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Dreamcast: Geist Force Hacking and ISO Rebuilding

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Dreamcast
 · 22 Jun 2019
Geist Force Dreamcast japan front cover
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Geist Force Dreamcast japan front cover

Geist Force Rebuilding

Now why in earth would one want to do such a thing? Well we can trigger events and other things in the game by simply playing with the file structure and more. Here are some things BRaZe managed to "unlock" while rebuilding the game. He has done great work in the Space Channel 5 Part 2 Dreamcast translation by removing the PS2 icons with the real deal Dreamcast button icons so don't be quick to call this useless as he seems to be on to something.

Stage 2, 4, 5 and 6 - just switch TERRAIN and OBJECT from 'STAGEX' with that of 'STAGE0' and you can freely fly around the level by selecting Mike's Room. Although it really is just to see the level design, as no events are triggered.

Stage 4 - You can remove the PATH/PATH.MIFF which will activate the enemies / buildings of the level. You get a good minute of battle, fly over the hill, and just as you're about to pat yourself on the back, you're shot straight into the floor

So give it a shot and see what you can move/combine/delete and see if you have any luck building a better disc.


Tools Needed

Discjuggler
ISOBuster
ISOFix
CDIRip
Makesort
Family Guys Selfboot Data Pack v1.4 32-bit Edition
Nero


Optional

Virtual Drive (Dameon Tools (Lite is free but Pro works fine as well), Alcohol 120%/Alcohol 52% (FREEWARE)/Slysoft Virtual Drive
IMGBurn with Disc Juggler Drivers

These will only be needed if you can't burn the resulting NRG image file. Otherwise are not needed.

  1. Rip Geist Force CD to CDI using Discjuggler, I chose standard settings and ripped to my C:\Geist RESORTED directory

  2. Use CDIRip to get the multi-session disc split, only file you need is tdata02.bin, the rest can be trashed

  3. Open CMD window where tdata02.bin is located and move ISOFix to this folder and type this command "isofix tdata02.bin 45000" without quotaiton marks

  4. Rename BOOT.BIN to IP.HAK NOT IP.BIN

  5. Right click on "fixed.iso" and "Send to... ISOBuster" Once open in ISOBuster right click on image and extract the contents to a folder. I suggestjust moving directly to Family Guys Selfboot Data Pack "data" folder

  6. While still in ISOBuster right click in the left pane on "ISO" and "Folder Tree and File Listing" and choose "LBA,File" to obtain the filelist for editing your fixes

  7. After making your adjustments and fixing your filelist use makesort to get a proper sortxt.txt file

  8. Place IP.HAK and sorttxt.txt in the root of Family Guys selfboot pack and ensure all game data is in the "data" folder.

  9. Open new text document and save the following as Gesit-RESORTED.BAT without quotation marks. It is just his BAT file modified to not touch the IP or 1ST_READ BIN files so it will boot properly.
  10. "@ echo off 
    title=FamilyGuy's SelfBootDATA Pack! - SELFBOOT v1.4 - All-32bit edition
    ECHO.
    ECHO FG's SB DATA Pack! - SELFBOOT v1.4 - All-32bit edition
    echo.
    ECHO This .bat Will create a 45000LBA data/data
    ECHO backup from extracted files with no need
    ECHO to apply LBA hacks to the bins. However
    ECHO some non-LBA based copy protection might need
    ECHO to be cracked in order for the backup to works.
    ECHO GO to the DCRipping Database for a list of
    ECHO copy protections.
    ECHO http://www.bucanero.com.ar/dreamcast/ripdb/?
    ECHO.
    ECHO Put around 65 megs in the data1 folder and
    ECHO ALL the files in the data folder Duplicated
    ECHO files will be burnt only once.
    ECHO.
    ECHO You can add a 0.0 dummy file in data to accelarate
    ECHO loadings, it won't apear in the filesystem.
    ECHO.
    ECHO.
    ECHO FamilyGuy 2008 - 2012
    ECHO.
    ECHO Press any key to start ...
    Pause >nul


    @goto GO



    :GO

    :Data0
    IF EXIST "sorttxt.txt" goto SORT1
    goto Data1

    :Data1
    Echo.
    Echo Building 1st session ...
    Echo ON
    @ ECHO.
    @ mkisofs -V GF-SORTED -duplicates-once -hide 0.0 -l -o data1.iso data1
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO data1.iso | Fill.exe
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO Done!
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO OFF
    GOTO KEEPON

    :SORT1
    Echo.
    Echo Building 1st session ...
    ECHO.
    ECHO Sorttxt.txt detected ...
    ECHO ON
    @ ECHO.
    @ mkisofs -V GF-SORTED -duplicates-once -hide 0.0 -l -sort sorttxt.txt -o data1.iso data1
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO data1.iso | Fill.exe
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO Done!
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO OFF

    :KEEPON
    IF EXIST "sorttxt.txt" goto SORT2
    GOTO DATA2

    :SORT2
    Echo.
    Echo Building 2de session ...
    ECHO.
    ECHO Sorttxt.txt detected ...
    ECHO ON
    @ ECHO.
    @ mkisofs -C 0,45000 -V GF-SORTED -G ip.hak -M data1.iso -duplicates-once -l -sort sorttxt.txt -hide 0.0 -o data2.iso data
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO Done!
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO OFF
    GOTO MERGE

    :DATA2
    Echo.
    Echo Building 2de session ...
    ECHO ON
    @ ECHO.
    @ mkisofs -C 0,45000 -V GF-SORTED -G ip.hak -M data1.iso -duplicates-once -l -hide 0.0 -o data2.iso data
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO Done!
    @ ECHO.
    @ ECHO OFF

    :Merge
    ECHO.
    ECHO Merging the isos ...
    ECHO.
    copy "-=Isos=-\NRG\leadin" leadin >nul
    copy "-=Isos=-\NRG\nrgheader" nrgheader >nul
    copy "-=Isos=-\NRG\nrgheader.exe" nrgheader.exe >nul
    copy /b leadin+data1.iso+data2.iso+nrgheader SelfBoot.nrg
    ECHO Hacking the nrgheader ...
    ECHO.
    ECHO SelfBoot.nrg | NRGHEADER

    :clean
    ECHO Cleaning Files ...
    del nrgheader.exe >nul
    del del leadin >nul
    del nrgheader >nul
    del data1.iso >nul
    del data2.iso >nul
    del ip.hak
    ECHO.
    ECHO DONE !

    ECHO.
    ECHO The backup is now done! Run it in NullDC (using DEAMON tools)
    ECHO or burn it to a disc to test it out! If it doesn't work,
    ECHO go to the Dreamcast Ripping DataBase to find if your
    ECHO game as a non-lba based copy protection.
    ECHO.
    ECHO Thanks to Xzyx987X for the nrgheader technique,
    ECHO ECHELON for the BINHACK program, M$ for bat files,
    ECHO Neoblast and Indiket for the Fill.exe program
    ECHO and Indiket for the NRGHEADER program !
    Echo.
    ECHO FamilyGuy 2008
    ECHO.
    ECHO Press any KEY to quit ...
    PAUSE >nul
    REM EXIT"

  11. Double click the newly made BAT file and wait for it to rebuild your new image according to your sorttxt and file placement. It will Make a SELFBOOT.NRG, this can be burned using Nero or Alcohol 120%. Yo can also mount the SLEFBOOT.NRG with a virtual drive and convert it to a CDI using Discjuggler and choosing to image the drive where the NRG was mounted. Then this can be burned in Discjuggler, IMGBurn with DiscJuggler drivers or again Alcohol 120%

  12. Burn your build and most of all have fun!!!

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