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Trying to get Ninja Assault to display Japanese Text

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shadowblind

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Hello!

Bit of an odd one, but I need a Japanese Ninja Assault cart, one that specifically shows Japanese text during the attract mode. For very particular reasons, I need the attract mode text to not be in English. Right now, I have a Naomi netdimm with a working Ninja Assault World rom running (NJA2) as well as a physical Ninja Assault ASIA version cart(which, at least in the MAME romset DOES contain the file needed to make the game run with the Japanese attract mode.). I've read conflicting reports that I need a specifically Japanese cart to get the Japanese text...but I'm hopping in here in hopes that those reports are wrong since another poster pointed out that the language is set by the BIOS. Here's what I've done so far:

First tried setting the bios to Japan (all four dip switches off on the motherboard) since I have a multibios; I also have a Japanese BIOS by itself. I've tried changing the language ingame as well. No luck on getting any of it to show Japanese in the attract mode. I've confirmed in TEST mode that the motherboard does think of itself as JAPAN region.

For research I confirmed that in flycast, only the ninjasltj (NJA1) shows the text. Is there a way to trick my physical Naomi hardware into thinking that it needs to run that version of the game?
Sorry for the questions, new to this but I've tried to research it...not many people have this problem haha.
 
shadowblind said:
Hello!

Bit of an odd one, but I need a Japanese Ninja Assault cart, one that specifically shows Japanese text during the attract mode. For very particular reasons, I need the attract mode text to not be in English. Right now, I have a Naomi netdimm with a working Ninja Assault World rom running (NJA2) as well as a physical Ninja Assault ASIA version cart(which, at least in the MAME romset DOES contain the file needed to make the game run with the Japanese attract mode.). I've read conflicting reports that I need a specifically Japanese cart to get the Japanese text...but I'm hopping in here in hopes that those reports are wrong since another poster pointed out that the language is set by the BIOS. Here's what I've done so far:

First tried setting the bios to Japan (all four dip switches off on the motherboard) since I have a multibios; I also have a Japanese BIOS by itself. I've tried changing the language ingame as well. No luck on getting any of it to show Japanese in the attract mode. I've confirmed in TEST mode that the motherboard does think of itself as JAPAN region.

For research I confirmed that in flycast, only the ninjasltj (NJA1) shows the text. Is there a way to trick my physical Naomi hardware into thinking that it needs to run that version of the game?
Sorry for the questions, new to this but I've tried to research it...not many people have this problem haha.
Click to expand...
I have a Japanese Ninja Assault but I’m looking for the English version, I’d be interested in trading my Japanese cart for your ASIA cart
View: https://youtu.be/js4_VnXAh2E?si=djq3s8A7GrHSjUsk
 
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I'd be down for that! Do you mind sending pictures of the cart (as well as some gameplay, if possible, not just the attract mode? Thanks for the video though, that's the exact attract mode screen I'm looking for.) I'll upload the same for the Asia cart. Thanks!

Mike
 
shadowblind said:
I'd be down for that! Do you mind sending pictures of the cart (as well as some gameplay, if possible, not just the attract mode? Thanks for the video though, that's the exact attract mode screen I'm looking for.) I'll upload the same for the Asia cart. Thanks!

Mike
Click to expand...
Yes, I’ll fetch out my Naomi and cart when I get home, I have full gameplay of the original game on my YT channel
I’ll have to get a multi bios eprom as my Naomi still has it’s original Japanese bios
View: https://youtu.be/-0kWq5xq07I?si=cMstVj5pQ-oNOBav
 
Here’s some pictures of the disassembled cart
IMG_6013.jpeg
IMG_6014.jpeg
 
Sounds good! I'll go ahead and get it packaged up in the meanwhile. Out of curiosity, does changing the language in the game's menu change anything in the Japanese version? Like the tutorial text, etc? Just wondering.

Thanks again,
Mike
 
shadowblind said:
Sounds good! I'll go ahead and get it packaged up in the meanwhile. Out of curiosity, does changing the language in the game's menu change anything in the Japanese version? Like the tutorial text, etc? Just wondering.

Thanks again,
Mike
Click to expand...
From what I know with Japanese only Namco games, it’s only stuck on Japanese, there’s no other options
 
shadowblind said:
Okay, gotcha. Good to know! Last question, the NJA1 cart will work with a Naomi with a multibios or a Japanese Bios, right?
Click to expand...
This I actually don’t know as my Naomi is still 100% stock, it has the Japanese Bios, I’m guessing that it should still work using the multi bios

I only got my Naomi for ninja assault 😂
 
Franco23444 said:
This I actually don’t know as my Naomi is still 100% stock, it has the Japanese Bios, I’m guessing that it should still work using the multi bios

I only got my Naomi for ninja assault 😂
Click to expand...
Same, haha. Ninja Assault is IMO one of the best lightguns on Naomi. I'm pretty sure my naomi also came with a stock Japanese BIOS EPR-D21576 (I got a multibios recently as well) and the ASIA cart ran perfectly. So I think it's probably not gonna be a problem, just wanted to ask in case.
 
shadowblind said:
Same, haha. Ninja Assault is IMO one of the best lightguns on Naomi. I'm pretty sure my naomi also came with a stock Japanese BIOS EPR-D21576 (I got a multibios recently as well) and the ASIA cart ran perfectly. So I think it's probably not gonna be a problem, just wanted to ask in case.
Click to expand...
Yeah! I really liked the game on the PS2 and wanted to get the original hardware, I was able to find all the components to play on my CRT TV. I will admit that I did feel like I overpaid a bit for the I/O board lol. I’ll get my system out, record a new video and then wrap it up to ship it out to you for the trade :)
 
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