Hacking Taiko Drum Master

[Gwozdz]

In celebration to the new game release on November 18th. I have decided to look into game alterations. I will need some information as fallows:

1) To know if it is possible (I know someone has changed the skins of all of the characters in SSBB, This would be no greater then that)

2) Wii game code basics (starting code, breaks, game code, dialog segment, file types, etc)

3) Good Hex editor (I'm using WinHex but if something is better I would like to know)

4) Where to start (What code should I be looking at?)

5) If someone has tried to do the some (odds are someone in Japan has tried but I haven't herd about it)

The plan is to add songs into the games play list; by inserting the songs into the image of the game at first. Then by songs placed onto the SD card if possible. Taiko Drum Master is a very popular game in Japan with plans on expanding into North America in future years. With many games (Many Arcade, one PS2, two DS and soon to be two Wii) the Bandai Namco franchise is quite Japanese oriented. Lists of songs include; J-pop, anime, Classical, Game, Namco Classics, and more. As for my coding experience, I have made little alterations to DS games, text mostly. I have programed in C+, C#, and Java for a few years but nothing special. To be honest, this level is completely out of my reach but I would like to invest some time into the project.

 

[Deleted-171178]

Since it hasn't been released I doubt many people can answer these questions.

 

[giantpune]

it will probably be similar to adding songs to the guitar hero /rockband /sing it games. but the compression and song format will most likely be different and require tools made for that game.

 

[Gwozdz]

I am trying to change the first game not the new one...

I think I have located the songs within the game. They are of ".nub" file type, with ".bin" as the file storing the notes for there are four files of the same name ending with a different letter to represent the four difficulties.

I know what a .bin file is; that i can manually alter.

But what is an .nub file? Is there a converter I can alter songs of say .mp3 to .nub?

If so I will try to replace one file with an file of equal size into the game, but first I will alter one of the .bin file to see if I can change the notes.

 

[Gwozdz]

SUCCESS!

I altered the text (lyrics) in one the the songs, works without error!

I tampered with what I thought would be the file that stored the notes and the notes froze up on that difficulty so I would be correct. The code in this file is a little bit more complicated than i thought. who knew seven verities of notes could look so complicated. It must be more condensed, single hex unites symbolizing strings of notes etc. This will take some time to understand.

Changing the song lyrics gives me hope. I could now start possible on a complete game translation in the future.

 

[Deleted-171178]

If you did translate it, I would buy it.
Though the only song that I want is Cruel Angel Thesis

Does it support english, or only Kanji?

 

[Gwozdz]

The karaoke during the songs do, and a few of the song list titles do (so it is possible to translate all titles). It is just a matter of finding them withing the lengthy code.

 

[neo_hito]

did you find out anything about the .nub file? I have some sound from a wii game I'd like to extract... since they didn't release any soundtrack for it

 

[Playgame38]

I use UltraEdit32 and HxD.

 

[Gwozdz]

Ok some replies, but fist some good news. The second Taiko Drum Master Game has the same setup as the first. I will have to look at UltraEdit32 and HxD. This may take some time for I have a long list of games I need to play through.