Hello guys, this is my first post here! I just got a MIG Switch card out of curiosity and I was tinkering with it. For those who don't know, it's used by placing XCI dumps as well as other game specific bin files in the sd card of the MIG Switch, and are obtained from the original cartridge by using an app like nxdumptool. Two of these bin files are mandatory to get the game to boot: Initial Data.bin and Certificate.bin. They stay the same for every cartridge of a specific game. Now, if you want to use an XCI dump from a shady website it's impossible to get it to work without those files. By using the Certificate.bin from another game it has no problem, but this does not count for the Initial Data.bin. So I looked for a way to obtain this Initial Data from an XCI file and read a bit of the XCI file documentation from switchbrew dot org. Here's what I understood so far: The Switch checks if the cartridge is valid by doing a challenge–response authentication on the Initial Data. The Package ID is contained both on the XCI and the Initial Data, on positions 0x110 and 0x0 respectively. The Initial Data hash is on the XCI at position 0x160. It is calculated by doing a SHA-256 hash on the full Initial Data content. So I was wondering, is there a way to to construct a functional Initial Data file starting from an XCI dump? I also tried a reverse approach by editing the Package ID in the Initial Data from another game, generating the Initial Data hash and putting it in the XCI file but is not enough to get the Switch believe it's a real game. Sorry if this may seem stupid but let me know what you think.

duckstation for Switch

catlover007 · 2024-04-22T04:06:40+00:00

duckstation is an excellent Playstation 1 emulator by Stenzek. It has a very good compabiility and it is quite performant. It also supports all kinds of enhancements such as high resolution rendering and PGXP which can lessen the "wobble" and...

How do retro games look on the Switch OLED?

Thread starter ragnarok_approaches123
Start date Jun 11, 2023
Views 850
Replies 2

ragnarok_approaches123

Well-Known Member

Newcomer

Level 3

Jun 11, 2023

I suspect that most 3D retro games look better on the Switch Lite because the smaller screen makes the aging visuals harder to notice while 2D games look better when they're nice and crisp on the OLED screen. I haven't done any comparisons.

orangpelupa

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 7

Jun 11, 2023

But retro games were not made to be crisp looking. They were made to have good blending / gradation by taking advantage of CRT inherent characteristics

Reactions: bazamuffin

ragnarok_approaches123

Well-Known Member

Newcomer

Level 3

Jun 15, 2023

orangpelupa said:
But retro games were not made to be crisp looking. They were made to have good blending / gradation by taking advantage of CRT inherent characteristics

I prefer the cleaner look of S-video over composite. Haven't had the chance to try RGB before. Yes, some games were made to take advantage of the visual defects inherent in CRT displays (like Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis if I remember correctly) but many simply look better without said defects. Maybe I should play around with filters and see what looks best.