ROM Hack Omegatrons Trimmable ROM project

[omegatr0n]

***UPDATE*** I just got word from FunkSkunk from #ds-scene on efnet that once he trimmed a rom with ndsLazy that it still was able to be patched with supercard lite software. With this being said I plan to use ndslazy to trim my roms instead of having a bunch of differnt adapter card software doing it and screwing with teh results.



(copied from max console)

Hey guys.

Now that I fully understand the methods used for trimming...I want to ask for some assistance...I plan on (with help from others if possible) to construct a Trim Game List. One that would provide many types of data.

1. Is the game trimmable (yes i know this info can be foudn elsewhere but it is merely included for completeness)
2. How far the game con be trimmed (eg: Starting Clean Dump Size/ Trim Rom Size)
3. If any features are broke because of the trimming. (eg: Wifi, etc)
**UPDATE**
4. If the rom is able to be ripped. (eg: sound files, videos etc)


If anyone has any other usefull ideas i woudl love to hear about them. Also i plan to post this in its own dedicated thread on both max console and gbatemp, so please post comments thier if possible. Also although i do have access to every rom so far (not counting XXXX roms only clean dumps) it would be unfeasable and impractical for me to do this on my own, so im am asking for a few ppl that could help lighten the load. I would like to at best have 10 other ppl besides myself, one person for each of the existing ROM PACKS (eg: 0-50, 51-100, 101-150) I feel that by doing it this way we can save a lot of time and overlapping.

Thanks for reading and anyone interested feel free to post but please also pm me

~Omegatron...

BTW please if possible leave a copy of your comments at http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.ph...8028#post228028 or just post thier...as its really easier to haev it in one place

 

[corbs132]

erm... include ripability?

 

[omegatr0n]

explain? do you mean wither or not it can be dumped from a retail cart...

 

[Lily]

He means whether or not things like, the Castlevania intro video can be removed from the ROM. (It can, and is still functional.)

 

[omegatr0n]

Oh I see like video relinking...I think that with 542 roms to date that would be a little tuff to do, I kinda want to get the list all inclusive then it will be easy to just add one set of data everytime a new rom comes out...Hell once the list is up to date i wont even need help

 

[FAST6191]

I have done this on many occasions, it does seem to be affected by the patching method you use as well as whether you use NDSTS/NDS header viewer or NDSTool (not to mention different versions have different compatibilty for me).
90% of roms are able to have their sound files replaced via whatever version of NDSTool, the only one that springs to mind that can not (at least when I tried it) was Animal Crossing US (Euro also applies I am told). In the end I just lopped off the end of the soundfile and rebuilt the rom with the cut soundfile (I did not even bother to fix the soundfiles header, primarily as I did not know how to at this point).
I have not really done many rips of late but feel free to add any from the link in my signature.

If you are talking of removing the 00's and FF's (sometimes although I have never seen it on a DS/GBA rom they are alternating 00FF00....) from the roms again 99% should work. The few that do not you will find usually break due to the fact you take away a 00/FF that is used to signify end of block/line/road/text/monkey, this can be resolved by giving a few 00's/FF's back and stopping the ripping process by replacing one of the 00/FF's a few bytes later with something else.

 

[omegatr0n]

I think this is shaping up to be quite nice (except for any actual work)

I plan to get rom pack 0-50 done before friday

So what do you guys think the best way to do this would be...trim with ndslasy then patch with whatever software you need for the card you are testing on? Or do you have something else in mind