StarFox 2

Starfox 2 is now playable in English! :smt023 Thanks to the wonderful people at Aeon Genesis there are now two patches for the final version of the SF2 ROM. The first patch will simply translate the game to English, but the second patch is more impressive, removing the 'debug' status the game seems to be in and making it fully playable.

From the Readme -

I played this for a bit yesterday, and I have to say it's damn good. I can write a longer review, if anyone's interested. Bit hard playing with the keyboard though. Let the cart hacking begin.....

 

It wouldnt run on my Profighter 32M :smt022

 

What kind of funky SuperFX chip does it require? I've heard of people making carts of this before so it must have used a chip that was commercially available in another game.

 

Well, according to these instructions, you need a Stunt Race FX. However, it has been said that for the final version of SF2 you need to use a Yoshi's Island as the donor cart.

http://snesdev.romhack.de/sf2.htm

 

Once upon a time...

And on the old board din't you say you'd make a cart for me SFNYK? ;-)
~Krelian

 

Re: Once upon a time...

PM sent

 

Yossy's Island won't have 512K BRAM to save.

 

Does StuntRace FX work as a donor though (for this version of the ROM), or is it a case of using YI and not being able to save game data? Or maybe upgrading the save RAM in a YI cart (I though the game did have save RAM)?

 

wow really nice to hear about this development! if someone can make such an cart cheap (not the 100$ ebay prices) then please let me know I'm really interested in running this game on a snes!

 

OH NO, LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!

Anytime someone mentions Starfox 2, we get a massive influx of helpless idiots asking about the rom! :no

But aside from that, if there was some kind soul who made Starfox 2 carts for reasonable prices (even more reasonable if you provide the donor cart?) that would be really cool.

BTW, who here is good at that sort of thing? I've been toying with the idea of getting my Final Fantasy V, Bahamut Lagoon, or Romancing Saga 3 carts replaced with the fan translations...

 

If it wouldn't take me 2 hours a game I'd offer my services to people who send me a legitimate cartridge for the job, that sounds like the ONLY legal way. How about this? I make a SF2 english cart, and you can trade me for the Japanese prototype?

 

You can use Stunt Race FX as the donor cart only because it features a superfx 2 chip that you need. I'm having one made for me because I don't know too much about how the carts work, CIC chips, NTSC/PAL output and all that jazz. Check out Snesdev's d4s' page on how to make the carts

 

http://www.gbax.com/new/retrohack.html

This'll do just for the moment, methinks, unit the eeprom burner arrives. Didn't know you could get all of these flash carts...

Noooooo. Just checked the piccie of the SNES cart. No SuperFX pins. Damn.

 

What do you mean no SFX pins? It's NOT POSSIBLE to do the passthrough method on SFX at all! This is why no units do it.

 

Just finished two StarFox 2 carts. I used Winter Gold as donor cart for both.

In one of them, I used the Japanese final beta from CES. In the other I used the same beta, but with sf2-e-debug.ips applied, since I would like to have it in English, but keep the frame counter, test menu, etc.

I have read reports that SF2 crashes if used in a Winter Gold cart with patches applied. So far it seems to be working for me... I have not tested the sf2-e-final.ips patch, nor do I plan to, so that might be the one that crashes. I don't know. Just started to play the game btw, so if it crashes later on, I will let you guys know.

Winter Gold is a PAL release, but except for that, I find it perfect for SF2. Just wanted to report this in case someone considers doing the same, but gets worried after reading the same reports I did.

CF

 

Man talk about unearthing dead threads....

 

If you used the PAL WinterGold, did you have to put in a NTSC CIC chip? Or were you playing this on a PAL system? I intended to build a StarFox 2 cartridge by sacrificing one of many unwanted Doom cartridges. I think I could do it now which I doubt I could have before. Only problem is no programmer and no eproms, and little desire to spend the money on one. Plus I'd probably need to track down a different cartridge for the battery feature if I wanted that.

By the way did you do what someone said... I think I saw it on CherryRoms, where you run a program on the ROM image to swap address lines which makes it easier to wire up to the cartridge?

 

I didn't replace the PAL CIC, since I have a 50/60Hz switch in my SNES (PAL), and can run it at 60Hz that way. A friend of mine has a US SNES, so I will test it with an import converter (with all pins) and see if that works. You are right about Doom and the battery feature. Most people use Stunt Race FX, which is GSU-1, but seem to work fine. Many also overclock the carts, but I havn't done that - yet

Ahh.... mate! Your memory is good. I read that post on cherryroms too (!), but I forgot about that trick, so I wired it up the "stupid" way.

 

So when you did it, did you use just like 22 gauge wire or so and solder real good to the pads and the chip, insolate and cram it back into the cart? I'm just trying to picture how best to go about such a thing. With the SNES now possible to hookup through RGB I think it'd be neat to have StarFox 2. And if all I have to do is some desoldering and soldering it shouldn't be that hard. And if I screw up, it's not like there aren't enough unwanted cheap Doom carts for practicing on.

Oh and while I'm thinking about it, on cartridges other than StarFox 2 like Secret of Mana 2, he piggybacks all the roms and connects them to some kind of IC and such. Wouldn't it be easier to use a larger than 8mbit EPROM or FlashROM? Couldn't you just get a 32mbit EPROM or FlashROM and wire that to the PCB? Just wondering about that. I don't quite understand the technical theory behind the piggybacking 8mbit roms but soldering is dead simple.

 

Your approach sounds good to me! I just used a 28 AWD ribbon cable that I had available (and a few extra loose wires which needed to be a little bit longer than the rest). Desoldered the battery, and installed it on the opposite side of the PCB. Desoldered the 40-pin mask ROM, and soldered the 32-pin EPROM to the appropriate pads. I am confident that you will have no problem doing this. Just make sure that you check for shorts before you test it

I like your questions. I see no reason why you can't use a larger chip, as long as it's 8 bits wide and got the address lines you need etcc. You need to have the proper equipment to program it of course, and the 27c801/080 is 32-pin and supported by most programmers by default, while larger chips are often 40- or 44-pin, but except for that...

Calpis? Any thoughts?