Analogue Super Nt

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Atariboy
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Re: Analogue Super Nt

Postby Atariboy » March 27th, 2018, 12:16 am

New firmware is out. Seems to squash most all of the remaining bugs.

Official v4.5 notes:
    -Fixed Rendering Ranger R2 / Targa.
    -Fixed Unholy Night crash/graphics issue.
    -Fixed an issue with Marvelous: Another Treasure Island works now without graphic glitches.
    -Fixed an issue with Chrono Trigger crashing on entering save menu.
    -Fixed Flashback’s audio buzz when entering inventory.
    -Fixed Arabian Nights audio feedback issue.
    -Fixed Tiny Toons Buster Busts Loose audio crash
    -Fixed Batman Returns audio crash
    -Fixed the RGB value -1 fix again to remove vertical zebra stripes.
    -Changed wording of the checkbox in the cheat codes. It now says “enable checked codes” to reduce confusion.
    -Changed “tools” menu to “cheat codes”.
    -Added a “disable hotkeys” feature under hot keys. This lets you disable all hotkeys and controller auto polling until power is cycled.
    -Fixed “menu bounce” setting so it shows up again.
    -Added debugger under “hardware” menu (probably not the most useful for most people but I use it a lot so someone developing a game might find it useful).

Jailbreak version (This is what a Super NT owner installs to enable SD card loading of rom files):
    -All official v4.5 fixes plus:
    -Added CopySNES. Lets you dump carts/save RAM to the SD card. Files are placed into /COPYSNES/. The directory is created if it does not exist. See the text file for full instructions.
    -Star Ocean 96mbit works now.
    -Changed menu operation so that if you enter the settings menu in the file browser, it can be exited back to the file browser by hitting select (or backing all the way out using the back button).
    -Changed file browser operation so that if you attempt to back out of it, you get warned that the running game will be ended and you cannot save any more.
    -In JB mode, tools menu appears on the main menu which has CopySNES and cheat codes.
    -Cheat codes is moved into the file browser settings menu.

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ptdebate
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Re: Analogue Super Nt

Postby ptdebate » March 27th, 2018, 8:31 pm

Wait so Star Ocean runs from SD card even though it's a chip game?

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Atariboy
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Re: Analogue Super Nt

Postby Atariboy » March 27th, 2018, 11:39 pm

Star Ocean used the S-DD1 enhancement chip, which decompressed information on the fly that was stored on the rom chip. This allowed 96 megabits of sprite information to be stored within the confines of a cheaper 32 megabit rom chip, evidently making for a cheaper game to manufacture despite the cost of including a co-processor onboard the cartridge.

So the decompressed Star Ocean rom that the Super NT can now play directly off SD card is basically just an uncompressed 96 megabit SNES rom image, avoiding the need to decompress the sprite information on the fly. So it's just a workaround for this one particular game, by bypassing the need for the S-DD1 chip entirely. It's not the Super NT simulating on FPGA the functions of the S-DD1 chip.

I do hope that we at least get DSP-1 support. This ubiquitous chip seems to be simpler than the others to simulate, and saw widespread use including in several bigger name games like Pilotwings and Super Mario Kart. Maybe now that Kevtris feels like he's just about done squashing bugs (2 or 3 games still have minor problems, and Prince of Persia has issues which he seems to not even be willing to acknowledge), we'll start seeing some significant feature additions in the weeks ahead.

I believe revamping the scanline simulation is something I've seen him speak about, for an example of something that might be up ahead.

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ptdebate
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Re: Analogue Super Nt

Postby ptdebate » March 28th, 2018, 2:41 pm

Atariboy wrote:Star Ocean used the S-DD1 enhancement chip, which decompressed information on the fly that was stored on the rom chip. This allowed 96 megabits of sprite information to be stored within the confines of a cheaper 32 megabit rom chip, evidently making for a cheaper game to manufacture despite the cost of including a co-processor onboard the cartridge.

So the decompressed Star Ocean rom that the Super NT can now play directly off SD card is basically just an uncompressed 96 megabit SNES rom image, avoiding the need to decompress the sprite information on the fly. So it's just a workaround for this one particular game, by bypassing the need for the S-DD1 chip entirely. It's not the Super NT simulating on FPGA the functions of the S-DD1 chip.

I do hope that we at least get DSP-1 support. This ubiquitous chip seems to be simpler than the others to simulate, and saw widespread use including in several bigger name games like Pilotwings and Super Mario Kart. Maybe now that Kevtris feels like he's just about done squashing bugs (2 or 3 games still have minor problems, and Prince of Persia has issues which he seems to not even be willing to acknowledge), we'll start seeing some significant feature additions in the weeks ahead.

I believe revamping the scanline simulation is something I've seen him speak about, for an example of something that might be up ahead.



That's awesome. I never knew that was the reason Star Ocean had a chip. Looking forward to playing that one actually.

The developers behind Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean did some really amazing things with sound sampling on the Super Famicom. I'd imagine that's the reason the file sizes are so large - neither game is incredibly long. SO has that voiced intro and ToP actually has a whole J-POP song at the end. Incredible.

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Atariboy
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Re: Analogue Super Nt

Postby Atariboy » March 29th, 2018, 1:07 am

Looks like Super FX support may be on the way for the SD2SNES multicart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vuDBvGyn2o

https://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.0

Not fully finished, but sounds promising. After this, I believe just SA-1 games won't be supported by this multicart (With the two Kirby platformers and Super Mario RPG being the notable SA-1 releases).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... _chips#SA1

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Atariboy
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Re: Analogue Super Nt

Postby Atariboy » August 11th, 2019, 8:56 pm

The latest firmware update for the Super NT was a good one. The biggest news is that many enhancement chip games can now be played off the internal SD card in rom form.

Not all are currently supported, but the DSP1-4 line are (Pilotwings, Super Mario Kart, Top Gear 3000, et al), CX4 is supported (Mega Man X2 and X3), ST010 (The F-Zero inspired game F1 Race of Champions 2 used it), and the obscure OBC1 and ST011 chips.

With the uncompressed Star Ocean rom working on the Super NT via the internal SD card which somewhat negates the need for S-DD1 support, basically all that's now missing that the average SNES fan likely cares about are SA-1 and Super FX support. You'll still need original carts or the SD2SNES multicart to play those on the Super NT.

Another nice feature addition is the SNES music player. And the scan line system has been overhauled for another highlight.


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