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xxx in 1 Game Elf customisation?


troels

Question

I have seen a few posts where people mentioned customising these boards e.g. music, background images, pop-up graphics etc.

 

I was only to find an old link (on a different site) which started describing protection schemes on the SD card and indicating he had found possible workarounds but then the thread died.

 

Are there any posts here or sites which have info on this?

 

The thread I mentioned above also indicated it wasn't possible to just duplicate the SD via dd (I am quite at home with Linux). I would want to back it up before any tinkering - any info on that?

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Hiya, yes I have done this to a few game ELFs I am using, I have a Matrix & Flynn's arcade themed cabinets, with better music.

 

Copy the SD card they come with in windows with AOMEI Partiation assistant 5.5, which keeps the boot loader intact. You don't want to be messing with the original.

 

I used Ubuntu to use the chown command to set everything to read write.

 

Navigated to the media fold (forget what it was called), changed the background music .mp3's and menu screens layouts and look to what I wanted (on my pc using paint) and then replaced the old file on the game ELF with the new. Make sure you change teh file that is for your screen res size and orientation, otherwise you won't see a change.

 

That was about it.

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Cool, thanks. So you didn't get any boot loop issues after modding the card? I read that there is a checksum which is tested during boot and causes a reboot is the card is modded.

 

How about adding your own ROMs?

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No I didn't because the card if copied that way is a sector by sector copy so nothing is changed (identical copy) so no looping error as it the boot sector remains the same and still matches what the physical PCB board is expecting. This is why other game elf cards may not work in your ELF PCB and why if you order an upgraded game card you'll be asked for you game board serial number, so they can match the boot loader file to your PCB board.

 

Just make sure your new card is that same size in GB AOMEI will do the rest. If you try and change the roms you may get looping error as it checks that the list of roms is that same (I haven't bothered to change them).

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Okay I managed to image it using an USB SD card reader and AOMEI and did the sector by sector copy.

 

The target card is the same size (8Gb) but the copy doesn't boot. Gives an error about no video connection.

 

The instructions on this page (at the bottom - "Backing UP Your SD card"):

 

http://dan.van.derveer.com/twenty/category/arcade/

 

say you need to fuse a bootloader to the copied ROM. This page also tells you how to add a high score save facility which I really want to do.

 

This post:

 

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=2659821&postcount=783

 

has the v 1.29 boot image I think I need for the 8Gb 412 in 1. But I've not been able to register on the site (have emailed the site admin) to allow me to download it. Anyone got another source?

Edited by troels
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Okay so I successfully cloned my original SD card but only after buying an identical Kingston 8GB card. The clone boots up and works fine.

 

I did this on my Mac using DD to create and image then writing the image to the new card.

 

Trying the same process with a different 8GB card using AOMEI (sector by sector) didn't work so I'm also trying it via DD right now. I suspect this one will need to use the boot "fuse" process.

 

I also don't think that boot 1.29 is the correct one as there's a version.txt file on the SD that mentions 2.60 (I think). Not sure if this is the boot version or not. It looks like the 8GB 412-in-1 is different (newer) than the one that have been covered so far so I don't know if the customisation and game save instructions will work. But I'm going to give it a try now that I have a clone.

 

Does anyone know any more about the boot image and extraction of it from my SD image file? There are instructions in the other forum (I still don't have a login yet) that tell you to search for a particular hex string near the end of the SD image and then extract from that point on to create the boot file. I'm quite happy with the method but the end of my 7GB SD image is all zeroes and there are several occurrences of the hex string, all of which are near the front. I would have thought that my SD image would have the boot "section" at the front too - the partitions at the end are all empty/unused space.

 

Finally can anyone explain what the "fuse" process actually does? Is it relocating the boot image in some way? I am fine working with Linux/Unix but the boot process is beyond my knowledge.

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Can't hide on menu so can't access?

 

Yes you can but we have had instances where for unknown reasons the board has done a full reset.

It may never happen again but when the game is in a kids room it can go very bad if suddenly some 8 year old is playing Fantasia or Nude Marjong ...

 

To remove them is the only way to make sure..

I will have a go on the weekend.. Surely it cant be any harder than playing around with games lists and settings on most emulators

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Anywhere I can buy a working. customised card?

 

I know it's a cop-out, which is why I don't mind paying for someone else's hard work. I'm more interested in saving high scores, though better sound would be a bonus. Thanks. Jamie.

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Okay so I successfully cloned my original SD card but only after buying an identical Kingston 8GB card. The clone boots up and works fine.

 

I did this on my Mac using DD to create and image then writing the image to the new card.

 

Trying the same process with a different 8GB card using AOMEI (sector by sector) didn't work so I'm also trying it via DD right now. I suspect this one will need to use the boot "fuse" process.

 

I also don't think that boot 1.29 is the correct one as there's a version.txt file on the SD that mentions 2.60 (I think). Not sure if this is the boot version or not. It looks like the 8GB 412-in-1 is different (newer) than the one that have been covered so far so I don't know if the customisation and game save instructions will work. But I'm going to give it a try now that I have a clone.

 

Does anyone know any more about the boot image and extraction of it from my SD image file? There are instructions in the other forum (I still don't have a login yet) that tell you to search for a particular hex string near the end of the SD image and then extract from that point on to create the boot file. I'm quite happy with the method but the end of my 7GB SD image is all zeroes and there are several occurrences of the hex string, all of which are near the front. I would have thought that my SD image would have the boot "section" at the front too - the partitions at the end are all empty/unused space.

 

Finally can anyone explain what the "fuse" process actually does? Is it relocating the boot image in some way? I am fine working with Linux/Unix but the boot process is beyond my knowledge.

 

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I was just curious if you ever got it to work?

I have a 420:1 Game Elf, and I've been trying to clone the SD card so I can add the hi score hack etc.

 

I used DD to copy the card, and I see all the files and everything appears to be there.

But if I put it into the game elf, the logo appears but then it just loops.

 

I've been following threads, and one post said you need to remove/relink the 'reboot' file. I'm not sure if that means rename the file or something within it? I tried just renaming the file, and when I do this. The game Elf logo appears, but it never goes any further.

 

I've also been reading in some threads about needing to fuse a bootloader? I for the life of me cannot get that to work using SD-Flasher. I think it's because the program was made for win 7? I've tried using it in Admin mode, compatibility mode, just locks up and doesn't see my SD Card when installed.

 

Are there any up to date step by step instructions on what I need to do?

I've been following so many threads, and they all seem to just end with people saying they have it working, but no actual steps that seem to work for me.

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