(Mirrored from 'Cult) Out of boredom, I decided to take all 44 games already available on the Wii's Virtual console and see how many of them wouldn't work if SEGA just pulled an easy fix to their MegaDrive emulator's inability to display the games in 60Hz (except for Shining Force, which I can't find the PAL ROM of). This is the positive stuff I found out: -29 of them would work perfectly by just setting the emulator to US (or to Japanese in case of Streets of Rage 3* and Golden Axe 3). There's absolutrely no excuse for these not being run in 60Hz already when desired. -3 of them (Ecco 2, Light Crusader and Sonic 3) would work even with their own region-specific sound and screen settings by just editing the header's country code to either JUE or F. And then, there's the problematic ones: -3 of them (namely, Comix Zone, Sonic Spinball and Panic on Funkotron) would work by changing the country code, but then the music plays too fast or they have screen placement issues. I don't think anything can be done about these, other than using the US ROMs. -As you may know, Sonic 3D shows a different title in any non-PAL mode. I wonder if it would be possible to put "Flickies' Island" back with a simple byte change in the ROM... -Streets of Rage 2 can be run in Japanese mode, but then it reads "Bare Knuckle 2" in the title screen. It might not be possible to play it in US mode without it hanging after the SEGA logo, or would it? -I can't get the PAL versions of Alien Soldier, Mean Bean Machine, Gunstar Heroes, Landstalker, Shinobi 3 or The Story of Thor to work in any 60Hz mode, as they keep giving the region lockout message whatever I put in the header. Does anybody know of any other ways to make these locked out games work properly in both modes? I don't know much about how this stuff works, so there might be a lot of stuff I'm missing. I was thinking that, perhaps, if somebody told the right people at SEGA how to do their work, we'd have 60Hz MegaDrive games in the Wii's Virtual Console. I'd better not talk about their current emulator's terrible sound inaccuracies and sound buffer bugs, how I wish Steve Snake had been involved in this... *By the way, what's with SoR3's music in PAL mode? Was the speed as inconsistent in a real PAL system or is Kega doing something wierd with it?
You can get SoR2 playing after the Sega logo, just you must make sure that when the Sega screen quits the country must be the same as ROM region. Then you can change it to whatever region you want (I even think there was something funny with "Sammy" and "Skate" that only could be triggered this way). And about SoR3 music... Never tried it (odd o_o'), but I'll check. I don't see why would it mess up...
Well, yeah... I know that you can trick the console by changing the region settings on-the-fly, but it will keep giving the same error as soon as the SEGA logo shows up again. =\ From what I've listened to, the character select music plays slower than it should, then the 1st level seems to play ok, but a bit slow at times...
Mmmmmmh, later I'll check in my house about the SoR3 music issue. By the way, about the SoR2 thing, the only thing you can do is patching (either editing the ROM or using some Game Genie or Action Replay code). I don't think it's possible to fool the game otherwise.
By the way, if somebody owns a PAL MD and can put ROMs into a flash cartridge, can you please try Dashin' Desperadoes in PAL 50Hz mode? I've just noticed it gives some wierd screen problems that don't occur in 60Hz, but it might be Kega's fault.
Why don't you first try several emulators, not just Kega? Kega tries to emulate a perfect console but it has a horrible interrupt timing (I know what I mean, even I had to deal with it and force delays until interrupts happened in some cases), in fact watch out because in several cases it fucks up writing to VRAM in Sonic games. Anyways, if I could write ROMs to Flash or something I would test. But I can't (it would be a nice present for my next birthday in February, through ). I don't have a pure PAL console, but a modified one (model 2) where I can change the country whenever I want with two switches that are next to the connection for the Sega CD.
For those interested, the final version of Dashin' Desperadoes just won't work on PAL systems. The only version that does, is the PAL prototype DRX dumped (which doesn't work in NTSC mode). It seems that whichever routines they wrote for each version, can't be used in both modes.
Toejam & Earl 2 (Panic on Funkotron) will NOT work on a 60hz MD system. It contains the standard region lockout, but that can easily be defeated by using a Game Genie code. However, running in 60hz mode the picture will roll violently and the music will be much too slow. The picture rolling occurs regardless of whether you start in 50hz mode and switch over, or start in 60hz mode (bypassing the region lock with Game Genie). Other games actually had optimized 50hz versions created by Sega, and they have picture/sound issues if you try to run them in 60hz. For example, Virtua Racing when you get past the region lockout, the polygons are completely screwed up in 60hz. Edit: Also tried Ristar. Interestingly, if you load up the game in 60hz mode and then switch to 50hz at the title screen, the game switches over with very little graphical corruption. On the other hand, if you load up the game in 50hz and then switch to 60hz, you get the violent picture rolling like on TJ&E2. Seems like Ristar has no lockout for region, but does optimize the code depending on what region it detects on startup. For most games, it would simply be a matter of flicking a switch on the console (or emulator) and getting the games running in 60hz. For the optimized games, some other method would need to be implemented - possibly have both 50hz and 60hz ROMs in the package that you download on the Wii. However, how do we know that the MD games on the Wii Virtual Console haven't had additional optimisation done so that they run better at 50hz?
They run worse, so they're not optimised at all. =\ The "picture rolling" you mention happens in a few of the "optimized" games that use the taller PAL resolution (which is thankfully supported in the VC), but there's others that just use this higher resolution without changing the HUDs or anything, such as Streets of Rage.
Speaking of all this stuff, does anybody know how could one start looking for a possible "if region code equals whatever then set some screen mode, speed music and title screen" inside the ROMs? There might be some easy way to change at least some of the region-specific stuff, such as Sonic 3D's title. I remember finding a single byte inside Ristar's ROM that toggled the music speed despites the assigned region, so there could be some similar stuff in other games... EDIT: By the way, there's a supposed US version of Alien Soldier in the Virtual Console out now. If anybody knows how to extract it, we might end up with an unreleased dump (unless it's just the Japanese version).
I've been doing some research on the different ways PAL games can be run in NTSC regions, and here's some lists: No changes needed Code (Text): Addams Family Values (E) (M3) [!].bin Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (E) (MD Bundle) [!].bin Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (E) [!].bin Andre Agassi Tennis (E) (REV01) [c][!].bin Another World (E) [!].bin Atomic Runner (E) [!].bin Batman (E).bin Beavis and Butt-head (E) [!].bin Blood Shot (E) (M4) [!].bin Bram Stoker's Dracula (E) [!].bin Brian Lara Cricket (E) [c][!].bin Brian Lara Cricket 96 (E) [a1][x].bin Brian Lara Cricket 96 (E) [c][!].bin Budokan - The Martial Spirit (E) [!].bin Burning Force (E).bin Cannon Fodder (E) [!].bin Capt'n Havoc (E) [!].bin Captain America and the Avengers (E).bin Captain Planet and the Planeteers (E) [!].bin Chuck II - Son of Chuck (E) [c][!].bin Chuck Rock (E) [c][!].bin Cliffhanger (E).bin Corporation (E) [c][!].bin Cosmic Spacehead (E) (M4) [c][!].bin Crack Down (E) [!].bin Daffy Duck in Hollywood (E) (M5) [!].bin Dino Dini's Soccer (E).bin Disney Collection - Castle of Illusion & Quack Shot (E) [!].bin DJ Boy (E) [!].bin Double Clutch (E) [c][!].bin EA Hockey (E) [!].bin EA Sports Double Header (E) [!].bin Escape From Mars Starring Taz (E) [!].bin F-15 Strike Eagle II (E) [!].bin F1 World Championship (E) [!].bin F1 World Championship Edition (E) [!].bin Fantasia (E) [!].bin Fatal Fury (E).bin Fever Pitch Soccer (E) (M5) [!].bin Fire Shark (E) [!].bin Flashback - The Quest for Identity (E) [!].bin Flintstones, The (E) [c][!].bin Flux for Mega-CD (E) [!].bin George Foreman's KO Boxing (E) [!].bin Gods (E) [!].bin Grand Slam Tennis (E) [!].bin Gunship (E) [c][!].bin Gynoug (E) [!].bin Hellfire (E).bin Hurricanes (E) [!].bin Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (E) [c][!].bin International Rugby (E) [c][!].bin International Superstar Soccer Deluxe (E) [!].bin King of the Monsters (E) [!].bin Man Overboard! - S.S. Lucifer (E) [c][!].bin Marko's Magic Football (E) (M4) [!].bin Mega Games 2 (E) [!].bin Mega Games 3 (E) [!].bin Mega Games 6 (Vol 1) (E) [!].bin Mega Games 6 (Vol 2) (E) [!].bin Mega Games 6 (Vol 3) (E) [!].bin Mega Games I (E) [!].bin Mega Lo Mania (E) (REV01).bin Mickey Mania - Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (E) [!].bin Micro Machines - Turbo Tournament '96 (V1.1) (E) (J-Cart) [c][!].bin Micro Machines - Turbo Tournament '96 (V1.1) (E).bin Micro Machines 2 - Turbo Tournament (E) (J-Cart) [c][!].bin Micro Machines 2 - Turbo Tournament (E) [c][!].bin Micro Machines Military - It's a Blast! (E) (J-Cart) [c][!].bin Micro Machines Military - It's a Blast! (E) [x].bin Mig-29 Fighter Pilot (E) [!].bin Misadventures of Flink, The (E) [!].bin Mr. Nutz (E) [!].bin Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing (E).bin Olympic Gold - Barcelona 92 (E) (M8) [c][!].bin Olympic Winter Games - Lillehammer 94 (E) [c][!].bin Pete Sampras Tennis (E) (REV03) (J-Cart) [!].bin Pete Sampras Tennis 96 (E) [c][!].bin Phelios (E) [c][!].bin Pitfall - The Mayan Adventure (E) [!].bin Populous (E) [!].bin Power Drive (E) (M5) [!].bin Premier Manager (E) [!].bin Psycho Pinball (E) (Oct 1994) (M5) [c][!].bin Psycho Pinball (E) (Sep 1994) (M5) [c][!].bin Puggsy (E) [!].bin Rise of the Robots (E) [!].bin Rolling Thunder 2 (E) [c][!].bin SeaQuest DSV (E).bin Second Samurai, The (E).bin Shane Warne Cricket (E) [c][!].bin Side Pocket (E) [!].bin Snake Rattle 'n' Roll (E) [c][!].bin Soleil (F) [!].bin Splatterhouse 2 (E) [c][!].bin Spot Goes to Hollywood (E) [!].bin Street Racer (E) [c][!].bin Strider II (E) [c][!].bin Super Fantasy Zone (E) [!].bin Super Hydlide (E) [!].bin Super Kick Off (E) [c][!].bin Super League (E).bin Super Real Basketball (E) [c][!].bin Super Skidmarks (E) (J-Cart) [!].bin Super Skidmarks (E) [a1].bin Talmit's Adventure (E) [!].bin Terminator, The (E) [c][!].bin Time Killers (E) [!].bin Two Crude Dudes (E).bin Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (E) (M5).bin Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits (E).bin Wiz 'n' Liz - The Frantic Wabbit Wescue (E) [!].bin World Class Leaderboard Golf (E) [x].bin World Cup Italia 90 (E) [!].bin World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck (E) [!].bin Yogi Bear's Cartoon Capers (E) [!].bin Zero Wing (E) [c][!].bin Music plays too fast: Code (Text): Earthworm Jim 2 (E) [!].bin Other issues: Code (Text): Alisia Dragoon (E) [!].bin (Very minor flickering in the topmost part of the screen, when the dragon's palette changes) Lemmings (E) [!].bin (game display flickers) Editing the country code to either JUE or F Code (Text): Adventures of Batman and Robin, The (E) [!].bin Aero the Acro-Bat 2 (E) [!].bin Boogerman (E) [!].bin Brutal - Paws of Fury (E).bin Daze Before Christmas, The (E) [!].bin Donald in Maui Mallard (E) [!].bin Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story (E).bin ECCO - The Tides of Time (E) [!].bin European Club Soccer (E) [!].bin Fun-N-Games (E).bin Jurassic Park (E) [!].bin Lemmings 2 - The Tribes (E) [!].bin Light Crusader (E) (M4) [!].bin Lost Vikings, The (E).bin Marsupilami (E) (M5) [!].bin Mortal Kombat 3 (E) [!].bin OutRun 2019 (E) [!].bin Phantom 2040 (E) [!].bin Pinocchio (E).bin Radical Rex (E).bin Rock n' Roll Racing (E) [!].bin Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (E) [!].bin Star Trek - Deep Space 9 - Crossroads of Time (E).bin Sub-Terrania (E) [!].bin Superman (E) [!].bin Total Football (E) [!].bin Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (E) [!].bin X-Men (E) [!].bin Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel (E) [!].bin Zoop (E) [!].bin Music plays too fast: Code (Text): Comix Zone (E) (M4) [!].bin Disney's Aladdin (E) [!].bin Earthworm Jim (E) [!].bin Eternal Champions (E) [!].bin NBA Hang Time (E) [!].bin Ooze, The (E) [!].bin Pocahontas (E) [!].bin Premier Manager 97 (E) [!].bin Prince of Persia (E).bin Sonic Spinball (E) [!].bin Zombies (E) [!].bin Dragon Ball Z - L'Appel du Destin (F) [!].bin Screen issues, due to using a special PAL screen mode: Code (Text): Ren and Stimpy Show, The - Stimpy's Invention (E) [!].bin Toejam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (E) [!].bin Other issues: Code (Text): Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales (E) (M4) [!].bin (slowdown) Konami fix 1 -Look for the first "00A1 0001" and replace it with "00A1 4E71" -Fix checksum. Code (Text): Castlevania - The New Generation (E) [!].bin Probotector (E) [!].bin Sparkster (E) [!].bin With issues: Code (Text): Animaniacs (E) [!].bin (slowdown and screen issues) Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles - Tournament Fighters (E).bin (Sprite and voice sample issues, music plays too fast) Konami fix 2 -Replace "60E6 4EB9" with "60E6 6004" -Fix checksum Code (Text): Sunset Riders (E) [!].bin Infogrames fixes Spirou (E) [!].bin -Replace "66" at 0x000E2688 with "67" Tintin Au Tibet (E) (M6) [!].bin -Replace "67" at 0x0014B7E6 with "66" Still unknown Code (Text): Adventures of Mighty Max, The (E).bin Alien Soldier (E) [!].bin Art of Fighting (E) [!].bin Asterix and the Great Rescue (E) (M5) [c][!].bin Asterix and the Power of The Gods (E) (M4) [!].bin ATP Tour Championship Tennis (E).bin Australian Rugby League (E) [!].bin Back to the Future Part III (E) [!].bin Body Count (E) (M5) [!].bin Bubba N Stix (E) [c][!].bin Chaos Engine, The (E) [!].bin Cool Spot (E) [!].bin Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (E) [!].bin Dune - The Battle for Arrakis (E).bin FIFA Soccer 98 - Road to the World Cup (E) (M5) [!].bin Gunstar Heroes (E) [!].bin Hyper Dunk - The Playoff Edition (E) [!].bin Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (E) [c][!].bin Jungle Book, The (E) [!].bin Kick Off 3 - European Challenge (E) [!].bin Landstalker - The Treasures of King Nole (E) [!].bin Lethal Enforcers (E) [!].bin Lethal Enforcers II - Gun Fighters (E) [!].bin Mazin Wars (E) [!].bin McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (E).bin Mega Lo Mania (E) (REV00) [c][!].bin Mega SWIV (E).bin Mega Turrican (E) [!].bin Megaman - The Wily Wars (E).bin Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators (E) [!].bin Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (E) [!].bin Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Movie (E) [!].bin NHL 95 Elitserien (E) [c][!].bin NHL 96 Elitserien (E).bin Nigel Mansell's World Championship (E).bin Ottifants, The (E) (M5) [!].bin Pac-Panic Pagemaster, The (E) [!].bin Pebble Beach Golf Links (E).bin Populous II - Two Tribes (E) [!].bin Punisher, The (E).bin Ranger-X (E) [!].bin Robocop Versus The Terminator (E).bin Rocket Knight Adventures (E) [!].bin Samurai Shodown (E) [c][!].bin Saturday Night Slam Masters (E).bin Sega Sports 1 (Wimbledon, Ult.Soccer, Super Monaco) (E) [!].bin Sensible Soccer (E) (M4) [!].bin Sensible Soccer - International Edition (E) (M4) [!].bin Shining Force II (E) [!].bin Shinobi III - Return of the Ninja Master (E) [c][!].bin Skeleton Krew (E).bin Smurfs 2, The (E) (M4) [!].bin Smurfs, The (E) (M5) [!].bin Soleil (E) [!].bin Sonic Classics (Compilation) (E) (REV00) [!].bin Speed Ball 2 - Brutal Deluxe (E) [!].bin Story of Thor, The - A Successor of The Light (E) [!].bin Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition (E) [!].bin Streets of Rage 3 (E) (Apr 1994) [!].bin Streets of Rage 3 (E) (May 1994) [!].bin Striker (E) (M5) [!].bin Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers (E) [c][!].bin Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles - The Hyperstone Heist (E).bin Thunder Force IV (E) [c][!].bin Tiny Toon Adventures - Acme All-Stars (E).bin Tiny Toon Adventures - Buster's Hidden Treasure (E) [!].bin Toy Story (E) [!].bin Ultimate Soccer (E) [!].bin Virtua Racing (E) [!].bin Virtua Racing (E) [a1].bin Wimbledon Championship Tennis (E) [!].bin Worms (E) [!].bin Xenon 2 - Megablast (E) [c][!].bin Zool (E) [!].bin The last games have at the same time different groups of region locking methods (Konami, SEGA of America, etc), so "unlocking" each of them would fix many others at the same time. Also, I've just remembered that Golden Axe III seems to have an exclusive US version in the Virtual Console, just like Alien Soldier. Somebody please help extracting those ROMs...
Dunno about other games, but Sonic 2 and 3K copy over the Z80 Version register ($A10001) to some RAM variable, and then test bits 7 and 6 of this variable. Bit 7 is the export bit (0 if Japanese, 1 if foreign) and Bit 6 is the video type bit (0 if NTSC, 1 if PAL) - the other bits of the register aren't used for these purposes. Additionally, they also set a byte inside the Z80 memory region to indicate if the system is NTSC or PAL, and I guess that byte is used to regulate sound timing.
Do you know of any example of this code in hex? It might be as easy as changing one byte where it sets that value for PAL sound, and might be similar for at least some games. If we knew more about this, perhaps it would be possible to even make an option in the emulators themselves, to automatically make most PAL games run normally in 60Hz mode.
How many games is it vaible for though, really? I mean, don;t get me wrong, I approve this idea, it's just it's only of use for a small amount of games - the rest have (U) [!] versions. Unless you're doing this for the intention of running non-English games at 60Hz, in which case, fair point.
The problem with that is that there are loads of different ways to code it. For example, the code in Sonic 2: Code (ASM): btst #0,($C00005).l ; check video mode sne (Z80_RAM+zPalModeByte).l ; set if PAL and the equivalent code in Sonic 3k: Code (ASM): btst #6,(Graphics_flags).w beq.s loc_1326 move.b #1,(Z80_RAM+$1C02).l Anyway, the machine code for the S2 method: Code (Text): 08 39 00 00 00 C0 00 05 56 F9 (00 A0 00 07) and the machine code for the S3K method: Code (Text): 08 38 00 06 (FF D8) 67 08 13 FC 00 01 (00 A0 1C 02) (bytes in brackets are addresses which will probably differ from game to game)
New ROMs! Taken from the Virtual Console: Alien Soldier USA Looks like they just changed both the region and the sound speed by modding the European ROM (the file is even called "AlienSoldier_Europe_USA.SGD"), but it's an official release anyway. Byte 0xCEC changes the music tempo, by the way (60 for NTSC, 65 for PAL) EDIT: Also, from the European VC: Mega Turrican This one's based on the US ROM, they removed the region lock, one of the splash screens and changed some text in the ending. Much stuff seems to have been moved inside the ROM, so they probably made a new build instead of hex-editing. EDIT 2: There's also a "patch" file inside the Alien Soldier directory, reflecting the changes made to the European ROM: Code (Text): # # $Id: patch-AlienSoldier,v 1.2 2007-10-09 13:31:00 m2 Exp $ >0x183 string "MK-01186-00" 0x350: beshort 0x4e71 x 0x8e # >>0x1f0 string "A" 0xf062: beshort 0x4e71 # nop beshort 0x4e71 # nop 0xf076: beshort 0x4eb9,0x001f,0xff00 # jsr $1fff00.l beshort 0x4e71 # nop 0x1fff00: beshort 0x4eb9,0x0000,0xf65e # jsr $00f65e.l beshort 0x5478,0xa950 # addq.w #$02,$ffffa950.w beshort 0x42b8,0x8240 # clr.l $ffff8240.w beshort 0x4e75 # rts It's also present in Mega Turrican's, but it's empty in that case.
Sorry fur the bump, but since my banning I could not post what I wanted to post since years. Lemmings (E) does not play correctly on 60Hz (on the real console at least)... Menu and stuff works, but in-game has heavy flickering.
Hey that's right, thanks. I've also noticed that EarthWorm Jim 2 doesn't need its header changed but gives faster music in 60Hz, and also Alisia Dragoon has some minor screen issues, so I've updated the list accordingly.
For those interested, I've just been able to make Castlevania region free: -Look for the string "5279 00FF FB28" and replace it with "4E71 4E71 4E71". -Fix the checksum somehow. Works for all three versions, in case you want to play the heavily censored Generations in your American system. =P Not sure it this could help unlocking other Konami games, though. Also, just to keep things in the same topic, here's how to make Megaman: The Wily Wars region free: -Replace 0x036A with "Nq". -Replace country code to "U". -For some reason, replace 0x0188 with "958E". If anybody knows of a cleaner way to do it, please post away.
Surely that's making it American, not region-free which would be JUE? =P Nice findings though, keep at it.