SxSI-SCSI HDD Image v3.02

[incrediblehark]

@X-Col

This may seem really strange, the cause of the Cyber Core music problem, is because of too much system memory.
In switch.x try to set a lower memory, for example 8MB.

Even with the xm6 type-g v.336 emulator you can do a test, when I set a memory value higher than 8MB, the music gets distorted.

@spectreman I can confirm this - anything higher than 8MB will cause the sound issue. There must be some ram addressing conflict causing the distortion. I have tested this on real hardware and with a retail copy of the game. Note that on actual X68000 hardware you can't just set SWITCH.X to 8MB as the ram is still installed. You would need to reconfigure your memory board or remove ram to set the amount installed to 8MB or less.

Another game I discovered causing this issue is Castles - the same memory restrictions apply. If you have more than 8MB of ram the game will crash after the intro with an error message. I was planning to install this game on the image when I kept running into the problem, and even obtained a retail copy to test. I don't have the skills but it would be interesting to analyze whats going on at those points in those 2 games - I bet they could be patched. Either way I'll be working on 3.02 and 2.32 to fix the reported issues and add notes regarding these memory restrictions. I'll also add the fixed Otaku harrier and see if I can get those 3d games installed.

One last note regarding 030 support - I still need to get a HDD set up for my machine (looking for a cable or adapter) then I'll start the process of testing each game and adding fixes where needed.

[neko68k]

I aint patching nothin! Nah just kidding I'll take a look if I get some time unless someone beats me to it. What a weird issue.

[spectreman]

Note that on actual X68000 hardware you can't just set SWITCH.X to 8MB as the ram is still installed. You would need to reconfigure your memory board or remove ram to set the amount installed to 8MB or less.

Yes, I noticed, but I forgot to update my previous post.
Even changing the memory addresses doesn't change anything (on the ones I could try), on real hardware the only solution is to reduce the amount of physical memory.

I think there is a conflict between the system memory and the expansion memory redirection, fortunately it only concerns Cyber Core and Castles.

But it's not just the X68000 that has strange problems with some games due to excess memory, but also on FM Towns, however in this case modulating the amount of total physical memory is definitely easier.

[sorimanis]

@sorimanis

On your Zuiki X68000 Z don't change the default boot order, leave them as incrediblehark configured them.
Example:
ID1=SxSI-SCSI_v301_disk1.hds
ID2=SxSI-SCSI_v301_disk2.hds
ID3=SxSI-SCSI_v301_disk3.hds
ID4=SxSI-SCSI_v301_disk4.hds

Switch.x settings:
BOOT: SCSI1
SCSI_ID: 7
You can also try setting HD_MAX: 4

not work(

@sorimanis  I have X68000z and I use this setting to mount 4 HDS image sucessfully.
After bootup, You need to press PC keyboard right side key number "1" to change the drive for choose games.
Most of the games are stowage in D drive and E drive. Hope you succeed!

not work. can you download video or detailed guid for every step.

[spectreman]

not work. can you download video or detailed guid for every step.

Your version probably has a different firmware.
Try 3rdman01's suggestion at post #466, using a automatic translator to help you.
From what I've read, it could solve the problem, except in the case of a possible limiting hardware revision.

[X-Col]

I just reconfigured my memory expansion to 6MB (so 8MB in total memory) and Cyber Core now works great, yeh!

@spectreman sorry for the delay in replying, I did try reducing memory via SWITCH.X but it didn't make any difference. Thanks for this info incrediblehark, I can play without that annoying sound :-)

Strange issue, I would never have figured it out myself....

[incrediblehark]

Quick update - I have notes added for the odd 8MB RAM limit issues, and changed Otaku Harrier to 2hdboot resolving the post level 1 lockup.

I have almost all 3D games patched (Thanks neko68k!). The only one left is Fantasy Zone - CRC error is preventing me from patching. I'll use my retail disk when I get a chance.
EDIT: Fantasy Zone already has a 3D mode by holding HELP during boot. Added a .BAT to assist.

I also wasn't able to update the 3d patch of Space Harrier to HA3D2 as I kept getting a timestamp match error in BUP. HA3D works fine though.

I will also include the source files, etc that neko mentioned, at least what I saw in the Dennou club disks. I will do a rough translation to the cable adapter instructions included as well so people can build their own. If I ever get my hands on some 3D glasses I'll try it myself. Any other 3D games out there? I know of Silpheed but thats all I can think of right now.

Any other requests please let me know before the update goes live (planning for the weekend of 5/10/25).

EDIT: All set for upload - I'll give it a day or so. Last call for any more additions before the update!

[neko68k]

I don't remember the switch but you can tell BUP to ignore timestamp differences. You can ignore CRC also but I wouldn't. I've generally had success with ignoring timestamps though. I suppose its a side effect of stuff being copied around various computers at different times over the past 20-30 years.

[kamiboy]

I was the one who discovered, or rather, re-discovered the 3D patches on those disks. If I remember correctly  I successfully applied the patches to all the supported games.

In some cases there were two versions, one standard one, designed for the original tower X68000 models that came equipped with the 3D out port, and another which also supported the Compact XVI revisions, which had dropped that port. In those cases joypad port two would be used to hook up the glasses, and there was an illustration to show the pinout to use when making an adapter.

For any game that doesn't use the 2nd joypad port anyway, it would be best to apply the Compact version of the patch as that would then expand the utility of the 3D patch.

I regret now that I chose to use the former, since my main machine is actually a Compact, oh well.

I even tested the games by making an adapter to attach the NES 3D glasses to the X68000, which worked quite well. If memory served me right, I believe you can easily make an adapter for the Master System 3D glasses as well, but good luck finding one of those without a crack running across the middle.

Any LCD shutter 3D glasses should be compatible with the setup as they all work more or less the same, applied voltage causes the LCD in front of one eye to block the image, sync that to the game rendering a view for the other eye and hey presto, you got 3D.

I actually very vaguely remember that the one photo I found of the very rare and illusive official X68000 3D glasses, they were just a rebadged version of either Master System or NES 3D glasses, with my memory in favour of the latter.

[incrediblehark]

@kamiboy Thank you for the info! Do you happen to have the patched files still? I wasn't able to use the updated patch for space harrier or fantasy zone. Space harrier gave a crc error after bypassing timestamp error and fantasy zone patched but the game wouldnt progress past the boot screen. Does that mean the joypad b adapter won't work with those games?

[kamiboy]

I think I uploaded them in the thread I made on these very forums: https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6222.0

[incrediblehark]

Ah! Thank you! Not sure why I never saw this earlier, and would have saved me the trouble of patching myself. Thank you for sharing these years ago. I'll replace my versions with yours and give proper credit.

EDIT: v3.02 update now available

[rezb1t]

In some cases there were two versions, one standard one, designed for the original tower X68000 models that came equipped with the 3D out port, and another which also supported the Compact XVI revisions, which had dropped that port. In those cases joypad port two would be used to hook up the glasses, and there was an illustration to show the pinout to use when making an adapter.

Wow, that's really cool! I had no idea that the Compact could use the 3D glasses, I thought I was out of luck since it lacks the port.

One of these days I'll have to get these glasses!

Also, always a great day when there's a new version of this wonderful disk image. Downloading right now!

[neko68k]

FWIW all of the LCS shutter glasses back then; famicom, master system, and x68000 are the exact same internally and (un)surprisingly are using a Sharp made IC to drive the LCD's

[3rdman01]

I already downloaded and installed this image in my system...I look forward to going through it all this weekend. Thank you again incrediblehark...I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into this for us. It's absolutely wonderful. Thank you!

[tugs]

@tugs The only games that shouldn't save your progress are the ones loaded by 2hdboot. What is your hardware setup for the hard disk? I'll test it out today. Please double check for me as well. Start a new game (name entry) play and force a game over and go through those screens back to the title. When you power down the X68000 and start back up, there should be a name entry there. If you start a new game and reset before the game initiates a save process, there will be no entries when you return to the game. If you still aren't seeing a save file after trying this out then there is an issue.


EDIT: I just tested on my system and Akumajou saving works normally.

As akumajo, like more or less all the games included with SCSI Image, is loaded through an emulation of floppy disk drives, i wonder if this is not a limitation of this mechanism (emulating the floppy disks disallows the ability to save things about the game)

For the record Akumajo has a hard drive install option on the original floppy disc and so is designed to save to HD.

Just to confirm what Shark says, I believe the game only saves at a game over.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the testing and replies !

I don't use any on disk installation . I boot on my bluescsi , launch the game through LHES and the !start.bat associated to Akumajo . It seems that !start.bat is using some kind of binaries to emulate floppy disk drives and launch the game.

My understanding right now, is, that, to have the ability to save the game, I need to use hdinstall binary to install akumajo on disk (for instance on partition 1 of drive 1 of bluescsi)

Have you tested the method I described? The game is installed using the hdd installer (RA960 folder on C:) and 2hdsim runs for disk A only because akumajou expects that disk in floppy 0 when running from a HDD install. I believe there's a patched version that removes that check but I'm not using that in my image. It should not affect saving in any way.

I can try on other hardware and with bluescsi v2 to try and recreate the problem if it is in fact not saving for you. 

Hi IncredibleHark

Sorry I just realized that I never replied here .  I tested and yes, if I let the game over goes and click save, I'm able to retrieve my name already entered !

Thanks

[higgs]

I've been getting some sort of error or crash every time I try to boot Thunder Force II using this image. Has anyone else run into issues with this game?

[incrediblehark]

Could you describe the error? How much ram do you have installed? This game loads the disk images into memory and reserves some system ram area to be able to run properly from hard disk, so the memory requirement may be closer to 4-6 MB.

[higgs]

I had 10MB ram installed at the time. When I tried to start the game the screen turned white and froze. I recall getting an error message on other occasions but that may have been when the ram wasn't being detected properly. Unfortunately I can't test anything more at the moment since my PSU just failed so I'll need to find a good replacement option before I can do anything else.

[3rdman01]

Id bet that your PSU was failing causing unexpected side effects.

[higgs]

Possibly, but all the other games I had tried had been working without issue so not sure why it would only happen on Thunder Force II.

[hoshikawa]

it's been a few years since i've used my x68000 so i figured i would break it out and update my hdd image with this new one, i'm using a scsi2sd v5.5 i think, it's a small board about the size of a business card with a microsd card slot, anyway i just thought i would report that it seems to work fine even though it isn't mentioned as working in the guide. thanks for the hard work and i look forward to testing it out.

[higgs]

I finally got a replacement PSU so I've been able to give Thunder Force II another try and now it's giving me an address error at the title screen.

[incrediblehark]

hmm, would you be able to run MTEST or boot a memtest68k disk? other than that I can only think something is loaded in ram at boot thats taking the address space needed by Thunder Force II. Can you check CONFIG.SYS and see if I accidentally left WINDRV enabled? If so, REM it out and try again.

Also, if you get an error that prevents MTEST from running, use HIOCS /R and try again.

[higgs]

Both MTEST and the memtest68k disk look ok and WINDRV has a REM DEVICE entry in CONFIG.SYS. I also tried changing the jumpers around on my Etarikashikoshi board but that didn't seem to help either.

[incrediblehark]

Thank you for the testing and checking that for me. Really odd as I have tested with no issues on my end. I'll see if I can recreate the problem.

[spectreman]

@higgs

I tried Thunder Force II with my XVI using Etarikashikoshi ram (version with updated firmware) and a TSR, I had no problems.

A possible hypothesis would be the possibility that in the repeated removals of the Etarikashikoshi board with the old faulty firmware in an attempt to boot it at 16MHz, you created a crack in an SMD (Surface Mount Devices) solder by reinserting it.

It would also be useful to know which emulation device you use.

Another test on the ram that you can do is to start the game Valis II that uses 10MB of ram to boot in 2HDBoot mode, you can find it in the Action category.

[higgs]

Valis II works fine for me. I'm using a BlueSCSI if that helps at all.

[spectreman]

If Valis II works, it means that your system is working correctly.
It could be the version of Thunder Force II, contained in the BlueSCSI edition, that is faulty.

Unfortunately, I cannot verify this at the moment.

Try to boot the version contained in the single image, v2.32.

Alternatively, you can also try the one in the Eidis image, V4, contained in the Games3 folder, it would definitely help.

Also check what BlueSCSI firmware you are using.

[higgs]

I haven't gotten around to testing Thunder Force II versions in other images but can verify that the game runs correctly off original floppies so it seems likely that there's a problem with the version in the BlueSCSI image.

[aotta]

I can confirm that Thunder Force II crashes (read error) in my config too (BlueSCSI v2, 10mb RAM) if launched with "Q+Q" combo, but it works fine if launched via !Start.bat (RET+RET)

[incrediblehark]

@aotta thank you for testing this! Higgs, does that method work for you? I was unable to recreate the error on my end but I am working on an update so I can add a note to run Thunder Force II from within LHES if that is a known solution.

[higgs]

Unfortunately neither method works for me

[higgs]

Also, I forgot to mention in my earlier post, but updating the BlueSCSI firmware didn't help.

[ateam]

Has anyone tried "Mahou Daisakusen" with MIDI?

I'm using an Etarikashikoshi for RAM+MIDI on an Expert, and neither my SC-55 MKII nor my MT-32 is picking up anything. Based on what I could find, the game was designed for the SC-55 MKII.

[3rdman01]

I'll test my setup tonight and report back. In the meantime, I stumbled on a post in this very thread that stated:

NOTE to Etarikashikoshi RAM/MIDI board users - set both jumpers to the 2-3 positions on your board to avoid crashes and bus errors with MMDSP and some games. I actually suspect a lot of reported bus errors with games like  Daimakaimura and Mahou Daisakusen are related to the odd default IRQ setting of the Etarikashikoshi. If you experience issues with midi and games, try that first. 

Could that possibly be your issue?

[3rdman01]

I just tested my setup and yeah, SC55 plays perfectly. By the way, I have an original MIDI output card and a separate 10mb expansion card for what its worth.

[ateam]

I'll test my setup tonight and report back. In the meantime, I stumbled on a post in this very thread that stated:

NOTE to Etarikashikoshi RAM/MIDI board users - set both jumpers to the 2-3 positions on your board to avoid crashes and bus errors with MMDSP and some games. I actually suspect a lot of reported bus errors with games like  Daimakaimura and Mahou Daisakusen are related to the odd default IRQ setting of the Etarikashikoshi. If you experience issues with midi and games, try that first. 

Could that possibly be your issue?

I will try this, thanks!

[spectreman]

Has anyone tried "Mahou Daisakusen" with MIDI?

Mahou Daisakusen and the modified version of After Burner use a MIDI support based on the audio library of the Roland SC-88. Alternatively, the SC-55 MKII model can be used, which has received an update with an effects package inherited directly from the SC-88, audio effects that are not present in the SC-55 model.

The Roland SC-55 MKII and also the SC-55 can emulate the MT-32 model through a combination of keys during startup, but the sound comes out slightly muffled.

Etarikashikoshi has a firmware problem that prevents it from emulating the music of the SC-88; for this reason, only sound effects can be heard through the built-in speaker of the X68000 or the monitor.

However, only these two games use the effects of the SC-88 out of a total of 82 games with MIDI support.

[ateam]

Mahou Daisakusen and the modified version of After Burner use a MIDI support based on the audio library of the Roland SC-88. Alternatively, the SC-55 MKII model can be used, which has received an update with an effects package inherited directly from the SC-88, audio effects that are not present in the SC-55 model.

The Roland SC-55 MKII and also the SC-55 can emulate the MT-32 model through a combination of keys during startup, but the sound comes out slightly muffled.

Etarikashikoshi has a firmware problem that prevents it from emulating the music of the SC-88; for this reason, only sound effects can be heard through the built-in speaker of the X68000 or the monitor.

However, only these two games use the effects of the SC-88 out of a total of 82 games with MIDI support.

Thank you for this information. Could be worth trying the jumpers anyway, but it seems you have this data on good authority, yeah? After Burner I know was tested, that much is sure.