[PS2] POPS stuff & POPStarter

Quick test:
Vib-Ribbon SCES-02873 Freezes at loading screen.
Vib-Ribbon SCPS-18012 Freezes at loading screen.

:concern: :concern:

Edit:
More games here.

 

Vib Ribbon requires a lot of stuff from the real hardware CD-ROM drive to work properly. It uses the capability of the CD-ROM interface chip has to analysis the waveform of the audio track being played and use that on the game to choose which shapes will be sent on the "ribbon".

So that's actually one of the games that would never work correctly on emulation of any kind...

 

Both versions seem to run in the Xebra/Arbex emulator, i don't have a good controller, but i played a little using my keyboard, sound is working ok too...

 

I never said it's sound would not work. I said it relies on features of the hardware no other game ever used. I don't think Vib Ribbon would work with SONY's own PS1 emulator on a PSP. But it would work just fine on a PS3 *from the disc* because while it's a emulator, it has a real disk drive which is designed to provide functionality similar to what the original PS1 had. Obviously it could be simulated on a PC if the emulator author were extremely interested in implementing.

 

CUE2POPS v2.0

CUE2POPS_v2.0.zip
This one will be included in the next POPStarter archive if nobody finds a bug (though it has been intensively tested)...

On a side note, I tried to fix the JPN version of Destruction Derby 2, unsuccessfully. I could prevent the emu from freezing when driving with the cockpit view, but then it still freezes when :
- Your car's upside down
- You destroyed an opponent's car
- collision against another car (randomly)

 

Thanx, will try asap, are those Crash B fixes specifically for that region? or is there a way to convert those fixes to other regions?

 

It seems you put a lot of work into that new version. I will play with it tomorrow for sure.
Thanks buddy.

 

The Crash Bandicoot cheat should work with Japanese, American and European versions. The sequence of bytes to be found and patched differs in all regions and CUE2POPS identifies the region of your BIN/CUE referring to it's Volume Descriptor. As long as your BIN is a proper dump (and not rebuilt with an authoring software such as CDGEN), CUE2POPS should be able to identify which version your game is, and apply the patch.







As for the PAL->NTSC patch of Crash Bandicoot, I've added an exception which denies the VMODE pattern patching (because it causes the frame rate slowdown). So if you specify the vmode command against the PAL Crash Bandicoot dump, it will just patch the Y-Pos and skip the VMODE... ...but the frame rate will be too high. PAL Crash Bandicoot copy owners, please use GSM or play the US version.

Bugfixes essentially. The code was full of silly mistakes.

 

Off-topic:
...They have some sort of party at my house (girls only), managed to grab my laptop just in time, can't get to my other stuff/tv etc :nightmare: now what???

 

Off-topic too :
Can someone please PM me some US DNAS loaderz ?
I'd like to update my ATADpatcher while POPStarter 12 is being tested...

 

krHACKen - just wanted to say nice work on the POPS emu and your CUE2POPS program. I bought a hard drive off of ebay just to try it out. After finally getting it running on my other PS2, it's great. Thanks a lot for the work you are doing on it. I thought I would mention that I came across 3 games with graphic issues which I ripped from my originals with ImgBurn. All are NTSC: Dave Mirra Freestlye BMX - Maximum Remix (disappearing graphics (black) behind the rider on either side of the ground as you ride and the rider disappears when you jump too - this can be fixed by changing the view to wide in the options..weird), Test Drive Offroad 2 (kinda runs slow and disappearing graphics (black) on the ground behind and on the sides of the vehicle as you drive...(the black is not as bad by changing the view) and Car And Driver Presents - Grand Tour Racing 98' (vehicle starts in the sky and shoots to the ground and graphics go crazy, then it says game over).

 

I noticed that a lot of games have different versions, for instance Tomb Raider SLUS-00152 goes from v1.0 to v1.6, could that have effect on compatibility?
And what does the number means on GameTitle in POPS2CUE?

 

I don't know for Tomb Raider games, as it uses an executable segment loader which is problematic with most emulators...
Different game versions can sometimes have effects on compatibility. For example I noticed that v1.1 of the Japanease Tekken does have horrible SFX glitches that v1.0 does not have.

Once GameIdentifier has identified the game, it sets a number to GameTitle. The GameTitle number is then used by GameFixer and GameTrainer to setup the pattern scanner for that specific game.

In function void GameIdentifier(unsigned char *inbuf), GameTitles are assigned as it follows :
Crash Bandicoot [SCES-00344] : GameTitle = 1;
Crash Bandicoot [SCUS-94900] : GameTitle = 2;
Crash Bandicoot [SCPS-10031] : GameTitle = 3;
Metal Gear Solid : Special Missions [SLES-02136] : GameTitle = 4;

In the case someone wants to add more stuff to GameIdentifier in the source code :
- The GameTitle title must be unique for each different game and game version
- GameTitle ZERO (0) is reserved for unknown/unindexed games.
- If the game exists in different versions (example : The Jap Tekken) or does not have a Volume Name (example : the PAL MGS Special Missions) use the disc creation date for recognition
- Don't forget to set GameHasCheats and fix_game values to 0 or 1 regarding to what you want to do to your newly added title.

 

Ok, i just converted some games and got GameTitle=0, just regular games like Dead or Alive...
I noticed that saving with Test Save Game in the Crash Bandicoot game (US) causes the screen to become black, the games still runs, just a black screen...

 

Any game which is not Crash Bandicoot US/JAP/EUR or MGS Special Missions PAL should be GameTitle = 0, as it's not "known" by GameIdentifier.

That was expectable. CB programmers have removed parts of that hidden menu. The BSOD also occurs when running in a real PlayStation console.
The Test Save System menu is kinda worthless. The reason I activated it was because it also enables hotkeyed cheats.

 

It does save the game, and you can load that save, just to let you know.

I tried all different versions of TombRaider (US v1.0 >> v1.7) with build in bios and with PSP 6.60 bios, can't play any of them. The only difference after v1.0 is they polished the intro logo's and they added different demo games for each version. so i guess the core engine of the game stayed unchanged.
With Tekken 2 (US v1.0 and v1.1) i didn't notice any difference.

I just looked at the sourcecode for CUE2POPS, where are those values to activate the Test Save Game for Crash B stored?
You do have to inject code somehow in the game to activate the trainer?

 

Normally in the main game executable file (SCPS_100.31/SCES_003.44/SCUS_949.00), within the output IMAGE0.VCD.
The function GameTrainer of CUE2POPS searches the target code in the input BIN while it vomits the IMAGE0.VCD. If the target code is found, it is patched and written on-the-fly to the output IMAGE0.VCD, and "GameTrained" is set to 1. When GameTrained is set to 1 (meaning "the job was done"), the function GameTrainer is no longer called.

Yes, in the console RAM or straight to the game file (AFAIK, there's no button combo code to activate it).
Before I moved to the PS2 stuff, I had a passion for debug menus and re-enabling hidden dev things in retail PlayStation games. These were the good old days:redface-new:, Caetla, RAM dump disassembly:redface-new::redface-new::redface-new:... Whatever. Here are Action Replay / GameShark codes :

Crash Bandicoot [SCPS-10031]
Enable Test Save System
D00265E6 AC20
300265E6 0022

Crash Bandicoot [SCES-00344]
Enable Test Save System
D002667A AC20
3002667A 0022

Crash Bandicoot [SCUS-94900]
Enable Test Save System
D00261B6 AC20
300261B6 0022

tested with CEP + pSX.

 

I've seen freezes that are entirely due to emulation bugs, if it's at a point where bugs are being fixed then let me know.

 

I tested this games with the CUE2POPS v2.0 and all worked as the previous versions, i not
encountered any new problem:

ESPN Extreme Games (NTSC-U)
Lomax (PAL)
Castlevania SOTN (PAL & NTSC-J)
Metal Gear Solid (PAL)

The PAL version of Castlevania SOTN do not shows the memory card screen after push the
start button and then BSOD.

The NTSC-J shows the screen, and it takes too long loading times of various minutes with
the black screen, at last when it loads the game do not have music and it freezes in the
first screen with Dracula.

If you load a savegame beyond of this first screen where it freezes you can play the game,
but there is no music and if you die then it freezes forever.

Metal Gear Solid as a freeze when finish the cut scene of the Darpa boss, is curious because
other cut scenes works fine.

If you load a savegame beyond of the cut scene with the Darpa boss where the freeze
happens, you can continue playing fine this game.

Regards.

 

Sound Effects are working in ESPN EXtreme Games? Then i have to test that game again.
What is the fastest method to create a savegame? i want to test that method with Tomb Raider. I have all the convertors, but it's a bit time consuming to create a new VMC which include an already played game save.