I guess the way to test this theory is to dig through a non-SEGA Gamecube game that uses CRI and see if it's in there, as well.
I got the roms out. Turns out both are using the US version of Sonic 1, but there are still some differences near the top of the rom: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38216/knu_p1%20smc%20proto.7z
I don't know. If I was a professional developer with proper QA, I wouldn't leave such a file on my disc, so even if it serves that purpose, it's highly unlikely any non-SEGA-game using CRI would contain that.
Managed to get a hold of Heroes PC... I'm assuming the sfd files are hiding in an archive right? I really wanna see if I can get the audio working here. Also, still no answer on those GG roms?
... That one song we thought was unused in Sonic Mega Collection isn't even connected to it. Huh. EDIT: On a totally unrelated note, enjoy what is quite possibly the cleanest rip of the Sonic Advance 2 Trailer theme: :P
I've always wondered why the song went unused. I still feel like this video may be somehow related to Alex Kidd. It reminds me of him quite a bit. I've been waiting forever for a good rip of the trailer music from Advance 2. :specialed:
A BIN/CUE rip of Sonic CD takes 556MB for JP/EU, 573MB for US. An ISO/WAV/CUE rip takes 540MB (JP/EU), 556MB (US). That's uncompressed. ISO/FLAC: 395MB (JP/EU), 391MB (US). With lossy audio compression, probably ADX as in Gems, it would have been even smaller. This CRI sample stuff takes up 116MB of 588MB on the disc, with GameCube discs holding ~1.35GB. That's 794MB free with the samples on the disc, 910MB free with the samples removed. Bottom line, Sonic CD would have fit either way. If the audio was compressed in some way, lossless or lossy, full copies of both regions' data would have fit. As for not emulating it, that's just pathetic. They could have contracted Steve Snake like they did for Sega Smash Pack. :specialed:
Of course Sonic CD would've fit; Sonic Gems Collection has enough room for Sonic CD, Sonic R, Sonic the Fighters, all those Game Gear games, both VectorMan games, plus "demo versions" of all of Sonic Mega Collection's games. Except they're only demos in the sense that they're the full game on a timer. There used to be GameShark codes out there that would freeze the clock, allowing you to play the full versions of everything.
And now for an in-depth comparison. knu_p1 vs knu_p1_us: Code (Text): --- knu_p1.txt 2011-07-03 01:09:40.186356811 -0400 +++ knu_p1_us.txt 2011-07-03 01:09:45.538354411 -0400 @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 06 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| +00000000 01 00 00 00 00 00 02 06 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| .00000010 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| .00000020 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| .00000030 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ .000000c0 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| .000000d0 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| .000000e0 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| -000000f0 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| +000000f0 ff 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 |................| .00000100 53 45 47 41 20 47 45 4e 45 53 49 53 20 20 20 20 |SEGA GENESIS | .00000110 28 43 29 53 45 47 41 20 31 39 39 34 2e 4a 55 4e |(C)SEGA 1994.JUN| .00000120 53 4f 4e 49 43 20 26 20 4b 4e 55 43 4b 4c 45 53 |SONIC & KNUCKLES| @@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ .00000190 4a 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |J | .000001a0 00 00 00 00 00 1f ff ff 00 ff 00 00 00 ff ff ff |................| .000001b0 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 | | -000001c0 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 20 20 20 20 20 20 | .. | -000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 1f ff ff 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |........ | -000001e0 52 4f 20 20 30 00 00 33 ff ff 30 00 00 33 ff ff |RO 0..3..0..3..| +000001c0 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 a3 95 97 91 7e 93 98 91 | ....~...| +000001d0 9e 9e 95 9c 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |.... | +000001e0 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 ff ff 30 00 00 33 ff ff | ..0..3..| .000001f0 4a 55 45 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |JUE | .00000200 4e 71 4e 71 4e 71 4f f8 fe 00 4a b9 00 a1 00 08 |NqNqNqO...J.....| .00000210 66 06 4a 79 00 a1 00 0c 66 7c 4b fa 00 7c 4c 9d |f.Jy....f|K..|L.| Major differences: SP is initialized to $01000000 in knu_p1_us, instead of $00000000. This has no effect, since the 68000 has a 24-bit address bus. Vector $3C is set to $FF000200 in knu_p1_us, instead of $00000200. Again, this has no effect. $01C8-$01E7 appears to be overwritten with garbage data. Among other things, this wipes out the "RO" entry, which indicates the presence of the 256 KB ROM used for Knuckles in Sonic 2. Barring the header differences, both ROMs are almost identical to my standard S1&K ROM. The only major difference there is that $202020 - $20A01F is nulled out. In both knu_p1 and knu_p1_us, this region is filled with $00s, whereas this region has actual data in S1&K (and the original Sonic 1 ROM). I have no idea why this was done.
Does that ROM not match any bad dump in the GoodGen database? They might have gotten the first ROM they found on the internet, when looking for a supposed US version.
Well, this is the ADX from the SMC disc: http://overlord.digibase.ca/music24a.adx That's probably as good as you're gonna get.
It doesn't match any of the ROMs, and this error doesn't appear to be consistent with what would happen with a bad dump, anyway.
Possibly SEGA getting a cart & dumper and making their own bad dump? Or even wrongly compiling the original source, thus the errors?
The answer would range from that to somebody opening in any editing program and accidentally pressing the "Save" button... But in the end it might end up being just a corrupted ROM with no hidden purpose.
