Codebreaker 9.2 won't let me add new files via FMCB

[Combusto Dragon]

my PS2 is now soft mod but one problem is, it won't let add new cheats on there.

should i download different versions?

[Pyriel]

Well, what the heck are you trying to do exactly? Replace the codesave entirely via a memory card manager, update with CBC/Day 1 files from USB, from the network, what?

[Combusto Dragon]

i have a Lexar 8GB USB

should i add codes by using my controller? like wrote down the codes on my notebook

[Duncan Idaho]

i have a Lexar 8GB USB

should i add codes by using my controller? like wrote down the codes on my notebook

Eh there is an easier way. Read my tutorial over at forums.romulation.net

I'll post is here anyways:

First you need an Uelf CD, unless you happen to have a phat PS2 you will need it, you can get it from here, now after burning uelf put it onto the PS2 and turn it on, it will boot up and you will see several things, first you want to go to Ms0: / as it's the slot 1 memory card, now press circle and scroll down until you find a PCB folder, K?, open it again with circle and you will see a cheats file, copy it (press R1) now make sure you have an usb mass storage device like a pen drive or a microsd card or sd card using it's adapter, copy the file on Mass: /, afterwards remove the usb device and you will paste it onto your users folder, given cb2util and cmd can be pretty picky on routes and given the difeault is c:/Users/*insert user name here* it's by far the fastest and simplest way to manage this mess, now we need cb2util get it from here.

Extract it onto your user folder and go to start (circle thing with the windows icon) in the search bar type cmd and press enter, a cmd window will pop up, to make sure everything works type cb2util, this should give you three options,cbc, pcb, cheats.

Now to extract cheats type cb2util cheats cheats>>cheats.txt, this should generate a cheats file in .txt format (you can use .doc too)

Now if you want to edit codes you get them from cheats.codetwink.com, however there is a faster way than mindlessly copy pasting the cheats, make an account ther eand you will get the option to DL .cbc files, that you can use, and work in a similar fashion to the cheat file, however they are extracted with a different command line, which is:


cb2util cbc *insert filename here*.cbc >*insert filename here*.txt


An example is cb2util cbc kh2.cbc>kh2.txt

This generates on your user folder a .txt file with guess what? the codes that were, now you can use any text editor to well copy the codes, however there are some rules to follow:


1) The game title must be like this "inser title name here", an example is: "Kingdom Hearts 2"

2) codes must be in Code name and then format with no spaces:

Quick level up
201B5238 25CE2710

3) The game title and the code name must not have any spaces, so:

"Kingdom Hearts 2"
Quick level up
201B5238 25CE2710

4) Game titles must be separate from other game titles:

"Kingdom Hearts 2"
Quick level up
201B5238 25CE2710

"Klonoa 2-Lunatea's Veil"
Enable Code (Must Be On)
FA7A006E 32A0C711

5) As a warning i'd recomend for you to avoid having too many games, from the deafult list, seek on google what games you are intrested on and in what games you are not intrested on, and erase the4m from the DB, otherwise you will cause a memory bucle that is impossible to fix unless you deletle the whole save from your memory card, which means losing too all the codes you had added up.

Now after you edit and add the codes have saved them, run this command line cb2util cheats -c cheats.txt cheats this will give you a new cheats.cbc file, now you rename the cheats file on your usb stick and paste the new one (renaming is done in case you happen to create a memory buckle so you have something to turn back to) and re insert the stick on the ps2 usb slot, and copy and pase the cheat file to the PCB folder, boot up code breaker and you will wind up with a brand new DB!.

6) Code breaker Memory Buckle, what it is, how do i know i am in front of one and how do i fix it?

6-a)What is a Memory Buckle and when does it happens?

A memory buckle is happens when your code breaker file has more than a certain number of games on it or exceeds a certain size, a default CB file can only handle up to 5 long games or 1 game with lots of codes, i discovered this issue when adding codes for Kingdom Hearts 2, so no, you want to avoid having a big file.

6-b) How do i know if i am facing a Memory Buckle?.

Simple, codebreake can take up to 5 minutes to load, then you will see a warning sign that displays an out of memory error, you can press X but you cannot acess the main CB screen.

6-c) How do i fix this problem?

Your best bet is to manually revert to a prior cheat file (hence why i told you to always have backups of your files) and take some 10 games you wont be cheating on or you have 0 intrest (shovelware games such as golf games, or some disney games or in my case Sega, midway and figthing games) in those.

6-d) Duplicate game titles?

This is a bug in the system that i am not really sure why it happens, if it does then your file is halfway corrupt, you need to revert ASAP to a previous file and re do, why i mention this? any cheat file that presented the problem will cause an out of memory error due to it's max size will be somewhere about 1.40 MB's 1.50 mb's with a textfile of 5 to 7 mb's which CB cannot handle (for some reason pelican chose the max size to be somewhere around the 900 kb's)

[Pyriel]

The maximum file size for the cheats file is determined by how much memory is allocated for it in your version of the CB. If I remember correctly, version 8-9 are something like 4 MB and version 10 expands it to 8 MB. What this equates to in terms of file size can be difficult to say, but, yeah, once your (compressed) file is in the 1.3 MB range, you're likely starting to push it for anything other than version 10. And I don't recommend you get version 10 just for the extra file size, because that's about all you get in exchange for some of the tweaks CMX created for 9, and all the documented mods that can be done to version 9.2.

If you can figure out how to do the above, it's definitely the fastest and least tedious way to manage codes. Maybe not the simplest, but it beats the hell out of keying in 4,000 codes by hand. Chances are you can't use Day 1 files, official or unofficial. Mainly because your CodeBreaker was probably never going to read that 8GB Lexar flash drive. The thing was notoriously sensitive when it came to USB. I could never get it to work with anything over 256 MB, and certain chipsets were just right out for unknown reasons. Then factor in that no USB devices at all can be plugged in while using CodeBreaker if your PS2 is model 75000 or above (it freezes, crashes, or stutters along unbearably slowly).

[Duncan Idaho]

The maximum file size for the cheats file is determined by how much memory is allocated for it in your version of the CB. If I remember correctly, version 8-9 are something like 4 MB and version 10 expands it to 8 MB. What this equates to in terms of file size can be difficult to say, but, yeah, once your (compressed) file is in the 1.3 MB range, you're likely starting to push it for anything other than version 10. And I don't recommend you get version 10 just for the extra file size, because that's about all you get in exchange for some of the tweaks CMX created for 9, and all the documented mods that can be done to version 9.2.

If you can figure out how to do the above, it's definitely the fastest and least tedious way to manage codes. Maybe not the simplest, but it beats the hell out of keying in 4,000 codes by hand. Chances are you can't use Day 1 files, official or unofficial. Mainly because your CodeBreaker was probably never going to read that 8GB Lexar flash drive. The thing was notoriously sensitive when it came to USB. I could never get it to work with anything over 256 MB, and certain chipsets were just right out for unknown reasons. Then factor in that no USB devices at all can be plugged in while using CodeBreaker if your PS2 is model 75000 or above (it freezes, crashes, or stutters along unbearably slowly).

How 'bout that I had been scratching my head for some time to figure what as the maximum size of the allowed files. And true, slims do not like the USB sticks in conjunction with codebreaker.

My method can be pretty fast once you get some experience and have notepad++ under your belt. Mostly because you can erase the game via CB 9.x and add new ones via my method.

[Combusto Dragon]

Duncan- my PS2 is 390001

[Pyriel]

Yeah, it's sort of the lazy programming principle coupled with limited resources. I'm pretty sure they added checks in version 10, so if your cheat listing got out of hand, it would throw up an exception notice. I think that was sort of half-assed too, though. It wouldn't always prevent you from corrupting the file in the first place. It just told you after you'd done. I think they did prevent you from loading a CBC file if the additional data would exceed the limit. However, their limit checking was fairly simple. If you try to load a file for a large-ish game that's already in the list, with two new codes added, it just computes the original size + the contents of the file and kicks out if the sum is larger than the limit. Given the limited memory, that's sort of forgivable. The one I never understood is that it only looks at free space on the card when writing a code save. So if you're kicking around with a 1.3 MB code save, it effectively requires a total of 2.6 MB on the card if you ever want to edit it manually.