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Can Someone School me on Taito G-Net with CF cards?

I have 4 CFs of three different makes.
Two makes give me a "System Error" screen and one make gives me some colored bars on the left side of the screen and than reboots (∞) on two different cards (same size 256mb).
Chaos Heat boots normally but besides mentioning do not coin and the Version of the Game don't tell me anything about the Version of the G-net
 
Mageta the Lion said:
I have 4 CFs of three different makes.
Two makes give me a "System Error" screen and one make gives me some colored bars on the left side of the screen and than reboots (∞) on two different cards (same size 256mb).
Chaos Heat boots normally but besides mentioning do not coin and the Version of the Game don't tell me anything about the Version of the G-net
Click to expand...

You flashed the Mod BIOS to your board, correct? Without it, it won't accept non-Taito cards.
 
I downloaded a gnet.zip from somewhere of this page (has been some time so i'm not sure where exactly from)
But here are the md5s:
2cb5f27aa01257f01a495879dd4d9101 aerofsp.chd
19578819d10cf4509e4293ffbe62672d braveblade.chd
a8ee32c402815019cbd7b2e39f45a81a chaoshea.chd
2f744e5b8fe05be6c0bfa72c8843016b chaoshej.chd
adb92826ef5632c2102d03edd8d12d80 flamegun.chd
8b21bda6bf2e70f11668ead5b127baa9 flipmaze.chd
0df4e5ce1bf71f8156d31c8661a05bde ftimpact.chd
6f6f497f17e1a803c18c7e69b973143e gdarius.chd
644ec7459fdec27297a422da2748cebb gobyrc.chd
ce9b19a07c491b36e6b92cbb3f0d7350 kollonc.chd
679e649585f25decaaeb1fec198b90b8 kollon.chd
882883733b39609b42cfc4b452880f07 mahjngoh.chd
8413ae4b18e80b9f36e3afe39d399017 nightrai.chd
32f0e2183dacf811f9811cd4448c6a9f otenamhf.chd
2bb385c8c394f92613edeeb51236050d otenamih.chd
9b0c28e6b2be41a14cbded8d4f56a9a0 otenki.chd
bc20abfccd180e9f2c7d334a5334a9ae psyvaria.chd
cc4db9d4e5404ea5197e1f423ca20a85 psyvarrv.chd
e1a517458d24136cc9bea3680ee83bd8 raycris.chd
ef8d9dd3ba8293f871a57029f8f1a7ff raystorm.chd
da5c4f90bfa881d1d500faa697f91699 rcdego.chd
ea9849debdc7926dcde888143d114422 shanghaito.chd
4b4bbdaeace79055517c9e6e33604843 shanghss.chd
0fbe782b92f604e64cc16a85e9386475 shangmtkb.chd
2991bb9f99a3b69b3484c482836652aa shikigam.chd
70637411ece59caa0bff365978229c7c sianniv.chd
6c161a0f238c84513a7b4ae46c2f359b soutenry.chd
b6d23547badbb7791ebd14779ece8552 spuzbobj.chd
5cfb39450dd9549ad34005709c4f6816 spuzbobl.chd
aa5ef033f4d0a4d558c7b8b148e00343 usagi.chd
797098c27956d9af6673235fcf7a914e xiistag.chd
1406397e870378b0a01847e6ea0f5de5 zokuoten.chd
fcc972b43c0e579a2e4dff8d9ab0c020 zooo.chd

I flashed the g-net again:
  1. wrote the eprom
  2. put it in the g-net
  3. set the jumper
  4. Removed any Game
  5. powered on
  6. Get the three status bars
  7. Get a Static Screen with some Japanese Runes
  8. Powered the G-net off
  9. Removed the Jumper
  10. Left the eprom in place (i can remove it rigth?)
  11. Put in an CF
  12. Power on
  13. Get an System Error screen
  14. BUT i get an G-net Screen before the Error which states 2011MB, so the Mod Bios is installed? (didn't catch that one before since the Aero Screen isn't fast enough to catch that screen from a cold start)
Writing the Game:

Bash: 
user@pc:/home/user/Games/Roms/G-Net/gnet# dd if=flipmaze.chd of=/dev/ssd status=progress
50772+1 records in
50772+1 records out
25995517 bytes (26 MB, 25 MiB) copied, 0,0898927 s, 289 MB/s

#Verifing the write
user@pc:/home/user/Games/Roms/G-Net/gnet# dd if=/dev/ssd of=/tmp/fliptest
50772+1 records in
50772+1 records out
25995517 bytes (26 MB, 25 MiB) copied, 0,182469 s, 142 MB/s
user@pc:/home/user/Games/Roms/G-Net/gnet# md5sum flipmaze.chd
8b21bda6bf2e70f11668ead5b127baa9  flipmaze.chd
user@pc:/home/user/Games/Roms/G-Net/gnet# md5sum /tmp/fliptest
8b21bda6bf2e70f11668ead5b127baa9  /tmp/fliptest
 
Mageta the Lion said:
i get an G-net Screen before the Error which states 2011MB, so the Mod Bios is installed?
Click to expand...
yes, that confirms the modbios installed.

Mageta the Lion said:
dd if=flipmaze.chd
Click to expand...
there's your problem

you can't write a chd file. you need to extract it to a .img file before you write it to the card.

you do that with the chdman tool built into mame and you need to use the correct chdman tool that matches the version of MAME that the .chd file is for (they've changed a few times over the years)

see these posts earlier in the thread:
for Linux:
sammargh said:
for the older one chdman -extract input.chd output.img
for the newer one chdman extracthd -i input.chd -o output.img

dd if=./output.img of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m or use selfimage or the image writing utility
Click to expand...

fow Windows:
twistedsymphony said:
I built my own little drag and drop tool for creating img files from the chds. you're welcome to try it: http://web-nine.com/files/gnet_chd_to_img.zip

take a chd file for a games and drag it onto the chd_to_img.bat file. this will create a .img file that you can then program to a card using win32discimager.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the help, it seems i'm almost there.
  1. Loaded a different version of flipmaze from archive.org (tried with a converted chd from my set and it didnt work)
  2. used chdman to convert it to an img
  3. wrote the img with dd to the CF
  4. Put it in the G-Net and got an Japanese Install Screen for Flipmaze
  5. Reboot loop
Is there a way to make sure the chd file matches chdman (without the upload telling you)... alternatively i would also take a link via pm to correct img's files 🙃
Bash: 
user@pc:~$ chdman -h
chdman - MAME Compressed Hunks of Data (CHD) manager 0.220 (unknown)
...
user@pc:~$ chdman info -i flipmaze.chd
chdman - MAME Compressed Hunks of Data (CHD) manager 0.220 (unknown)
Input file:   flipmaze.chd
File Version: 5
Logical size: 40,960,000 bytes
Hunk Size:    4,096 bytes
Total Hunks:  10,000
Unit Size:    512 bytes
Total Units:  80,000
Compression:  lzma (LZMA), zlib (Deflate), huff (Huffman), flac (FLAC)
CHD size:     24,510,643 bytes
Ratio:        59.8%
SHA1:         423b6c06f4f2d9a608ce20b61a3ac11687d22c40
Data SHA1:    1a97b2614c29df0294fcb96e856f431ed92a9217
Metadata:     Tag='GDDD'  Index=0  Length=33 bytes
              CYLS:625,HEADS:8,SECS:16,BPS:512.
Metadata:     Tag='IDNT'  Index=0  Length=512 bytes
              L.q......!..........TL899012.SE..TA..+. ......eV.r.6 3ATTI O
Metadata:     Tag='KEY '  Index=0  Length=5 bytes
              FM.q.
Metadata:     Tag='CIS '  Index=0  Length=123 bytes
              ...:...... .....!..."...".................UM].. ...A..UM]d..
 
Sounds like you are on the correct way @Mageta the Lion the new chd versions in MAME will not be compatible with the old tools. So when you get hold of the official CHD files issue the following command:

chdman extracthd -i raycris.chd -o raycris.img

Also the G-NET is picky with CF cards I have the best experience with 256 MB Sandisks.
 
I got so fed up with ordering different cheap CF cards that all didn't work for certain games, and went with PCMCIA ATA flash cards for the handful of games I couldn't get successfully imaged otherwise.

I think a lot of sellers in China may be recycling old CF cards because they all appeared to have different format identifier # in HDD raw copy
 
Mageta the Lion said:
I and nem ordered from this guy on ebay and got working cards:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/142433764407
(I offered 30 bucks for 10 cards and he accepted)
Click to expand...

Nice, I wonder if these small capacity SanDisk cards are SLC, and wonder if the the original g-cards were as well. That was my personal hypothesis since large capacity modern cards never worked which are almost always MLC, nor cheap, newer cards from China which may also be MLC even when small capacity.

The older G-Net may have trouble interfacing with the more complex memory controller in the MLC cards.

I ended up paying $5 per plus shipping for these. A little more expensive, but I like they came with individual cases and don't require the adapter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1344168914...4tkOvfsT5y&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

SLC (Single-Level Cell) and MLC (Multi-Level Cell) are types of NAND flash memory used in various storage devices. SLC stores one bit of data per cell, providing the highest reliability, fastest performance, and greatest endurance with approximately 100,000 program-erase (P/E) cycles per cell.147 It is ideal for high-performance and critical applications where reliability is paramount.147

MLC, on the other hand, stores two bits of data per cell, offering a balance between performance, capacity, and cost.147 MLC has a higher data density than SLC, allowing for larger capacities and lower costs, but it has a lower endurance with approximately 10,000 P/E cycles per cell.147 MLC is commonly used in consumer electronics and enterprise environments where a balance of performance and cost is required.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
ProbablyBobably said:
I ended up paying $5 per plus shipping for these. A little more expensive, but I like they came with individual cases and don't require the adapter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1344168914...4tkOvfsT5y&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Click to expand...
I just got my first Gnet today shipped from EU. Had some trace damage I fixed and is booting up into the game it came with (CF card).
These cards you have listed above look like PCMCIA? How would I program these instead of CF cards? I have a USB->CF adapter for the regular cards, would I need to break out a dinosaur laptop with PCMCIA slot to use these or is there another solution / I am misunderstanding what that card is?

I am just starting down the rabbit hole on this but am excited to get other games ready to go, seems like a very cool library.

Will do a correct trace repair under the microscope tonight (did a jumper to see if that was the only problem, now that its fixed I hate jumpers so will do trace repair), and get it cleaned and back together.
 
The original cards are PCMCIA but they are ATA locked. So they cannot be dumped or manipulated with normal tools.

The last games released for the G-Net (Kollon) used a PCMCIA to CF adapter and a modified BIOS. They were still ATA locked though.

If you use the modbios and get hold of an old PCMCIA 32 MB storage card you should be able to use those as well instead of a CD card.
 
SCUBA King said:
I just got my first Gnet today shipped from EU. Had some trace damage I fixed and is booting up into the game it came with (CF card).
These cards you have listed above look like PCMCIA? How would I program these instead of CF cards? I have a USB->CF adapter for the regular cards, would I need to break out a dinosaur laptop with PCMCIA slot to use these or is there another solution / I am misunderstanding what that card is?

I am just starting down the rabbit hole on this but am excited to get other games ready to go, seems like a very cool library.

Will do a correct trace repair under the microscope tonight (did a jumper to see if that was the only problem, now that its fixed I hate jumpers so will do trace repair), and get it cleaned and back together.
Click to expand...
Yes, they are pcmcia ATA flash cards and you would need a pcmcia port to write to these. Even if you go with CF cards, you may still need to bust out the old laptop to run the g-net .chd flasher. Though you can also use HDD Raw copy if you get the game files in .raw format.

rtw said:
If you use the modbios and get hold of an old PCMCIA 32 MB storage card you should be able to use those as well instead of a CD card.
Click to expand...

I was worried about the larger capacity when I bought them, but I can confirm now the 224mb cards I shared a link to have worked for almost every G-Net game and conversion.
 
SCUBA King said:
Any notes on which ones I shouldn't bother to try on those cards?
Click to expand...
My assumption is that it will work for all games. I just haven't personally tested them all yet. There hasn't been any game I wrote that hasn't worked so far.

There are some games I have g-cards for that I didn't bother, and some mahjong games I'm not that interested in.
 
Ill burn a stack and report back if I run into any trouble. This is a pretty cool library imo. Cant believe it doesn't get more love.
 
SCUBA King said:
Ill burn a stack and report back if I run into any trouble. This is a pretty cool library imo. Cant believe it doesn't get more love.
Click to expand...
Fully agree, especially with the conversions of G-Darius, Raystorm, etc. playable. Lots of fun shmups and puzzle games.

I think it gets neglected because it was underpowered at release launching the same year as the Naomi. I think Taito mainly released it to serve as a platform for mahjong and parlor games like that Otenami Haiken that seems to be included with most g-nets sold on YAJ.
 
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