Original Post

Find latest version here: https://www.virtual-boy.com/forums/t/release-hyperflasher-1-0-0-1-the-hyperflash32-support-application/page/3/#post-1046907

Hey Everyone,

I’ve been working with Kevin Mellott for a while to make the upcoming HF32 even more accessible. Therefore, I created a Windows application that allows you to manage your SD card.

There are 2 versions: one for production cards and one for prototype cards. If you bought a regular card you want to go with the hf-application-prod-1.0.0.1.zip.

The core features are:
– SD card management
— Add games to the SD card (Picking many might take a while)
— Automatic detection of most games
— Suggestion of labels, icons and padding mode
— Update of label, icon and padding mode on the SD card
— Add new label files
— Import labels from bitmaps
— Format your SD card to FAT32
– USB connection
— Access some developer features through the USB connection
— HF32 is automatically detected
– Firmware updates
— Check if your HF32 firmware is up to date
— I deactivated the actual update for now since I can’t test it
– Software updates through the application

Fwow13 and Kevin did allot of testing and the application is in a quite stable state. However, there might still be bugs. You can report them here if you find something. I intend to add more features to this application next year.

If you are looking to support me you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/thunderstruckProjects

—-
thunderstruck

51 Replies

The internet suggest to rewrite the bootloader which can only be done by Kevin I think. I don’t think it got damaged during the firmware update, since the update is not touching the bootloader. It’s more likely a electrical issue as it’s a prototype

Thanks @thunderstruck – I will work with Kevin on that!

Matt

Awesome update!

Got my USB connection issues resolved – thanks! Question though, when I import games, most of the standard and optional labels are identified but some of the games, no labels other than the default HF32 label are available. Am i doing something wrong with it recognizing the file name? Are the mumphy default labels available somewhere that i can manually add them? Appreciate the help!

@duqtito: Hey! You can contact Kevin about the labels and icons pack for the HF32 cart. All my labels and icons are included in that. I have not done labels and icons for every homebrew though (far from), my main focus was making labels and icons for the released games.

Here are the ones I have made so far (I plan on making some more in the future though): https://www.virtual-boy.com/forums/t/hyperflash-32-default-label-set-e-ink-screen/

The files are not recognized by file name but by their hash. I can’t possibly add the hash of every rom since there are variations due to padding and stuff like that. I should have all popular games in their unpadded form cataloged though. I was thinking about having an option that simply displays all labels independent from the game.

Anyway, you can always download bitmaps or label files and add them yourself.

@duqtito

You should be able to find all the default labels and icons in the Hyperflash32 Dropbox folder. There was a link in the email from Kevin Mellott.

Thanks to all of you and for those that sent me a PM. In this case it was total user error on my part (RTFM errr email). Right there in my inbox from Kevin, which I read and promptly forgot. Sorry for that oversight but thanks again for steering me in the right direction. I’ll blame the holidays =)

Here is Release 1.0.0.7.
– Allows firmware updates from a local file

It’s something I needed and I thought might be useful for others.

As always, you can also update through the application.


thunderstruck

If you are looking to support me you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/thunderstruckProjects

  • This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by thunderstruck.

Here is Release 1.1.0.0.

This one doesn’t add any new features. I is a big content update though:
– Massive amount of icons from TheReadMenace
– Lot’s of labels from Fwow13
– Some HQ labels from Mumphy
– Several labels from the contest that wouldn’t convert before
– New default images from Kevin

Updating the content is a very time consuming task so preparing this took some time. I might implement a system where artist can maintain their work by themselves.

As always, you can also update through the application.


thunderstruck

If you are looking to support me you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/thunderstruckProjects

  • This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by thunderstruck.
  • This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by thunderstruck.
  • This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by thunderstruck.

Updating the content is a very time consuming task so preparing this took some time. I might implement a system where artist can maintain their work by themselves.

Today I have implemented a way for creators to maintain their own posts, e.g. image albums, and keep them up to date. These can also contain the label and icon binary files in the respective downloadable archives. Maybe this could help to make the task less time intensive for you?

Not sure. It’s actually not that much a problem of hosting binaries somewhere but rather having a library of games with hashes and images associated.

The app is pretty much great as is, but can I request a few changes?

There is a filename limit on the Hyperflash32 (games can be added via Hyperflasher, and labels and icons chosen etc – which in turn copies the item to the SD card) but the Hyperflash then does not show it on the Menu if the filename is too long.
Can you do a filename check when adding roms to ensure they will correctly appear and not be hidden due to file length? (a warning ‘Filename too long!’, or similar)?

There is no way to ‘Delete’ a rom after it has been added, from within the menu.
After time I am sure the programming demos will be of little interest to me (see them once, sort of thing) and I would want to remove them from the Cart.

There is no ‘Exit’ (only close the window from the ‘X’). perhaps an option to ‘Exit’, or ‘Eject the SD card and ‘Exit’ the program to prevent possible corruption of SD cards?

lastly, include the ‘alternative’ artworks as selectable from within the app.?
https://www.virtual-boy.com/images/#!/YWxidW06OnNlYXJjaD1sYWJlbCZvcmRlcmJ5PXRpdGxlJm9yZGVyPWFzYw==

Apart from that, it is a Great tool that makes it so much easier to populate the amazing Hyperflash32.

many thanks,
Arthur.

  • This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by arthur.

Thanks for the Feedback. I will put everything on my list.

I want to add a +1 to the requests made by Arthur. It took me some time to realize why some roms were not appearing in my HF cart (long filenames). And a “remove rom” option is needed, no doubt about it. But I want to suggest adding one more option: the ability to search and choose any label / icon from all the ones available, when a rom is not identified. I mean, I used a patch for Jack Bros, and after that the labels and icons didn’t appear because the rom hash changed, so I had to add them manually. Would be cool to have an option to just search for the game’s name, and add select the label / icon directly from the app.

Here is Release 1.2.0.0.
– Checks if FTDI driver is installed and displays a warning
– Games are way more often recognized when they are padded or patched
– Adds an option to delete games from the SD card (also removes respective labels, icons and padding mode)
– Ensures that the .vb extension is lower case when games are added through the application
– Ensures that the the filename is not too long when games are added through the application
– Ensures that the the filename is not used when games are added through the application
– Improves the logging on crashes
– Fixes some stability issues

I started a mayor refactoring how I internally handle games as I want to eventually move to a system where creators can maintain icons and labels themselves. Hence, it is no longer possible to add icons and labels to the respective selection list on the right side. It’s still possible to change the current label/icon on the SD card with external files. The respective buttons are now located in the preview boxes and will only effect what’s on the SD card.


thunderstruck

If you are looking to support me you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/thunderstruckProjects

Just used this program today. Absolutely amazing. Thank you.

The only suggestions I would make:

1) Automatically select the recommended padding mode (I wasn’t even aware the HF32 required ROMs to be padded)

2) Auto rename ROM files longer than 27 characters so they show up on the HF32.

Thank you again for all your hard work!

Both features are present in the latest version as long as you add the games through the application.

Please disregard this question as I was able to receive help on the discord channel. Everything is working great, thank you!

Hello Thunderstruck,

I was hoping you could help me out. I received my HF32 yesterday and I am trying to use your Hyperflasher software 1.2.0.0 but I cannot get the program to see my HF32. I have downloaded and installed the FTDI drivers and I can see the device is recognized on COM3 but when I try to connect Hyperflasher says there is no response. I see that the log is trying to connect to COM3 but for some reason it cannot see the device. Is there any sort of troubleshooting I can test to see if I can get this working?

Please let me know…

  • This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by trz34.

thunderstruck
Here is Release 1.3.0.0.

It mainly adds support for bwr units
– bwr defaults will be set up
– bwr labels will previewed
– bwr labels can be imported and converted
– bwr labels that I liked the most are included
– firmware updates for bwr can be executed
– also some minor bug fixes

When you have bwr you want to use the bwr version of the application attached. I’m working on a big firmware update in parallel. This will allow me to only have one version of the application in the future.

As always, you can also update through the application.

For some reason I can not attach files anymore so here are the download links from my server:
https://hyper-flasher-release-98kzc.ondigitalocean.app/hf-application-bwr-1.3.0.0.zip
https://hyper-flasher-release-98kzc.ondigitalocean.app/hf-application-prod-1.3.0.0.zip
https://hyper-flasher-release-98kzc.ondigitalocean.app/hf-application-proto-1.3.0.0.zip


thunderstruck

If you are looking to support me you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/thunderstruckProjects

 

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