help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

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donssword
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help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by donssword »

I have run into an issue I can't seem to figure out yet, and thought I would throw it out there to the community to see if anyone might have some insight.

My Wii specs:
US NTSC Softmodded Wii w/ Gamecube support
a very large HCSD card (no USB)
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Gecko 1.9.3.1
GCBooter 1.0
All the homebrew you can shake a stick at
The skills to create WAD loaders, and load homebrew without the HBB

I can boot and play the PAL game Doshin the Giant (orig disc, not a copy) with no problems.

But, I just bought a brand new JP import of Warrior Blade, known as Barbarian on the PS2. I obviously wanted to play it on a better looking system, hopeful the brutally long PS2 load times were shorter on the GC--and I can't get it the game to play. It doesn't make any difference if I launch it from Gecko or from GCBoot.

The game will launch, title screens will display, and the opening movie rolls just fine, but at the end of the movie, it freezes to a black screen with complete gibberish on it--3 lines of ASCII text, obviously a JP font trying real hard to render. And nothing else happens. I have tried fiddling a bit with settings in Gecko, but to no avail.

I know I could emulate this game on Dolphin, but I really, really want to play it on my Wii with my Wavebirds.

Are there any other GCN import launchers out there that might work better? I thought it was less about the launcher, and more about just the settings--in that all launchers use the same tech. Is Riivolution a potential solution? How would I even start with Riivolution?

Any suggestions for debugging this one?

EDIT: I don't want to buy any new hardware, switch to my PC. Pull out my old GCs, etc. I want to make this happen on my Wii.
--
My first console: the Teletype Model 33.
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JoeAwesome
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Re: help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by JoeAwesome »

I tried playing imports with GeckoOS and found out if you load the game, then eject the disc quickly, it'll throw up an error about being unable to read the disc, but then if you reload it without resetting it, it'll continue to boot up without freezing. I had DreamTV Mix freeze up after the memory card error screen, but before the opening video started for more than 2 seconds. This trick worked out for me.
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donssword
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Re: help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by donssword »

Cool. I'll give that a shot.

I know a lot of folks used to use a swap method a few years back, but I imagine it would have been easy for Nintendo to patch it out.
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My first console: the Teletype Model 33.
Hazerd
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Re: help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by Hazerd »

Everytime i mod a Wii i end up trying something new on it, but havent played around with my modded Wii in a few months and always forget what i last did.

But i use DIOS-MIOS to play GCN games, some require a disc in the drive, some dont, some can be loaded with Lite some need non-Lite.
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donssword
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Re: help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by donssword »

Hazerd wrote:Everytime i mod a Wii i end up trying something new on it, but havent played around with my modded Wii in a few months and always forget what i last did.

But i use DIOS-MIOS to play GCN games, some require a disc in the drive, some dont, some can be loaded with Lite some need non-Lite.


Yeah, its been a few months--totally in the same boat. I've moved most of my regular gaming to a Windows Media PC/Steam Box on my TV, but not emulation. My last console was the Wii, so a Steam PC made more sense to play both Titanfall and Bioshock--the best of last gen and next gen. I loved the Wii Homebrew scene, and even learned to make my own Channels with prexisting templates, but I go far too long between hacking sessions, and I have to relearn each time in order to do cool stuff. The Complete Soft Mod Guide is my friend ( https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/ )

I'll look at DIOS-MIOS. I hadn't used it because I thought it was all about backups on a USB drive, and I really don't want to go that route. I have a nice big SanDisk SD card, Class 10 speed, 32GB of storage, so it holds eeeeeverything I need.

The funny thing about JP GCN is how small the game box is. Upon opening my order, I freaked out a little bit, thinking I'd bought a bootleg, until I Googled it, and saw how little the GC packing was in Asia--I really like the tiny size--it evokes cartridge packaging, and saves a hell of a lot of space. Its a damn shame they didn't feel compelled to keep the smaller boxes in the US and EU--I understand why, just sad. I was a late comer to the Cube, but I love it, and I love my Wii too.
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My first console: the Teletype Model 33.
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donssword
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Re: help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by donssword »

Success! I got my JP original GCN disc "Warrior Blade: Rastan vs Barbarian" to launch on my Wii using NeoGamma!

I went back to the Softmod Guide after you suggested DIOS-MIOS, and remembered the list of GCN launchers:
https://sites.google.com/site/completes ... chers/disc

I grabbed NeoGamma, and installed via with YAMMAW with IOS 236, and it worked with no config change (Yes!). NeoGamma is normally used for playing burns/back-ups. I figured, as long as it mounted a disc, it probably didn't matter if it was a back-up or original disc (I was hopeful, as mine is an orig JP disc):
https://sites.google.com/site/completes ... chers/disc

And then I started wondering if someone had already made a Channel, and I found the "Forwarder" only version here:
https://code.google.com/p/neogammachannel/

The game launched cleanly. All the logos played, the opening movie renders, and I can launch into the main menu. The differences I noted so far include:
  • Load screens are shorter.
  • The animated laughing skull loading screen is gone. On the PS2 you can move the skull around the screen as it laughs at you. So far the skull's only appearance is as the icon for the GCN save file on the memory card.
  • Anti-aliasing from the GCN processor is nice and clean, [EDIT] fewer jaggies than the PS2 version. EDIT: The PS2 ver looks a lot better than I remember--it's awfully clean looking compared to other PS2s from that period. .
  • The character icons at the top of the Character Select screen show more of the character on the GCN, not just the head like on the PS2.
  • The actual Character Select portraits that display when you pick a character feature manga styled drawings rather than the 3-D character models used in the game. The portrait only swaps to a mirror image for the alternate costume--not showing the actual costume differences. EDIT: The PS2 version actually shows the costume differences on the select screen.
  • The GCN version's opening movie is much more compressed, it shows definite pixelation from compression and uses a smaller color palette resulting in obvious color dithering.
  • All the menus are in English, including the control pad settings. The only Japanese is Copyright and Save warning text before the company logos appear, and the story text for each character and each chapter. Interestingly enough, the narration of the story text is all in English, and all the V.O. talent is the same as found in the PS2 version.

I have not pulled out the PS2 version to compare it item for item yet. The gameplay "feels" the same so far, hard, but tightly controlled. I'll need to pop them both in and switch back and forth between the PS2 and Wii to see what other differences I can see.
--
My first console: the Teletype Model 33.
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theclaw
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Re: help needed debugging JP GCN game on US Wii

Post by theclaw »

Most methods of playing JP games don't change the system region. Leading to compatibility issues, usually text.
I've started a list about it.

http://www.gc-forever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2553

Be careful should you get a JP system or hack. Real Japanese mode fixes all that, but different memory card format!
Lum fan.
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