Dreamcast Guides : Geist Force Hacking & Rebuilding

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.

"@ 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"

10- 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%

11- Burn your build and most of all have fun!!!