Ping
I’m alive 😉 (sort of). I’ve been sick since mid-November so I’m still a bit bogged down. We put our son into nursery school at the beginning of November and he brings home new germs every day 😀 Having a cold for 2 months straight (and counting) really feels strange. Also we will be moving house at the end of February so preparations are ongoing for that.
Anyway I’ve been working on the user interface that will be needed for the configuration menu. As of now it can navigate an arbitrary number of sub menus (until stack runs out, that is) and display parameters. Next step is actually being able to alter them.
As some new features, like WRAM cheats and in-game buttons, turned out to have a negative effect on game compatibility I feel it is important to make them an opt-in setting. That’s why a configuration menu is inevitable for the 0.1.7 final.
The other thing to work on is the user interface for cheats. My current proposal is that a .cht file is used/created per game where cheats can be entered (or existing cht files can be downloaded and used). By request it will support entry of both Pro Action Replay and Game Genie codes (not sure how to detect whether a cht file contains GG or PAR codes… any pointers?).
Do you prefer another preview version with just the configuration menu in place (a “stable” 0.1.7 if you will) or do you prefer a later release with the cheat menu already included?
I’d say go with a later release, take your time.
Also, get well soon. 🙂
Hope moving places won’t be too much of a hassle for you and your family.
Get to feeling better, family and health first. Everything else is second.
I vote for another preview, you never know what it may bring up once we all start playing with it.
Pro Action Replay doesn’t use a “-” like the Game Genie does, right? Can it detect the presence of the hyphen to determine whether a code is in Game Genie format?
True, the hyphens aren’t written in the CHT files though.
Take your time and get well.
I vote for a final release, save your time for 0.1.7 final release.
Release early, release often 🙂
While it is nice having preview releases, given everything you have on the docket I think you should just save the hassle and wait to release a final version. Thanks for the update and get well!
Doesn’t seem much point in releasing what amounts to a largely-useless submenu. Take your time, do it right, and give us a final. But before you do that, get well. There’s nothing so important about the SD2SNES that can’t wait until you’re better.
i say to release another preview. it will enable us to find more problems with it before final release.
also – would it be possible to keep the in-game buttons and disable the cheat engine? would that make it stable while the buttons are in use or are the buttons also tied to ram and will still make it buggy?
I hope that you feel better soon. I do have an idea as to how you might be able to differentiate between PAR and Game Genie codes. And there are actually a number of ways that it can be done. Taking a cheat for Super Metroid as an example. Game Genie: DDD0-FE6D Set hours played to 0 (for better ending) And the same code for PAR: 70804E00 Set hours played to 0 (for better ending) Detecting the difference between the two can be as simple as counting how many characters are used. If the dash (-) is included, Game Genie… Read more »
Gute und baldige Gesensung!! Und alles Gute auch für die Familie und den bevorstehenden Umzug! 😀
Hi Ikari, of course get better as first priority. 😉
When it comes to WRAM cheat/in-game button combos, it might be better if they’re disabled by default indeed.
A .cht file per game seems ideal, what about differentiating PAR versu GG .cht the following way:
If PAR code is used, the .cht file should contain “par” on the first line, or on the last line after the codes.
And same for GG, as “gg”. When SD2SNES parses the file, it can then detect what format the codes are in .(?)
And I’m all for another preview version, yep 😉
I should point out that by .cht file I mean the actual existing .cht format. 😉 The advantage is that there are sets of cheats readily available as .cht files for downloading, and they are interoperable with emulators.
A disadvantage is that you only have 20 characters to describe a cheat.
I’m unfamiliar with how the .cht format works. I thought it stored everything in raw address:value anyway regardless of the format in which the user input the code into the emulator, be it PAR, GG, Goldfinger or whatever. Do .cht files store codes in different formats? If so, then how do emulators distinguish between them?
And you are right. I must have misinterpreted something when looking at it with a hex editor. cht always contains raw “address, compare value, patch value” triples. Nice, problem solved. Thank you. 😉
Awesome. I’m glad the solution is so easy. As for the 20-character limit, I don’t see that as a humongous handicap. For the vast majority of codes, it’s more than enough. “infinite health”, for example, is only 15 characters. “start@lvl25” is only 11 (and “start at level 25” would still fit). Users ought to be clever enough to describe codes concisely.
… Pong 🙂
Haha!
Would two versions be possible?
One with all the new features, cheat systems and all and one with better overall compatibility.
You will be able to choose between those in a single version via the config menu.
Don’t .cht files only contain PAR codes? In SNES9x, if I input a GG code, it converts and saves it as a PAR/hex code,
I think snes9x always converts them (and sd2snes will do the same, allowing entry of both formats but a uniform type of storage).
However I’ve seen .cht files (probably from ZSNES) that contain codes which wouldn’t make sense as PAR codes, but did make sense after running them through a GG->PAR converter. So at least some files are out in the wild which do contain GG codes. Maybe there’s a flag bit that designates the type of code, I will take a closer look at it.
I would like a preview version,
that way we can (hopefully this time) structurly help you out with bugs.
That can take away some precious time that you would lose with testing the things yourself
But that’s my 2 cents 🙂
I have some PHP code I wrote for generating .cht files, if you’re interested ikari. I can’t remember if the emulators are open source or not.
I like your new main menu: Well done 🙂 Extremely nice <3
Hi Ikari,
hope you will get well soon, you and your family !
I prefer that you work on a final version, even if we have to wait !
Get well !
Later release is my vote. Get better!
Thanks to everyone for your good wishes!
Is it possible to solve the slowdowns in capcom games such as Megaman X, Demon’s Crest and Magical quest?
Sadly not, it’s impossible to overclock the SNES 😉
Get well and thank you for all that you do. Hopefully once you get better and finish moving you can provide a final and stable version.
First of all: get well soon!!
I also have a one year old little baby in nursery school. The first month was a complete nightmare. She brought home a type of gastroenteritis (T-Virus style) which killed us all! (even the cat! :D). But now, we are kind of immune.
Second, about the update, I vote for a later final version, with the cheat menu included.
And, last but not least, keep up this great work!! And good luck with the move!!
Hey!
I vote for the configuration menu since its a real pain to switch between two firmware versions if a game has issues with the 0.1.7 preview (mario kart!) but on the other hand you want to switch games from your couch.
But first you get well.
Gute besserung!
Later release, take your time.
I’m partial to a stable release, but do what’s best for you!
I think you certainly need to make sure you’re completely healthy before working on anything. Working when you are ill is the worst!
The next release depends on how hard the cheat stuff is to implement. If the cheat stuff becomes hard to do, well, I’m sure a stable version with configurable ui would be appreciated.
Get well soon and best of luck with the move.
SuperFX games? 😉
i prefer a a “stable” 0.1.7 🙂
Here an interesting bug I found today. Hopefully someone else can replicate it. I power on the 1CHIP-01 SNES with SD2SNES, open up an MSU1 rom, I was playing some videos gimmie more, gangnam style, and kate beck. After each video I R+L+Select+X to get back to menu to select next video, no issues. Now if I go from video R+L+Select+X and select a game I get a loud buzzing noise over the sounds of the game. At first I thought maybe a loose ground so I dismantled everything, no luck. Then I realized it only happens after playing a… Read more »
Sorry, I never mentioned I’m using the latest build revision 3.
It’s been reported several times and resulted in this commit: https://github.com/mrehkopf/sd2snes/commit/93daf28832ca133e6b9e6104739e356f4668fb31
😉
I don’t remember that one coming up, good to know it wasn’t just my setup though.
Thank you for the reply, keep up the good work.
I would favor another preview release. Btw is there any plans to add any expansion chips besides superfx?
Id like to see SA-1 make it into sd2snes rather than superfx.
Just a question about how the controller/WRAM cheat hooks work. Obviously there are inevitable compatibility problems with some games. My question is whether the number of hooks being employed has an effect on this or if its just an all or nothing kind of thing.
There is one hook routine for everything. It gets called whenever an IRQ or NMI is generated by the SNES. Most commonly, games use the NMI. It is generated by the PPU once per frame when vertical blanking occurs and is used to provide a time base to the game. It’s also useful so the game known when to access VRAM and other things than can only be accessed during blanking. The IRQ is more flexible. It can be set to occur at any given cathod ray position (x and y). Some games just use it as an NMI replacement… Read more »
Ah I see. I was just curious because I was wondering if some of those problem games might be fixed by cutting out certain hooks while leaving others remaining. Such as including only cheat on/off hooks while disabling things like soft reset or reset to menu (or vice versa). But the way you’ve described it makes it pretty clear that wouldn’t change anything. Thanks for the explanation.
I should point out that with the latest tweaks compatibility is already much better than in v0.1.7 preview 3. Even the raster effects in A.S.P. Air Strike Patrol are intact with in-game buttons enabled. Hagane still has the very first scanline of the HUD missing though. So far I tested without WRAM cheats.
I am now reworking WRAM patching to be faster (rolled out patch instructions instead of a loop).
I need my cheats man….
Still been waiting to use my sd2snes cartridge I bought from stone age gamer.
Get well but work on the cheats while you get well? lol
Nothing is stopping you from using it.
Playing games on your original console, but demanding to play them with cheats enabled is hypocritical.
If you want cheats, then use an emulator, this whole cheat implementation thing is utterly redundant anyways, if you ask me…
I’m getting a little tired of the “use an emulator to cheat” argument. The reason we spent money on a console and flash card, is because the experience of an emulator just doesn’t equate to the real thing. Action replays and Game Genies were developed back in the day, because games that are otherwise too hard or boring become more exciting and accessible. If we can just “use an emulator”, why do these devices exist? Because we want to play games the way we want to play them, whether they are a rom hack, with a multi-jump cheat enabled, or… Read more »
”Because we want to play games the way we want to play them […]”
Damn right.
That’s why there is no need for cheats. If you want to play them with cheats, go and use an emulator.
Besides, speak for yourself.
It doesn’t matter what you ”want”, it matters how much ikari is willed to implement for the SD2SNES.
Just because you want something so badly doesn’t mean it will be happening, or that it has to happen just for your sake of enjoying a game more.
Deal with it, that’s the harsh reality here.
I don’t use emulators to play, I use them to hack and create more cheats. I play games on the console, sometimes with the Game Genie. Like I always have. Of course it only matters what ikari wants to implement, I agree with you there. And, he does and has implemented a cheat system that he hasn’t released yet. You can choose not to use it, I’m not going to try to tell you that you should, that is your choice. What I want doesn’t matter, that is a harsh reality for everyone here but ikari. Adversely, just because you… Read more »
“If you want to play them with cheats, go and use an emulator.”
Such a strange thing to say considering the Game Genie and Action Replay were actual physical accessories that existed long before emulation was even a thing.
Ui, das mit den .cht files klingt schon mal sehr geil, denn das spart ne Menge Arbeit 😉
ikari, lass dir Zeit, Hauptsache alles wird (wie immer) Top ^^.
Zieh jetzt erstmal um und kümmer dich um deine Familie.
Lg kolwe-x (snesfreaks)
Hi i love your work!
and here a stupid question 😀 what about gamboy games oder Gameboy andvance games?
What’s the matter with that?
If you mean that there will be support for the Super Gameboy, I don’t know.
But since we are talking about the SD2SNES here, I doubt it will run Gameboy games, especially not Gameboy Advance ones.
Seriously, why would it?
It’s for the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom.
Why not gameboy and gameboy color Thorben? Would it not be similar to an enhancement chip? Isn’t that essentially what the super Gameboy did?
I think that would be awesome as well if the sd2snes has an RTC on it because pokemon would work perfectly.
Easy, because Gameboy Color games weren’t supposed to play on the Super Gameboy. I once tried it myself with ”Disney’s Tarzan”, you will be redirected to a screen notifying you that ”This game won’t play on a Super Nintendo”. The second Generation of Pokemon and onwards will never work on that thing, because it’s simply not designed for that. As for normal Gameboy games, not sure. I still doubt it though, who knows how the SNES reads Gameboy games. It might be possible, but I wouldn’t count on it, and IF it works, than most likely just for normal Gameboy… Read more »
The SNES doesn’t read the Gameboy games at all. The Super Gameboy has a complete Gameboy on board (without LCD and buttons, obviously) and the LCD pixel data stream is converted to SNES tile data by a custom chip and streamed by the SNES. So Super Gameboy basically means writing an FPGA Gameboy. It sounds like a cool thing to do but I don’t see it happen in the near to middle future. 😉 Gameboy Color wouldn’t work as well as Gameboy because it has 12 bits per pixel instead of 2, exceeding the DMA transfer limit of the SNES… Read more »
The easiest way would be (I’ve done it), you buy a SGB (really cheap on ebay) and a Everdrive GB. That’s all 😉
Nah, the GM Everdrive still needs an update in order to make me buy it.
I know this sounds picky, but if it doesn’t have stuff like RTC (and maybe improved compatibility, which is never a bad thing), I won’t buy it.
These things cost a lot of money, money I currently don’t have.
If that were the case, then I already would’ve bought an SD2SNES, GB Everdrive and Everdrive 64 a long time ago. 😀
Not to mention the GB Everdrive has inverted controls, A to cancel and B to accept/select in menus. That’s super horrible imho and Krikzz doesn’t care at all, won’t implement a feature to select button behavior.
If only Ikari designed a SD2GB, with RTC battery, a real menu and proper button mapping.. we can always dream ^^;
i personally dont care for in game hooks or save states at all on any of my flash carts. I’d rather have improved compatibility.
Agreed. 🙂 I wouldn’t be wanting SA1 and SuperFX anytime soon though. I’d prefer the SD2SNES to support all enhancement chips at one point in the far-away future, if that would even be possible to begin with. But yes, other than compatibility, I wouldn’t know what else the SD2SNES should need. No kidding, I would just buy a SD2SNES for playing romhacks of games I own on that thing. Everything else is something I personally consider as ”redundant” (except for bug fixes). I really wonder why most people want to have cheat support so badly, they could always play their… Read more »
I would like to play SD Gundam Gnext on sd2snes!
Please Apply to sa1!
I don’t know what is the goal for Ikari,
but in my opinion, I think the best that we could have for SD2SNES is to have a full compatibility with the original romset of the Super Nes.
It won’t be possible for some exotic chip as Ikari said I think
but top riority must be : Super fx AND SA1
My dream is to play Street Fighter Alpha 2 : S-DD1 chip !
http://sd2snes.de/blog/compatibility
Anyway,
keep on good work ikari 🙂
I agree. That’s the only thing I want – all games being perfectly compatible. I know some of them are marked as ”unlikely” due to the FPGA not having enough room, if memory serves right. No clue what that means actually, but isn’t there a workaround for this, not patching the ROM with other tools? Ikari is doing all the work for the SD2SNES all by himself, perhaps we should let him a hand and ask around if someone is willed to help him work on the SD2SNES. It’s open source after all, and I’m sure he would appreciate some… Read more »
If you ask me, throwing out another beta/preview version is the way to go. 😀 User feedback helps you not only to uncover bugs and dead-end approaches at an early stage but also to keep yourself committed to the project. 😉
BTW, +1 to borti4938’s comment on the new config menu – its design (sub menus) is no less than awesome! 😀
I actually feel compelled to do that as I have been getting the same bug reports many times now although they have been fixed locally 😉
I agree, having users look for bugs while you focus on implementation keeps things moving along and gives you less stresses. If more previews result in a better faster release we are all winning.
At the end of the day though it’s your project, and my 2 cents.
I always look forward to any sort of update regardless.
Cheers!
Yes much agreed, to see the new config menu, the might-be-controversial main menu redesign… a new beta would be welcome!
I think in my honest opinion, save states would be good, even with the game compatibility that we are at now.
Back after what it seems to be a long time, and been testing various things out with my SD2SNES, Super Famicom and SNES Test Program (the “retail” and the “WCS Rev. D” versions). The WCS Rev D version that has Burn-In Test v1.03 included sometimes will fail on “HV Timer” (something to do with the PPU?) while running the first test, or the burn-in will be fine for about 4 runs and then it will fail the test. The “common” retail cart Electronics Test failed the test, then passed, passed, failed, failed. Strange. Did a YouTube video of the failure… Read more »
This is related to the IGRs of the sd2snes and only appears if the PPUs are running in NTSC-mode. Test this ROM with firmware v0.16. or on a modified cartridge and it will run without any problems…
Here is a quote taken from a forum I frequent.
“Flash carts are not 100% accurate as they can (and do) mask bugs in problematic code.”
I don’t believe this is true, but maybe I’m wrong. Could you elaborate on this for me.
Thank you.
hello ikari , Please when you go out the final release 1.7 ?
Bon tu va la sortir ta mise a jour car ça fait des mois que l’ont l’attends ont a payé notre produit merci !
Yeah ! tout à fait d’accord…
Can we expect any ETA ??
It’s march now…..
please ….
Why not release a stable firmware, and let people play with betas ???
Anyway.. thanks for the Sd2SNES… areally great product !
Nu lass doch den Jung erst mal in Ruhe mit seiner Familie umziehen 😉
Il n’est pas obligé a sortir une mis a jour pour toi; tu as payé pour la carte, pas le logiciel. Il a un vie séparé de SD2SNES
C’est un projet libre ton argent ne va pas dans la poche d’Ikari ! Et évite le Français tu nous fait passer pour des cons…… on est pas tous comme toi …
Bon tu va la sortir ta mise a jour car ça fait des mois que l’ont l’attends ont a payé notre produit merci !
Like Greatfunky, i’m french and i don’t want to hear that kind of bullshit about Ikari…
Learn how to code if you want to help, do you think it helps to say something like that ?
You pay for a SD2SNES, you have it, don’t worry be happy !