Saturn proof-of-concept bootloader Pseudo Saturn

Well, it seems I can't burn this game no matter what, even using two different releases of the game. It hangs at the SEGA screen forever.
I burnt at 1x using a yamaha crw-f1 and yet it doesn't work, I can't burn it. The same setup worked fine for my other games (Saturn Bomberman and Street Fighter II).

I guess it'll be up to zorlon to check this out!

 

If that can re-construct the words and Dreamcast iso image would be great.

 

can you upload up these two files to see 0x0~0x2000 ?

 

I patched it just fine but the US copy of the game hangs both after loading a save and starting a new game with an action replay plugged in (even if you just boot the game with it in then remove it) so there is a second check we are missing at the moment and I can't find it, I tested the same disc with the olde swap trick with no action replay in and it works just fine for a new game and loading in saves I will try the EU version later though, see if that has less checks.

Anotherwords I can get past the "Please Remove Cartridge" message but at the moment that is not enough to get the game playing.

 

You just hit the wrong bit

EB0 in a 2048 iso is the correct address to hit changing 40 0B to 00 09, but changing EA0 from D0 09 to 00 09 does indeed freeze at the Sega logo, it's not the burning media or anything else though, you just missed the address to change

FF0 in a Binary 2352 dump from 40 0B to 00 09 with the Rebuild sectors thing via CD-Mage

I am wondering if that works and it's just the cart I am using that is causing the issue after as it does bypass the Please remove cart bit

With you having a mod chip you can test with and without the action replay and see if you are getting the same results as I am, though I suppose if you have the exact same Action Replay you will get the same results regardless.

EDIT: Tested myself

A few extra tests, not burning anything more for now went through enough CD-R's.

Restoring my Action Replay to see if the problem is still there, test if it's just a Pseudo Saturn issue

Pseudo is the direct cause of the issue with this game not the patch or the action replay hardware, so it's just the Pseudo firmware, that is causing this to freeze up after starting a new game (shortly after you give a name and after a scene and FMV cut) or loading in a save, both result on a static black screen

The patch to bypass the issue with Action Replay hardware works perfectly fine

 

Damn, I guess you're right. It's $06002EB0 - $06002000 = $EB0. I got confused yet again, because of the custom code in ip.bin that starts at $EA0. Will retry shortly.

@yzb, I'll send a patch file or script once it's confirmed working.

[edit]
Currently burning a bin fixed like this, red is the fix, blue the sector rebuilt:

$ cmp -l orig.bin fix.bin | gawk '{printf "%08X %02X %02X\n", $1-1, strtonum(0$2), strtonum(0$3)}'
00000FF0 40 00
00000FF1 0B 09
00001140 2B 45
00001141 F3 E7
00001142 AF 17
00001143 9B 11
00001196 A1 13
00001197 2A 16
00001198 B9 6C
00001199 9C 1F
0000119E BA C1
0000119F B4 CA
000011EC 49 95
000011ED FD D5
000011EE 92 FF
000011EF 1D 14
000011F4 E4 DF
000011F5 57 2B
00001200 9E 43
00001201 B7 B9
0000120A 36 4A
0000120B 82 E5
0000120C 8B 2A
0000120D 35 5C
0000120E C5 B2
0000120F DE B3
00001210 60 D4
00001211 56 A3
00001212 FA 63
00001213 6D 71
00001214 BA E0
00001215 61 E5
00001234 C8 55
00001235 69 65
0000123E B7 B0
0000123F 60 79
00001240 68 F2
00001241 C1 D4
00001242 A8 67
00001243 F5 12
00001244 37 38
00001245 0E 6C
00001246 7C 3A
00001247 3D 14
00001248 0C 8A
00001249 5D F1

 

x

 

I was reading all of this and could only think of one thing "Finally something akin to ESR on the Saturn !" Because with ESR you're tricking a PS2 into believing your game is a DVD Video and you use ESR to boot the game.

This is the same thing here, you're tricking the Saturn into believing your game is a VCD and using a bootloader to boot the game !

 

@zorlon & Druid II

I just managed to burn a copy with the fix applied as I posted the cmp earlier and it works fine for me. Doesn't crash after FMV. I played a bit in the first level until I found an elevator. I use an AR with a modchip on a Japanese Saturn with a US PDSaga. I don't use PseudoSaturn, but afaiu it should be the minimal fix to make it work with it.

Seems my main problem was burning in dao mode correctly under linux. I used cdrdao from the ubuntu/debian repo and it worked well.

 

It's the Pseudo Saturn that crashes the game on new game after Scene+FMV and on Load game

Yeah been playing it a little myself flying round a bit and bit more walking later on

Bypassing the Action Replay protection was easy enough

After I removed Pseudo Saturn from the Action Replay and restored 2.02 of the Action Replay Firmware, the game then ran perfect using the olde swap trick using the basic patch code

So further development of Pseudo is required or another patch, Pseudo development would be the best way obviously but I see no rush for this at the moment

EDIT:

Psuedo can be emulated with Yabause so it is a good testing ground though it runs too slow for me, then again my laptop is not a gaming platform

The results via Yabause are the same as on a real console (asides from the framerate I get), with and without PsuedoSaturn.bin as the firmware image for the Pro Action Replay

 

blanked post code used is no longer supported

 

great reuse of overlay app example(saturn loader) to run saturn binary.

 

Well, 0x400B is JSR @R0, and 0x0009 is the opCode for a NOP. So, it's forcing game to skip a subroutine.

 

Yup though not much use with Pseudo just yet

 

I have never seen a 5-in-1. Do you mean 3-in-1?

I think there's 2 versions of these - The 4-in-1 and the 3-in-1. The 4 in 1 used to come with the comms link. I have a black 3-in-1 (v2.02) without the port on top. The 4 in 1 and 3 in 1 is the same just without the port.

 

No one should care to be honest

But no it is a 5-in-1, but the exact same cart also has a box that says 3-in-1, but like I said no one should care as long as the features are available, the 4-in-1 you have, could be a 4-in-1 for a couple of reasons one being it was the 1M version have 1 less feature to the next version being the 5-in-1 yes also known as a 3-in-1 on some boxes or it is the Action Replay Ram card that works much the same and could probably be flashed with the same firmware (Action Replay 4M Plus was mostly in a White..ish cart but there was a black version also)

Features that can make up the #-in-1

Region Free (Play imports/out of region games)
1M Ram (Not to be confused with 1M Rom carts that only come with games, Ultraman & King of Fighters 95, though neither require that anyway)
4M Ram (the Auto just has 4M by the way, but that works with with 1M Ram games so can be counted as 2 features)
Save Flash (usually 512K Flash, not to be confused with the Ram features)
Cheat Codes

Comms ports are generally not counted but could be I guess as that would add a few extra features including debug and backup data and comms firmware flashing ect ect there are carts out there that claim to be between 6-in-1 & 9-in-1, but have no extra features to the 5-in-1 aka 3-in-1 even down to the firmware, mostly clones that there are tons of

who knows what they counted for the 3-in-1 but it has the same features anyway and is no different to the 5-in-1



I hope this satisfies you as I really don't think this needs to be talked about to be honest and hope this puts a stop to your confusion and anyone else as I know it is miss leading because of the different packaging these carts come in

best to go by what is on the actual cart not the box at all as that is the only place I remember #-in-1 info listed not even the basic use instructions haves any #-in-1 info on them

also there are tons of these around I only mentioned the common ones

Just call it by the name on the cart, brand also if it has one on the cart sticker so my little cart is a Action Replay 4M Plus, the only other thing it has on the cart is the little 1M <|-|> 4M on the top right of the sticker (just to indicate it being the auto 1M to 4M cart), the cart itself is White..ish

 

I don't believe there is anything wrong with Croc - Legend of the Gobbos (US)

The game has a bug where you're suppose to start the game from the CD player menu.

At least that's from what I've seen myself.

 

So it will bug out if started via an Action Replay so would need some sort of fix to make it work correctly via an action replay device with PSEUDO installed?

Could someone verify this please?

I'm running short on CD-R's and don't want to be backtracking just yet

EDIT: Youtube has a vid of some kid showing the bug and it happens on the retail disc booted normally

Playing a bit of my fav game for the Saturn at the moment, Shining Force III so if I test more it will be later with the copy I already have burned

EDIT: thanks for the Croc info I updated the notes on the compat list for that game

EDIT: can't get rid of the bug while playing it with PSEUDO though yeah this bug is there if played normally via a retail disc and the normal way round it is to either boot with no CD in or with L+R held down, neither helps with PSEUDO installed, tested both methods, not that I have any interest in the game but it's still a bit of a shame.

 

Time to patch the region free BIOS then right?

 

Go ahead and try. From what I've read, changing the string it looks for ("SEGA SEGASATURN", easily found and edited with a bog-standard hex editor) to whatever the Pseudo patcher inserts into the images should get things going - internal ROM checksums notwithstanding (no idea if there are any, that might complicate things slightly). Unfortunately I'm lacking the necessary equipment (programming adapter) or I'd already have tried.

Of course, if this works, you lose the ability to boot real/unpatched games, so there's a bit more to it to make it really convenient. How about, say, somehow make the BIOS only check the first 13 chars and modify the last one on the images (that should be enough to fool the CD block)?