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[keep]

Yeah, it's on as normal. Red light is on, and it's playing on the TV. It shows up in the device manager for Windows. But, it doesn't show a green light in hakchi.

Mine was playing on the TV until I hit Sync at which point the letters 'hakchi' would appear onscreen while the green bar fills up. Sorry I can't be of more help

Do however note that my SNES never displayed a green light at any stage. Are you looking at a different tutorial (NES Mini perhaps?)

 

[PhantomThief]

Mine was playing on the TV until I hit Sync at which point the letters 'hakchi' would appear onscreen while the green bar fills up. Sorry I can't be of more help

Do however note that my SNES never displayed a green light at any stage. Are you looking at a different tutorial (NES Mini perhaps?)

He means the green light in hakchi

 

[dyreschlock]

Do however note that my SNES never displayed a green light at any stage. Are you looking at a different tutorial (NES Mini perhaps?)

The green light in the corner of the hakchi window, not on the SNES itself. When watching some youtube clips of people syncing games, it shows up as green, indicating that hakchi is able to connect to it. Red for me, though.

I'm just following the OP and the instructions that show up in hakchi.

FTPing into the SNES doesn't work either. It just comes back as a 500 Mini is offline.

It's most likely some problem with the USB connection or drivers.

 

[Acidote]

The Super Ghouls 'n Ghost Restoration patch isn't working for me. It just crashes to a black screen and C7 error. Anyone got it working?

Mine's working damn fine.

 

[Joey Ravn]

Did your ROM have the MD5 "19B2D7A555ECEF4C453A819E67E61574"?

Mine's working damn fine.

Same MD5. I tried repatching the game. It works if I replace the stock SGnG, but not if I add it as another custom game. Weird :/

 

[Randam]

This yt tutorial is fantastic seroiusly just follow this and your all set.
(does not contain any piracy or how to get roms just tutorial on current adding etc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWAf0pD8354
(English all screen captured and well done, should be in the OP).

there it is.

 

[Robin64]

Same MD5. I tried repatching the game. It works if I replace the stock SGnG, but not if I add it as another custom game. Weird :/

First, try it without using hakchi compression.

Secondly, try it without hakchi compression, and also open the .sfrom in a hex editor before uploading. On one of the very final lines will be a 14 or a 15. Change it to the other and try again.

 

[Zafir]

I have FE Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia all patched in English working natively on the SNES Mini emulator, not Retroarch.

I played all of them until the first battle and all conversations, menus and commands were in English. The last two had some in-graphics in Japanese like the title screen but nothing major.

Maybe look for another ROM?

It's to do with the patch that was linked, not the game itself as to why it doesn't work with the native emulator.

I imagine you're using an older patch if you're getting some Japanese still. Would explain why you can play FE4 in the native emulator with your rom too.

Honestly I don't mind using Retroarch, if it means a good translation.

 

[Joey Ravn]

First, try it without using hakchi compression.

Secondly, try it without hakchi compression, and also open the .sfrom in a hex editor before uploading. On one of the very final lines will be a 14 or a 15. Change it to the other and try again.

Thanks! But it's working fine now, replacing the original game (SAABDE). I don't mind that, actually

 

[Link1110]

Nice! Definitely wave play through some games I missed with this. Never best seiken densetsu 3, romancing saga 1 and a while bunch of others. Just bought my Mimi, gonna hack it after my date

 

[BGBW]

Reddit user PlayingKarrde has created a gallery of square boxes that fill the whole selection area, instead of leaving empty space above and below it.

Thi
of
26

 

[LOUD915]

Question.

I lost my original dump file ( yeah I know I’m an idiot)

I screwed something up installing retroarch and need the original dump back.

I was going to help my friend hack his today.

Would his original dump file work on mine? (Other than deleting my saves and whatnot)

 

[Maxrunner]

Mine's working damn fine.

Isn't just adding it like a normal rom?

 

[Robin64]

Would his original dump file work on mine? (Other than deleting my saves and whatnot)

It should. Just put his snes_kernel.img (or whatever it's called) in your dump folder.

 

[Joey Ravn]

Thi
of
26

Oh, come on. Don't be mean! A quick and dirty fix:

 

[Herb Alpert]

So can anyone explain to me like I was 6 how to use this retroarch Mod on snes mini to be able to run games that don't run normally?

I can't get this working...

 

[dock]

Alright, finished with mine. Not gonna mess with it any further. I hand-sized each of the boxes, color-corrected everything, and tested every single game. It's organized, clean, and I love it.

I was never able to get good performance with the Sonic games on my NES mini. Did you do anything special here?

 

[keep]

So can anyone explain to me like I was 6 how to use this retroarch Mod on snes mini to be able to run games that don't run normally?

I can't get this working...

1. Download Retroarch from here.
2. Open hakchi and drag and drop the zip file onto the hakchi window.
3. Select install Retroarch and SNES90x
4. After installation, add the ROMs you want to use Retroarch with by clicking "Add games". Do it the same way you've done it for standard ROMs. As far as I understand (I didn't double check this) only .snes files work, but hakchi does not identify those, so what I did was:
- rename the ROMs of the games I wanted from .sfc or .smc onto .snes on Windows
- zip the files
- click on "Add games" to find them
- untick the "Compress" box on the top right
5. On command line, go right to the end of the line and add " --retroarch". That's space + two hyphens + retroarch.
6. Press Sync.

That worked fine for me.

 

[Zafir]

So can anyone explain to me like I was 6 how to use this retroarch Mod on snes mini to be able to run games that don't run normally?

I can't get this working...

Which part are you stuck on?

1. Download the zip file retroarch_with_cores from https://github.com/ClusterM/retroarch-clover/releases
2. Don't need to unzip it or anything, just drag that zip file into Hakchi. It'll come up with a list of stuff, some ticked, some not, you can leave it as it is and just click okay/confirm (unless you really don't care about gba/nes or whatever).
3. It'll ask you to go through the power on while holding restart steps that you did when first flashing the custom kernel. It does mention about installing the driver, but you can ignore that as you'll have already installed it when first flashing the kernel. Having done the power on while holding reset, the box should disappear and it should come up with a progress bar saying it's installing.
4. Once it's done now you can just go to which ever game you want to play in retroarch in hakchi, and there's a text field with the title "Command Line (for advanced users only)". Scroll to the end of that text field and add " -- retroarch" to the end.

1. Download Retroarch from here.
2. Open hakchi and drag and drop the zip file onto the hakchi window.
3. Select install Retroarch and SNES90x
4. After installation, add the ROMs you want to use Retroarch with by clicking "Add games". Do it the same way you've done it for standard ROMs. As far as I understand (I didn't double check this) only .snes files work, but hakchi does not identify those, so what I did was:
- rename the ROMs of the games I wanted from .sfc or .smc onto .snes on Windows
- zip the files
- click on "Add games" to find them
- untick the "Compress" box on the top right
5. On command line, go right to the end of the line and add " --retroarch". That's space + two hyphens + retroarch.
6. Press Sync.

That worked fine for me.

Is there a reason why you don't compress?

I've got the games I'm using with retroarch compressed, and they seem to be running fine.

 

[Maxrunner]

Alright, finished with mine. Not gonna mess with it any further. I hand-sized each of the boxes, color-corrected everything, and tested every single game. It's organized, clean, and I love it.

Jesus nes and GBA games how?

 

[Herb Alpert]

Which part are you stuck on?

1. Download the zip file retroarch_with_cores from https://github.com/ClusterM/retroarch-clover/releases
2. Don't need to unzip it or anything, just drag that zip file into Hakchi. It'll come up with a list of stuff, some ticked, some not, you can leave it as it is and just click okay/confirm (unless you really don't care about gba/nes or whatever).
3. It'll ask you to go through the power on while holding restart steps that you did when first flashing the custom kernel. It does mention about installing the driver, but you can ignore that as you'll have already installed it when first flashing the kernel. Having done the power on while holding reset, the box should disappear and it should come up with a progress bar saying it's installing.
4. Once it's done now you can just go to which ever game you want to play in retroarch in hakchi, and there's a text field with the title "Command Line (for advanced users only)". Scroll to the end of that text field and add " -- retroarch" to the end.

Do I just type --retroarch at the end? Is there a space before the --?

 

[keep]

Is there a reason why you don't compress?

I've got the games I'm using with retroarch compressed, and they seem to be running fine.

I read somewhere (forget where as I was reading both here and Reddit) to untick Compress because Retroarch already compressed the file when executing it or something like that.

I really don't know shit so I just followed that literally. All games seem to be working too.

 

[Zafir]

Do I just type --retroarch at the end? Is there a space before the --?

There should be a space between whatever is at the end of the command line text (most likely 600) and the --retroarch yeah.

 

[Herb Alpert]

There should be a space between whatever is at the end of the command line text (most likely 600) and the --retroarch yeah.

Ho that might explain everything then... Thanks!

 

[ParityBit]

If you just want scanlines without the blur filter, add the following in the global command line box:

-filter 2 -magfilter 0

Works great.

Sorry about this dumb question, but what does this do to the image itself? People seem pretty happy about it ...

 

[backlot]

Anybody know anything about over clocking the Super FX chip? I saw some talk of it in a thread a while ago. I'm really interested in getting the Star Fox games running at higher framerates.

 

[Robin64]

Made a Donkey Kong border that was shiiiiite, completely erased it and started again. it was based on the Super GameBoy palm trees style border, in higher-res, but it was really messy and distracting. Ended up with this instead:

 

[Joey Ravn]

Sorry about this dumb question, but what does this do to the image itself? People seem pretty happy about it ...

Retains the scanlines from the CRT filter, but gets rid of the bilinear filter. So it's crisp pixels with soft scanlines in 4:3 mode.

I personally think it looks great!

Anybody know anything about over clocking the Super FX chip? I saw some talk of it in a thread a while ago. I'm really interested in getting the Star Fox games running at higher framerates.

Add "-boost-fx 2" (no quotes) to the global command line arguments. I can confirm it works.

 

[Reich]

There is a recent translation of Fire Emblem 4 that's technically still in beta, but it's basically done. Highly recommended (and my favorite FE).

https://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?/topic/63676-fe4-translation-patch-open-beta-v7/

Will it work without Retroah..?

 

[Reich]

Made a Donkey Kong border that was shiiiiite, completely erased it and started again. it was based on the Super GameBoy palm trees style border, in higher-res, but it was really messy and distracting. Ended up with this instead:

Any video to change the border? My english is not good enough. Dont want to mess it up.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

Good news - Star Trek DS9 Crossroads Of Time works fine.

 

[Darhkwing]

Not sure if posted already but this is a straight forward guide - https://youtu.be/g3PCskAVCi4

 

[Legendary Wizball]

With the first official final release of hakchi now out and working with the SNES Mini, it made sense to dedicate a thread to this wonderful little tool.

So what are the basics?

https://github.com/ClusterM/hakchi2/releases will always be the link to get the latest release. Right now we are on version 2.20 (internal version 2.0.20.15). Download the .zip file, unzip to a folder, and then follow these instructions to get adding your own games.

Despite what that page says, please do not use the web installer.

1) With the SNES Mini attached to your PC via USB, hold reset, turn the Mini on, wait a few seconds, then release reset. The light will not be on.
2) Go to Kernel, Dump Kernel. Install the driver if prompted. DO NOT lose this file, ever.
3) Go to Kernel, Flash Custom Kernel. Your SNES Mini is now haxed.
3a) Optional, but recommended if you aren't doing too many games. Go to Settings, Pages/Folders Structure and pick Disable. ("Too many games" means 63 or more. SNES Mini crashes if you have that many)
4) From now on, simply use the Add Games button, pick your SNES ROM, fill out the details, assign some box art..
5) And when you're done, hit the Sync button bottom right.
6) Now turn the SNES off, wait a moment, then turn it back on without holding reset. The light will come on, your new games will appear.



Note that in future you do not need to hold reset. Simply have the SNES Mini attached to your PC and turned on, you will be able to sync new games while it is in that state.

What doesn't work right now?

There is now a shared community spreadsheet here with info.

If I do this will I lose all my original saves and save states?

No

How can I alter art and stuff for the original 21 games?

You need to FTP into the machine and browse to /usr/share/games/. There you will find the preinstalled CLV-P-xxxxx games. Download those to your PC. (Make sure to set your FTP client to transfer only 1 file at a time, the SNES Mini really hates more than that)

Now copy those folders to hackchi's /snes_games/ folders where your custom games are.

Now restart hakchi and you will see they appear as custom games too alongside previous ones you added, so you will want to deselect the original 21. Now you have copies that you can work with, such as changing their box art and thumbnails.

How do I FTP in to the machine?

With the SNES connected to your PC and turned on, open hakchi and make sure that "FTP servers" is ticked in the tools menu. If it is, just open your favourite FTP client and connect to 127.0.0.1 on port 1021 with the username root and the password clover.

How can I add custom borders?

Make a file called "p8173_ownbgs" (no extension)

Use Notepad++ to edit it, Notepad and Wordpad mess it up. It should contain the following. You also need to enter down to line 2, or the file won't work and you will soft-brick your SNES.

overmount /usr/share/backgrounds/

Now FTP in, copy the backgrounds folder to your PC from /usr/share/ and reupload it to /var/lib/hakchi/rootfs/usr/share/

The file you made a moment ago needs to go into /etc/preinit.d

Restart your SNES Mini and if all went well, it will be using the new folder, which is writable.

So on the PC, just create new folders following the examples set by what you see. Best way is to copy a folder, rename the files, and edit them with your favourite Photoshop version. Here's what my SNES Background folder looks like:

And how it looks on the SNES Mini itself:



Has anyone made custom borders I can download?

You bet! The following posts are collections from that user:

Robin64
Dimentios

Why do my PAL ROMs have issues?

The SNES Mini is designed to run NTSC ROMs, and so PAL ones will exhibit problems. Use NTSC where possible, or apply one of my patches to your PAL ROM to convert it to NTSC. There are two files in there, one for LoROM and one for HiROM. To find out which one you need, open your ROM in Snes9x and it will say at the bottom when it boots.

Anything else?

Hakchi has a tool for taking beautiful 1280 x 720 screenshots, but if you are on Windows 10 you might find it doesn't work by default. This is because .png files are associated with the crappy preview program and it causes it to go wrong. Instead, associate .png files with Paint and the function will work fine. To use it, just makes sure your SNES is powered by your PC, and in hakchi you just pick "Take Screenshot" in the Tools menu.

Also Windows related, do not ever use Notepad or Wordpad to edit text files associated with the SNES Mini. They will corrupt them, every time. Download and install Notepad++, thanks.

The SNES Mini also, like every other device in existence, supports Retroarch. Download those modules here. Instructions on how to use it are on that page, and this will allow you to emulate games that the stock emulator can't, such as Star Ocean.

There's a community run spreadsheet of compatibility here.

Hi Robin,

I tried the custom borders and now my unit wont boot. You mentioned a soft brick. Anyway to fix?

EDIT: I finally managed to get it to restore my kernel so all good again. I think the issue is with the file I created in Notepad++. p8173_ownbgs. Do you mean enter, enter again and the the line? Can you please post a screenshot of yours?

EDIT 2: So stock works but if I now flash the custom kernel the unit won't boot or let me install any games. Any ideas?

Thanks,

LW

 

[Novel Mike]

Will it work without Retroah..?

Not without but it functions the exact same way once you've added it including having save states work.

 

[HyperTeddieous]

Hi guys!

Okay, so I just dumped the kernel, however now I notice that after installing the nes driver the light on my snes mini is on. Is there cause for concern? Or can I just continue with the process to add games?

Thanks!

 

[SOLDIER]

So if applying Retroarch to the Classic, how do the games work? Do they just open like normal, or does it launch a separate screen? Do save states and rewind work the same?

If there’s no difference between adding a game the previous way or having it launch through Retroarch, does that mean I can get Treasure of the Rudras, Seiken Densetsu 3 and other previously incompatible titles working?

 

[protonion]

The green light in the corner of the hakchi window, not on the SNES itself. When watching some youtube clips of people syncing games, it shows up as green, indicating that hakchi is able to connect to it. Red for me, though.

I'm just following the OP and the instructions that show up in hakchi.

FTPing into the SNES doesn't work either. It just comes back as a 500 Mini is offline.

It's most likely some problem with the USB connection or drivers.

I had the driver issue a few pages back.
If you are stuck in the 5 steps window, you need to deactivate driver signature verification for your windows.

 

[FoxT]

Oh, come on. Don't be mean! A quick and dirty fix:

I really don't like the look of the green text so I tried to remove the black bar.

 

[PatShallBe]

Hi Robin,

I tried the custom borders and now my unit wont boot. You mentioned a soft brick. Anyway to fix?

EDIT: I finally managed to get it to restore my kernel so all good again. I think the issue is with the file I created in Notepad++. p8173_ownbgs. Do you mean enter, enter again and the the line? Can you please post a screenshot of yours?

Thanks,

LW

He clarified this some pages back: the overmount line goes in line 1 and then you add a empty line underneath it with enter

 

[pestul]

I know this has probably been answered, but if I FTP in to change the boxart on the original games (and tiny thumbnails) is there any way to keep the current progress of those games played in that form. I mean after downloading them and reinserting them into hakchi as custom roms. Thanks guys.

 

[BGBW]

Oh, come on. Don't be mean! A quick and dirty fix:

Sorry, that comment was probably a bit too cheeky.

Made a Donkey Kong border that was shiiiiite, completely erased it and started again. it was based on the Super GameBoy palm trees style border, in higher-res, but it was really messy and distracting. Ended up with this instead:

Here I was thinking of trying to make a border based on that exact same concept.

 

[ParityBit]

Retains the scanlines from the CRT filter, but gets rid of the bilinear filter. So it's crisp pixels with soft scanlines in 4:3 mode.

I personally think it looks great!



Add "-boost-fx 2" (no quotes) to the global command line arguments. I can confirm it works.

Does this only happen on the 4:3 mode?

Good news - Star Trek DS9 Crossroads Of Time works fine.

Is that a goiod game?

 

[OmegaDL50]

So if applying Retroarch to the Classic, how do the games work? Do they just open like normal, or does it launch a separate screen? Do save states and rewind work the same?

If there’s no difference between adding a game the previous way or having it launch through Retroarch, does that mean I can get Treasure of the Rudras, Seiken Densetsu 3 and other previously incompatible titles working?

That is correct. Basically use the native emulator for games that work normally, and Retroarch for games that don't work like Terranigma, SD3, Star Ocean, etc

There is no separate screen. They launch as if they were part of the default library. It's just games run via Retroarch rather than the native emulator.

You won't see any difference in the GUI however.

 

[Novel Mike]

So if applying Retroarch to the Classic, how do the games work? Do they just open like normal, or does it launch a separate screen? Do save states and rewind work the same?

If there’s no difference between adding a game the previous way or having it launch through Retroarch, does that mean I can get Treasure of the Rudras, Seiken Densetsu 3 and other previously incompatible titles working?

They work just like normal no separate screen or anything.

It does allow non-compatible games to work in some cases (not all as far as I'm aware) but Seiken Densetsu 3 runs poorly on it from what I tried. No perfect way to play it as of yet.

It did get Fire Emblem 4 working on it with the most updated translation patch.

 

[SOLDIER]

That is correct. Basically use the native emulator for games that work normally, and Retroarch for games that don't work like Terranigma, SD3, Star Ocean, etc

There is no separate screen. They launch as if they were part of the default library. It's just games run via Retroarch rather than the native emulator.

You won't see any difference in the GUI however.

That’s awesome. And there’s no downsides to doing it this way? Does Retroarch take up significant space?

Also, are save states stored in the same place? If the games end up being compatible without using Retroarch, Can I transfer the save over (though I guess internal saves would just remain stored in the ROM itself)?

 

[Dimentios]

Any video to change the border? My english is not good enough. Dont want to mess it up.

German?

 

[TheMoon]

Thi
of
26

too bad it uses the wrong SNES logo though (bottom O instead of top O aligned, no TM)

 

[Maxrunner]

I still don't understand that if you mess with the original 21 games art for example by installing the original kernel will revert these too.

 

[ocean]

Don't lose your kernel dump.

I lost my NES Mini one

 

[dimmer]

With the first official final release of hakchi now out and working with the SNES Mini, it made sense to dedicate a thread to this wonderful little tool.

So what are the basics?

https://github.com/ClusterM/hakchi2/releases will always be the link to get the latest release. Right now we are on version 2.20 (internal version 2.0.20.15). Download the .zip file, unzip to a folder, and then follow these instructions to get adding your own games.

Despite what that page says, please do not use the web installer.

1) With the SNES Mini attached to your PC via USB, hold reset, turn the Mini on, wait a few seconds, then release reset. The light will not be on.
2) Go to Kernel, Dump Kernel. Install the driver if prompted. DO NOT lose this file, ever.
3) Go to Kernel, Flash Custom Kernel. Your SNES Mini is now haxed.
3a) Optional, but recommended if you aren't doing too many games. Go to Settings, Pages/Folders Structure and pick Disable. ("Too many games" means 63 or more. SNES Mini crashes if you have that many)
4) From now on, simply use the Add Games button, pick your SNES ROM, fill out the details, assign some box art..
5) And when you're done, hit the Sync button bottom right.
6) Now turn the SNES off, wait a moment, then turn it back on without holding reset. The light will come on, your new games will appear.



Note that in future you do not need to hold reset. Simply have the SNES Mini attached to your PC and turned on, you will be able to sync new games while it is in that state.

What doesn't work right now?

There is now a shared community spreadsheet here with info.

If I do this will I lose all my original saves and save states?

No

How can I alter art and stuff for the original 21 games?

You need to FTP into the machine and browse to /usr/share/games/. There you will find the preinstalled CLV-P-xxxxx games. Download those to your PC. (Make sure to set your FTP client to transfer only 1 file at a time, the SNES Mini really hates more than that)

Now copy those folders to hackchi's /snes_games/ folders where your custom games are.

Now restart hakchi and you will see they appear as custom games too alongside previous ones you added, so you will want to deselect the original 21. Now you have copies that you can work with, such as changing their box art and thumbnails.

How do I FTP in to the machine?

With the SNES connected to your PC and turned on, open hakchi and make sure that "FTP servers" is ticked in the tools menu. If it is, just open your favourite FTP client and connect to 127.0.0.1 on port 1021 with the username root and the password clover.

How can I add custom borders?

Make a file called "p8173_ownbgs" (no extension)

Use Notepad++ to edit it, Notepad and Wordpad mess it up. It should contain the following. You also need to enter down to line 2, or the file won't work and you will soft-brick your SNES.

overmount /usr/share/backgrounds/

Now FTP in, copy the backgrounds folder to your PC from /usr/share/ and reupload it to /var/lib/hakchi/rootfs/usr/share/

The file you made a moment ago needs to go into /etc/preinit.d

Restart your SNES Mini and if all went well, it will be using the new folder, which is writable.

So on the PC, just create new folders following the examples set by what you see. Best way is to copy a folder, rename the files, and edit them with your favourite Photoshop version. Here's what my SNES Background folder looks like:

And how it looks on the SNES Mini itself:



Has anyone made custom borders I can download?

You bet! The following posts are collections from that user:

Robin64
Dimentios

Why do my PAL ROMs have issues?

The SNES Mini is designed to run NTSC ROMs, and so PAL ones will exhibit problems. Use NTSC where possible, or apply one of my patches to your PAL ROM to convert it to NTSC. There are two files in there, one for LoROM and one for HiROM. To find out which one you need, open your ROM in Snes9x and it will say at the bottom when it boots.

Anything else?

Hakchi has a tool for taking beautiful 1280 x 720 screenshots, but if you are on Windows 10 you might find it doesn't work by default. This is because .png files are associated with the crappy preview program and it causes it to go wrong. Instead, associate .png files with Paint and the function will work fine. To use it, just makes sure your SNES is powered by your PC, and in hakchi you just pick "Take Screenshot" in the Tools menu.

Also Windows related, do not ever use Notepad or Wordpad to edit text files associated with the SNES Mini. They will corrupt them, every time. Download and install Notepad++, thanks.

The SNES Mini also, like every other device in existence, supports Retroarch. Download those modules here. Instructions on how to use it are on that page, and this will allow you to emulate games that the stock emulator can't, such as Star Ocean.

There's a community run spreadsheet of compatibility here.

Robin, thank you for your great work!
In these instructions you say not to use the web installer. Is there a reason for that? I modded the SNESC yesterday using the web installer and everything works fine. Should I do the procedure again?