A Satellaview research blog.

I knew I was forgetting something all this time… EDIT: Now with No-Intro comparison

So, as I was going through testing ROMs to add to the Java emulator, I came across a couple redumps I never actually got around to showing on the blog!

For two years!

Oopsie-daisy!

The game they’re for has been put on the Java emulator already. It’s Dr. Mario!

I don’t remember the details too hard on these redumps, but if my memory serves they have the ol’ “Deleted Headers”. The Java embed is of the first of the two – it appears to play identically to the commonly circulating ROM.

I deeper analysis might come around.. if I don’t forget for another 2 years.

Dr. Mario (BS)
ROM Download

EDIT Oct. 15, 2012: I’ve attempted to do a more in-depth comparison with the previous dump, HOWEVER…

It appears said previous dump, as it appears in the no-intro set, has a hacked header. I’m not entirely sure how this happened, but regardless…

Here’s 7FC0-7FDF on the previous ROM:

42 53 5F 44 72 20 4D 61 72 69 6F 00 FF 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF 20 10 33 02 CE B7 31 4B

On the same addresses, these two redumps have the following bytes in common:

82 63 82 92 81 44 B3 7D 83 8A 83 49 82 61 82 72
FF 00 00 00 00 00 ** ** 20 10 00 02 00 00 00 00

(The ** are differing bytes. Their location is in the “date” area of the ROM, anyhow.)

Notably, while the latter two’s headers are consistent with a “Deleted” game, the former has a header that just plain looks screwed up, especially with spelling “BS_Dr.Mario” the way it does.

Furthermore, none of the ROMs load in BSNES, but while this is expected of the deleted header ROMs, the “hacked” header ROM causes an odd behavior which causes the ROM loader to crash.

To boot up Dr. Mario closer to the way it was meant to be played, the header should look something more like this;

82 63 82 92 81 44 B3 7D 83 8A 83 49 82 61 82 72
FF 00 00 00 00 00 ** ** 20 10 33 02 C7 B7 31 4B

Note how the “hacked header” ROM does appear to have the checksum and maker values correct. Either the hacker attempted to restore these, or the header hack was based off a previously “pure” dump. This may need to be investigated.

… To think we don’t even have as simple a ROM as this in it’s purest state? Sheesh…



9 thoughts on I knew I was forgetting something all this time… EDIT: Now with No-Intro comparison

  1. LuigiBlood, do you mind if I help you to write up a proper help file for the SatellaWave utility? I’ve been trying to figure out for days and weeks how to use it effectively with no results.
    I’ve managed to create some files but I’m not sure if I even understand the naming scheme correctly. Also how is the Time Channel supposed to work? Every file I save from the “Time” tab ends up being 0 bytes…
    So, my idea is that I would do sort of an interview with you and ask about everything that’s missing a clear explanation, then write sort of a FAQ file based on your answers and you would proof-read it later. How does it sound? 🙂

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