Hacking titles.txt for USB Loaders

[zorglub07]

I thought it was better to announce this in the appropriate thread ("USB Loader... my turn") because this is one of the two USB loaders that support this file with "Configurable USB Loader"
but I'm afraid a lot of people that would be interested didn't see it.
I sent a PM to WiiShizzza, someone even asked hungyip84 if he would consider adding it to the package, but things are moving so fast that it probably got "lost in the background noise".

FAQ:

Q: What exactly is titles.txt?
A: titles.txt is like a database of proper names for games (Wii Sports instead of "SPORTS PACK for REVOLUTION", "Mario Kart Wii" instead of "MarioKartWii")
This feature was first implemented by oggzee in his Configurable USB Loader

Q: How do I use it?
A: place it in SD:/apps/usbloader/, or in the same folder than your USB Loader boot.dol on your SD card
Your games should now have proper titles in the USB Loader list (look at Wii Sports or Mario Kart)
If you want to add a game or change a title, simply edit titles.txt with a text editor and use this format:
"(the 4 first letters of the GAME ID as shown by WBFS tools or other Wii tools) = Title"
RSPP = Wii Sports

Q: But we can already do that with WBFS utilities?
A: This is an optional file, anybody is free to keep renaming using WBFS.
It allows for longer names then 37 characters (if it is safe to rename to any length, please reply to correct this), and maybe even allow to use accents if it gets supported.
Should WBFS be replaced by another format, you won't need to rename again.
This sums up different points of view:

ok, so the titles is more useless than useful in my opinion ...
Renaming for good in a WBFS utility eliminates the need to manage a .txt file with hundres of entries.

Correct... on the harddrive you fix it.
With having the titles.txt, you can take your SD-card to ANY WBFS hardrive in the entire world and the games would be named correctly even if they have not fixed it permanently directly on their WBFS drive.
Useless or not... It's in the eyes of the beholder.

Q: What are other advantages?
A: The renaming doesn't need to be done on every new drive by every new user: new users can just get a titles.txt and do not need to do the renaming
You won't need to rename again if you ever format your drive.

Q: What's next?
A: Ideally, this would be better as a Wiki that anybody can contribute to, or a download from a site where people could add and to and submit corrections.
It could evolve into a general database with checksum, regional titles for PAL, number of players, keys, needed accessories, age rating...
(but no personal settings, settings should be in another database with game ID/parental lock/star rating...)


titles and game ID were taken from http://www.theotherzone.com (I don't know the original source for the data)
I removed duplicate game IDs, fixed capitalization, fixed some typos and some titles, so that it's hopefully clean enough to provide a starting base.
all NTSC-J + NTSC-U + PAL games in a single list to be able to check for duplicates later.

Latest version, 1172 games 04/15/09

Here it is as a Wiki so that anybody can update/fix it, it is the latest version : http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/index.php/USB_Loader_titles.txt
(thanks to Logan for the magic tag!)

mirrors:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TR17UAVC
http://rapidshare.com/files/221404614/titles.txt.html
http://www.zshare.net/download/58656592c9b1668b/
http://www.badongo.com/file/14458162
http://depositfiles.com/files/4ehk9jorl

 

[clonesniper666]

Nevermind did not read it fully, sorry.

 

[zorglub07]

Put it in SD:/apps/usbloader/, or in the same folder than your USB Loader boot.dol on your SD card
Sorry that I forgot to add this to the FAQ, it's done now

 

[typo99]

Thanks. I am of the opinion that this is a good thing.

 

[blaydes99]

Thanks for doing this. I hate some of the default names in the loader, and this is just the kind of thing I didn't want to have to do by hand.

 

[kedest]

yeah, quite useful, thanks.
i was already using a slightly older version of your titles.txt

 

[rajnika]

Is renaming directly the game (i.e. : via WBFS Manager) bad ? Can it "break" a game or something ?

 

[nIxx]

NO it´s no problem

 

[adam_the_1st]

This is a great idea. I like that we can potential have one master file updated with proper names, and the picky can always edit from there. My personal favorite name was Boomblox, which comes up as something like "SPIELBREG | EA | Boomblox" , its so messed up.

This is also awesome because I'm on a mac, and the WFBS utility for Mac is more basic. THANKS!

 

[Deleted-155240]

I've been looking for this. Awesome! Thanks a lot

 

[MadBob]

Thanks, posted link in Configurable Loader thread.

 

[clonesniper666]

Can someone help me here. I have the titles.txt in the folder with my usb loader ( Newest ultimate from wiishizza and crew), but it will not fix the name in the loader the 1.4 or 1.1 version. So can anyone help with my problem.

 

[zorglub07]

NO it´s no problem

Thanks for the clarification,
I thought when the first WBFS GUI were released there was talk about how renaming to a long name could make other games stop to work, but I guess it was either false information or that it was fixed at some point. I edit the first post to remove it would be safer not to touch WBFS.

 

[zorglub07]

Can someone help me here. I have the titles.txt in the folder with my usb loader ( Newest ultimate from wiishizza and crew), but it will not fix the name in the loader the 1.4 or 1.1 version. So can anyone help with my problem.

Try putting the loader and titles.txt in the default folder SD:/apps/usbloader/
But more likely, check if the ID of your game is the same than in the list using a WBFS tool, if it's not you can add the line to your titles.txt and edit the Wiki

 

[BIG MOE]

good work buddy , you've earned the Ultimate USB Loader Bible thread space

, thanks for good work

 

[thc42O]

why . i mean all my usbloaders already show the actual game name and Not the game id in the launch list. title.txt is useless if u stick to waninkoko released stuff

 

[zorglub07]

Yes, it shows the actual game name that is included in the ISO (and other mods work the same)
Actually, if you stick to Waninkoko released stuff and if you like a clean looking list you will have to rename using WBFS every time you add a new game that is all caps or worse, while if you have a moderately up to date titles.txt you won't have to.

for example:

Trivial Pursuit may show up as "Release Triv Wii Beta WII" (I'm not even making this up)
Wii Sports = SPORTS PACK for REVOLUTION
Boom Blox = Spielberg | EA BoomBlox
WWTBAM 2008 = Who Wants To Be a Millionaire (non English people may have a hard time guessing this one)

But your comment made me realize that if you don't have many games you may not notice, but as soon as you start having a large collection, things start to get ugly, and by ugly I mean all caps/no spaces/beta name/ kind of ugly.
Many people won't be bothered about this, and that's fine, but for the kind of geek that always keep his computer well organized (but his place is a total mess of course), or that likes to set up something neat for someone he cares about, or for people that just don't want to edit WBFS every time they add a game if they just like to see a clean list, yes it's useful.

 

[oggzee]

Hey, good stuff!
I'm glad to see this actually taking off!

 

[yadster]

Does this work with all versions or just 1.4?

 

[Vitet]

Where do I put this if I have Channel Versino of the USB Loader?