For a while now, something perplexed me.
We had several dumps of BS Zelda ROMs. However, when trying to load them up into a Satellaview environment like with Satellawave software with SatData, many of them would refuse to read save data.
With the help of a few more additional ROM dumps, the answer is starting to click.
Let me start with the dump release in question. This way, it will be separated from some modified ROMs I will put up afterward.
BSゼルダの伝説 MAP2 第2話
BS Zelda no Densetsu – Map 2 – Dai-2-wa
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Since we got this one, an episode 1 one, and an episode 3 one, I noticed that for some reason, all our Map 2 ROMs carried the save data over successfully, unlike the Map 1 ROMs. Then, I checked the broadcast dates.
The map 2 ones are in sequence: 3/3, 3/10. Now, 3/17 I admit is recovered, but since it managed to work in this set fine, that can go here too.
Now, I go back and check the Map 1 ROMs. There are problems here because we have a rerun of ep. 1, ep. 2 and 3’s premiere, and a rerun of ep. 4. But on top of that, the ep.1 and ep. 4 are from different rebroadcast periods.
So with this knowledge in tow, I then figured out where episode-modifier data is in each ROM (I’m working with rebroadcast builds, so they should all be the complete game, unlike the premiere builds)
I wrote some notes down here in a text file as I was working through this. One nice thing is that between Map 1 and Map 2, these notes both apply. This is for checking these in a hex editor:
Week’s Objective: 1BA00-1BCDF
Time Event Week: 5BC9B
Overworld Map is in the 90000s area, 9E5C0-9EFFF for Overworld Map differences between episodes
Thus, you can replicate undumped episodes by changing this data to match that corresponding episode’s data.
And since we very conveniently now have a “rerun” BS Zelda dump for every episode….
I attempted to make new modified ROMs with this knowledge.
This includes an attempt at an episode 4 for Map 2 and an eps. 2-4 for the BS Zelda Map 1 Ep. 1 rerun which is dated 1/1. (these are currently not considered “theoretical mockup replicas” in the off chance any theory here is proven wrong with a new Map 1 dump. Also the hacking WAS a bit sloppy, so I might have minor errors.)
There is also a modified ROM for the 9/28 BS Zelda Map 1 Ep. 4 build, and an attempt to make a Map 2 ep. 2 without referencing the actual confirmed dump.
Very pleasantly, I did a run of Map 1 where I played all 3 modified ROMs after the initial dump, and they played start to end with save RAM carrying the whole way through.
So what exactly is going on?
That’s still hard to say. But between the 1/1 BS Zelda Map 1 Ep. 1’s build and the 9/28 BS Zelda Map 1 Ep. 3’s build, here appear to be differences besides the ones in my notes above, including both large chunks of certain banks in the beginning, middle and end of the ROM and some seemingly random scattered bytes. There may actually be even more post-release build revisions than I initially anticipated. Perhaps one of them addressed the abnormally large amounts of in-game slowdown?
But, thinking about it more, it would make just as much sense that there’d be code to intentionally wipe out SRAM from a previous time period if it was there. After all, if you held on to a save from January to load it in September, you could in theory cheat to win a coveted event prize. Of course there’d be code to check for that!… I just wish I knew exactly what or where that code was.
Ah, speaking of new dumps in a series, here’s some more:
Another Satespo DX magazine. This time it’s the first volume. Did you not see the prior dump? Well, now you don’t have to, because conveniently the data for that one is in the same memory pack. In fact, I’ve been told this dump here is better anyway.
Refresher: Satesupo DX is a magazine made to track the results of Satellaview Derby Stallion 96 competitions. Like Ranking Magazine, you may see the winners and runner-ups of certain events in these.
Satesupo DX Dai-1-gou + Satesupo_DX Dai-4-gou
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Also:
Woah, woah, woah, that’s a LOT of data. RPG Tsukuru 2 data, in fact. What’s here? There’s a Kurekure Mou Race 4… No, wait, LuigiBlood’s got me corrected there, it’s the April edition of Kurekure Mou Race 2. Aaaaah, this is gonna confuse me….
Jewel of Live 3 is probably one I should play, since I played 1 and 2. It’s interesting that it moved from Super Dante into 2. How many in this series are left?
Also in here is “Arf to Hakase no Daibouken”. But that isn’t even the entirety of what’s in there, so do check it out if you’re into these!
Not that many screenshots here, since I can’t exactly tell where custom assets were used yet.
RPG Tsukuru 2 Collection
ROM download
And after that:
This magazine is for another Houkago no Ousama radio program! To be more specific, it goes with this one on kukun kun’s channel.
You might recognize the voice of Rica Matsumoto ( 松本梨香 ) if you’re even the slightest bit familiar with the Pokemon anime. Yes, Ash Ketchum Satoshi’s voice; She had her own radio show here! Tagging alongside her is Hitomi Mien ( 三重野瞳 ) who has a detailed Wikipedia article about her prior music and screenwriting work.
But, uh, wait, there’s something else in this ROM too… it was deleted, but recoverable!
Another Tamori no Picross! This is a 3/27 rerun of a 8/1 broadcast.
松本梨香と三重野瞳の放課後の王様 1996年03月29日(金) + タモリのピクロス03月27日
Rika & Hitomi (3-29) + [Deleted]Tamori no Picross (8-1, 3-27)
ROM download
And lastly, a bit of leftover data recovered from another 8M. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we can easily transplant this into a prior dump (I tried transplanting data from other Silicon Chounaikai dumps, but this just results in corrupted or crashed ROMs). Thus, I can’t say much about it. But I have been told it corresponds with this kukun kun video.
爆笑問題のシリコン町内会 1996年10月12日
Bakusho Mondai no Silicon Chounaikai 10/12 (leftover)
ROM download
