Were programmers high when making these games?

Josh · Apr 14, 2003

Ok,

I came to the conclusion that Cool Boarders Pocket isn’t able to reset to the factory settings, which is lame because it cuts down the replay value IMO.
What about NEO Dragon’s Wild? I could have sworn this game is able to erase file names. I wonder how many other games are like this?

Anyone know how to reset NEO Dragon’s Wild to the factory settings?

THANKS!

Dean · Apr 15, 2003

....and Gals Fighters while you're at it.

Shining Kooksu · Apr 15, 2003

Take apart the cartridge, find the battery, disconnect it, then reconnect it and put the cart back together. This is all theoretical by the way.

Josh · Apr 15, 2003

Well, I opened the Neo Dragon's Wild cartridge and I didn't see a battery inside. Maybe this has something to do with it. Does anyone have a clue? Cause somethings up.

X-death · Apr 15, 2003

How many games were made for the NGPC?

Ahchay · Apr 15, 2003

NGPC carts don't use battery backup. I think that the majority of games on the NGPC don't allow you to reset the data. Some do, but most don't.

Theoretically, you could use the Flash Linker to erase the stored data. However, each cartridge would have to be looked at individually so it would take a fair amount of time to do.

Cheers
Chris

KaedesDisciple · Apr 15, 2003

OK, here's the deal. The carts have flash memory on them. That little CR2032 that's in your NGPC? That's the battery specifically used for powering the flash memory on the NGPC carts. For this reason (which I think is a stroke of genius on the designer's part) the NGPC carts do not have batteries on-board. Think of it as protection for you. How many people have battery-backed games that die after a few years and the only way to fix it is to open the cart and replace the battery? This can be a very risky venture for people who don't exactly know what to do. Most flash memory chips have a data life that is MUCH longer than a watch battery can guarantee. By the time that data starts to fail, the cartridge itself will probably be degraded. Furthermore, this eliminates the (extremely unlikely) risk that the on-board battery may leak inside and completely destroy the cart.

From what I've seen, some games (like Sonic and Last Blade) have an option to initialize the data, whereas some don't. That's the way it goes, sorry frown

snkneogeousaCTH · Apr 15, 2003

BTW, just an interesting fact for those with a flash linker:

If you want to get a cheap 32m flash cart, just delete a MOTM cart, and you should be able to flash a new game.

I had a MS2 demo cart from SNK JPN, and it was flashed onto an old neo turfmasters usa cart.

FeelGood · Apr 15, 2003

snkneogeousaCTH:
BTW, just an interesting fact for those with a flash linker:

If you want to get a cheap 32m flash cart, just delete a MOTM cart, and you should be able to flash a new game.

I had a MS2 demo cart from SNK JPN, and it was flashed onto an old neo turfmasters usa cart.

How do you know it came from SNK Jpn? All the HK companies were peddling out blank carts for desireable games. My guess was that they were boots copied on the piles of unsold ram chips.

But actually, great advice. I'll look into it.

dasfool · Apr 15, 2003

How many times can a normal game like MOTM be rewritten (like a flash cart)? Are the chips in normal games different than those in the pocket linker series?

FeelGood · Apr 15, 2003

dasfool:
How many times can a normal game like MOTM be rewritten (like a flash cart)? Are the chips in normal games different than those in the pocket linker series?

yes. You can tell the difference by looking.

Josh · Apr 16, 2003

Kaede's Disciple:
That little CR2032 that's in your NGPC? That's the battery specifically used for powering the flash memory on the NGPC carts.

Well I took the CR2032 battery out then fired up my NEO Dragon's Wild and the game still has the memory with the battery completely out, so I don't think the battery powers up anything. But a nice theory nonetheless.

What were the programmers, or whoever thinking? This memory situation is the most idiotic idea ever. I'm not a mad as the post sounds, but it is pretty lame.

Ahchay · Apr 16, 2003

snkneogeousaCTH:
BTW, just an interesting fact for those with a flash linker:

If you want to get a cheap 32m flash cart, just delete a MOTM cart, and you should be able to flash a new game.

I had a MS2 demo cart from SNK JPN, and it was flashed onto an old neo turfmasters usa cart.

Interestin'

I may play with that, although from discussions on the dev boards it may not be as easy as that. You may have to use a higher than normal voltage to reformat the cart.

ISTR someone tried this with a Crush Roller and ended up frying the cart.

Cheers
Chris

Ahchay · Apr 16, 2003

Kaede's Disciple:
OK, here's the deal. The carts have flash memory on them. That little CR2032 that's in your NGPC? That's the battery specifically used for powering the flash memory on the NGPC carts. For this reason (which I think is a stroke of genius on the designer's part) the NGPC carts do not have batteries on-board. Think of it as protection for you. How many people have battery-backed games that die after a few years and the only way to fix it is to open the cart and replace the battery? This can be a very risky venture for people who don't exactly know what to do. Most flash memory chips have a data life that is MUCH longer than a watch battery can guarantee. By the time that data starts to fail, the cartridge itself will probably be degraded. Furthermore, this eliminates the (extremely unlikely) risk that the on-board battery may leak inside and completely destroy the cart.

Sorry, but you're slightly mistaken... The CR2032 is used to power the clock. (And, I think, also the NGPC language/B&W colours et al settings)

NGPC carts use Flash memory to save data. Rather like a CF card or Memory Stick. Basically, one voltage is used to read the data and another, higher, voltage is used to write to it.

Cheers
Chris

K-J N. · Apr 16, 2003

dasfool:
How many times can a normal game like MOTM be rewritten (like a flash cart)?

From the devkit reference manual:

The maximum number of rewrites possible in the same memory cell of the flash memory card is approximately 100,000 times.

snkneogeousaCTH · Apr 16, 2003

EvilWasabi:

snkneogeousaCTH:
BTW, just an interesting fact for those with a flash linker:

If you want to get a cheap 32m flash cart, just delete a MOTM cart, and you should be able to flash a new game.

I had a MS2 demo cart from SNK JPN, and it was flashed onto an old neo turfmasters usa cart.

Click to expand...

How do you know it came from SNK Jpn? All the HK companies were peddling out blank carts for desireable games. My guess was that they were boots copied on the piles of unsold ram chips.

But actually, great advice. I'll look into it.

Actually, contrary to popular belief, I DO know what I'm talking about. The MS2 demo was straight from SNK JAPAN, it was a store demo used in displays. It would let you play 1 level, and then showed a teaser for the game. It consisted of a neo turfmasters USA cartridge w/ a label in Japanese stuck over that.

Stifu has it now, I sold it to him.

I just figured, if SNK JAPAN could rewrite a cart, it's gotta be possible.

BTW, those aren't HK boots they are selling.

evil wasabi · Apr 17, 2003

I've got a Flash Linker...

Once I "deleted the data" of one of my actual carts by mistake, and it didn't do anything.

So as for the MS2 demo cart... Maybe just the plastic outside side of the cart was from Neo Turf Master, but not what's inside...

Either that or they have a way to delete games from carts... Which isn't possible with a Flash Linker. Or maybe you'd need a special program to do that or something, but it still doesn't work with the one that comes with the linker.

Nesagwa · Apr 17, 2003

Hey stifu, see if you can erase your save game with the flash linker. Like take a new save file from an emulator or something and over write your original one. Maybe that will work.

c.t.h · Apr 17, 2003

Fascinating.

Stifu: Have you tried unscrewing the MS2 demo, and seeing what board it's on? I think neo turfmasters was a 16m game, and ms2 was 32 - so if it's on a 16m board, it was a rewrite.

evil wasabi · Apr 17, 2003

Nesagwa: I think I already tried that, unsuccessfully...

cth: I'll have to open it... Then again, maybe the game WAS 16 bits at that time, and not 32 yet, since it just has 1 level...

c.t.h · Apr 17, 2003

Okay, cool, let us know what it looks like opened up. If you have an original neo turfmasters, you can compare them. I was going to get 4 more demos (including rockman and delta warp) but I forgot to bid -_-

evil wasabi · Apr 18, 2003

Yeah, I do have Neo Turf Master... So I'll check that, probably next week.

Were programmers high when making these games?

Banned

Choi's Clawmaker

Zero's Secretary

Banned

Raiden's Valet

Marked Wolf

Angel's Love ,

snkneogeousaCTH

Guest

So Many PostsNo TimeFor Games.

Kuroko's Training Dummy

So Many PostsNo TimeFor Games.

Banned

Marked Wolf

Marked Wolf

New Challenger

snkneogeousaCTH

Guest

The Jongmaster

Beard of Zeus,

Maxima's Barber

The Jongmaster

Maxima's Barber

The Jongmaster

So Many Posts
No Time
For Games.

So Many Posts
No Time
For Games.