Question How do I download rom hacks from this website?

[starsandsilver]

I want to download Pokémon Flawless Platinum but someone mentioned that it is a patch that you attach to your own version of Pokémon Platinum? I don't understand how to do it Please help!

 

[FAST6191]

For the most part ROM hacks are distributed as patches because distributing the whole thing would be copyright infringement if it is not a ROM shared by the devs for it, a lot of bandwidth and harder for people to stack multiple patches or have options in patching.

They are usually quite simple to apply (find relevant patching program, tell it to use this patch on this file, press go, wait for it to patch it), though I am not sure what one it would have used in this case.

Anyway common patching formats should it not include information on what it needs

1) IPS. Not used much for DS games as it has limitations that make it not work with common approaches for DS hacks. Extremely popular on the GBA and older cartridge and floppy disc based consoles though. I quite like https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/13/ myself but there are hundreds of patchers available, including many emulators themselves.
2) Xdelta (no official extension but many will call it .xdelta or .patch or something similar). Couple of main versions for it depending upon the age of the hack of choice of patch maker. https://www.evanjones.ca/software/xdelta-win32.html and https://github.com/jmacd/xdelta-gpl/releases should get you them. You might have to tell it to ignore source verification as it will try to check the ROM you are using to see if it matches the one it thinks it should be using and if you trimmed it, used a redump that might have changed something minor, hardcoded a cheat, used that anti AP tool going around to in turn try to run the ROM on a DSi/3ds without a flash cart, or used another patch on top of it (won't always work but we can cover that another time).
3) BSDiff (usually seen with the BSD extension). https://www.pokorra.de/coding/bsdiff.html should have binaries for it.
4) PPF. Older format (stood originally for playstation patching format) but some people used it on the Wii. Few different versions I see floating around so you will have to find the right one here. There will be a few in the downloads section here and the romhacking.net site above will have some others.
5) UPS. Designed as a replacement for IPS this got used for a handful of GBA games (mother 3 being among the more notable), still has limitations that mean it did not get used for much beyond that.
6) Something more custom. Usually for when someone wants to have a lot of options available to the would be hack user. This should be included in the patch download but you never know.

The download link or the readme/nfo/patch notes included in the file should contain info on what needs to be done.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

The archive linked on the "Flawless Platinum" thread contains xdelta.exe and a GUI (DeltaPatcherLite.exe) – pretty much self-explanatory

1. Open original Pokemon Platinum ROM
2. Open one of the .xdelta patches
3. Apply patch

https://gbatemp.net/threads/pokemon-flawless-platinum.353720/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/pokemon-flawless-platinum.353720/page-2#post-8707559

 

[starsandsilver]

The archive linked on the "Flawless Platinum" thread contains xdelta.exe and a GUI (DeltaPatcherLite.exe) – pretty much self-explanatory

1. Open original Pokemon Platinum ROM
2. Open one of the .xdelta patches
3. Apply patch

thanks for the simple explanation! i was wondering, does it work with DS emulators? i use Free DS for Android 6

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

For the most part ROM hacks are distributed as patches because distributing the whole thing would be copyright infringement if it is not a ROM shared by the devs for it, a lot of bandwidth and harder for people to stack multiple patches or have options in patching.

They are usually quite simple to apply (find relevant patching program, tell it to use this patch on this file, press go, wait for it to patch it), though I am not sure what one it would have used in this case.

Anyway common patching formats should it not include information on what it needs

hi! thanks for the reply! i hope u can help me with my second question as stated in my previous reply!

 

[FAST6191]

thanks for the simple explanation! i was wondering, does it work with DS emulators? i use Free DS for Android 6

Hacks and running on hardware and emulators is something you could write a book on. For the most part DS hacks should work on the same emulators that run the original ROM -- there are no historically dodgy emulators, historically dodgy techniques or emulators that colour outside the lines* to get in the way for DS stuff like there are for a lot of older consoles. Could still be something (I helped someone sort a GBA hack a while back that would do certain emulators but not hardware, and some flash carts have a quirky issue with the Jump Ultimate Stars translation, to say nothing of the Castlevania Portrait of Ruin slowdown crashes) but I am not expecting much at this point.

*stuff like the N64 and beyond high res texture replacement, SNES MSU-1, upcoming md+ stuff for the megadrive/genesis, FCUEX and other tool assisted speedrun folks Lua extensions, cheat addons and whatnot.

If a given DS ROM works on the emulator and does not work after a hack patch is applied (but said hack does work on something like desmume) then
1) I would look first at anti piracy as it might not detect it well enough to apply the relevant anti piracy -- https://gbatemp.net/threads/ap-patch-preservation.477536/unread

2) check if it has some kind of source verification. MAME is most noted for this (even on the PC then normal versions these days refuse to run anything other than the original versions, no hacks to them or anything like that) but I have seen a couple of android emulators check ROMs and try to match them against a list, not necessarily DS ones but I don't pay attention those really -- I decided they were not worth the effort around the time I was being asked to pay for them and also having to make patches for them to force a language because the devs could not be bothered to add a trivial selection option).

After this there are a few choices for reasons why it might not, or might be behaving oddly. Save files are a big one here -- if a game translation loads your original Japanese name and the game no longer uses that style of text it can mess things up. To that end try without a save file.