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[ratx]

Hello

I've written a new homebrew "patcher"

http://l33t.spod.org/ratx/DS/SC/scmhbp/

Basically just slightly more "intelligent" or  "magic" than Sata's - scans the file  ( beit ds.gba / .nds / whatever )  to determine exactly what needs to be done and then does it for you... ( prepend ndsloader / copy / rename etc )

I can never remember if the random .nds files on my harddrive already have ndsloader or have been renamed or what so usually if I want to fire something up its a case of random trial and error / prepending ndsloader.bin / redownloading / swearing until it works. In theory I should now just be able to drop them onto "scmhbp.exe"

It will also detect and remove multiple copies of ndsloader.bin and supports the new "fixed" nds files recent builds of DevkitPro produce.

Anyway I know this won't be useful for most people, but if you're insanely lazy like me or just new to the whole scene I hope it might make things easier for you.


If you find something it doesn't work with please let me know, or if you want the source or whatever.


Cheers

[Devil_Spawn]

sounds useful

[m2pt5]

I have a suggestion - instead of just tacking the .sc.nds onto the end, you may want to have it drop the existing extension (including the .ds from .ds.gba) and then append .sc.nds to the trimmed name. Also, maybe it should just display the filename when reporting the status of various checks.

[ratx]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm ( lazily/slothlike obviously ) working on those two.

[bitblt]

Nice work ratx.  I'm lazy too.  I agree with m2pt5 the following names work well to avoid confusion with homebrew . . .

name.nds = original NDS program
name.ds.gba = patched for use with general flash cards
name.sc.nds = patched for use with Supercard


(Emtu: Can I use some of your artwork to make some simple mini games?  Like "whack-a-n00b", "dodge-the-jackass", "catch-a-lamer", "squirrel-nut-cracker" and "skull bone-home run"  :lol: )

[eko]

will this work for GBA homebrew... :S

[ratx]

hi

No this is for NDS only. You patch GBA homebrew with the supercard patching software.

Cheers

[JLsoft]

My kingdom for a way to force Real Time Save patching of GBA homebrew that doesn't have a saving method the SC patcher can detect :/

[ratx]

Ok finished a verison with better filename handling ( output files are now just filename.sc.nds ) and it doesn't spam you with the full paths.

http://l33t.spod.org/ratx/DS/SC/scmhbp/

JLsoft, I don't really use my supercard for GBA homebrew - do you have an example of something thats currently "unsavable" ?

Cheers

[JLsoft]

The first examples that come to mind are the emulators Cologne, MSXAdvance, SMSAdvance, and PCEAdvance. (None of the in-game SC button combos do anything)

It wouldn't bug me that much, except PocketNES, GoomBA, and GoomBA Color usually patch totally fine.  (Real Time Save works, in-game Reset works, and Save to CF works)


(I thought the reason that the SC patcher would patch the last 3 emulators I mentioned allocate a certain amount of space for emulated SRAM saves (something they all have in common, and the non-patchable emulators do -not- have), but then I noticed that the emulator settings in the NON-patchable emulators can be saved if you do QPC-saving, so they're using SRAM also :/)



The only info out there I've seen relating to how the SC software patches games is in the current CVS source for ucon64, but there's no Win32 binary available for that version, so I haven't played around with it to experiment :/


(Not meaning to hijack your thread btw )

[m2pt5]

Ok finished a verison with better filename handling ( output files are now just filename.sc.nds ) and it doesn't spam you with the full paths.

http://l33t.spod.org/ratx/DS/SC/scmhbp/

Actually, output files are now filename=.sc.nds.  :wink:

Edit: Well, that happened for "mic_demo.nds"... it became "mic_demo=.sc.nds", but "stupidgolf.nds" became "stupidgolf.sc.nds".

Also, I have a homebrew Tetris game that it refused to patch because it thought it was a commercial ROM.

Edit2: Whether it adds the = or not is quite inconsistent. It didn't add it to ndsmemopad.nds or Iro.nds, but it did to GestureDS.nds.

Edit3:  :cry:  :cry:  :cry:  DSSpeech.nds became DSSpeech$=.sc.nds.

[ratx]

oops. Ok I'll look into those bugs.

edit: I tried dsspeech from http://headkaze.webpal.info/ and managed to replicate the problem.

edit2: I think its now fixed in the newly uploaded version on the site.. still interested in the Tetris game though.. which version is it?

edit3: thanks for the files, all of the reported problems are now fixed in the version on the site

PS Thanks for reporting these problems.

[Hi]

Do you think you could make this patcher add libcartreset (http://licklick.wordpress.com/libcartreset-07/) to the rom so that we could return to the main menu? If you did that would be great!