Making YOUR Retail Platinum Sav Work

[Mushen]

This tutorial was inspired by a problem I had came across earlier last week. It had been solved with the help of SCV, thanks dude. So, I figured it would be good if I share this solution with everyone else so, if it happens which it will - there is a solid tutorial for it.

Basically, this tutorial is written for people who have Pokemon Platinum retail carts and use the Rudolph tool to rip the sav out of the cart and on to the computer.

The Problem

When you rip a SAV file from the cart onto the computer with Rudolph's tool. You will notice that the SAV is only 256kb... This is a problem, unlike Diamond/Pearl which save at 512kb.

So what happened? Well, it's simple - Rudolph's tool only rips half of the Platinum SAV file. Thus it is really hard to do things like edit with PokeSAV and actually make it work the first time you put it back in the retail cart. Even worse, you wont be able to use PPSE because you will get an 'Invalid File' error.

The Solution

Well, thankfully there is one.

This is how I do this, and it's kind of a drag to do even though its simple because I wished Rudolph's tool could just rip the whole entire SAV, but that isn't the case so we need other methods.

Oh and as far as Backup Units: I use an R4ultra when I do this. But I'm sure others will work, it will only matter when it comes down for the shuny web conversion opstions.

You will need a few tools. I'm assuming you have the latest PokeSAV and PPSE programs. If not, go to www.projectpokemon.org and they are links for the pages. Really easy, you can find it yourself since you were so keen on finding this place in the first place

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You need:

- HEX EDITOR!!!! YES
http://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD

and the Shuny Web Converter: http://www.shunyweb.info/convert.php#

If you havn't got Rudolphs tool and/or have not set up the local FTP server to move your SAV files from DS to Computer than heres a link that will help you out with ALL OF THAT.

http://projectpokemon.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1584
http://www.monroeworld.com/myfaq/ind...=85&artlang=en




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So here's the step by step process on achieving a FULL and healthy SAV file.

1. Play Pokemon Platinum for a bit and save the game twice, just to be safe. It's probably a little superstition. You can try to save one time if you have time on your hands.

2. Put in your R4 or whatever Backup Unit you have. And play the NDS_Backup_Tool_Wifi.nds

3. The screen will change, and make sure your Small FTP server (if you havn't set it up, read that tutorial) is up so that the DS can connect to it. It will ask you to replace the cartridge with Pokemon game you wish, in this case Platinum.

4. You will reach a load menu after and press B to make a new SAV file. Let the tool do its thing and when it's done, the list will refresh and you can shut off your DS. Since the SAV should be in your temp folder that you assigned in the Small FTP settings.

5. Go to the Web Converter: http://www.shunyweb.info/convert.php#.

For 'Source Format' select the card you have. Since I have an R4, I select the "Acekard 2 | CycloDS | EDGE | M3 Simply | NinjaDS | R4 | Top Toy DS (.sav) "

Make sure it has that (.sav) because your working with that file type.

For 'Target Format' select "AceKard RPG | EZFlash V | RAW Format [Force 512kb] (.sav)"

Click convert, and download your new sav. Which is now 512kb instead of 256kb!!!

Put the new 512kb file on your desktop if it isn't there yet.

6. With your new 512kb sav file you need to do one more thing. We need to Hex Edit the file to make it complete and it's really really simple. So open up HxD, download link has been provided above.

7. When you start HxD, open the sav file into the editor. You see a lot of random stuff but it's okay. Thats normal.

8. Click 'ctrl g' and for the Offset - type 40000
It will take you to the 40000th offset
Go to the beginning of the 40000 line at 00 bytes, and highlight the whole line above 40000 and everything else up to the beginning of the whole file.

So basically we are going to copy everything before the 40000 line (not the 40000 line!!). It takes a bit to scroll up to the top, be patient. Once you have press ctrl c.

Go back to the 40000 line and NOW you will highlight that line and everything going to the end of the file. So basically highlight the WHOLE 40000 line and everything under it.

Once that whole bottom half of the file is highlighted you are going to press ctrl V and replace all of it with the first half of the file. So line 40000 should be the same as line 1 in the file. Make sure it is, or else you messed up and have to start all over.

9. I hope I explained it well enough. So now all you have to do is save the whole file. Simple. Just sav it, theres a floppy icon at the tool bar or ctrl s. And you will see a file appear on your desktop. It has a file ending like .sav.bak (you dont need this) your original .sav file on your desktop has been edited and you can now use that very same .sav file and open it up in PPSE and do whatever you want.

You can open it up in Pokesav and edit stuff without fail.

And that's it!!

But wait: Thing to be careful of when using Pokesav.
After Hex Editing the file, your party pokemons stats will go out of whack so you need to stat edit all your party pokemon to whatever they were. Just make sure the atk, def, speed, hp and stuff are normal looking because they go into beyond 4 digits and when you load that into the game, your pokemon end up near fainted and when healed they have around 20-30 hp. So, just want to let you know to do that. It's an extra step but at least your sav files are loaded back into the retail cart without fail.

Well thats the tutorial.
I hope it helps people in the future!

It was my first tutorial so I apologize if my writing style is a bit hard to catch on to.
The original solution to this problem is credited to SCV. So the thanks really should go to him, I just happened to have the free time to make the solution possible for everyone who will come in the future.

Feel free to ask me questions, I really love helping people. Ask me anything, I'll give you the best help I can.

[Illithian]

Really nice. Now all I need is a tutorial as to why Rudolph's tool refuses to ever completely copy any ROM or .sav regardless if I use my WPE router or my USB connector.

[Neo]

Nice guide
Sticky request.

[Mushen]

Thank you guys.
And Illithian, I will try to help you out with that. PM me the WHOLE entire situation.

[theSLAYER]

I have a problem.
I can ask it here right?

Anyway I'll proceed.

I followed the tutorial a lot of times,
Looked through it,
But no matter what happens,
My DS just won't connect to the FTP server.

The worse part is that I savsender used to work for me until recently
When my savreceiver keeps getting an error.

I don't have slot-2 flash devices (in case anyone tells me to use one)

[Mushen]

Did you read the monroe'sworld tutorial on setting up your ftp server?
the link is in the tutorial....

also, you need to have the nds file for the NDS_Backup_Wifi_tool.nds in the ROOT folder of the slot-1 flash cart... and make sure that the settings back on the computer are correct...

[codemonkey85]

FYI, saving twice is not a "superstition". Every time you save your game, the backup save data is overwritten with the current save data for any data block that was modified. So by saving twice, you are overwriting both halves of the save file. This way, when Rudolph's tool dumps the save file, you will have the most up-to-date information in whichever block it backs up (not sure if it chooses the first half or second half, to be honest).

Also, it might be easier to use NO$GBA to "fix" your 256kb save file, since you won't have to use the web converter or fix your party PKM; all you do is load the game and save twice again. Well, assuming your NO$ settings are correct (raw 512 save type).

Furthermore, you can simply set Rudolph's tool to force the save file output to be 512kb. This will write whatever data it gets to the first half of the output file, and will pad the last half with 0xFF. This file is usable by Pokesav and / or NO$, although as of right now I believe PPSE will read the file as corrupt. Of course, you should still save twice before performing the backup.

[COBHC]

great guide man

[Mushen]

Thanks.
Yeah, I know about the No$GBA technique.
This is an alternative, as there always should be JUST.... In case lol.
I mean, probably No$GBA is easier, I've never tried it actually but I got used to this method before I just switched to platinum completely on the R4 which is the ultimate solution to the Platinum Sav situation....

[pedro-gon]

It's possible to modify the ripped save (from original game) and re-write the save on the retail cartridge?

[Mushen]

Well, that's what we are doing.
We are ripping the save from the original cartridge and modifying it using the HxD Hex Editor to repair it to its 512kb size. Then you could edit what you want in PPSE or PokeSav and then put it back in the retail cart and there.. A changed save within the retail cartridge.

Every time you put in a save in the cart it writes over whatever save was in their previously because there has been new information placed in the save. So you didn't have that pokemon before but now you re wrote it to have the pokemon you wanted, thus the save is being painted over.

[Zekira]

I have a question. Do I have to do this everytime I extract my file from the retail cart or do I have to do this only once?

You know what I'm really a bit worried about this, particularly in the step where I have to put the .sav back into the cart. Since you tampered around with it, won't that tamper around with the game's original save, too? I might end up losing my entire Platinum file because of this... so I stopped just as I was about to put the .sav back into the cart. Please answer ASAP... thanks.

[Mushen]

To Zekira: Well - you have to do this every time when you want to edit the sav. Yes, its annoying but its the price to pay for having a retail cart of platinum. If you aren't happy about that (like I was), I would suggest that since you have a flashcart that you just download a platinum ROM and then you can freely edit without ever dealing with these issues. But Platinum comes with this nuance that is something you just have to deal with.

And it works when putting the sav back in. If you thing gets corrupted, you wont loose everything but it will revert to a previous save and even then it will sometimes work but that would only happen if you made a mistake somewhere in this process.


To Wylfred: You might to re-read the rudolphs tool tutorial all over again to see if it works. If you get an error when you try to replace the sav its because its the wrong format usually. If its not allowing you to rip a sav its probably because the .nds has a bug which means you should re-download. Get back to me with more info on your situation. Be detailed.

[Shady Guy Jose]

Isn't Platinum's save file 1MB?

[Mushen]

It's 512kb.