Some help needed with Monster World IV T-Eng + Neoflash Myth card...

[keropi]

hiya!!!!

I am one of those ppl that grabbed the Neoflash cart when it got released, seemed so great at the time... haven't really used it for much except the ~20 games I burned in it...
So I checked neoflash page, seen a new manager update and a new menu update and basically I formatted my card (I was getting some strange errors with roms not loading too) and installed the new stuff.
But I can't get Monster World IV working as before
I have naturally tried :

Monster World IV (J) [f2][T-Eng_DeJap+Demiforce].gen which is hacked 64kbit sram save support
and Monster World IV (Japan) [T-En by Michele Di Somma v2.2].gen which I prefer to play because it seems it has some bugs fixed.

Neither work. Force 64kb sram on menu, the neoflash megadrive menu states they are using 8kb sram but nothing gets saved. Ever. And if you try to save a 2nd time (after the bogus 1st one) all you get is a black screen of death.
Since then I downgraded to the previous manager version and deluxe menu 2.5 (which loads way faster on classic 512mbit cards btw) , still nothing! no matter what settings you enforce , sram is broken. But I noticed something strange:



if you press B on this screen the game loads and sram is broken in the ways described above. BUT



if you press A on the game, go to the above options screen and just press B without changing anything at all, sram works perfect

Anyone has any idea why is this happening and how to get rid of that? Tried the neoflash forums but had no response there. And now the forums are down meh.
Is there a workaround/trick to make this work as expected?
thanks for any tips!

[Barone]

Anyone has any idea why is this happening and how to get rid of that? Tried the neoflash forums but had no response there. And now the forums are down meh.

I have no idea about what is happening and I don't the same flash cart (I use and Everdrive MD), sorry.

Is there a workaround/trick to make this work as expected?
thanks for any tips!

I think you should try the dumped version of the recent Virtual Console release of Monster World IV, officially translated.
Check your inbox!

And, please, give me a feedback 'cause I'm curious about it.

[keropi]

@agostinhobaroners:

thanks man, I did not mention that I already tried the VC release and it works fine and as expected, BUT I feel the translation is butchered at best... I think they watered it down too much All that japanese/lore dialogs were replaced by simple ones (the first example that comes to mind is the archive dude that you save your game, instead of him saying he witnessed kingdoms rise and fall you get a "save your game now?" LOL )

I might migrate to everdrive too but except from that save business I have no other reason TBH... (wonderboy in monster world works perfect btw, but it's save system is eeprom-based)

[Chilly Willy]

hiya!!!!

I am one of those ppl that grabbed the Neoflash cart when it got released, seemed so great at the time... haven't really used it for much except the ~20 games I burned in it...
So I checked neoflash page, seen a new manager update and a new menu update and basically I formatted my card (I was getting some strange errors with roms not loading too) and installed the new stuff.
But I can't get Monster World IV working as before
I have naturally tried :

Monster World IV (J) [f2][T-Eng_DeJap+Demiforce].gen which is hacked 64kbit sram save support
and Monster World IV (Japan) [T-En by Michele Di Somma v2.2].gen which I prefer to play because it seems it has some bugs fixed.

Neither work. Force 64kb sram on menu, the neoflash megadrive menu states they are using 8kb sram but nothing gets saved. Ever. And if you try to save a 2nd time (after the bogus 1st one) all you get is a black screen of death.
Since then I downgraded to the previous manager version and deluxe menu 2.5 (which loads way faster on classic 512mbit cards btw) , still nothing! no matter what settings you enforce , sram is broken. But I noticed something strange:


if you press B on this screen the game loads and sram is broken in the ways described above. BUT


if you press A on the game, go to the above options screen and just press B without changing anything at all, sram works perfect

Anyone has any idea why is this happening and how to get rid of that? Tried the neoflash forums but had no response there. And now the forums are down meh.
Is there a workaround/trick to make this work as expected?
thanks for any tips!

The server NeoFlash uses has been flakey for a while. Dr.neo said he's in the process of switching servers, so that might be part of why it's down right now. If you can't get to the NeoFlash forums, you can always reach me here. I answer questions on the NeoFlash forums when I can get onto the forum (like I said, it can be flakey). Sometimes I might go a couple days between checks depending on how busy I am.

Anywho, the latest MD menu is 2.7, not 2.5. That's posted over at the forums... which you can't get to.

You can also find 2.7 over at the google code page for the menu:

http://code.google.com/p/neo-myth-menu/

Try that and if it still gives you trouble, report back and I'll look into it. I take bug reports seriously, and fix them as quick as possible... when possible.

Anywho, download the 2.7 menu from the google page, and copy the MDEBIOS.BIN file to the SD card in the /menu/md directory. It should boot from the SD card and show 2.7 in the display for the menu version.

[keropi]

hiya Chilly Willy !!!!
the 2.7 menu does the same as 2.5 , I had this written on the neoflash forums too (but you can't see it now for obvious reasons)
I even fully formatted my card and put 2.7 on it, but no luck... loading from the list makes the sram not work correctly while loading inside options work.
Also is it normal for 2.7 to take longer to boot than 2.5 on a 512mbit card?

[Chilly Willy]

What kind of difference are you talking about? A few seconds? For what size file?

The options for roms are supposed to be saved in the config file for each rom. If for some reason the config file didn't save, it wouldn't use the settings set on the options screen. I'll try that out and see what I can find.

[keropi]

I mean the time needed from cold boot. The 2.5 menu takes ~3 seconds to appear on my screen while the 2.7 one takes ~8 seconds. Same roms , same settings, same machine... only the menu changes

Also regarding the sram setting, I burn the rom and refresh, then change the setting to SRAM 64kb (since it displayes "no save" and re-burn. On the manager from that point onwards the 64kb setting is present.
On the menu the 8kb sram setting is always recognized like on the 1st pic I uploaded. But only works if you just got to options with "A" and press "B" from there... hope you understand what's going on

[The Jackal]

I think you should try the dumped version of the recent Virtual Console release of Monster World IV, officially translated.

I apologize for derailing your thread, but any chance you could PM me a link to it as well agost, please?

[Chilly Willy]

I mean the time needed from cold boot. The 2.5 menu takes ~3 seconds to appear on my screen while the 2.7 one takes ~8 seconds. Same roms , same settings, same machine... only the menu changes

I added some code in 2.7 to ID the flash chips. That's probably it. I've been working on trying to write the flash from the menu on the Genesis - most of that code isn't in 2.7, but in a branch, but the basic ID code IS in the main branch.

Also regarding the sram setting, I burn the rom and refresh, then change the setting to SRAM 64kb (since it displayes "no save" and re-burn. On the manager from that point onwards the 64kb setting is present.
On the menu the 8kb sram setting is always recognized like on the 1st pic I uploaded. But only works if you just got to options with "A" and press "B" from there... hope you understand what's going on

When you burn a rom to flash, the settings for the game are in the flash menu entry along with things like the name, size, and where in the flash it was burned. Also in the flash menu entry is the sram setting.

When you run from SD, those things are not available, so we try to detect some things automatically. Those show in the info part of the display when you navigate to the game in the browser. If the menu detects a game uses flash, it should automatically set the amount (next larger size supported by the Myth as many games have sram amounts much smaller than the minimum sram size of 8KB). It defaults to bank 0, and automatically saving/restoring the bank. You have to go into the options screen to change automatic save/restore, and to change which bank is used (if you wish to change banks). Those settings will be saved in the config file for the rom on the SD card. If the SD is write protected, it won't be able to do so.

[keropi]

^ does this apply to me? I don't have the SD cart, just the 1st version 512mbit cart

[Chilly Willy]

^ does this apply to me? I don't have the SD cart, just the 1st version 512mbit cart

Ah - that might be part of the issue... I normally do all my testing on the SD cart since I can just stick the new menus on the SD card. Hmm - there's nowhere to save config settings on the flash only cart unless we want to reserve some of the sram for settings. So that means that if you change settings, they aren't saved. So you have to set them each time.

I should probably look into doing something like I mentioned - reserve some of the sram for saving settings on carts without SD.

[keropi]

I see... then how come Wonder Boy in Monster World , once set for eeprom works fine and as expected? I also remember in the past that Monster World IV was working fine once you set it to 64kbit SRAM...?
Unless so much stuff is changed now

edit: can't those settings be made from the Manager and be saved on the menu space for non-sd users? The SRAM is small, 1mbit is not that much and even 64kbit might be needed

[Chilly Willy]

I see... then how come Wonder Boy in Monster World , once set for eeprom works fine and as expected? I also remember in the past that Monster World IV was working fine once you set it to 64kbit SRAM...?
Unless so much stuff is changed now

You have to set flash-only cart settings in the PC client. There is only one setting for EEPROM at this time: on or off.

Have you changed which version of the PC client you use? We want to rule out the client as causing this issue, just the menu. In the meantime, I'll check the menu to see if we don't accidentally skip an sram setting on flash-only carts. Sram has TWO settings in the hardware - the mode and sram bank/size. The EEPROM only depends on the mode. It's possible the menu sets the mode, but misses the other, so EEPROM works, but not sram. I'll check it out.

edit: can't those settings be made from the Manager and be saved on the menu space for non-sd users? The SRAM is small, 1mbit is not that much and even 64kbit might be needed

The menu space is flash, which is part of why I'm experimenting with code to write the flash from the Genesis. The only thing the current menu can write right now is sram and the SD.

[keropi]

I have tested both 1.20 and 1.30 managers, and both 2.5 and 2.7 menus, all behave the same as described above...
I can make specific tests if you like.

Also how do you set the flash-only cart settings on the manager? I don't see an option

edit: just saw the edit about sram/flash... I hope you can succeed at writing flash from md but if this fails and sram is the only option then we can't really complain

[Chilly Willy]

I have tested both 1.20 and 1.30 managers, and both 2.5 and 2.7 menus, all behave the same as described above...
I can make specific tests if you like.

Okay, give me the rest of the day to look things over and maybe add some code.

Also how do you set the flash-only cart settings on the manager? I don't see an option

Uh, been a while... click the game in the client window - the settings should show on the right. Click the save info and it should show a popup control that lets you set the save type/size.