"NSP Forwarder Generator" - An online tool to create NRO/RetroArch forwarders

[tootallnate]

I wonder if there would be a way to loosely match coverart from a database depending on the core/title/rom name inputted? Like some fuzzy logic where if only 1 result is returned, ask if that is the correct cover and use it for the image.
Also last question for now......will these NSP forwarders work after major firmware updates? I remember some of my old forwarders stopped working after a few major revision updates (fw14 to fw15) but i think i screwed around with my files so that may have been the reason.

I do think it would be cool to add some analysis logic and allow for a ROM file to be selected from the game cover image selector (it already works to select a .nro file in NRO Forwarder mode). There's game databases that I could use to match based on SHA1 of the file contents, and then would be able to prefill the name / publisher fields and box art image. I'll probably look into adding something like that eventually.

As far as compatibility goes, it's the hacbrewpack command which controls that aspect. I haven't been around the scene long enough to know, but I believe it has had to be modified in the past to support newer firmware releases. I'll have to update the tool if that ever happens again. So far though, my forwarders made for v15 still work on v16.

 

[AlanLC]

Isn't it possible to make a forwarder to launch directly from home but to the PFBNeo emulator instead of Retroarch? I think PFBNeo would need to support this.

 

[impeeza]

Isn't it possible to make a forwarder to launch directly from home but to the PFBNeo emulator instead of Retroarch? I think PFBNeo would need to support this.

you can create a Forwarder to load any NRO, Each Retroarch core is a NRO file. if you want the program to load a file the NRO program should accept arguments.

 

[tootallnate]

Isn't it possible to make a forwarder to launch directly from home but to the PFBNeo emulator instead of Retroarch? I think PFBNeo would need to support this.

I've tried a few standalone emulators (PPSSPP, mGBA) and they do indeed work. You would still use RetroArch Forwarder mode so that you can select the game path, but set the Core Path field to your standalone emulator's .nro file path.

Report back if it works for PFBNeo as well. I'm curious

 

[AlanLC]

You can only create a forwarder to launch the PFBNeo emulator and in its list choose the game, if creating a forwarder to launch the Rom will not work, it will open the emulator with an empty list.

 

[GatoFiestero]

Excellent project thanks for sharing

 

[mister_smang_n_watch]

Love it, been hoping for something like this <3

 

[Mudkipzzz]

Is it possible to create a mGBA game forwarder just like it's done with RetroArch? I personally like using mGBA instead of RetroArch. I created a forward for mGBA(loving it) but I was wondering if I can put a gba game forwarder.

 

[Andalitez]

I keep getting a software error has occurred when trying to run funkin-rewritten with the NSP I created using this tool. I know the NRO works because I can title redirect and launch ( downloaded from the HB store app) but for the life of me can't get the NSP to get the game to launch. Anyone have any pointers or know what I'm doing wrong?

16.0.2, Atm 1.5.2E with sigpatches.
Fusee or Hekate to boot makes no difference

 

[tootallnate]

Is it possible to create a mGBA game forwarder just like it's done with RetroArch? I personally like using mGBA instead of RetroArch. I created a forward for mGBA(loving it) but I was wondering if I can put a gba game forwarder.

Yes, it works. Just put the path to the standalone mGBA in the Core Path input (actually, I just added a preset for it, so you can select "mGBA (Standalone)" from the core preset dropdown ).

 

[Mudkipzzz]

Yes, it works. Just put the path to the standalone mGBA in the Core Path input (actually, I just added a preset for it, so you can select "mGBA (Standalone)" from the core preset dropdown ).

Didn't notice someone else asked this before me too. Sorry about that! And I just saw the addition. Thanks a lot! Really really grateful with this!

 

[HalfScoper]

I dont see a reason why this is needed as online app when you can just use the offline equivalent (from which this was probably ported/forked/whatever), but cool concept I guess.

 

[Mudkipzzz]

Tested and working beautifully. Thanks again author!

 

[Ligeia]

Looks neat ! I'll try it

 

[tootallnate]

I keep getting a software error has occurred when trying to run funkin-rewritten with the NSP I created using this tool. I know the NRO works because I can title redirect and launch ( downloaded from the HB store app) but for the life of me can't get the NSP to get the game to launch. Anyone have any pointers or know what I'm doing wrong?

16.0.2, Atm 1.5.2E with sigpatches.
Fusee or Hekate to boot makes no difference

Seemed to work for me. Most likely the NRO Path input is incorrect.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

I dont see a reason why this is needed as online app when you can just use the offline equivalent (from which this was probably ported/forked/whatever), but cool concept I guess.

• Cross-platform (not Windows only).
• Always up-to-date (I was able to add the "mGBA (Standalone)" preset just now for @Mudkipzzz and they didn't need to install a new version).
• This version has features that I haven't seen in other forwarder programs (cropping of animated GIF for example, for the boot-up animation).

 

[lightninjay]

Would there be any particular reason why a retroarch core forward would have a broken (read as "a grey question mark icon") title art icon on the homescreen, but working in menus like the info/data management tabs?

EDIT:
NTON has a troubleshooting tip as follows...

The forwarder's icon is a '?'​

The icon_AmericanEnglish.dat is not to the spec that Nintendo likes in some way. This is usually caused by the format of the image not being a JPEG, or it has EXIF data or an embedded color space.

I recommend stripping all EXIF metadata and saving without an Embed Color Space. You can do this quickly with ImageMagick, magick mogrify -format jpg -resize 256x256 -strip "C:\Users\John\Downloads\icon.png".

Did something break in the Title art converter? I even tried uploading a pre-stripped jpeg after using ImageMagick on it, and still no dice.

 

[tootallnate]

Would there be any particular reason why a retroarch core forward would have a broken (read as "a grey question mark icon") title art icon on the homescreen, but working in menus like the info/data management tabs?

EDIT:
NTON has a troubleshooting tip as follows...


Did something break in the Title art converter? I even tried uploading a pre-stripped jpeg after using ImageMagick on it, and still no dice.

I've seen this happen before if the file size of the image to "too large". Switch seems to have a pretty low threshold. What is the image file size for you for the image that doesn't work (shown in the cropping overlay)? Does it work if you use a different image? Or perhaps a different web browser?

If it is related to the file size, I could add a quality slider to tweak the JPEG quality (currently it outputs at 90% quality).

 

[lightninjay]

The cropping interface is saying the file output is 40.56KB.
I'm just trying to make an NRO retroarch forward to Pokemon Blue. It launches just fine, and the icon shows up everywhere except the home screen (even in goldleaf when installing the nsp).
Here's the photo I originally used, and the resized ImageMagick one I tried as well.

EDIT: I suppose it is also worth noting, I made a Galaga forwarder a week or two ago with a custom Galaga icon that appeared properly, but when trying to use the icon that successfully worked for that forwarder, it too appears as a grey question mark.

EDIT2: You may consider an option to turn off conversion entirely, as I just ran the same file inputs and files (the ImageMagick'd jpg) through EddCase's offline NSP Forwarder GUI with the Image conversion toggled off and it loads the icon appropriately. Interesting.

 

[tootallnate]

The cropping interface is saying the file output is 40.56KB.
I'm just trying to make an NRO retroarch forward to Pokemon Blue. It launches just fine, and the icon shows up everywhere except the home screen (even in goldleaf when installing the nsp).
Here's the photo I originally used, and the resized ImageMagick one I tried as well.

EDIT: I suppose it is also worth noting, I made a Galaga forwarder a week or two ago with a custom Galaga icon that appeared properly, but when trying to use the icon that successfully worked for that forwarder, it too appears as a grey question mark.

EDIT2: You may consider an option to turn off conversion entirely, as I just ran the same file inputs and files (the ImageMagick'd jpg) through EddCase's offline NSP Forwarder GUI with the Image conversion toggled off and it loads the icon appropriately. Interesting.

Interesting. I tried it just now and it's working for me. The converted image is ~70kb. I'm curious what OS and browser you are using. I use MacOS and Firefox FWIW.

 

[lightninjay]

Interesting. I tried it just now and it's working for me. The converted image is ~70kb. I'm curious what OS and browser you are using. I use MacOS and Firefox FWIW.

This is on Arch linux (relatively up-to-date, pretty sure I updated within the last week) using chromium. To be fair, I did not try it in my Windows VM before trying the offline tool. One sec, lemme run a test.

EDIT: Seems to work just fine using my Windows 10 VM. Hmmm, wonder why it breaks in Chromium since it's just the original fork for Chrome...