Hacking Reverse Engineering Kirby's Dream Collection VC

[CatmanFan]

I managed to extract the Virtual Console partition of Kirby's Dream Collection. It was simply just a folder named "vc" located in the ISO's file directory, and this is what I found:

Each game folder contains an emulator .dol and a ROM. While all of this may seem uninteresting, what I'm really concerned about is the Game Boy Virtual Console. The ROMs are in the same format as the Game Boy Virtual Console on 3DS, meaning that they can be renamed to .gb files and vice versa without issues. I got the Game Boy ROMs from this partition and renamed them to .gb extension, and they run perfectly fine on the Visual Boy Advance emulator. Color palettes even work, mind you. I did try to run the .dol files on Dolphin, but none of them worked. This special kind of Virtual Console does support 16:9, Wii Remote input with SNES/N64, and custom borders, so it's a win-win. And it's not just me, either. @SuperrSonic has managed to make the Game Boy games into injectable WADs using a more complicated form of reverse engineering. Watch it for yourself:

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I just need help on how to make the games into WADs. If you have any questions or solutions, answer them here.

 

[CeeDee]

This is an interesting idea. Especially because they take Wii Remote input, whereas VC doesn't.

 

[CatmanFan]

This is an interesting idea. Especially because they take Wii Remote input, whereas VC doesn't.

Thanks, but how do you think they're taking Wii Remote input?
EDIT: I get it now, you're talking about SNES/N64 Wii Remote input.

 

[eduall]

I was playing KIRBYDC days ago and I was curious to see the ISO files, I wondered if could revive the N64 by applying reverse engineering to those data ... so someone did it (The user in youtube than made VC wad), just try and dedicate yourself. I hope to someday play N64 without problems in my wii

 

[DarthDub]

Makes me wanna rip my own copy of that game and fiddle around with the filesystem.

 

[CatmanFan]

I was playing KIRBYDC days ago and I was curious to see the ISO files, I wondered if could revive the N64 by applying reverse engineering to those data ... so someone did it (The user in youtube than made VC wad), just try and dedicate yourself. I hope to someday play N64 without problems in my wii

Especially considering this "Kirby" N64 VC uses Wii Remote input, 16:9 format and custom borders, but I doubt it has better compatibility with injecting N64 games. "Kirby" Game Boy VC would fare off better though.

 

[eduall]

Especially considering this "Kirby" N64 VC uses Wii Remote input, 16:9 format and custom borders, but I doubt it has better compatibility with injecting N64 games. "Kirby" Game Boy VC would fare off better though.

OMG this works! i run the "ROM" of the N64 kirby from this game to another emulator and runs without problem, it means than can RUN N64 ROMS... im goin to make test of this!!

 

[CatmanFan]

OMG this works! i run the "ROM" of the N64 kirby from this game to another emulator and runs without problem, it means than can RUN N64 ROMS... im goin to make test of this!!

Oh, wow. I'm not surprised actually, as I did the same thing with the Game Boy Kirby games and they run flawlessly. Check the OP for more details.

 

[eduall]

OP

for me not work.
Rom was changed by 2 differents n64 roms (Same REGION ntsc) and after logo "N64" it turns black screen and wii freeze :S

i try with:
*Doom 64
*Mario party 3

 

[derplayer]

for me not work.
Rom was changed by 2 differents n64 roms (Same REGION ntsc) and after logo "N64" it turns black screen and wii freeze :S

i try with:
*Doom 64
*Mario party 3

Played a bit with it and got it to run n64 games.

The emulator needs roms with different endianness for injection. I wrote a small programm that changes those for every 2-byte pair.
Compatibility isn't great, but this standalone emulator version lets you play with the normal wiimote like said before so maybe its useful to someone out there.

Tested a few games on dolphin emulator because i'm lazy
Pilotwings 64 - works with small glitches
Super Mario 64 - works
Mario Party - glitches, crashes after a while
F-Zero - works
Doom 64 - crash/black screen
F-1 World Grand Prix - crash after title screen
Micro Machines 64 - works
Quake 64 - crash/black screen
Destruction Derby 64 - hangs before menu reached
Bomberman 64 - crash/black screen
Turok - crash/black screen

 

[CatmanFan]

Played a bit with it and got it to run n64 games.

The emulator needs roms with different endianness for injection. I wrote a small programm that changes those for every 2-byte pair.
Compatibility isn't great, but this standalone emulator version lets you play with the normal wiimote like said before so maybe its useful to someone out there.

Tested a few games on dolphin emulator because i'm lazy
Pilotwings 64 - works with small glitches
Super Mario 64 - works
Mario Party - glitches, crashes after a while
F-Zero - works
Doom 64 - crash/black screen
F-1 World Grand Prix - crash after title screen
Micro Machines 64 - works
Quake 64 - crash/black screen
Destruction Derby 64 - hangs before menu reached
Bomberman 64 - crash/black screen
Turok - crash/black screen

How did you do this? And also can you send me the program you made in a PM please?

 

[derplayer]

How did you do this? And also can you send me the program you made in a PM please?

Just replaced the "rom" file from "\files\vc\64_k64\" with the fixed file from my tool. The programm is uploaded as an attachment, maybe someone else will try it out.
I've also replaced the main.dol from Kirby with the n64 emulator ".dol" so that it boots directly to the emulator and skips all menus.

 

[eduall]

Played a bit with it and got it to run n64 games.

The emulator needs roms with different endianness for injection. I wrote a small programm that changes those for every 2-byte pair.
Compatibility isn't great, but this standalone emulator version lets you play with the normal wiimote like said before so maybe its useful to someone out there.

Tested a few games on dolphin emulator because i'm lazy
Pilotwings 64 - works with small glitches
Super Mario 64 - works
Mario Party - glitches, crashes after a while
F-Zero - works
Doom 64 - crash/black screen
F-1 World Grand Prix - crash after title screen
Micro Machines 64 - works
Quake 64 - crash/black screen
Destruction Derby 64 - hangs before menu reached
Bomberman 64 - crash/black screen
Turok - crash/black screen

someone please make a compatibility list for this!

 

[dAVID_]

How did you do this? And also can you send me the program you made in a PM please?

This could be the future of N64 on the Wii!

 

[CatmanFan]

I was able to inject Pokémon: Red Version into the Kirby's Dream Land GB emulator. I think there were a few graphical glitches, but it plays perfectly.
I also injected Tom and Jerry: Fists of Furry into the Kirby 64 emulator using the N64 Wii Romfixer @maciek12305 provided me. Crashed at character select screen.

 

[eduall]

i've created a post with a compatibility list

 

[SaulFabre]

Great job @CatmanFan and @SuperrSonic
I'm trying the same thing for see if i have luck with Super Mario All-Stars (Wii version of SMAS from SNES for Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary), which also uses Wii Remote input on its SNES VC emulator (comparing to VC that just uses Classic Controller...)

A question: how I can make Game Boy Virtual Console WADs??

Best regards

saulfabreg (@SaulFabre)

 

[MikaDubbz]

I was able to inject Pokémon: Red Version into the Kirby's Dream Land GB emulator. I think there were a few graphical glitches, but it plays perfectly.
I also injected Tom and Jerry: Fists of Furry into the Kirby 64 emulator using the N64 Wii Romfixer @maciek12305 provided me. Crashed at character select screen.

I hate to bump an old thread, but I'm trying to replace the Kirby's Dreamland rom in the collection with the patched Kirby's Dremland DX rom from Romhacking.net, essentially just a full color version of the original Kirby's Dreamland. And the injecting of the rom actually works. But what I'm finding seems to lineup with what you were talking about here. The game is perfectly playable, but something is happening to the graphics to cause odd glitches. As you can see below:

What's great is that full color is working over a non-color game within the collection as is the inject rom itself. What's clear though beyond the graphical glitches is that the colors are not displaying quite properly as you can compare with what the image should look like below:

Both images are produced with the same rom, top injected into the Kirby's Dream Collection, bottom played directly on a Game Boy emulator. Is there some sort of trick to this to getting the injected game boy roms into Kirby's Dream collection into displaying properly? I'd love if this colorized version could be snuck into the Dream Collection to make it a more complete and special version than the official one that they actually gave us, but that will only hold true if I can get the graphics displaying properly.

 

[SaulFabre]

I hate to bump an old thread, but I'm trying to replace the Kirby's Dreamland rom in the collection with the patched Kirby's Dremland DX rom from Romhacking.net, essentially just a full color version of the original Kirby's Dreamland. And the injecting of the rom actually works. But what I'm finding seems to lineup with what you were talking about here. The game is perfectly playable, but something is happening to the graphics to cause odd glitches. As you can see below:

What's great is that full color is working over a non-color game within the collection as is the inject rom itself. What's clear though beyond the graphical glitches is that the colors are not displaying quite properly as you can compare with what the image should look like below:

Both images are produced with the same rom, top injected into the Kirby's Dream Collection, bottom played directly on a Game Boy emulator. Is there some sort of trick to this to getting the injected game boy roms into Kirby's Dream collection into displaying properly? I'd love if this colorized version could be snuck into the Dream Collection to make it a more complete and special version than the official one that they actually gave us, but that will only hold true if I can get the graphics displaying properly.

Have you tried checking and modifying the ini file with the settings for fix those issues?

You need to make some trial and error.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Have you tried checking and modifying the ini file with the settings for fix those issues?

You need to make some trial and error.

Yes, I've tried alterring pretty much any GameBoy setting within the config to no luck. It really seems like this shouldn't be a problem, but something is corrupting the graphics somewhere and I don't know where.