I m happy to reply to every and any DD related question you may submit. Feel free to shoot! and of course, any detailed technical information can be provided by Kammedo, at his own discretion, in private Don't bug him though unless you're up to something serious and have the background to understand the info, he's a busy lad!
Note : except all of the following : *What does DD stand for? *What system was it meant for? *Where can I get some of that?
Hm. If I dont remember wrong, it should be some kind of internal Drive error - perhaps one of those : LEO_SENSE_UNRECOVERED_READ_ERROR LEO_SENSE_COMMAND_PHASE_ERROR LEO_SENSE_DIAGNOSTIC_FAILURE
what does it do , I never seen or played one , like let say F-zero you had the same game for n64 , does it mean on the DD it had superior graphics?? or something special?
The DD is what it's called. A Disk Drive. It also provided a built-in WaveTable and FontTable for games to take advantage of. It was originally planned as an alternative manner for storing games since gamepaks (cartridges) were expensive and limited in space. F-zero Xpansion kit allows the user to creater their own tracks thanks to an elaborate and accurate track editor - the N64 mouse can be used. The original soundtrack of F-zero X was in mono. The DD add-on featured stereo versions of the same tracks as well as some new tracks. It features the Edit cup, comprised of user-created levels as well as two very hard Cups DD1 and DD2, where the Big Foot can be found. The music track of Rainbow Road in the standard Joker Cup also changes to a re-arranged guitar version of Mariokart 64's Rainbow Road track. It also included a limited machine editor - the GX version being much more detailed and logical. The DD titles that were released did not provide evidence of better graphics - that said, since the Expansion Pak was originally intended to be only released with the DD (later released on its own thanks to pressure from Iguana and Factor 5) it is assumed that thanks to the expansion pak better resolutions and more detailed textures were viable - proven in titles that supported the Pak later on. The DD in general could operate by its own thanks to the GUI of the DDROM and real-time clock, with nothing inserted in either Deck or DD. Games with so called DD-hooks could support expansions and add-ons , similar to F-zero X. Stand-alone DD titles such as the Artist series also supported other peripherals that plugged in the top slot, including the Capture Cart and the Modem Cart. Technically the DD shared a common communication bus with the rest of the N64, known as PI - hence the applications that supported both a gamepak and a DD stream should interchange and manage the streams of data (evidently through interrupt requests). The IPL/DDROM provided an automatic optimization for this process.
you said: 64DD questions?Just ask! my question: Why F-Zero X (usa) doesn't boot with N64 (ntsc) + 64DD and Expansion Pak? or Why Zelda OOT (usa) doesn't boot at all with N64 (ntsc) + 64DD?
CIC and region must match. the DD is also region-coded. This stands true for both your examples, regardless of the point where they hang (the hanging point differs because of the different time in which they decide to access the DD and enquire it) Region is visible in the N64 deck, so keep that in mind.
Are you sure? Because Mario Party PAL + PAL N64 + 64DD detects wrong disk. The access lamp blinks normally and the game can diplays error 44 if you don't put Expansion Pak.
it is normal that a DD enabled game reacts to the presence of a DD. If the DD is of another region, or the inserted disk is not the one it should be, some effects should be manifested in the form of errors or more severe errors that hang the system
Yes, but there you said "ZELDA+DD+PAL N64,"-without an expansion pak. That they have ommitted an error message isn't odd. The N64 hangs before providing the error message because it probably does a CIC check first and then would print the message, and apparently its the other way around for Mario Party. Nothing special or worth notting really. This of course is a plausible theory, you ll need to dig into the LEO commands that Zelda uses for a more accurate picture. PS: same region rules apply for NTSC/US n64
What is the misterious dark mater that glues the communication between the DD and N64. Like how does this matter let the DD tell the N64 it's done cooking the chicken? I must know, I must know when my chicken is done!!
Through pin 45 ie the CPU's NMI? NMI aren't requests though because the CPU has no choice but to interrupt. The disk games are region coded or the 64DD is region coded as a game cartridge? You mean the game's header? The CIC isn't required to bring the system out of reset? Since the DD's CIC is overrided by the game cart, seems to me the game can access the DD regardless of region. Regarding the CIC or ROM data?
