RunningSnakes Forwarder Channels

[worm28]

Ok, looks like when i updated the forwarders i used v14 instead of v12 forwarding dol and it broke mGBA compatibility. Then when testing, forwarders always look alphabetically first for any acceptable path and i have emGBA also installed in my apps folder which worked. Sorry for this, it has been fixed, i will upload here very soon.

Post automatically merged: Sep 1, 2023

Here are updated Wii GBA forwarders.

All Wii & vWii forwarder links have been updated.with GBA fix.

It works now thank you

Post automatically merged: Sep 1, 2023

So the super nintendo forwarder does not work either i am trying it with snes9xgx it gives a blackscreen as well tested on SD. thank you for making these forwarders these are the best i have seen by far.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@rexus_pl

For DOSBox forwarder, are there any particular game logos you want on the carousel?

 

[rexus_pl]

@RunningSnakes no. Any will be OK

 

[RunningSnakes]

Added DOSBox forwarders...
Added Atari 5200 forwarders...
Updated TurboGrafx-16 forwarders...

 

[ber71]

Added DOSBox forwarders...
Added Atari 5200 forwarders...
Updated TurboGrafx-16 forwarders...

Sorry to bother, a simple n00b question.
How can I know the path or paths to which the forwarders point?
Tried hexedit but can't see any related strings.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Sorry to bother, a simple n00b question.
How can I know the path or paths to which the forwarders point?
Tried hexedit but can't see any related strings.

I put the path(s) in the wad title...so for Atari 5200 you will see (ra-atari5200)...for DOSBox you will see (dosbox-wii) (dosbox_wii_240p)...etc.

I also include the wad title id (D52R) example for Atari 5200) for all forwarders...

So the Amiga forwarders titles look like...
Amiga - RunningSnakes (DUAA) - (uae) White.wad ...
The channel forwarder is looking for this path...
apps/uae/boot.dol

Hope this answers your question.

Post automatically merged: Sep 5, 2023

Another way you can find forwarder paths...

Using CustomizeMii. Browse for the source wad and open, then click on options tab. Now click Extract and choose DOL and save to desktop of PC.

Open up HxD and drag and drop the DOL file into HxD Hex Editor. Now click Search and select Find... When the Find window pops up, type and search for either "apps" or "boot.dol" and click OK.

It will find a string like this...
:/apps/ra-atarilynx/boot.dol

This is the path i use for this particular Atari Lynx forwarder.

@ber71

 

[rexus_pl]

I've installed new DOSBox forwarder and it's great. One thing: white logo on monitor looks a bit strange - some console text (or something like Norton Commander, maybe?) would look more realistic.

And music from Jazz Jackrabbit

Looking forward for next forwarders with hardware - especially Neo Geo CD, PC Engine (with Wiiengine support), Playstation and Nintendo 64.

Have you checked possibility to add custom (hidden) path to forwarders? At least:
DOSBox - sd://DOSBox/boot.dol
NeoCDRX - sd://NeoCDRX/boot.dol
Wiistation / WiiSXRX - sd://wiisxrx/boot.dol
Not64 - sd://not64/boot.dol
Genesis Plus GX - sd://genplus/boot.dol

... probably more, but these apps store all their files in these folders. Why don't move boot.dol here and hide it from Homebrew Channel, when we have forwarder installed?

 

[RunningSnakes]

I've installed new DOSBox forwarder and it's great. One thing: white logo on monitor looks a bit strange - some console text (or something like Norton Commander, maybe?) would look more realistic.

And music from Jazz Jackrabbit

Looking forward for next forwarders with hardware - especially Neo Geo CD, PC Engine (with Wiiengine support), Playstation and Nintendo 64.

Have you checked possibility to add custom (hidden) path to forwarders? At least:
DOSBox - sd://DOSBox/boot.dol
NeoCDRX - sd://NeoCDRX/boot.dol
Wiistation / WiiSXRX - sd://wiisxrx/boot.dol
Not64 - sd://not64/boot.dol
Genesis Plus GX - sd://genplus/boot.dol

... probably more, but these apps store all their files in these folders. Why don't move boot.dol here and hide it from Homebrew Channel, when we have forwarder installed?

Thanks, glad you like the channel. Yes, i can definitely make a change to the monitor display on DOSBox and also change the game logos if you prefer something other than what is presented.

I have not attempted to use different dol path yet, but will in next days to see if it does indeed work, I will inform either way.

As for DOSBox, i have not tested this emulator fully. I need to plug in keyboard to understand how the emulator works. I have never used old DOS computers for gaming, only learning as i go. Same can be said for ZX, C64, CPC, Amiga, X1, ST, among a few others, older hardware i have come to learn and appreciate.

Some of these, when set up correctly, are groundbreaking for me in 2023. Amstrad is my favorite old machine i never knew and ZX Spectrum is not far behind, love those 2 machines.

 

[grandosegood]

hey there, thanks for your amazing work. i've tried to make forwarding channels for single games, and notice that the game will launch from hbc if on usb, but the forwarder causes black screen/no remote. i'm using the latest version of mgba for my forwarder, and have remade the .dol file a few times. any tips?

 

[RunningSnakes]

@grandosegood

Check out @SaulFabre tutorial for single game loaders. I believe it is exactly what you are looking for my friend.

 

[grandosegood]

thanks again for your reply and hard work. after redoing a few things, i was able to get most of my forwarders/games working. not sure if my wii is suffering from intermittent hardware failure or my sd/usb ext hdd got corrupted and needed to be reformatted (or possibly all 3). however, some forwarder channels had to be installed on the sysnand, the main wii menu because they would not launch properly from emunand in usb loader gx (black screen, or wiisxrx/psx bios not being detected). is there anything i could do to troubleshoot/research the situation? i know emunand can add extra complexity, but it's the only way to get a decent amount of other games/forwarders onto the system.

 

[RunningSnakes]

thanks again for your reply and hard work. after redoing a few things, i was able to get most of my forwarders/games working. not sure if my wii is suffering from intermittent hardware failure or my sd/usb ext hdd got corrupted and needed to be reformatted (or possibly all 3). however, some forwarder channels had to be installed on the sysnand, the main wii menu because they would not launch properly from emunand in usb loader gx (black screen, or wiisxrx/psx bios not being detected). is there anything i could do to troubleshoot/research the situation? i know emunand can add extra complexity, but it's the only way to get a decent amount of other games/forwarders onto the system.

I have run into this issue myself using custom channels through emunand using both WFL and USB GX. Using this method, i have always used full/stationary channels and don't believe i have tried this with forwarder channels though.

Changing the Title ID using CustomizeMii seems to fix this for me. I also use FreeTheWadsGUI for custom game channels i made/make.

Here is a list of Title ID's for all the VC platforms. As a rule the 4th ID slot is usually (but not always) the region code where (1) in the list below would be E00E for North America, E00P for Europe PAL, E00J for Japan. This letter should not matter if you have your region settings set to default or system through GX and/or WFL.

Arcade = E001
C64 = C001
MSX = X001
N64 = N001
PCE/TG16 = P001
PCECD/TDUO = Q001
Genesis/Mega Drive = M001
Master System = L001
NEO = E001
SNES = J001
Nintendo = F001

So without further complicating things, simply load a problem channel wad in CustomizeMii, click the Options tab and change the Title ID to something like (as above) F001, then test.

I have not tried PS1 or GBA channels through emunand but using this method should theoretically work. Since there were never any VC games for either system, try using any of the above system consoles ID strings to see if they work.

Here is an example of my custom channel ID's for various VC systems...

TG16
Keith Courage = P001
Legendary Axe = P002
Legendary Axe 2 = P003

TurboDuo
Bonk III = Q002
R-Type = Q014

NES
1943 = F001
Bad News Baseball = F006
Mike Tyson Punch-Out = F051

Genesis
Adv. Of Batman & Robin = M001
Crusader Of Centy = M021
Thunder Force IV = M112

I hope this all makes sense and can be helpful for your project.

 

[grandosegood]

I have run into this issue myself using custom channels through emunand using both WFL and USB GX. Using this method, i have always used full/stationary channels and don't believe i have tried this with forwarder channels though.

Changing the Title ID using CustomizeMii seems to fix this for me. I also use FreeTheWadsGUI for custom game channels i made/make.

Here is a list of Title ID's for all the VC platforms. As a rule the 4th ID slot is usually (but not always) the region code where (1) in the list below would be E00E for North America, E00P for Europe PAL, E00J for Japan. This letter should not matter if you have your region settings set to default or system through GX and/or WFL.

Arcade = E001
C64 = C001
MSX = X001
N64 = N001
PCE/TG16 = P001
PCECD/TDUO = Q001
Genesis/Mega Drive = M001
Master System = L001
NEO = E001
SNES = J001
Nintendo = F001

So without further complicating things, simply load a problem channel wad in CustomizeMii, click the Options tab and change the Title ID to something like (as above) F001, then test.

I have not tried PS1 or GBA channels through emunand but using this method should theoretically work. Since there were never any VC games for either system, try using any of the above system consoles ID strings to see if they work.

Here is an example of my custom channel ID's for various VC systems...

TG16
Keith Courage = P001
Legendary Axe = P002
Legendary Axe 2 = P003

TurboDuo
Bonk III = Q002
R-Type = Q014

NES
1943 = F001
Bad News Baseball = F006
Mike Tyson Punch-Out = F051

Genesis
Adv. Of Batman & Robin = M001
Crusader Of Centy = M021
Thunder Force IV = M112

I hope this all makes sense and can be helpful for your project.

thanks again for your detailed reply, the issue is possibly because i'm using HE as the first too letters (to indicate wii app and usa region), followed by two letters to represent the game (eg, HEYC for yugioh sacred cards fowarder for gba). could this be causing the issue?

 

[RunningSnakes]

Very possible. Try changing the 1st letter to X or C, not many VC games released for either C64 or MSX so the chance of duplicating an official channel is less likely. Also, in my experience, using L as the 1st letter works for me. @grandosegood

 

[rexus_pl]

Hi @RunningSnakes - finally I've decided to experiment with CustomizeMii and ModMii by myself to get what I requested. Well, if animation stays untouched, it is pretty easy and here is the effect.

Basically it is the same forwarder (v14), but shows console instead of mascots, and leads to path hidden from Homebrew Channel (who needs to see emulator in Homebrew Channel when forwarder is installed?). I've also added standard paths, including (SD and USB):
:/wiisxrx/boot.dol (WiiSXRX and Wiistation, if you put boot.dol here)
:/wiisx/boot.dol
:/apps/wiistation/boot.dol
:/apps/wiisxrx/boot.dol
:/apps/wiisx/boot.dol
:/apps/ra-pcsx/boot.dol (am I correct with this path?)

Console image taken from Home Computer Museum.

I hope someone will like this little mod.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@rexus_pl

I had a chance to install your channel, nice work. I like the console much better than the animation.

I would like to add your image mod to download if you are OK with this?

So many stories of yesteryear! Never owned a PS1 in the 90's, i had the N64 and loved my limited game collection.

Super Smash Bros
Wave Race
Super Mario 64
DK 64
Jet Force Gemini
Zelda Ocarina
Zelda Majora
Mario Golf
Mario Kart 64
Mickey's Speedway
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Banjo Kazooie
Banjo Tooie
Harvest Moon
Body Harvest

These games i paid for when i was broke in 1996-1999 and a few others i cannot recall. I always found a way to save money to buy & play N64 games and eat chicken and burger.

Now, having access to so many great PS1 games through emulation (i own 2 original PS1 consoles) it is hard to believe gaming will ever be on par with the imagination developers of the NES - N64 era had.

This is not to say the Sega DC, GameCube, XBox, PS2 were not great, they simply cannot compete against adventure discovery gaming and genuine platforming at it's finest.

 

[danieladams]

Exciting new Forwarder channels for Wii & vWii!

 

[rexus_pl]

I had a chance to install your channel, nice work. I like the console much better than the animation.

I would like to add your image mod to download if you are OK with this?

Of course I'm OK with this - that's the reason why I've shared my work.

I'm planning to mod another forwarders - main reason is hiding some apps away from Homebrew Channel, but if it is so easy to replace mascots with cosnole image - why don't do it?

I have a question, as I'm completely unfamiliar with WAD's animations. Would it be very hard to make console / mascots image change to some other in a loop? Some emulator support many platforms (eg. Genesis Plus GX - five devices, VBA GX - three devices) and I would like to show one device for eg. 5 second, and then fade to next device.