Hacking R4 Commander V2.0

[TrolleyDave]

Hey, TrolleyDave, thanks for the great program!

I have a question about the homebrew library. If I try to open the library it tells me I currently have no homebrew installed. Am I supposed to have a folder inside the R4 commander folder with my homebrew, or is it looking on my MicroSD card for a certain folder? Somewhere else? I feel somewhat incompetent right now as I am not an unintelligent person. I actually came searching for help with this issue and another question. I was going to ask if you could add support for the CycloDS Evolution, but you seem to have a bad experience with supporting other cards

. I would be willing to test it.

,
euphemism

With the homebrew library you have to drop .EZC packs into the main window for them to be added, like you do with a rom. You can find all of them on my blog. Once they're dropped into the window it'll copy them to the folder it uses for the homebrew library (PACKS.LIB in the R4 Commander folder) and you can delete the one you dropped in if you want.

I don't mind adding support for the CycloDS, I don't actually know how the cart works though. Is it similar to the R4 where you have to copy the firmware onto the root? The homebrew library packs are all pre-patched for the R4 but the Cyclo has auto-dldi patching so it should automatically repatch them to the Cyclo. If it doesn't then let me know and I'll create some Cyclo packs for you.

You're the best, thanks for telling me. The Evolution stores its firmware on re-writable flash memory on the cart. When you update the firmware, you get an update.evo file, that's all. You drop the update.evo into your root and when you boot the Evolution it flashes it to the cart, deletes the file, and shuts down. Pretty darn simple. The Evolution does indeed auto-DLDI patch, in fact, it was the first cart to do so. I was wondering if you could add the ability to add/remove skins via the commander? I have a visual for you:

Basically you make a folder inside X:/CycloDS/skins for each skin you have and drop the files into them. If there's anything I didn't elaborate on enough, or if there's something else you might need to know, please ask.

I'm just about to start on a skin browser for the Cyclo Evo. It looks like it'll be pretty simple, one question though - do the folder names in the skins folder have to be less than a certain length of characters?

 

[TrolleyDave]

The Evolution does indeed auto-DLDI patch, in fact, it was the first cart to do so.

No it wasn't. The N Card and its clones were the first ones to have auto patchibg DLDI. The Evo came out after all that happened. The Evo was the first cart to have full download play support.

Thank you Dave for this great app. I just started using it myself(I know, you created it along time ago), and it'll always be on computer now.

I'm with euphemism, if you can add support for the Evo, then that would be great. The R4 and Evo has some similarities, so I hope it won't be too difficult to add.

I'm just about to start on the skin browser for the Cyclo. It'll basically be like the one in R4 Commander. I take it the .xml files in the skin archives are like the theme.ini for the R4?

 

[shane1972]

Hi Trolleydave,

That would be gr8.
I just got a cyclo and think its fantastic.
If you need any help testing just pm me.
The other thing that would be cool for the cyclo is a windows gui so that the user can drag and drop the r4 cheat and it converts it to a cyclo cheat file.

Cheers Shane

 

[thep1mp]

hello, I have some .zip .rar and .7z files with multiple .nds files in them. When r4 commander adds them to library , it only seems to add one of them, leaving the US version out for example. Am i doing something wrong?

 

[TrolleyDave]

hello, I have some .zip .rar and .7z files with multiple .nds files in them. When r4 commander adds them to library , it only seems to add one of them, leaving the US version out for example. Am i doing something wrong?

It only handles 1 NDS file per zip/rar/7z file, sorry mate.

 

[Tikker]

you know what

I bet that's what was causing all my grief

I never even thought about it, haha

 

[TrolleyDave]

you know what

I bet that's what was causing all my grief

I never even thought about it, haha

How's it going mate! I thought you already knew about that! Would you mind double checking that it's definitely the problem you had for me?

 

[TTgowings]

How do you get it to do a "missing" (compare) list out on GBA ones ? Like the way it shows you what you're missing for NDS ones.

EDIT: Wow sorry about this, I already asked and got the answer from Trolley the other day. Short term memory I guess..

Is there a favorite GBA Renamer out there that one uses ? That I could scan my gba files and would compare them to a dat file and tell me which ones I'm missing?

 

[TrolleyDave]

How do you get it to do a "missing" (compare) list out on GBA ones ? Like the way it shows you what you're missing for NDS ones.

It hasn't got a fully functioning GBA side yet. I've got to find the time to enter all the details for the GBA releases. Of course if someone with alot of time on their hands wants to do it!

 

[thep1mp]

thanks, Trolleydave. Is multiple .nds files per zip something that you could add or is it difficult? would be a great feature! Either way , you have done a great job.

 

[marla.k]

Hey Trolleydave!

The screenshots of 2170 and 2171 are wrong:
2170 is the screenshot of 2172 (I think, don't speak Japanese) and 2171 is the one of 2170 ;-)

 

[JJBro1]

how do you add an entire folder to your game list. Because i have a folder for all my ds games still in zip files (i extract them straight to my sd card) and i want to add them to my game list. How do i do that without having to do them one by one and still have them as zip files?

 

[TrolleyDave]

thanks, Trolleydave. Is multiple .nds files per zip something that you could add or is it difficult? would be a great feature! Either way , you have done a great job.

I'm not too sure how difficult it would be. I'm rewriting the entire thing at the moment so I'll try and add it in while I'm doing it.

Hey Trolleydave!

The screenshots of 2170 and 2171 are wrong:
2170 is the screenshot of 2172 (I think, don't speak Japanese) and 2171 is the one of 2170 ;-)

Cheers Marla, will try and get that fixed asap.

QUOTE(JJBro1 @ Apr 11 2008, 09:24 AM)

how do you add an entire folder to your game list. Because i have a folder for all my ds games still in zip files (i extract them straight to my sd card) and i want to add them to my game list. How do i do that without having to do them one by one and still have them as zip files?

You have to go into the folder, select all and then drop them into the window.

 

[Stevis]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong....but every TinyURL installation link redirects me to some papercraft website, as opposed to downloading anything.

I found it on (your?) blog via Google, and it worked when I tried downloading it from there. Interesting...

Edit: I'm having trouble importing saves into the program. If I just drag-and-drop them into the main window, nothing happens. If I try to go to the Save Library, I get this error message error message "List index out of bounds (-1)". If I choose Import Saves under the Utils menu, absolutely nothing happens.

 

[TrolleyDave]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong....but every TinyURL installation link redirects me to some papercraft website, as opposed to downloading anything.

I found it on (your?) blog via Google, and it worked when I tried downloading it from there. Interesting...

Edit: I'm having trouble importing saves into the program. If I just drag-and-drop them into the main window, nothing happens. If I try to go to the Save Library, I get this error message error message "List index out of bounds (-1)". If I choose Import Saves under the Utils menu, absolutely nothing happens.

I've fixed all the links in the first post, cheers for that. When you're importing saves have you definitely selected the correct MicroSD card drive and are the folder names correct in the settings?

 

[calibra]

As R4 Commander ius being rewritten, wouldn`t this be a good opportunity to produce a user guide / manual either seperate or as a help file within the App.

Would save countless people asking the same questions.............I for one do not understand to how to use many of the features......such a waste.

Thye release list is a long way behind DS ROMS that are available, not much you can do about this I suppose, lots of releases

There is meant to be a way of sorting your list by WIFI can this be added to the country sort drop down menu....cant find how to do this at the moment


Calibra

PS amazing App

 

[TrolleyDave]

Bad news folks, I had my hard drive die on me last week and lost all the source to the new version. I'm not really a programmer, it's not something I particularly enjoy all that much like alot of hobbyist programmers so for now I'm not going to bother restarting it. Instead I'm going to just start working on revising V2.X again. Luckily I actually had a reasonably recent backup of it. If any of the old bugs crop up then let me know. I think I got them all but I'm not too sure.

I've fixed a bug in the GBA SRAM autopatcher that was in the last version that stopped the GBA files frm being patched. I've also added in support for ExpLoader saves as well as 3-in-1 saves. I'll warn you now though, if you have a 3-in-1 and an ExpLoader save in the save library it'll copy them both over. If you've changed from 3-in-1 Tool to ExpLoader then you'll need to clear the 3-in-1 Tool saves from the SAVES.LIB\3-in-1 folder in your R4 Commander folder.

As R4 Commander ius being rewritten, wouldn`t this be a good opportunity to produce a user guide / manual either seperate or as a help file within the App.

Would save countless people asking the same questions.............I for one do not understand to how to use many of the features......such a waste.

Thye release list is a long way behind DS ROMS that are available, not much you can do about this I suppose, lots of releases

There is meant to be a way of sorting your list by WIFI can this be added to the country sort drop down menu....cant find how to do this at the moment


Calibra

PS amazing App

Sorry to disappoint you but I really can't see myself doing a help file anytime soon. I'm not someone who really codes for enjoymnt or anything like that. Any question you've got though I don't mind answering, just email me through the app or ask them on here.

The release list is behind because I've got to download the games and enter the details myself. Sometimes I just don't have the time. If someone else with more time wants to enter the detaiils in their app and email me their NDSRELS.INI file it would only take a couple of seconds for me to upload it to the server then. Also if anyone feels like they've got time to enter the detaills for the GBA release list it would help me out alooooot. If you can then PM and I'll give you the info.

Are you talking about sorting the game library by WiFi or the release list/ If it's the game library you can use the right click menu or the WiFi tickbx to show only WiFi games. If it's the release list then there's no such option, sorry. I can try and add it in if you want.

 

[TrolleyDave]

Well it appears I've lost my blog. I'll try to get another one set up over the weekend. For now here's a couple of packs.

NeoDS V0.1.1 (Fantastic emulator)
http://tinyurl.com/5omddr

GBA ExpLoader 0.56
http://tinyurl.com/5vnfak

I've also fixed a bug in the importing of GBA ExpLoader saves. I need to do some rewriting to allow it's use for when copying the saves to the card. This pack is just here in preperation. Hopefully I'll get that fixed tomorrow.

 

[TrolleyDave]

I've updated the blog address in the first post. At the moment all that's up is the latest R4 Commander install and all packs I had backups of.

 

[TrolleyDave]

There's a new update online if everybody wants to run it when the get a chance. There's a few fixes and additions. Also I've had to redo a bunch of the packs so you may want to delete them from your library, redownload and install them. It will fix probems with importing homebrew saves into the save library.

beta8
+ Added ability to manage GBA saves in library.
+ Added auto-detection of GBA tool on card. If program finds GBA_ExpLoader.ini in root of MicroSD it automatically uses GBA ExpLoader save types/folders otherwise it uses 3-in-1 Tool settings. Uses GBA_ExpLoader.ini settings to determine save folder.
+ Added support for Cyclo Evo, including splash screen and built-in skinner.
+ Fixed bug that stopped .SAV files in root of card being copied to save library.
+ Fixed bug in homebrew save importing.
+ Fixed bug in copying homebrew saves to card.
+ Fixed a bug that caused it to crash if you clicked on the last line of a filtered list in the Homebrew Library.
+ Moved some things around in the Preferences drop down menu.
+ Changed Games to NDS in the Library drop down menu.
+ Added GBA to the Library drop down menu. Selecting calls up the GBA rom library.
+ Added new TrolleyGuy blog address into program and install.
+ Tidied up various things.