Weird Issue with Star Ocean on SD2SNES

Hello.
Today I got my SD2SNES and so far every game that I have tried has worked perfectly but unfortunately I have run into some trouble with Star Ocean (I specifically bought the SD2SNES because I wanted to play this game on real hardware).
The problem goes like this, The game starts fine but if i go into Sound Player and then try to start a "New Game" the game freezes when the space opening starts. If I just start the game without messing with the sound player sometimes it freezes and sometimes it doesn't, it just freezes at a different section of the intro.
The other bug is when i save. If i open the menu and go to save and stick around on the save window for too long the game does a weird thing where a music symbol comes up and the words "you didnt make this" with a red A button glitched out on the side of the screen. The first time this happened I got out of the screen and then my character just died. The other everything seemed fine and then I got into a fight with some "funny thieves" who would not take any damage and then of course I died too.
This is very weird. I know that I probably downloaded the translated rom and then applied the patch that hacks the games compression to be able to play on the SD2SNES. I played with this exact same rom on BSNES and had absolutely no issues (no patch of course).
Has anyone finished this game on the SD2SNES?
Let me know, and thanks for reading this.


First update.
I have found that it has something to do with the menus. The menu starts to glitch until finally it goes into a black screen. The music can still be heard in the background but nothing else can done. I have made some new patched roms but they all have the same issue. I will have to hunt for a new rom I suppose.

 

Did you apply the correct patch? According to this page:
"There are two patches included, one for the original Japanese version and another for an already DeJap translated version. The two patches are not interchangeable. If you want to translate and use this hack, you must use the translation patch FIRST."

I have no idea if this has anything to do with the issues you're having-- star ocean plays fine on my sd2snes. I applied the linked patch to the translated goodset ROM.

Also, you didn't happen to apply the patch that allows this game to be played on the powerpak did you? Because its not necessary for the sd2snes, and causes the game to have issues.

 

You also have some details here :

post here

 

I tried the Nevitski patch and get the same result even when I just the non-patched japanese version. I am now looking for a good rom with a header.

 

If it doesn't have a header, open it in a hex editor and add 512 bytes to the beginning of the file. That's all a header is.

 

wow it does make some funky stuff when you leave it on the save screen for a while... couldn't get it to crash on the intro though, it must be random or something...
When you leave it on the save screen and it goes berserk , you just die after pressing B to get out of the menu... I made a vid:

http://youtu.be/Mk6nrk4FssA

I will check if this happens on my PowerPak too later, for now I gotta leave...

 

This exactly one of the symptoms. Thanks for making the video. I was going to ask my friend for his cam later today to do the same thing.
I really appreciate your help.

 

Hey no prob, it affects us all when I get home I'll see if I get the same results with the powerpak, maybe it's a patch issue on real hardware...

 

I have tested with the SNES PowerPak: the save issue like on the video above does not happen with it. Using the same snes console and the same rom, just added the 4-byte patch that PowerPak needs so it recognizes the game as a sram saver.
This could also be a clue, the same 4-bytes patch causes the sd2snes to not play the game, just boot with a black screen.

I was not able to reproduce the intro crash in both flashcards though...

 

How long before the menu glitches out? I've the SNES sitting at the save screen for about 30 minutes now and nothing has come up so far.
Also, are you using the latest firmware?

 

Yes, I am using the latest firmware 0.1.4

 

The latest firmware is actually 0.1.4a now. Don't know if that makes a difference. I'm trying to replicate this problem right now. Does it also happen if you already have a save? I tried doing exactly what keropi did in his video, and I got no glitching.

 

No, it could be totally empty and it still happens. Adimifus when did you receive your SD2SNES?

UPDATE

I updated the firmware to 1.1.4a and I still get the same issues.

 

I meant, I already have a save game. In keropi's video, there isn't a save game yet. I wasn't sure if that mattered. I have a deluxe edition from stoneagegamer, which means its a krikzz manufactured board, revision E1. I received it June 30.

I copied my rom and started a new game and saved where keropi tried saving in his video. No glitches. I'm running firmware 0.1.4a

Here is how I made my ROM file: I started with Star Ocean (J) [T+Eng1.0_DeJap].smc, added a header to it, applied this patch.

 

@ikari_01 : the menu glitches in a minute or so... also using 1.4a

@adimifus : thanks for the links, I'll try re-patching from the same patch source , any chance you can post your rom's crc32/md5 ?

 

ceramiclion sent me his ROM, and it glitches on my sd2snes, too. I still can't replicate it with the ROM I patched myself. Something got screwed up somewhere in the patching process. Or the initial ROM wasn't right or something. Find the ROM I started with and go from there.

Ok I just compared ceramiclion's ROM to mine and they're identical (??) Maybe this is just a freak occurence? If they're identical, there's no reason why my ROM should work fine but his won't. Other than it just happened to glitch when I loaded his and it happened not to ever for mine, I guess... Does it glitch EVERY time you go to the save menu, or just occasionally?

 

^ if you can provide checksums for both files it would be great, as it will allow us to pinpoint the problem more easily... could be a bad base rom from an old set or some patching problem...

edit: started patching with the links provided (free MD5 generator for windows if needed)

Star Ocean (J) [T+Eng1.0_DeJap].smc CRC32= 6BA9E08D , MD5= 217A97E694FB916AD26C8A471F6C0E84

after patching: CRC32= 6F3EAC5A , MD5= 7F9420D0873D16B3D6C50BB299A62041

do these match with yours adimifus (md5 is all that is really needed) ?

 

Yep those all match mine. I'm thinking it might be completely random. Have you tried it more than once on the PowerPak? Maybe it'll happen occasionally on that, too.

This is me speculating now. The translation patch doesn't seem like it was ever truly completed, so it could be a bug introduced in their process of making the translation. Also, the 96 Mbit patch says it uses a weird mapper. Maybe the sd2snes doesn't have that particular mapper worked out completely? I have no idea I'm not a programmer. It's just that since they both are hacks, its certainly a possibility...

 

Just checked the old rom I did the video with: it has the same MD5 , so it was not a patch problem or a bad rom....
I only tested with PowerPak once, left it for 10+ mins and it was good, on the sd2snes tests I made the game failed in under a minute.
TBH I don't know what to test next...

 

I'd say try it a few more times and wait. I got mine to glitch (not surprised considering its identical to yours) but it took more than 5 minutes. Considering the first time I tried to make my sd2snes glitch, it didn't happen after 20+ minutes, and I just got the same ROM to glitch in around 5, I'd say its not completely out of the question whether it happens on the powerpak or not.
I wish I had enough RAM in my game doctor so i could test it on that, too.