Hacking Loading Paper Mario RPG (JP) on the Wii

[IcySon55]

Hi everyone,

Recently I've been trying to get Paper Mario RPG (JP) running on my Wii and Gamecube with little success.

Wii Details:
Soft and HardModded 4.3U
WiiKey 1.99 beta
cIOSX d2x v7alpha5 (all bases)
Hermes cIOSv4 Base 37 & 38 as IOS222
MIOSv10, with Wii Gator's cMIOS 0.2
Unable to properly install SNEEK and get Dios Mios Lite running, so that's a bust.

Wii Testing: (Installed tools are outdated. I know.)
Disc Channel - Freezes
NeoGamma R9 B50 - Freezes

The preferred method of booting my GC games would be Disc Channel using the WiiKey. If downgrading my MIOS can resolve the issue, that would be the best option.

What actually happens: The game boots up, the Nintendo logo appears (in red) and the game starts normally. While the story book is displayed a white message bubble appears (instead of the proper blue one) with the text "no messages" in it. You press A and the curtain slides over where another white message bubble appears with the same text. Pressing A there (when the game goes to read the memory card) it freezes with a solid audio tone.

Gamecube Details/Testing:
Untouched Gamecube (DOL-001)
ActionReplay 1.14a Swap Method using
GCoS 1.5 on Modded memory card

Basically the game just doesn't boot at all. Hangs on a black screen.

PC Testing:
In Dolphin 2.0, the exact same thing happens, the game freezes.
In Dolphin 3.0, the Nintendo logo appears in blue and the game works properly!

Notes:
I've verified the burn against online MD5 hashes and it's 100%. Dolphin 3.0 runs the game just fine right off the disc.
Both my Wii and Gamecube can boot and run many other NTSC-J region games without issue.

Edit 1:
The reason I'm trying to get the Japanese version of Thousand Year Door running is so that my girlfriend can play it easily and understand everything that's going on.
I've noticed something when booting the game up. This happens with any boot method. The Ninty logo appears, nothing happens for a while and then the logo vanishes and the same one appears again followed by the usual Intelligent Systems logo and Dolby etc...
My retail copy of Thousand Year Door on the other hand starts up with the question to use Progressive Scan or not. It then confirms that the change is in place and boots through the Nintendo, IS, and Dolby logos normally. Runs just fine.

Any and all insight into getting this game running is greatly appreciated.

 

[WiiPower]

You can try Swiss on your gamecube as well, it's able to read backup discs on softmodded gamecubes. The Dolphin result is confusing, if wasn't there, i'd say it's a bad image. Does the game have audio streaming? If yes, and you shrunk the game, that's the problem.

 

[IcySon55]

The image is completely untouched. No shrinking (ever) since I burn the games to Mini DVD-Rs (RiData G04) so that there is no need to gouge out parts of my Gamecube's shell. The audio streaming, oddly works in both Dolphin 2.0 and 3.0 but not when it's running from the burned disc (EDIT: Audio streaming works from physical disc in Dolphin 3.0). However, I know it's not the burn as I've verified it against two copies of the iso (identical MD5 hash for both files) using two different DVD drives! Not only that, but the audio streaming works on the Wii when the intro screen is shown.

 

[WiiPower]

Hmm, and you have success with those mini DVDs? I heard all drives have lots of trouble reading those. If you have many games running on those, ok, if not, i suggest to try a normal sized DVD.

 

[IcySon55]

I do. Every single GC game I have is burned to a Mini DVD-R, Specifically the RiData G04 discs. They all work 100%. My Wii burns are on RiData G05 standard DVD-Rs which also work perfectly fine. It's not a media problem as Dolphin 3.0 can play the game off the burned Mini DVD-R including streaming the audio.

 

[FIX94]

Just a information my wii cant read mini dvds at all.

 

[IcySon55]

My Wii is able to boot up and play all of the Mini DVDs that I've burned. Every single one. It really depends on the brand for the Minis. They must be RiData G04, I can't stress that enough.

Can anyone else here try to run the game on their system? I'm wondering if everyone else is experiencing this.

 

[IcySon55]

You can try Swiss on your gamecube as well, it's able to read backup discs on softmodded gamecubes. The Dolphin result is confusing, if wasn't there, i'd say it's a bad image. Does the game have audio streaming? If yes, and you shrunk the game, that's the problem.

I attempted to use Swiss on my Wii. It loaded properly and read the disc fine. Both attempts booted the game but it was still plagued with the "no messages" and freezing.

Also bump, Just to be clear, there won't be any more bumping if people don't respond.

 

[G0dLiKe]

I can confirm this one working flawless as expected.

I tried the game on both DML and SWISS

DML: game is in discex format on front SD:/games works flawless with 4.2U SNEEK-DI Nand BootMii@Boot2

SWISS: game is on GECKO-SD in memory card slot B works flawless on 4.3J Sytem(which I have)

Any more questions or thoughts just ask.

 

[IcySon55]

Looks like the only way to play this game is through SD/USB. Disc loading fails...