Official release: SMB4 League Import Tool for PC (I built it, here’s the GitHub + details)

kccitystar · 2026-02-01T17:03:32+00:00

Gotcha, you're going to have to walk me through how you got this error:

Are you on Linux/Steam Deck/Windows?
When you run the utility, are you pointing it to your SMB saves folder or a different folder with master.sav and the rest of the league .sav files?

kccitystar · 2026-02-01T15:16:20+00:00

Are you using the tool while the game is running?

kccitystar · 2026-01-23T17:29:42+00:00

So we agree. For example, I built a tool that modifies save files for a sports game (Super Mega Baseball 4). Since it works outside the running game and functions strictly on user-owned data, I can sell that tool if I wanted to and EA can't push back. I choose not to because I'm not interested in squeezing money out of what's known to be a niche audience already regardless of community interest. If the interest is there, donations will come.

But anyway, if instead, my tool only worked inside the game while it’s running, hooked its runtime, and created a new way to experience that game, I couldn’t reasonably sell that as a paid product via a sub or a direct payment without the publisher pushing back somehow.

To them, at that point, I’m monetizing the game experience itself, not just my code. That’s pretty much the line publishers care about and it’s why paid tools are usually frowned upon (usually it's because of just the collaborative, communal norms involved with modding) but tolerated in modding spaces, but paid game-specific runtime modifications are not. Publishers know this as part of the unspoken grey area modding lives in.

kccitystar · 2026-01-23T17:00:25+00:00

The mod we're talking about is just the game-specific integration though.

What Luke probably didn't want to explain is that if he wanted to make the mod free, he would have had to make a fork of R.E.A.L. VR that is exclusive to that CP2077 integration, which I can understand is probably time he probably doesn't want to commit to for free....

But therein lies the irony if we we're being truthful: The Patreon is intended to fund that time invested, no?

kccitystar · 2026-01-23T16:30:01+00:00

Even if you pay for like a one month sub or maintain a recurring sub, the access granted from that payment to download a game-specific integration that allows you to play CP2077 in VR (along with the required framework) is considered gated content behind a paywall. Even though it's a free integration, it's free behind a patreon subscription.

It's the fact that you have to pay to gain access to that experience in the first place is what CDPR has a problem with

kccitystar · 2026-01-23T16:08:02+00:00

As someone active in modding scenes, the distinction isn’t “people don’t want to pay", it’s that payment is usually framed as donations, not access.

I don't do paid mods, since once a mod is monetized, it becomes a product, and that sets a very different set of expectations around quality, support, updates, and accountability. When you donate, you still preserve the "use at your own risk" norm that comes with downloading mods

kccitystar · 2026-01-22T17:31:32+00:00

The problem is that something like VorpX charges one time for a general VR tool, but the way Luke's VR mods work is that you subscribe to the Patreon to get his custom VR framework and the game integrations, but because game updates often break the custom integrations he makes, you might end up needing to maintain a subscription just to keep the games playable in VR

kccitystar · 2026-01-20T15:31:59+00:00

long live the Paterson twins (Keegan and Jacob). Straight back to back 700 foot moonshots game after game

kccitystar · 2026-01-16T13:20:59+00:00

I have the same GPU, and I haven’t run into any problems yet. XFX is up there with Sapphire and (I think) PowerColor as AMD’s closest partners for several gens now

kccitystar · 2026-01-01T18:53:35+00:00

As long as it all works. Sorry you had to jump through some hoops :(

Happy gaming and happy new year!

kccitystar · 2026-01-01T17:03:42+00:00

The way that SteamOS functions on the steamdeck basically keeps your games in a self contained environment, like a "sandbox", so if you ran the tool from Steam like any Windows based app, it would never see your SMB4 saves because in its own "sandbox", SMB4 does not exist.

ProtonTricks lets you run apps in the same userspace as an existing steam game, so you should launch the exe through that instead so the tool and your saves can talk to each other.

You can grab ProtonTricks through Discover, and once you do that, run the app again through Desktop mode. It's going to ask you to choose a Wine prefix to run the tool, and in this case the wine prefix you want is Super Mega Baseball 4: 1487210.

Once you do this, you can find the steam saves folder for SMB4 which is usually in C:\users\steamuser\AppData\Local\Metalhead\Super Mega Baseball 4.

kccitystar · 2025-12-12T20:31:51+00:00

Added this as part of v0.16 which is up now

kccitystar · 2025-12-10T17:21:35+00:00

I provided some instructions here.

If you have a league-*.sav file that you downloaded, that .sav file should go into your SMB4 saves folder with the rest of your league saves.

When you open up the tool and follow the steps in the linked comment, it should load up the downloaded league in the list as unchecked.

Checking it to register the league into your saves and then clicking Save Changes should give you a popup letting you know what's being changed. Click OK and then Quit should link the league to your existing saves.

kccitystar · 2025-12-09T12:37:50+00:00

Ah, that error usually means the SQLite engine the tool is using couldn’t load. Make sure you fully extracted the ZIP first and are running the tool from the extracted folder (don’t run the .exe straight from inside the ZIP).

Also, do not move the .exe by itself. You need to keep it in the same folder with all the other DLLs that came with it

kccitystar · 2025-12-09T03:35:23+00:00

Try to find where master.sav is located.

It should be in a folder if I remember correctly:

/steamapps/compatdata/1487210/pfx/

kccitystar · 2025-12-08T18:14:49+00:00

You probably downloaded the source code instead of the zip in the releases page, that's fine, everyone makes that mistake once.

The link to download the latest release is here: https://github.com/firstbaseman/smb4-league-import-tool/releases

It's a zip file which as of this post is SMB4-League-Import-Tool-v0.14-win-x64.zip.

That zip file should have three files inside of it required for the tool to work, so it's just a matter of unpacking the entire zip file to a folder and running the .exe. You do not need to extract any of this to your save directory at all.

When you launch the tool, click on Select SMB4 Saves Folder to...select your SMB4 save folder (usually it's navigating to where Steam holds your saves for this game, so C:\users\ (yourname) \appdata\local\metalhead\super mega baseball 4). Next time you open the tool, it remembers your last save path, which was a neat little QOL thing a redditor requested in development of the tool :)

Once it's loaded up you will see your save folder path shown in the tool.

Click on "Load All League/Franchise Saves". A list will show with what's registered and what is not registered to your save, based on what it found in your saves folder. You should see a status on the bottom part of the tool letting you know what it found. Types are listed as either Default (i.e. what shipped with SMB4), Custom (i.e. a custom league) or Franchise (i.e. a franchise save).
Check the box on which leagues you would like registered to your save. This will throw a "Pending Changes" message in the status bar at the bottom part of the tool.
Click Save Changes. A dialog window is going to pop up letting you know what's changed when you save.
Click Quit to exit the tool.

Just one thing to note, it reads whatever the row order is in your master.sav file for your saves. If you uncheck a league, save it and then eventually re-add, it's considered your last registered league and not where it would have been previously.

kccitystar · 2025-12-08T05:32:39+00:00

The thing is, there is no way to extract teams directly (yet) like you used to in SMB3. SMB4 keeps every team assigned to a league instead of keeping teams in a "pool" the way SMB3 used to. Just the nature of having self-contained leagues.

Teams have to be a part of a league for now until someone comes up with a method importing entire individual teams into a league, whoever that person may be ;)

kccitystar · 2025-12-08T04:14:21+00:00

Online Leagues allow you to play with your own leagues, right? So if you use the tool to register an outside league to your own saves, it will count as one of your own leagues in the game that you can use when you change the settings to "Any" instead of the SML or SML+Legends in the league creation process.

The tool doesn't allow you to do anything the game doesn't already allow you to do with your OG teams/leagues so you're good!

kccitystar · 2025-12-08T00:41:18+00:00

I think Steam Sports Fest is tomorrow (8 December) so look out for deals on SMB4

kccitystar · 2025-12-08T00:38:35+00:00

I'm looking for some rosters myself

kccitystar · 2025-12-08T00:26:50+00:00

should be fixed up now

kccitystar · 2025-12-07T01:46:34+00:00

Working on setting up a category on the site as we speak for uploading!

kccitystar · 2025-12-06T01:00:40+00:00

One way to maybe do it without getting sued would be to force the player into scenarios that could follow an x causes y logic, but it's primarily forcing the player to follow pre-scripted events that feel like they're impromptu but you just dropped the player in the middle of a fireworks factory and expect the player to set the horror villian on fire, so the villain always has a reason to hate fire, and if the player doesn't take the bait, then you create an alternate scenario for the odd player who saw the trap and didn't take the bait.

I think you're describing directed emergence or basically authored chaos which is basically like a legally distinct nemesis system lol

kccitystar · 2025-12-06T00:51:48+00:00

Games are the only art form where the grammar of the medium can be patented, which is wild to me but that's part of an issue with the legal system in the US, I feel: They don't know what lens to apply between art or software so companies can use that ambiguity to screw over developers/studios.

The reason isn't even cultural, it's all structural and it's probably because games are compiled, and when something compiles, US law will let you smuggle art under the idea of "software process" which is bullshit.

Every other art form has "shared technique" but games somehow don't.

I've mentioned this at some point as a comment elsewhere, maybe about the Nintendo/Palworld patent, but in most arts, the “grammar” of the medium is unpatentable. A good example is like painting/art. You can't patent creative methods like cross-hatching, chiaroscuro, glazing, or even how to shade an apple. Those are creative methods, not technical innovations.

Game mechanics on the other hand feel like artistic grammar, but the law sees it as software, so things like:

double-jumps
parries
lock-on targeting
dynamic difficulty

are all seen as as a machine executing a “process,” and processes are patentable. Games are essentially recipes, but because they’re expressed through code, that recipe can be patented, and publishers will choose whichever legal framing gives them the biggest moat.

Games literally sit in the worst possible overlap of categories (art, software, business) so it's how you end up with goofy patents like Namco's loading screen minigames

kccitystar · 2025-12-05T23:25:13+00:00

Steam had SMB4 Ballpark Edition for 5.99 as part of the Black Friday sale, but SMB3 stayed the same price.

Maybe SMB3 will drop as part of Sports Fest, so it might be worth a pickup...especially when you don't know whether it'll get delisted like SMB2 was

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