I should get mine (Retail 64DD) today normaly (if rain stop a little) I would like to try disabling the IPL but since blue dev seen to be useless, I think getting a retail 64DD to work as a dev one still a useless thing at the end... I don't have a DCC board/ipl4rom/masteredBlueDisk anyway to test it after....
DCC Board you dont need, you need ipl4rom and at least one disk. The differences between the two systems arent that clear up to today. The SDK states clearly that they are different, and that disks from one kind shouldnt be used for the other one. I dont think that the only difference between the retail and dev unit is the DDROM, so I would be very careful on that side... Can I add your msn contact?
you just cant use a DEV DD as a retail one and the other way around - issue being the disks are incompatible between the two, not the IPL.
Not sure about that. File format should be the same actually, HW is different IMO. Thats why the Debugger doesnt dump retail disks but just dev ones..
Just got my 64DD, wow it's even more awesome machine than I tought is was!!! Everything work. I did some test like I have said to kammedo so the result: Like I have tought US OOT v1.0 (NUS-CZGE-USA) (gold cart) do not work. I tought it will at least give me en error message, but it just won't boot at all. I think that the cart when booting look for a US 64DD unit and find a JAP one and them stop with black screen. I also tried a US OOT v1.1 (NUS-CZLE-USA) with the exact same result So I'm going to try to find a US OOT v1.2 (NUS-NZLE-USA) (player's choice cart) All the 64DD code should be removed it that version. I don't want to remove my 64DD everytime I want to play the greatest game in history in english I never see this information somewhere before, but maybe this issue I'm describing is well know to 64DD owner....
Great to see you have a working unit! Jump over at 64dd to post your s/n! As for Zelda, well, Ninty hardly could had thought about releasing the 64DD to USA, so i dont think thats the reason. Maybe its more a CIC issue.
It's not related to CIC at all, since US and JAP system/cart share the exact same CIC, The only different between JAP and US N64 stuff is that the cart plastic casing is a bit different so jap game cannot be connected to a US system and virce-versa, Removing the two little plastic edge inside N64 deck solve this problem. Also, nintendo did make a lot of avertasing in '97 - '98 for the 64DD on their offcial US website. If you look to the 64DD IPL chip you can see -JPN at the end. So OOT look for a 64DD US IPL for sure. EDIT: (I'm confident of this, but it's just speculation of course...)
I looked at the IPL rom and the region is write in the header in both the name and region space. I going to buy an 32Mbit (4Mb x 8) eprom and will modify the header so it's contain USA and E in the name and region field respectively. I'm wondering if OOT look there to determine the 64DD region. (I'm taking as fact that zelda actualy won't boot cause it detect a JAP 64DD, but again this is just speculation maybe US OOT just don't like the DD after all )
When a gamepak supports the 64DD then it will refer to the DDROM at domain 2, when needed, which is usual to be on boot - I believe your assumption might be correct.
I did some checkint into Zelda. It does actualy read from IPL space at the start. This is a sharp difference from F-Zero which checks the DD status reg first before trying to communicate with the DD. I am guessing Zelda does 1 read to see if the IPL addr start returns an invalid address. If it dont then it later (before the nintendo 64 logo) does a second read of the IPL (again prior to any cmd writen to DD regs). The 2nd addr is not a header read and i've not been able to get much further then that last night (out of time). So a change of the rom header name to (U) from (J) most likely wont fix the issue at hand. I'll do more checks to see what is required to make OOT (u) work (I was testing OOT (J) against no ipl (i dont emulate ipl yet).
Cool, keep me informed, I should receive the stuff needed to replace the IPL IC so if you can find what OOT is looking for and where it is in the ipl rom that would be great to try out on real hardware what happen.
Not actually. The N64 defines two so-called "Domains", which are nothing more than memory areas mapped to the PI - the Cart and DD slot. Now, this is needed because you can connect different devices to the PI (cart, DD, etc) everyone of them has different access timings etc. By settling up domains, you can define such parameters for each domain. 0x0500 0000 to 0x05FF FFFF Cartridge Domain 2 Address 1 0x0600 0000 to 0x07FF FFFF Cartridge Domain 1 Address 1 0x0800 0000 to 0x0FFF FFFF Cartridge Domain 2 Address 2 0x1000 0000 to 0x1FBF FFFF Cartridge Domain 1 Address 2 there you go Remember, those are physical adresses!
I'll be sending the unit to kammedo on Friday. You can direct any questions to him. For the record I'm lending the item and paying for shipping. You're free to do what you want for research. If you reach a point where you feel like you've "finished" then please pass it along, even if it's not working at that point.
Although I m not a privy party to this agreement (yet at least) I agree on the terms, they seem fair for their purpose. I m certain kammedo will take good care of the unit even when he's slaughtering it, he's a magician =)
