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View topic - Dumping Wii VC SMS titles

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Post Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 9:43 pm
BrambleG wrote
No SMS titles, but 22 Game Gear games are available on the 3DS Virtual Console (16 in EU/US), mainly things like the Sonic games, GG Shinobi and Columns.

Well, I feel dumb forgetting that (due to the thread title).
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 8:42 am
Jap titles found (not all): https://www.sendspace.com/file/4r1o9z

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Post Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:57 am
OK, so they used the Mega Drive version of the Japanese Phantasy Star - I'm not sure what that has beyond the original - and there's no red cross patching in that - maybe Ni****do aren't scared of the Red Cross in Japan?
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:30 pm
Does the Japanese VC release support the FM?
Was it patched out of the MD version (since if I read, MD doesn't support the FM? At least not out of the box, I know of the unofficial PBC that does.)
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:35 pm
I guess the FM chip detection would work (i.e. go to PSG mode) on a Megadrive.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:47 am
Hi guys I am about to extract (I hope, i do not have a 3DS but a friend of mine has!) all 3DS gamegear virtual console games and stating the 1st one it seems to be a new dump (3DS-extracted sega roms are compressed with MDF; there is a tool for this format, just drag&drop over the .exe: )!

Those are the 19bytes differences:



Those are the differences comparing the most similar rom:

Search for differences

1. C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\GGSonic1_JUE_v01_2012_08_13.GG: 262.144 bytes
2. C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Sonic The Hedgehog (World) (v1.1).gg: 262.144 bytes
Offsets: hexadec.

 B80F:   55   FF
 B812:   05   0F
23472:   26   14
23476:   8D   AF
23492:   26   14
23496:   8D   AF
234B2:   26   14
234B6:   8D   AF
23586:   54   96
23588:   76   FF
235A4:   76   FF
235A8:   54   96
235C4:   54   96
235C6:   76   FF
23830:   55   FF
23831:   00   09
23850:   33   AA
23851:   00   05
23870:   11   55

19 difference(s) found.


The following games are available (multiple same-names = different regions):


If you are still interested I can provide them once extracted (just tested this single game for now).
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:50 pm
Yes please. The differences you see may be removal of flashing colors - on Wii, they were expressed as patch file system but maybe they baked it into the files for 3DS. Sky Base Zone has electrical flashes which they may be toning down here, for example.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:07 pm
Last edited by asper on Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:35 pm; edited 1 time in total
Maxim wrote
Yes please. The differences you see may be removal of flashing colors - on Wii, they were expressed as patch file system but maybe they baked it into the files for 3DS. Sky Base Zone has electrical flashes which they may be toning down here, for example.


Here it is the analysis (all was possible thanks to my friend Valery0p, a big thank to him for all the decryption process !)

Duplicate ROMs found in different region games are NOT included (checked with SHA-256) because they are just the same roms.
File names are the same you can found inside decrypted 3DS RomFS, no renaming: as you can see we have some new dumps here :)

Get them here to study while they are hot and feel free to remove the link as soon as you got them !

Please share your ROMs-difference-findings with us :)
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:24 pm
I think they are flash removal - notice the file names sometimes mention that. It'll take a while to document the differences, the Wii ones had comments to help me :)
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:39 pm
Maxim wrote
I think they are flash removal - notice the file names sometimes mention that. It'll take a while to document the differences, the Wii ones had comments to help me :)


Preservation has no hurry, thank you for your time :)

About the good dumps, are the names and filenames "incongruencies" correct (I mean are them different game names for different regions) ?
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:56 am
Maxim wrote
I think they are flash removal - notice the file names sometimes mention that. It'll take a while to document the differences, the Wii ones had comments to help me :)


If you are interested here it is all the content of the sonic game (already extracted and decompressed), maybe you can find some patch script but i doubt. You will also find the same GG rom inside \romfs\system\roms.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 1:42 pm
The filename differences are due to the vagaries of Meka - which supports dual naming for games which adapt based on the region they are in - and SMS Checker, which always uses the non-Japanese name in these circumstances. Thus Puyo Puyo comes out as Puzlow Kids because that's what it shows on a US system, but on a Japanese one it is ぷよぷよ. It was then adapted to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - and they have called that "Puyo Puyo 1 U", which doesn't make a great deal of sense.

So overall, they aren't that exciting, just an insight into the filenames the devs chose to use. In some other Virtual Console places it's clear that the files were ultimately from the internet, I expect the same applies here - we have yet to find a modification that looks like it was built from source.

The full contents have some interesting stuff - what looks like code for some game extensions (e.g. high score uploads, adding in achievement type things) but I'm not sure if they are active; the comments are all in Japanese. Most of it seems to be megabytes of stuff for the wrappers around the emulator, much like the Wii VC games shipped a copy of Opera to show the manual.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:07 pm
Maxim wrote
The filename differences are due to the vagaries of Meka - which supports dual naming for games which adapt based on the region they are in - and SMS Checker, which always uses the non-Japanese name in these circumstances. Thus Puyo Puyo comes out as Puzlow Kids because that's what it shows on a US system, but on a Japanese one it is ぷよぷよ. It was then adapted to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - and they have called that "Puyo Puyo 1 U", which doesn't make a great deal of sense.

So overall, they aren't that exciting, just an insight into the filenames the devs chose to use. In some other Virtual Console places it's clear that the files were ultimately from the internet, I expect the same applies here - we have yet to find a modification that looks like it was built from source.

The full contents have some interesting stuff - what looks like code for some game extensions (e.g. high score uploads, adding in achievement type things) but I'm not sure if they are active; the comments are all in Japanese. Most of it seems to be megabytes of stuff for the wrappers around the emulator, much like the Wii VC games shipped a copy of Opera to show the manual.


Thank you for the explanation about game names.

Do you need other games full contents ?
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:39 am
No, I don't think it's necessary.
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Post Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 9:24 pm
Maxim wrote
No, I don't think it's necessary.


Another finding:
Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3DS rom: https://www.sendspace.com/file/dxosse

Inside there are some roms (mega drive and SMS) and in particular there is an official SMS bios with "fixed" suffix.
This is the SMS Checker done for the roms found inside that 3DS game and against some official bioses i found on the web:

it seems to be an unknown version !

Maybe space harrier is the same as Wii ?
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Post Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 9:37 pm
"Fixed" might again mean patched to remove flashing. The BIOS will be easy to compare because it's already disassembled.
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Post Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 11:50 am
Maxim wrote
"Fixed" might again mean patched to remove flashing. The BIOS will be easy to compare because it's already disassembled.


Good to know. Is some of you aware of other "multiple tiles/collections" where I can dig out roms ?
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:29 am
New rom: sonic jap
Surely the same as USA and EUR (not checked).
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 12:22 pm
Maxim wrote
"Fixed" might again mean patched to remove flashing. The BIOS will be easy to compare because it's already disassembled.


2 new GG VC roms released in the 3DS scene, Sonic Drift (jap) and Sonic 2 (jap):
We have a new dump here but it was the same as my previous USA-EUR dump :(

download

EDIT: i checked also the previous sonic jap game (see my previous post) and it comes out that it is a new dump too but it is the same previously extracted USA and EUR as supposed (see some posts back, same CRC).


download (old link is broken)

If someone (bock?Maxim?) has something to tell about those new rom/bios dumps I will be always here to listen to :)
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Post Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:03 pm
any chance to dump this version of alex kidd from the switch into FM sound?

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Post Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 4:55 pm
Is it dumped and decrypted? We prefer not to interfere with anything commercially available, but it may be interesting to understand whether it’s compatible with a real system or if it’s some custom virtual machine (which would be much easier).
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Post Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:38 pm
Maxim wrote
Is it dumped and decrypted? We prefer not to interfere with anything commercially available, but it may be interesting to understand whether it’s compatible with a real system or if it’s some custom virtual machine (which would be much easier).


I partially decrypted it and I found that audio tracks are recorded in .m4a in old audio format and in a new better audio profile (so probably they are not taken form the rom or maybe the are played with an external player; I did not test that game so I don't know why there are game audio tracks out in .m4a).



I still need to extract the sms rom(s) from the archive, I will let you know later.
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Post Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:04 pm
Last edited by asper on Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:28 pm; edited 1 time in total
asper wrote
Maxim wrote
Is it dumped and decrypted? We prefer not to interfere with anything commercially available, but it may be interesting to understand whether it’s compatible with a real system or if it’s some custom virtual machine (which would be much easier).


I partially decrypted it and I found that audio tracks are recorded in .m4a in old audio format and in a new better audio profile (so probably they are not taken form the rom or maybe the are played with an external player; I did not test that game so I don't know why there are game audio tracks out in .m4a).



I still need to extract the sms rom(s) from the archive, I will let you know later.



So after decrypting (form official switch .nsp package), extracting (from alldata.bin) and decompressing the 3 ROMs found (from a new .m format) now I am stuck at a new .ccf format (CCF_tool 2.0 does not work) and I am not able to "decode" it.



If someone wants to have a look at it send me a PM, I suppose this is the "last" step to obtain plain ROM files.


EDIT:

I was able to extract the .ccf format with a tool called offzip (http://hl.altervista.org/split.php?http://aluigi.altervista.org/mytoolz/offzip.zip) with -a parameter.

SMSChecker says they are all unknown roms:


They all start with Meka 0.80; the japanese one shows a "SEGA Mark III" logo just after the SEGA Logo at the beginning.
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Post Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:25 pm
Those look big for ROMs, maybe they include the emulator and manual too :) Maybe you can email me one, I figured out CCF originally in this thread so I may as well try again.
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Post Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:36 pm
Maxim wrote
Those look big for ROMs, maybe they include the emulator and manual too :) Maybe you can email me one, I figured out CCF originally in this thread so I may as well try again.


I edited the above message, i succesfully extracted CCF and run it via Meka :)

The big ROMs contain 1 ROM each (different for each archive) with .dat extension (but they can be renamed .sms) and 11 .wav files (all identical in all 3 packages) with the "new" audio (better modern quality), nothing more nothing else; that audio seems to be the same as the .m4a files mentioned above. This is the reason why that package is so big.

Emulator is a binary file and manual seems to be accessed directly online via Switch internal browser.

I just "analyzed" the UE ROM and it has 136 different bytes from the original/hystorical UE dump.
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Post Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 10:10 pm
To be more specific, these are the v0, Japanese and BIOS versions respectively, with data changed for a few purposes. Here's what I found for the BIOS version:

1. Remove the BIOS part
2. Initialise some unused RAM at $dff0..7
3. In a few places, hook some code to count things in that RAM using unused ROM at $bfb0..$bfff
4. Some level data tweaks in one of the levels, I think

These look a lot like hacks to enable the emulated game to help track "achievements". Calindro may be able to better narrow down the specifics. Certainly, there is no emulated FM music to be had here.

"offzip" seems to be a tool that just tries to zlib-decompress at every offset in the binary and saves the parts that work. So the CCF format seems very similar to before.
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 4:37 am
Maxim wrote
To be more specific, these are the v0, Japanese and BIOS versions respectively, with data changed for a few purposes. Here's what I found for the BIOS version:

1. Remove the BIOS part
2. Initialise some unused RAM at $dff0..7
3. In a few places, hook some code to count things in that RAM using unused ROM at $bfb0..$bfff
4. Some level data tweaks in one of the levels, I think

These look a lot like hacks to enable the emulated game to help track "achievements". Calindro may be able to better narrow down the specifics. Certainly, there is no emulated FM music to be had here.

"offzip" seems to be a tool that just tries to zlib-decompress at every offset in the binary and saves the parts that work. So the CCF format seems very similar to before.

Good! Is there any data left inside the .ccf that offzip was not able to extract ?
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 9:00 am
Maxim wrote
These look a lot like hacks to enable the emulated game to help track "achievements". Calindro may be able to better narrow down the specifics. Certainly, there is no emulated FM music to be had here.

I can take a look if I get the files. :)
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 12:17 pm
I’ll start a new thread for it.
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 3:12 pm
Maxim wrote
I’ll start a new thread for it.

Please link it here, Thank You!
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 4:12 pm
https://www.smspower.org/forums/17998-AlexKiddInMiracleWorldModificationsForSwit...
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 4:40 pm
Thank You!

Is there any other sms switch's title available?
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 7:21 pm
Well, this showed a mistake in the CCF format spec which I've now fixed at https://wiibrew.org/wiki/CCF_archive . Attached is a modified version of ccfex and a Windows 32-bit build.

So, we have:

* A file called "arch", containing the text "sms".
* The ROM, named cpu.bin
* The music files, as voice001.wav through voice012.wav, 48kHz signed 16-bit mono with RIFF WAVE headers.
ccfex.zip (82.06 KB)

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Post Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 8:48 pm
Maxim wrote
Well, this showed a mistake in the CCF format spec which I've now fixed at https://wiibrew.org/wiki/CCF_archive . Attached is a modified version of ccfex and a Windows 32-bit build.

So, we have:

* A file called "arch", containing the text "sms".
* The ROM, named cpu.bin
* The music files, as voice001.wav through voice012.wav, 48kHz signed 16-bit mono with RIFF WAVE headers.


Arch stands surely for "architecture" (sms). Probably "cpu" is related to the fact that it was the bios rom.

Thank You very much for your improved tool!
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Post Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 1:07 pm
Cool! Too bad the FM is not in rom =(

I will follow in the new thread... Thx!
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Post Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 5:03 pm
Just found out ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Ages#Sega_Ages_(Nintendo_Switch)
) that there is another SMS in Switch Sega Ages compilation: Phantasy Star.

2 ROMs inside:

PhantasyStar1_J_01_HIRA_EXBG.BIN
PhantasyStar1_UE_OPLL.SMS

Both "unknown" to SMS Checker.
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Phantasy Star for Switch
Post Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 5:57 pm
So Sega Ages Phantasy Star for Switch contains two ROMs, for the Japanese and English editions. Both are substantially changed from the released versions; both are also expanded beyond 512KB.

The Japanese version seems to be closest to the Mega Drive release, but has code changes in the script renderer (I think - $3370-$3541 range, based on the SMS release's disassembly for that range) and data changes in the script ($8000-$bfff range). It inserts some data at $2ff22-$2ffb1 but I'm not sure what it's for. Finally, it extends the ROM by 40KB. This is presumably substantially for supporting the hiragana mode as the filename is "PhantasyStar1_J_01_HIRA_EXBG.BIN" - I'm not sure what "EXBG" might mean, extended backgrounds perhaps? I don't see mention of this in the descriptions of the game. I haven't figured out how to enable this mode yet - I guess it involves some fake VDP with extra VRAM to enable a larger tileset?

The European version has far fewer changes, with some code inserted in unused space at $10, what looks like hooks added in three places, and finally 16KB added to the end. This seems to be a grafted-on music engine - because the primary addition here is the FM sound, hence the filename "PhantasyStar1_UE_OPLL.SMS".

I'll make a thread with the details later and link from here. I guess I am the expert on Phantasy Star, so I'll dig out what is going on. Interestingly, I don't see the patches to turn hospitals' red crosses into "H" to avoid the Red Cross litigation that were seen in Wii VC releases, maybe that's resolved now?

Edit: did it on the wiki instead: https://www.smspower.org/Development/PhantasyStar-SMS-SegaAgesSwitch
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Post Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:21 pm
If some of You knows an undumped Virtual console title for master system (from any system) please let me know.
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Post Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:34 pm
Maxim wrote
I'm not sure what "EXBG" might mean, extended backgrounds perhaps? I don't see mention of this in the descriptions of the game.


I saw that they added big border graphics and automap to the game (to fill a 16:9 screen), so it might be related to that...hooks and stuff for the automap to call to?
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Post Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 7:35 am
That seems to all be done by spying on RAM. I think EXBG is about the way it does hiragana by extending the VDP emulation.
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 4:30 am
Maxim wrote
That seems to all be done by spying on RAM. I think EXBG is about the way it does hiragana by extending the VDP emulation.


This seems at a glance to be very similar to the extension technique used to add Hiragana in the earlier Sega Saturn port. Has anyone compared the two? https://www.smspower.org/forums/17832-MarkIIISMSPhantasyStarFromGBAAndSaturnPhan...
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:57 am
I think somewhere it is acknowledged that the Saturn version was the base here. I probably ought to do the remaining analysis of those extra Phantasy Star variants, did I already ask you to send them to me?
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:12 am
Good morning to everyone. I apologize if this is against any rules or if I've missed anything in my search whether it be here on the forums or at another source, but I find myself at a loss.

I recently began my own endeavor to create a backup of the ROMs I own in some capacity (physical media, Virtual Console, etc.). While processing my very few Game Gear games from the 3DS Virtual Console, I found they were packaged in an archive format I'm unfamiliar with but I believe was mentioned earlier in this thread.

All three games I currently have use this format and look like this when pulled from the SD card:

SonicAndTails2_UE.GG.m

Based on the comments above, my assumption was Sega is now using this archival format for newer titles (like Alex Kidd above) and other digital releases (at least on consoles that I've seen).

My question is this: are there any utilities that can be used to decompress these .m archives or are users finding other ways to perform the action (Python, etc.)?

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated, and please let me know if this deviates from the topic of the thread or violates any existing rules and I'll make appropriate accommodations. Otherwise, this is a fantastic forum based on my short time here. So much technical information. Thank you!
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 1:21 pm
asper mentions extracting from .m files above, but I don’t know the details.
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:32 pm
I'm not sure if Asdolo - the creator of a suite of 3DS VC 'injection' tools - is still around in some capacity (or even if this is helpful) but he'd probably know the precise ins and outs of the archive format M2 chose to use in the GG VC titles.

This particular tool of his takes a regular GG ROM and packages it up as an installable VC title, exactly as if it were downloaded directly from Ni****do's servers:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-ultimate-gg-game-gear-vc-injector-for-3ds.43...
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 4:10 pm
Maxim wrote
I think somewhere it is acknowledged that the Saturn version was the base here. I probably ought to do the remaining analysis of those extra Phantasy Star variants, did I already ask you to send them to me?


Check your messages, I think it was made available a couple months ago
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Post Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2020 5:36 pm
starlight_stef wrote
All three games I currently have use this format and look like this when pulled from the SD card:

SonicAndTails2_UE.GG.m


It's probably MDF compression, I was just dealing with it myself the other day. If you open it in a hex editor, the first three characters should be "mdf".

This is for a different game collection, but I think it's still the same guide: steamcommunity . com/app/1018010/discussions/0/1628539187767686145/

(sorry I'm not allowed to post links yet, anyway the program you're looking for is called MArchiveBatchTool)
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MArchiveBatchTool Worked
Post Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2020 2:40 am
I apologize for the delay in response; work and life have been super busy. MArchiveBatchTool was the answer I needed. I successfully extracted the .gg files from the .m archives using the tool and they work as expected. Thank you all so much for all your help!
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Post Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2020 8:24 am
Can you post some information about the files, like checksums, to confirm if they are modified files?
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Post Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2021 5:47 pm
Maxim wrote
Can you post some information about the files, like checksums, to confirm if they are modified files?


Work and health have kept me from being as active in my media backup projects as I'd like, so I apologize for such a gap in my posts. I can confirm the SHA-1 for both Sonic Drift 2 and Sonic Triple Trouble rom files match the checksums listed at sonicretro.org. I only recently purchased and extracted Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Labyrinth but I can confirm those later this evening.

Is there any specific information, including checksum, you'd like confirmed and provided in a particular format? I can go re-review the forum rules if that's already covered as a topic.
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