Any way to confirm a Rom besides NSRT ?

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:15 pm

Hi fellows,

I wonder if there's any way to confirm a ROM prior to patching besides NSRT ? My reason for asking is that I ran into a few problems patching a few RPGs, especially Bahamut Lagoon lately.

I had a ROM titled "Bahamut Lagoon (J) [!].smc" which run without any IPS applied, but didn't start softpatched nor hardpatched.

I checked the ROM with NSRT and it showed up good and clean.

After some search I found another ROM titled "Bahamut Lagoon (J).smc" which run smoothly with the same patch.

Funny thing is that both ROMS came up with the *exakt* same result in NSRT. When checking the two files I found that the non working version is about 1kb smaller than the working one (3072 vs. 3073kb).

Now I simply wonder what NSRT is actually checking and it worries me a little that "NSRT-confirmed" dumps fail the IPS patching. Especially while the "non-working" ROM was marked with [!] which - to my knowledge - means confirmed and working.

Any ideas on this one ?

Thanks,
Fudoh

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:20 pm

post NSRT's outputs.

Hyos · Post by **Hyos** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:03 pm

The zwo Bahamut Lagoon Roms are identical but one has a bit of data added at the beginning - this is called a header. Such a header ist 512 Byte in size so guess Windows shows this as 1KB more.

ZSNES disregards headers and just plays the ROm. So they both run.
The version of the patch you have however was made for a headered Rom. Thats why it works with one but not the other.

I am sure NSRT post the info about the header in it's output.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:05 pm

Bahamut Lagoon (J) [!].smc

works without patching, but does NOT work with patching

Exact size: 3,00 MB (3.145.728 Bytes)

NSRT v3.3 - Nach's SNES ROM Tools

File: Bahamut Lagoon (J) [!].smc
Name: Bahamut Lagoon
Company: Square
Header: None
Bank: HiROM
Interleaved: No
SRAM: 64 Kb
Type: Normal + Batt
ROM: 24 Mb
Country: Japan
ROM Speed: 120ns (FastROM)
Video: NTSC
Revision: 1.0
Checksum: Good 0xB856
CRC32: 1B83C440
MD5: 5254A985EDC33928BB8535151A668080

--Database--

Name: Bahamut Lagoon
Country: Japan
Revision: 1.0
Port 1: Gamepad
Port 2: Gamepad
Genre 1: RPG
Genre 2: Turn Based

Bahamut Lagoon (J).smc

works with and without patching

Exact size: 3,00 MB (3.146.240 Bytes)

NSRT v3.3 - Nach's SNES ROM Tools

File: Bahamut Lagoon (J).smc
Name: Bahamut Lagoon
Company: Square
Header: SWC
Bank: HiROM
Interleaved: No
SRAM: 64 Kb
Type: Normal + Batt
ROM: 24 Mb
Country: Japan
ROM Speed: 120ns (FastROM)
Video: NTSC
Revision: 1.0
Checksum: Good 0xB856
CRC32: 1B83C440
MD5: 5254A985EDC33928BB8535151A668080

--Database--

Name: Bahamut Lagoon
Country: Japan
Revision: 1.0
Port 1: Gamepad
Port 2: Gamepad
Genre 1: RPG
Genre 2: Turn Based

I'm using ZSNES v1.51

Thanks - just noticed the difference in the Header. Is there any way to add a header to a ROM, remove it or change an existing header. In other words, how do I make the non-patchable version I have patchable ???

Thanks in advance !

Fudoh

Post by **Agozer** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:00 pm

NSRT can add and remove headers. Some IPS patchers can also add and remove headers from IPS files.

Headers are required by copiers and are fairly useless for in emulation use. Unless an IPS patch requires a rom with a header, that is.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:12 pm

NSRT can add and remove headers

I guess I should have checked before asking. Thanks a lot though for the hint !

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:07 pm

Agozer wrote:Some IPS patchers can also add and remove headers from IPS files.

I.e. adjusting the offset value of each patch in the IPS.