Hacking Rominator for NDS

[Salamantis]

Thanks for this. I hope the newer version will not have problems with PNGs.

 

[hankchill]

Thanks for this. I hope the newer version will not have problems with PNGs.

I'll see what I can do, but remember that you can easily bypass that by using a white background

EDIT: [teaser] For those interested, there's 2 features being put in this release that are extra, extra special

[/teaser]

 

[fuch]

When's the release?!?

 

[Xelia]

When's the release?!?

He said "this weekend".

 

[Maupi]

Oh my god! I really love this program! Have been trying it a few months ago when it was a bit slow, but now the speed amazes me!!!

Good work Hank! We really appreciate it !!!

 

[_mrshl_]

there are some invalid database entries (most because proper versions were released):

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| REASON Â Â Â| ROM Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| DB-CRC Â | Actual-CRC |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0032 - Bomberman (J)(Legacy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 6ABC6705 | 0F805B72 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0033 - Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta (J)(Trashman) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 39DBD5EC | 82FF50C5 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0111 - Advance Wars - Dual Strike (E)(M5)(FCT) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 4376F370 | C42D8E67 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0246 - Dragon Ball Z - Bukuu Ressen (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 9C118C6D | 9EEA277C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0247 - Harobots Action!! (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| A764C6A0 | E497D7BD Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0248 - New Rainbow Islands (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| C8819280 | 80DB7665 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0249 - Urusei Yatsura - Endless Summer (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 8D5C18F2 | C5F44614 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0253 - Super Black Bass - Dynamic Shot (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 6692E0BC | 7958D28C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0267 - Manga-ka Debut Monogatari DS - Akogare! Manga-ka Ikusei Game (J)(SCZ) | 1E9A6AE7 | 2270555F Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0275 - LostMagic (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 0E10EDDD | 67A10FC7 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0429 - LostMagic (E)(M4)(Endless Piracy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | ED54CC40 | 0E34F28E Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0993 - Gyakuten Saiban 4 (J)(eZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 3774F54B | 34721814 Â |
| Invalid CRC | 1098 - Naruto - Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu 3 (K)(Romar) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | F0308FA Â| 0F0308FA Â |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll check those games and compare CRC's to my DB to the official ones.

so, well it seems you didn't really checked the games until now. you can look them up in the advanscene's database because there you can find the ips and the proper's crcs..

regards
mrshl

 

[hankchill]

there are some invalid database entries (most because proper versions were released):

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| REASON Â Â Â| ROM Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| DB-CRC Â | Actual-CRC |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0032 - Bomberman (J)(Legacy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 6ABC6705 | 0F805B72 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0033 - Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta (J)(Trashman) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 39DBD5EC | 82FF50C5 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0111 - Advance Wars - Dual Strike (E)(M5)(FCT) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 4376F370 | C42D8E67 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0246 - Dragon Ball Z - Bukuu Ressen (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 9C118C6D | 9EEA277C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0247 - Harobots Action!! (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| A764C6A0 | E497D7BD Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0248 - New Rainbow Islands (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| C8819280 | 80DB7665 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0249 - Urusei Yatsura - Endless Summer (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 8D5C18F2 | C5F44614 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0253 - Super Black Bass - Dynamic Shot (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 6692E0BC | 7958D28C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0267 - Manga-ka Debut Monogatari DS - Akogare! Manga-ka Ikusei Game (J)(SCZ) | 1E9A6AE7 | 2270555F Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0275 - LostMagic (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 0E10EDDD | 67A10FC7 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0429 - LostMagic (E)(M4)(Endless Piracy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | ED54CC40 | 0E34F28E Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0993 - Gyakuten Saiban 4 (J)(eZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 3774F54B | 34721814 Â |
| Invalid CRC | 1098 - Naruto - Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu 3 (K)(Romar) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | F0308FA Â| 0F0308FA Â |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll check those games and compare CRC's to my DB to the official ones.

so, well it seems you didn't really checked the games until now. you can look them up in the advanscene's database because there you can find the ips and the proper's crcs..

regards
mrshl

Haven't really gotten around to it... been busy and all

No worries, I'll get to it soon

 

[Xelia]

Hm, for #0347 there is no Icon. All I see is a ? but the boxart shows up. Oo

 

[hankchill]

If an icon doesn't show, please don't mention it, because the icon is pulled from the rom itself -- if it's a problem, remove the rom (shift+delete) and readd it with the refresh button.

 

[hankchill]

Well, almost done the new features. I'm just finishing up with the 2 big features, should be done for tomorrow night. Those two big features are:
• Multiple flash card support
• ROM Compression

Basically, you'll be able to have as many flash cards in the list as you want -- it'll show any cards you've got inserted in your list.

As for compression, Zip support didn't work out because I had to pay for it, so I did my own -- rZip compression

Like Zip, but for Rominator. Here's a few examples on it's compression performance:

Battleship, Connect Four, Sorry!, Trouble
Original Size: 8MB
Compressed Size: 3.1MB
Time: 3 Seconds

Cake Mania
Original Size: 16MB
Compressed Size: 8.1MB
Time: 7 Seconds

New Super Mario Bros
Original Size: 32MB
Compressed Size: 13.8MB
Time: 11 Seconds

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Original Size: 64MB
Compressed Size: 26.4MB
Time: 29 Seconds

Final Fantasy III
Original Size: 128MB
Compressed Size: 75.4MB
Time: 42 Seconds

Total Size: 248MB
Compressed Size: 126.8MB
Difference: 121.2MB
Percentage Saved: %49

So roughly half of your space will be saved through compression. You can also decompress in Rominator, which is much faster than compressing. When flashing, it'll automatically decompress the file and flash it. Because of trimming purposes, it cannot decompress straight to the flash card. However, if trimming is disabled, it can go straight to the flash card.

Also, you can identify rZipped roms. If you drag and drop an rZipped game onto Rominator that has not been identified, press the Identify button to have it scan the rom inside the file, and update your database.

The other smaller new features/fixes are as follows:
• Remember Region Filters
• Swap Delete and Shift+Delete for removing games
• Fix Window main resize issue
• If sort is by number, it will sort properly upon Drag & Drop
• Fixed a crash in Mac OS X if the rom is on an external drive and the drive isn't present.
• Disallow the naming of a game to nothing. Whoops!
• Changed Ctrl+Alt to delete settings to the letter 'c' -- this crashes for Windoze users, so I'm going to make a Settings Manager program for this.

Hopefully will be ready after the weekend

EDIT: It WILL be ready for after the weekend

I've gone nuts and compressed everything with rZip compression, so when you download skins, database updates, etc, it's all compressed, so it'll be half the size. This means that you'll need to download this update before updating your database as the older version won't recognize it anymore. Plus, there's 3 new buttons -- Compress, Decompress, and Identify Compressed Game -- so anyone who made skins will need to remake them -- Hope you kept all your images! I'll release tonight. There might be bugs as a lot of work was done with it over the weekend, so anything you find please report right away.

 

[Auyx]

Hey Im haveing a problem with rominator for some reson the program canot pull info from my roms the info screen is blank but for the rom size and it cannot find the cover art. this happend with all roms intill today when i made a serch in the dialog box and then returnd to a full menu where the first 91 roms
got all there info. Is there any way to make rominator get all the roms info. Im not sure if this has been looked into before but there is 41 pages in this thread and it would take me some time to check through it all. Thanks for any help in advance. Ta

 

[Sinkhead]

rZip. Sounds good!

- Sam

 

[hankchill]

Hey Im haveing a problem with rominator for some reson the program canot pull info from my roms the info screen is blank but for the rom size and it cannot find the cover art. this happend with all roms intill today when i made a serch in the dialog box and then returnd to a full menu where the first 91 romsÂ
got all there info. Is there any way to make rominator get all the roms info. Im not sure if this has been looked into before but there is 41 pages in this thread and it would take me some time to check through it all. Thanks for any help in advance. Ta

Yeah, you press the 'Refresh' button

Just doing the final testing stage... and compressing all my games

 

[Auyx]

I have mate kinda the first thing you try aint it. Where does the program store its cache If i clear that out i could try a reupdate.

 

[hankchill]

I have mate kinda the first thing you try aint it. Where does the program store its cache If i clear that out i could try a reupdate.

Ah okay

Assuming you're in Windows, go to C:\Documents and Settings\~user name\Application Data\Rominator Data\

Delete the library.rsd file --that's you're cached library.

Another thing you can try is to download a new DS Database through Check for Updates. If you're adding the game in that is guaranteed to be in the database, and it doesn't give the info, then your ds.rsd file needs to be deleted.

Bear in mind though, games 1177 to 1188 are not in there yet, but will be available tonight when I upload the updated database (can't do it from work

-- or can I?

)

EDIT: Yep, looks like I can update from work

Just disabled the proxy and voila

 

[Salamantis]

Sweet updates, Hank! Can't wait for them!

And LOL @ rZip!


@hankchill: Did you finish the icon?

 

[hankchill]

Sweet updates, Hank! Can't wait for them!

And LOL @ rZip!


@hankchill: Did you finish the icon?

They're coming shortly

Why LOL @ rZip? It's uber-1337 compression

Didn't finish the icon... maybe for the next revision

 

[Salamantis]

I just find it funny, Rominator Zip.

 

[hankchill]

I just find it funny, Rominator Zip.

Better than No Zip

If people complain they want regular zip, it costs me money

EDIT: Will upload in the next half hour. Just adding in 1 small featurette

EDIT 2: As soon as my games finish compressing, that is

EDIT 3: Enjoy

For the skin designers, do them in the newer skin designer and send em to me so I can put them in the skin library!

 

[hankchill]

Just wanted to post the v4.0 Changelog:

Large Features
- Rom Compression! Rominator has it's own Zlib compression format, dubbed rZip. It can bring your games down to less than 50% their size (results vary) in a good speed. You can compress and decompress games, and if you add in a compressed game, there is an Identify button to have Rominator recognize the copied game.

- Multiple Flash Cards! In the settings, you can define as many flash cards as you want, without having to change the path of the 1 card. In turn scanning of the flash cards has to be manual, so it can be scanned using the File->Scan Flash Cards menu.

Smaller Features
- Swapped Delete and Shift+Delete for remove games. Now removing them from the list involves just pressing the delete button. Permanent deletion of disk involves Shift+Delete. It makes life less confusing.

- Fixed Main Window resize issue upon launching Rominator.

- If sorting was by number and a game was added, the list would default to sorting by name. This has been fixed.

- Fixed a nasty crash in Mac OS X that would cause Rominator to close down if a game was in your list that was located on an external drive. It will not crash anymore.

- Accidentally allowed the naming of the game to nothing -- why did nobody point this out to me even after 100 revisions!

- Hold 'C' now to clear the specified settings files you want to clear -- this still crashes in Windows... Still trying to find a good fix.

- Region filters are now remembered. You're welcome.

- Added in a Submit Suggestion window under the Help menu. Now stop posting them at GBAtemp, taking up 47 pages of fun! Submit your bug reports there too!