Yakumono

Oh. I forgot to update. But it has been dealt with.

Nope. It was bullshit and a total misinterpretation of the use of iNES headers (which, yes, is a format not made by Nintendo). Also the 2020 gigaleak largely proved that they didn't download ROMs to sell them back.

If there's one thing I can 100000000% say is that Nintendo is not a code stealer

they shouldn't do that because you can stop that at any moment's notice and it's legit useful

This is brand new info from a Chinese forum poster who didn’t have an insider track record, therefore the following is strictly for fun and giggles.

Best to read that first and this as well: "Hidden content is only available for registered users. Sharing it outside of Famiboards is subject to moderation."

I have unhidden my post just now. Have fun reading.

The main motivation for the HIDE tag in this case is to avoid Google to crawl through this data because we want stuff to be easier to search new info for.

Good on you for saying that we do still have some doubts about it, but I am cautiously optimistic on this one.

I have not said GameCube NSO controller out of nowhere on this though, the name of the PCBs I found very much could imply that, but for the time being, as of May 2024 (we can only see up to 2 months ago), it's in the prototyping stage, while having definitely GameCube parts showing up (this I can 100% be certain about, the question is whether they are related to the PCBs I found). All of this showed up for May 2024 and not anywhere before so we're still way's off for now. I am waiting for next month so we can possibly have further ideas on what's going on.

I see the topic of the file size coming up for GC NSO, I just personally don't believe that to be a problem, people should stop thinking Nintendo is just fitting consoles into an app template, they showed to completely adapt to the systems, it should be obvious to anyone looking at how the apps work. Also, a lot of GC games, even if it's up to 1.5 GB (for a single disc game), most of the important games don't fill the disc, heck, Super Mario Sunshine is 300 MB, some are even lower than that, so I'm really not worried about the file size, and if it was an issue, they would just adapt their ways to release those as seperate downloads.

Finally someone with some sense about the file size.

That said I still think the file size even if the games were big it wouldn't be an issue, people should stop thinking that Nintendo is just fitting systems into some sort of app template when they actually do the opposite.

I think you had to send the disk and they would rewrite the data, at least i've never seen a package having two Randnet Disks of different versions each.

This might be the 3rd one with a blue dot that I've seen I think, it's probably rarer but honestly I don't know for certain.

The numbers probably mean the ID of the user as you do enter digits for that.

A Randnet Disk with a blue dot actually means it's the updated version of the disk because there was a bug with specific keyboard inputs.

Pretty darned sure Magolor was never ever implied to be dead in RTDL. He just... disappears. Was he dead, was he teleported somewhere else, or something, legitimately there was not a single thing implying anything about the future of Magolor in the original game. And that's most likely on purpose, considering how Kumazaki loves to be deliberately unclear and intentionally leaving holes in the stories of the games he directed.

I tried, it crashes the emulator, so it's not supported.

It's especially more complex to even find any blue disk that has actually something in it

Different developers are managing different emulators. Most people assume it's NERD, and while the majority of the emulators are by them, N64 is done by a different developer, and GBA at least partially is mainly done by a different dev as well.

I honestly prefer this system over Virtual Console which was always more expensive I want more games and not 5 games (at most) at the price of NSO + Expansion Pack.

I really stopped caring about ownership of retro games. The existence of ROM sites for decades completely destroyed this need to me.

I wish for you all for that old system to exist as an alternative, but otherwise, for myself, it is also handy to tell people who are subbed to play a game like Fire & Ice on NES and have it available without thinking.

No you can't by dumping RomFS, the hack is applied by the emulator at runtime.

You would have to find the already patched ROM from RAM or dump from Wii U VC version.

Random mention: If you deal with microstutters while playing 64DD, it might be the auto-save taking a bit too long to save the 64DD disk every time, disable that if you wanna deal with that.

Yes I'm the one who added 64DD emulation in Ares :)

I don't think this works for the Switch Online controllers, only the wired Mini consoles ones.

Do you have a more detailed outlook on the technical process behind this? Because I'm really interested to see if it's possible for more broadcasts, especially ones where we could really fully reproduce the original experience.

Here's my thoughts about a bunch of these things while adding some to the list:

NES:

- Family Computer Network System: Honestly the worst preserved device currently, it reads card sized MMC1 cartridges and contains hardware for phone access as well as a Kanji ROM for character graphics.

SNES:

- XBAND: NO$SNS can actually emulate it to an extent but cannot play online. Is it really necessary though?

N64:

- Game Boy Camera: It is supported in Project64 and mupen64plus. Though only mupen64plus actually goes that far of implementing webcam support for it.

- Mario no Photopi: It's not really emulated, but I actually implemented a script for Project64's Debugger where it actually emulates card access here (ONLY in interpreter mode!): https://github.com/LuigiBlood/EmuScripts/tree/master/N64/Project64_JSAPI2
I have to note however that the encryption system in place is not emulated and does not allow you to mess with Character Cards.

- Game Boy Printer: The same link also leads to emulating the Game Boy Printer access for Mario Artist Paint Studio and Communication Kit, which is an unused feature because the hardware for it was never released. It works fine in Recompiler mode.

- GB Tower: Considering this is actual emulation of Game Boy on N64, I assume it has to do with the lack of accuracy.

- Capture Cassette: The link has a script for it but it's not really in a working state because I simply do not understand the video output format.

- Modem Cassette: There's a script I made for it, all it needs is being able to manage the buffer for raw dialup and to constantly fire interrupts and it should be fine.

I have a request: Do you have photos of the ROM chips from your cartridge? Just to make sure to verify the dumps, I did compare the checksums from another photo but they are only identical with the title.bin and smw.bin.

Heck yeah, thank you very much about this.

I mean imagine for a second on the very idea that you're telling someone you don't know "please don't be an asshole"

Even I would feel wrong about it.

We don't necessarily need these kinds of comments as they're very usually not motivating, just saying by experience.

Since you are interested in backing this up, I have something to say:

Dumping N64 development cartridges is a pain in the ass that only few hardware supports, you could use a GameShark but our experience with it left us sour with tons of problems in the process.

N64 copiers are likely to work, but the best ways are using an UltraSave (with 64drive) or a RetroBlaster Programmer (with N64 PRO adapter), but the problem with these is just how they're just out of stock...

So it is quite annoying, I'll tell you that much. But get in touch with Forest of Illusion or Hard4Games and they should point you to the right direction, we'll surely figure it out.

Because no one is interested doing anything with it, that's all

You can add a RTC to the cartridge just like what the N64 version of Animal Crossing did :)

You can do all of that without a 64DD.

I'd just suggest to not really bother about it, it's the past, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that much lol

Mind you that I have lots of reasons to against Nintendo on many things, but I simply decided to not entirely pursue them on their use of community based efforts on retro systems. That said Nintendo is more lax than the press really makes it seem, even if they did some really pretty darn petty takedowns for no actual reasons at random times. That's the stuff I tend to get annoyed with, rather than the rest.

Okay so I need to talk about a few things:

- This is basically the last time I answer about it, I just don't have the energy. Be damned if my argumentation is terrible.

- There's a LOT of people who thinks the use of iNES header is proof of them using and selling downloaded ROMs. This post mostly is a response to them, and clearly not to people like you. To me the use of iNES header is simply not enough of an evidence of them selling downloaded ROMs because it is metadata information. (Again, for a lot of people; the act of selling downloaded ROMs is the main argument they use.)

The thing about this, is that WE know Nintendo has a big archive of NES ROMs, and NONE OF THEM have the iNES header, it's all seperated PRG and CHR ROM files, and there's a big spreadsheet that includes every NES game info including unreleased ones, with full mapper, size and checksum info and more. Nintendo has clearly done a lot of work themselves, and this alone is enough evidence to me that they totally can release titles without any need to download pirated ROMs online.

- When I talked about downloaded ROMs, in the main post, I specifically talked about downloaded SNES ROMs, it's not about the iNES header at this point. Seeing GoodSNES filenames inside a build found in the gigaleak particularly strikes me as evidence, but Nintendo still makes sure to use internally sourced ROMs at one point. This is a context thing, really. I'm personally convinced they did download pirated ROMs, but simply never used them outside of internal use.

- People are free to think there is foul play here. In fact, the entire post could make it seem like there's something wrong everywhere if the mere use of community made efforts is considered bad. I personally don't, but others have different sensibilities, the post isn't really made first hand to convince of one way or the other, but to provide proper information and a little argumenting here and there.

- I'd like to think the act of downloading ROMs counts as piracy no matter who does it and there's no way to change that. But I also kinda don't care about it that much.

So there's a bunch of legitimate critiques about the arguments I hold in the post:

Yes I pretty much ignored the subtext involving the iNES header use. I decided to not even care about the subtext anymore: So take the post at face value, draw your own conclusions on whether that's right or not, but I'm not going to change anything.

I partially wrote these posts in response to all of the bad information that accumulated by the press over time, and then partially because I actually just wanted to talk about this topic one last time before completely moving on. I've been talking about this stuff in many places, but simply never made a proper post of it.

Also, it really looks like the ones I'm trying to get to with proper information are simply not in this community, even.

But I can tell you that a lot of people outside this community rely on really misleading arguments and take things a lot more literally than they should imo

And when it comes to what I think of Nintendo using community made stuff: I don't really care, it would be problematic if they outright stole code or something like that, but they never really did that.

I guess I should have actually bothered to compare but I was just too lazy to download NES ROMs from all sides, even though I still point that the headers are there anyway but don't prove anything else...

Nintendo Life has also confirmed with its own sources that Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles are likely coming to the Switch Online service "really soon".

Now, Eurogamer has been able to separately corroborate these reports - and we have heard that other retro platforms are also on the cards.

If literally everything stems from a datamine then we haven't read the same thing.

Also Game Boy has a lot more games than the NES and SNES, there's a lot more Nintendo could rerelease and heck, I personally think they're not running out of games in general just because people doesn't like obscure games that didn't necessarily sell (just saying a lot of cult classics weren't sold either)

It changed the method that doesn't mean it's impossible to bypass through a seperate software that activates Project64 pretty much forever?

To be honest outside of Kamigami no Triforce (which is literally just japanese A Link To The Past as is with limited starts and how you lose the save after powering off, it should have worked actually), the ones that do use the radio audio actually cannot tell when there's audio, but the time is broadcasted... but we do actually emulate that in SNES9X, bsnes-plus and even on sd2snes/FX Pak Pro.

Personally I'd recommend bsnes-plus for playing Satellaview games in general, but it's odd that stuff don't work in SNES9X to be honest.

However a bunch of them aren't playable for many reasons, while soundlink is never really an issue (just no radio audio), a bunch of games rely on PSRAM to have a program and sometimes game data, unhacked BS Zelda (both AST and remake) makes use of that, BS Marvelous as well, which means at one point, at the end, it crashes and there's nothing you can do about it. Mighty Pockets is the one that hit the most because the 3rd one is unplayable.

Project64 3.0.0 Zip

It's both, you can have a version with installer and a version inside a ZIP archive file

There are still ways to bypass that :)

Project64 literally stopped putting that stuff for years so I don't understand the point of looking for an older version when all official versions don't have the shitty installer anymore

About 64DD support, the changelog doesn't really mention it but it had a lot of updates between 2.3.2 and 3.0, now it supports Japanese Retail, American Retail (yes it's possible to support that) and Development 64DD IPLs and Disks.

It also recognizes every disk format, it isn't really relevant for most people, but if Nintendo ever puts out 64DD games officially you should be able to play the extracted format provided you rename it to *.d64. (If somehow Nintendo puts out an unknown format I'll make it work.)

You can also select between Slow and Turbo modes, Turbo is the default where loading times are pretty much instant, while Slow mode is used to sorta have seek times (it is forced for Mario Artist Paint Studio prototype because of Gnat Attack that really needs this).

You can set up 64DD IPLs either by loading them in the configuration, or simply by launching them like N64 ROMs, it will save the path automatically, you will never have to load them again if you play 64DD titles.

There's no difference between them, it's just region locked. The translation + cartridge ports unlocks the region.

Hence slightly more annoying than WinRAR. By fact though it's not adware else most sharewares from the 90s and early 00s are adware just because there's a window with some time to wait.

The real 64DD doesn't need a cartridge. The problem is how mupen64plus is hardcoded for regular N64 ROMs. We've recently done a major update to the 64DD code a few months ago, it's almost up to par with Project64.

When I asked zilmar about it, he said he experimented a lot, and it actually works.

There is a Patreon, but I don't think it's getting a ton of funding. Believe it or not, this scheme actually works.

I don't like this stuff personally.

You don't know what adware is lol

This is only slightly more annoying than unregistered WinRAR.

Know if Nintendo is doing anything with Retro games and Switch Online soon?

The flashcart version was never intended to work on emulator. The reason it's supported is because back then, 64DD emulation didn't exist.

No, it doesn't. It's the same content, just that the 64DD version was made first, then ported to retail ROMs.

I love reading these, really cool stuff :)

Sure would like to see what's next.

I've looked into the Capture Cassette before: https://github.com/LuigiBlood/64dd/wiki/Capture-Cartridge

Main issue is that I don't understand the video part. I got the audio part figured out I believe but I could not test the actual cartridge because I need a way to plug both my 64drive and Capture Cassette at the same time to really figure it out.

I also took a little look at the Modem Cassette, but not a lot: https://luigiblood.tumblr.com/post/177445115493/64dd-log-modem-works

I got it kinda working on real hardware with a Raspberry Pi using a modified DreamPi setup. The cart also contains a ROM with 3 ELF files with symbols as they are dynamically linked at runtime.

You cannot run the original 64DD IPL ROM on any flashcart as is. The 64DD IPL4ROM do, however, but don't expect it to work properly without a development 64DD.

Recruit is involved but "Randnet DD" is actually a joint company between Nintendo and Recruit.

Randnet was not only a service but also a company which handled 64DD marketing and publishing. They published Doshin The Giant 1 and a few others.

Are you sure they're unused? Because many important games were dumped even though they don't appear in BS-X menu at all.

using mupen64plus-ui-console, yes, but it's not user friendly, and you cannot save

If there's any update to be done it would be bugfixes and possibly changes to make the mod better but no additional content is planned. This was done solely for the challenge of making a 64DD mod, and I think we did a great job so far.

Kirby Air Ride is currently in my mind.

More like fanwork, this isn't meant to be anything like Ura Zelda, which I will still insist that it is Master Quest, even more so as someone who got familiar with Zelda's 64DD integration.

No, not planning to add more content. As far as I'm concerned also it will be my only Zelda 64 hack, as my focus on this project was the 64DD support. I just want to show it is possible.

I will focus on modding more games, and possibly more.

I did clarify that in PLAYING.md as linked in the release description.

v2.0 does work, you missed that one

Version 1.7.8 Version 4. Come on, you're already known for being confusing but this takes the cake.

I highly suggest the title to be edited because this is actually the same behavior on real hardware.

Basically ROM hacking, then Reverse Enginnering without actually knowing what I was doing, then programming and eventually you do low level stuff so much you can kind of figure out ways to do this kind of stuff.

Funny that you mention ALPS, it's also behind the development of the 64DD hardware and disk format.

Use latest dev build instead 64DD emulation is improved a lot and use angrylion-rdp-plus for Polygon Studio else you just cannot model. Use GLideN64 (NOT Glide64! the spelling is important) for the other 64DD games.

Umm, when 64DD was implemented in Project64 by myself it was never removed. It was implemented in 2.3 and was updated a few months ago with more user friendly messages and full game browser support. If anything now's better than ever.

He's referring to m64p (the all-in-one setup). I'm not scared of mentioning that.

I have a problem with the word "code" because you could probably still say that word for a ROM. I have huge doubts that Nintendo has source codes of 3rd party SNES games. However they do still have the ROMs.

I don't plan to do more fixing for Canoe, unless it's like a game I wanna play on the system myself, which I do like using a lot (especially since I got the wireless SNES controller).

Nope, not really. Did this for fun, pretty much in response to the future prototype dump of this game (which will be VERY interesting to play).

Prototype is definitely different, in fact it has a little more of Kirby's Dream Course ideas in it. It's sort of a mix between the final Special Tee Shot and Kirby's Dream Course, and the strategy is a lot different as a result.

You can read about it here: http://snescentral.com/article.php?id=0037

I used the exact same version of Hakchi2, added the game and set the preset ID to 0x1058 using Ctrl + Alt + E.

It boots fine for me, recently finished the first 4 classes with no issues. That said if it works just fine with ID 0000 then don't bother. It's just to make sure, really.

I own a (slightly before) release day European SNES Mini.

I got excited for the future dump of the 1992 prototype of Special Tee Shot (which by the way, is quite different enough to be considered a different game compared to Satellaview release) and I was bored. That's all there is to it.

It gets really glitchy because of save data, during initial testing it went real bad. As soon as you repoint that properly all the graphical glitches are gone. I did a full Beginner class playthrough and had no issue whatsoever so I felt it was okay to release.

Okay sure. Same games and play time, however I just find it weird how she remade the same stage and didn't put the same effort. Maybe there's a check in place for removed stages and you can't reupload it without redoing it and didn't want to bother too much, which makes sense.

Also being banned is usually not permanent in these cases, I've heard of bans that went for a few hours and grows if you get banned repeatedly.

However: That just means she reuploaded the stage since. That doesn't disprove how the other was not removed, so your original claim is still as invalid in my opinion. It's still not the same stage, technically speaking.

Same user? But the stage is different (like, for real, not the same design), the stage ID isn't the same either.

Any user can be named Rose. The only way to make sure the user is the same is to check their friend codes.

All I'm saying is while you can doubt Rose's intentions, your arguments are not very good either. These are not evidences.

How about you actually check the screenshot of the stage between the tweet and your image and notice how different it actually is?

Because I do see very obvious changes.

I gotta mention that all that's possible is if you stay stuck to what Nintendo has intended (which is pretty clear from the code), my disk will definitely go further and be hacky.

I just made a comment on what you saw actually was. And I just want to correct about Super Mario 64: It's not an expansion, it's a port to showoff loading times. It has less features than the actual game and is a bit buggy. Otherwise it's the exact same game.

These are not maps.

64DD TEST n64dd_SetDiskVersion(1) & 64DD TEST2 n64dd_SetDiskVersion(0) are to enable Disk Mode and disable Disk Mode, respectively.

A Zelda Ocarina of Time Disk would only replace maps, text, and some small other things. And with the way the game is coded, I can tell you one thing with 100% certainty: The only major changes that can be possible is Dungeon replacements, just like Master Quest.

Of course to use it, you need a Zelda Disk that works, which is something I'm working on.

The opposite is also true: I used bouncy rubber as a floor to lava objects and they do bounce quite high. I've just posted a stage here that makes use of this for a very unpredictable stage :)

Not my fault if you're putting the word "malware" on a thing that does not damage your PC. I'm not going to add more since you clearly don't want to listen anyway.

Please read the actual definition of malware.

(Also making up your own definition just to use a word "right" is a very low thing.)

Probably? No idea.

As much as I don't like the idea of using VMProtect, that definition does NOT match a malware.

Virtualization and obfuscation has been a thing with many many software for protection (even more so with the latter), that's not just for malware material and in that case you should avoid many games and other kinds of software if you think that kind of stuff is malware to begin with.

So am I saying that I don't like your logic (and of many other people considering the upvotes)? Yeah. Absolutely.

VMProtect is used with the intent to protect code. What the code does in the end, that's where the malware could lie, and that's where I agree that you can be wary of.

I am assuming anti-viruses are taking a bit of a shortcut, because it is notoriously hard to reverse enginner and they don't want to take risks and that makes sense.

I'm pretty sure it is a port and not an N64 emulator made for it. However I believe they made a library to ease the porting aspects (but mind you it's not emulation) and it was also a thing for porting Dr. Mario 64 and Puzzle League in Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and Cubivore probably had the same thing (it was originally a 64DD game).

SMA4 VC ROM was clearly hacked to include the levels: The levels weren't part of the game, it was actually inside the cards and saved into the Flash memory inside the cartridge.

M2 who's managed GBA VC hacked the game to work with ROM data instead, they also put in the English version of all the levels including japan only ones.

I've mentioned that he was a contributor to iNES first and foremost. If that statement meant to people that he's the author of iNES then people really needs to read right. Also sound support is no small task.

Also there are interesting developments in that topic, which includes interesting FDS talks, such as Clu Clu Land D and dates.

I wish you could record the menu music in its entirety I want that bass.

EDIT: Also, please don't dump the demo. That might be a disaster.

I just think the plugins aren't the cause of many N64 emulation problems, as @ContributorX_PJ64 said. Things are just going slow overall, even if plugins like angrylion-rdp-plus and GLideN64 are being very useful. That said when I read it I just felt like I was reading a Dolphin apologist that wants the same for N64 emulation, though I'm not surprised at all.

But there are huge problems, like how a lot of people like me who's kind of involved in this don't have the skills to even help on deeper N64 emulation. That said, I do actually think Project64 only cares for its userbase, in detriment to emulation quality... and despite zilmar stating the contrary at times but I do genuinely think there's not much that's set in motion...

But I must correct a few things, the real nitpicks: I am not behind 64DD emulation as a whole. I have written a dumper, I believe I've done a lot for its preservation, until someone named Happy_ emulated the 64DD on MAME. All I did was improving the code and porting it to Project64. This code is also NOT accurate 64DD emulation by any means. Also Project64d is not a fork anymore. It merged with the real Project64 a while ago, so technically speaking, this debugger is now Project64's.

I thought online was already supported.

The problem is that currently, it does not really act as a server yet. Online is part of the plan though. I want to do that but I'm not too sure how to do it justice, if I want to make a now protocol or not, or something...

I made this :)

I tried to add really useful features and then just after I released it I already thought of how to improve it.

That said I found that emulators manages Satellaview downloads way too fast (my fault). To the point that BS-X's Download screen, normally it uploads the music to the audio chip... but it doesn't even have time to do so because all of the process was dedicated to downloading and since I constantly feed data it barely does anything else... and finishes download when the music isn't uploaded yet and that softlocks audio.

Nintendo Switch literally started its life with a Zelda game and that sold really well. I think you have the right users. This isn't mobile gaming.

That is another thing to talk about. I was just complaining about misinterpretations.

I'm pretty sure you'll still download ROMs instead since streaming is one of the thing that won't work well just because Internet providers are the worst things on Earth.

Only 20, despite how Nintendo insisted there are more incoming on their website. That second argument is the same for Netflix so it's something you should be expected but I highly doubt Nintendo would go that far, except maybe for 3rd party games.

MISLEADING AS HECK.

Switch Online gets NES games (and most likely more) for a Netflix style "Virtual Console". Without the name.