What Stern checks when it says GAME VALIDATION ERROR ... UPDATE SD CARD:
two independent layers. (1) the sidx per-file HMAC-SHA1+MD5 manifest over
the 1306 /games files, verified by spk/spike_menu; (2) the game's own
boot check (SD card geometry via hdparm, node firmware, SHA1) that
produces the permanent #1..#6 service-menu message — the #6 12:1:0 we
got after the 2026-10-22 card reflash. Includes the game ELF's layout
gotchas (two VA mappings, all-indirect PLT calls, unreferenced
localized catalog) that stalled the static trace, and the open
questions with the on-machine diagnostic path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Code <noreply@anthropic.com>
