Ever thought about hacking GCM and ISO images?

[PokémonShinySilver]

So we've all been hacking games on the handheld devices as we pretty much know already. We've created so many new hacks for GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. Those ROM hacks have brought either a totally new storyline... or they are just a simple modification to the game to either make it harder or improved.

Since we have so many different tools for hacking the games for those handheld devices... it has brought us even more excitement and has encouraged others to come up with new ideas and even more research into the games and how it's ARM7 or ARM9 functions work, and several other stuff that we find out inside the ROMs themselves.

For a long time, PC has pretty much been focusing on the games on the handheld devices... but what if we could also be hacking the Nintendo GameCube and Wii games? If someone were to create hacks on GCM or ISO images... just imagine how many more people would think about developing hacks for GCM and ISO images. But of course... before hacks can ever start... research always comes first, and it's just simple as looking into the game itself.

Has anyone here on PC ever thought about hacking GCM or ISO images before? It has been done before on games like Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and many more.

Just imagine if some people here on PC thought about researching games like Pokémon Colosseum or Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness... then we could simply look into them... see if we could make some changes and several other stuff like that. If we ever started hacking Pokémon Colosseum or Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness... it could bring us a step closer to hacking the future Pokémon games that would be on the 3DS, which could be likely to use the same mapping system and battle system (except for "Call").

But let's just see what the future brings, one day I'm sure someone is bound to think about researching GCMs, which actually makes me think... a very few GameCube games have actually been hacked before, but it will be interesting if that actually changed. It's already possible to view GameCube GCMs using ConsoleTool, same with Wii ISOs.

Has anyone ever thought about hacking GameCube GCMs or Wii ISOs?

[hinkage]

Many, many people hack GC and Wii ISOs, but really only for the most popular/frequently played games like, as you said, SSBB (Brawl+, Brawl-, Balanced Brawl, Project M, etc. LOL).

Handhelds are much more popular because the emulators are better, the games don't lag that much even if you have a bad computer, and because they're easier to hack.

[Airbourne Bubblun]

I think I tried an ISO image once, which was probably Crash Bandicoot on the ps1, but I don't think I found a great deal on it, so I decided to scrap it.

[Banjora Marxvile]

If I recall, Sonic CD is an ISO image, right? Not saying I've hacked it, but I would love to just to force back a return of Bubsy the Bobcat in some way...(This is my assumption due to the fact that Sonic Megamix is an ISO file)

Oh yeah, I remember I used to edit the music using... Riivolution or something, I forget, but that stopped working as it would freeze if it tried to update.

[PokémonShinySilver]

Hm... it's interesting... Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness works very well on Dolphin Emulator, even the soundtracks work very well.

Originally Posted by hinkage

Many, many people hack GC and Wii ISOs, but really only for the most popular/frequently played games like, as you said, SSBB (Brawl+, Brawl-, Balanced Brawl, Project M, etc. LOL).

Handhelds are much more popular because the emulators are better, the games don't lag that much even if you have a bad computer, and because they're easier to hack.

But as you pretty much said... they do have some lagging, but hey... I don't mind the lagging. lol But if anyone who has a Wii can actually run their GameCube ISO on their Wii, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness would also be a perfect ISO base to create hacks on, if we were to create Pokémon hacks on a GameCube. I've even looked through the ISO using ConsoleTool and found several .fsys files in there, which could very well be the GameCube version of NARC files on NDS ROMs.

Originally Posted by Banjora Marxvile

If I recall, Sonic CD is an ISO image, right? Not saying I've hacked it, but I would love to just to force back a return of Bubsy the Bobcat in some way...(This is my assumption due to the fact that Sonic Megamix is an ISO file)

Oh yeah, I remember I used to edit the music using... Riivolution or something, I forget, but that stopped working as it would freeze if it tried to update.

Hm... speaking of Riivolution... I've found a tool called pdx-pff3 which can create patches. It supports any ISO file, no matter even if it's something like a PS3 ISO or any other console, it was originally made for PlayStation ISOs, but it also supports any other ISOs from consoles as well, from what I've read. It could be used for future GameCube hacks.

[SayWhat]

looks very good.I like it.

[thanethane98]

Hacking gamecube roms could be interesting, but one question... Would these be even tougher to work with than DS roms are?

[PokémonShinySilver]

Originally Posted by thanethane98

Hacking gamecube roms could be interesting, but one question... Would these be even tougher to work with than DS roms are?

Well, it would take more time to work on than NDS ROMs, but overall... it would be just as simple as the NDS ROMs, 'cause they both have an organized storage for the files and all that, when you try opening up a GameCube .gcm with ConsoleTool, you'll find that there's alot of data that are in files such as .fsys, and those files would be usually the sort you'd try to research into. But of course... there's also the bootloader file and of course apploader file. From what I've seen, of course. These are probably the binary data for the RAM (Random Access Memory), and the bootloader is probably what contains the commands for which parts of the game it loads to and stuff, like the ARM9 binary in NDS ROMs. As for the apploader... I assume is for stuff like the GameBoy Advance connector to load the app onto the GameBoy Advance from the GameCube GCM.

[droomph]

I think until there is a good and fast programs for GC or Wii emulation there won't be any interest in them hacking.

That's the main problem, I tried to emulate Wind Waker on my computer, thing took half an hour and I still couldn't find an easy and free emulator for GC. So given that I can't even play it, I don't think I'll hack it.

[sab]

I've actually been toying around with wiiscrubber and some gamecube decompilers, and it's not as bad as you might think. There are a lot of obscure formats, but the main thing is that .iso and .gcm files take up a huge amount of disc space. This isn't necessarily as bad though, because everything is much more structured, meaning that you don't have to deal with a lot of code all at once. I seem to remember someone doing research a while back about how to change text and a trainer's pokemon in Colosseum, but I think it was all still at the hex editing stage last I saw.

[Team Fail]

Originally Posted by Banjora Marxvile

Oh yeah, I remember I used to edit the music using... Riivolution or something, I forget, but that stopped working as it would freeze if it tried to update.

I've been trying to do that for Wii Sports myself. I wanna fool around with the Wii music format and use Riivolution to try them out. I can't get the XML formatted properly though. I have a bunch of BSTRM files though.

[Naruto200]

speaking from personal experiance, brawl hacking is hard as hell
theres less tools now yeah, but getting everything working...
<_< lets say you won't be seeing Twilight Princes's Ice Foes enemies over Ike anytime soon.

I did manage to get quite a few characters imported though.

Part of the reason I started rom hacking was because (big shock) it was simpler to understand than brawl hacking and I can do a lot more to the game.

[sab]

Originally Posted by Team Fail

I've been trying to do that for Wii Sports myself. I wanna fool around with the Wii music format and use Riivolution to try them out. I can't get the XML formatted properly though. I have a bunch of BSTRM files though.

I hate rii with a passion. It makes life much more complex for hacking. Try just patching things in with wii scrubber rather than screwing with the XMLs.

[AMT]

Seems like its alot more work to do on ISO images.

[MegamanDX]

Originally Posted by Airbourne Bubblun

I think I tried an ISO image once, which was probably Crash Bandicoot on the ps1, but I don't think I found a great deal on it, so I decided to scrap it.

WHAT!?!?!?!?! Your my god now!!!! Turn it into where a Pokemon(Charizard or Zoroark) instead explores the levels and BAM!!! You got a epic hack!(kind of a fan of the Crash games too....)

Just saying.....




To OP: I would think and agree with everyone on here...the emulators for the 2D games work really well and also I would think are easy to hack a game with only 2D sprites....