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Post by elmer on Mar 4, 2019 5:51:46 GMT
I just know, from my days on the high seas, that there didn't used to be a verified [!] dump of the US ROM. You are one of the old-timers that have been contibuting to the PCE scene for many, many years! That's something worthy of great respect. It is the continued interest and very existence of the original fans that keeps the memory of the PCE alive in a country that only seems to care about Nintendo (and *maybe* Sega). But, yeah ... there are verified dumps of pretty-much-everything these days. The one at $4a44 on boot? LMAO so that's what that was! "it works on my machine bro". This is hilarious... Yep, that's the source of the problem, right there. It's fairly-easy to patch-in the correct addresses into the game's bootloader in a TED2 System Card ... I had to figure out how to do that in order to get Dragon Slayer II running properly on the TED2. The real question (from my POV) is ... do we *really* care that some CD games won't run with the Turbografx Super System Card, since we can't patch the original game CDs, and if you're running a TED2, then you can just use the Japanese System Card 3 instead?
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Post by dshadoff on Mar 4, 2019 6:04:13 GMT
I'm 99.99% certain that Bonanza Bros. and Alshark were broken in the same way, for the same reason. As I recall, I fixed both of them in the same afternoon. And yes, the "ver 3.01" check sounds really familiar.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2019 6:21:27 GMT
The one at $4a44 on boot? LMAO so that's what that was! "it works on my machine bro". This is hilarious... Yep, that's the source of the problem, right there. It's fairly-easy to patch-in the correct addresses into the game's bootloader in a TED2 System Card ... I had to figure out how to do that in order to get Dragon Slayer II running properly on the TED2. The real question (from my POV) is ... do we *really* care that some CD games won't run with the Turbografx Super System Card, since we can't patch the original game CDs, and if you're running a TED2, then you can just use the Japanese System Card 3 instead? Well I think the issue goes deeper than that... I patched the IRQ routine as follows: $4A4E:0x1124e AD f8 ff LDA $fff8 18 CLC 69 06 ADC #6 ;Skip bit test and stack push 85 fe STA <$fe AD f9 ff LDA $fff9 69 00 ADC #0 85 ff STA <$ff 6C fe 20 JMP (<$20fe) I'm not sure if A-Train does something critical with dl/dh on the Zero Page, probably not. But yeah this only went as far as letting IRQ1 run correctly, the game stays on a black screen and a little bit later a white noise sound starts (progress at least...). I'll check later if I can have mednafen trap specific JSR/JMP commands. I guess I'm in the minority here but it's nice to be able to run the game on a CD (recordable) without needing another system card or a flash drive.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2019 6:46:21 GMT
You know what, I think you're right Elmer. This is too much work for something that should have been done by the people who programmed the game in the first place. Much easier to get a japanese System Card or an everdrive.
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fragmare
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Post by fragmare on Mar 4, 2019 6:57:33 GMT
A.III does seem to have a problem with the syscard3 fix, i can vouch for that. At least the version I have. I believe Godzilla had some sort of issue too, iirc JP Godzilla runs fine on my US Duo, so unless there's some difference between that and a US 3.0 card, I think we can cross that off the list. Yea, upon jogging my memory and further analysis, Jp Godzilla seems fine. The US Godzilla disc, however, seems to screw up and tell you you're running the wrong system card if you play it in Mednafen, I noticed. The US Godzilla TOC checks out and the CRC32/filesize of the system card image I am using matches Dave's previous listings, so this is probably just a Mednafen issue. This may just be Mandela Effect, but shouldn't the US region Super System Card have a big blue 'SUPER' at the top (removing 'PC-Engine') and actually say 'V.3.01' on the BIOS screen? Like I said, the filsize and CRC match what Dave mentioned, but here is what I see...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2019 7:12:07 GMT
On my actual Turbo Duo and on my rom file it does show the "Super" on screen. The version however is 3.00 (even though it's 3.01 if you run EX_GETVER from a PCE CD program). Even the Arcade Card shows Ver. 3.00, for that matter.
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fragmare
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Post by fragmare on Mar 4, 2019 7:48:47 GMT
On my actual Turbo Duo and on my rom file it does show the "Super" on screen. The version however is 3.00 (even though it's 3.01 if you run EX_GETVER from a PCE CD program). Even the Arcade Card shows Ver. 3.00, for that matter. You're right! It never says v3.01 on the screen. Also, I have found that the blue 'SUPER' text does appear on screen... but only with a CD-ROM unit present (an observation I'd never made before). Thus, Duo users would likely never see a screen like the one I posted above. So that means the US Super System Card ROM I have is valid after all... yay! Heh. I'll let Ryphecha know there's an issue with US Godzilla, so they can further perfect their emulator
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Post by dshadoff on Mar 4, 2019 11:14:49 GMT
The screen shows 3.00, but the version request function returns 3.01 for some silly reason.
I recently discovered that the "SUPER" only shows on the screen if there is a RAM bank available - it would exist on the actual card itself, but if you are running it in any other way, the RAM needs to come for somewhere else... - It already exists on a Duo - should already be mapped active on a Turbo Everdrive - internal hardware needs to recognize and enable RAM for UperGrafx or SSD3 - would need to be allocated in Mednafen (isn't it ?) - etc.
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Post by ginoscope on Mar 4, 2019 15:01:08 GMT
The screen shows 3.00, but the version request function returns 3.01 for some silly reason. I recently discovered that the "SUPER" only shows on the screen if there is a RAM bank available - it would exist on the actual card itself, but if you are running it in any other way, the RAM needs to come for somewhere else... - It already exists on a Duo - should already be mapped active on a Turbo Everdrive - internal hardware needs to recognize and enable RAM for UperGrafx or SSD3 - would need to be allocated in Mednafen (isn't it ?) - etc. I noticed the missing "Super" when I loaded the cd bios on my v1 everdrive on my Express. I thought I had a bad dump of the bios at first but the same rom on a cd system showed Super as expected.
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fragmare
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Post by fragmare on Mar 4, 2019 15:04:29 GMT
The screen shows 3.00, but the version request function returns 3.01 for some silly reason. I recently discovered that the "SUPER" only shows on the screen if there is a RAM bank available - it would exist on the actual card itself, but if you are running it in any other way, the RAM needs to come for somewhere else... - It already exists on a Duo - should already be mapped active on a Turbo Everdrive - internal hardware needs to recognize and enable RAM for UperGrafx or SSD3 - would need to be allocated in Mednafen (isn't it ?) - etc. Mednafen must not provide the System Card with a RAM bank, then, when just loaded up for a quick look (like I did initially). Mednafen probably only enables the RAM bank if there's a CD disc and/or drive detected.
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Post by elmer on Mar 4, 2019 20:32:24 GMT
I remember reading somewhere (probably from magazines, but couldn't find this now) BiTD about Pioneer announcing an official list of games not compatible with the LaserActive. That would be really interesting to see, if anyone can find it! You know what, I think you're right Elmer. This is too much work for something that should have been done by the people who programmed the game in the first place. Much easier to get a japanese System Card or an everdrive. Yeah, I patched the AIII IRQ to use the proper vectors, and the game still died. Now that we know that the original programmer(s) ignored the rules and jumped straight into the ROM, you can be sure that they've done it in other places as well, and that you'd be playing a long and frustrating game of whack-a-mole if you tried to find/fix all of the idiocy.
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Post by elmer on Mar 4, 2019 22:36:08 GMT
Yea, upon jogging my memory and further analysis, Jp Godzilla seems fine. The US Godzilla disc, however, seems to screw up and tell you you're running the wrong system card if you play it in Mednafen, I noticed. Both the Japanese and US versions of Godzilla check the return value in the X register after calling ex_memopen. This fails in mednafen, but only when mednafen is using the Turbografx Super System Card, and not when it is using Japanese PCE Super System Card. This is because mednafen is reporting values from reading registers $18C0..$18C7 that don't match real hardware. The PCE and Turbografx System Cards do *slightly* different tests for whether the SuperCD RAM is available. The values that Mednafen returns when reading the registers (which are the same for both cards), cause the PCE Super System Card and Turbografx Super System Card to return different values in the X register ... which is what causes the problem. I *still* have no idea why mednafen does this. This is the same issue that causes problems with the two Tenshi no Uta games in mednafen ... but only if you use the Turbografx Super System Card. I'll let Ryphecha know there's an issue with US Godzilla, so they can further perfect their emulator I'm pretty convinced that this is some kind of bug in mednafen. <edit> Updated the description.
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Post by elmer on Mar 5, 2019 0:30:02 GMT
I'm pretty convinced that this is some kind of bug in mednafen. Yep, it's a bug in mednafen. I've checked what the registers at $18C0..$18C7 return on Duo-R, a TurboDuo, and a CoreGrafx (just for comparison). The values for the 8 bytes should be 00 AA 55 03 FF FF FF FF. Mednafen returns 00 AA 55 00 00 AA 55 03 ... that's wrong! The fix is simple. mednafen/src/pce/pcecd.cpp, line 562 in function PCECD_Read() Change ... if((A & 0x18c0) == 0x18c0) { switch (A & 0x18cf) { case 0x18c1: ret = 0xaa; break; case 0x18c2: ret = 0x55; break; case 0x18c3: ret = 0x00; break; case 0x18c5: ret = 0xaa; break; case 0x18c6: ret = 0x55; break; case 0x18c7: ret = 0x03; break; } }
To ... if((A & 0x18c0) == 0x18c0) { switch (A & 0x18cf) { case 0x18c0: ret = 0x00; break; case 0x18c1: ret = 0xaa; break; case 0x18c2: ret = 0x55; break; case 0x18c3: ret = 0x03; break; default: ret = 0xff; break; } }
<EDIT> Yep, that fixes things. punch you can remove the Tenshi no Uta games from your list, the problem was mednafen, and not the US Super System Card.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2019 3:26:19 GMT
<EDIT> Yep, that fixes things. punch you can remove the Tenshi no Uta games from your list, the problem was mednafen, and not the US Super System Card.
If only someone could find that Pioneer announcement about compatibility this (tiny and incomplete) list wouldn't be needed haha.
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gilbot
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Post by gilbot on Mar 5, 2019 6:04:20 GMT
Okay. Found it! Rough translation: According to the April '94 issue of PC Engine Fan, some software didn't operate correctly with a LaserActive. At that time you might need to consult the individual makers of them for support. Maybe some of them had updated versions? *Symptoms of these software and workarounds are now added, from the February '94 issue of Dengeki PCE! :Juuouki (Altered Beast) CDROM 2 version(Symptom: Freezes at boss battles; Workaround: Replace with a fixed version of the software) :Sotsugyou Graduation (Symptom: Freezes at OP demo; Workaround: Skip with the RUN button) :Pastel Lime (Symptom: Freezes at visual scene; Workaround: Skip with the RUN button) :Wizardry I.II (Symptom: Cannot create custom characters; Workaround: Use default characters) :A.III. A Ressha de Ikou III (Symptom: Does not work; Workaround: none) :SUPER CDROM 2 Demo soft collection (most likely the VERY common one containing Tengai II and Legend of Heroes I) (Symptom: Does not work; Workaround: none) :PC Engine Hyper Catalog 3 (Symptom: Cannot view the demo of Sotsugyou; Workaround: Do not view that demo) :Moonlight Lady (Symptom: Freezes in the middle of Stage 2; Workaround: none) The reason of such unexpected incompatibilities are caused by breaking loose from the programming specs. during development of these games and the failure to test them thoroughly afterwards. LaserActive users please note! *More information from the May '94 issue of Dengeki PCE! If you plug-in the (original) Super System Card, then most of these games will work.Note that (as I have italicised the relevant texts): 1. This more or less confirms that there is an officially fixed version of Altered Beast. 2. Consider the fact that using the original Super System Card can fix these problems, it's quite possibly (most of) these games have the same mistake of calling functions from fixed addresses of the BiosSystem, and very likely they all have the same problem under a US System Card (if the system inside the LaserActive Pac is still 3.00 it wouldn't be the 3.01 problem).
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