Turbo Roms On Disc

[unclebugspayton]

Question: Can You Put Turbo Roms on Disc And Make them play on your DUO? Its JUST A QUESTION

[Arkhan Asylum]

yes.  there was a Super HuCard project going around for a bit.  It involves some hacking to get it to work, so it isn't a trivial task.

Some of the games on the Super HuCard didn't even work right

[Keranu]

Super HuCard

I recall it's not very suitable yet though.

[nat]

"Yet?"

There hasn't been any work on this in over 7 years. That's the better part of a decade, and it seems extremely unlikely there ever will be again.

But the short answer to the original poster's question is-- no. "Super HuCard" isn't a matter of just random ROMs burned onto a CD. The programmer had to go and edit the ROMs by hand to change certain memory addresses, etc, for them to function properly. And they don't even function properly-- less than 5% of the ROMs on the disc play all the way through the way they should.

[Keranu]

Never lose faith, nat!

[Arkhan Asylum]

But the short answer to the original poster's question is-- no. "Super HuCard" isn't a matter of just random ROMs burned onto a CD. The programmer had to go and edit the ROMs by hand to change certain memory addresses, etc, for them to function properly. And they don't even function properly-- less than 5% of the ROMs on the disc play all the way through the way they should.

You mean the practical answer is no!  You can indeed do it if you want to sit and hack it into working.  You could probably burn the entirely ROM library one by one onto discs instead of doing a superhucard compilation...., if you sat and hacked around with it all.  but you'd be wasting time and effort to do something solved easier with a flashcard.

and, with the popularity and usability of flashcards, I think that is why the project was abandoned.

[Turbo D]

that and also the fact that rom size had a lot to do with it. The roms on superhucard are all a certain size or lower (2mbit I think?).

[OldRover]

that and also the fact that rom size had a lot to do with it. The roms on superhucard are all a certain size or lower (2mbit I think?).

Correct you are, sir... they have to be able to fit into the 256KB RAM bank, which is 2mbits.

[Arkhan Asylum]

which is why the majority of the games on there are all early titles, like CHINA WARRIOR!

[esteban]

which is why the majority of the games on there are all early titles, like CHINA WARRIOR!

CHINA WARRIOR.

In southern California, we pronounced it as "Cheenah Warrior".

True story.

[Arkhan Asylum]

which is why the majority of the games on there are all early titles, like CHINA WARRIOR!

CHINA WARRIOR.

In southern California, we pronounced it as "Cheenah Warrior".

True story.

thats because everyone in south cali is high as a kite.

[lord_cack]

which is why the majority of the games on there are all early titles, like CHINA WARRIOR!

Yeah, your just lucky they didn't call it cheeba warrior I guess....

CHINA WARRIOR.

In southern California, we pronounced it as "Cheenah Warrior".

True story.

thats because everyone in south cali is high as a kite.

Your lucky no one called it "Cheeba Warrior" I guess 

[spenoza]

I'd play it if it were "Chibi Warrior" instead.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I'd play it if it were "Chibi Warrior" instead.

/chinawarrior.jpg

lol

[Ace]

I'm an amateur programmer who's just getting into different programming languages(Java, C++, and will soon get into ASM), and I would actually like to get somewhere with all this stuff.  What exactly would I need to fix the games that don't work right on the Super HuCard disc(this is just a start; I will try to convert other games once I get the hang of things)?  Of course, I don't exactly know how the PC Engine works, so someone would need to explain to me what exactly goes on in the entire conversion process to play PC Engine HuCards through the CD-ROM drive.

Now, there was a guest user on this forum by the name of "Bonknuts" who had posted a patch to get Salamander working in Super HuCard.  I can't download it anymore from the link he posted so I was wondering if anyone has a copy of the patch or a pre-patched ISO.  I know it's been 3 years since the patch was released, but I really want Salamander to work on Super HuCard.  If not, I'll just try to modify my Super HuCard ISO myself.

[Arkhan Asylum]

You'd need to soak in alot of 6502 assembly, understand how the hardware works, and then basically manually diddle around with the ROMs so you'd have to know how to mess with them.  How comfortable are you with hex editing?

Tom (Bonknuts) comes and goes, deactivating his account each time. Maybe he'll come back to provide you the patch if noone else has it.  I sure don't.

[Ace]

Heh... no worries about the 6502 ASM bit.  I've got a lot of patience when it comes to learning new programming languages.  I haven't done any hex editing whatsoever, but I'll be more than willing to learn how to use a hex editor.

I have no clue how the PC Engine's hardware works, so I'd appreciate it if someone with profound knowledge of the PC Engine's hardware would explain to me how everything works.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I have no clue how the PC Engine's hardware works, so I'd appreciate it if someone with profound knowledge of the PC Engine's hardware would explain to me how everything works.

erm, I don't mean this with any disrespect, but if you want to get shit done, you are going to have to research the piss out of it.

Get HuC/MagicKit from zeograd.com     It comes with hardware explanations sort of.  Start there and see how you feel afterwards.

[Ace]

Hey, research is what I do for figuring out console mods and how to modify emulators, so I'll get to it right away for modifying PC Engine HuCards to work with the CD-ROM drive.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Hey, research is what I do for figuring out console mods and how to modify emulators, so I'll get to it right away for modifying PC Engine HuCards to work with the CD-ROM drive.

If you can read Japanese, there are some nice hardware diagrams in the Develo book also.  The diagrams confuse the fuck outta me though because I'm not an engineer, hah

[Ace]

Oh jeez, I can't read Japanese at all.  Got any other suggestions?

And by the way, doesn't the Super HuCard ISO need to be decompiled in order to modify all that's needed to make the games that have problems on the disc work?  Wouldn't the same be true of PC Engine ROMs?  Is there any tool that can decompile that stuff?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Oh jeez, I can't read Japanese at all.  Got any other suggestions?

And by the way, doesn't the Super HuCard ISO need to be decompiled in order to modify all that's needed to make the games that have problems on the disc work?  Wouldn't the same be true of PC Engine ROMs?  Is there any tool that can decompile that stuff?

I know there is a disassembler on Zeograds site to do roms.  I never looked into the SuperHucard stuff that much .

You would need to rip it to bin/cue probably and then diddle around with it.

[ZachSpears]

buy a wii at a pawn shop for like 70 bucks, load homebrew channel on it, download wiiengine, then play as many roms as you can count on an 2 gb sd card in high resolution.

[Ace]

I already have a Wii(bought brand new in 2007) with custom channels I created for numerous PC Engine titles, but it's just not right.  Most PC Engine games released on the Wii have this video filter that makes the picture look really blurry and the sound is off like most early PC Engine emulators where the White Noise is too high-pitched.  ADPCM is also slightly more garbled and a fair bit quieter than on a PC Engine.  I'm not a big emulation fan, but I do keep my Wii with multiple PC Engine games on it(no WiiEngine) if ever I feel like playing some PC Engine games without using the original hardware or to play games I don't have on cartridge.

But I would REALLY like to AT LEAST get Salamander to work in Super HuCard, as it's my favorite game on the disc.  The 2 parts of R-Type seem to work just fine, and that's a start, so I'd like Salamander to work just as well.  No way Gradius will work, as that's a 4 megabit cartridge and the Super System Card only has 2 megabits of RAM to load the game data.

[geise]

Just fork out the dough for a flash cart then.  Save yourself the headache.  Plus the superhucard cd has many errors in quite few of the games.  Also Duo's hate shitty ass cdr's as well.  If you're using the superhucard cd burn it to a a high quality Silver CD-R.  It's as close to a pressed CD as you'll get.

[Ace]

I use Maxell CD-R Pros with pale blue bases, as well as Sony CD-Rs with beige bases and my PC Engine Duo-R reads them no problem.  Even my super unreliable TurboGrafx CD will read those discs and not complain.  Besides, I like to mess around with code.  Why would I modify MAME otherwise(aside from fixing accuracy problems, mainly in the sound department)?

But I am seriously considering a flash cartridge, especially for SuperGrafx games, as getting the originals(well, 1941 Counter Attack, at least) will cost as much as a single flash cartridge.  I will, however, still get original Gradius and Salamander HuCards.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I use Maxell CD-R Pros with pale blue bases, as well as Sony CD-Rs with beige bases and my PC Engine Duo-R reads them no problem.  Even my super unreliable TurboGrafx CD will read those discs and not complain.  Besides, I like to mess around with code.  Why would I modify MAME otherwise(aside from fixing accuracy problems, mainly in the sound department)?

But I am seriously considering a flash cartridge, especially for SuperGrafx games, as getting the originals(well, 1941 Counter Attack, at least) will cost as much as a single flash cartridge.  I will, however, still get original Gradius and Salamander HuCards.

Cease using those CD-Rs now.  They may be OK now, but not for long.

You want you some diamond silverbacks or teiyo silver ones.

Anything else is blasphemy.

[Ace]

What's wrong with blue Taiyos?  There are none of those silver discs anywhere in my area.  I only trust Sony, Ritek and Taiyo dyes in the discs I burn, so whatever I find, I use, with priority put to discs with Taiyo dyes as those have the highest quality dyes.

[Arkhan Asylum]

What's wrong with blue Taiyos?  There are none of those silver discs anywhere in my area.  I only trust Sony, Ritek and Taiyo dyes in the discs I burn, so whatever I find, I use, with priority put to discs with Taiyo dyes as those have the highest quality dyes.

You want disc bottoms that resemble a real pressed CD.   Nice, sexy, silvery shiney ones. 

[Ace]

Well I can't find any of those, so I just settle with whatever I find that's got high-quality dyes.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Well I can't find any of those, so I just settle with whatever I find that's got high-quality dyes.

Do you do online ordering?  Theyre all over the net for cheap!

[Ace]

No, I don't do any kind of online ordering.  Everything I have is bought locally.

[Arkhan Asylum]

No, I don't do any kind of online ordering.  Everything I have is bought locally.

you should start online ordering

Its a whole new world of awesome.

esp. if you want lots of PCE stuff!

Its pretty hard to find the silverbacked stuff locally. most places just stock the usual run of dyed stuff

[Ace]

All the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 stuff I got is local, which includes:

-Two TurboGrafx 16s(loose)
-TurboBooster(loose)
-Several US and Japanese HuCards(loose and boxed)
-Emerald Dragon for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM(complete in box), a game I couldn't care less about as I HATE RPGs
-3 TurboPads(all loose)
-TurboTap with an extension cable attached to it(again, loose)
-TurboGrafx CD add-on(loose, came with the standard TurboGrafx CD System Card - horribly unreliable piece of gaming hardware)
-PC Engine SuperGrafx(complete, but loose)
-PC Engine Duo-R(complete in box, RGB-modded by someone(not the previous owner, as he was oblivious to the RGB mod, and so was I until I noticed an 8-pin DIN on the A/V out instead of the usual 5-pin DIN))

That's a lot of locally-acquired PC Engine/TurboGrafx stuff.  The only thing I'd probably order online is a PC Engine flash cartridge, especially since one of the SuperGrafx games I want(1941 Counter Attack) is about as expensive as a PC Engine flash cartridge, but if I do find a good batch of silverback discs while I have a look at some stuff to buy online, I'll be sure to buy some.  Right now, all I can use are my pale blue-based Taiyo discs.