tutorial Hack the Pal Park Region-Lock in Pokemon HG/SS

[Poryhack]

Download the patch:

HeartGold - SoulSilver

For those of you who just want to use this and don't give a crap about how it works, follow these simple steps:

1. If you don't have them already, you'll need CrystalTile2 and Tsukuyomi UPS (or any UPS patching tool). I've tailored this guide/patch to work with any HG/SS ROM, no matter how much anti-anti-piracy, translation, etc. crap you've applied.
   
2. Open your HG/SS ROM with CrystalTile2 (you can ignore the small window that pops up when you first open the program) and go to Tools>NDS File System.
   
3. A new window will pop up with a long list of files. Scroll down until you see the one labeled "overlay9_0074", right click it, and select export. Save the file anywhere you like.
   
4. Open Tsukuyomi UPS and select "apply patch to an existing file". Use the file you exported as the target file and apply the patch that corresponds to your game.
   
5. Switch back to CrystalTile and right click the same file as last time, then select import and browse to your patched "overlay9_0074.bin". You're done! Save the ROM and you're ready to start migrating from your English GBA games.
   

Now for details. I'd done this before on D/P/Pt but HG/SS's overlay files are compressed, so it wasn't as simple as the find and replace it had been in D/P/Pt. Initially this had me stumped because although I knew the files were compressed (and there's documentation around on how they're compressed), I am not much of a programmer and didn't have any tool to help me decompress the files. Yesterday though I realized that the function was included in CrystalTile2, a program that has been sitting on my desktop for some months but never got fully explored. Fail.

Anyway, just right click a compressed overlay in CrystalTile's NDS filesystem explorer and you'll have the option of decompressing and saving it or opening a decompressed file and compressing it to that location. The process once you've got the decompressed overlay (#74) is easy enough; do a text search in a hex editor for AXVJ. It'll find a small list of game IDs for the 3rd gen pokemon games in which you can replace all J's with the letter corresponding to your language and vice versa. Save and compress/insert the edited overlay and you're good to go. Any 4th gen game can be hacked to accept any third gen game in a similar manner.

Hope this is useful to someone! A big thanks to Mewtwo2000 who originally showed me how to do this for D/P.

Edited December 2, 2009 by Poryhack

[Kaarosu]

Edit: Pory Fixed It

Edited December 2, 2009 by Kaarosu

[Poryhack]

There was an issue before, I've updated the process used to apply the patch so that they'll work.

[Guested]

You've done it again! Awesome work!

Now foe the big question:

Does it support GBA ROMs loaded into the NOR of ab Ez flash? Or only retail carts?

[Poryhack]

As for a 3in1 compatibility patch as the OP requested, that's beyond my realm for now but I can say that this would go nicely with a hack like ds22's old one. His does not allow you to overcome the region-lock while you could use the two in combination to, for example, transfer from an English emerald on your 3in1 to a Japanese Platinum.

The old patch works with platinum, but not HGSS. I can't say if he'll update it or not.

[theSLAYER]

after I imported back the .bin, I go to "File", and I can't click save. Than when I close it, it prompts something like "changes has been made, click yes to close, click no to go and save", yet I can't save it.

[ssrprotege]

I am looking for the UPS file for Platinum. I can't find one.

[Poryhack]

There isn't one. It's possible to do the same thing I did here with HG/SS but I didn't make patches for all the games

[revel]

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for.

[Poryhack]

after I imported back the .bin, I go to "File", and I can't click save. Than when I close it, it prompts something like "changes has been made, click yes to close, click no to go and save", yet I can't save it.

I just uploaded

since so many people were having problems. Hopefully it'll help you.

[Guested]

Any idea what I did wrong here?

I'm pretty sure I did everything according to how you described it... but then every time I push start to go past the Lugia title screen, everything just stays black...

This is the only patch I've put on this ROM.

[Scarface]

problem i followed instructions about 6 times and all i get is a black screen on the load menu

Edit: last time i tried it, it worked perfectly but my rom crashes wen i connect to wifi so i re-downloaded the game patched it and here i am ready to try again with the migrating crap

[Guest]

When I am in the NDS filesystem explorer, I don't see any button to decompress overlay9_0074.bin

And what is the UPS patch for? To patch the overlay or to patch the rom?

[Poryhack]

Not sure if you tried this back when I first posted it but the link in the first post was a direct download link to the latest version. Now it redirects to another page, which links to a blog post, which links back to what's supposed to be the download but fails because that now redirects to the original page, starting the chain over again. If I knew the author and/or understood chinese I might be able to tell you what's going on, but I don't and I have no clue.

Sometime I really wish we didn't depend on weirdo Asian people for our best tools.

Clearly several changes need to be made to the procedures, so I'll get on that.

[Guest]

It doesn't work.

I don't get any option to decompress the file when in the NDS filesystem viewer.

However, it lets me patch overlay9_0074.bin using the UPS patch.

I import back the overlay9_0074.bin into the rom, but I cannot save it.

When I close CrystalTile2, I get what seems to be a popup asking me to save the file, so I press Yes.

But now the rom crashes after the Lugia screen.

Nevermind. For some reason, when I went in Tools to go to NDS filesystem viewer, I couldn't save.

However, when clicking on the button you showed in the video, it lets me save.

Let's see if it works.

Edit: Still doesn't work. Crashes after the titlescreen, like pretty much everyone else there.

[Poryhack]

When I am in the NDS filesystem explorer, I don't see any button to decompress overlay9_0074.bin

And what is the UPS patch for? To patch the overlay or to patch the rom?

I take it you edited this post? Because when I replied to it it was something about my link to the download.

To answer your new questions: don't worry about a decompress option. The patch is designed to work with a compressed (not decompressed) overlay file (not an entire ROM), and as such you'll only make use of the export and import options.

It doesn't work.

I don't get any option to decompress the file when in the NDS filesystem viewer.

However, it lets me patch overlay9_0074.bin using the UPS patch.

I import back the overlay9_0074.bin into the rom, but I cannot save it.

When I close CrystalTile2, I get what seems to be a popup asking me to save the file, so I press Yes.

But now the rom crashes after the Lugia screen.

Nevermind. For some reason, when I went in Tools to go to NDS filesystem viewer, I couldn't save.

However, when clicking on the button you showed in the video, it lets me save.

Let's see if it works.

Edit: Still doesn't work. Crashes after the titlescreen, like pretty much everyone else there.

I don't think anyone else has followed my instructions to get the latest version of CrystalTile2. I tried it with the version you're using and got the same back screen.

Since the author of the program is not making a download available I suppose I'll upload my copy. Once you have that everything should work.

[Guest]

That means CrystalTile2 is the problem?

Weird.

[Poryhack]

It means old versions of CrystalTile2 are the problem. I meant to update the first post with this but I've been sidetracked. Check this out for now.

[Guardna]

I'm using vesion 2009-9-14 and the save button remains grayed out after importing the patched .bin file. Is it because my ROM is encrypted ? if so, how do i decrypt my ROM ?

EDIT : Forget it, I got it to work.

[Poryhack]

Good to hear someone finally say that. I'm not sure why this is, but it does seem like the save button will remain mysteriously grayed out every now and then. The best solution may just be to try again.

[Guest]

I still didn't receive a reply from wannya to get my registration ID, BTW.

[Poryhack]

How long ago did you send the request?

[Guest]

How long ago did you send the request?

Two days ago.

Edit: Here are the two e-mails Hotmail sent me:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipients has been delayed.

wanny *at* qq.com

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Unable to deliver message to the following recipients, due to being unable to connect successfully to the destination mail server.

wannya *at* qq.com

Edited February 5, 2010 by Guest

[Guardna]

I have two different user IDs, I can send you one of them if you'd like.

[Guest]

I have two different user IDs, I can send you one of them if you'd like.

It won't work.

Pory alerady sent me his own user ID, but CrystalTile2 still wouldn't start.

And anyway, he made a UPS patch to use with clean roms.