Estopolis II (Lufia 2) Prototype

[MottZilla]

Do you still have the 40mbit dump you made with your SWC DX? If you do, that could still contain all the needed data. If you send it to me, I'd take a look at what you've got and see if it is salvageable.

[geluda]

Sorry to hear the bad news! :( Always sad to see a prototype on the brink of failure.

Hey jack any progress on this cart?

[chaoticdaos]

Well it didn't sell on eBay... Do you still have the cart? How much are you willing to part with it for? I like the game myself but never finished... Maybe we could do something as a group?

[Jackhead]

small update. I got today the cart back from d4s. Rom 0 and 1 has corrupt data, like a 0 is now 1. Rom 3 looks ok. So it is possible for a talent hacker with many time to fix this maybe. But im not a hacker and i dont have the time... Its also not clear to say how much corrupt data on the roms. D4s tell me it cant be very much, but there are many 0 or 1 ^^.
So now its again on ebay. Hope it goes to the right person. Sorry guys...
Anyway, i think there is still much unseen stuff not corrupted like sprites and so...

[Borman]

You should see if those files you dumped earlier are any help. I know you couldn't get them to boot, but it could have uncorrupted data in them.

[Jackhead]

You can belive me, i try anything out. The first SWC Dump contains only ROM 3 again and again up to 4 MB.
After all it musst be the wrong willem dip switched rewrite some data, and thats it. Rom 3 is a different kind of eprom and take no damage at all. You can only hack the roms and try fixing the wrong 0 and 1...

[geluda]

How can data on a chip such as these become corrupt? Is it possible save data was responsible for it? From my past experience I've seen a couple of instances where saving under unexpected conditions can cause corruption on a cart, although they were GBA carts, and never to this sort of extent.

On a side note, can you link me to your auction?

[Jackhead]

sure, here it is : http://www.ebay.de/itm/221104343736?...84.m1555.l2649

[Bad_Ad84]

When you program eproms, when blank they are all 1's

If he had the willem setup wrong, its possible that he basically programmed over some of the 1's with 0's, instead of reading it.

Its not possible to change a 0 to a 1 without using UV to erase the chip.

The willems have little protection against setting them up wrong, the assumption is you set the dip switches correctly and choose the correct chip in the software.

[camdman]

Good luck with the auction, I hope it finds a nice home and that the data can be recovered. Games that change through development are strangley interesting to me and to see what it was to what it ended up like. Especially the case with this game. Again good luck and congrats to the winning bidder.

[karsten]

keep all the dumps jack and send them to the auction winner, if it gets in the hands of a good hacker i'm 90% sure it can be recovered.

[Atamos]

Did you tried to dump the game with the Retrode, even if the ROM seem corrupted ?
This is the safest way to dump a prototype.

Yes, no ?
Can you respond, I insist because this is one of my favorite RPG on the SNES and I really want to try this prototype someday...

[Bad_Ad84]

Its already damaged. Dumping it another way will make no difference.

[Jackhead]

Its already damaged. Dumping it another way will make no difference.

thats it. The Retrode 2 cant dump the image like other devices on basic. Lufia has a different mapper, the backup units cant read. Only ucon64 with some special setting or the knowledge can do this.

[trevormacro]

Hi all,

I've got my 2 protos games.



What eproms need to be dumped to have the complete ROM (.smc or .sfc) running on emulator like Snes9x or Zsnes?

HOW TO? Who can explain me in details please? I have the device to dump eproms.

How can I join all eproms to have only one file?

Thanks in advance

[MottZilla]

Please post which device you have to read the EPROMs. Also, if you have access to any blank EPROMs of the same part number, you should try programming and reading it back or reading some other EPROM before you try reading the prototype. Just so you know it works properly.

After you are sure it reads the EPROMs properly and you understand how to save an EPROM to a file on your computer, then you should carefully remove each EPROM on one of the prototypes one at a time and save each one naming it after its position on the board. Each position has a number.

[trevormacro]

Please post which device you have to read the EPROMs. Also, if you have access to any blank EPROMs of the same part number, you should try programming and reading it back or reading some other EPROM before you try reading the prototype. Just so you know it works properly.

After you are sure it reads the EPROMs properly and you understand how to save an EPROM to a file on your computer, then you should carefully remove each EPROM on one of the prototypes one at a time and save each one naming it after its position on the board. Each position has a number.

I have LPC-32 Eproms and flashs programmer Device.

http://www.mbtronics.com/images/lpc32.jpg

Is it possible to dump each eprom one by one?
I already try to read others eproms and transfer them to a PC. It work correctly.

What eproms on BoF II and on Lufia II need to be dumped?

[MottZilla]

Ok, if you have tried it out before and it works correctly, yes you dump each eprom one by one. Just remove the first EPROM carefully (don't bend or break the pins) and read it in the programmer and name the file you save it as after the number of the eprom slot on the board. Be sure the programmer knows the correct EPROM part number so it reads the whole eprom and doesn't do anything bad.

[Bad_Ad84]

My offer also extends to you - I will read them for you at no charge and return them. All you have to pay is shipping.

[JLukas]

As MottZilla suggested, if you have a spare EPROM to test with first, try that, and be sure that the programmer is in READ ONLY mode.

1. Remove the first chip U1, place it in the EPROM reader, and read it. It should create a create a file 524,288 bytes in size. Give the file a name with the extension .001 (e.g., game.001)
2. Remove the second chip, U2, place it in the EPROM reader, and read it. It should create a create a file 524,288 bytes in size. Give the file a name with the extension .002
3. Repeat the above steps with U3, U4, and U5.

When finished, you should have the following files in a folder

game.001
game.002
game.003
game.004
game.005

To create a working .smc/.sfc that works in an emulator, you will need to join the five files together. A very simple way to do this is with the program HJsplit

http://www.hjsplit.org/

Run the program, and select the Join option. It will ask you to select the .001 file. Then it will join them all together into a file that should total 2,621,440 bytes. Name this file something like game.smc and you now have the complete game that works in an emulator.