Starfox SNES Overclock

I got the game running on a super fx 2 chip





Here's the demonstration video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOU2GikRRY8&feature=channel_video_title

And here's my worklog

http://consolemods.freeforums.org/starfox-overclocked-t70.html

 

Not the sexiest, but it does the trick!

 

I like the funky orange cartridge but like the overclocked StarFox more more. Fantastic mod! Makes me want to play the game again after all these years.

Yakumo

 

Thanks! That's very typical of my work. I'm terrible with cosmetic stuff....but good at making hardware sing :Rock:

 

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6949911
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1850120&postcount=2
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=32879&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
http://www.overclock.net/other-hardware-mods/1108565-starfox-snes-overclock.html
http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8099
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showth...X-overclocking&p=392250&viewfull=1#post392250
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?p=451684#p451684
http://starfox-online.net/topic/9345-starfox-overclocked/
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/187320-starfox-overclocked/
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4696.msg30324;boardseen#new

Good job only those without internet don't know about it!!!

 

That is really cool! I am working on a StarFox overclock mod myself but I was just gonna put it inside a Stunt Race FX cart then overclock. Thanks for the info!

 

I also have a starfox inside a stunt race but the super fx 2 chip is WAY better at handling slowdown so I recommend using a super fx 2 game as a donor.

I played both my super fx 2 starfox and my superfx 1 starfox both at 27 mhz and the superfx 2 one seems to slow down a lot less. People who converted super fx 2 games to starfox 2 noticed the same thing happened.

darthcloud: I'm also trying to get it onto hackaday haha

Thanks to the help of someone we found some 28.3 mhz oscillators and he's even willing to help me pay for them just to see if the game will run stably at that speed. So with some luck maybe we can get a little more speed out of it.

 

I see in my crystal ball a reply coming from MottZilla about this

 

Did this, but added battery circuit too.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33623

Infact, you even replied on my site

 

I don't see anything in that thread talking about an overclock.

 

But there is plenty about "Super FX 1" Vs "Super FX 2" i.e. it doesnt really exist.

Also, I played the game and didnt really notice any major slow down... Maybe in SF1, but 2 didnt seem the need to be "fixed" to me.

I think this is my issue with this guy, its not the modding (which to be fair, doesnt look the best anyway...) but its the attention he seems to require by posting it EVERYWHERE. Bunch of those sites he registered just to post this.

This is the AV famicom all over again, which was just a kit anyways - no doubt done many times in Japan as thats where the kit came from.

 

Trying to look:

1)Cool
2)Smart
3)Like a total prick
4)Hoping for someone to throw cash at him.

Epic fail.

 

I made around 1500-2000$ in commission work. I actually gave a bunch of jobs to a friend because I got tired of doing them. Epic fail?

If you don't like my work that's fine, please post elsewhere instead of whining about it.

Seriously I don't do this to make big money I'm just hoping that by showing people the cool things you can do with modding that more people would get interested and involved with modding. I think it's a great hobby.

 

Thank you for proving my point. I do mods like this too but I don't go around registering to boards in a fishing expedition.

I'm also not the only one of this opinion here as you can see. I like the work, I don't like the attention whore aspect. Don't like it? Meh.

My methods involve getting to be part of a community and then showing off what I've done as well as providing then information necessary for others to do it. I don't go around hoping for money to be tossed my way though clearly when called out on it it is a sore spot for you.

 

I don't see the issue here, he's posted pictures of his overclock in the relevent subforum

He's not claiming to have been the first person to do this mod ?

 

There is nothing wrong with posting stuff over the net to get publicity, it is a good way to raise the profile of a mod and also the modder too. There is a fine line though which sometimes gets crossed, between uploading something to sell as advertising to shift commissions purely, and a full detailed guide to inspire others and allow them to do the mods themselves, if they can't and have the money, they can of course pay for a commission then. I guess it's the line between blatent advertising for profit or offering a service to those that can't do it themselves and want it. For example, i'm pretty conversant with modding, as my reputation proves, however I have no knowledge in programming chips or interest in doing so, so if i'd wanted a StarFox 2 game, i'd pay Drakon or Doug for one. No doubt the mod is a good one, and works after all!

 

That poor Doom :crying:

 

Indeed. There is alot of misinformation on this. For one thing Star Fox was not running at those high speeds since the internal speed register is not set by Star Fox in any revision.

If your Clock Signal is this 28mhz, then all you have done is raised the clock to 14mhz because it's divided in half. I can raise the clock speed from 10.5mhz to 21mhz without replacing the clock crystal. The game runs faster sure, and appears smoother but it's not really. It's like playing the game or a film sped up a certain percentage. If you want Star Fox to run smoother you need to dive into the programming and alter it to take advantage of the boosted performance from the jump to 21mhz and update the frame buffer more often. It would be a neat task. This is a well known problem and your hack is very unintuitive.

Sorry to be harsh but you admitted to buying up and destroying a large number of Super FX cartridges for some hack jobs that I see no value in. ZSNES fucked up for several versions running Star Fox at Super FX high speed mode and most people complained because the game was a whole lot harder because of it. This would be combined with ZSNES not emulating SuperFX cache delays.

This same subject came up in the past about GSU1 versus GSU2. People wrongly believed that Star Fox 2 needs GSU2 because "it's faster". This is complete BS. Star Fox 2 sets the Super FX to 21mhz mode which both GSU1 and GSU2 support. GSU2 supports an extra 1 megabyte of ROM. That's the beginning and end of any known differences.

And I disagree again with "getting more people involved in modding". The last thing we need is more people buying up cartridges to destroy in hack projects for no real reason.

One last time I want to point out that Star Fox could be made to run smoother on a standard GSU1 or GSU2 board if someone reprogrammed it to change the way it updates the screen to update at more intervals. The result could be similar to retail speed but with smoother frame rates. Now THAT would be cool.

 

ray:

Even swapping the GSU1 with a GSU2 is a piss easy job with a hot air station and some actual experience. Destroying 1 cart is 1 cart too many.

 

"Yoshi's Island sold about four million copies"

There's at least 4,000,000 FX chips that exist or have existed, excluding all the copies of Doom and WinterFx.

I really don't think you can cite supply as a legitimate reason to discourage a few hobbyist users from modifying cartridges.

Also 'for no real reason' is something you have absolutely no right to define for someone else, it's their money,time and life, if they enjoy experimenting with this kind of thing then that's a justified reason regardless of whether or not the modification makes any kind of improvement in your opinion.