The Gamer's Quarter

[dessgeega]

for a little while shaper and i were chasing down information on the doctor sf series on sfc/snes flash drives. my interest sort of waned when i decided they probably wouldn't be able to run starfox 2.

recent events, however, have convinced me that i must accquire one! specifically, the fan translation of furai no shiren/shiren the wanderer. that being probably the most gorgeous entry in chunsoft's fushigi no dungeon series of console roguelike games. i have been waiting a long time for this game to be translated.

this, dear friends, is a humble call for information on super famicom flash devices, and the acquiring and operation thereof. i know tototek sells the devices, though i'm not sure i trust them or whether they come with the all-essential power cords and whatnot (on that last point i will likely email them).

another crucial factor is whether a doctor sf unit will run on a north american snes. so! anyone with experience is encouraged to go ahead and help make the dream of me playing shiren the wanderer on my snes come true.
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[Alc]

I've fooled with the old-school backup devices, the ones with floppy drives etc.

For SNES the Super Wild Card DX2 is basically the best. It can hook up to a CDROM/HDD. DSP/SuperFX games require a cart with the relevant chip to be inserted in the top (in the case of Starfox 2 that'd be Super Wild Trax FX or whatever it was called, SuperFX 2 anyway). It costs quite a bit, though. There are earlier models but each have various limitations. The Doctor SF7 is a capable device and will do pretty much what you want it to, by the sounds of it. I've got a 24mb (note megabit, by the way) Super Wild Card (non-DX/2) which played most things I threw at it, somewhat limited by the floppy disc drive, although with Ucon64 you can use a parallel cable for speedier transfers with most backup units. Any old p100 laptop would do the trick.

They're generally region-specific, although the DX2 isn't. So you'd definitely be looking for an NTSC unit.

There are some PCB-only flash boards doing the rounds, though I've only seen them for high prices and I doubt they offer anything over an older unit with a parallel cable.

[dessgeega]

as enticing as the idea of playing star fox 2 is, the wild card dx2 is way too expensive. so it seems like the doctor sf7 is the way to go.

from message boards i ascertained the following about tototek's sales of the unit:

"I've ordered one, fully expecting to get just the unit and cart exteneder, which I did"

"I am hearing now that the unit doesn't in fact come with the power supply for it? =("

to which the response is:

"The GD7 needs a powersupply with the following specs:
DC: 9V - 12V and 850mA - 1,5A

The inner pole is the negative pole!!!

I am using the powersupply of my Sega MegaDrive to power the GD7. It works just fine."

does this all sound legit? will my genny 3 power supply run this thing fine? could i find a functional power supply for the thing? what's a cart extender?? and how does this disk thing work?
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[Shapermc]

I think the cart extender is the thing that fills the gap between the unit and console so it does not snap the connector.

Also, here is some console power supply info. The Genesis one seems to be within the range of the SFD7.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[ApM]

Tototek is pretty well-known and respected in the console hacker community, AFAIK. Even though their website sucks, they actually pay the flashcart designers for their designs. (Of course, the Doctor SF7 was a commercial product from Bung, so that doesn't really apply.)

For a power supply, you could pick up a universal one from Radio Shack that would work without problems. I think the Genesis3 power supply might be different from the older models; this site seems to suggest it's only capable of outputting 300mA, and the connector looks different.

From what I can gather about the disk thing, it can load ROMs off of floppy disks, and it flashes them to its internal memory so you don't have to wait for the disk to load every time you want to play. From what Alc is saying, it can load over a parallel port, too.

[dessgeega]

[dessgeega]

so i bought it, because shiren is just that unbearably good. details, videos, etcetera to come!

in the mean time, i'm going to try and pick up one of these.
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[Shapermc]

Which specific one did you buy from Tototek? I know there were a few options.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Alc]

[dessgeega]

[dessgeega]

i'm going to have to start a fushigi no dungeon thread soon, because i want to describe the joy the explodes from every moment in furai no shiren, but i know that if i start telling stories from the game it will quickly swallow up this thread.

stories about hacking through mines with zato-ichi the blind masseuse. oh yes.

soon!
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[dark steve]

When you start that thread, do you think you could "share?" The rom doesn't seem to want to patch right with the tools I've got access to on my mac.

[a_plus]

ok, holy crap -- this is definitely my new addiction-game. and to think i used to hate random dungeon-crawls/rogue-likes!

[dessgeega]

check the new thread, peeps!
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[dessgeega]

i got a visitor from hong kong today!



i don't have an adapter for it yet, though! later i'll try my genny3 power supply.
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[dessgeega]

well, the genny3 power supply doesn't fit. i tried starting it up without a power source and the menu screen appeared with the message "DISK ERROR (RDST) !" can i assume this error is due to the lack of power?

i should be able to pick up an adapter tomorrow.
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[Lackey]

I find this whole affair confusing and strange.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dessgeega]

so can someone with experience help me? i am trying to split the 32mbit shiren rom into 8mbit files.

i am using ucon.exe. according to this, i am supposed to be typing "ucon f filename /3". when i type that it tells me the file is in the wrong format (not fig format). so then i type "ucon c filename" to convert it, and it gives me a "divide error".

what am i doing wrong?
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[dessgeega]

ucon64 has rescued me!

or rather, ApM rescued me by telling me about ucon64.

anyway i think i've got the files sorted, but i won't be able to test them until i have a power supply for my game doctor.
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[ApM]

[Shapermc]

[Scratchmonkey]

[Lackey]

Big eyed dinosaur, Mr...?
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[B coma]

That's some life-affirming footage there.

[dessgeega]

radio shack doesn't have the adaptor.

now what do i do?
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[dessgeega]

!

the power adapter from my nes seems to work with the sf7!
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[dessgeega]

okay, it turns out the nes adapter doesn't work, but the jaguar one does!

DOCTOR SF7 IS ALIVE!

i just copied shiren to it, along with my saved data.

soon, you all will see the first ever video footage of the english translation of fushigino dungeon 2 ever recorded from actual hardware.

this is history, and YOU ARE THERE.
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[Shapermc]

[dessgeega]

[deepblue]

[dessgeega]

888-GR8-IMAGE
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[Ketch]

So how's the game?

How does it feel to be playing it on a SNES rather than a PC?

[dessgeega]

[Alc]

Dramatic Hyperbole!

It's well worth $80, for sure.

I find I can't play on emulators these days.

[dessgeega]

so i have been attempting to run the english translations of assault suits valken* and umihara kawase** (most perfect game ever?). the valken patch, sadly, glitches up the game graphics, so i had to play the original instead (which runs fine). no biggie! umihara is, as always, splendid.

* the fan translation, not the official, censored localization.

** like three words.

since i've got the 32m doctor, and shiren is 32m, i have to load it back into memory every time i want to play. i also need to back up my saved data to disk and then write it back when i want to play again. it's not that long a process, though, so it's all cool.

are there any other translations or homebrew games or hacks i should be attempting to run on my snes?
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[dark steve]

Has anyone done the SNES Fire Emblem games?

Also, I've heard good things about Violinist of Hamlin.

[Shapermc]

[simplicio]

Seiken Densetsu 3?

Also, Dezaemon SFC is a shooter creation tool (SNES mouse compatible!). I'm not sure if it'd work on a cart though- I know some emulators had issues.

Take a look at the translation section of Romhacking.net, filter to SNES/Complete and you're pretty much set.

[SuperWes]

Mario's Super Picross. I'm not sure if it's been translated before, but it doesn't have much Japanese in the first place. I heart it.

-Wes
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[OtakupunkX]

Kunio-Tachi no Banka (I think that's what it was called). Best beat-em-up on the SNES. The fan-translation's not too bad either.

There was an RPG called LiveALive by Square that a friend of mine downloaded a year or two ago. It's pretty interesting, reminds me of SaGa Frontier kind of but it's a lot better.

[dessgeega]

live a live is one of squaresoft's most interesting rpg releases. i hosted an insert credit game club of it a while ago, but it sort of trailed off.
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[Shapermc]

[OtakupunkX]

I've never finished the game. I got about halfway and started playing something else. I tend to do that a lot when it comes to emulated games (I did finish Snatcher, though). I really liked the Caveman sequence.

[Shapermc]

I have finished very very few games through emulation. Usually, if I want to finish them I track down the real thing.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[OtakupunkX]

As do I.

[dessgeega]

i only really like to play console games on consoles. which is why the sf doctor is helpful for unnofficial translations!

i did play through the unreleased localization of mother 1 on my gameboy player. though eventually i hope to have a nes cart made.
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[Shapermc]

[dessgeega]

for future reference (and the people i keep referring to this thread), here are some game doctor manual scans i just posted.
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[simplicio]

rise from your grave!

I'm thinking flashcarts now too. The SF Doctor seems like a lot of work, from this thread, when basically what I want to do is stick Terranigma, Shiren (english patched), Seiken Densetsu 3 (english patched) and maybe Assault Suits Valken or a couple other things on a cart and be able to play them. But with a 64Mb size and apparently an available 64Mb expansion card, it's the only thing big enough to fit multiple games at once? Tototek's Super-Flash is only 64MB, non-expandable, plus it leaves this bare card hanging around.

dess, would you mind relating your experience regarding ease of use, general compatibility etc. after 1 year + with your Doctor?
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"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

You can get a cover for your super-flash if it concerns you. The only reason you need bare circuitry sticking out is if you're playing a SuperFX chip game.

Assault Suits Valken doesn't NEED to be played in English, it's just kind of nice. It's like $20 on eBay. Also try Cybernator if you like Assault Suits.