Shining Force 3 works !

Written by cafealpha 10 comments
Classified in : Saturn, Programming, Mylife Tags : saturn, memcart, kai, shining force
Additional testing of my test cartridge showed that Shining Force scenario 3 was "working" well when using memory expander hack

By "working", I mean that game was working fine (no freeze, black screen whatever) while looking for save data on SD card.
I didn't verified if save data was consistent or not, this can be verified and eventually fixed later

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Game is looking for SFORCE39 save data ?!

Logs show that game is looking for SFORCE31 save data, which is normal, but after that it is looking for SFORCE39 save data ?!?
I suppose this is some debug stuff that was left as-is, or maybe something for game beta testers ? Please let me know if you have more informations about this


It "works", but there's still a lot of code to write/cleanup/etc before release !
At first, I should add some "log to SD card" feature, this may be useful when we will enter beta testing stage

BTW, I'm looking for a name for my "SD card-based memory cart for Saturn" project.
The only requirement is that the name needs to be easy to remember. Suggestions are welcome


Edit (2016/02/12) : nearly 5 months after, everything works more or less so that I took a couple of videos of Pseudo Saturn Kai in action
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Video in video ?

More next week month

Edit (2016/03/16) : took longer than expected to add subtitles to the videos, but everything is finally ready. Thank you for your patience

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Shining Force 3 Scenario 1 SD Memory Cart test
Game is accessing save data from cartridge's SD card. It works



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Shining Force 3 Scenario 1 SD Memory Cart test (Making Of)
Same as above, with also log messages display on my dev laptop

Read more Shining Force 3 works !

Scritch, scritch ...

Written by cafealpha 3 comments
Classified in : Saturn, Mylife Tags : saturn, memcart, kai, cartridge, shell
Today was a coding-free recreation day
Instead of coding, I used my brand new rasp (file) on a Saturn memory cartridge shell :
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SD card on Memory Cartridge ?

Yeah, I know, it's "homemade"

Request : I only have a limited stock of cartridge shell, so is there somebody with a 3D printer/whatever ready to produce shells ? If you have the skillz, hardware, time and motivation to produce Saturn cartridge shells, please contact me via my homepage's contact form .
I can offer one cartridge (without shell) if you fulfill my needs

Edit : I forgot to put a picture of the cartridge itself :
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Cartridges Rev 3.1, Rev 2f, Rev 1b

Read more Scritch, scritch ...

Yeah !!! It work ! (when it doesn't bug)

Written by cafealpha no comments
Classified in : Saturn, Programming, Mylife Tags : saturn, memcart, kai
This afternoon was a very intense debugging session
Nah, I joke, I just played Sonic R and Virtua Fighter Kids with my debug cartridge plugged on my Saturn

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I unlocked Sarah's movie

Unfortunately, I lost against Dural during last (bonus) stage, but at least I was stronger than Saturn BIOS Backup Library

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Debug session using my good old SatLink tool.
Virtua Fighter Kids save file is read from/saved to SD card.
And as a bonus, backup related functions send debug messages
 to my dev laptop while the game is running

There's still a lot to do before getting something good, but today's debug session showed that current hardware (cartridge's PCB, CPLD firmware) and software (SH2 firmware) are working (more or less) fine

Read more Yeah !!! It work ! (when it doesn't bug)

Tired ...

Written by cafealpha 4 comments
Classified in : etc, Mylife Tags : cancer, ts-1, chemo
I just spent the whole week not (or few) sleeping during night, then sleeping because of fatigue during day
I don't know the reason of this, but I suspect bad weather (I rained nearly all week here), and also children sleeping in "kawa no ji" style.

What is "kawa no ji" style ? This is a Japanese expression used to speak about children sleeping in the same room/bed as parent's.
While it's not very common in Western countries, I'm personally OK about this, but it would be great if children wouldn't move so much while sleeping !
Example : you fall asleep with son#1 on your right side, and you wake up during night with son#1 near your foot, and son#2 pushing on your back

Another reason may also be chemo I'm currently taking : among the side effects, fatigue or feeling heavy is mentioned.

I'm currently taking "TS-1" chemo drug, which is administered orally as any other "normal" capsule drug. One of the difference with regular drug is that effects (and so side effects) are a little stronger than drugs everybody take when they get a cold
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TS-1 and NKS-1 (TS-1 generic) capsules

Until now, I experienced the following side effects :
 - Diarrhea
 - Nose bleeding
 - Mouth ulcer
 - Fatigue
Fortunately, side effects are relatively mild, and also I experienced them one per one

Let's hope this week's fatigue state is temporary If it is due to chemo side effect, then I'm OK with this, because I consider it is part of the price to pay in order to get rid of my cancer

Read more Tired ...

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