don't click here

Proposition for all Sega CD owners.

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by SegaLoco, Jun 25, 2009.

  1. SegaLoco

    SegaLoco

    W)(at did you say? Banned
    In the hopes of finding new bios versions, I am posting similar topics to this around the web, in such places as ASSEMblergames, X-Cult, and Sega16 to garner support for my SegaCD bios database project, which will help the research scene a lot. My proposition is this, if you have a Sega CD of any kind, official or not, heck, all it has to do is be a console that plays Sega CD games, and its fine. Read this guide to learn how to dump the bios. If you need help understanding the guide, get on the irc, I am sure a Tech Member will be willing to help you.
     
  2. Flygon

    Flygon

    Member
    As much as I'd like to help, my Sega CD is currently wrapped in a plastic bag (Shipping pending) and I lack any form of parallel port access.

    However, I wish you luck in this process.
     
  3. TmEE

    TmEE

    Master of OPL3-SA2/3 Tech Member
    1,726
    2
    18
    Estonia, Rapla City
    T-04YBSC-A !
    I've dumped the BIOS of my MCD2s and they're already available on the net.... I don't recall if Wondermega and Xeye dumps I did are.....
     
  4. SegaLoco

    SegaLoco

    W)(at did you say? Banned
    You have done X'eye and Wondermega!?!, dude, if you have those files laying around, I NEEEED them for database.
     
  5. SpinelSun

    SpinelSun

    Oldbie
    Yeah really! Wondermega/X'eye please. There are no public Wondermega dumps available. Do you still have those MCD2s? Id like to have the SEGA MPR/EPR/OPR ROM part numbers for each and every BIOS. If you could dump the bios and post its ROM part number/take a pic of the mainboard showing the ROM part # either or both would be appreaciated.

    See here for whats available/known. http://www.x-cult.org/newegg/wiki/cat/41/S...37/BIOS%20Files

    btw, the CRC32 of the X'eye dump I did is 290f8e33. And is the only one we know of on the net. if yours is different, please do share.
     
  6. Sik

    Sik

    Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick". Tech Member
    6,718
    1
    0
    being an asshole =P
    And you didn't believe me when I told you on IRC that they were dumped already =P Although yeah, was sorta unsure, so thanks for the confirmation, Tiido =b
     
  7. RamiroR

    RamiroR

    Member
    355
    0
    16
    Oh, in that case, I want them too

    By the way, I don't get what this is about.
    Hm.. I have everything for making that cable.. two old shitty controllers I don't use..But I dunno if I have parallel port connector =/

    Oh well, it's just the original MCD II anyway
     
  8. SegaLoco

    SegaLoco

    W)(at did you say? Banned
    Well, anyways, TmEE, definitely get those to me, okay?
     
  9. Skaarg

    Skaarg

    Member
    3,683
    0
    16
    I will have an x'eye in a couple weeks, providing it does get transferred to our store. If I have the time I'll dump the bios to see if it's any different.
     
  10. TmEE

    TmEE

    Master of OPL3-SA2/3 Tech Member
    1,726
    2
    18
    Estonia, Rapla City
    T-04YBSC-A !
    when I get home and manage to get online, I'll try to put those BIOS files up somewhere, as well as the numbers on the actual chips.
     
  11. I've got 2 X'eyes, but no serial port.
     
  12. GerbilSoft

    GerbilSoft

    RickRotate'd. Administrator
    2,971
    76
    28
    USA
    rom-properties
    I tested the X'Eye firmware in Gens/GS. It seems to have some issues booting the CD, but it does eventually boot after a while. A strange thing is that the X'Eye firmware completely ignores the MD's region code. Other firmwares will check the MD region code and lock out the system if it doesn't match the MCD's region code, whereas X'Eye will run on any region; however, it will only run games encoded as US region.

    I have a US Sega CD 1; however, I already dumped its firmware and it matched the well-known 1.10 dump, so there's no point in me posting it here.
     
  13. SegaLoco

    SegaLoco

    W)(at did you say? Banned
    <div align='center'>[​IMG]


    All thanks go to TmEE. Thank you so very much. Grab it here.</div>
     
  14. SpinelSun

    SpinelSun

    Oldbie
    puddin you idiot. the cult wiki is no place for "dumped by TmEE" bragging rights :P

    Also, TmEE's x'eye and wondermega dumps seem to be bad, 3 bad bytes. In his X'eye the first byte is F4, in my dump and every other BIOS dump it's FF. Also at 0x72 his dumps have
    FFFF when mine has FD0C. His wondermega BIOS is the same way as well. 0x72 is treated as RAM by the sega cd so reading out that location from RAM wont return whats actually in ROM. So, TmEE, what method did you use to dump them?

    My X'eye dump was 100% good. You'll restore it if you know whats good for you :) I also did not alter it in any way. (in other words I didn't dump it bad then change the bytes, my dump was good straight away.)
    Also, again, that part number column on the cult wiki is for the ROM MPR/OPR part number! NOT the system model number. and the X'eye has no dedicated ROM thats why I had N/A there...

    TmEE any chance you can get the MPR ROM part numbers from the MCD2s you said you have?
     
  15. SpinelSun

    SpinelSun

    Oldbie
    The Reason why the X'eye doesn't work correctly in emulators is because it uses a different CDC. The X'eye uses a LC89513K while the normal Sega CD uses a LC89515. Presumably the wondermega also uses a LC89513K. Tiido? care to confirm?

    Open it up and post the BIOS ROM MPR part number or take a pic of the BIOS/mainboard showing it.
     
  16. TmEE

    TmEE

    Master of OPL3-SA2/3 Tech Member
    1,726
    2
    18
    Estonia, Rapla City
    T-04YBSC-A !
    Method is :

    Hooking up a LPT cable between PC and unit, then running some software on a flashcart to dump the BIOS and send it over the cable to PC... this way, some bytes in the BIOS are not shadowed by some register settings. And desoldering the chip and dumping it with a EPROM burner showed same results so I can say the cable is good enough for dumping, if it weren't, one of my programs that relies on the cable operation would not work :P

    And I will get the part numbers tomorrow (technically today) after getting some sleep. wondermega nad Xeye both have custom programmed OTP EPROM chips in them not mask ROMs so no part number for them.

    I'll dump TMSS of my units soon, but I think there's no difference between them.


    And all put together a list of hardware stuff that I should check.

    EDIT: and someone please delete the post before it, I have no idea how that happened......
     
  17. Puto

    Puto

    Shin'ichi Kudō, detective. Tech Member
    2,013
    0
    16
    Portugal, Oeiras
    Part of Team Megamix, but haven't done any actual work in ages.
    I can't solder cables for shit nor do I have easy access to a PC with a parallel port, so I'm not dumping my MCD's bios. Sorry guys.
     
  18. SpinelSun

    SpinelSun

    Oldbie
    Uhhh... so you are saying your dumps match exactly whats on the physical ROM? I'm not so sure of that. For 1, the X'eye has no physical seperate ROM I could find(its hidden in a SEGA custom 315-xxxx chip I believe) so you couldn't dump it using a EPROM burner/reader. You could dump the MCD1/2 this way though, if thats what you ment.

    I dumped mine using MoD's cable and software. Although I did not dump it with the "CD BIOS Dump option" as that will have location 0x72 as RAM. I inserted a cart and put a piece of paper over pin B32 (!CART_IN). And did a "Cart Dump", but the exact second I started the "Cart Dump" I removed the paper covering B32. This no longer dumps from the cart slot but instead the sega cd bios.
    I also dumped my Sega CD 2 using a EPROM reader/burner and it matched exactly byte for byte to the ROM I dumped using the above method. So thats how I KNOW my X'eye dump is the good one.

    Also, I dumped my TMSS using the above method. With B32 enabled instead of doing a "Cart dump" for the sega cd BIOS, I did a "CD BIOS Dump" which will dump the TMSS when !CART_IN is enabled. The TMSS from my Genesis 1, Genesis 2 and my X'eye were byte exact. and matched exactly the dump already on the net.

    The fact that your dumps have FFFF instead of FD0C or any other data at 0x72 shows without a doubt that yours are not 1:1 byte exact whats on the physical ROM. Mine is correct.
     
  19. TmEE

    TmEE

    Master of OPL3-SA2/3 Tech Member
    1,726
    2
    18
    Estonia, Rapla City
    T-04YBSC-A !
    There is a physical ROM in Xeye, its a small surface mount ROM chip in SO package, IC104 in the Xeye I have, a custom programmed 1Mbit 120ns OTP EPROM chip labelled TC531024F-120. I desoldered that and dumped it, and it showed exact same results as what cable does, even after successive dumps to verifiy correctness of things.

    AND if you dump from MCD using the CD, some vectors in the address space where BIOS is, gets shadowed by contents of certian registers in the setup and that is what is going on in your case, the FD0C is not original contents of the ROM. You have to do some overdumping, the mirrors of the ROM are having FFFF not FD0C. You can ask Nemesis about it, he'll say that what I described is what is going on.

    Using cartridge to transfer the ROM will not have this in effect since MCD side is not active and you can get a clean dump.

    http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=428
     
  20. SpinelSun

    SpinelSun

    Oldbie
    I must've missed that chip when I was identifying my X'eye chips. can you confirm that the Wondermega also uses the LC89513K CDC like the X'eye? The normal sega-cd uses LC89515.

    Right, I know that and already had a discussion about that with Mask of Destiny some years ago when he first released his software.
    And Thats EXACTLY what I did too. When !CART_IN is enabled, the segacd gets disabled and the CD BIOS and TMSS switch places in memory. I did a "Cart Dump" with !CART_IN enabled which dumps the sega cd BIOS when the Genesis is enabled and sega cd disabled. Doing that gave me a 32Mbit file of the 1Mbit BIOS. In the first 1Mbit is FFFF at 0x72, the mirror copies (which come straight off ROM have FD0C).

    I do not mean to be slightly and ass here, but It sounds to me like your info is slightly mixed up possibly? and the dumps you provided were the shadow overlay memory dumps, and not the overdump mirror copy or dumped straight from the chip.

    Because I am 100% sure that FD0C is the correct ROM contents and FFFF is the shadow overlay contents.