What's new

eathis

Student
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
Messages
69
Reaction score
43
Location
France
Hi everyone,

I'm a big fan of CPS3 games, specially Street Fighter 3.3
Before the creation of the Darksoft Superbios, I was the happy owner of a NOCD version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

I love CPS3 but let's be honest, I'm not a fan at all of arcade systems with a CD drive.

Why I love NOCD versions?
That's easy, with the original NOCD versions you don't need the SCSI drive anymore to run the game.
So if you are like me, only playing to one CPS3 game, you can have your game loaded in the simms and use only the mobo with the Superbios card on it (it looks more like a classical PCB)

So after talking with Darsoft and asking him a tons of questions (thanks again to him for his time), he explains me how to create a NOCD version of the Standard SH2 bios.

I'm still figuring how to transform the custom SH2 bios into NOCD version.

For the Standard SH2 this is really easy.
_Download the Standard SH2 USA bios or the Standard SH2 Japanese bios you will found here: https://www.arcade-projects.com/forums/index.php?threads/cps-iii-bios-and-cd-releases.36/
_Open it with a hexadecimal editor. I use HxD Hex Editor which is really easy to use.
Then change the value of the offset at 20747h (20740/07) from 04 to 01 and save the new bios.
The method is the same with the US and Japan bios.
_Then the last step is to burn the new bios on the SH2 chip (this is the step where I am, don't ask me anything about it I don't do any modifications on the cards, I don't know how to and some other people are doing it very well)

BE CAREFULL I HAVEN'T TEST IT ON THE REAL HARDWARE. THIS IS STILL ONLY THEORICAL FOR THE MOMENT. I WILL TEST IT ASAP AND LET YOU KNOW IF IT WORKS ON THE REAL HARDWARE.
IF SOMEBODY ELSE WANT TO TRY, DON'T HESITATE TO TELL US IF IT WORKS FINE PLEASE.


All my cards got the Custom SH2 bios. Darksoft upload a NOCD version of the japanese custom SH2 bios here on the first post: https://www.arcade-projects.com/forums/index.php?threads/cps-iii-bios-and-cd-releases.36/
I don't know which value has been changed.
Darksoft tell me to change the value at the offset 20747h (20740/07) from B1 to B4 but at this adress the value I found when I open the bios with HxD is E1.

So if Darksoft read it maybe he will tell us, maybe I miss something. This is new for me, I don't do that kind of stuff usually.

I'll try to keep this post updated as often as I can.

And please don't hesitate to tell me if I'm wrong about something ;)
 
Last edited:
Nope but it looks like this method only change the text at the beginning when you run the game.

I simply give up, sorry dude.
 
I’m curious about this. So you can have a cart that runs one game that doesn’t require the cd? Does it still have the battery? Was this ever official or are these just modified carts? If official which games had a version like this?

Also are dead carts worthless or can they be revived these days? I’m assuming superbios could be installed on a dead cart?
 
Last edited:
I’m curious about this. So you can have a cart that runs one game that doesn’t require the cd? Does it still have the battery? Was this ever official or are these just modified carts? If official which games had a version like this?
It's official, yes. There was at least NoCD versions of 3rd Strike and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. They run on batteries as well. I think @XeD has made unofficial NoCD carts.

Also are dead carts worthless or can they be revived these days? I’m assuming superbios could be installed on a dead cart?
They're absolutely worth money. You can revive them by burning SuperBIOS to them.
 
Back
Top