Hacking The M3 Sakura FAQ

[cornaljoe]

Quite a clever way to make the product look more interesting by bundling current features and calling it a new one. Well, assuming I'm correct on how they implemented it. I still can't wait to see this new release. Ahtin was right, M3 are always late.

Actually they are writing that article as an introduction to Sakura (Sakura hasn't been released officially in English yet), so the resume media feature is a "new" feature for someone who hasn't used Sakura before.

You, have a point there. Well,anyway I still can't wait until the release. I wonder how many translations are still needed.

 

[illithid]

With this new side loading design, I was wondering if this type of cart are easy to be ejected from NDS. The original cart was too big and have to be ejected using two thumbs on each side. It would be troublesome now if the new design still retains this flaw.

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

With this new side loading design, I was wondering if this type of cart are easy to be ejected from NDS. The original cart was too big and have to be ejected using two thumbs on each side. It would be troublesome now if the new design still retains this flaw.

I don't have to put 2 thumbs on each side of the cart. I can easily eject it just like any other DS game. I will admit though I do have to give it more pressure than normal.

As for the side-loading design, since it was just announced all but 3 days ago no one on this forum has one yet. I'm sure once someone gets a hold of one it'll be reported whether or not it fixes original hardware issues.

 

[AXYPB]

My Real can only be ejected by pressing down on the left side. Pressing down anywhere else doesn't trigger the spring.

 

[gangsterboi]

MY real works is perfect, pressing anywhere works. It's just like having a real game in there.

 

[Densetsu]

Spoiler: 1.34

I'm working on something for you guys right now.

More to come

 

[unz]

...and with a single post, Densetsu3000 brings the awesome back to US/Eur M3 Real cards.

Thanks for translating Sakura for us one more time. I really appreciate what you're doing.

M3 Adapter should just give up, call your version the official Eng translation, and send you a cheque for doing their job for them.
Seriously.

 

[Rob_Threat]

the Japanese version came out yesterday... he's preparing details... not a hack.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

True that, There will be very detailed info from him!!

Also, in my opinion, it's still unneeded to hack/translate latest Sakura, because I'm guessing it's coming officially soon, but if rest of the team decides t go for it, they can always count on me!

What do you say Densetsu3000, should we do translation of the latest version?!

 

[AXYPB]

If need be I'm always ready as well.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

If need be I'm always ready as well.

That's good to hear AXYPB

Maybe we could do it, but translating it this time could be much easier than hacking it!!
From what I know, they changed the form of Sakura, and it's structure is a bit different, I don't think it's hackable in the same way as before..

And one more thing, I'd need newer files to edit them for a skin!

 

[unz]

the Japanese version came out yesterday... he's preparing details... not a hack.

Oops sorry, my bad. That's what ya get for jumpin' the gun, kids.

Btw, does iamanobody still visit GBAtemp? I haven't seen post from him for aaages, and from what I understand, he's kinda crucial to the project if you guys are going to do another hack.

 

[Skyline969]

Spoiler: 1.34

I'm working on something for you guys right now.

More to come

If 1.34 can be fully hacked and translated, then I bow down to the GBATemp unofficial hack/translation team for Sakura!

Just think - it's a substantial upgrade. Sure, the M3 Sakura official English firmware may be coming out "soon", but God knows how long that will be. If I could get a hacked upgrade before the official release, I'd love it.

 

[Densetsu]

Sorry for the wait, YouTube was taking a long time to process my video after I uploaded it.

Here's the video review I slapped together of some of the new features of M3 Sakura:

Spoiler: M3 Sakura 1.34

Unfortunately, this still only works on the JP flash cart. With regards to an English translation for this, the question is not whether we can translate it. Most of it is already translated and any new lines of Japanese text I can translate in about 10 minutes (in fact, the majority of it I've already translated in the annotations of the video).

The one obstacle we face is that the region lock needs to be removed so that everyone can use it. iamanobody did that, but he rarely ever logs on and hasn't answered my PMs, so we're out of luck unless he has some free time to drop by here again (or unless someone else has the elite skills that he has)

However, I have a feeling that an official English version will be released. The official announcement on the M3 Adapter website, and now this Japanese release, give me hope.

Ok guys, I'm late meeting up with my study partner, so I'd better head on out. When I get back later tonight, I'll post a couple more screenshots and write out a full post of my findings, as well as try to answer all of your questions to the best of my ability.

Cheers!

 

[Rob_Threat]

looks cool. good work adding all those notes to the vid so quickly.

 

[AXYPB]

I say give a time limit for an unofficial translation. If an official release date is given, do not translate or hack it until a week passes after that date if it hasn't been released already.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

As it has been said, it's not that hard to translate it as it's actually hacking it!! I'm up for it..

 

[unz]

Paging Mr iamanobody. Would iamanobody please pick up the blue and white courtesy phone? Thankyou.

 

[Densetsu]

M3 Sakura v1.34 - First Impressions
M3 Sakura v1.34 Demo Video
M3 Sakura v1.34 English Screenshots
M3 Sakura v1.34 Reverse-Engineering Thread

Some of you may have actually bothered to download the Japanese "firmware" and take a look at it, but for those who haven't, here's some info.

I call it "firmware" with quotation marks because it's not really the Sakura loader. It's actually an .msi file. It's an installer for a brand-new DSM encoder, just like DPGenc. Strangely enough, this setup file which is meant for Japanese users is in English (perfect English, I might add). The DSM encoder itself is still in Engrish, however.

Spoiler

[titleSM Encoder]

Clicking on "Setup Sakura" in the top-right corner will bring up this screen:

Spoiler: Setup Sakura

This extracts the actual firmware files to your MicroSD card. I did the Sakura setup on a freshly-formatted card, and when the files were done copying there was only a SYSTEM folder on the card and nothing else (I checked for hidden files as well). I've RAR'ed the Japanese SYSTEM folder and uploaded it here in case someone wants to take a crack at them.

Auto-Boot Function
The system files don't include the defaultx.nds and defaulty.nds auto-boot files anymore. I copied the old auto-boot files from the original firmware to the root of my card and tried holding down X and Y while booting, but neither of them worked. I got a message saying "Save data file format error!" When I try to slide them open from within the Sakura GUI, I get two white screens. I tried auto-booting with an actual ROM as well, and still had no luck. But when I renamed the ROM to defaultx.nds and tried sliding it open within Sakura, it loaded normally, as expected since renaming a ROM has no effect on its loading. So from what I can tell, the auto-boot function has been removed from Sakura 1.34.

Media
The music player and the video player haven't changed at all in terms of controls, appearance and function, except that now the video player supports both DPG and DSM files. I also noticed that the video player doesn't cut the last few seconds from a video anymore. I encoded all of my videos using DPGenc and I also made a test video using the new Sakura DSM encoder. If you use BatchDPG or something else to encode your movies, your results may vary.

DSM Encoder
I encoded a couple of videos on the new M3 Sakura 1.34 DSM encoder to test out the "Index Picture" option in the DSM Encoder, and it rocks! When you encode a video, you have the option of adding an image to it so that when you highlight the video in Sakura, the top screen will automatically display the image. Here's the demo video of what it looks like.

Spoiler: M3 Sakura DSM Movie Encoder "Index Picture" Demo

I used BMP images at 256x192 resolution for the test videos I encoded. I'm not quite sure what happens if you try to use a larger image, but if I have time I'll try it out and post my findings here.

I took a raw video and encoded a DPG file and a DSM file with it, using the default settings from DPGenc and Sakura DSM Encoder. Both the DPG and DSM file were exactly the same size, down to the last byte. I also couldn't tell the difference in quality between the two files.

Homebrew
Homebrew support has been improved greatly. Check the M3 Sakura Homebrew Compatibility List.

TouchPod
It's identical to the TouchPod we've been using all along, with the same two default skins, same layout, same everything. This may be my imagination, but I think that the icons in TouchPod are more responsive to the stylus now. Whereas sometimes I used to have to firmly tap an icon 2-3 times to get it to register, I now only have to tap it once, and I don't even have to tap it firmly. Again, maybe it's my imagination, but at least one other person has already said the same thing. I tested DSO on TouchPod and it runs perfectly. I suppose the dual-boot is the M3 team's answer to poor homebrew compatibility in Sakura?

Other Stuff
Everything else seems to be the same. Some small things have been omitted. For example, when you press START to go to GUI Settings, the option to show ID3 tags on MP3s is no longer there (it never worked in the first place, so maybe they removed it because they couldn't get it to work). I've shown the major changes on the video in Post #494 above.

Summary of Differences between v1.12 and v1.34 in the Video

• New animated loading screen
• TouchPod officially integrated into a dual-boot system with Sakura (holding A while powering on takes you to the system select menu)
• New "Language Settings" option (for fonts?) on the initial setup screen
• GBA and NDS ROM config menus fully rebuilt and integrated into Sakura- pressing X or Y on a GBA ROM now takes you to the settings
  - you can now exit out of GBA and NDS settings simply by pressing B
  - skins now affect the appearance of the config menus
• RTS added for NDS ROMs

Updated "Cons" List from the Original Sakura FAQ

• Some AR cheats are not supported
• Doesn't read ROM header info
• No global settings (can't apply soft-reset, cheat switches, etc. to all ROMs at once)

The poor homebrew compatibility thing irks me, even with the official inclusion of TouchPod.

As for another unofficial English release, it looks like the "GBAtemp division" of the M3 Sakura team is ready to get back to work, but without iamanobody or someone else who can make it region-free, no one will be able to use the translated firmware

 

[kobykaan]

maby removed default nds file loading to stop the Triple loader??

Interesting that they have made some improvements but I don't think I will be switching even if they did release an English version until they fully sort out the homebrew problems and fix the AR cheat stuff etc!

They seem to take a big leap forward with stuff ....and then break the other stuff every new release