Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

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Ashen
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Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:24 am

Alright, so I'm not really sure where to put this but since it relates to the Wiikey GameCube mod I'll just stick it here and we can move it if needed.

A conversation was started over on modretro in my Fusion Micro rev. 2 worklog about perhaps playing with the Luigi's Mansion pal/ntsc iso's to get this game working on an NTSC GC modded with the Wiikey Fusion. For those that don't know already, the PAL version of the game runs fine on both PAL and NTSC GC's however on NTSC GC's the image is mostly totally screwed. Here is what has transpired in our conversation so far:
ShockSlayer wrote:I'd be interested to know exactly what the real issue is, I mean, perhaps it is a hardware thing, but the fact that the PAL version of the game works on a NTSC board fine(aside for the 60 hertz-ness) would indicate that it's more of a software thing.

I'll mess around with some isos later, maybe I'll get a better clue. It'd be super special awesome if we could just patch a NTSC iso and have it work on the WKF. I googled this real quick and it looks like people had the same problem with loading it on Wii's, and in order to get it to work they had to get an updated version of the backup loader, some sort of mIOS patching or something.

SS
Ashen wrote:Yea, i'd love to know the real issue also. I'm positive its something the wiikey guys could fix in like 5 minutes if the gave two shits. Interesting little note is that the ntsc-j version of the game also DRE's at the same point our ntsc-u version does. I putzed about with the iso's a bit a while back, but software stuff isnt really my thing, so my ability to do useful stuff as far as that goes is limited.
ShockSlayer wrote:I have no idea what I'm doing either, but I've messed with Melee isos a ton. It's more of a compare, trial and error at this point. Just curious, have you tried booting the game on a wii with a WKF? Also, good to know about the (J) version, saves me the effort of downloading and comparing that one too.

SS
Ashen wrote:Yes, just about every single issue the wiikey fusion has on the GC is exactly the same on the wii, including the luigi's mansion DRE. :/

If you think about it, once the wii enters GC mode its esentially just a GC at that point since it turns off all the wii specific hardware. So the fact that games behave the same isn't surprising.
ShockSlayer wrote:I've accomplished a few things, interestingly enough.

Looks like the (E) version of Luigi's mansion has all the files needed to run as a (U) version, plus extra stuff for different languages, there might be a few other added/different things in there too.

After tons of messing around I ended up narrowing down "Start.dol" in the &&systemdata folder, I can put the (U) one in the (E) iso and it loads up as if it were the (U) iso, "an error has occurred" and all. I'd venture to say that if we can modify the (E) Start.dol to not put the GC into the different video mode then we can just use that iso instead, as if it were (U).

SS
Ashen wrote:Sounds like a discussion with emu_kidid is due. He'll know if any of that is possible i'm sure. Maybe some of those other crazy GC hackers over at gc-forever can help too. Nice find SS.
zenloc wrote:The wiikey does not support forcing video mode unlike the wode which does. The av chip of a ntsc board does not support pal composite signals that's why the image doesn't look right nor does the resolution. It's the same on pal boards altough they do show the right colours with a ntsc signal. The resolution however will be 480 cropped in a 576 resolution giving you a big black bar on the bottem of the screen and squishing the image.

switching av chip won't work I alreadt tried that. Nor does it work with switching any other components. I tried swapping the av chip and both clock chips and nothing give you proper pal and ntsc signals on one board.

Any of you have other idea's??
ShockSlayer wrote:The wode is like, gigantic though. I think we'd be better off having Ashen go pester emu_kidid, or everyone collaborating and pestering the wiikey team.

See, we are a bunch of mobo choppin' meatheads, and whenever program no work, we have to go pester someone who can fix it, otherwise we are mostly screwed. XD

SS

Sorry, I know that's quite lengthy but I didn't want to leave any parts of the conversation out. So the real question is, is there any way to get this game working? swapping files? Patching a bit of code? You codejunkies here will know better than us "mobo choppin' meatheads". :D
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by emu_kidid » Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:49 am

It's software related, I think the original (not players choice version) of Lugis Mansion NTSC-U/J expects something to remain resident in memory so it can make some "syscalls".

A patch can definitely be made but I just need to remember what the exact fix was.
Since you mention the NTSC-J version is screwed up too I can try that since I have it on original disc. (It's broken in Swiss too - just haven't had the time to fix it).
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Ashen
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Sat Oct 01, 2011 1:29 am

Nice! It would make the wiikey fusion the dreamchip it should be for me if luigi's mansion could be patched to work on it. Easily one of my favorites from the GC, and a total bummer it doesnt work right on ntsc consoles. :/
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ShockSlayer
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by ShockSlayer » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:56 am

<3
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by ShockSlayer » Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:43 pm

FYI:
bentomo wrote: Well bad news boys.

The players choice iso is no different, it gets to the nintendo screen but doesn't go beyond it.

It then proceeds with an error has occurd bla bla bla.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Hucklebuck » Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:26 pm

So, can we just play Luigi's Mansion PAL version on an NTSC Gamecube with the Wiikey Fusion? Is there any issues? :?:
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Ashen
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:08 pm

You can play the PAL version on an NTSC cube. Though without having some way to force the video mode the screen flickers and the colors are washed out when playing.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by BigRobotBil » Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:56 pm

Ashen wrote:You can play the PAL version on an NTSC cube. Though without having some way to force the video mode the screen flickers and the colors are washed out when playing.
LM has no 60Hz support, only PAL 50Hz. It's one of the few Gamecube games to not have both 50Hz and 60Hz.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by ShockSlayer » Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:32 pm

I am still eagerly awaiting a fix.

SS
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by emu_kidid » Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:05 am

I admit I haven't looked into this much yet.. I'll put aside some time this week for it. Shouldn't be too hard a fix, identifying the problem/debugging is the hard part.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by ShockSlayer » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:13 pm

Awesome! Thanks a ton.
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Ashen
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:07 pm

You know, I've been thinking about this little issue a lot the past few days and have tried various things to get things working that are within my range of "shit I know and understand how to do" which admittedly when it comes to software, isn't much.

Anyway, I was thinking. Instead of somehow magically patching the NTSC version of this game to get it to work, why not patch the PAL version of the game to display in 640x480 @60hz?

I'm not sure its even possible to be honest, but while pouring through different files of the PAL version of Luigi's Mansion in a hex editor I stumbled upon a little note near the end of the apploader file that mentioned n64 controller.

WTF is that all about?
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by infact » Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:18 pm

The very first gamecube dev hardware units were created before they created the first controller layout, so they used n64 controllers for them. The n64 controller uses a very similar serial protocol. And because Luigis Mansion is one of the first games (or maybe it really is the first, due to the tech demo), it should recognise them as well.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Sintendo » Sun Nov 20, 2011 11:32 pm

You guys do realize that AFAIK all GameCube games contain these strings, even games released in 2004 and later? I guess it's just part of the official SDK.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by emu_kidid » Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:01 am

You can definitely use the PAL .iso and force it to NTSC if it comes to that.. those strings are left over from development hardware/etc. Try changing the 4 bytes at 0x45b and the single byte at 0x03 from the NTSC to the PAL ISO and give it a go - you might get lucky and it'll try to boot as NTSC, otherwise a little pre-loader might be required - all the more reason to get Swiss working on Wiikey Fusion soon! :)
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by deku_scrub » Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:54 am

Swiss working with Wiikey Fusion?? Siiick!!!! :D
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Ashen
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:26 am

emu_kidid wrote:You can definitely use the PAL .iso and force it to NTSC if it comes to that.. those strings are left over from development hardware/etc. Try changing the 4 bytes at 0x45b and the single byte at 0x03 from the NTSC to the PAL ISO and give it a go - you might get lucky and it'll try to boot as NTSC, otherwise a little pre-loader might be required - all the more reason to get Swiss working on Wiikey Fusion soon! :)
Not sure I have it right as I'm pretty much a dumbass when it comes to this stuff but when I "go to" 0x45b it leads me to the middle of a 4 byte string. Just replace that string that its in the middle of?

Also when I "go to" 0x03 it leads me to the very start of the file, which looks like is just the build date of the file?

Sorry for my ignorance ><
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by HomelandReloaded » Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:25 am

Is this problem unique to Luigi's Mansion? If so then it could be because LM was (according to the Wikipedia entry) developed to use stereoscopic 3D.

I know it isn't good practice to write what I've read instead of what I know, but sometimes when you get stuck on a problem anything is better than nothing.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:18 am

Pretty much yes, I remember there being one other game that someone reported behaving in a similar way. Where they got the DRE right after the Nintendo logo at boot. It was also an earlier release in the GC's lifespan. Might be on to something there. I wish I was better with software stuff :/
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by emu_kidid » Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:58 am

OK so finally I have Swiss working on Wiikey Fusion and Luigis Mansion NTSC = "An error has occurred..blah blah" on the Nintendo logo after doing some DVD reads.

It's 100% due to the fact that the DVD Read code does something wacky that the Wiikey Fusion doesn't expect (like writes something to certain registers and the Wiikey Fusion read emulation state machine probably craps out). I'm going to create a patch and see how I go :)
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by Ashen » Mon Feb 06, 2012 2:35 pm

<3 <3 <3
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by cr4zymanz0r » Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:31 am

emu_kidid wrote:OK so finally I have Swiss working on Wiikey Fusion and Luigis Mansion NTSC = "An error has occurred..blah blah" on the Nintendo logo after doing some DVD reads.

It's 100% due to the fact that the DVD Read code does something wacky that the Wiikey Fusion doesn't expect (like writes something to certain registers and the Wiikey Fusion read emulation state machine probably craps out). I'm going to create a patch and see how I go :)
Sorry to necro-bump, but it seems this is still an issue. I got my MEGAdrive + WASP (it uses Swiss) in today to put in my Gamecube and Luigi's Mansion NTSC behaves the same way. I didn't know if there was ever a patch or something made that I just can't find.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by emu_kidid » Wed Oct 12, 2016 1:21 am

cr4zymanz0r wrote:
emu_kidid wrote:OK so finally I have Swiss working on Wiikey Fusion and Luigis Mansion NTSC = "An error has occurred..blah blah" on the Nintendo logo after doing some DVD reads.

It's 100% due to the fact that the DVD Read code does something wacky that the Wiikey Fusion doesn't expect (like writes something to certain registers and the Wiikey Fusion read emulation state machine probably craps out). I'm going to create a patch and see how I go :)
Sorry to necro-bump, but it seems this is still an issue. I got my MEGAdrive + WASP (it uses Swiss) in today to put in my Gamecube and Luigi's Mansion NTSC behaves the same way. I didn't know if there was ever a patch or something made that I just can't find.
There isn't any patch, the read on the WKF/WASP fails, just use SD Gecko.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by cr4zymanz0r » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:23 am

On SD Gecko I get audio stuttering/hanging on that game, though I haven't tried newer larger SD cards yet.
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Re: Wiikey Fusion + Luigi's Mansion NTSC = <3

Post by novenary » Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:51 pm

Changing your sd card won't help.
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