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ZN1 Bios <V2> board arrives!

OK! some more test / hacking results added to first post thanks @nnap

New developments:
1. Aero fighters rom banking use SRA instruction need to understand what's going on there...
2. Taito games are compressed so understanding that before can make rom banking adjustments in ROM for the "bootlegs"
3. Heavens gate PS1 has the files for sound FX in .PAK file, need to understand how the SPU works and load in the effects.
4. G net mod man used "clone sets" EG sncwgltd to confuse and very hacked !capom! bios for some reason. Still can't see what's adjusted to allow ZN1 to boot on ZN2 thou :(
 
Good enough for the board, needs a 2nd set of eyes to check for typo's @kuze where are ya :)
Everything is fine now expect captain silver and robo don't spawn. Gotta be a typo on the banking....

There are a few parts of the "file system" not accessed and can't be guessed this is not the missing ships but possibly other "assets" not triggered in my test runs.

View: https://youtu.be/qp6UEnBDluo
 
Found and fixed the typo, found and fixed the unused data!
The stages are somewhat random but also based on score the route of the game!

Attached is pics of a couple of the "hidden levels" so all content is checked and working and all the table is complete and double checked.

One more very interesting thing about this one is that memory card support seems in there!
Hopefully we can work that out at some stage how to hook up...

Here's some snippets:

¡.€ä¡.€,•.€init_card :%d...init_card p2 :%d....init_card p2 InitCARD :%d...init_card p2 StartCARD :%d..init_card p2 _bu_init :%d...init_card p3 :%d....init_card p4 :%d....term_card :%d...read_card_list :%d..sonic_card_read :%d.bu00:BISLPS-00307-DATA..SONICCARDREAD CHECK SUM READ :%d....sonic_card_write

‚`‚s‚`..check_card :%d..CHECKCARD :%d..CHECKCARD2 :%d.MakeBackupCard :%d..MAKEBACKUPCARD WROLNY OPEN :%d..MAKEBACKUPCARD WRITE :%d....MAKEBACKUPCARD READOLNY OPEN :%d....read_card :%d...READCARD READ CARD :%d..READCARD READ :%d...READCARD RDONLY OPEN :%d....READCARD READ :%d.._card_event :%d._clear_event :%d...._card_event_x :%d..._clear_event_x :%d.._csum :%d..


SLPS-00307 is the home version BISLPS mean memory card work on both?!
 

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Very nice @Hammy! Love the Aero Fighters series, really cool to see this fully playable now.

It’s been a roller coaster start to the year, now that the winter storm is over here in TX and the power is back on I should have some time for testing this week!
 
kuze said:
Very nice @Hammy! Love the Aero Fighters series, really cool to see this fully playable now.

It’s been a roller coaster start to the year, now that the winter storm is over here in TX and the power is back on I should have some time for testing this week!
Click to expand...
@kuze - Damn it man. I was running so hard trying to get power back on myself, and check on the people, that I forgot you were going through this one, right next door.

I hope you're ok man, and that your people all made it through OK. We really gotta take a minute at some point, and get together for some games, or swaps.

@Hammy - This work is brilliant, and I'm stoked to see it making progress. My two ZN2 pcb's and the ZN1 I'm picking up next week, are beyond ready for whatever manages to come out of this, in the end. Congratulations on the progress.
 
kuze said:
Very nice @Hammy! Love the Aero Fighters series, really cool to see this fully playable now.

It’s been a roller coaster start to the year, now that the winter storm is over here in TX and the power is back on I should have some time for testing this week!
Click to expand...
Ah, i knew you were busy but did not know you were caught up in that snowstorm!!!
We got minor snowstorm here too but the real problem this year was a massive flooding! The weather is knackered!!
Good to hear you are back up and running, no power / comms sucks big time!!

bagheera369 said:
@Hammy - This work is brilliant, and I'm stoked to see it making progress. My two ZN2 pcb's and the ZN1 I'm picking up next week, are beyond ready for whatever manages to come out of this, in the end. Congratulations on the progress.
Click to expand...

Mod bios V2 goes in soon, if it works - it will be final!
The rom board already is very good we knocked it out of the park on the 1st shot so make-your-own single game top board for anything is possible right now.

For anyone that missed it:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRcT67gNEtY
 
I believe it's the Brave Blade G-Net Conversion that's missing music, if you could find a way to get that one fully working with music on a cheaper donor that would be something :)
 
twistedsymphony said:
I believe it's the Brave Blade G-Net Conversion that's missing music, if you could find a way to get that one fully working with music on a cheaper donor that would be something :)
Click to expand...
Sorry man but it's not possible, all the raizing games will be this way if ported to G net. Only bootlegs are possible with cut sound.
Streamed audio is out of the question.

Heavens gate used the extra sound HW for effects only i have not looked into it too deeply but the sound files for this are stored in .PAK files so easily moved.
The question is how occupied the SPU is. I guess on the PSX version the audio is streamed but i never checked, if it does both from file it should not be too bad.
 
I think you misinterpreted my post... I said Brave Blade "on a cheaper donor"... I know it wont work on G-Net But the work your doing means that maybe it could be ported to another PCB that maybe has the correct sound hardware.

Brave Blade is one of the more valuable games on the ZN system... once you get past the prototype stuff like PR2 it's maybe the most valuable ZN game?
 
twistedsymphony said:
I believe it's the Brave Blade G-Net Conversion that's missing music, if you could find a way to get that one fully working with music on a cheaper donor that would be something :)
Click to expand...
Reading that again, a top board dedicated to the 3x raizing games with full sound should be possible but i'd need dumps of main_ifX chips <mach's>
Turns out those chips are dying a lot at the moment the scrappy one @ekorz sent here was dead MAIN_IF2 chip and i believe @chacal231077 has one with a bad MAIN_IF1
 
twistedsymphony said:
I think you misinterpreted my post... I said Brave Blade "on a cheaper donor"... I know it wont work on G-Net But the work your doing means that maybe it could be ported to another PCB that maybe has the correct sound hardware.

Brave Blade is one of the more valuable games on the ZN system... once you get past the prototype stuff like PR2 it's maybe the most valuable ZN game?
Click to expand...
Ah! Yes :)

So yeah 4 editions then.

Set 1. Tecmo: all Tecmo's + all bootlegs + aero fighters
Set 2. Capcom: all capcom games with full Q sound
Set 3. Raizing: all Tecmo's + taito bootlegs + raizing games with full sound
Set 4. Taito: all Tecmo's + raizing bootlegs + taito games with full sound

*taito bootlegs are not working yet due to program file's compression.
So if you look from this point of view they may be "set 4" only. G-net games would then in theory back-port to "set 4" to make it worth messing with. All theory :D
 
All tecmo's tested OK :)
Looking deeper into heavens gate, the home ver. sadly use DA audio for the music so no chance for a full version.
Turns out that one also has "timer protection" and the bootleg will crash after exactly 10 mins, hopefully it's a regular 1f801040 read easy to find and not reading leftover crap like the capcom protections :)

Edit: As suspected a 1f801040 c930 read error.
Now fixed and boss hack done :)
 

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So if I pick up a Capcom ZN2 board like Street Fighter EX2 to go along with the Brave Blade ZN1 board that I already own, would that cover me for all the upcoming gaming joy your work will produce @Hammy ?
 
I have said before:
ZN1 with IC 151 and 152 fitted (if missing can be upgraded...)
Is the desired setup. ZN2 should boot on ZN1 but i can't work out what stops the action.

Funny the guys who messed with this hardware before me had no trouble with but could not decrypt the game/bios:
See TGM's > PS1 conversion, G Net conversions the motherboard is irrelevant but different enough to be a problem.

I don't believe the ZN1's GPU is the one with the glitch (like namco system 11's tekken 1 only works on COH 1st version)
ZN2 > ZN1 converts boot in mame but not in hardware. It will crash just before the "00200202 japan" splash screen but seems to load.
The adjustment could be on the game or bios side, got no idea :(
 
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