The kernel for chihiro seems to be quite different. Maybe a stripped version of normal kernel. Not sure yet. Very interesting though. Will update with things I discover: The BIOS will not boot without a media board. Chihiros ONLY have 128MB of memory, no more, no less. May have found out why games won't boot on other hardware ... more to come.
Games won't boot because they are looking for the media board also. They need to query the motherboard too for an ID. If you notice OR2 beta doesn't do this and in fact has all mentions of media boards removed from the xbe. What are you using to browse the kernal?
Well not exactly, the base system has 128MB of RAM but it is possible to add more for a specific game on the Media Board: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sega_arcade_system_boards#Sega_Chihiro
This RAM only holds the game ISO and is battery backed to avoid having to rewrite the GD ROM every time. It's done as a security measure as it's decrypted as it's written to the RAM. It is NOT accessible by the system to utilize more RAM. The chihiro can ONLY use the 128mb of RAM on the motherboard itself. This RAM however is shared by the CPU and GPU.
no, only in dimm board we can add ram 512 to 1 gb because some games exist with two version (512 to 1 gb). This dimm board use for stock gd rom during the games for faster loading. The motherbaord it always the same
OK, now I understand! So the extra DIMMs are not used at all as system RAM and only for data storage. Is it possible to force a game to run straight from GD-ROM when it's normally transferred to RAM upon boot? Maybe that's the case for VirtuaCop 3. That particular game maybe have had a debug mode left allowing it to run on multiple media. That way, for the developers, booting up the game takes less time because you don't have to transfer all the data onto the DIMMs before starting the game.
Do you think bios will not boot without a media board, or only a check of MAIN BD ID and MEDIA BD ID? Maybe a patch with this ID will be sufficient. When you play with Virtua cop 3 and Ghost squad in XBOX at the first screen we saw MAIN BD ID and MEDIA BD ID without ID like Chihiro. Other thing, when we see the complet boot sequence on Chihiro, we are in system menu (not available on XBOX), where we can select game system menu (avallable in xbox with Virtua cop 3, but this is the xbe freeze), after initialise of media board with Chihiro logo on screen (segaboot.exe, not availlable in xbox), at last the game. For symptom of freeze it like of symptom of without security chip, maybe some one can test Chihiro witout security chip for check symptom: -no boot -or boot but freeze after 1 minute or first loading -and check if ID of main and media appears
The chip is only to decrypt the game iso. If you have an xbe to load you have already done that. The last thing to do is patch out media/main board checks.
If someone has time, can you open a chihiro xbe in ida and see if there's any references to \\device\\mediaboard\ or \\??\mbrom0: \\??\mbrom1: or anything on the lines of that? I can't check until later this weekend. I'm wondering if things are crashing because it's hard coded to look there for data.
It's unlikely. It's more likely they look in the current directory for subfolders etc. I checked the release OR2 xbe and there's no strings related to mbrom1 or 0 btw in ida. It does have the string which displays the main bd and media bd IDs on screen with a scanf, this portion btw is cut out of the beta. How did you disassemble the bios?
Let's hope it is just a patch required etc. It's interesting stuff, but do you think the main bd and media bd ID scan etc would still be the same for ghost squad? Still seems strange that removing a 2mb file makes 2 stages boot. Good luck with the progress!
If it can help decomple file from out run 2 and outrun 2 beta with IDA, the decompile graph and a link for IDA program: LINKS REMOVED! Please see PM - HEX1GON We have no perfect solution for the moment we must dig the Boomslangz and Klwon/retroreboot way. I think Klwon/retroreboot way is the best, because we will can to run all game in arcade version with game menu, but this is the harder. Maybe in file modification from boomslangz we found the fault Last thing, boomslangz do you have found the file with controller mapping, because the bullet time button (the white button on xbox controller, pedal on arcade version) doesnot support by the gun. We need to transfert it on A or B button for example
hmm no I never thought of doing that actually. I was just going to hack a controller into the mix and using a foot pedal. I only just relised that vcop3 and ghost squad both use the same file names etc. I assume it was same engine that made both games? I wonder if theres a way to swap the vcop3 lightgun info to ghost squad so its not laggy and crap from topgun III guns btw Are you sure that white button for you is ES Mode because for me it's left trigger
Thank you I m not sure I said that with my memorie. Left trigger take in charges with EMS top gun III?
I used xbtool to extract the kernel. I used the debug config in the config directory along with RC4 debug key which can be found in the signed_phoenix_bios_loader_v1.3.rar Then disassembled with IDA. There seems to be enough memory left when it crashes. Usage Summary: 32768 Total number of pages (128 MB) 28243 Total number of pages used (112972 KB) 4525 Available number of pages (18100 KB) It crashes in Ghost Squad at: D3D:0017981A mov ecx, [esp+arg_0] D3D:0017981E mov eax, [ecx+8]
