https://github.com/city41/ereader-tools
E-Reader development tools
https://github.com/city41/ereader-tools
ereader gba-development homebrew nintendo retrogamedev
Last synced: 3 months ago
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E-Reader development tools
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/city41/ereader-tools
- Owner: city41
- Created: 2024-12-24T01:39:18.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-10-09T14:26:17.000Z (9 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-10-11T05:55:43.102Z (9 months ago)
- Topics: ereader, gba-development, homebrew, nintendo, retrogamedev
- Language: TypeScript
- Homepage:
- Size: 948 KB
- Stars: 8
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 2
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# E-Reader Tools
Tools for developing applications for the Nintendo GBA E-Reader.
This is a port of CaitSith2's [ereader tools](https://caitsith2.com/ereader/devtools.htm) to NodeJS as well as neflmake, originally written by Tim Schuerewegen
## Goals
- Entirely written in TypeScript
- Full support for everything the original tools do
- Improvements and additions, such as raw to svg
- well documented and tested
## Why?
- Generally non-native tools are easier to work with.
- Support actions in the eventual VSCode Ereader extension I plan to make.
- Support the eventual web version of these tools.
- Here is [one simple web tool](https://www.retrodotcards.com/tools/convert-raw) as an example.
- Print out more accurate dotcode strips that more closely match Nintendo's
# Status
Very alpha. So far only `compress-vpk`, `convert-raw` and `create-sav` exist and are quite raw (no pun intended). Not recommended for general usage yet.
# To Use
```bash
npm install --global @city41/ereader-tools
compress-vpk --input myGame.bin --output myGame.vpk
decompress-vpk --input myGame.vpk --output myGame.bin
create-sav --input myGame.vpk --output myGame.sav --type z80 --region us
convert-raw --input myGame.raw --output myGame
convert-raw --input myGame.raw --output myGame --format bmp
convert-raw --input myGame.raw --output myGame --format bmp --dpi 600
convert-raw --input myGame.raw --output myGame --format png
```
## convert-raw
`convert-raw` is this toolset's equivalent to `raw2bmp`. It is currently in a transition/experimental phase and not recommended for use. For now I recommend sticking with `raw2bmp`. Ultimately I am very hopeful that `convert-raw` will create images that scan more reliably than the ones created by `raw2bmp` and match Nintendo's original dotstrips more closely, if not perfectly.
### bmp
If you specify `--format bmp`, it will produce MS bitmap files identical to raw2bmp. It supports the same dpi's too: 300, 600, 1200 and 2400, specified with `--dpi `.
To create bmps, it is doing the exact same steps as `raw2bmp` does. There also integration tests to verify the output matches `raw2bmp`.
### png
If you specify `--format png`, then only 300 dpi is supported. This is not a useful output, 300 dpi almost certainly will not scan in an E-Reader. This really exists to help ensure the svg implementation is correct.
### svg
Long term, this may be the main output format and likely the only supported format. With svg, `--dpi` is not supported. The resulting svg image can be scaled to any size needed, so dpi is irrelevant.
That assumes svg actually provides improvements. It might not. It does allow for controlling the gap between the dots, which should help with ink bleed that varies from printer to printer. Whether this is actually true or not remains to be seen.
# Development
## Publishing
ereader-tools uses [semantic versioning](https://semver.org/)
Publishing a new version is done by bumping the version in package.json
```bash
yarn version
yarn version v1.22.19
info Current version: 0.4.0
question New version: 0.4.1
info New version: 0.4.1
Done in 16.19s.
git push
git push --tags
```
Once [the Publish action](https://github.com/city41/ereader-tools/actions/workflows/publish.yml) notices the version has changed, it will run a build and publish to npm.