colosseum Pokemon Colosseum Beta/Unreleased Room

[TheHeatedMo]

ATTENTION:

All of you in this Forum probably know what the Pokemon Colosseum E-Reader Room is, or may have heard of it.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Basically the E-Reader Room was the room that allowed use of the E-reader to activate trainers to Battle on the Big Screen. There were 4 Packs, each had 5 trainers cards and 1 Colosseum Card.

There were 2 types of battles:

Panel Battles: Face Each Individual Trainer Scanned, and choose the Colosseum and Difficulty.

Endless Battles: Face all 20 Trainers on a set Difficulty and set Colosseum, beating all 20 unlocks a Bonus Trainer which would hold one of the following:

-Shadow Togepi (Easy Difficulty)

-Shadow Mareep (Normal Difficulty)

-Shadow Scizor (Difficult Difficulty)

and you could actually catch the 3.

It is unknown though whether catching these 3 would increase the total value of Shadow Pokemon on the save file or not, which would allow the Colosseum Bonus Disc (Japanese Ofcourse) to distribute 49,50 or 51 Celebi's rather than 48.

The Pokemon Colosseum E-Reader Room was "APPARENTLY" said to be "REMOVED" from the Localized Retail Versions of the Game.

If you look at these pictures which are not faked, 100% real.

IMAGE 1

IMAGE 2

You can see the E-Reader Room is actually still in-tact in US Retail Copies. Unfortunately though, this is not accessible through the use of glitches in any US Retail game.

You would need to edit a copy of the Japanese version's disc image to read GC6E save files. With that you can simply enter the Room if you've completed the main story in the Phenac City Stadium Registration Room (Green Door) and save on the PC, and pop in your US Retail or "Back-Up" copy and you will be in the Card E Room in the US Version and you will see all text is in English, regardless of the Fact that the room was hidden and has never seen the light of day in the US Version until today. The video attached will be uploaded soon, but you will see that in the video, everything is in English. Quite odd, if any of you hackers can get into the coding and activate the E-reader cards without having to actually physically add them, please let me know because I am highly interested in this beta room, and what it looks like because there are no videos on Youtube with a battle of the scanned e-cards.

VIDEO

[video=youtube;dXcAqnmSu9w]

Edited April 1, 2012 by TheHeatedMo

[Poryhack]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but how was this video made?

[TheHeatedMo]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but how was this video made?

Well I'm currently re-uploading the video with the appropriate Watermarks before some steals it, but what do you mean "how was this video made?".

Do you mean practically, equipment wise (the tools I used to create the video and record it)? Or do you mean to ask me how the content was produced (How I actually accessed the room)?

[Poryhack]

Well I'm currently re-uploading the video with the appropriate Watermarks before some steals it, but what do you mean "how was this video made?".

Do you mean practically, equipment wise (the tools I used to create the video and record it)? Or do you mean to ask me how the content was produced (How I actually accessed the room)?

I was asking how you actually accessed the room but I see how you did it now. Unfortunately I doubt there's any straightforward way to get access to the ereader content without actually having the appropriate cards (or data dumps of them). I'm pretty sure the content of those cards doesn't exist anywhere in Colosseum; it is dynamically loaded from the card and handled by Colosseum.

EDIT: Maybe not. Posts here seem to indicate otherwise.

EDIT2: Somehow I managed to find dumps of the ecards. Not really sure what to do with them though. Have a look.

[TheHeatedMo]

Sorry it took me long to reply!

Okay to answer your question I had actually modified the Japanese Pokemon Colosseum ISO's Text Strings and Hex Values in HxD.

You would:

-Open up the Pokemon Colosseum Japanese ISO in HxD

-Look for Offset 003A4E90 and Change the Text String GC6J into GC6E

and do the same for Offset 00000000 and Offset 003A5A90.

-Burn the ISO onto a disc or whatever.

-Play it on a modded system that can read burned DVD-R's with a Gamecube Game on it.

-Make sure your English Copy of Pokemon Colosseum's save has saved at a point after beating the Final Boss.

-In the Japanese version it will access your English Copies Save file

-Than go to Phenac City Stadium, walk into the Green Door.

-Save the Game in the PC in the Card E Room

-Pop In your English Copy

-You are now in the Room!

BTW THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH FOR THE DUMPS, I CAN EASILY JUST PRINT OUT THE CARDS, but nowww.... I need a Japanese E-Reader + -.-.

[Poryhack]

BTW THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH FOR THE DUMPS, I CAN EASILY JUST PRINT OUT THE CARDS, but nowww.... I need a Japanese E-Reader + -.-.

I was looking into this more last night. It looks like you could actually try it with Dolphin (the GC/Wii emulator) and VBA-M (the GBA emulator). I haven't gotten as far as actually hooking them up, but I've successfully loaded the e-Reader+ ROM in no$gba and "scanned" one of the raw files I provided in my last post. At that point I am presented with this lovely screen which Guested translated as something along the lines of "can only be used with Colosseum". No surprises there since I wasn't connected.

[TheHeatedMo]

I was looking into this more last night. It looks like you could actually try it with Dolphin (the GC/Wii emulator) and VBA-M (the GBA emulator). I haven't gotten as far as actually hooking them up, but I've successfully loaded the e-Reader+ ROM in no$gba and "scanned" one of the raw files I provided in my last post. At that point I am presented with this lovely screen which Guested translated as something along the lines of "can only be used with Colosseum". No surprises there since I wasn't connected.

I've actually tried that today, I also tried that with the English E-Reader Rom which told me REGION LOCK.

What you're actually supposed to do is actually go to Pokemon Colosseum, say Yes to the first question, say No to the second question and than leave it at the 3rd Question until you start up the E-Reader and go to Communication -> Nintendo Gamecube. This will actually download the Pokemon Colosseum application card scanning data used to send data through the E-Reader to Pokemon Colosseum, after that go to Access Saved Data, then on the Screen, (which I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE (N) ) will say please Scan Pokemon Colosseum Double Battle E Stadium Card, then will say Please Scan Pokemon Colosseum Trainer Card. It will transmit the data, and than *BAM* the information is sent to Colosseum. THERE IS NO WAY you can scan the card, and save it on the Utilities Access Saved Data (Which is basically the cards information saved onto the E-Reader permanently until overwritten), HOWEVER you can transmit the Pokemon Colosseum Transmission Application, and save it onto the Access Saved Data which than can be edited in a .sav file created by VBA or Extracted by gba backup tool v0.21. I'm not much of a hacker, but hackers can decipher a way to scan Japanese Cards, or translate these cards through trial and error, than you can easily just print out these cards with a 1200 DPI resolution or Higher Printer, onto Photopaper, load the save onto the E-Reader with GBA Backup Tool 0.21 with the *deciphered* save and scan the *translated* Card onto the US version.

How do I know this? Both the Japanese and US Version of the game have something called carde_menu.fsys which is a file holding all the Data for the E-Reader and how it works. You can see that in the hex editor, all 20 trainer cards .bin files (information either that contains information matching the card, or information needed to activate the event) are listed and I'm sure the other 4 are somewhere in the game's file system (I Used GC ISO tool to Extract carde_menu.fsys). I cannot solicit ROMS and ISOS on this forum but I'm sure you may be able to find a rom on Colosseum and use GC ISO Tool to find some other things that pertain to this room in General and maybe Trainer Data, Trainer Text Dumps, Anything you may be able to find. Again, how do I know this? When Scanning a card in the E-reader it will access Sprites, Data, Information from the save file and the save file is actually basically the Game Information it is supposed to access. Pokemon Colosseum, DOES NOT have the type of save file that the e-reader creates, the memory blocks used to save Pokemon Colosseum is 48 which is about 3MB's of Save Data, which is used to hold Pokemon, Record Information, Gamecube Save Files were never designed to carry E-Reader information, rather record activated events, when you catch a pokemon in colosseum, it doesn't get written on the disk or on the save file, it was already on the disc, the memory card carries data the game reads to know which events have occured and what things the game has to access to show your progress, and how you played the moment you wrote to the memory card. Pokemon Colosseum, has ALL of the Card Data written in the game, in theory you can EDIT THE SAVE to activate the events in the Log Book. So, somehow, we need to extract the card .bin files out of Colosseum's disc data and onto the computer, and try to load e-roader dot codes in NO$GBA if it says this data only works for Pokemon Colosseum we CAN print out these files onto an E-reader code strip, scan it on a real E-Reader device, or if possible load it onto an emulator and SUCCESS. WE HAVE JUST MADE BETA/UNRELEASED INFORMATION RELEASABLE, people can actually download these files they can simply print out these Translated Cards or Salvaged HIDDEN card data and scan it onto an Official E-Reader or load it onto an Emulator and Success, we just beat Nintendo!

HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE FSYS's HEX Data, Possibly Useful.

DOWNLOAD LINK TO CARDE_MENU.FSYS

http://www.mediafire.com/?ma7fgjho3cc3vmm

Tools to Look For:

GC ISO TOOL

POKEMON COLOSSEUM DISC IMAGE

POKEMON COLOSSEUM JAPANESE DISC IMAGE

POKEMON COLOSSEUM JAPANESE E CARD FULL SET

HEX EDITOR

-TOOL THAT CAN EXTRACT .bin FILES FROM FSYS.

-TOOL(S) THAT CAN TRANSLATE E-READER CARD DATA

-TOOL(S) THAT CAN MANIPULATE POKEMON COLOSSEUM SAVE DATA

TOOL THAT CAN PRINT E-READER CARDS (have that already, just forgot the name)

EDIT: CARDE_MENU.fsys I used this Program http://hcs64.com/files/gcfsysd01.zip to extact the data

seems that the .bins were useless in the FSYS. But this program may be able to help us out, by extacting ALL FSYS's data!

EDIT 2: You may be able to modify the Japanese Pokemon Colosseum ISO to read the English E-Reader, but than you would still need

to get the english e-reader to read japanese e-reader information

Edited April 3, 2012 by TheHeatedMo

[ShayminGracidea]

I was just browsing the internet for stuff when I found this topic, and I have to say, I am very interested. Now, to join in on the discussion.

I think I could help if we were to print out the cards, you see, I have an excellent printer with some high resolutions so I think I could help there. Though, I have a question. Was the room still kept in the PAL release of this game?. I also think I might be able to help pass the Region Lock on the English e-Reader since I have a friend that is a great hacker. I personally have also hacked into a few things....

I'm sorry if I don't make sense since I'm kinda rushing this post.

[TheHeatedMo]

I was just browsing the internet for stuff when I found this topic, and I have to say, I am very interested. Now, to join in on the discussion.

I think I could help if we were to print out the cards, you see, I have an excellent printer with some high resolutions so I think I could help there. Though, I have a question. Was the room still kept in the PAL release of this game?. I also think I might be able to help pass the Region Lock on the English e-Reader since I have a friend that is a great hacker. I personally have also hacked into a few things....

I'm sorry if I don't make sense since I'm kinda rushing this post.

First off.

-The Room may be kept in the PAL release, but would have no reason to be in there.

-The E-Reader was NEVER released in the UK and other parts of Europe.

-There is no reason to experiment with the PAL version because it is the version to get

the least results, so far as maybe that the Room is probably...

1. Been PHYSICALLY REMOVED because the US version released before it just hid the room.

2. Still there unchanged from the US Version with US or Japanese E-Reader Data.

3. Still there unchanged from the Japanese version with Japanese E-Reader Data.

4. There with no NPCs, or even a save PC.

5. There with NPCS without dialogue.

6. Corrupted, so that you are unable to get out.

7. Most Unlikely, There with Experimental E-Reader Functionality that would work with PAL only E-Readers.

The Printer is no big deal because those with US or JPN E Reader's will be able to scan with a Printed Card from their printer.

If we can surpass this region lock it will open doors to the modding community, so please if you can experiment with your iso and the e-cards provided at this link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/258536/ecards.zip and you get something, don't hesitate to reply right away! You may also want to look for an E-Reader, or alternative such as an E-Reader Rom, obviously can't solicit it on here.

[Poryhack]

The most feasible way to do this region hacking would actually be to edit an English version of Colosseum to identify as Japanese, hopefully unlocking it and enabling communication with a (Japanese) e-Reader+ which could be either real or running in an emulator.

[TheHeatedMo]

The most feasible way to do this region hacking would actually be to edit an English version of Colosseum to identify as Japanese, hopefully unlocking it and enabling communication with a (Japanese) e-Reader+ which could be either real or running in an emulator.

Easier, modify the Japanese Version to Save on a US SAVE, than scan the cards. Save the game,face the trainers you scanned on the E-Reader +. But still it's really hard to find an E-Reader + for a decent price, can you find a place that will sell an E-Reader + for cheap?

[ShayminGracidea]

First off.

-The Room may be kept in the PAL release, but would have no reason to be in there.

-The E-Reader was NEVER released in the UK and other parts of Europe.

-There is no reason to experiment with the PAL version because it is the version to get

the least results, so far as maybe that the Room is probably...

1. Been PHYSICALLY REMOVED because the US version released before it just hid the room.

2. Still there unchanged from the US Version with US or Japanese E-Reader Data.

3. Still there unchanged from the Japanese version with Japanese E-Reader Data.

4. There with no NPCs, or even a save PC.

5. There with NPCS without dialogue.

6. Corrupted, so that you are unable to get out.

7. Most Unlikely, There with Experimental E-Reader Functionality that would work with PAL only E-Readers.

The Printer is no big deal because those with US or JPN E Reader's will be able to scan with a Printed Card from their printer.

If we can surpass this region lock it will open doors to the modding community, so please if you can experiment with your iso and the e-cards provided at this link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/258536/ecards.zip and you get something, don't hesitate to reply right away! You may also want to look for an E-Reader, or alternative such as an E-Reader Rom, obviously can't solicit it on here.

Ah, I see. Luckily for me I live in Australia so I can actually buy an e-reader from a store called Gametraders, I can also probably grab an American copy of the game from there. I'll have a look at the file in a few minutes when I get onto my computer. I'll also have a look at the files on an American and Japanese ISO if I can (My poor Internet download limit....).

[Poryhack]

Easier, modify the Japanese Version to Save on a US SAVE, than scan the cards. Save the game,face the trainers you scanned on the E-Reader +. But still it's really hard to find an E-Reader + for a decent price, can you find a place that will sell an E-Reader + for cheap?

More google mining and I found one for a fairly sane $55 shipped. http://www.gamebaz.com/?a=i&i=8357U

I still think an emulator is the way to go though.

[Nigoli]

I've owned a Card e-Reader+ for years now, if anyone wanted me to test anything out.

[Poryhack]

I've owned a Card e-Reader+ for years now, if anyone wanted me to test anything out.

Great! If it's not too much trouble could you hook it up to a Japanese copy of Colosseum, print out the image below at 300DPI on a decent quality printer, scan the printed image in, save Colosseum right after the scan, and upload the save here for us to tinker with? (Technically we're gonna need the save converted to an English save but we can easily do that ourselves.)

On another note, I've been researching emulators and I've come to the somewhat unfortunate conclusion that no existing binary for VBA includes both link support and e-reader support (there are versions that include one or the other). I may look into merging e-reader support into the main VBA-M source and compiling my own but I make no promises that I'm not hopelessly out of my league with that task.

[Nigoli]

^ Will do as soon as I can get the chance.

You can try NO$, but it's awfully confusing to get it working. But it does indeed work, I was able to do it with my own collection of dumps with Rockman EXE4~6 e-Reader+ Cards.

[Poryhack]

^ Will do as soon as I can get the chance.

You can try NO$, but it's awfully confusing to get it working. But it does indeed work, I was able to do it with my own collection of dumps with Rockman EXE4~6 e-Reader+ Cards.

No$gba does work great for the e-Reader part, but unless I'm missing something it can't link up with Dolphin. VBA-M however can.

[TheHeatedMo]

Nigoli,

You would need a modified Japanese Pokemon Colosseum ISO which would allow it to read US Saves.

US Retail/Backup of Pokemon Colosseum.

A modified Nintendo Wii/GC (Wii is the best option) that can run GC Backups.

Printed out E-Reader Cards for Colosseum Double Battle.

Than scan the printed Cards into the Completed US Pokemon Colosseum Save being Run on a Japanese Game.

Save the game.

Check the US Version.

In the US Version you SHOULD be able to access the E-Reader Room if saved in the Japanese Game that is modified to save over a US Save.

go to the receptionist.

If she says you can battle previous VR trainers without scanning we are successful, extract a GC save for us and bring it over to the forum with a DL Link.

I meet all these standards except for that damn e-reader + -.-, otherwise I would've done it myself *sigh*

[Poryhack]

I intentionally left out the save region hacking part because it would be simple enough for you or me to do that after he uploads the Japanese save file. Saves him the trouble.

Speaking of saves, ZoneBoii could you send me the English save you have where you're standing in the e-Reader room? I have a custom-built VBA that I want to test with Dolphin and it would save me some time if I didn't have to go through the entire process myself. Fell free to PM or post the link here, whatever you prefer.

[TheHeatedMo]

I intentionally left out the save region hacking part because it would be simple enough for you or me to do that after he uploads the Japanese save file. Saves him the trouble.

Speaking of saves, ZoneBoii could you send me the English save you have where you're standing in the e-Reader room? I have a custom-built VBA that I want to test with Dolphin and it would save me some time if I didn't have to go through the entire process myself. Fell free to PM or post the link here, whatever you prefer.

I just read your post so sorry for the long reply, here you go!

Download Link

Just uploaded it to my website! Knock yourself out unfortunately my computer is unable to handle VBA-M when it's in Joybus mode, give it a try!

[Poryhack]

Been playing with VBA all day and I'm sad to say that emulating this appears to be out of the picture, even with a version that supports link and e-reader functionality. It's all up to you Nigoli!

BTW did you see my link to the $55 e-reader+ ZoneBoii?

[TheHeatedMo]

Yeah I am currently saving up for one, won't be able to purchase right away though . Hopefully we'll be able to get into the Japanese version and see if it does anything on the US version.

[brantaCanadensis]

Sorry it took me long to reply!

Okay to answer your question I had actually modified the Japanese Pokemon Colosseum ISO's Text Strings and Hex Values in HxD.

You would:

-Open up the Pokemon Colosseum Japanese ISO in HxD

-Look for Offset 003A4E90 and Change the Text String GC6J into GC6E

and do the same for Offset 00000000 and Offset 003A5A90.

-Burn the ISO onto a disc or whatever.

-Play it on a modded system that can read burned DVD-R's with a Gamecube Game on it.

-Make sure your English Copy of Pokemon Colosseum's save has saved at a point after beating the Final Boss.

-In the Japanese version it will access your English Copies Save file

-Than go to Phenac City Stadium, walk into the Green Door.

-Save the Game in the PC in the Card E Room

-Pop In your English Copy

-You are now in the Room!

BTW THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH FOR THE DUMPS, I CAN EASILY JUST PRINT OUT THE CARDS, but nowww.... I need a Japanese E-Reader + -.-.

Does this same method work for modifying the japanese colosseum bonus disk. I'de like to play the game in English, catch and purify all 48 shadow pokemon and then just use a modified Colosseum bonus disk to add Celebi to my US save, load the US game back up and see celebi in my Box.

Also when you say

Look for Offset 003A4E90 and Change the Text String GC6J into GC6E

and do the same for Offset 00000000 and Offset 003A5A90.

how do you want us to do that? By using Search > Goto... or by using Search > Find ?

A quick guide of like 3 or 4 screen shots would make doing this super easy

[RadioShadow]

This is a good find ZoneBoii. I'm surprised no one has tried connecting the Card Reader e+. Well I was bored and tried it myself, since I own one. I actually brought one 2 years ago to use with F-ZERO: Legend of Falcon (F-ZERO: GP Legend) which allows you to play extra courses.

Anyway, as ZoneBoii has shown, the e-reader features were not removed and the necessary text was translated as well. They have not however made any changes to the Application that gets sent to the GBA. Basically, it is still set up to communicate with the Card Reader e+ and send the data to the device.

I've taken some screenshots, to prove it works.

Here is the message saying the e-reader has been found and is sending the data.

This message on the GBA basically shows the data has been transferred successfully.

Here is the application running, with Japanese text.

Once the application has been sent, you can walk into the tube thing. It need gives you the options to have a Panel Battle or Endless Battle.

If you click on Panel battle, you will get this option, asking you to scan the cards.

Now the fun part is printing out the cards. Unfortunately, I need access to a good printer, which I don't have. However, at my work place, they have an awesome printer. Hopefully next week, I'll get them printed out onto photo glossy card.

The e-reader stores data in vpk format. In the US ISO file, at location 3A2E8A94 is the size of the file and at location 3A2E8A94 is the file that gets transferred. This means we could modify the application to run on the US version. Although I would need to look into that.

For those that are interested, here is the Card Reader e+ save file: http://www.mediafire.com/?2sf5fof5sv6jer3

[Lum]

Card Reader e+ was available in a pack with Doubutsu no Mori e+. Searching for that game will pick up further sources to find one.

Maybe we could make an Action Replay code to trick the door warp into behaving like Japanese Colosseum?

It's certainly possible the PAL version translated the room's text into each relevant language. Super Mario Advance 4 did that despite hiding world-e after all.