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Topic: GBA hacking question (Read 1 times)
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evillawngnome
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« on: May 08, 2008, 02:03:22 pm » |
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Alright, i've never found a definitive answer to this question on the net. The release of the much anticipated mother3 translation is upon us. A select few of us purchased the original from a Japanese importer. Traditionally, i know that patches are applied to a dumped ROM and played in an emulator or on a flash card. Is it AT ALL, even REMOTELY possible to patch the original cart? Is there additional hardware that can be purchased to do this, if it is not possible with the usual flash-card drives?
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9volt Kappa
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« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2008, 02:15:29 pm » |
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I dont think you can patch a cart(cant wait for mother 3)
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UglyJoe
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« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2008, 02:23:00 pm » |
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The ROM chips on the GBA cart aren't re-writable. I suppose you could buy some compatible EPROMs, program them with the patched game, desolder the old chip from the cart, and then solder in the new ones. That's how NES reproductions are made, anyway.
A cheaper and easier solution would be to buy a GBA flashcart and attempt to swap its casing with the Mother 3 casing.
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evillawngnome
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« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2008, 02:37:51 pm » |
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Oooooh, good idea! I may look into that.
I wonder where i would find compatable EEPROMs for the GBA carts though ...
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Spikeman
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« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2008, 02:24:50 am » |
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The ROM chips on the GBA cart aren't re-writable. I suppose you could buy some compatible EPROMs, program them with the patched game, desolder the old chip from the cart, and then solder in the new ones. That's how NES reproductions are made, anyway.
You think this would be possible with a Boktai game? |
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Karatorian
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« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2008, 02:56:20 am » |
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While I'm no expert on the subject, I've heard that the interface exposed by GBA ROM chips is rather unusual and that (unlike, say, an NES cart) you can't just replace them with a standard EEPROM. Of course, I don't know if that's true, but it wouldn't surprize me one bit.
If that's not just a dirty lie, the best you can probably do is to use a "standard" flash cart. (Perhaps in a Mother 3 case, as mentioned above.)
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Tomato
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« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2008, 02:55:56 pm » |
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I kind of hope that's true, I don't look forward to people trying to sell the translation.
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Tomato
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« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2008, 08:15:57 pm » |
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Yeah, no doubt Chinese pirate people will try to make money off the M3 translation, I don't think there's any real way to get around that, not even Nintendo's doing too well against them  I'm more concerned about random American guy trying to sell carts on eBay or places like those NES reproduction sites. Wish I could implement stuff like this, but people are gonna play it on copiers, so bleh. Oh well, can't have it all. |
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Kitsune Sniper
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« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2008, 08:38:00 pm » |
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You know, if someone were to hack the code in a way that it displays "IF YOU PAID FOR THIS YOU GOT RIPPED OFF, YOU MORON" every so often...
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Darkdata
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« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2008, 11:01:32 pm » |
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"IF YOU PAID FOR THIS YOU GOT RIPPED OFF, YOU MORON"
... If your playing this hack on a emulator, you must hate this message by now. |
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Karatorian
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« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2008, 03:05:08 am » |
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Well there's tons of counterfeit GBA games on ebay, so it could happen. They usually come from sellers from China. Well, there a big difference between J. Random Hardware Hacker, and organized Chinese pirate rings. As someone in favor of open standards, the non-standard nature of GBA ROM chips kinda bugs me. If there's some (unbeknownst to me) technical reason for it, fine. But if it's intended simply as copy protection, it's a waste of everyone involved's time and effort. 'Cause, as ROM hackers already know, copy protection, by definition, is impossible. All it does is hinder legitimage consumers and grey area hobbists. To the professional pirate and counterfitting rings run by organized crime syndicates, it's mearly a bump in the road, if that. The Chinese (and other) groups have their own presses to make CDs and DVDs. They have the silicon fabrication technology to clone entire consoles. They produce fake everything, from fashions to medications. I doubt there's anything that could really stop them, least of all a slightly non-standard ROM chip. Furthermore, if I came across a hack with the abnoxious "If you paid ... blah blah blah" message that I cared about, the first thing I would do is bust out my handy hexeditor and relative search tools and remove it. The second thing would be (as I'm an open source, share and share alike, hack and enjoy, kinda guy) to submit the changes to the RHDN database. |
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« Last Edit: May 16, 2008, 03:10:09 am by Karatorian »
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KaioShin
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« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2008, 02:52:54 pm » |
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Furthermore, if I came across a hack with the abnoxious "If you paid ... blah blah blah" message that I cared about, the first thing I would do is bust out my handy hexeditor and relative search tools and remove it. The second thing would be (as I'm an open source, share and share alike, hack and enjoy, kinda guy) to submit the changes to the RHDN database.
Damn flower people. |
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Ryusui
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« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2008, 03:11:59 pm » |
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"IF YOU PAID FOR THIS YOU GOT RIPPED OFF, YOU MORON"
... If your playing this hack on a emulator, you must hate this message by now. d4s actually made it so that the equivalent message in the BoF2 translation will only display if the game is running on actual hardware. It might be possible to do something similar for a GBA title... |
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Kitsune Sniper
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« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2008, 04:59:02 pm » |
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Furthermore, if I came across a hack with the abnoxious "If you paid ... blah blah blah" message that I cared about, the first thing I would do is bust out my handy hexeditor and relative search tools and remove it. The second thing would be (as I'm an open source, share and share alike, hack and enjoy, kinda guy) to submit the changes to the RHDN database.
So what you're saying is that you're okay with people selling these translations? |
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