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+--- Thread: flashmasta savegame fix (/showthread.php?tid=92)
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Flavor - 10-20-2016
Yeah, come to think of it, Delta Warp was the original game I had save errors on (even back in the Bung days).
IIRC it had an odd bit of code to erase blocks maybe. Anyway, yeah, I'm a bit surprised that Delta Warp hasn't been mentioned before.
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Loïc - 10-20-2016
I'll take a look at the game to see if I can produce a fix, though I don't know when.
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Loïc - 10-20-2016
Well... I started to take a look.
The game uses 2 blocks for saving data.
It seems that one is for user name, maybe score and the other is for level edit data.
original adresses are 0x0FA000 (user name, maybe score or unlocked levels)
and 0x0F8000 for custom level data.
I think I've found all erase/write functions, I still have to find the data loading functions to create a fix.
ps : Saving custom level don't seems to work in neopop.
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Loïc - 10-21-2016
What were the problems on real hardware ?
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Flavor - 10-21-2016
(10-21-2016, 12:42 AM)Loïc Wrote: What were the problems on real hardware ?
I think it was with custom levels, but I haven't tried it for quite some time (and I don't have the official cart). I've been considering getting one from eBay for years, actually.
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Loïc - 10-21-2016
(10-21-2016, 12:46 AM)Flavor Wrote: I think it was with custom levels, but I haven't tried it for quite some time (and I don't have the official cart). I've been considering getting one from eBay for years, actually.
So fixing saves may require more complex code modification...
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Flavor - 10-21-2016
(10-21-2016, 12:58 AM)Loïc Wrote:(10-21-2016, 12:46 AM)Flavor Wrote: I think it was with custom levels, but I haven't tried it for quite some time (and I don't have the official cart). I've been considering getting one from eBay for years, actually.
So fixing saves may require more complex code modification...
I'll try to ask around to see if anyone can test or recall.
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Flavor - 10-21-2016
Okay, I did some quick searching, because I remembered something about this guy that did a review and talked to me a bunch.
http://www.retrothing.com/2008/09/retrospective-d.html
"NeoPop plays it decently but traditional saving doesn't work (savestates might), there's some odd slowdown (it's hard to notice but watch the timer) and strange graphical glitching. RACE-PSP for the PlayStation Portable actually plays it best of any emulator I've seen (near perfectly), as I personally worked with the emulator's very talented developer to get it working."
That guy, TideGear, did talk to me about Delta Warp fairly extensively at the time. I'll have to go see if I have an email chain somewhere. If you believe him, I "fixed" this problem on the RACE emulator. I believe him.
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Loïc - 10-21-2016
(10-21-2016, 01:16 AM)Flavor Wrote: Okay, I did some quick searching, because I remembered something about this guy that did a review and talked to me a bunch.
http://www.retrothing.com/2008/09/retrospective-d.html
"NeoPop plays it decently but traditional saving doesn't work (savestates might), there's some odd slowdown (it's hard to notice but watch the timer) and strange graphical glitching. RACE-PSP for the PlayStation Portable actually plays it best of any emulator I've seen (near perfectly), as I personally worked with the emulator's very talented developer to get it working."
That guy, TideGear, did talk to me about Delta Warp fairly extensively at the time. I'll have to go see if I have an email chain somewhere. If you believe him, I "fixed" this problem on the RACE emulator. I believe him.
I guess I should try to use RACE then ^_^
Btw, I've relocated the read/write and PM'ed zandengoff in case he wants to test on real hardware.
The patched version don't seems to work worse in neopop :-D
RE: flashmasta savegame fix - Flavor - 10-21-2016
Okay, here's some more info...
First, a paste from an old email (2008):
Quote:It seems that the game itself must have been released on
an 8mbit chip. Whoever ripped the game file cut it down to 4mbit. That's nice because it saves space, but then the emulator doesn't know what size chip to emulate. I must have looked into this a long time ago, because there was a comment in the code about DWarp being 8mbit, but it wasn't setting it properly. I told the emu that if it loads DWarp to just be [/code]8mbit. Then it all seemed to magically work properly.
From: https://github.com/TheFlav/RACE-NGPC-Emulator-PSP/blob/0240f785506be5ca0379d5c95929cf6db01703d9/flash.cpp
Code:
void setFlashSize(unsigned long romSize)
{
//add individual hacks here.
if(strncmp((const char *)&mainrom[0x24], "DELTA WARP ", 11)==0)//delta warp
{
//1 8mbit chip
cartSize = 8;
}
else if(romSize > 0x200000)
{
//2 16mbit chips
cartSize = 32;
}
else if(romSize > 0x100000)
...So, basically, we have a double problem. If the ROM file is only 4Mbit, then NeoPop thinks it's a 4Mbit game and the save breaks. It is, in fact, a 8Mbit game, but the Flash Masta treats it as a 16Mbit cartridge.
So, yeah.
EDIT: If you wanted to "fix" the problem on NeoPop, just pad the ROM file up to 8Mbit (I guess).