Hacking Circle Pad patches for Super Mario 64 DS and other games (in TwilightMenu with TWPatcher and RTCom)

[BigHead]

Can ye make a patch for ridge racer ds pleaaase? The touch screen has controls for analog movement if that helps. Thanks very much

 

[shoco]

Can ye make a patch for ridge racer ds pleaaase? The touch screen has controls for analog movement if that helps. Thanks very much

Done

 

[baby_gakuin]

If I use patch for example zelda If I wanna play Super Mario 64 I need delete patch and use diferent for specific game?

 

[BigHead]

Done

thanks a lot, the game plays so much better this way XD

 

[mario4everd]

I'm gonna sound like such an a hole for asking for another request, but is it possible to do analogue mods for 'Lost in Blue 2, Lost in Blue 3, Dragonball Origins, and Dragonball Origins 2'?

They all have full 360 degrees of movement with the touch screen like the zelda games with lost in blue 2/3 having 2 different speeds depending on how far you move. I would even donate if it's possible since this is kind of a big request for 4 games lol

 

[shoco]

If I use patch for example zelda If I wanna play Super Mario 64 I need delete patch and use diferent for specific game?

No, you don't have to delete anything. The CPad mods are applied automatically by TwilightMenu (or maybe nds-bootstrap or something else) when you start a certain game. You just have to make sure that the file "usrcheat.dat" contains a proper CPad mod (in the form of a cheat code) for your game (by editing the file with R4CCE or using already pre-populated cheat databases).
In case you meant TWPatcher, the answer is also no.

I'm gonna sound like such an a hole for asking for another request, but is it possible to do analogue mods for 'Lost in Blue 2, Lost in Blue 3, Dragonball Origins, and Dragonball Origins 2'?

Okay. I'll check them out when I have time. No need to donate or anything

 

[Vendicatorealato]

I've tried The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Europe), it freezes on Nintendo logo at boot. Can someone test it?

 

[Tramamp0line]

Can I make a request? I'm trying to make a patch for Geometry Wars: Galaxies to make the cstick work for ABXY (the game has aiming set to these) and I feel like I'm doing something wrong. The game crashes every time I try to boot it with the code I generated and plugged into R4CCE. Idk if it's the game or if I'm messing up something.

 

[shoco]

I'm gonna sound like such an a hole for asking for another request, but is it possible to do analogue mods for 'Lost in Blue 2, Lost in Blue 3, Dragonball Origins, and Dragonball Origins 2'?

They all have full 360 degrees of movement with the touch screen like the zelda games with lost in blue 2/3 having 2 different speeds depending on how far you move. I would even donate if it's possible since this is kind of a big request for 4 games lol

I've finished this one. In "Dragonball Origins 2" you need to set the input method either as "Button Only" or "Both". As for the Lost in Blue games, even though they do allow changing the speed between two states, I generally prefer to leave it as is (i.e. you can't control it with the CPad). Because probably there was a reason why the developers chose "Walking" as the default method, when using the DPad. Maybe it somehow affects the gameplay (like a main character can't run too long or something like this). But If you want it, I could probably make it (push the CPad a little => walking, too far => running)

I've tried The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Europe), it freezes on Nintendo logo at boot. Can someone test it?

It probably doesn't count but it works for me as usual (the game version is "AZEP-D505F823")

Can I make a request? I'm trying to make a patch for Geometry Wars: Galaxies to make the cstick work for ABXY (the game has aiming set to these) and I feel like I'm doing something wrong. The game crashes every time I try to boot it with the code I generated and plugged into R4CCE. Idk if it's the game or if I'm messing up something.

Works fine on my side. Make sure that your "nds-bootstrap" is updated and your console actually has the CStick, and check the Troubleshooting section in the first post here. But it woukd still only allow 8-direction aiming.
If you need it, I could probably make a mod with the CPad for full 360-degrees movement and the CStick for aiming (or vice versa). I considered this game before, but didn't think that the CStick would be pleasant enough to use in this game (it's pretty unresponsive for me)

 

[Tramamp0line]

Works fine on my side. Make sure that your "nds-bootstrap" is updated and your console actually has the CStick, and check the Troubleshooting section in the first post here. But it woukd still only allow 8-direction aiming.
If you need it, I could probably make a mod with the CPad for full 360-degrees movement and the CStick for aiming (or vice versa). I considered this game before, but didn't think that the CStick would be pleasant enough to use in this game (it's pretty unresponsive for me)

I got it to work! Thanks so much. And yeah I'm seeing that now with the Cstick aiming. If it's one of the four cardinal directions it takes half a second to aim in that direction, similiar to when you move your finger from A to Y or X to B as opposed to diagonally which is faster for some reason.

 

[Vendicatorealato]

It probably doesn't count but it works for me as usual (the game version is "AZEP-D505F823")

I re-dumped the ROM, the GameID is the same as yours.
The issue is non-sense on my side: I deleted my save file and \_nds\nds-bootstrap\patchOffsetCache\AZEP-842F.bin, and one time it booted correctly, but then I tried again and the freeze returned. So I erased again the .sav and the .bin, and... nothing changed. I have not been able to get it working again.
I am on TWiLightMenu v26.1.1 + nds-bootstrap v1.0.1, I used TWPatch build 2023/07/22 to generate TwlBg, and I have New 3DS.

 

[mario4everd]

I've finished this one. In "Dragonball Origins 2" you need to set the input method either as "Button Only" or "Both". As for the Lost in Blue games, even though they do allow changing the speed between two states, I generally prefer to leave it as is (i.e. you can't control it with the CPad). Because probably there was a reason why the developers chose "Walking" as the default method, when using the DPad. Maybe it somehow affects the gameplay (like a main character can't run too long or something like this). But If you want it, I could probably make it (push the CPad a little => walking, too far => running)


It probably doesn't count but it works for me as usual (the game version is "AZEP-D505F823")


Works fine on my side. Make sure that your "nds-bootstrap" is updated and your console actually has the CStick, and check the Troubleshooting section in the first post here. But it woukd still only allow 8-direction aiming.
If you need it, I could probably make a mod with the CPad for full 360-degrees movement and the CStick for aiming (or vice versa). I considered this game before, but didn't think that the CStick would be pleasant enough to use in this game (it's pretty unresponsive for me)

U made the right call, there is a stamina meter in the game that's pretty crucial so when to walk or run has to be taken into consideration when exploring the island. I think keeping it as a button well be more intuitive to the game design. also thanks for also including lost in blue 1 in there XD You're amazing

 

[shoco]

I got it to work! Thanks so much. And yeah I'm seeing that now with the Cstick aiming. If it's one of the four cardinal directions it takes half a second to aim in that direction, similiar to when you move your finger from A to Y or X to B as opposed to diagonally which is faster for some reason.

If you're still interested, I've added a proper mod with 360 movement and shooting (both with CPad and CStick). It's not as bad as I thought it would be

I re-dumped the ROM, the GameID is the same as yours.
The issue is non-sense on my side: I deleted my save file and \_nds\nds-bootstrap\patchOffsetCache\AZEP-842F.bin, and one time it booted correctly, but then I tried again and the freeze returned. So I erased again the .sav and the .bin, and... nothing changed. I have not been able to get it working again.
I am on TWiLightMenu v26.1.1 + nds-bootstrap v1.0.1, I used TWPatch build 2023/07/22 to generate TwlBg, and I have New 3DS.

I've updated TwilightMenu, nds-bootstrap, TWPatcher, Luna3DS, and it still works.
I assume that the CPad patches for other games work normally?
Maybe you've updated Luna3DS and forgot to enable patching in its configs or something like that? Or maybe it's that old widescreen issue with 2 TwlBg? Or you've turned on some weird options in TwilightMenu or in TWPatcher?

Also, by the freeze you mean simply the game not responding but you still can exit via the Home Menu button, or it's the console completely hangs so you can only hard reset it (by holding the Power button for 7+ seconds)?

Please try this version of the mod. It will remove the freezing if it's caused by problems in RTCom (but in that case it should still not work).
There is only one thing that makes Zelda CPad mods different from all others. There is a check for the presence of the version with the DPad mod. If it's not found, the mod will use RTCom to unmap CPad from DPad. I've removed this check as well, maybe that's what caused the problem.

 

[Maeson]

I just wanted to thank you, shoco, for all these patches, they're incredible. I specially love to have analog controls for Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Go!

The touch controls work well mind you, but having analog options is fantastic and make a pretty great (and underrated) SMB game even better.

 

[Vendicatorealato]

I assume that the CPad patches for other games work normally?
Maybe you've updated Luna3DS and forgot to enable patching in its configs or something like that? Or maybe it's that old widescreen issue with 2 TwlBg? Or you've turned on some weird options in TwilightMenu or in TWPatcher?

Yeah, the other games that I tried work well (they aren't so many, but anyway... one of them is TLoZ: Spirit Tracks, just for the record). Luma3DS is at version 13.0.2 and the Enable loading external FIRMs and modules setting is enabled; I have both \luma\sysmodules\TwlBg.cxi (Linear sharpen 1 filter + rtcom patch) and \_nds\TWiLightMenu\TwlBg\Widescreen.cxi (Linear sharpen 1 filter + rtcom and 16:10 patches); I tried with default settings of TWL.

Also, by the freeze you mean simply the game not responding but you still can exit via the Home Menu button, or it's the console completely hangs so you can only hard reset it (by holding the Power button for 7+ seconds)?

For a few seconds I can even open nds-bootstrap in-game menu, but after a while it becomes unresponsive and I have to close it by clicking the Home button; the hard reset is unnecessary.

Please try this version of the mod. It will remove the freezing if it's caused by problems in RTCom (but in that case it should still not work).

I think my 3DS is making fun of me. I tried this version, and the first time the game booted correctly, then no more. I erased and replaced usrcheat.dat, I rebooted the console, nothing, just like yesterday when I deleted the save and the .bin file as first test.

 

[shoco]

I think my 3DS is making fun of me. I tried this version, and the first time the game booted correctly, then no more. I erased and replaced usrcheat.dat, I rebooted the console, nothing, just like yesterday when I deleted the save and the .bin file as first test.

Ok, let's try this version. Here, the whole initialization process is delayed by 10 seconds and stretched out to 60+ seconds overall. Start it and see if it freezes again (if it does, wait for 30 more seconds to be sure).
If the problem stays, but it doesn't freeze on the Nintendo logo, measure how much seconds it takes from the moment you see the logo the first time to the moment the game hangs completely
Just in case, move the folder "\_nds\TWiLightMenu\TwlBg" somewhere else. And test if the game works without the CPad mod.

By the way, when it freezes, you only see "Nintendo" on the top screen or the whole screen is just white (or some other color)?

Also, I would encourage you to get the ROM for this game somewhere else (preferably the same region). Maybe it has something to do with how you dumped it. I believe the game id ("AZEP-D505F823") used by the cheat engine is calculated based on the first 200 bytes of the ROM, but it may differ slightly at some other place. Plus, TwilightMenu has its own patches (widescreen and anti-piracy) which use different identification methods and may be applied (or not applied) where it should not.

 

[Vendicatorealato]

Ok, let's try this version. Here, the whole initialization process is delayed by 10 seconds and stretched out to 60+ seconds overall. Start it and see if it freezes again (if it does, wait for 30 more seconds to be sure).

With this version it boots correctly, I tried several times. The Nintendo logo appears immediately and disappears after precisely 10 seconds, and after almost other 10 seconds (so about 20 seconds from the boot) the game has a little slowdown/freeze (not longer than 2 seconds), but then it seems to continue working properly.
However, now another problem occurs: in game, the movement with the CPad works as expected... if it wasn't that moving it to the left opens the Menu and down the map.
Just to point it out, I don't have any of these issues on Spirit Tracks (or rather, no one in general).

Just in case, move the folder "\_nds\TWiLightMenu\TwlBg" somewhere else. And test if the game works without the CPad mod.

This doesn't change nothing. Yes, the game works well without CPad patch.

Also, I would encourage you to get the ROM for this game somewhere else (preferably the same region). Maybe it has something to do with how you dumped it.

I don't know, I'm pretty sure that my ROM is clean, the CRC32 is "ECA2FC85".
Just out of curiosity I also tried the USA ROM (with all three versions of the CPad mod): it has exactly the same problems of the EUR.

 

[shoco]

With this version it boots correctly, I tried several times. The Nintendo logo appears immediately and disappears after precisely 10 seconds, and after almost other 10 seconds (so about 20 seconds from the boot) the game has a little slowdown/freeze (not longer than 2 seconds), but then it seems to continue working properly.

Then it probably has something to do with how much time it takes to initialize all the stuff (my mod, rtcom, and all the communication in between). I don't know how it's possible that it works for me (and probably for others too) but not for you. Even though my console model (New 2DS XL) and most likely the OS version (11.12.0-44E) are different, I would expect them to behave similarly as far as the NDS emulation is concerned.

Please check out this batch. These are exactly the same as my original mod but slowed down (similar to the previous comment, but this time finished). Each one is 2 times faster than the previous one. Start with the first, and if it works check some of the latest.

 

[Vendicatorealato]

I don't know how it's possible that it works for me (and probably for others too) but not for you. Even though my console model (New 2DS XL) and most likely the OS version (11.12.0-44E) are different, I would expect them to behave similarly as far as the NDS emulation is concerned.

I have the firmware 11.17.0-50E and a New 3DS, maybe the firmware can be relevant but I doubt that the console model itself changes something. I hope someone else who can test it will come along.

Please check out this batch. These are exactly the same as my original mod but slowed down (similar to the previous comment, but this time finished). Each one is 2 times faster than the previous one.

v1 - The Nintendo logo disappears after 10 seconds and there is a slowdown after other 10 seconds, then the CPad starts to work after a lot of time (but I didn't quantified it) and the "menu on left-map on down" issue is present.
v6 - There is a little slowdown when the Nintendo logo appears, then it remains stucked on it.
v5 - There isn't any slowdown, but it remains freezed on Nintendo logo.
v4 - It works perfectly: the Nintendo logo disappears at the same moment that without the mod and the "menu on left-map on down" issue doesn't occur.
v3 - It works well like v4, but the Nintendo logo disappears slightly later.
v2 - The Nintendo logo disappears after 5 seconds and there is a slowdown after other 5 seconds, then the CPad starts to work after some seconds (less than v1) and the "menu on left-map on down" issue is present.

One thing I now wonder about: the v4 works for you as well as for me or there are some differences?

Thank you for all the work you did, anyway.

 

[shoco]

One thing I now wonder about: the v4 works for you as well as for me or there are some differences?

They all work for me normally. There are of course slow downs at start, but it's only because of the Arm11's RTCom intialization process, and it's not even noticeable when it happens too early.

Thanks for testing. I don't know what to make of it. I see that slower versions have higher chances to work properly. But too big delays sometimes cause sound issues, and too small don't work at all. I suppose that the problem may also be caused by some peripherals, like an SD card which speed probably directly affects the performance of nds-bootstrap, its AR cheat engine, or something specific to this game. But this all is nearly impossible to test.

As a last one, you could check again "v1" (the slowest one) and after the CPad begins to work, press L+R+Down. It should toggle between mapping/unmapping CPad from Dpad, and solve the problem with "menu on left-map on down". Except that normally it's done automatically (as it evidently does on "v4"). Also, maybe try it several times to be sure?