General Questions and Information Thread

Over the last few days I've been making pages for SC-3000 software. It's an awkward task because emulation is hit-and-miss and there's not much documentation. Also I'm pretty sure Wikipedia is lying.


Question 1:

Wikipedia says the SC-3000H has more RAM - I don't think it does, and that it's only improvement is a better keyboard. My impression is that RAM made available to cassette based games is dependent on the BASIC cartridge used. My assumption, because the SC-3000 can't function without a cartridge inserted, is that SC-3000Hs were bundled with a "better" BASIC cartridge (Level III B vs. Level III A?) and mislabled by distributors. Who is right?


Question 2:

Between this category and this talk page (note there are some spelling errors) I am hoping I have covered every SC-3000 cassette and disk in existence. Or at least in Australia and New Zealand. I'm missing the educational cartridges from Japan and presumably craploads from France (and Italy and Finland). Any hints to what I'm missing?


Question 2B:

I noticed a trend of Commodore 64 text adventures by Softgold being ported to the SC-3000 by Dotsoft.

Out of this C64 list
http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/list.php%3Fpublisher%3DSoftgold
I have found SC-3000 versions of Alien, Ninja, The Search for King Solomon's Mines, The Secret of Bastow Manor and Skull Island.

The Case of the Mad Mummy exists but for some reason it's called Super Sleuth Series. I don't know why

are there ports of Murder on the Waterfront and Nuclear War Games?



In a lot of cases, there aren't any dumps, scans or even good photos, so I genuinely don't know what some of this stuff is. Most of the screenshots I've taken come from disk compilations and I'm making assumptions that software received commercial, stand alone releases. This is a topic that even SMS Power hasn't covered in huge detail so it's all a mystery to me.

 

Wikipedia says the arcade version of OutRun was released on the 20th of September 1986 in Japan. Is that date reliable - there's a few sites saying similar things but I've not found a credible source. I know the game was released in September of 1986 for sure, but it's rare to have an exact day for an arcade game. Usually databases just list the nearest month because distribution can be a challenge.

If anyone has exact days for other notable Sega arcade games (Hang-On, Space Harrier, After Burner, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA etc. etc. etc.) that would be great for the new front page.

 

Those lists just detail major events which happened in that year, including when rival systems launched. The Tomy Pyuuta/Tomy Tutor Mk II was a rival to the SC-3000 in Japan.

The Mark II is essentially a Tomy Tutor with a mechanical keyboard (similar to the SC-3000/SC-3000H). The computer had similar specs to what Sega were putting out at the time, but it wasn't half as successful in the marketplace.

 

Anyone know if these AC adapters are any good? The idea of one plug for both my Genesis Model 1 and Sega CD Model 2 is appealing (ever since a clock and some medicinal equipment ended up requiring plugs from the same power strip), but I'm wary of third-party AC adapters.

 

So aside from the Sonic Case, Pen & Pencil (which I posted elsewhere), I also acquired from Japan a copy of the Sonic CD 806 Sample Disc which included this other sample disc with it.



A sample disc of Urusei Yatsura: Dear My Friends. How readily available is this if you wanted to download an ISO of it? I could always make a dump of this just so that it's more readily available. I'll be sure to do a detail scan of this disc for you guys as there's hardily any out there (the ones that are out there aren't very good). I probably don't plan on keeping this for long as it's not of much interest to me.

 

Didn't the current BIN+CUE have a small error in an audio track?

If that's the case and I'm not remembering incorrectly, it might still be worth a re-rip.

 

Question

All the Pico Japanese -> English translations are iffy (here's our/my list) but subtitles are a big problem

I have this (ドラえもん のびたとまいごのきょうりゅう) down as Doraemon Nobita to Maigo no Kyouryuu. Should it be that, or Doraemon: Nobita to Maigo no Kyouryuu? (note the colon)

I've been converting names written as title ~subtitle~ and title -subtitle- into title: subtitle because we don't use tildes like that in English, but the dodgy translations and lack of scans means I have no idea what's "correct" when it comes to these systems. Doesn't help that I know next to nothing about Japanese

and christ knows what's to be done about this noise:

which has been listed as

Shichida Makoto Kanshuu Unou Image Training Sansuu Eigo de Mojars ni Chousen THE ARITHMETIC & ABC FIGHT VS MOJARS
(七田 眞 監修 右脳イメージトレーニング さんすう・えいごでモジャーズに挑戦 THE ARITHMETIC & ABC FIGHT VS MOJARS)

clearly wrong, but what's right?

 

I've contributed to the Sonic Wiki, yet it doesn't say the number of edits next to my posts like it does for everybody else. Does anybody have an idea as to why that is? (I'm hoping this thread is the right place to ask. If not, my apologies.)