CPS3 suicide free a step closer.

Wow, so, really one cart to work with all legit CDs! Nice!!

This is great news. Great work guys.

Bump. New update on 64darksoft.blogspot.com

Basically one BIOS that can load all 6 GAMES from one unique CD and can choose contry code before start!!!

Video of actual game code running on a standad SH2 for the first time.

Very nice.

Darksoft, any chance that you'd release a version of the bios/etc with an ability to set the developer region/setting? Obviously not a very mainstream feature, but...

Bump for great work!!!! Soooooo psyched on this. I do have questions though: Are the tables used for the custom SH2 really so bad (I'm guessing no given you have tested extensively) to justify the crazy amount of soldering/labor of using standard?

I know some fanatics claim to "feel" SSF2T phoenixed boards function differently. I however--do not think they do. Would it be the same sort of deal with 3S using standard SH2 vs custom?

One cart to rule them all....

indierocklocks said:

Bump for great work!!!! Soooooo psyched on this. I do have questions though: Are the tables used for the custom SH2 really so bad (I'm guessing no given you have tested extensively) to justify the crazy amount of soldering/labor of using standard?

I know some fanatics claim to "feel" SSF2T phoenixed boards function differently. I however--do not think they do. Would it be the same sort of deal with 3S using standard SH2 vs custom?

Click to expand...

If you are hardcore you will want the SH2 version. Most won't know the difference though.

Does anyone feel like designing some custom cart labels?

1 for Darksoft's CPS3 SuperBios
1 for Standard SH2 cart featuring Darksoft's CPS3 SuperBios (Maybe work the word 'hardcore' in with the 'H' in SH2?)

I'm terrible at stuff like this....

Awesome news, thank sDarksoft and Mitsurugi, personally, this is the solution I was hoping for! (boot original CD's trough a custom cart)

Now, question is, will it be easy to produce such normal-SH2 cart? I mean, is the chip available somewhere or do we have to SAC SH2s i.e. from Dreamcasts?

If technically/economically possible, maybe a small run repro from scratch of the cart+bios+SH2, could be a solution? (just guessing...like a "community kickstart")

Anyway, awesome guys! Will donate for sure.

massimiliano said:

Awesome news, thank sDarksoft and Mitsurugi, personally, this is the solution I was hoping for! (boot original CD's trough a custom cart)

Now, question is, will it be easy to produce such normal-SH2 cart? I mean, is the chip available somewhere or do we have to SAC SH2s i.e. from Dreamcasts?

If technically/economically possible, maybe a small run repro from scratch of the cart+bios+SH2, could be a solution? (just guessing...like a "community kickstart")

Anyway, awesome guys! Will donate for sure.

Click to expand...

A little bit of bad news for you. Darksoft isn't planning on making a bios that will work with original CDs. I really wish he will someday. Maybe after the next few projects. It seems that it is what the SH2 carts are destined for.

The SH2s can be bought from China but I have found it cheaper to harvest them. Old Saturn and 32X pcbs is a good source. Two SH2s per Saturn MB.

And I wouldn't mind a repro cart of some kind.

An overview of how the SuperBios works:

Mitsurugi-w said:

A little bit of bad news for you. Darksoft isn't planning on making a bios that will work with original CDs. I really wish he will someday. Maybe after the next few projects. It seems that it is what the SH2 carts are destined for.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's a bit unfortunate...anyway, step-by-step... maybe in the future...getting rid of heuristic, is already a huge step in the "preservation" direction.

Anyway, keep up the good work! my only suggestion is to make the superbios socketed if possible, just in case an update is needed in the future, there won't be any need to mess with the cart again.

Thank you for your time Mitsurugi-w for recording the video and keep us updated.

Can't wait to grab a CPS3

massimiliano said:

Yep, that's a bit unfortunate...anyway, step-by-step... maybe in the future...getting rid of heuristic, is already a huge step in the "preservation" direction.

Anyway, keep up the good work! my only suggestion is to make the superbios socketed if possible, just in case an update is needed in the future, there won't be any need to mess with the cart again.

Click to expand...

It's a surface mount chip and if you socket it, it won't fit in the cart. Plus those sockets are expensive. I wish I had done one for my test carts, though.

_rm_ said:

Thank you for your time Mitsurugi-w for recording the video and keep us updated.

Can't wait to grab a CPS3

Click to expand...

No problem. News will be slow for awhile since Dark is on business.

Naked CPS3 SH2 cart porn

Mitsurugi-w said:

Naked CPS3 SH2 cart porn

Click to expand...

Where are you getting your SH2 from, I have a strikers 3 that I need to get around to changing the cpu because of a I/O problem.

mainman said:

Where are you getting your SH2 from, I have a strikers 3 that I need to get around to changing the cpu because of a I/O problem.

Click to expand...

Well, Darksoft has ordered a set from China that we believe will work. He is sending them to me to test.

But as far as these go? Anyone notice my want add for broken Saturns and 32Xs a week or so ago?

What type of SH2 do you need? There are tons of different specs on them. What SH2 does strikers 3 use?

Mitsurugi-w said:

Well, Darksoft has ordered a set from China that we believe will work. He is sending them to me to test.

But as far as these go? Anyone notice my want add for broken Saturns and 32Xs a week or so ago?

What type of SH2 do you need? There are tons of different specs on them. What SH2 does strikers 3 use?

Click to expand...

God, you decided to go the STV route I was trying to avoid. Yeah I guess I will cross reference the STV SH2 with the Striker SH2 like I was originally going to do and see if they are compatible. BTW when you get the SH2 can you give me the spec and his source.

mainman said:

God, you decided to go the STV route I was trying to avoid. Yeah I guess I will cross reference the STV SH2 with the Striker SH2 like I was originally going to do and see if they are compatible. BTW when you get the SH2 can you give me the spec and his source.

Click to expand...

Yep. As soon as I test them. I want to make sure they actually work and aren't total Chinese bootleg crap.

Video showing a short overview of the standard SH-2 version of the SuperBios:

Fixed video link above.

Hello,

just received Darksoft's SuperBIOS cart, wiht normal SH2, both swapped by Mitsurugi-w, I would share some impressions and possibly make a summary of what we got today.

First of all, I'm deeply impressed about the service from Mitsurugi, SMC soldering couldn't be done any better..on naked eye is *very difficult* to distinguish from the original:

Modded cart on the left (JoJo), original dead 2nd Impact on the right.



Both BIOS and SH2 have been swapped


Here the original for reference



Now, placed Darksoft's ISO on the CD along with modded security cart and powered on, everything is simple and fast.

Immediately after powering on, the CD-Rom reading screen (English) appears, if the game is already written on the flash, it will normally boot:


Pressing 1P Start before booting the game, shows Darksoft's feature menu:


Mainly, you can select which title write to the flash without restrictions. As already noted by someone, joystick input in this menu is not properly recorded (it skips positions), so in order to select the wanted title, you need to try few times…nothing bothersome actually. Note: the issue happens only here and in the region selection screen, no other menu or the game itself is affected.


Game writing will then begin (picture taken during test, not JoJo):


When writing is finished or everytime you boot the board, first difference, after cd-check screen, a one-time menu will allow region selection (again, same input issue from title select).


From that point on, the selected game will play normally (except from "-darksoft" added in the game booting screen):


Pushing "test" button shows in-game menus (in the region's language) where you can make changes like coins, difficulty etc.. as in the original.

Here the result when you change region at boot:






As a summary...the result is simply awesome, period.

Now my , very personal, considerations:

I'm kinda picky toward "preservation" method, so I would have preferred no signatures or region selection rainbowed-menu... I.e., I'm one of those, back in the days, who asked Raz to toggle Unibios splash screen...I mean, while I fully support credits (and donating) on such kind of software, maybe a toggle option could be more "elegant"...something like a button (A+B+C) sequence that shows "Darksoft" near game code at boot? Same for the region..kinda default JPN to me would be awesome heheh..:P

Far from this, the only thing that would make this *perfect* would be a NOCD ver but, again, this is already one of the best thing happened recently, Darksoft deserves to enter the Valhalla from the main gate.

I really hope someone will soon drawn both cart label and CDROM packaging (print and cover "darksoft" edition), it would be worth to make such kit!

Thanks guys!

Edit:

Almost forgot! Many thanks to jon713 for selling me donor carts at an awesome price!

Wow! Awsome write-up!! Thanks a lot for that! I'm glad that you are happy. You took some really good pictures. Kinda makes me admire my work. LOL. Amazing how good I've gotten at soldering now.