Announcing the 64drive nearing completion

[marshallh]

Hi Marshallh, does your cart support saving in Dezaemon 3D? As far as I know it has a different SRAM chip.
Furthermore do you support emulated FlashRAM? It was used by a few cracked roms to save inside the DS1 adapter.

The SRAM size is the same (32kbyte)

Real FlashRAM is emulated. Images that are cracked usually save to SRAM instead.

[stefan.iro]

Hi Marshallh, does your cart support saving in Dezaemon 3D? As far as I know it has a different SRAM chip.

Sorry marshallh, but i think mdmx is right!
Dezaemon 3D uses 768Kb (96Kbyte) SRAM not 256Kb (32Kbyte).
see: http://www.athena-game.co.jp/deza3d/deza3d.htm

It stores a whole self designed shooter to the internal SRAM memory. Because of the extensive need of storage there was even planned a 64DD add-on disk similar to the F-Zero X 64DD Expansion Disk.

Personally I own a N64 Myth card and since the implantation of SD support I am quiet happy with it. I am sure a lot of people will stick with your cart as it probably will retail at a cheaper price, but for people like me you will need a killer app like Dezaemon 3D SRAM support. :Rock:

[link83]

Fantastic work marshallh :-) Just one question - I noticed in one of your posts at benheck you said:-

Today I got save loading from CF going. It will check for a folder called "saves" in the same folder as the image. If a save file matching the image filename isn't found, it's created.

Then the file contents are loaded to either on-fpga memory (eeproms) or upper area of sdram (sram, flashram).

I just wondered if that means 512Mbit games that use SRAM or FlashRAM wont be able to save? If so does that mean the following games wont work?:-

Paper Mario (E) 512Mbit - FlashRAM 1Mbit
Pokemon Stadium 2 512Mbit - FlashRAM 1Mbit
Resident Evil 2 512Mbit - SRAM 256Kbit
Legend of Zelda: OoT Master Quest Debug Version 512Mbit - SRAM 256Kbit
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Debug Version 512Mbit - FlashRAM 1Mbit

Would it perhaps be possible to either add an extra 1Mbit SRAM/FRAM/SDRAM chip, or save directly to CompactFlash?

[marshallh]

Sorry marshallh, but i think mdmx is right!
Dezaemon 3D uses 768Kb (96Kbyte) SRAM not 256Kb (32Kbyte).
see: http://www.athena-game.co.jp/deza3d/deza3d.htm

Thanks for the link. Adding suport for that won't be hard.

Fantastic work marshallh :-) Just one question - I noticed in one of your posts at benheck you said:-

I just wondered if that means 512Mbit games that use SRAM or FlashRAM wont be able to save? If so does that mean the following games wont work?:-

Paper Mario (E) 512Mbit - FlashRAM 1Mbit
Pokemon Stadium 2 512Mbit - FlashRAM 1Mbit
Resident Evil 2 512Mbit - SRAM 256Kbit
Legend of Zelda: OoT Master Quest Debug Version 512Mbit - SRAM 256Kbit
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Debug Version 512Mbit - FlashRAM 1Mbit

Would it perhaps be possible to either add an extra 1Mbit SRAM/FRAM/SDRAM chip, or save directly to CompactFlash?

We've been over this before. All those games have extra padding space at the end, nothing is affected.

[ASSEMbler]

I think we should examine a group purchase, if we can line up 100 orders to lower everyone's costs it would be in the best interest of all parties.

[BM-Viper]

I agree.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Count me in if we have one.

[stefan.iro]

I think we should examine a group purchase, if we can line up 100 orders to lower everyone's costs it would be in the best interest of all parties.

Wow, a hundred orders. I would be happy if there are 50...
But a group purchase is always a good idea!

[Trekkie]

So this allows someone to play prototypes or does it have all the 64 games on one cartridge?

[MasterOfPuppets]

It's a flash cart, you put what you want on a CF card and you can play those files on a real N64.

[rso]

What about region protection? Will there be an option to NTSC-/PAL-fix games from within the cart, or will this have to be done manually beforehand? Couldn't make out anything related to that in your video...

[mdmx]

Images that are cracked usually save to SRAM instead.

Yes, I know. A standard cartridge couldn't hold 1Mbit SRAM, so people had to use the DS1 adapter, which can hold up to 2Mbit of SRAM.
Do you support 1Mbit SRAM or do we need a clean dump of the ROM to save?

[marshallh]

What about region protection? Will there be an option to NTSC-/PAL-fix games from within the cart, or will this have to be done manually beforehand? Couldn't make out anything related to that in your video...

I am adding something right now (additional options menu) to make the PIF appear as either NTSC or PAL. I am able to boot the PAL release of 40 Winks on my NTSC N64 using this method, however the video mode is 50hz which older american TVs do not handle. If your TV supports NTSC50 you will have no problems.

This works the other way, if you are PAL and want to boot an NTSC game, you can. If your TV can display PAL60, you're good to go. From what I hear TVs that support this are quite common in PAL territories.

Yes, I know. A standard cartridge couldn't hold 1Mbit SRAM, so people had to use the DS1 adapter, which can hold up to 2Mbit of SRAM.
Do you support 1Mbit SRAM or do we need a clean dump of the ROM to save?

The goal is to support clean, original dumps. When you have full FLASHRAM emulation why would you want DS1 support?

[angelwolf71885]

will this support 64DD games and expansions

like for example the F-zero x game has a 64DD expansion that adds new levels cars and a level editor

would it be able to load the expansion?

[marshallh]

will this support 64DD games and expansions

like for example the F-zero x game has a 64DD expansion that adds new levels cars and a level editor

would it be able to load the expansion?

No

[ASSEMbler]

I think he just asked you to emulate the entire 64dd marshal lol

[angelwolf71885]

No

would it be possible to implement say in a revision 2 Bord?

according to the info on the net the 64DD only has a cpu to handle the disk IO nothing more no decoding nor rendering nothing

it could even be as simple as coding the cartOS to redirect exp port acess back to a folder on the CF card

the only real thing the 64DD needs is the memory expansion witch everyone who has a 64 should already own

[kammedo]

would it be possible to implement say in a revision 2 Bord?

according to the info on the net the 64DD only has a cpu to handle the disk IO nothing more no decoding nor rendering nothing

it could even be as simple as coding the cartOS to redirect exp port acess back to a folder on the CF card

the only real thing the 64DD needs is the memory expansion witch everyone who has a 64 should already own

Fat chance. Do not forget two things :
a) timings = hell disk timings are completely different
b) the 64dd is a BULK device, meaning the transfers are bulked, no streaming of data

Also, why emulate a 64dd on a n64? Go and buy one for god's sake!

[angelwolf71885]

Fat chance. Do not forget two things :
a) timings = hell disk timings are completely different
b) the 64dd is a BULK device, meaning the transfers are bulked, no streaming of data

Also, why emulate a 64dd on a n64? Go and buy one for god's sake!

how is it emulating anything when all it is is a disk drive theres no rendering going on the the 64DD its all handled by the 64 itself with help from the 4 mb memory pack @_@

besides buying one care to give me 800 for the ones on ebay right now plus the 100 in shipping

[babu]

very nice. great to see some more news on it :)