Hacking Homebrew [Release] AGB_edit: Edit/dump GBA VC injects & auto sleep on lid close

[BETA215]

Yea, also TWPatch has an AGB_FIRM mode that patches AGB_FIRM. This app (AGB_edit) edits the CIA, while TWPatch edits the firmware itself, each with different features. So they have different uses.

 

[Chupi]

Yea, also TWPatch has an AGB_FIRM mode that patches AGB_FIRM.

Wait, what? How do I access this?

 

[GBAGamer33]

I'm trying this out and getting an error on any extraction or edit. Any idea?

The system cannot find the specified path

 

[Chupi]

I'm trying this out and getting an error on any extraction or edit. Any idea?

The system cannot find the specified path

This error most likely means it can't find one of the accessory programs it needs. Did you extract the whole zip including the progfiles folder? If you haven't installed a zip program, Windows likes to open zip files as if they're folders. But then if you run an exe that's inside the zip, it extracts just the exe to a temp folder.

Make sure you have the progfiles folder from the zip in the same folder as agb_edit.exe. Progfiles should contain 3dstool.exe, ctrtool.exe and makerom.exe.

If that doesn't fix it for you, please paste the couple of lines above the error, since those will say what it can't find.

 

[GBAGamer33]

This error most likely means it can't find one of the accessory programs it needs. Did you extract the whole zip including the progfiles folder? If you haven't installed a zip program, Windows likes to open zip files as if they're folders. But then if you run an exe that's inside the zip, it extracts just the exe to a temp folder.

Make sure you have the progfiles folder from the zip in the same folder as agb_edit.exe. Progfiles should contain 3dstool.exe, ctrtool.exe and makerom.exe.

If that doesn't fix it for you, please paste the couple of lines above the error, since those will say what it can't find.

Okay, I figured out a workaround. The problem was it didn't work to drag CIAs to the executable (this is on Windows 11). Command-line worked, though.

Thanks a lot for this tool. I've been playing my GBA games on an emulator handheld recently (RG351P) and while I've been enjoying the crisp screen and highly portable form factor, I don't love the ergonomics and games like Rhythm Tengoku really suffer.

I'd finished quite a few games on my 2DSXL, but I kept getting frustrated with the washed out colors. I never imagined this could be fixed. It looks close to what I remember the SP 101 looking like.

 

[Chupi]

It looks close to what I remember the SP 101 looking like.

SP 101 is exactly what I wanted the default setting to look like. I consider that the canonical, optimal appearance for most GBA games even though some/many of them were designed with over-saturated colors to compensate for the duller screen of the original GBA. No idea why Nintendo made these weird dark washed out linear color filters after creating AGB_FIRM with a lookup table that's capable of proper gamma correction.

 

[IceBlueLugia]

So does this make it press L+R+start or anything when you open the lid to take it out of sleep mode? How does that part work?

This is amazing by the way

 

[seriffic]

Hi, I tried to use the latest release with Ambassador GBA CIAs but get this error:

Saving content #0000 to UNPACKTMP\file.0000.00000002
Saving content #0001 to UNPACKTMP\file.0001.00000003
==> progfiles\3dstool.exe -xtf cxi "UNPACKTMP\file.0000.00000002" --header "UNPACKTMP\ncchheader.bin" --exh "UNPACKTMP\exheader.bin" --exefs "UNPACKTMP\exefs.bin" --romfs "UNPACKTMP\romfs.bin"
ERROR: the file type is mismatch

 ==== FINISHED! STATUS REPORT ====
Metroid Fusion.cia => 3dstool -xtf cxi failed
 ==== DONE ====

I have the entire directory extracted with all of the progfiles present. I tried both dragging and dropping the CIA onto the .exe and running through command line. I'm on Windows 11. Anything I'm missing? Thanks.

 

[Chupi]

So does this make it press L+R+start or anything when you open the lid to take it out of sleep mode? How does that part work?

This is amazing by the way

Sorry I missed this message. For reference, no, it doesn't matter what button combo you put for wake, it will wake when you open the lid. I don't know for certain, but I think it just fires whatever interrupt is needed to wake it when you open the lid.

Hi, I tried to use the latest release with Ambassador GBA CIAs but get this error:

Saving content #0000 to UNPACKTMP\file.0000.00000002
Saving content #0001 to UNPACKTMP\file.0001.00000003
==> progfiles\3dstool.exe -xtf cxi "UNPACKTMP\file.0000.00000002" --header "UNPACKTMP\ncchheader.bin" --exh "UNPACKTMP\exheader.bin" --exefs "UNPACKTMP\exefs.bin" --romfs "UNPACKTMP\romfs.bin"
ERROR: the file type is mismatch

 ==== FINISHED! STATUS REPORT ====
Metroid Fusion.cia => 3dstool -xtf cxi failed
 ==== DONE ====

I have the entire directory extracted with all of the progfiles present. I tried both dragging and dropping the CIA onto the .exe and running through command line. I'm on Windows 11. Anything I'm missing? Thanks.

Make sure there is no UNPACKTMP directory before running it, and that you have some disk space available. If it still does that, can you DM me the cia that's doing it? It looks like it's the official Ambassador Metroid Fusion. I can tell because it's unpacking 2 contents, one for the game and one for the digital manual. Yet the cia I dumped from my original Ambassador 3DS works properly with the tool.

UPDATE: I have reproduced the problem you're seeing using the cia from a certain shop.

 

[chaosagent]

Besides Gamma Correction, is it possible to use this to desaturate the colors? If yes, how?

 

[Chupi]

Besides Gamma Correction, is it possible to use this to desaturate the colors? If yes, how?

No, it's not possible to desaturate colors. That requires each color channel's brightness to depend on other channels.

The color filter that Nintendo made AGB_FIRM work with is a simple lookup table. For each of the 3 RGB channels, each possible value from 0-255 has an entry in the table. If for instance I put a 20 in the 10th entry of the table for green, whenever the GBA game draws a pixel whose green component is 10, it displays with a green component of 20.

The closest you can get is a single-channel color filter. For instance leaving red as is but changing green and blue to all zero. That makes everything monochrome red so you can pretend it's a Virtual Boy game. It's not gray, and the shade of red doesn't depend on the green and blue components so a vivid green object will appear black rather than red.