Super Mario World proto-SF7 dumping problems

[rbudrick]

This is for Van_Halen, LiWang, TheRedEye, Zidanax, and everyone else who has been hoping I will finally get around to dumping my Super Mario World proto. So I finally have a computer with a setup that allows true DOS to use the program TSF3 to connect this machine to my parallel port to dump the game.

As some may remember in this thread,

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79207&start=25

Zidanax gave me some pointers on how to make this work. I tried for hours last night and it was no use. So, I need some help.

First, some questions.

1). Do I have to dump the game to disk first before I dump it to the internal memory?

2). Do I have to dump it to the disk OR the internal memory at all before I can run it through the parallel port? In other words, can the parallel port and program just grab it from the cart?

Every time I try to dump the game to the internal memory it asks for a disk, even if it's got one in it, and then promptly gives me a disk error. It's driving me crazy because I just want to dump the game to the internal memory, so why does it ask for a disk? Argh. I ordered a new floppy drive anyway, so we'll know soon.

Then I thought, maybe I'm messing up the command line structure. When I get to the DOS prompt, I go to the path the program is in, which is c:/windows/desktop/gdsf7/. The way Zidanax explained the command once you get to the path was sounded something like

TGS3 1/filename

But, I looked in the instructions, and it was more like

TGS3 1/filepath

In other words

TGS3 1/c:\windows\desktop\gdsf7\sf4269

So, more questions:

3) Do I need a space after the 1 for my port number?
4) What about after the slash after the 1?
5) Is the file name I put in that path supposed to be the one on the TV screen in the SF7 menu?

Either way, it always says file not found.

6) Is this because I didn't dump the game to disk or memory as in question 1 and 2? Cuz it sure won't let me.

Hell, if I could get the damn thing on disk, I wouldn't need the TSF3 program!

Hope you can help!

-Rob

[scooby105]

Here's how you go about dumping the game to memory without a disk. Your drive error may be causing the problem though.

Hold the R Button when booting up the system. Then go to Utility. Click on Back Up Card. It'll tell you the game size and say "Reading." Then it will say "Insert Disk Please." Press Select. The game should be in your internal memory.

I'm not sure about using the TSF3 program since it doesn't like my parallel port. SF7s are picky with parallel ports. You can always try the TSF2 program as well.

I think it goes like this:
TSF3 1/c:\windows\desktop\sfXX001
with the XX being the size of the gamefile. It should be in multiples of 8, so 08, 16, 24, 32, 40, etc. based on how many slots it takes up. If it fills slots A and B, it would be 16.

Where do you live? I assume you don't want to send the proto to anyone, but you might live by someone who could dump the game for you with you there.

[NEOFREAK9189]

any pic of game

[NEOFREAK9189]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg

[rbudrick]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg

No I don't. I can't say I've seen that one before. Mine appears to be the released version of the SFC game when you play it, but it is on eeproms. For all I know the code is identical. I got it from a former Nintendo employee.

Is that one you showed pics of dumped anywhere?

-Rob

[shadowkn55]

You can use ucon64 to dump the game. It doesn't need a true dos environment and works fine in Windows XP. However, you still may want to try the floppy method. It's less work to get setup and ucon4 can join the pieces back together.

[rbudrick]

Well, it's only a 4mb (4MB?) game, so I don't think it will be split or anything. But yeah, if it turns out that TSF3 is just plain not going to work with my computer, I'll give ucon a shot...I dunno why, but I forgot about that.

-Rob

[shadowkn55]

mb = megabit (mbit)
MB = megabyte

Most likely its 4mbit rather than 4MB.

[rbudrick]

mb = megabit (mbit)
MB = megabyte

Most likely its 4mbit rather than 4MB.

Right, I knew the difference, it's just that people so frequently misuse them I wasn't sure which it meant (I just assume most folks, even most techies will misuse it).

So, SMW is basically 512KB. It amazes me how much developers were able to squeeze into what is so small by today's standards.

-Rob

[50TBRD]

A lot of times it may just be the fact that people don't want to use the shift button to capitalize the MB. It happens all the time with other proper names and just about everyone does it at one time or another.

[shadowkn55]

Thats true but the capitalization in this respect changes the intended meaning. Lack of capitalizaion in proper names does not change the meaning as dramatically as in this example.

[jajaja]

Not going to threadjack, but while were at this topic i got a question. I tried to dump a SNES proto with my Super Wildcard, i belive its 24mbit (not the 64mbit version). When i insert the proto and boot the SNES i dont get any picture on the screen, ergo i cant dump anything. Anyone knows why?

[shadowkn55]

Is the proto bigger than the internal memory of your SWC? Can you play the game using the SWC as a passthrough device? (playing the game through the cartridge without dumping it)

[jajaja]

No, when i boot the SNES i dont get anything on the screen. When i put a retail game in i get up the menu where i can choose to copy the game or just play it. I dont know how big the proto is in size, but im pretty sure i've gotten bigger retail games to work on the SWC.

[Dimitri]

SF7 units have very finicky parallell ports. I've never gotten the parallell on my unit to work. I've replaced the floppy drive a couple times, though -- it's really quite easy. Might want to make sure the drive cable it fully seated, as I recently had my unit stop reading disks properly until I reseated the cable. A regular PC floppy drive should work fine, though, and replacements can be found for under ten bucks.


No, when i boot the SNES i dont get anything on the screen.
All I can think of is if the game has additional hardware (DSP, SuperFX, SA1, etc...) in it.

But then, even Capcom C4 games will still come up to the SF7 menu -- I know this as I've done it -- though you can't dump those because the C4 handles the ROM banking.

[dairugger]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg

has this proto ever been found? id be most interested to see this!

[Kuros]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg

has this proto ever been found? id be most interested to see this!

Ditto, I'd love to give that proto a shot.

[shadowkn55]

SF7 units have very finicky parallell ports. I've never gotten the parallell on my unit to work.

It can't be that finicky since I just loaded and dumped a game onto the sf7 for the first time using ucon64. The only thing you need to do in terms of setup is copy io.dll to the same folder as ".ucon64rc". I must say, it sure beats loading ToP with 6 floppies.

[GizmoGC]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg

has this proto ever been found? id be most interested to see this!

Ditto, I'd love to give that proto a shot.

Raises hand! Where did those come from?

[NEOFREAK9189]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg
other
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario8.jpg

[badinsults]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg

has this proto ever been found? id be most interested to see this!

Ditto, I'd love to give that proto a shot.

Raises hand! Where did those come from?

They are from a video shown at a Japanese trade show, I believe. Very early alpha shots of the game, possibly just concept shots that may not have even been part of the game.

[Predatorxs]

you have this proto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario7.jpg
other
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario8.jpg

Ditto for me too, are those screen caps from a dumped rom? or is that something special you have locked away?

Anymore pics would be great.. ;)

[dairugger]

if i remember correctly, these are scans from a old video game and computer entertainment magazine, i know egm also ran some like these too as did a issue or two of nintendo power. ive got almost all the egms and vg & ce and they have pics just like it, but ive never seen the one with leaf mario!

[Predatorxs]

if i remember correctly, these are scans from a old video game and computer entertainment magazine, i know egm also ran some like these too as did a issue or two of nintendo power. ive got almost all the egms and vg & ce and they have pics just like it, but ive never seen the one with leaf mario!

So it's looking like that version or that code of SWM will never see the light of day, those screen caps are probably from an early version, since alot if not most of what is seen in those caps didn't make it into the finished game, the sprites, the map, racoon mario etc. O_O

[jajaja]

Maybe the ultimate proto for SNES? :) I would love to have it atleast, probly damn valuable too.

[Mark30001]

Ah man, when I first saw this thread I thought you were going to dump the SNES proto from those pics.

It's all good though, it's nice that you're interested in dumping your proto! :)

[Niku-Sama]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/neofreak9193/untitlebetasuperfamiconmario.jpg


interesting Copyright 1989 and the game looks a whole hell of alot shorter than the mario world that was released

rbudrick i cant help at all but can you post pics of your proto? i mean of the cart and/or board it self.....just kinda curious

edit:
i had to check, the back of nintendo power #20 had something about the super famicom (#20 w/ MegaMan 3 on cover) and the screens for SMW had mario in a cape and the huge bulletbills didnt yet have full faces.
this type of stuff is just hella interesting.

[GizmoGC]

Scans of that mag?

[Mark30001]

You can find those and a bit more here:

http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/secrets11.html
http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/misc/IMG_1095.jpg

thanks to Chris Covell! ^^

[Predatorxs]

You can find those and a bit more here:

http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/secrets11.html
http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/misc/IMG_1095.jpg

thanks to Chris Covell! ^^

Hey thanks for the links, makes for interesting viewing, it would be great if there where early codes of SMW flying around.. but the way nintendo keep things so close to there chests you can forget that Grrrrrrr! :P

[rbudrick]

Success. I got an extremely detailed PM from someone on how to use TSF3 to dump games from SF7-PC. It didn't work. So, as a last resort, I used my laptop, which I had no hope for because I went through hell recently trying to get it to dump FDS disks (but it couldn't because that laptop can NOT switch to EPP mode on the parallel port, no matter what).

But, the laptop worked immediately.

For those who wanted to see the cart and board, here you go:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72119

Now, I got the raw dump, and some folks said I should run it through an Md5 checker, andsome others said check it with ucon64, and someone else said use NSRT. But, I'm pretty clueless using any of those. I used UCON and I think I converted it from sf7 format to smc (Super Magic Card...the industry standard), but I dunno. Who at Lost Levels want the job of checking to make sure I did this right?

Bythe way, It is in a SFC case, but it says Super Mario World on the title screen (it doesn't add the Super Mario Brothers 4, that, iirc the Japanese version has). So, American rom burnt into a Japanese case.

Also, Since my Pilotwings is an EEPROM, I should probably dump that, even though it is a release label and box (Both Japanese). But I think it too is the American version in a Japanese casing.

-Rob

[shadowkn55]

None of those programs will help much since its a prototype and most likely not going to be in the database of ucon64 or nsrt. First stay away from ucon at all costs. That program is ancient and way out of date. Use ucon64. If you want to convert your raw dump into smc format, its only a few steps using ucon64.

Supposing your raw dump file is called sf4xxx.078, type these commands in a dos prompt:

ucon64 --swc sf4xxx.078
ucon64 -stp sf4xxx.swc
ren sf4xxx.swc smbwproto.smc

The end product is a deinterleaved headerless rom file called smbwproto.smc

If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

[rbudrick]

How do you do that with the frontend version, just for future reference?

-Rob

[shadowkn55]

I've never used it before so I wouldn't know.

[Mark30001]

For those who wanted to see the cart and board, here you go:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72119

Cool! It's even on an SFC cart (true beta??)! :)

[rbudrick]

So .078 is the extension on raw SF7 images? They didn't seem to have extensions after I dumped them, so I wasn't sure.

-Rob

[shadowkn55]

It doesn't matter if it has the extension or not. It should work the same.

[JOLLERANCHER]

http://pixpipeline.com/s/e1d96f56a06c.jpg (http://pixpipeline.com/d/e1d96f56a06c.jpg)
think someone was asking what a mario snow ball shirt looked like. i picked this up along with a 1990 nwc t-shirt that i gave to nicola.

[rbudrick]

OK, got it converted. Thanks shadowkn55!

I'm gonna give this to Skrybe to give to the other lost levels guys.

-Rob

[rbudrick]

Bumpingthis for two reasons. Fiirst, I wanted to tell you all thatthe proto turned out to be exactly the same as the released version. :-( Secondly, I shamelessly wanted to point you to this thread:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92576

I figured since the thread title is done and over with, I should start a new one, but if you just want to continue it here instead (or also), I don't mind the extra publicity to get help with this. BWA HA HA HA.

-Rob

[Jorpho]

While we're on the subject, did the arcade version of SMW ever turn up? It was released for the uncommon SNES-like incarnation of the Playchoice-10, apparently, and still featured leaves instead of feathers.

[rbudrick]

Do you mean the rom? I'm not sure I've ever seen any PC10 SNES roms.

-Rob

[c0ldb33r]

mb = megabit (mbit)
MB = megabyte

Most likely its 4mbit rather than 4MB.

Actually...

Mb = megabit
MB = megabyte

mb would be millibit

This post is retarded, I know :(

[Jorpho]

Do you mean the rom? I'm not sure I've ever seen any PC10 SNES roms.

Ah, here we are. The Nintendo Super System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Super_System), that's what they called it.

[agbulls]

Ah, here we are. The Nintendo Super System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Super_System), that's what they called it.

So did anyone ever do any real research into the Playchoice 10 versions of these SNES games? I would be really curious if there are infact differences between these and the final cartridges. I still think seeing a true 16-bit Mario using the leaf power would be incredible. HIGHLY UNLIKELY, but still incredible. :)

[madman77]

You can always download the ROMs and MAME and see for yourself :)

[ProgrammingAce]

So did anyone ever do any real research into the Playchoice 10 versions of these SNES games? I would be really curious if there are infact differences between these and the final cartridges. I still think seeing a true 16-bit Mario using the leaf power would be incredible. HIGHLY UNLIKELY, but still incredible. :)

http://programmingace.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/supersystem.jpg

Next time i'm down in memphis, i can take a look...

[rbudrick]

Bumpingthis for two reasons. Fiirst, I wanted to tell you all thatthe proto turned out to be exactly the same as the released version. :-( Secondly, I shamelessly wanted to point you to this thread:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92576

I figured since the thread title is done and over with, I should start a new one, but if you just want to continue it here instead (or also), I don't mind the extra publicity to get help with this. BWA HA HA HA.

-Rob
Does anyone remember what that link was? It doesn't work anymore, and I don't even remember. Is it because it was from the old incarnation of the boards? Do all old links from the old board not work anymore? I hadn't even noticed the link format changed.

-Rob

[agbulls]

I think that picture above pretty much shows that the PC10 version of Mario World is likely identical. Until I'm shown otherwise, I'll assume thats true. I'm also going to assume that no one has EVER seen any actual moving video of that picture of Mario in the racoon suit from an early version of the game.

[Ed Oscuro]

mb = megabit (mbit)
MB = megabyte

Most likely its 4mbit rather than 4MB.
The M should always be capitalized. Just nitpicking...and some people would have you put it in MiB or Mib, but I don't care :P

Congrats on the successful dump, Rbudrick!