SD2SNES implements Byuu's MSU1

Ok, here's the deal since you wanted it cleared up.

MARIO Chip = Only Used in Star Fox. Uses the clock signal from the Cartridge Port and runs at 10mhz (approx) speed. It is limited to addressing 8 Megabits of ROM.

GSU-1 = Used by many games including Stunt Race FX. Uses a clock signal in cartridge. It does support both 10.5mhz and 21mhz modes as checking the game code shows it enables High Speed mode. Limited to 8 megabits of ROM.

GSU-2 = Used by the later games such as Doom. Clock Signal in cartridge. Supports 10.5mhz and 21mhz modes. Can address 16 megabits of ROM.

Overclocking may have varying effects depending on the game. Star Fox (the first one) will run too fast if the Super FX runs faster than 10.5mhz as it was expected to do so. It will appear as if it's smoother though. It would be interesting if someone hacked the game to expect to render more frames so you could have smoother gameplay but without increasing the play speed.

Some games might be programmed differently and get a higher framerate but not speed up gameplay and others might not perform much differently at all. Again I think people that claim it's running slower than it should on GSU-1 carts are mistaken thanks to emulators that don't accurately emulate Super FX cache performance.

Edit: By editing Star Fox 2 not to enable 21mhz mode you can notice the game runs slower than the intended. The game obviously was intended to run at 21mhz. Infact maybe all Super FX games besides Star Fox 1 could be that way. So there is no reason to use a Doom cartridge for some kind of performance reason.

 

Thanks very much for the info MottZilla, its very much appreciated I just have a few follow up questions if you dont mind (Apologies for taking this thread off topic)

Since both the GSU-1 and GSU-2 can run in 10.5mhz and 21mhz mode, is this mode setting controlled entirely in software, or is it also set in hardware? (e.g. is there a high/low pin on the GSU-1/GSU-2 which selects the default clock rate)

Also, if I understood your post correctly, both Stunt Race FX and Star Fox 2 have code to enable high speed mode (21mhz) So is it likely all Super FX games (Except for the original Star Fox) enable high speed mode? and is there any easy way to check?

Does the GSU-2 overclock any better than a GSU-1? If not then it seems pointless going to any extra effort to acquire a GSU-2.

Since Star Fox 2 is only 8 megabits I guess if it had been released Nintendo would have used a GSU-1 to save costs (Unless they had spare GSU-2's)

...There is one thing thats still bugging me though - where did the name 'Super FX 2' come from? Its mentioned in lots of places online and the Super FX Wikipedia articles seem to think its real:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_FX#Versions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_NES_enhancement_chips#Super_FX
However I have yet to see any evidence or reliable sources.

 

definitely interested in the sd2snes, hope I don't miss out

edit: also nice to see that byuu RE'd the cx4 chip, that'd be kinda rad if ikari can get that supported as well

 

As far as I know it's entirely software controlled. I don't really see any reason it would be hardwired somehow.

To check a game for enabling high speed mode look for the hex string A9018D3930. This isn't necessarily the only string to look for but it's the most likely.

GSU-1 and 2's only real difference is in the addressing of extra ROM. It doesn't perform any better, it uses the exact same instruction set as Mario Chip and GSU1.

Right that Star Fox 2 would have used GSU-1 or GSU-2 depending on whatever chips were available at the time. It didn't need GSU-2.

Super FX2 the term came from people that didn't know anything spreading misinformation as if they knew something. There is no Super FX2. There are only 3 revisions of the Super FX chip, Mario, GSU-1, and GSU-2.

 

Thanks for all the great info MottZilla :thumbsup:

 

Super FX2

I remember seeing the term "Super FX2" in the official Yoshi's Island player's guide... That might be where it came from.



In any case, this SD2SNES project looks promising.

 

He is :nod:

 

Just to recap, what special chips does the SD2SNES play? From the last info I had, it had no more features than the Power Pak or Everdrive aside from the MSU1.

 

Support for MSU-1 alone is important, and support for DSP1 is non-trivial.

 

DSP 1-4 work also.

 

sd2snes supports the following component:

DSP-1: [NEC uPD77C25 core @ 8MHz]
Armored Trooper Votoms: The Battling Road 1993 Takara (JP)
Bike Daisuki! Hashiriya Kon - Rider's Spirits 1994 Genki NCS (JP)
Final Stretch 1993 Genki LOZC (JP)
Lock-On / Super Air Diver 1993 Vic Tokai Vic Tokai
Michael Andretti's Indy Car Challenge 1994 Genki Bullet Proof Software (US) (JP)
Pilotwings 1991 Nintendo EAD Nintendo (US) (JP) (EU)
Shutoko Battle '94: Keichii Tsuchiya Drift King 1994 Genki Bullet-Proof Software (JP)
Shutoko Battle 2: Drift King Keichii Tsuchiya & Masaaki Bandoh 1995 Genki Bullet-Proof Software (JP)
Suzuka 8 Hours 1993 Namco Namco (JP)
Super Air Diver 2 1995 Asmik (JP)
Super Bases Loaded 2 / Super 3D Baseball 1992 Jaleco Jaleco (US) (JP)
Super F1 Circus Gaiden 1995 Nichibutsu (JP)
Super Mario Kart 1992 Nintendo EAD Nintendo (US) (JP) (EU)
Touge Densetsu: Saisoku Battle 1996 Genki Bullet-Proof Software (JP)

DSP-1B: [NEC uPD77C25 core @ 8MHz]
Korean League
Battle Racers
Super Mario Kart 1992 Nintendo EAD Nintendo (US) (JP) (EU)
Ballz 3D 1994 PF Magic Accolade (US)

DSP-1A: [NEC uPD77C25 core @ 8MHz]
Ace o Nerae! 3D Tennis 1993 Telenet Japan Telenet Japan (JP)

DSP-2: [NEC uPD77C25 core @ 8MHz]
Dungeon Master 1992 FTL Games JVC Victor (JP)

DSP-3: [NEC uPD77C25 core @ 8MHz]
SD Gundam GX 1994 BEC Bandai (JP)

DSP-4: [NEC uPD77C25 core @ 8MHz]
Top Gear 3000 1995 Gremlin Interactive Kemco (US) (JP) (EU)

ST010: [NEC uPD96050 core @ 10MHz ou 15MHz]
F1 ROC II: Race of Champions / Exhaust Heat II 1993 SETA Corporation SETA Corporation (US) (JP)

S-DD1:
Star Ocean (Hack 96mb) 1996 tri-Ace Enix (JP)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Not support) 1996 Capcom Capcom (US) (JP) (EU)

Satellaview:
100 games

Coming soon:

Capcom CX4: [Hitachi HG51B169 core @ 20MHz]
Mega Man X2 1994 Capcom Capcom (US) (JP) (EU)
Mega Man X3 1995 Capcom Capcom (US) (JP)

 

definitely impressive, I hope someone will bump when sd2snes is available for purchase. Is he integrating the chips or RE'ing them and emulating their functionality in software?

 

@ Clad- -- where and how did you get the info of the sd2snes emulating the s-dd1?

EDIT: Sorry, my fault. I cannot read actually ^^
But, what is the reason that Street fighter alpha 2 cannot be played with a sd2snes?

 

The S-DD1 is not yet supported by the cartridge sd2snes, we resort to a hack on the game Star Ocean need to remove all of the component S-DD1. Thus the game goes from 48MB to 96MB. Street Fighter Alpha 2 has not had this type of hack, it is not compatible at this time

 

any plans / hope to eventually add FX support?

 

I'm not sure if the FPGA he is using (I'm guessing it's a FPGA) is large enough to implement a Super FX. If it is it would be quite a neat feature in addition to all the others supported. I kind of doubt though that we will see SA-1 on any flash cart in the near future but I'd like to be wrong about that.

 

Everything alright with this list? And is Street fighter alpha 2 really incompatible even if there's an existing decompression pack available like that one for Star ocean?(http://board.zsnes.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=174)

Special Chips

OBC-1 --- UNKNOWN (but it is in discussion - nesdev-thread below...)
SA-1 --- UNKNOWN
SPC7110 --- UNKNOWN
Super FX Mario/GSU-1/GSU-2 --- UNKNOWN
ST011 --- In Progress? (There's a thread in another forum: http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=7361&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45)
S-DD1 --- UNKNOWN (Star Ocean 96MB Hack is playable though)
CX4 --- In progress?
ST018 --- No Romdump existing --- (byuu is working on it, but Dr. Decapacitator, who is responsible for the romdumps of most of the chips, is busy with another project - http://byuu.org/ --> look at the bottom of the second post)
ST010 --- DONE
DSP-1 --- DONE
DSP-2 --- DONE
DSP-3 --- DONE
DSP-4 --- DONE
MSU-1 --- DONE
S-RTC --- DONE


Special Cartridges/Systems

Sufami Turbo --- UNKNOWN
Same Game; SD Gundam G-Next --- UNKNOWN
Nintendo Super System --- Not possible?
Super Gameboy --- Not possible?
XBAND --- Not possible?
Game Genie --- DONE
BS-X --- DONE (with hacked roms - no real (!) connection with an emulated counterpart as a server -> Luigiblood has a project to get this working eventually)

 

Patch for Star Ocean

Star Ocean no S-DD1/96Mbit hack
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/614/

 

Hi

Everything correct so far, except for Game Genie which is not implemented.

ST0011 may or may not fit into the FPGA. It has lower priority than Cx4 which is currently WIP.
I'm recovering from a filesystem crash at the moment so even though all of the relevant project files are in the git I might have to rewrite a couple of auxiliary tools. Development is on hold for a couple of days.

Very nice compilation there, thanks!
Oh, btw, do I know you? You wrote "we resort to a hack on the game Star Ocean" however I'm currently the only person working on the project.

On a side note I'm pretty confident that SFX+SA-1 are possible even though I'm note sure whether a seemingly simple chip like the ST0011 fits the FPGA.

The catch about the ST0011 is that it has loads of internal ROM (16384 instructions) which I cannot feasibly implement with external RAM due to clock speed and instruction width. The ST0011 pulls 24 bits from "ROM" every 66ns, my external RAMs are 70ns/16-bit and 45 ns/8-bit.
Therefore I must resort to FPGA block RAM for the uPD's internal ROMs. Using a LUT and narrower instructions it might *just* fit.

Then again I don't think ST0011 support is that critical...

 

Hi ikari_01,

nice to see you at ASSEMblergames.com !