The VG Resource

Let’s start out with an example, how about “WarioWare Touched!”?


Open up the game in your preferred emulator, I tend to use DeSmuME. Start playing through the game, and once you get to the sprites you are looking for, go to the OAM viewer.


Notice how all of the sprites that appear on the screen are shown, with the background removed. This helps speed up the process of ripping, since there is a solid background behind the desired sprites. Just make sure the background color isn’t used in the sprites! Now you can print screen the OAM Viewer and get the sprites.

Now let’s say you wanted to rip the backgrounds instead. Go to the Map View this time, and all of the backgrounds should be in plain view.


Just print screen and you should have the backgrounds as well.

There is also a more efficient way, using the Layers option. Using the same example as above, we’ll try and get the sprites.


Instead of using the OAM Viewer, this time we will remove the background layers. Go to “View Layers” under the Tools menu, and click the “Main BG 0” option.


Viola! Now we can play through the game without having to keep referring back to the OAM Viewer.

To make it go even faster, use AnimGet to screen capture as you play through.

Unfortunately, this method always leaves a solid black background, so if the sprites have solid black as well, it could end up ruining the sprites. In such a case, it’s best to stick with the OAM Viewer.

NOTE: Look back at the Map View, see the highlighted text saying “Main Background 0”? Does the background look familiar? When removing layers, the layers you remove correspond to the background titles in Map View.

There are other tools such as the Tile Viewer and Palette Viewer, but for the sake of not dragging on, I won’t get into them.

While it may not be directly related to sprite ripping, a save state can help to get to a specific point in a game where a character, boss or other object appears. There are multiple file formats; .dst, .duc, and .sav.

1. .dst
This type of save state is opened by simply going to the “File” menu and selecting the “Load State From…” option.

2. .duc and .sav
Technically called backup memories, these formats are most commonly found on save state websites such as gamefaqs. In order to open them, load a DS rom, wait for the white screen to appear, indicating that the rom has loaded, and select “Import Backup Memory” under the “File” menu.

If you’re have a game in mind that you want to rip from, go to the game’s Gamefaqs page and look under the “Saves” tab. Make sure the save is from the same region as your game, and you should be set. If there aren’t any saves available, try a quick Google search.

The premier tile ripping programs, they can open up any file as an image or palette, and allow you to form sprites (if the correct file) or random pixels (if you have no idea what you are doing ). Since I have more experience with TileGGD, I will base the below on it.



You start out with two options; opening up a file as a graphic, or opening up a file as a palette. Once you open a file for each option, you can start editing (if the file acts as both the palette and graphic, you only have to open with one option).

Let’s start out on the graphics side of things.
Under the “Image” menu, you have Format, Endianness, Mode, Skip Size, Width Skip Size, Height Skip Size, Zoom, Set Tile Size, Copy to clipboard, Go to offset, and Reload as. The main options you will need to worry about are Format, Mode and Skip Size.

1. Format
A fairly simple concept. The two selections that you will need to worry about are 4 Bit per pixel and 8 Bit per pixel. 4 Bit per pixel is mostly used for sprites, while 8 Bit per pixel is used more for backgrounds.
2. Mode
Not much to say, it’s either Tiled or Linear. I haven’t found a reason why it might be one or the other, just try out both and see which shows a clear image.
3. Skip Size
Used to line up the pixels to show a clear image. 4 Bytes is usually a safe way to go, but mess around with the image a bit, and you can change it from this:



To this:



Now that you have the image set up, let’s go to the other side of things, the palette! Under the “Palette” menu, you will see the Format, Endianness, Mode, Colour Order, Skip Size, Alpha Settings, Set Tile Size, Copy to clipboard, Go to offset, and Reload as. Since palette is a fairly simple concept, the only thing you need to know is to skip through the palette and find the right colors that match up.

What you will need:
-Java: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

Before I start, here are some of the icons you will need to know:
- DS rom
- Folder
- Unrecognized File
- Palette File
- Graphic File
- Cell File
- Screen File
- Texture File
- Model File
- Sound File

Console Tool is a nifty program that opens up DS roms, so you can view the files inside. While it works well with viewing sprites, because it uses a single-screen system, where a file you open covers the file tree you are working with, it can become a tedious program to work with. Nonetheless, it can still function well, so it is worth mentioning.

With Console Tool (and most all DS tools), in order to correctly view sprites you have to open the files in a certain order. This order is as follows:
Sprites: Palette, Graphic, Cell , ,
Backgrounds: Palette, Graphic, Screen , ,
Models: Texture, Model ,

Once one palette/ graphic/ cell/ screen/ texture/ model is opened, it is used for all file orders following it, until another palette is opened. For example, let’s say I want to view the sprites of the penguin enemy from Drawn to Life.


You may be asking, “If we need to open up a palette file first, then why isn’t there one shown?” This is because for Drawn to Life, they palettes are stored in a different folder, not shown above. In this case, the palette’s file name for Pengoon is “palObj_w1_2D.NCLR” because Pengoon is an enemy from World 1. No problem though, as we will open up the files as usual; palette, then graphic, then finally cell. When we open up all three files, it shows up as this:


Looks like it worked! From here, you can cycle through the frames, and start ripping your first sheet.

NOTE: You may notice that along with the .NCBR and .NCER files, there is a similarly named .NANR paired with each group of files. These .NANR files are animation files, which will be discussed later.
Anyways, now that we got that working, let’s try the Star Baki from World 2.

Here we have it, just open up the graphic and cell files and…


Wait, this doesn’t look right! The palette looks all screwed up! No worry, just go back to the “Palette” folder and open up “palObj_w2_2D.NCLR” along with the graphic and cell files.


There we go. Just remember to open the files in order, reopen each specific file corresponding to each sprite, and you should be fine.

Before I talk about Tahaxan, it’s important to mention that while ConsoleTool may lack in the sprite viewing department, it shows excellent models (Version 3.1). Without going too far into explanation, here is a quick example from Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble!

A ripping tool that has gone a bit off the map because of lack of updating and difficulty finding a decent online download. Although I won’t be spending a whole lot of time talking about it, I thought it would be worth a mention. To my knowledge, it was one of, if not the first DS ripping tool of its kind. Pretty awesome, huh?

What you will need:
-Nothing!

Important Icons:
- Folder
- Unrecognized File
- Palette File
- Graphic File
- Screen File
- Text File
- Sound File

Before you start asking any questions, here’s a quick screenshot of Ivy the Kiwi:


There are a few things that you may notice right off the bat.

First of all, the usual .NCER files show up as unrecognized, what is that all about? Unfortunately, the most recent version of Tahaxan is from 2008, so while it may not be the most resourceful tool around, it is a helpful tool nonetheless.

Second, the file icons seem strikingly similar to those of ConsoleTool, why is that? I’m not completely sure why, but an educated guess leads me to believe that Tahaxan is an earlier version of ConsoleTool. Just a small observation.

NOTE: Unlike ConsoleTool, Tahaxan’s file order is reversed. This time, to correctly view sprites, the order is as follows:
Sprites: Graphic, Palette ,
Backgrounds: Screen, Graphic, Palette , ,

The moment you have all been waiting for! I don’t mean to put it on such a high pedestal, but this tool is kind of a big deal. Let’s start off in similar fashion to the previous sections, with what you will need and the icons.

What you will need:
-.NET Framework 3.5

Important Icons:
- Folder
- Unrecognized File
- Palette File
- Graphic File
- Cell File
- Animation File
- Screen File
- Image File
- Texture File
- Model File
- Sound File
- Compressed File
- Pack File
- Font File
- Text File
- Unimportant Icons

Although a lot of the icons have been recycled through each of the tools, Tinke has an immense amount of new ones to see, most notably the Animation, Image, Compressed, and Pack icons. These four alone have helped widen our reach to rip new games, with easier, faster, more efficient methods.

Similar to ConsoleTool, Tinke’s file order starts with the palette, and works its way up to the final file. There is one very minor tweak:
Sprites: Palette, Graphic, Cell, Animation , , ,
Backgrounds: Palette, Graphic, Screen , ,
Image: Image
Models: Texture, Model ,

The animation file allows for you to see the sprite’s animation, simple enough. The image file is basically a condensed version of the palette, graphic and cell files…
Another nifty feature of Tinke is hotkeys. Instead of moving your mouse to the “View” button every single time you want to see a sprite, just push a certain key on your keyboard!

Hotkeys:
Spacebar – view file
P – open file as palette
T – open file as tile (graphic)
M – open file as map (screen)
D – decompress file
C – collapse folder
X – expand folder

With Tinke, the files that are normally considered to be an unrecognized format can be opened as if it were any old .NCLR or .NCGR file. This allows for games with odd file formats to be ripped with relative ease, the trick is to know which files to open.

Anyways, to start out, I’ll go with an easy example. We’ll be ripping from Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku!


Let’s take a quick look at the screenshot. See in the middle on the right hand side, where it says “Recognized files: 58%”? This means that of all of the files available in the rom, 58% of them use one of the “important icons” from above. This is good!

Also notice that for all of the files pictured above, they use all four of the icons corresponding to sprites. So let’s open a few up and try it out!


Awesome! You may notice that I only opened the files up to “TalkChara_00_00.NCER”. This is because I wanted to show something, notice directly under the sprite the drop down bar “CellAnime0” and to the right of it, “of 6”? This means that in this group of .NCLR, NCBR, and .NCER files, there are multiple sprites. You can either cycle through the sprites through the drop down bar, or see them all at once by clicking “Show all banks”.

I won’t go into the “OAM Editor”, as most of the sprites that you will be viewing will be pieced together properly. Instead, let’s look at another DS game. This time, how about Pokémon Black? We open the rom and see…


HOLY CRAP, 99% recognized files?! This will be a piece of cake! I feel like ripping the accessories from the Pokémon Musical, so let’s find those, shall we? They’re sprites, so I’ll look for those sprite icons, I’ll be done in no time!

Anyways, to save endless searching (believe me, the Pokémon games need a lot of searching) we stumble across this folder:


Well this is stupid, I spent my whole day looking for these accessory sprites, and none of the sprite files ended up being them. I’ll just open up these conveniently placed texture files, and…


WHAAAAAAAAAT? This isn’t a texture, it’s a sprite! How did this happen?

Some files, specifically texture and model files, that you may think are one thing end up being a completely different thing. In order to prevent looking over sprites that you could have ripped, open up any and every file that seems important, you never know what you may find.

Now that we’ve gone through a few easy examples, let’s step it up a notch. How about Naruto Shippūden: Shinobi Rumble?


18%, that doesn’t look too good. :/ Instead of just skipping this game, I’ll open up the seim-obvious choice of the “battle” folder, then “graphics” folder, and see what files there are.

Well, crap! Nothing’s here! I’m just gonna give up and…

WAIT! Before you leave this game and assume that you can’t do anything, remember the hotkeys. Let’s just start with the first file in this folder and use the P hotkey.


NOTE: When using hotkeys, open files in the order of palette, graphic, map (P, T, M)

Okay, so it looks like we’re getting somewhere. Notice how there is a group of colors that look similar, all in a line? This means that there is a palette hidden in this file, “Action80x80.5txb”. Despite it being an unrecognized file by Tinke, it has the potential to actually be something of use.

Also notice that there are a few colors before the group of similar colors that seem a bit out of place, along with the colors after the similar colors. To fix this problem, go to the “Start byte:” and change the number in the box! Let’s try the number 24, just because.


Okay, so that works. Now that we have the palette working, let’s try opening the same file (“Action80x80.5txb”) as a graphic. Let’s press the T key then!

NOTE: When tweaking the “Start byte:” section, always go by even numbers. Each row is 32 “bytes” or numbers, and each complete box (all the colors shown in a box) is 512 bytes. Also a thing to note, if there is only one row of colors that seem to matter, you can switch the “Depth:” section to “16 / 16 (4bpp)” in the drop down bar. The “256 / 1 (8bpp)” option is for palettes that use a complete box, or at least more than the first row. Try messing around with it, and test what happens.


So this doesn’t look too good… If you read the note above, though, you will know that it would be smart to change the “BPP:” section to “4bpp (16 colors)”.


Hmm, doesn’t look any better. Let’s take a moment to think of anything else. Since I’m using this as an example in the guide, there has to be something that comes out of this file. So we’ve got “Image pattern:”, “Offset:”, “Width:” and Height:” left, along with a few other options. But if we look back at the file name “Action80x80.5txb” we notice that part of the name says 80x80. In case you were wondering, this is a helpful tip to change the width to 80. Also, for the sake of speeding up, let’s also change the offset number to 24 (the value we used to fix the palette earlier before). The result is this:


Aha! We got it to work! Unfortunately, not all games are as easy as these first three examples have been.

NOTE: Not all files are this conveniently named, nor does every palette have the desired color chain in the first 512 bytes. Clicking the “Display all palettes” button allows you to see every color in the palette, and determine how many bytes you need to skip to get to the desired outcome.

NOTE: A rule of thumb that can help you determine what width and height to choose: The only thing that matters is the width. While height allows you to view all of the sprites in the file, width lines up the pixels to form coherent sprites, instead of jumbled messes. Because the average tile size is 8x8, the most (if not ALL) of the graphics are going to have a width of a multiple of 8 (the most common being 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512). When an image looks like the sprites are stretched by 2x, or shrunk by 2x, a good idea would be to change the width by 2. This is by all means a learning process.

NOTE: “Image pattern:” has two options, Lineal (supposed to say Linear) and Tiled. This is essentially the same as in TileGGD, whichever shows clearer images, use that.

These next 2 examples may be a bit shown a bit faster than the last 3, but I’m sure you’ll keep up.

Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku:


So we’re at a random sprite group right now, and while one section of the image looks good, the others seem to have the wrong palette. To fix this, use the “Num palette” option to cycle through the palettes. All of the correct palettes are available, there’s just all not available at the same time. This is most common with images that contain bulk amounts of sprites, or is a collaboration image.

Bomberman Land Touch:


Yet another example of a game that despite having a low recognized file percentage (1% ), is perfectly compatible for ripping. I’ll just cut right to the chase and say that the .dscr files are palette files (at start byte 16), and the .dsir files are graphic files (width = 32) With this information, we get this:


Although the sprite isn’t perfect, it is clear that with a bit of tweaking in paint, a clear image can be made. This is because with files that don’t have a normal format, they have a chance of being composed of tiles.

NOTE: When looking for files to test for palettes and graphics, keep in mind the extension of the average palette and graphic files, .NCLR and .NCGR. File groups that have similar extensions have potential to be hidden sprites. Files with the letters, p (Palette), c (Color) or l (coLor) can be hints of possibly having palettes, while files with the letters, g (Graphic), or i (Image) may hint to being graphic files. Similarly, c (Cell) and s (Screen) are common as well. As usual, it’s best to test around and try all possibilities.

FINAL NOTE: In the version of Tinke provided, once you view a sprite in Tinke, it is automatically added to your clipboard. This means that instead of print screening every time, or exporting each image and adding them to a sheet, you can view a sprite in Tinke and automatically paste it into a sprite sheet. Try it out!

FINAL NOTE: Some games that may seem incompatible with Tinke have game-specifc tools. Tools like these will be under the “Helpful Links” section of this guide.

FINAL NOTE: Unfortunately, not all DS games work with Tinke. For those that do work with the above methods, ripping should be a walk in the park. For the games that don't work, however, you will have to resort to "hard ripping." It still works just as fine as Tinke, but takes quite a bit longer.

Oil of Vitriol (by Barubary) (used to open .NCLR, .NCGR, .NCBR, .NCER, .NSCR, .NANR, .NMCR, and .NMAR files)
Glycerin Map Viewer (by Barubary) (used to open .NCLR, .NCGR, .NCBR, .NCER, and .NSCR files)
No$GBA
DeSmuME
DeSmuME Wi-Fi
AnimGet (takes screenshots during game emulation)
Tinke (by pleonex)
ConsoleTool
Tahaxan
CrystalTile2 (interesting ripping/ hacking tool)
Puggsoy's Video Game Sound Converter

Tinke tutorial by Avegaille
Tinke website
Tinke GBAtemp thread
Console Tool thread
GameFAQs search