BS-X emulation

Con · Post by **Con** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:56 pm

Hi,

I wanted to ask if zsnes is going to emulate the BS-X hardware one time - there are several games available which are not full playable until now...
Since I am the pre-webmaster of the BS-Zelda Homepage (http://www.bszelda.zeldalegends.net) I'd be rather interested in any news according to that.
I have also some more Questions BS-Zelda related:

- In Bs-Zelda Sekiban (Ancient Stone Tablets) the overworld works just fine, but the dungeons are dark and you are able to go through walls... is that an emulator or a rom problem?

- (the unpatched) Bs-Zelda 1 is only playable until zsnes v.1.14 Is there a bug in the following versions?

Many thanks,
Con

Post by **badinsults** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 4:48 pm

I believe that BS emulation is being worked on, and BS Bios support was recently added to improve things. However, I don't think there is any timeline for its completion, though the developers could perhaps clear this up.

Malcster · Post by **Malcster** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:08 pm

I think that while BIOS support is added and works for Same Game, Gundam G-Next and Sufami Turbo, the BIOS for the BS-X hasn't been fully coded in yet. The BIOS box is a placeholder.. or at least that's my recollection. Nach will be able to clear this up.

Dreamer_Nom · Post by **Dreamer_Nom** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 1:23 am

Note: I'm not a developer so don't take my word as concrete

I wanted to ask if zsnes is going to emulate the BS-X hardware one time - there are several games available which are not full playable until now...

I think that both emulators will include some partial BS-X memory mapping improvements (BIOS and such) which will fix Treasure Conflix and the sort. I wouldn't know when as the memory map is not solid last I heard.

Since I am the pre-webmaster of the BS-Zelda Homepage (http://www.bszelda.zeldalegends.net) I'd be rather interested in any news according to that.
I have also some more Questions BS-Zelda related:

I saw the BS Zelda Sekiban title screen. Was it uncompressed in the ROM or is that an actual emulator screenshot? I've never seen it before.

The header in the BS ROMs can take sizes from 256KB to 32MBits. So expansion is possible but I don't know if the flash cards would hold that much. But the BIOS doesn't care.

- In Bs-Zelda Sekiban (Ancient Stone Tablets) the overworld works just fine, but the dungeons are dark and you are able to go through walls... is that an emulator or a rom problem?

The image header is most likely bad: 32 Mbit LoROM. A 0x8000 value ==> BIOS would not recognize it.

I don't know if it's a corrupt dump and/or bad $48-$4F mirroring.

I've heard that there is a dungeon + overworld map patch that can be used with SNEmul to fix the graphics.

- (the unpatched) Bs-Zelda 1 is only playable until zsnes v.1.14 Is there a bug in the following versions?

I'm guessing that it's like BS Dragon Quest: some hacks were used to bypass the $2192 St. Giga RTC checks and get the game to boot in. They were probably later removed.

Someone posted on the 9x forums about the $2192 register format which unplugs the clock freeze waits on BS Marvelous, BS Zeldas, BS Dragon Quest, and such (all unpatched).

[Mod edit: tags fixed]

Con · Post by **Con** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 1:21 pm

Hi Dreamer,

many thanks for your detailed answer!

I think that both emulators will include some partial BS-X memory mapping improvements (BIOS and such) which will fix Treasure Conflix and the sort. I wouldn't know when as the memory map is not solid last I heard.

So the BS-X will patially be emulated? Do you know something about, I could imagine it's hard to emulate because the BS-X system is not available anymore...

I saw the BS Zelda Sekiban title screen. Was it uncompressed in the ROM or is that an actual emulator screenshot? I've never seen it before.

You should ask the current webmaster, Duke because of that, but as far I know the screenshots were taken from an advertising DVD concerning Zelda made by Nintendo. The title is modified but the background is original. More screenshots can you find at http://www.zhq2.com/articlejapanzelda6.htm
Best is you look into the forum of the BSZHP for further infos...

I've heard that there is a dungeon + overworld map patch that can be used with SNEmul to fix the graphics.

Sadly that patch only helps for the overworld...

Someone posted on the 9x forums about the $2192 register format which unplugs the clock freeze waits on BS Marvelous, BS Zeldas, BS Dragon Quest, and such (all unpatched).

Do you know if the zsnes developers are going to fix this problem?

Post by **badinsults** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 6:26 pm

All problems will eventually be fixed, as that is the goal of zsnes. However, more research needs to be done on the BS system itself to remove all bugs. I don't think it is the highest priority to finish BS emulation until this research is done.

Malcster · Post by **Malcster** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 7:39 pm

I'm sure someone around here has a BS system that they bought for their own collection.. was it Ichinisan? Can't remember. I also remember Nach putting out a call quite a while ago for systems to be acquired and detailed research to be done, but I can't remember what if anything came of that.

Dreamer_Nom · Post by **Dreamer_Nom** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 8:12 pm

If someone does have a BS-X unit with quite enough spare time to run batteries of tests on a copier, the hardware research can be done pretty methodically here. Well, the MMC.

If you check on the old 9x forums, someone did do a bunch of software research but it left a bunch of assumptions and holes with the memory map. But the latest BS-X code version I've seen can run unpatched things pretty well -- it can even delete things on virtual flash with the BIOS. I don't remember how "recovering deleted" flash data worked out though with the real card.

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