Hacking Zelda Phantom Hour Glass save conversion ds-x to Cyclo

UofG2000

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Hi,

So I have a very unique problem, which I doubt others have experienced, but will throw it out here for some suggestions.

I have had a DS-x 4 Gb since it was released.
I got a Cyclo DS for Christmas using Kingston 2Gb MicroSD class 4 temporarily formatted with fat32 and latest firmware 1.51.

Happily converted 25 save games so far from DS-X to CycloDS using ShunyWeb without incident except for one.

1456_Zelda_Phantom_Hourglass_USA_NDS-CNBS, even though I have converted the save, each time I load it on the Cyclo it creates a new save file/overwrites the original, as though I am playing the game for the first time. The file name is the same as the .nds file name and continues to work on Ds-X.

The game was originally trimmed using NDS Tokyo Trim and patched using the arm7 file from the Japanese release of sim city to make it work on the DS-x.

Now even if I use the original file 1456_Zelda_Phantom_Hourglass_USA_NDS-CNBS, trimmed or not, or use the patched version I created for my DS-X, it always creates a new save file on the Cyclo DS.

Since I have no issues with other saves, even trimmed ones or patched ones (Castlevania: OoE) all work fine, I don't suspect the card, formatting or firmware. Perhaps this is an issue unique to is game. I can continue to play the game on my DS-X.

Thanks for any thoughts on this issue.
 

kazumi213

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Upload somewhere your original (before any conversion) DS-X Zelda save and I will look at it. If the firmware on your DS-X was anything below 1.1.2, then you are probably out of luck.
 

UofG2000

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Hi,

Thanks, Ds-x is currently at 1.13 firmware, although I will say I sat on 1.12 for a long time, a few months after 1.13 came out. Zelda was likely added during my 1.12 firmware time.

I PM'd you my zelda link on rapidshare.

I am assuming there are no other useful save conversion tools. DS Save Tool 1.12 looks like it doesn't cater to the DS-X.

Thanks,
 

kazumi213

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Your original DS-X save is corrupted. It is only 211 kbytes in size after manually uncompressing it. It should be 512 kbytes under firmware 1.1.2+. It also contains traces of DS-X firmware instructions.

If you still can play Zelda on DS-X, it is due to functional Zelda save data being present on EEPROM. I'm pretty sure the game is not reading your save file at all when resuming your game. So if you overwrite EEPROM contents somehow (by playing other game with a save type and size similar to Zelda one), you will find that when returning to play Zelda, your current DS-X save file is useless.

I suggest the following procedure to try to get a working save file from your currently working EEPROM data contents:

1. Make sure that you have a backup copy of your current DS-X save file for Zelda.
2. Load Zelda as usual and continue your game.
3. Save your game a couple consecutive times.
4. Turn off your DS.
5. Now BEFORE turning your DS on again, DELETE the zelda save file from your DS-X.
6. Turn on your DS and wait for the EEPROM message to appear. A new Zelda save file will be created, hopefully containing fresh and working save data.
7. When at the DS-X OS menu, turn off your DS and send me the new save file.
 

UofG2000

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Hi,

I will PM the link for the newly created save file.

You are correct, after waiting for the EEProm message to appear a new zelda save file was created on the device, even though I had removed it from the device, prior to saving several times.. I turned off the device when it reached the Ds-x os menu.

Thanks,
 

kazumi213

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The new DS-X save was corrupted too, so a bit of "magic" has been required to recover it. Check your PMs.

This is not the first and sadly it won't be the last example of save files being corrupted by the shitty DS-X EEPROM design and its stupid save compression feature.
 

UofG2000

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Hi,

Thanks, I sent you a PM. The short answer is it worked. It looks like the save you created for me is one save prior to my DS-x last save. On the DS-X I had written on my map on treasure island to show the path to take in the maze. In the converted CycloDS save, it shows the locations I marked, but not the path I had drawn, which obviously I am not concerned with.

Really glad to have this off my DS-X and onto something current. Here I thought my DS-X was serving me well, despite the minor patching and slow load times.
 

Evilmaster1985

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Try padding the file.....
I once dumped a savegame from a save made by a original Zelda game.
Converted it and it dint wanna run on my flashcart.
It did exactly as yours.... act if no savegame is present and asked me to make a new one.
(This ingame - it did not give any trouble booting up the game)

Now I took a hex editor and did pad the file to exactly 512 kb.
Now it worked!
smile.gif


So what to do?
Take a hex editor and fill the file up with 0`s till it fits exactly 512 kb.
(This AFTER converting)

(I know normally using the converter padding is not needed however it was in my case and could be in yours aswell!)

Greetz, Vistabuser.
 

kuzcous

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I have the exact same problem. I have converted many saves from DS-X to Cyclo and the only one that didn't work is Zelda.

So I guess my Zelda save is corrupted too. So what can i do ? What is the "little bit of magic" you were speaking about kazumi213 ?
 

kazumi213

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It's just a stupid way to say that extra work was required to recover the save.

Your save was quite easier to fix. It was missing the data in the second save slot so I've just duplicated the first slot into the second one. Then added the "ZPH save terminator". It is a fixed 32 bytes string followed by a 5600 FF-byte block.

You have a PM.
 

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