Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy BETA?

Hi graphique,

Now there's a good idea! Makes me wish I had a whole box of these things and a writer to go with it...

 

There is some NES disk documentation (unofficial) around, made by some japanese guy back in the days. With a disk system and a GDSF7 you could easily dump it. All you would need would be a monitor program to read the data from the disk.
If you want once you get the disk in hands I could help with the monitor program.

 

Do you have any more info about this? I've never read anything about this.

 

Are you kidding me?
Has been around for ages. Check nestopia's source for example.

 

Nothing in nestopia's source talks about a GDSF7 or how to interface a Famicom Disk System with it... Where are any images, is there any proof of concept that actually works?

 

Ah damn my boozedays! GDSF is for SNES. I apologize publically for this huge mistake ;_;

But still, the concept is the same.

EDIT : http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=36
with this you should be able to do the trick.

 

I've come across a new problem in my quest to test out this mystery disk - I was all set to buy an original Famicom and a Disk System when I visit Japan in the next few months, but have since discovered that they are tough to get working on European TVs. Does anyone have any advice on what's required to make the picture appear properly?

I'm anticipating having to replace the drive belt and so on, but the possibility that the thing might not even produce a picture on my (semi-) modern TV has knocked me for six! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Just get a Twin Famicom, that has composite output. Of course, you'll have to be careful to find one with a working disk drive, but that's another story.

 

Im not an expert on the FDS but I guess it just outputs NTSC. Any modern TV should be able to handle it really.. I'd guess anything within the last 15 years even. All our TVs handle an NTSC signal (PAL region) and one of them is el-cheapo.. or, they might produce a steady picture, just in black and white (due to colour encoding differences)

 

Hi graphique. That's a very good idea, thanks. One question though: if the drive does turn out to be broken, is the band-replacement procedure the same as for the standard Disk System?

 

>>randyrandall

To be honest, if I can just get a steady enough picture to finally see what's on my disk, I'll settle for that for the time being!

 

Yeah. As far as my understanding goes, NTSC signals are the same in America and Japan.. The issue arises because NTSC refreshes faster than PAL, so OLD Tvs are not designed to refresh that fast so would produce a rolling picture. Getting newer, they can display it, but do not understand the colour encoding, so show in B+W. Mates 14" TV from.. 1997 or so is an example.

Using a RGB connection resolves this issue as the colour encoding isnt used, the signal is split into 3 colours.. but obviously as the FDS is old it probably doesnt support it.

One way you could test, some PAL PS2 games can switch to 60hz I believe, but I dont think they all do PAL 60.. some do NTSC.. meaning that incompativle TVs will show a B+W image..see what image they produce if you have any to hand. Some DVD players allow you to press 'region', and switch between Auto, Pal, or NTSC.


Theres a list of PS2 games in this thread http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/38/121718

 

That's good information to have, randyrandall, thanks. As it happens, I've still got my trusty old Sony CRT TV in the other room. Perhaps that might come in handy if the modern one has trouble. Like I said earlier, my goal is simply to get the disk to run and be able to view the contents. If they happen to be in black and white to begin with, at least I'll be able to post the results.

 

Id guess that, as long as your TV doesnt just have an RF input for video, then you're gonna get a steady black and white image at least.. look forwards to results..

 

The CRT TV has RF, Scart and composite input. I'm sure one of those connections will do the trick. Problem could be getting the right cable for the non-RF connections though...

 

The problem with PAL TVs and RF from Famicom is the Japanese Channel 1 and Channel 2 it outputs on may not be tunable on your PAL TV. In the US if you TV can tune to something like Channel 96, you can use it. But I think with PAL TVs you're screwwed and need Composite. Atleast this is what I remember when I last read about it. It's not a NTSC vs PAL issue as many PAL TVs are multi color system anyway.

 

The replacement procedure for the Twin is available online too with a pictorial walkthrough; it does use the same bands as a regular FDS. I personally have had zero luck with it though. I finally got my Twin working by buying two replacement drives on YJ, one of which worked.

 

>>Mottzilla
Yeah, that's the kind of thing I'm beginning to find now I'm looking into it more. Perhaps there's also a chance of getting on that has some sort of modulator for use on PAL TVs...

>>graphique
Well, if I fail to do it myself, I'll see if a technically-minded friend of mine can help. Failing that, I suppose I'll have to resort to YJ auctions too.

 

Not sure if there's anyone left following this thread, but after reading about the recently released Zelda FDS prototype by Segaloco, I thought I'd finally get round to what I should've done ages ago and buy a Famicom and Disk System set. Luckily for me, I decided to holiday in Japan this winter, so managed to locate a decent looking one on Yahoo! Auctions last night and the seller confirmed it was shipped today. Also, I didn't want to take any chances with new-TV incompatibility, so I went for a unit that's been modified to output a composite signal via an AV cable.

Once it arrives, I plan to peruse at the contents of the disk and post a follow-up here, regardless of what the actual contents turn out to be. Seeing as the released proto version had "ZEL" written on the disk, my hopes aren't high for my one to be honest as it seems to be just a virtually unmarked disk. Still, for those still following thread, I'll aim to bring it to a close shortly.

 

Good way to revive this thread.
I'm hoping with ya bud! Think thoughts of betas