Hacking Save Game Region Conversion

[ProdigySim]

Hopefully we can use this topic to discuss save game region conversion efforts. Below are just my initial attempts and findings.

Having played a couple of titles on their import JP versions before the US version was released, I've been looking for a way to convert save files from one region to another.
Thanks to Waninkoko's Save Game Extractor, we can now get Brawl and MK Wii save files.

So I began the task of trying to figure out how to convert these.

In Brawl, like many games, we have a couple of different files....
ADVSV0.BIN, ADVSV1.BIN, AUTOSV0.BIN, AUTOSV1.BIN, BANNER.BIN, NET0.BIN, NET1.BIN, FILELIST.DAT, WC24PUBK.MOD, and COLLECT.VFF

Our best option is to compare these files between US and JP saves.
So, I backed up my saves for both regions, deleted them, and restarted the game on each region, so it would generate the basic save "template" for each region.

Then, I extracted both of these to compare the results.
The two save files are available here for anyone wanting to do their own comparison:
http://prodigysim.net/brawlsaves.7z

And here is what I found.
First of all, most of the files are identical.
NET0.BIN, NET1.BIN, and WC24PUBK.MOD all contained no data (as in all null bytes)
ADVSV0 and ADVSV1 contained some sort of trash data, bit it was equivalent.

BANNER.BIN is obviously the save manager icon for the save file. In region conversion, it is obvious that this file should just be copied from another save from the correct region.

Upon comparison of the AUTOSV files, I discovered the the only differences were in the last few bytes of the file. I compared these footers to those in my personal RSBJ and RSBE save backups, and there were no correlations between region and footers. That is to say, the two RSBJ saves had different bytes at the end of this file.

That leaves only the COLLECT.VFF file.
I did a 3x2 comparison of...
US Template save vs JP Template Save
US Template save vs JP Real Save
US Template save vs US Real Save
to try to determine region-based differences between the files.

Unfortunately, there are a large number of differences between these two files.... a LARGE number. And it seems obvious that there are some format differences beyond headers, as I'm sure there may be a number of differences in trophies available between US and Japanese games...

However, I was able to single out the following pieces of data as definitely different between US and JP versions of the saves:

OffsetÂÂÂÂUS HEXÂÂÂÂJP HEX
0x1daÂÂÂÂUS: FF FFÂÂÂÂJP: DE 00
0x1e0ÂÂÂÂUS: E1 00ÂÂÂÂJP: FF FF
0x212ÂÂÂÂUS: FA 00 FF FFÂÂÂÂJP: FF FF 00 00
0xe1daÂÂÂÂUS: FF FFÂÂÂÂJP: DE 00
0xe1e0ÂÂÂÂUS: E1 00ÂÂÂÂJP: FF FF
0xe212ÂÂÂÂUS: FA 00 FF FFÂÂÂÂJP: FF FF 00 00

But that's about it.

So, in the end, I'm stumped on how to calculate a US save equivalent for a JP save for Brawl. Maybe someone else will have a bright idea and be able to decipher it.

I'm going to spend some time working on the Mario Kart Wii PAL and US saves now. Maybe I'll have more luck.

Also, if someone creates a "Template" save for PAL Brawl I'd be glad to give US/PAL conversion a go.

 

[harrybuttox]

Yea there has been several attempts on making a Save Game Region Converter.

First off one group claims to have finished it, yet want us to pay 5 euros, or 7 American Dollars, for the stupid software....I was looking forward to it also...Country Converter

According to wiisave.com there is a No More Heroes save that was converted from NTSC to PAL...No More Heroes 100% NTSC to PAL



I was really looking forward to the Country Converter too...im too lazy to unlock everyone in mario kart, yet I want to go online. Powersaves doesn't have a save that allows you to go online with your own unique friend code. The only save is a PAL version >.>

 

[Raganook]

Something I've noticed, that may or may not be helpful:

Games saved on an NTSC-J Wii won't transfer to a NTSC-U Wii with Waninkoko's tools.

Ex: You played Okami (U) on a NTSC-J Wii. You use SaveGame Extractor to extract the save, then use SaveGame Installer to put that same save on an NTSC-U Wii. You get an error (-1).

Unless of course when I saw this being done there was something else amok

 

[Pikachu025]

That leaves only the COLLECT.VFF file.
I did a 3x2 comparison of...
US Template save vs JP Template Save
US Template save vs JP Real Save
US Template save vs US Real Save
to try to determine region-based differences between the files.

Unfortunately, there are a large number of differences between these two files.... a LARGE number. And it seems obvious that there are some format differences beyond headers, as I'm sure there may be a number of differences in trophies available between US and Japanese games...

As far as I know, there are no differences in available Trophies, stickers or similiar between the US and JP Brawls. The only differences could come from Masterpieces and that list of all Nintendo games released.

Also, I believe that COLLECT.VFF does not store Trophy/Sticker/etc. data. I don't have proof, but I think that the only thing stored in that file is your personal Replay/Screenshot/CustomStage collection, and that the Trophy etc stuff is stored in the AUTOSV files. I could be totally wrong on this, though...

This could be checked by swapping the COLLECT.VFF file from one save of the same region to another one and see what happens.

Also, note that both AUTOSV, ADVSV and NET files seem to be exact the same thing, so it's possible that it uses a backup-system in case one gets corrupted ala Pokémon.

 

[OSW]

Don't like to bunp an old topic, however i have become interested in the savegames of brawl USA vs EUROPE.

Because I don't want to have duplicate savegames for my brawl USA dvd5 version and PAL legit copy (Thats 128 blocks!) I'm hoping to figure out a way to patch the USA game to use the same PAL savegame (assuming the format is the same... i'm hoping!!!).

If i get some time I'll extract the saves and see if theres much difference, and then search the iso to see if a modification would be easy.

I haven't heard of any other differences between the games apart from the languages.

 

[Saosin]

Yeah I'm also looking to convert my Brawl USA save to PAL. How can I do so?

 

[yatesl]

Has any progress been made on this yet? Namely, a Super Mario Galaxy 2 NTSC-U -> PAL save.


PS. Bumping old topics is fun.

 

[damysteryman]

Well, not really.
But I guess it could be sometimes.

Anyway, if you want, I can give the conversion a try.

Just pm me a link your NTSC save, and I will try to convert it for you.

 

[marc_max]

Has any progress been made on this yet? Namely, a Super Mario Galaxy 2 NTSC-U -> PAL save.


PS. Bumping old topics is fun.

You can extract a NTSC savegame with Savegame Manager, then rename the directory and change the latest letter 'E' to 'P' (in hex). Reinstall it and it MAYBE will work with your PAL game.

I can assure that this method works at least with No More Heroes and Super Mario Galaxy 2, the only two games I changed region in the past

I'm sure this also work with almost all games with no online options.

 

[yatesl]

Fantastic, cheers mate. I had both the NTSC and PAL saves on my Wii, so it was a simple case of renaming the two folders.

 

[W hat]

All you need to do is SGM GX extract both a USA and PAL save - then copy over the needed files to the PAL folder and re-install.