Hacking Gaming Hardware My Mario Kart Wii save data isn’t there

[tob_bob]

So this kinda continues from my last post

I was playing Mario Kart Wii with a USA rom on USB Loader GX. I heard that progress automatically saves between USBLGX and a real copy, but today I got a real MKWii disc and none of my progress is there.

I’m pretty sure the reason for this is because I was playing a USA rom on USBLGX and the disc is PAL region. Does anybody know how to convert the save data from USA to PAL?

The linked picture shows what the save data files look like

 

[The Real Jdbye]

So this kinda continues from my last post

I was playing Mario Kart Wii with a USA rom on USB Loader GX. I heard that progress automatically saves between USBLGX and a real copy, but today I got a real MKWii disc and none of my progress is there.

I’m pretty sure the reason for this is because I was playing a USA rom on USBLGX and the disc is PAL region. Does anybody know how to convert the save data from USA to PAL?

The linked picture shows what the save data files look like

Use Savegame Manager GX to extract the saves for both regions and a hex editor to change the game ID of the USA save to match the PAL one. The game ID is at the very beginning of the sav file, 4 letters. Overwrite the sav file of the PAL save with your modified one and import it with Savegame Manager GX.

 

[tob_bob]

Use Savegame Manager GX to extract the saves for both regions and a hex editor to change the game ID of the USA save to match the PAL one. The game ID is at the very beginning of the sav file, 4 letters. Overwrite the sav file of the PAL save with your modified one and import it with Savegame Manager GX.

Since I have 2 save files for MKWii, I don’t know which is the PAL or the USA one.

The linked video shows both the save files

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Since I have 2 save files for MKWii, I don’t know which is the PAL or the USA one.

The linked video shows both the save files

Well, you need to extract them both. Once you look at them in the hex editor you will see one game ID ends with a P for PAL and the other ends with E for English (kinda confusing I know but E is NTSC-U)
For Mario Kart Wii that would be RMCP01 and RMCE01.

 

[tob_bob]

Well, you need to extract them both. Once you look at them in the hex editor you will see one game ID ends with a P for PAL and the other ends with E for English (kinda confusing I know but E is NTSC-U)
For Mario Kart Wii that would be RMCP01 and RMCE01.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Sorry for the long post
Also, I’m from Australia (this is probably relevant)

After about an hour of troubleshooting, I didn’t get much luck. I tried extracting the file, and there were 4 files with no .sav file. I tried to open the .dat file with a hex editor and there wasn’t the “RMCE” text anywhere. I did see text saying “RMCJ” a bit further downwards, so I changed that to “RMCP”, changed the folder name to end with “50” (the PAL folder name) instead of “45” (the NTSC folder name) and put the sd card back in the Wii. Savegame manager GX detected the file as RMCP (the PAL one), but after installing it to the system memory and booting up MKWii, it said my save file was corrupted.

After that, I tried doing everything again but without changing the files in the hex editor. Once again, savegame manager GX detected the save as PAL, but when i booted up MKWii, it said that the save data was in a different region.

I tried “compressing” the file instead of “extracting“ it in savegame manager GX, but I couldn’t really find anything useful in the “data.bin” save file in the hex editor.

the attached image shows what was in the “extracted” save file from the USA save data

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Sorry for the long post
Also, I’m from Australia (this is probably relevant)

After about an hour of troubleshooting, I didn’t get much luck. I tried extracting the file, and there were 4 files with no .sav file. I tried to open the .dat file with a hex editor and there wasn’t the “RMCE” text anywhere. I did see text saying “RMCJ” a bit further downwards, so I changed that to “RMCP”, changed the folder name to end with “50” (the PAL folder name) instead of “45” (the NTSC folder name) and put the sd card back in the Wii. Savegame manager GX detected the file as RMCP (the PAL one), but after installing it to the system memory and booting up MKWii, it said my save file was corrupted.

After that, I tried doing everything again but without changing the files in the hex editor. Once again, savegame manager GX detected the save as PAL, but when i booted up MKWii, it said that the save data was in a different region.

I tried “compressing” the file instead of “extracting“ it in savegame manager GX, but I couldn’t really find anything useful in the “data.bin” save file in the hex editor.

the attached image shows what was in the “extracted” save file from the USA save data

Some save files just can't be region changed because of regional differences in the format. You can try to figure out what the differences are by making a new save on both versions and comparing them, but it's a long shot.

There could be some checksum verification going on that is making the save get rejected. Often that would be at the beginning or end of a file but it's not a given. For that, you'd have to figure out what format the checksum is in and rewrite it with a new checksum.

 

[tob_bob]

Some save files just can't be region changed because of regional differences in the format. You can try to figure out what the differences are by making a new save on both versions and comparing them, but it's a long shot.

There could be some checksum verification going on that is making the save get rejected. Often that would be at the beginning or end of a file but it's not a given. For that, you'd have to figure out what format the checksum is in and rewrite it with a new checksum.

Ok, I haven’t made much progress on my NTSC save so i guess i’ll just start over. Thanks for helping!

 

[jeannotte]

convert NTSC backups to pal or vice versa ==>https://gbatemp.net/threads/change-...adiance-from-ntsc-to-pal.575449/#post-9231557