Nintendo Switch Cartridges - Key Area

[Hiccup]

I think it would be best to have two formats in DoM: XCI + separate files, for backwards compatibility, plus a "FullXci" format. And yeah ideally hashes for both will be generated by nxdumptool, and it would have an option for what format to store the files as (user's preference).

And yeah, archives that are missing the the initial area could be marked as bad.

[xuom2]

if we move to the nds way, there is no need of "backwards compatibility".

[Hiccup]

Well the thing about the NDS is that the both formats worked fine with existing tools. This isn't going to be the case with XCIs.

[xuom2]

sorry?

[Hiccup]

Basically, the if this "initial area" is added to the top of the XCI, many tools will not support this format, and also it will make all previous hashes redundent. I think this would cause a lot of confusion to everyone (datters, collectors, everyone). So I think while its a good idea to get all the data, we should do this by havinga "OldFormat" (incomplete XCI which works with tools + extra files to make it complete) and a "NewFormat" (complete XCI - more accurate, won't work with all tools)

[xuom2]

Yes but which tools

[Hiccup]

Probably all fan-made tools. emulators, ROM info viewers/extractors, ROM loaders on console etc. Also a big factor is the confusion - it wouldn't be possible to match the old hashes to new hashes, if we get rid of the old hashes.

[Myria]

This reminds me so much of what we know now about the DS...