Does Anyone Know a Link to Download Gameshark Besides IsoZon

[SMiTH]

ya, its crazy.
try finding ntsc enforcer since it should boot 60hz?

if you give me a few days i will upload dreamapp with many apps, bootdisks, etc all on one disk.
its almost done, its just been insane trying to get it all put together.
some things load glitched but still work.
at this point idc about spending much more time on it.

i think the main reason that some of the boot disk apps load glitched is that they are not at correct lba, but forget about adding them to a disk with 30 apps and thinking that you can get a bin at a specifc lba that way. with padding dummy files maybe, a modded sort list does nothing. it could be that the other files need to be at exact lba as well. good luck with that. of course i know some1 can do it but it would be tricky.

but, this is after the bins were previously modified and since i don't know asm... i doubt much could be done.
now some1 could modify the bin and remove all of the protections, then create a new bin, but that is way over my head.
imo this should be done and implemented into gdemu to allow you to select various retail cheat disks b4 you boot a game.
maybe this already exists? idk i use cd-r's.

i do know that mrneo240 created an ip.bin that loads a memory editor app.
maybe that could be further developed?
maybe I have no idea wtf I am talking about? <--
?

[MoeFoh]

NTSC/PAL Enforcer CDI:

https://mega.nz/folder/q7oxzDga#JfJulP8EX1-poB0nkgy2ZA

Is Half-Life your using in GDI or CDI format?

[MoeFoh]

Will try to convert the Utopia image. DC-X has advanced copy protection, won't do that one. It is impossible to burn a working copy without CloneCD software and a specific cd burner. Not sure if it ever worked with an ODE.

Did you try the Gameshark CDI?

No worries on DC-X. I think it's a lost cause. The 60Hz Utopia disc would be cool though.

Yes, I did try the GameShark CDI. And the results were strange - though others online have reported similar issues.

So I queue the game image with USB-GD then load GameShark. Lift the lid to swap images, close the lid. Then boot GameShark.

It then resets the Dreamcast, as is normal for such swap discs. I then get the red swirl logo, since it's booting in NTSC mode (my DC is PAL and normally has a blue swirl).

For any of the games which boot in 60Hz without a problem (there's several), they will load as normal under GameShark. But when I try to boot the problematic games, the ones that load in 50Hz, that's when stuff gets weird. (So Cosmic Smash, Grandia II, etc.)

The game picture starts not at the top of the TV screen, but 40% of the way down. The top 40% is just blackness. The lower 60% shows the game screen, but the bottom 40% of the game is cut off, since the whole thing has shifted downwards.

Basically, booting the problem games under GameShark causes the entire screen to shift downwards and display incorrectly, even worse than before.

So far only Code Breaker has worked. After flipping the lid and closing it, Code Breaker does not boot to the logo swirl. It goes straight into the game.

The problem with Code Breaker is that if I get the timing of the lid wrong (too fast or too slow) it gets a read error on the disc image.

Also, Code Breaker only seems to want to boot retail games - unreleased stuff like Half Life it says is an invalid disc. I'm wondering if it will affect other games, but so far all have booted apart from Half Life.

It would be cool to find and isolate the code in Code Breaker that allows forced 60Hz booting, and create some sort of separate CDI file, or somehow integrate it into the firmware of USB-GD. But that's beyond my ability.

Right now I'm just happy Code Breaker works as a solution for my PAL console. We should spread this knowledge far and wide.

If you need more info, please let me know. I can try some tests. Maybe we should move the conversation to a fresh topic?

Oh, and I downloaded two versions of Code Breaker. The first does not boot at all - it goes to the audio CD screen. Only the 2nd one boots. But I cannot remember where I downloaded this.

Utopia 60hz CDI to test. It started under DEMUL, that is as far as I tested it.

[Sketcz]

Thank you for providing the Utopia 60 disc and also NTSC enforcer. It's much appreciated!

Is Half-Life your using in GDI or CDI format?

CDI format, from the CDRomance website. They only had CDI, otherwise I would have gotten a GDI.

OK, so some interesting results testing Utopia 60 and NTSCenforcer!

I tested the following games:

Grandia II (NTSC-U, GDI)
Utopia 60 - boots quickly and easily in 60hz.
NTSCenforcer - boots in 50hz as before
PALenforcer - boots in 50hz too (I thought maybe I used the wrong file, so I tested this too)

Half-Life (CDI)
Utopia 60 - would not boot, doesn't seem to be recognised
NTSCenforcer - booted fine, but in 50Hz

Ikaruga (NTSC-J, GDI)
Utopia 60 - boots in 50hz with horizontal borders, which surprised me!
NTSCenforcer - boots in 50hz
Code Breaker - boots in 60Hz flawlessly

---

So, this is weird. Grandia II boots in 60Hz with Utopia 60, but Ikaruga boots in 50Hz with Utopia 60. Only Code Breaker seems able to force Ikaruga. Could this be because one is an American game and the other Japanese?

So far most boot programs don't recognise the Half-Life CDI, and the one that did, NTSCenforcer, booted it in 50Hz. In fact, NTSCenforcer booted everything in 50Hz. It is shockingly useless. The title screen clearly shows "NTSC Enforcer", but it does not do what it promises.

I am so glad I found Code Breaker. It's been the gold standard so far. I do however prefer Utopia since the timing is much more relaxed and there's no menu to navigate. Still, I'll use what works.

Anything else needing testing?

[MoeFoh]

Thank you for providing the Utopia 60 disc and also NTSC enforcer. It's much appreciated!

Is Half-Life your using in GDI or CDI format?

CDI format, from the CDRomance website. They only had CDI, otherwise I would have gotten a GDI.

OK, so some interesting results testing Utopia 60 and NTSCenforcer!

I tested the following games:

Grandia II (NTSC-U, GDI)
Utopia 60 - boots quickly and easily in 60hz.
NTSCenforcer - boots in 50hz as before
PALenforcer - boots in 50hz too (I thought maybe I used the wrong file, so I tested this too)

Half-Life (CDI)
Utopia 60 - would not boot, doesn't seem to be recognised
NTSCenforcer - booted fine, but in 50Hz

Ikaruga (NTSC-J, GDI)
Utopia 60 - boots in 50hz with horizontal borders, which surprised me!
NTSCenforcer - boots in 50hz
Code Breaker - boots in 60Hz flawlessly

---

So, this is weird. Grandia II boots in 60Hz with Utopia 60, but Ikaruga boots in 50Hz with Utopia 60. Only Code Breaker seems able to force Ikaruga. Could this be because one is an American game and the other Japanese?

So far most boot programs don't recognise the Half-Life CDI, and the one that did, NTSCenforcer, booted it in 50Hz. In fact, NTSCenforcer booted everything in 50Hz. It is shockingly useless. The title screen clearly shows "NTSC Enforcer", but it does not do what it promises.

I am so glad I found Code Breaker. It's been the gold standard so far. I do however prefer Utopia since the timing is much more relaxed and there's no menu to navigate. Still, I'll use what works.

Anything else needing testing?

Perhaps, try a GDI version of Half-Life (post #13):
https://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewto ... 3&start=10

[MoeFoh]

As a bonus, here's the strategy guide for Half-Life (PDF):

https://mega.nz/file/4IYHkC5S#rqK_Klw-M ... YfHTAgozpM

[SMiTH]

fyi another rus boot disk/cheat disk is called game guru.

[MoeFoh]

fyi another rus boot disk/cheat disk is called game guru.

Never heard of 'guru', must be rare.

It's in this list:

http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title= ... ldid=44008

[Sketcz]

Perhaps, try a GDI version of Half-Life (post #13):
https://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewto ... 3&start=10

Ooooh.

Thank you - I shall download later today!

[Sketcz]

I've only now realised, Code Breaker does not seem to want to work with anything which is CDI.

Is this a copyright protection method from the original, to prevent piracy?

Is there a hacked version of Code Breaker which does not care about this?

Because my games are about 50/50 CDI and GDI. Which was down to laziness on my part. The CDI files tended to be smaller, so for lesser games I got those.

Now I'm faced with redownloading all my CDI games as GDI games. Which is probably worth it, since I noticed downgraded videos in some CDI titles, but also... Laziness makes me wonder, can I just get a hacked Code Breaker?

I'm tempted to compile a list of NTSC games which boot in 50Hz on a PAL system. Because so far, it's like at least half. Tokyo Racer 1 boots in 50hz, but Tokyo Racer 2 boots in 60Hz on PAL. Which is weird, because the PAL version of Tokyo Racer 2 lacks a 60Hz option.