DarkAkuma's

Dev log: New Full Unlock

Saturday, December 27, 2025

On my blog in the past I have liked to write what are... sort of journals of my development of different projects. Like one I particularly liked, despite an obnoxious encounter... was my Star Ocean canoe compatibility patch. For that I had to learn and grow my related skills, so in the end it felt quite rewarding to achieve a working patch.

Working on CaVE has stalled into just maintenance. It doesn't scratch certain itches for creating new things. DisplayEx has been kind of the same. Occasionally there has been a new feature to add to it, but that's uncommon.

I have been searching for a new mod idea to work on, for quite awhile. Mainly, I would like a new Level 2 mod to replace DisplayEx+, so that I can merge the functionality of that into the normal DisplayEx. I want something special for those who go above and beyond to support the project, but the Theme functionality... just should be part of the main mod.

I finally got around to working on a mod recently. One inspired by cucholix. He created a mod that has functionality similar to the Full Unlock, but does not need to be updated. At least, not often... or yet. He shared it with me, and... in my opinion it has just been luck that it has not needed to be updated yet. For me to release such a thing... I would want to eliminate luck as much as can.

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Wow! It's been a year since I posted here. I didn't expect that. But... it makes sense. I like to do Christmas releases or announcements if I can. I generally don't start making a project with a goal for Christmas, but it its coming up then I try to focus on that as a deadline.

Enough of that! What is it that I am announcing today? Well... It's kind of a mixed bag. I understand that to some it will not be much, and to others it will be well appreciated. Largely due to the current focus that has allowed me to keep these projects alive, in focusing on those that support the projects the most! Strong community members and Patrons/Donators. THEY are who this update is primarily for. But also limiting this is that its a project with a narrow focus. Just the SNES NSO/Classics app. I worked on a project for that, because that's what I personally care about the most. I'm a huge SNES fan above all else.

Now... What is this project? Put simply... it's a brand new Full Unlock! What? No! Don't leave! Hear me out!

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Merry Christmas!

It's been a long time coming, and I'm still not sure it's ready... But I decided to release CaVE v1.5 publicly again!

Saturday, August 03, 2024

I know its been a while since I have posted much of substance here. And it's been a while since the public build has been updated. I never intended the Beta to remain private and in development this long, but yet it is.

Why?

Why did I abandon support for v1.4.6? Why is v1.5 STILL in private development?

Friday, March 08, 2024

This will be a bit of a different post for me. But still one that is within the scope for this personal blog/site.

I haven't posted much to indicate it, but I am a huge fan of Dragonball. I would say that... yea. It is my favorite anime. If asked sooner, I may have said Death Note or Re: Zero. But thats just because both are more recent, and when I first learned of DB and watched it... "Anime" meant something different to me. Toriyama's style just made DB feel separate. And as that definition happened early for me, I could never quite shake it despite knowing otherwise.

So with DB being my favorite Anime... moving to talk about my favorite video game of all time... Guess what? It's another Toriyama involved work. Chrono Trigger. Such a over all fantastic game that will never be replicated, despite attempts to do so with underwhelming sequels and fan made "spiritual successors". While I wouldn't rank it among my favorites, even Dragon Warrior is a game I am quite fond of. Though I have only played and beaten 1, 2, and 5 (I think). But overall, I don't have much to say on his gaming work as it was mostly art, while DB saw him work on art and story elements.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

This is not my normal type of post. But I guess I do like to post about my MMORPG hobby at times. And specifically to this game... I did post about it almost 10 years ago!

So... How have things gone with this game in the past 10 years? Is it the game I wished for?

Well... I honestly can't say. Despite the typical and expected MMORPG development time before it goes to Release being 5 years, and the fact that I specifically pledged for Alpha access in order to be a part of the development process at the most key stage where everything is being thought of, added and tweaked, thus I should have been able to play the game after 3-4 years... I have not touched a single piece of the game. It's been perpetually in a fabricated phase called "Pre-Alpha". If you have been to my website before... you know that I know about development. CaVE, Unity projects, and all the way back to my start with mIRC scripts. And in all that 25 ish years... I have NEVER heard use of the phase name of "Pre-Alpha" outside of Pantheon. At best, maybe using the term to casually refer to development phases before Alpha as a whole. The only legit common development phases before Alpha are Prototyping, and Proof of Concept.

Sunday, September 10, 2023

After diving into the WidescreenEx mod like I did, and liking the result, I found I learned quite a bit. I decided to keep going. The plan was to make some "Fit to Screen" mods for the other system apps. But I quickly got side tracked with something else.

Years ago now, I made some other mods that I never released. Because I never finished them to my satisfaction, and to do so was too involved. That being a mod to allow custom chosen backgrounds to be displayed. This idea was borrowed from the SNES Classic. I even used the background/borders from that device for my work, and it was nice seeing NSO SNES game output perfectly fitting in those borders! But... diving too much into mods always seemed daunting, and improper. That's in large part because, mods were a clunky side thing. Not managed officially. But... of course, that has changed now as with CaVE v1.5, that's a major feature!

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Recently I learned just how bad the N64 Widescreen mod was. This is not a mod I developed. It is simply one I felt forced to maintain and update regularly, in order for there to be less issues and bug reports with CaVE stemming from users using out of date mods.

I heard or issues with it cropping out part of the screen, but the context always sounded like the people were talking about 4x3 games with the mod active. That was an unfortunate side-effect of the hack, it causing 4x3 games to not look right. It was a all or nothing hack. You commit to all your games being 16x9, or not. But low and behold... THIS is what 16x9 games looked like.

Tuesday, August 01, 2023

I got kind of sick of WoW not long after my last post. The token price just started inflating more and more, and while I could probably earn it each month... it just seemed less and less fun. Dragonflight itself kind of very abruptly lost its fun.

After I stopped playing, I ended up getting back to my coding hobby more. Namely, working on CaVE. I have been keeping it up to date with each NSO update, but that's it. After my last post on the topic... well... you see that part at the end? About encouraging people to not just give me silence in return? That... did not happen. Silence is exactly what I got. I really felt that SEGA Saturn support was going to be well received, breath some new life into CaVE, and make it a more broadly valuable tool.

Sunday, February 26, 2023

I've been thinking about this off and on for a long time. Posting about my thoughts on WoW, about my characters, etc. But largely have fallen into the mindset of "Why would anyone care?". Lately I have been thinking that doesn't matter. Like or not, this site/blog isn't about the readers. It's about me and my hobbies. I don't post stuff here to appeal to people, I post stuff simply because I enjoy talking about things (and if people enjoy it too, great!). So why not WoW?

I have played WoW off and on since vanilla. At first, just because it's where everybody else was in the MMO space, and because EQ jumped the shark for me with it's then recent expansions. I never really enjoyed WoW itself for many years. I just enjoyed doing stuff with friends. Because of that, my experience was always one of catching up to everyone else, and only then getting to have fun. In vanilla I first leveled a Ally Rogue to 42 on a server where I had family. I stopped... well, I forget why. I think it was probably because I was still adjusting to the game, or because I was too on my own then (my family in the game... sucked. This will come into play again later...). After a break, a IRL friend got me to play again and I started leveling up a character on his server to join his guild. Again, a Rogue but this time Horde. I got to 53 and... suddenly he server transferred... Before I ever got to do anything with him in the game. So I ended up switching back to my first character, as at least that was on a server where I knew people. At this point TBC was out, and I was able to get to level 70. I even joined my families guild and enjoyed raiding Karazhan. That... ended abruptly with a falling out with that family, so I completely quit the game.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

I guess I kind of missed a few versions. It's been a while since my last update here too. So this feels like a good time for one.

This is a big update! Ever since I created Slip, discontinued it, and merged it into CaVE... the direction of CaVE has shifted. And that does lead into this update.

I put a lot of effort into refining a template for the Wizard setups used in Sloop/Hiyoko NSP creation. And I'm happy to now announce that the effort has paid off with... Hovercraft and ZebraEngine support!

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

I just released CaVE v1.3.7, to coincide with the NSO GEN/MD v2.0 app.

Nothing about this NSO app warranted a CaVE update instead of just a database update, but I had a few fixes and additions coded and... it didn't look good for anyone wanting to lift a finger and test it as a Discord only release. Thumbs up emotes are the extent of anything anyone there wants to do now.

Changes:

Fixed an issue with the "Add Stock Games" list.
Added a new Update Database option.
This option simply updates the strings.lng of the current database to the selected version.
Added a .srm 2 cartridge.sram option to the Tools menu for N64.
This converts a Retroarch .srm that contains save data (not save STATE data) to a save file that NSO can use. It tries to automatically detect what type of save data the game uses, and output that as cartridge.sram.
Added a Help option to the Help menu that displays a setup guide and FAQ.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

I don't normally do release posts for these minor version, but since its been a little while since I have posted...

v1.3.6 brings an update for officially released Earthbound games, but also a minor fix to handle SP games being addable from the Add Stock Games menu since a SP for Super Metroid and something else on the Famicom were added.

Besides the new Full Unlocks, as usual for SNES/SFC, that's it!

---

I may as well bring up other news through. Let's see...

The community preset database project is a complete flop. Few seemed to care about the SNES database I worked hard on, and no one cared to contribute to try and fill out the others. So... That sucks. Since I realized it flopped, there one who has been trying is all. But I suspect that I'm going to have to do these myself. IDK. I may wait for CaVE 2.0 for that, since the preset database feature was originally intended for that. I could try going about it another way maybe.

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Merry Christmas!

As I often like to post... something on Christmas, as a sort of present... This year is no exception! Now that CaVE is back, and updated well enough with new features and support, there wouldn't be much to add to it. Nor SFROM Tool. Least not to be worth considering a present. But I have been working on a side project that is now ready...

Back in October, while waiting on the N64/Genesis NSO apps to be released, I killed time with this side project. As some may know, SNES is my favorite console... ever! So it tends to be my focus. There wasn't a lot left to do with it and NSO, but I found something. We all know how to use CaVE at this point, but there is an obvious feature that might be strait up expected by some, but isn't included. It's a feature that takes a lot of work! That feature is what I call a "Preset Database". What that means in this context is, when you add a game in CaVE, there are a ton of values you need to set. Typically images and descriptions. CaVE does what it can to add in placeholder values, but... if you are like me, you would want all the values to look as close to how they would if Nintendo released support for that game themselves. A "Preset Database" in relation to this would automatically set those values with more proper ones. Add say Chrono Trigger? In the split second after adding it CaVE would automatically select the box and title screen art, fill out the meta description, publisher, copyright, etc. Such a feature is convenient, but takes a lot of work to implement.

Saturday, November 27, 2021

This is a small release, but worth mentioning.

The major part of this update is the meta/config/lua editor. This isnt a huge thing for the average user, but it is for the active community that's trying to increase the roster of compatible games as it makes things so much easier and quicker. But... its not completely useless for average users, as it allows the average user to try settings themselves, and allows others to give them advice on settings to try to help a game work better.

Beyond that, exporting your database is more efficient, SPT support for N64 is fully working (with a couple examples available on the compatibility list, there's some crude support for Super Mario 3D Allstars (for advanced users, and mostly just for testing atm), a couple QoL updates and some fixes.

Of note. Its now been over 1 month since N64 NSO came out and... we now have 125/299 USA games booting, and many of them playing just fine. Its come a long way in a short time, and... while the emu has its issues... its fairing better than people would think. It seems to be struggling with the same games other emus struggle with. In some cases it emulators games better, and in some cases maybe worse.

While most of the games are marked as having minor issues atm, thats just a default I'm using as we give them time to truly be tested. Soon enough the focus will shift to switching those from yellow to green, whether by setting its configuration right, or otherwise.

ChangeLog v1.3.3.0:

Fixed some database issues with N64.
Improved the CPIO code used with dtz's.
Added a new Settings window for N64 .meta/.cfg./.lua editing.
Added a log for changes to your database, for use with the Export feature, enabling it to ONLY export the files it has found to be changed since the last time you exported.
The Machine Country option should now be automatically set for Genesis/Mega Drive.
Added "Disable Handcursor" and "KeyAssign Type" options to N64.
The tools menu is now completely hidden when a N64 database is not loaded.
Changing the code value will now prompt you to change other values that the Code is typically used in.
Added an option to allow you to change the selected ROM for an already imported game.
A few misc bug fixes to SPT support with N64.
Primitive support for working with Super Mario 3D Allstars, available only as an advanced option. "sm3das_enabled": true

Release: CaVE Database Manager v1.3

Tuesday, November 02, 2021

This is a big release! Obviously there's the N64/Genesis support. But also there have been some significant changes all around.

First lets talk about the N64/Genesis support.

Genesis... works. There really wasn't much too it. There are a couple options you can set in CaVE to adjust some things, but nothing like sfroms, full unlocks, or dtzs.

As for N64... Yea. If you expected it to just work and load tons of games out of the box, you were deluding yourself. That is not the reality. Instead, we have a .dtz format to deal with thats... most comparable to the .sfrom footers from SNES. But MANY more options, and there no tool or database to work with to help set these settings easily or automatically.

There's more to it, but the crucial part of a dtz can be boiled down to the 02_XXXXXX.cfg file inside the archive. In there you have various settings and hacks to be applied. At a minimum to boot, each game needs its Idle thread jump address defined. And some games, mostly 3rd party, have multiple such threads to define.

Friday, October 15, 2021

It's long overdue... but I guess considering I thought the last version might be the true last version... maybe not. This release of SFROM Tool brings a major change I... thought I already released.

Change Log v1.3.0.0:

Revamped Game Codes/Preset IDs.

GameCodes are now shown in their proper interger format, instead of hex.

GameCodes can now be chosen from a drop down selection box, with clear labels for what game that GameCode is intended for.

A new Legacy Mode option has been added, to display GameCodes in the old "Preset ID" format purely to help the adoption process.

Added new Key and Manual groups to the Advanced window, based off my continued understanding of the format.

Key contains 2 unknown values that were previously even unknown if they were values or not.

Manual contains Para and Max Speed.

The ROM Map control has been updated to list the available options in a clearer way, and now has a 3rd... but useless ExHiROM option.

Compatibility Mode 7 is now the default. This may cause issues with some older SNES/SFC Online versions.

Added support for Wii SNES VC ROMs.

These ROMs are the ones that come with the .rom extension.

With these, .pcm, .var, and .sda files are also checked for, and imported/exported.

To import these roms, simply select the File>Open ROM menu option.

To export in this format select File>Save as...>as Wii ROM/PCM/VAR.

Updated the internal database to include info/settings from discoveries made since the last release.

Saturday, October 02, 2021

I said it, and I'm a man of my word. If I had a reason to be invested in the development of these projects... it would make a difference. I would be willing to un-cancel them. Thanks to the generous donation of ItzSka, I am now able to develop these projects for a device... that I own!

So both projects are back to being public again. But there is a difference. I will not be managing them at the old toxic forum anymore. This will be done purely out of my website, and the Discord (#nintendo-vc-cc-nso). I may make a subreddit or other page too. At the least for now, I have remade the setup guide on my website.

There will be some changes to how I pursue the projects too. I will be making it for myself, and just happening to make it public. I will maintain it for myself and supporters. User appreciation will of course be very welcome, but it wont be required even at a bare minimum like before.

That out of the way... I did make a couple minor updates to the app while it was publicly canceled. The idea was to only do database updates for supporters, but... one update I made just because I wanted it. And the other was to make things easier for the private releases, but helps for public releases too.

Saturday, September 18, 2021

I realized it has been months now since I posted an update here. In truth, I haven't been working on my projects lately. I split my free time between whatever is fun for me at the moment, and as my last spoof post indicated... I had an issue with WoW. I pushed myself too hard to tough it out through the non-fun things, and it kind of ruined the game for me. I did go play retail, and that's was a band-aid for a little while... but it's just not fun... Even TBC Classic only was fun for like a week or two for me.

I lost interest in my SNES projects, simply because my focus was shifting heavily towards my complete VC/CC Tool, CaVE revamp project. I was building up steam with that... and well, it sucks how this happens but... I was contacted by someone willing to donate a Switch and 3DS. That of course was great! But quickly the Switch got removed from the table, so the hope of bringing back anything of CaVE 1.0 was placed back on the shelf. No matter though. A 3DS is plenty! And just what I needed to get focused and stay motivated on my new project. But... the bad part is... I put my project on complete hold until I got the 3DS... I patiently waited weeks, maybe a month. Even checking for its delivery every day. But I came to find out it wasn't sent. Fine. That's cool. Not everyone is used to mailing stuff, as was the claimed issue, and things are hard for people. I get it. So I waited more... and more... and more... I contacted the person again, and... silence.

So... in the end, I put the project on the shelf for no reason. I was back to square one with several months lost, and... even less motivation to work on the project than when I started my wait.

Saturday, February 20, 2021

[The following is a spoof of a post I made YEARS ago, written to help blow off some steam.]

Last week after a year of effort, a couple long grueling months of trying to find a raid group, and several mental break downs, my raid group "40 Man PUG" and I finally didn't get ~~got~~ me my Legendary item done. The Legendary staff "Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian" for my Priest. It's amazing for me as seeing all I had to go through, and the extraordinary amount of effort I had put in along the way in order to get this all done.

I started my quest for this staff in the winter of last year, when was able to start playing WoW Classic again. Before that, I wasn't even playing WoW Classic past the launch, and didn't even really plan to. Part of me wished it wasn't purely for that staff but it was, and the fact that probably the thing I miss the most from WoW retail was doing my Rogues legendary quest for a great weapon and the experience shared with the amazing people I did it with (or other events shared with people who cared about me). WoW Classic didn't have that for most of the time so far, and even when it did, my main class was excluded. I could talk about the difference of Atiesh and Thunderfury, mostly stating how I put in countless hours helping countless other people farm their Thunderfury. But in the end, no one returns the favor for me!

Main

My VRChat Stuff

Donate

Project Donation Goals

Twitter

News Archive

Recruit a Friend