ToToTEK.COM

[RGB_Gamer]

[amptor]

I used to always use snestool for splitting smc and fig files as well as sending the ROM to the wildcard. For doing things with a game doctor sf7, I'd try using ucon64.

I don't really have anything to test the final ROM out here so if I split it, it's going to make a ROM that I can't verify on actual hardware (well that is, unless the flash carts I own support split files which I'm not sure )

Anyway I think each split file for super magicom, super wildcard, and pro fighter has a 512 byte header and then the last file doesn't or something. it has been a while. And how game doctor handled it I think was by the file name alone and no headers on anything. I haven't done this stuff in years though.

I would suggest setting up the laptop with parallel port. If you're going to copy these games onto floppy disks in any microsoft o/s above Windows ME, I would strongly recommend against it. You are asking for problems if you send the ROMs to a diskette through the Windows NT kernel and then try to run the data on a floppy based backup unit.

[MottZilla]

That is not true amptor. GDSF has a 512byte header just like all other formats. The filename is used for some information but the header actually contains mapping information. The GDSF header actually is probably the only header that has useful information. Other copier headers don't really contain much of any useful information.

The first piece of any split ROM will have the 512byte copier header, the rest won't. Split sizes are likely to be 4 megabit or 8 megabit, 512kbyte or 1mbyte.

You could try splitting ToP by first converting it to .FIG format with ucon64 and then using the -s splitting option.

[RGB_Gamer]

when i try converting the SMC to FIG in Ucon64 (I am running windows 7), the program just hangs, just like when I try to split it

[MottZilla]

Well, it could be because it is a 48mbit ExHiROM or whatever they call it. I'm not sure how you need to convert it. You could try SNESTool or another program. It needs to be interleaved (FIG is an interleaved format) probably. But it's possible it might be able to load it as non-interleaved/smc. I'd just split it and try it first.

[amptor]

Maybe it was just 256kbyte roms that didn't have headers. Ah well I got rid of those crummy GDSF7 units ages ago. and good riddance.

[amptor]

All I did was download the Visual C version of the program from their home page and then I opened CMD and ran it. It works for me in Windows 7 x64 so I would assume it should work fine in any microsoft o/s.

Anyway I split the ROM and emailed it to you, haven't heard back yet so I assume it worked maybe no news is good news I suppose

[MottZilla]

The GDSF7 is actually one of the best copiers made. It still has value since they can still be obtained cheap. There are worse copiers for sure. But these days flash carts beat any of them due to ease of use and being more modern.

[RGB_Gamer]

[amptor]

I tend to disagree. I used one GDSF7 brand new that had faulty RAM so DKC (which was a brand new game at the time) had glitches due to corrupted program memory within the GDSF7.

I have owned two GDSF7 units. The first one I got 64M worked well until I tried out the keeping the program in memory feature. After leaving it powered over night for about 8-10 hours, the program would still run but it would have corrupt data (similar to above). This feature is suppose to work and there was nothing wrong with the RAM lol. I hardly call this a feature unelss you're going to turn off the SNES deck for 15 minutes and come back and play.

The second GDSF7 I mearely acquired and resold to a friendly guy that wanted it really bad.

I don't miss either one and I prefer SWC DX above all others besides flash cart. FFE seemed to make the best quality product in the 90s. I like Pro Fighters as well but we have all heard about issues with those throughout the mid to late 90s. Usually the most common problem with the pro fighter was the RAM falling out during shipping. This is an easy fix. Other than that, I have forgotten what other issues Pro Fighters can have since I never owned one (I only owned a clone for a short while but it was only a 16M FireFox. It looks like the BIOS was really easy to clone and slap your own logo on).

SWC DX2 is pretty good. TWK/ATX sold them but he always recommended the SWC DX over the DX2. Strange guy too, why sell a product and try to steer your current or prospective customers away from it? I think the guy just got tired of dealing with individuals and wanted to do legit bulk. Last he told me, he was distributing to Toys R Us in NY.

There were two things he explained to me that he didn't like about the SWC DX2 unit. One, FFE took the Anthrox/JSI code, reworked it, and then made the new copying device without TWK involved whatsoever and didn't include him on any royalties (go figure though, how can you really place rules on a pirate device and afford royalties to an American of all people lol) [PAN told me that he only received one copier and no money for coding the game that is inside the BIOS too which I find silly], and the other thing that griped him was something about the music/menu sfx themes which since it has been a long time I forgot what he didn't like about it. I think he just didn't like the menu music or something. I would have to say for the money people sometimes want for SWC DX2 now it isn't worth it though. I mean, who pays $200 for a SNES floppy backup device? not me

The guy who sold my friend his first SNES backup device, the Professor SF 5 I think it was called? (US version of the GDSF7, same thing just slightly different name and I think the region was controlled by a jumper on the circuit board which told the BIOS which name to report on screen) claimed that this unit was the best and was always selling them. When we had the problem with the RAM in the unit he purchased, I told my friend to see if he can get a SWC DX. The guy selling the backup unit agreed to get one from FFE and make an exchange, amazingly. When he got it, he was amazed. The seller didn't know that such a device existed and the quality was superoir to what he had in mind from the past. This guy was selling primarily Bung units because he felt that the Wildcard devices were inferior. The SWC DX changed his mind however it was nearly the end of the line for this guy (he got deported back to China for selling pirated games in the US, otherwise his copier selling business would have pretty much been overlooked).

But just my opinion anyways guys, you can take it as a grain of salt. The only reason why I purchased myself a 64M GDSF7 from here a while back was for nostalgia but I didn't really find much interest in it so I let it go. I don't like the game doctor naming convention for files, it plain outright sucks . The device GUI itself is pretty plain at best. The only thing I can say is decent about it is that it plays games and it can play TOP but the TOP translation came way too late for me. TOP primarily was a useless game unless you knew the Japanese language. Thank god though that they released Chrono Trigger in English in the US. That was a great game and only weighs in at 32M. I think Square was constrained to 32M and even that was pricey for them at the time.

[RGB_Gamer]

well amptor,

i tried running tales of phantasia in game doctor format on my dpf and after the second disk loads, it is like it tries to run the game. I tried othef multi disk games in game doctor format, but those are fine.

I am at a loss

[amptor]

Why not try to run it in FIG format split? Most of the time I was running split files on my SWC DX, they were in FIG format. Though of course I was at 32 megabit.

Also I looked at a photo of the DPF on gamedoctorhk's site (where he shows the RAM) and it looks like the top slides back and you can see the RAM board there. I wonder if you can open that part without undoing the stickers on it. Then we can take a look at the RAM board and see what is on it. It looks like 32M may have had half the board filled with ICs and the other half empty. I only see gamedoctorhk listing 32M cards for sale so I have nothing there to compare to.

I'm assuming that you don't have the parallel port adapter board for the pro fighter which is why you are loading from floppy. That or you have it but still don't have that laptop up and running. maybe you have it boxed away still from when you moved. Imho it would be easier to test using snestool to send via parallel port.

Anyway we can take a look at it some time if you want no big deal. And we can fix up your Coleco while we are at it. No problem man.

Let me know if you need me to split as FIG and send you the file. Also make sure you are copying to floppy disk within MS-DOS rather than any NT kernel based o/s I had problems with that with my SWC DX and assume it can possibly occur on other backup units as well.

[madman]

Sounds like a bad split and there's something in the header to make it think you already loaded the last portion of the image. Sometimes those utils don't work well on splitting certain formats or sizes as back when they were written people were mostly splitting files ,<=24m.

[RGB_Gamer]

madman, what is your suggestion? For some reason, I connect my parallel port adapter to my DPF and when I turn it in, the screen is all scrambled (I am using my snes on an RGB monitor). My other DPF doesn't do this. I actually have 4 CCL paralell port adapters - 3 of them when plugged into my other DPF produce a black screen when turned on and the other one is ok.

[madman]

If the goal is to just find out if your DPF really has 64m, I'd just open it up and check it out.