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SNES Mini Classic Hacking | More games, more borders, more gooder.

ReyVGM

Member
Is it normal for the SNESClassic' boot time to get slower when you hack it? I thought that only happened when you added Retroarch?
 
Glad to see survivors starting to pop up. I'll continue to check in for anyone that needs help. Sadly I think the illusion of Gaia patch is all I could manage. I'll give robotrek another try in the coming days, but it's looking unlikely as with Terranigma.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Oh. Sorry. I read a bunch of stuff while this was down and that seemed to be a common thing. Resetting and reflashing seemed to help people also.

I reset and reflashed multiple times. And still nothing.

I had hacked a SNESC for a friend before mine and I had added Retroarch for him.

When it came time to hack mine, I forgot the retroarch files where there and I hacked it in. When I realized that, I flashed the original kernel back, and deleted every trace of Retroarch, and flashed the custom kernel again, but the slow boot time was still there. So I don't know if the system has some retroarch files inside even though I flashed the original kernel several times?
 
Mine takes a bit to start and i never put retroarch on it. Although i never payed attention to the boot times before hacking it though.
 

ParityBit

Member
I reset and reflashed multiple times. And still nothing.

I had hacked a SNESC for a friend before mine and I had added Retroarch for him.

When it came time to hack mine, I forgot the retroarch files where there and I hacked it in. When I realized that, I flashed the original kernel back, and deleted every trace of Retroarch, and flashed the custom kernel again, but the slow boot time was still there. So I don't know if the system has some retroarch files inside even though I flashed the original kernel several times?

Did you try booting up with the thing totally clean and also factory reset? I think that should clean everything up and you can see if it is back to normal.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Did you try booting up with the thing totally clean and also factory reset? I think that should clean everything up and you can see if it is back to normal.

I didn't do a factory reset because when I flash the origina kernel back, the boot time is normal. So it's either regular hacking that will slow it down, or there are retroarch files inside the system that I can't see and that is slowing it down.

I mean, that's assuming the regular hakchi hacking doesn't slow down the boot time.

Mine takes a bit to start and i never put retroarch on it. Although i never payed attention to the boot times before hacking it though.

Without hacking the system should start in about 1 or 2 seconds. With the hack, it takes about 6 seconds.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Anyone know where retroarch's modules would be on the SNESC directory when you use the FTP? I'm trying to see if the emulator mods uploaded by mistake are still in there.
 
Been seeing some reports of 200+ games on these now. I only added 15 or so... think my total now is close to 40 with the pre installed ones. What is the consensus on stabity if you push the memory limits with multiple folders of games? I know it creates limits on save files/save states but other than that is there any impact?
 

Kadmac25

Member
Any idea where the sram saves are located?

So this was a question that I had and I finally got things to work. I transferred a saved I had on my game cartridge to the SNES Classic but its a little bit of a process. It does work though.

So the location of the SRAM saves is here (you'll need to FTP in to the SNES Classic):

var - lib - clover - profiles - 0 - (Select CLV Game ID folder)

The cartridge.sram and cartridge.sram.hash are the two files that are essentially the saves off a game cartridge. I replaced these files with the save off my cartridge but first I had to load the save in an emulator like Snes9x. I loaded up the game and resaved over the initial save so it would overwrite the previous file.

With the new save file, you need to covert it so that it outputs two files (.sram and .sram.hash). I found a program someone put together on reddit called srm2clover.py
You can find it here.

You'll need to have python installed on your computer for it to work. Once I threw my save through this python script it produced the two files that I needed. I used the two files to replace the original cartridge.sram and cartridge.sram.hash files. Started up SNES Classic and the saves worked perfect.

Hope this helps.
 

ReyVGM

Member
No retroarch here. Definitely in the 6-8 second range, which is much more than before but only effects when you turn the system first on so doesn't bother me.

Ok thanks. Good to hear it wasn't just me.

Been seeing some reports of 200+ games on these now. I only added 15 or so... think my total now is close to 40 with the pre installed ones. What is the consensus on stabity if you push the memory limits with multiple folders of games? I know it creates limits on save files/save states but other than that is there any impact?

You can have as many games as you can fit as long as you leave enough room for saves.

You can't have over 63 games per page or folder or else you'll get errors. The recommended amount is 45. For a friend a set the limit to 35 per page so the icons on the bottom don't go offscreen.

As for amount of games, well, each save takes up about 2 megs. Assuming you use all 4 saves slots for the original 21 games, that's 168 megs (more than half of the available space). If you don't plan on using save states, you need to leave space for the battery saves and the temporary rewind option. I really doubt that can go over 2 megs though.
So, depending on how you are going to use it, you can either almost fill it up with games, or leave a bunch of space for at least 1 save state per game.

I hacked one for a friend and added over 120 games (SNES, NES, GBA) and he still had about 130 megs left.
 

Robin64

Member
You definitely want Street Fighter Alpha 2 on Canoe, for that less latency.

First, download the patch and extract it to a new folder. Put your SFA2 ROM in that folder too. Patch your ROM with WUP-JCGE-PCM.ips. Then drag the SFA2 ROM file on top of the "make_sfrom_pcm.bat" file in that folder, which will run a script and create the .sfrom file for hakchi to use.
 

ReyVGM

Member
You definitely want Street Fighter Alpha 2 on Canoe, for that less latency.

First, download the patch and extract it to a new folder. Put your SFA2 ROM in that folder too. Patch your ROM with WUP-JCGE-PCM.ips. Then drag the SFA2 ROM file on top of the "make_sfrom_pcm.bat" file in that folder, which will run a script and create the .sfrom file for hakchi to use.

The read me says:

WUP-JCGE-SPC.ips : Use if you want to use normal SNES audio.
WUP-JCGE-PCM.ips : Use if you want to use PCM audio.

What is PCM audio? Does it make the music sound different or something?
 

Robin64

Member
The read me says:

WUP-JCGE-SPC.ips : Use if you want to use normal SNES audio.
WUP-JCGE-PCM.ips : Use if you want to use PCM audio.

What is PCM audio? Does it make the music sound different or something?

Ever so slightly. You'd be hard pressed to notice. All the games on the SNES Mini bar Starfox and Starfox 2 are using the PCM audio. What it does is extract the .spc data from the ROM, append it to the end, and use pointers to play it from there instead, bypassing the SPC emulation.

Applying a PCM patch actually makes Mega Man X2 sound a lot better. I can only assume proper SPC emulation is a little rough on the machine?

We also think this would fix Terranigma, but without a VC release to compare to (they all use the PCM data trick too) we can't even begin to work out what to extract.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Ever so slightly. You'd be hard pressed to notice. All the games on the SNES Mini bar Starfox and Starfox 2 are using the PCM audio. What it does is extract the .spc data from the ROM, append it to the end, and use pointers to play it from there instead, bypassing the SPC emulation.

Applying a PCM patch actually makes Mega Man X2 sound a lot better. I can only assume proper SPC emulation is a little rough on the machine?

We also think this would fix Terranigma, but without a VC release to compare to (they all use the PCM data trick too) we can't even begin to work out what to extract.

Thanks for the reply.

I guess what I really want to know is, which is supposed to be the accurate one to the actual cart playing on a real SNES, SPC or PCM?

And when you say "it sounds better", better how exactly? I assume it isn't adding some new sound channels, instrumentations or anything like that, now is it?
 

Robin64

Member
Thanks for the reply.

I guess what I really want to know is, which is supposed to be the accurate one to the actual cart playing on a real SNES, SPC or PCM?

And when you say "it sounds better", better how exactly? I assume it isn't adding some new sound channels, instrumentations or anything like that, now is it?

In X2's case, there is just less crackling. I can't notice any difference between the actual samples, but it seems to just handle the actual playing of samples better.

SPC would be the more accurate, but if it can't run it without some issues then the point is lost anyway. And I think you'd have to be a real audiophile to tell. (Of course, there are people who say they can instantly tell...)
 

ReyVGM

Member
In X2's case, there is just less crackling. I can't notice any difference between the actual samples, but it seems to just handle the actual playing of samples better.

SPC would be the more accurate, but if it can't run it without some issues then the point is lost anyway. And I think you'd have to be a real audiophile to tell. (Of course, there are people who say they can instantly tell...)

Ah got it. I thought it "changed" the way the music sounded. I don't mind the process being used to play the music, as long as it sounds like the original.
 
In X2's case, there is just less crackling. I can't notice any difference between the actual samples, but it seems to just handle the actual playing of samples better.

SPC would be the more accurate, but if it can't run it without some issues then the point is lost anyway. And I think you'd have to be a real audiophile to tell. (Of course, there are people who say they can instantly tell...)

Interesting... Does it have the crackles when you enable nolowlatency?
 

Robin64

Member
Interesting... Does it have the crackles when you enable nolowlatency?

Good question, and sadly I'm at work now so can't test. :(

Worth noting, though, that this has been an ongoing issue on the github and the only solution proposed was the patch. I guess somewhere there might've tried nolowlatency?
 
Good question, and sadly I'm at work now so can't test. :(

Worth noting, though, that this has been an ongoing issue on the github and the only solution proposed was the patch. I guess somewhere there might've tried nolowlatency?

Yeah I can't test it right now either. Just wondering if the cx4 is taxing enough that spc emulation on top is causing minor sound desyncs, which in theory nolowlatency should fix.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Good question, and sadly I'm at work now so can't test. :(

Worth noting, though, that this has been an ongoing issue on the github and the only solution proposed was the patch. I guess somewhere there might've tried nolowlatency?

I only tested the MMX2 intro level and I heard no crackling at all. Is it something that happens later? If so, where is the MMX2 patch?
 
Made a few Super Famicom boxarts for a few NP flashcard releases in Japan which never had a proper retail release, so I thought I might share them. Too bad there is almost no HQ official artwork from those days.

famicondetectiveanu91.jpg
punchoutafu0q.jpg


drmarioq6ure.jpg
 

valippo

Neo Member
Is there any chance someone could make a nice cover art from this scan?
It's the only cover I can't find and the scan looks ugly on my SNES Mini.

44581_front07o9p.jpg
 

Oswen

Member
People are reporting sound problems in stock Yoshi's Island in the hackchi 2 Issues section, .21c/d/e seem to be affected while .21b seems to work fine.
Hopefully it is something that can be fixed down the line.


A question now: are new updates affecting NES classic aswell or are the new fixes for SNES only? Is it worth to flash custom kernel again on the NES after each hackchi 2 update?
 
People are reporting sound problems in stock Yoshi's Island in the hackchi 2 Issues section, .21c/d/e seem to be affected while .21b seems to work fine.
Hopefully it is something that can be fixed down the line.
If this is the case it's strange because hakchi doesn't change the emulator in any way?
 
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