SNES ROM images and SMC header

[UnDnU]

Hallo!

I've got a question. Is it somehow possible to add SMC header to SNES ROMs with the Retrode? I use the Retrode to play japanese jRPGs with fan-translations. Therefore I use SNES9x and its soft patching feature. So I'm able to load the ROM file directly from the Retrode and patch it "on-the-fly". But some older fan-translations only work with headered ROM files and there is the problem. When I dump the file and add a header (with a tool like SNEStuff for example) it works without problems, but I would like to play the games directly from the original cartridge.

Maybe there is already a way to reach this goal or it's possible to add an extra option in a future release of the Retrode firmware?

[Aleron Ives]

The Retrode doesn't modify what's on the cart. It only reads the contents of the ROM. In order to do what you want, you'd have to dump the game, patch it, load it on an EverDrive, and then play the game from the EverDrive connected to the Retrode. That seems a bit silly when you could just dump and patch the ROM, though.

[Matthias_H]

Depends. Do these patching tools rely on header info, or does the problem only have to do with offset addresses? If the latter, I guess it would not be too hard to give the Retrode an SMC mode that adds 512 bytes of nothing at the head of the dump.

This only concerns technical doability of your particular problem though - everybody agrees that dumper headers are evil and should be eliminated at all cost. Therefore, If anything, I would recommend to patch the fan translations to work on headerless ROMs, essentially making those translations future-proof.

[KingMike]

Indeed. To get that working you'd have to:
1. dump ROM.
2. add header to COPY of dumped ROM.
3. patch the COPY.
4. delete the header of the COPY.
5. Use LunarIPS or whatever to make a new patch between the patched ROM and the original. Then use that patch to play your game.