32 replies to this topic

[Guitar]

I'm happy to, but will take a couple of days to find the time.

[uptown47]

There is a slight problem.   I've knocked out a little too much code I think as I can't credit the machine up any longer.   Will spend some time on it and get back to you.
 
J

Wow, J that's great progress! Thanks for looking into this for me.

The only text I really want changing is every instance of "ANDY" to become "JOHN" (for instance, "ANDY'S MOVE" becomes "JOHN'S MOVE").

And every instance of "FLO" to become "ANG".

So the number of characters is the same.

In the ROM I've uploaded I've already changed that text and that is what is giving me the checksum error. I can upload the "good" ROM if you want, the one without the checksum error if it will help?

How are you tracing it out? Are you using the tools within MFME to step through it somehow or are you using another program for looking at it?

Thanks again for all your help with this.

Cheers

John :-)

The checksum has 3 pairs of branches I believe, they can all be defeated by setting the respective branches to branch always.
 
Then the CHR check can be defeated in the same way.
Finally the lamp table shift part of the CHR can be sorted by taking the numbers out of a working layout and adding a small subroutine somewhere in the rom to return the numbers when needed.
 
The CHR isn't required of you intend to use it in the emulator only.

Hi Guitar, yep this is only for emulator use. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Cheers

John

[uptown47]

PS. Another text change I forgot to mention was to change "ANDY CAPP" to "ANGIE&JT " Again, I've made that change already on that ROM I uploaded.

[Wizard]

Quickest way to bypass the checksum routine is to set byte FFDB to FF

 

The machine will start up much quicker though as the checksumming routine takes a few seconds normally.

[uptown47]

Quickest way to bypass the checksum routine is to set byte FFDB to FF
 
The machine will start up much quicker though as the checksumming routine takes a few seconds normally.

Do you mean set the bytes at address FFDB to FF or find the pattern FFDB in the hex editor and just change it to FF (if so, is there only ever one instance of FFDB)?

That'll be brilliant if it's that easy. I'll give it a go when I get home from work.

Thanks Wizard.

Edited by uptown47, 31 July 2017 - 08:23 AM.

[Wizard]

Set the Byte at Address FFDB to FF

Edited by Wizard, 31 July 2017 - 08:30 AM.

[uptown47]

Set the Byte at Address FFDB to FF

Brilliant Wizard! Appreciate your help mate.

Thanks

[uptown47]

Set the Byte at Address FFDB to FF

 

WOOOHOOO!!!! You've only gone a done it!!! Great work that man!!!!!

 

Thank you Wizard!!! You're a diamond mate. That's brilliant!!

 

I changed that byte and I've set up all the text and it's working great.

 

A massive thanks to Fuzion and Guitar too. Appreciate the effort you put in to help me out. Thank you!     

 

Right now to try and get my head around the sound files...........  

[fuzion]

I have made my own sound rom in the past for mpu4. Unfortunately it was a tool that Dialtone created and released, it was so long ago I don't have it any longer.

Wonder if anyone else downloaded it, it must gave been around 2003, 2004 maybe a little earlier.

J

[uptown47]

Hi J, I don't suppose you remember what the tool was called do you?

Or anyone reading this have a copy? That would save me a load of time and hassle if there was something already written for this.

I downloaded Wizard's source from MFME 2.1 yesterday and I was looking through it last night in order to extract the parts that open a sound ROM and list the 'tracks'. My plan was to stand on the shoulders of giants and use parts of that code in a Console Application that would list all the tracks of the sound ROM but also list the offset addresses of each track.

My idea then was to record the sounds I wanted to change (the same duration as the existing tracks) and then try and copy/paste the hex from my new sound file over the existing hex at the identified address in the sound ROM.

I've no idea if all that would work but.... that was the plan!

If there's already some form of tool for doing this then that would be a massive bonus!

Anyone got any more info on this?

Thanks again J for your continued help. would never have got this far without you mate. It's much appreciated

[uptown47]

Just a quick update on this... I managed to find Dialtone's blog and so I've dropped him a message. Reading his blog he seems like a thoroughly decent chap so, fingers crossed, he might be able to help.

Will see if he gets back to me

[fuzion]

Oh, that's great mate, if he sends you that tool again, could you upload it.  I'd love a dabble

 

I can't for the life of me remember the name of it, not sure if he passed on to me personally, I don't think he did though.

 

It was probably via one of the old fme sites such as 'poundrun' so it's going to be difficult to get it back unfortunately

 

 

 

J

[uptown47]

Oh, that's great mate, if he sends you that tool again, could you upload it.  I'd love a dabble
 

Certainly. Unless he explicitly doesn't want it uploaded for whatever reason in which case I'll just ask him if I can send you a copy and I'll do it via PM.

Although I noticed he's not updated his blog since 2013 so I'm not 100% sure if he'll get the message. Maybe someone else will be a hoarder like me and still have the file on a hard drive somewhere? Either way, fingers are well and truly crossed!