{"id":20876614,"url":"https://github.com/rollingstar/cardshark","last_synced_at":"2025-05-12T15:32:22.671Z","repository":{"id":77012854,"uuid":"113070261","full_name":"RollingStar/CardShark","owner":"RollingStar","description":"Interface with previous decoders and encoders for the GBA e-Reader","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2017-12-04T17:07:33.000Z","size":5,"stargazers_count":7,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":3,"default_branch":"master","last_synced_at":"2025-04-01T07:49:50.475Z","etag":null,"topics":["e-reader","gba","python3","split","vpk"],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"","language":"Python","has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/RollingStar.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"readme.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null}},"created_at":"2017-12-04T17:00:59.000Z","updated_at":"2024-02-03T05:48:16.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2023-03-11T23:54:31.165Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/RollingStar/CardShark","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":[],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/RollingStar%2FCardShark","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/RollingStar%2FCardShark/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/RollingStar%2FCardShark/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/RollingStar%2FCardShark/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/RollingStar","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/RollingStar/CardShark/tar.gz/refs/heads/master","host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":253765989,"owners_count":21960827,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":["e-reader","gba","python3","split","vpk"],"created_at":"2024-11-18T06:52:57.653Z","updated_at":"2025-05-12T15:32:22.663Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/RollingStar.png","language":"Python","readme":"# CardShark\n\nAn incomplete suite of tools meant to interface with previous decoders and encoders for the GBA e-Reader. This project is completely unaffiliated with anyone else.\n\n# Requirements\n\n* Python 3\n* [Dotcode dev package](https://www.caitsith2.com/ereader/devtools.htm)\n* Windows for the trivial **bat** files\n\n# Workflow\n\nImagine 4 folders:\n\n1. raw\n2. bin\n3. vpk\n4. dec\n\nSummary: Go 1 through 4 to decode. Make your changes. Go from 4 through 1 to encode.\n\ne-Reader dotcodes begin life as **raw** files. They are about 3 KB. Each raw file has some redundancy, and can be decoded to a **bin** (binary) file. Each binary is made up of what I am calling a **header** and 1 or more data **chunk**s. Each **chunk** begins with bytes `76 70 6B 30` (vpk0), which has given them the name **vpk**. The **chunks** can be split into individual **vpk** files through normal, general-purpose file splitting tools. Finally, the **vpk**s can be decompressed into plaintext / plain binaries that are interpreted by GBA and GC games. I call the decompressed / decoded files **dec**s.\n\nThe workflow I had involves automatically converting from **raw** files into **dec**. The user manually makes edits to the decoded **dec**s. Then they command the tools to package them back into either a **raw** or a **bin** file. (Some tools prefer **bin**.) The text `-hax` is added to the end of the filename when packaging, to avoid overwriting existing input files with hacked versions.\n\n# Unfinished\n\nAs fun as this project is/was at its best, debugging it and reverse-engineering e-Cards has been tiring. I don't know if I'll ever pick up this project again, so at the time being, everything here is provided as-is. Looking through the code, converting `bin_to_vpk.py` should function fine, but the inverse conversion `vpk_to_bin` has caused me some serious trouble.\n\nOn top of that, this was created to hack the e-Cards used for Animal Crossing, and documenting the format has been doubly tiring due to having a slower / less-automated workflow for testing the e-Cards in Dolphin + VisualBoyAdvance-M-WX-2.0.0-beta2.","funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Frollingstar%2Fcardshark","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Frollingstar%2Fcardshark","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Frollingstar%2Fcardshark/lists"}