PCE Flash Cards

[nat]

First you need a hex editor, you can download a trial version for free if you don't have one already, you have to know how to use it of course, its not hard it took me about 10 min's, then you need to search for this line $54 $A9 $FF $53 $01 $AD $00 $10 $29 $40 $F0 change the $F0 to $80.

Hmm, that string is not present in either the Air Zonk ROM nor the Space Harrier ROM, two games I own the US versions of but I'd like to be able to play on my GT handheld.

I even tried variations on that to make sure it wasn't just slightly different or something. The last three bytes, $29$40$F0 don't exist together anywhere in that order in either ROM.

Sideshow, if you patched all the ROMs to work on JP hardware, can you tell me how you did Air Zonk and Space Harrier?

[sideshow]

Check your PM Nat.

[awack]

I just looked in Air Zonk and it was the first line in the hex dump, make sure the rom is unzipped and if that does not work find another rom, lat me know if you need to know where.

[nat]

Not only is it not in the first line, it's not in the first 25 lines, or anywhere in the dump at all. Take a look for yourself:





I used my hex editor's handy "search" function to make the looking go a little easier. To be honest, I haven't found that line in any of the ROMs I've looked at, period.

[TurboXray]

Nat, you have one of those crappy "bit-swapped" roms that haven't seemed to die yet (no thanks to some old EMUs). This is why you can't seem to find it. Does your flash card software support bit-swapped roms? I know tototek software doesn't detect it (as it shouldn't, those dumps need to disappear).

  The first 0x200 bytes is the header. The real rom starts at 0x200. The correct rom would read "78 54 A9 FF" at 0x200 (or 0x00000 if it has no header) for AirZonk. US roms actually have the word "NEC" in the detection code.

[awack]

Like Bonknuts said, it looks like a bad rom.

In addition to what Bonknuts said you can also try this, go to your search option in your hex editor, copy and past this line 00 AD 01 53 FF A9 54 78, under search type, choose: QWORD (64bit integer) search.

Ive been able to find the line in every rom i looked in using this search method, including Air Zonk and Space Harrier, i found the line in position 486 for Space Harrier, i will also send you a pm.

[Paisa49]

I did this about 2 years ago when I first got my NEO Flash Card with nice R-Type decal.  Too bad I get just a white screen when booting it up on my DUR-RX console.  I cant even get the main menu.  Maybe I need to do this non abrasive cleaning methods as stated in this thread.  Funny thing is that regular Hucards work great.  I'm pretty much having the same problems as Paisa49.  The card worked the first couple times now doesnt work at all.  The card appears to write the roms correctly cause I get no errors on the PC side.  I"ve come to point where I'm playing Turbo roms on my modded XBOX. 

Not even the non abrasive cleaning has helped. I've all but given up on my flash cart. I really can't figure out anything else that could get my flash cart to work again.

[sideshow]

Since Turbokon has a working flash cart we shall see if my card works on his system.  If it does work I will probably crap my pants cause regular hucards work fine on my DUORX just not this flash card.  At least it used to work.  It would of sucked if I never got it to work in the first place.

[nat]

All these stories of people flash carts stopping working have me really scared that mine will just quit one day. It works great so far as long as I use it on my Duo.

[Paisa49]

It would of sucked if I never got it to work in the first place.

I think I actually would have preferred it if it never worked in the first place. Now, I'm just dumbfounded on how my cart stopped working. I liken my experience to being given the greatest toy of all time to then only being told that you can play with it for 5 minutes, after which, you'll never see it again.

[spenoza]

Well, it's likely very static sensitive, and static sensitivity seems to vary wildly. I've seen motherboards fried with barely a touch and others withstand painful zaps. I'm going to guess, then, that it maybe took a charge it didn't like.

[sideshow]

Thats a very good guess.  I could of zapped my flash card without even knowing it.  I didnt realize they are sensitive to static.  The thing is that the card still appears to successfully flash roms onto the GBA side.

[Paisa49]

Thats a very good guess.  I could of zapped my flash card without even knowing it.  I didnt realize they are sensitive to static.  The thing is that the card still appears to successfully flash roms onto the GBA side.

Mine still accepts ROMS as well. So, is it possible for a flash cart to be totally zapped and still accept ROMS?

[spenoza]

Does the computer recognize that it took the ROMs? Can you do a test on them, like check their checksum or something to confirm they were copied OK? Also, if it's the PCE/TG-16 bank switching code that fried it wouldn't affect computer transfer. Basically, I don't know if it WAS static, but it's something to consider.

[sideshow]

Thats another good theory that the bank switching code could of damaged the flash card.  Still thats absolute rubbish that a modified rom can ruin the flash card inoperable.  This flash card should of been sold for like 50 bucks.

[RaZiel]

Stupid question but this seems to be how to make US ROM's work on a Japanese console as I am trying to edit some (J) region games for my TG16. Which string do I look for to edit a Japanese game for US use. In particular I am trying to edit Fire Pro Wrestling 3.

[nat]

You don't need to do it the other way around. JP ROMs will work as-is on US systems without modification.

[RaZiel]

Thanks that is nice to know as I was lost I take it is because of the region lockout. Now if I get a Japanese model DUO later down the road if I ground that pin would I still need to edit the ROM's or would they work similar to the TG16 with no needed editing?