; the freezes every half an hour or so or every 21 events.

In my experience it's frozen:
-Entering/leaving a room (BSOD no soft reset)
-about to talk to npcs (top screen frozen, touch still reacts when I use it, but doesn't actually DO anything... also able to soft reset)
-Pokemon battles, before/after (BSOD no soft reset)
-After saving when exiting menu (total freeze/BSOD) it varies
-After naming my rival. (just before the cop starts talking again. top screen only again.)

I'm using:

R4i
Version 1.17b Firmware
Heart Gold

Other freezes I've seen reports of:

-Invisible walls blocking your path
-Spinning pokeballs (loops)

Depends on badge numbers.
0: 24 events
1: 21 events
2: 15 events
3: 3 events
4+: Rumored to be unplayable. I haven't tested it, so I do not know.

Also, cutting trees counts.
As does accessing you bag/using an item.

FUTHERMORE:
The game freezing does not county as it working. It becomes virtually unplayable very quickly.

 

[EvilMag]

I loaded my HG with a JPN save file that has 4 badges and the game goes to a black screen when I start up the file.