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Hello everyone, does anybody tried to flash LSDJ or any other GAMEBOY music production software in one of this guys?
I tried about 2 or 3 years ago without success using the BleepBloop Transferer and the GBCFLSH software (Mac). Any thoughts? thanks for help!
Last edited by DROP 1410 (Aug 15, 2012 6:58 pm)
LSDJ might work on this, it has enough SRAM and it should have enough RAM to store LSDJ itself. However, the software Nintendo wrote used 1/8 of the RAM for storing the menu, so if you would use that software, that wouldn't work. Maybe if you remove the software from the cartridge and then load your LSDJ rom on there, it might work. I think it mostly depends on how the hardware is designed, and I don't know anything about the hardware of cartridges. Maybe if you give some gutshots, someone more talented than me might be able to make this work.
Thanks lavar. You know when I made back ups of my BleepBloop cartridges, I always use this setting:
But I don't know which would be the setting for this cart. I also dumped a copy of the .GB (showing the original menu) you mentioned. I must match the right setting of the GBCFLSH software to delete that .gb file and place LSDJ.
When I try to erase the .gb file of this cart using the GBCFLSH software the menu still there :-(
Any other help or ideas would be great!
Thanks!
I'm also very interested in this! I know a few people who use lsdj on these. I'll see if I can ask someone of them.
Hello nordoloef ;-)
Ok so here some progress... today I attached the NP cartridge to the BleepBloop programmer and using GBFLSH (Mac version) I was able to download the .gb file. That means that now I have a copy of the original MENU addressed by nintendo into the cartridge, and here is how looks like:
Now, for some F.... reason I can't ERASE the flash... well when I hit the ERASE FLASH button seems to work out and the GBFLSH software says "Erase Flash ¡Success!", but then when I test the cartridge again on my DMG the F.... menu + the F.... games still there :-(
When I downloaded the .GB file of the NP menu, I didn't touch it the settings that came up when the GBFLSH software is open, so why it's so easy to read and download the menu file and why I can not erase the entire cartridge? :-(
I know that the artist called USK @CHIPDISKO have experience working out with this stuff, I also tried to send and email to him, but the CONTACT form on his website send me an error.
PLEASE HELP!!!!
;-)
Last edited by DROP 1410 (Aug 16, 2012 6:12 am)
I'm basing this off of assumptions, but..If the flashchip is supported by the gameboy color flasher design, and given that's what people are using to program these things, they may be using a jumper to write through pin 31.
Ok, but then what we could try flash this guy? :-(
By the way... check this video... this is how look's and sound this NP menu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3lQMqLtnFY
Last edited by DROP 1410 (Aug 16, 2012 9:38 pm)
It is not supported by the GBC flasher program and it's not using the VIN pin for progrmamming. (That pin is in fact not even connected anywhere. If only things were that easy...
I was able to use either a Bung XChanger or a Flash Linker to read & write data to these cartridges using a Windows utility called FlashManager (I think that's what it was called, it's been a while). I don't know the specifics but I know there was something different about the way these carts handled RAM (may have simply been capacity, I can't remember) that made it a risky affair when using LSDJ. I believe Johan however later optimized LSDJ to make it compatible with these cartridges.
Can't offer any help about these carts' compatibility with newer readers unfortunately, or OSes other than Win98.
Thanks nitro!, on the other hand thanks too Bit Shifter, I remember that softare (FlashManager) I would try to find a copy and do some tests.
Thanks guys!
Hello again... GOT A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL FLASH-MANAGER SOFTWARE!!!
In this website: http://mootan.hg.to/fmgbx/
Scroll-down a little, and you will see the downloads options:
FlashManager for GBx v1.10 (日本語 Ver.) ダウンロード
FlashManager for GBx v1.10 (English Ver.) Download
FlashManager for GBx v0.01 (VC7 MFC Project) Source
I also sent an email to the webmaster of this website... seems like there's a way to build your own EZ-Linker kind of, but all info is in japanese :-(
I was able to use either a Bung XChanger or a Flash Linker to read & write data to these cartridges using a Windows utility called FlashManager (I think that's what it was called, it's been a while). I don't know the specifics but I know there was something different about the way these carts handled RAM (may have simply been capacity, I can't remember) that made it a risky affair when using LSDJ. I believe Johan however later optimized LSDJ to make it compatible with these cartridges.
They supposedly only have 64 kB of SRAM. If you would save songs beyond that, the open song would be overwritten.
However, this is strange, because both the cartridge you sent me (thanks) and the one that there's an image of have 128 kB SRAM chips. So either there are different versions of it, or you need a special way of accessing the memory in order to access the full 128 kB.
However, I may have a clue about how to flash it. I'll do experiments. However, if successful, the question is how to make this available to the public. The common flasher hardware available today (except maybe old LPT port hardware) doesn't give you direct access to the cartridge. There's always my cartridge swap method, but...
Hello guys... today I invested about 3 hours searching the best solution to flash this kind of cartridges (specially from a mac). So this are the results of my tests:
1. Because I don't have a PC computer to test more until next week, I just started today looking for a solution for mac users. I downloaded Crossover (trial version) http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22636/crossover in order to run the FlasManager.exe (win) installer aplication.
2. With the BleepBloop programmer attached to a native USB port of my mac I tested all of the opening settings of the FlashManager app without no success!. At this point I thought that the BleepBloop programmer would not work with this old software.
3. The only good thing and confirm what Bit Shifter mentioned before is the support with GB Xchanger adapter (check the attached SS for more details). The big issue is that seems HARD to find one those these days, and I don't have a friend with one to make test. Also this adapter was Parallel port enhanced :-(.
Final conclusion at the moment would be:
A. Find / Buy a GB Xchanger
B. Buy a Parallel to USB port adapter like this one (fuck they are so expensive): http://www.amazon.com/Ambir-33004-Paral … B00006HXPZ
C. Plug the GB Xchanger to Parallel por and the USb into my mac... then run the FlashManager app using CrossOver and cross the fingers ;-)
D. Buy an old PC hardware with parallel port... YUK!
Any thoughts?
Do you have a GB Xchanger hardware to share or sell to me?
Thanks!
Last edited by DROP 1410 (Aug 18, 2012 3:09 pm)
Drop 1410, in short none of what you've mentioned will work. A bleepbloop programmer can never flash this cartridge, unless it gets a whole new firmware. Those lpt adapters also don't work at all with LPT port GB flashers.
Well, the one thing you mentioned that will work is getting an old PC. Or finding the hardware that the Flash Manager software was designed for, (which is USB if I understand things correctly) but I suppose it's pretty rare these days.