A Satellaview research blog.

New ROMs: Old ROMs; Same Difference.

Thanks to Callis yet again, here’s a set of new ROM releases.
Rather than go for “Strange” ROMs like I have done previously, this post will be dedicated to things one might find boring – or not. There’s still a chance there’s something in these I don’t see at first glance, after all.

Let me start with the one you’re least likely to play first. “Gambler Jiko Chuushinsha 2 – Dorapon Quest”.


Gambler Jiko Chuushinsha 2 – Dorapon Quest (BS) | 自己中心派2 ドラポンクエスト (BS)
ROM DL

I do not know much about the game in particular, but it’s based off a SFC cartridge release of some sort. It seems to be Mahjong game. Bummer.

Next up is a title a bit more easily accessible to an international audience.


Super Fire Pro Wrestling (BS) | スーパーファイヤープロレスリング (BS)
ROM DL

Super Fire Pro Wrestling is a game in the cult-import hit “Fire Pro Wrestling” line. The gameplay in this entry – once again a rerelease of the retail cart version – is similar to the NES game “Pro Wrestling”.

After that, we have…


Super Bomberman 2 (BS) | スーパーボンバーマン2 (BS)
ROM DL

Super Bomberman 2. This one should be fairly familiar for Bomberman fans. The Satellaview version does not seem to have anything particularly special about it, though, so the Caravan version would probably still be the rarest. [/nerd talk]

These three are all standard, limited-bootup, Satellaview downloads. Being quick rereleases of older titles, they are fairly easy to emulate. There may not even be any differences in coding…

Well, not the normal coding, anyway. The Satellaview had a different SRAM system, and games had to be modified to function with that. This can cause certain ROMs to have issues with emulators. Therefore, for the last two releases, I’d specifically recommend booting these with the BS-X ROM in SNESGT;



Super Nazo Puyo – Lulu no Luu (BS) | スーパーなぞぷよ ルルーのルー(BS)
ROM DL

Super Nazo Puyo, a psuedo-RPG/Puzzle game hybrid based off Compile’s arcade puzzle game line. Even though this is based off a standard retail release, an emulator like ZSNES would have problems with this ROM in spite of being able to play the original game normally.

Now, for my last release. This one is a bit more personal to me than the rest, because this is an 8M Pack I purchased myself, with my own money, to be dumped.
When I initially got it it appeared to be empty, but of course I knew (well, because the YJA auction description implied it) that it had some sort of data, so I sent it to Callis to dump.
He returned to me, this very ROM image.



ActRaiser (BS) | アクトレイザー(BS)
ROM DL

Strangely enough, I had people request me to find this bit of data before I actually did find it. As per the above entries, I do not suspect it to be any different from the retail (Japanese) version in terms of gameplay. However, Callis did tell me of emulation issues, so I once again expect SRAM code modification.

Hopefully anyone here can take the time to invest to try to dig into these ROMs a bit deeper? 🙂

Ah, something new! RPG Tsukuru 2 download data.

Took long enough for a (relevant) update, huh?

Today NicoNicoDouga got a nice upload of RPG Tsukuru 2 Custom Data. As I explained earlier (I hope), RPG Tsukuru 2 took 8M Memory Packs as “data carts” where save data could be read and written upon. Many times, St.GIGA would have custom data up for download on the Satellaview, where you’d download it using the BS-X cartridge and then check out the data on RPG Tsukuru 2.

The video I have obtained apparently has footage from a Satellaview-exclusive RPG Tsukuru 2 download, called “Go By Ryoma”.


【RPGツクール2】「龍馬でゆく」(サテラビュー配信作品) 前編少しだけ

UBSCSB Series 2: Family Basic.

Another entry caused by “I got nothing new on Satellaview”.

Out of boredom I decded to try looking up info on “Family Basic”, for the Famicom. If you already have an, um, “basic” idea of what the BASIC Programming Language is, then you should know what this would be just by the name.

Family Basic Sets tend to be expensive as heck on eBay, so purchasing one was not in my ability at the moment. Apparently Matthew Callis himself has some stuff though.

Digging down a bit more, though, I found this listing for a Hudson cassette.
To clarify this – Family Basic stored and read data off Data Cassettes using the Famicom Data Recorder add-on. Now, I heard of a lot of generic cassettes being usable here, but I don’t really recall hearing much about the commerically-sold products based around Family Basic, aside from the programming tools themselves. I tried digging up for info, but unfortunately I still need some more Japanese language skills – I only have some vague hints.
Either way, apparently stuff was commerically sold as Famicom Data Cassettes – how would one archive these? … perhaps a lossless audio format like FLAC?

… but yeah, going on from that, after looking that up, I decided to try throwing a search for Family Basic up on NicoNicoDouga. There are a -lot- of results, more than what I think I could fit in a blog article here (Maybe even demanding it’s own blog set?).
I unfortunately lazied out on getting the original links for these, but you can find them under a tag search for ファミリーベーシック on NicoNicoDouga. Some of these videos had descriptions or dates which implied them being homemade, but some have dates such as 1983 or 1986, and many of the NND descriptions clearly reference “Family Compuer Magazine”….

These are just some of the videos. It’s still quite a lot, though, so please use the “more” link to view them.

Read More…Read More…

UBSCSB Series 1: Sega Pico

There hasn’t been many updates this month, hasn’t there?

Sorry folks, Satellaview progress has been slow. I’d gladly post some more info as it comes along, but quite frankly, there isn’t much I can recall at the moment. In the meantime, since you guys already know that I tend to look at other bits of obscure gaming, I’ll fill up time by posting some things.

Let me start with the Sega Pico. Yes, -that- Sega Pico, if you already are familiar with it in the USA. The “Edutainment” gaming system Sega released in their days of oversaturating the market with Genesis upgrades and derivatives, it seems the Sega Pico actually had a much more startling success story in Japan than in what I believe to be the country of it’s birth…

Read More…Read More…

ROM Release…? …. Nah, I don’t think this counts.

Callis sent me this rom to examine… and… well, it just seemed like a corrupted to me, and I told him that.
He then told me something weird – The Memory Pack this image came from caused his Satellaview to -really- mess up. It gave out an “Error 41” message, according to him.

I looked through my old entry on Errors, and realized I never came across such an error. What is Error 41? He wasn’t able to take a picture. Can someone hack or modify the ROM in such a way that error 41 can be called out? Of course, if someone -could- do that, I’d expect even grander things, like access to many of the “locked” BS-X areas…

This strange download, if one ever dares try making a tool to put new data into a 8M Memory Pack, could replicate this “Error 41” that Callis told me about.

ENTRY REVIVAL: “All Night Nippon and how obscure Japanese culture impacts your Nintendo games”, now with more Satellaview relation!

Someone who’s been backreading on my old Blogspot blog location asked me why I was missing the “All Night Nippon” article (He found it a very interesting read).

I told him that I thought the article was a bit misplaced at the time, but developments were coming along and I thought to revive it. Well, the development I got wasn’t quite what I expected, but I got it!

This one’s a fairly long one, so I’m gonna use that “more” code I haven’t used in a while.

Read More…Read More…

Merchandise; Wearing Satellaview Tsushin on you.

About 2 and a half months ago, I won a Yahoo Japan Auctions clothing lot.

I got to open the contents just this Christmas. Taking a look with me?


Ah, this wasn’t the only one, no…

Admitably, these latter ones are a bit more difficult to make out, but the gist of it should be obvious – they’re all clothing branded with “Satellaview Tsushin”, the Satellaview-themed spinoff of “Famicom Tsushin”.


Feel free to right click -> “Save picture as” to save larger versions.


I unfortunately do not know the circumstances under which these were originally distributed, but I’d imagine they were among the many prizes given out to folks who participated in Satellaview events, or given to subscribers of Satellaview Tsushin.


The T-shirt and Jacket are a size L. While I’m certain I’m gonna have a few Japanese natives laughing at me for this, I’ve put them on my tubby Gaijin self out of sheer enthusiasm and took some pics of how well they fit – surprisingly nicely. This is probably one of the best clothing buys I’ve ever done. O:


Merry Christmas! Your present is some Harvest Mooning!

For Christmas, my extra-generous gift shall be a ROM release that people might actually have fun with. 🙂

I’ve upped some Gameplay of it on Youtube! Wanna see?

It’s Harvest Moon!
Well, to be more specific, the ROM Header identifies it as 牧場物語 第２話 (Bokujo Monogatari Dai-2-wa) .

My immediate searching on that lead to the listing of it’s premiere date in Kameb’s site;

1996/09/09
～
1996/09/13ＢＳ牧場物語
第２話　大地と心に溢れる実り！

So this is supposedly a Soundlink series based off the cult hit. So, what’s peculiar about it? Well, if you see the video you’ll spot a few of the things – You start with a slightly pre-formed set of farmland, and you can’t leave it. You’re in the summer season, with some pre-plowed land, a gold hammer, a gold axe, a watering can and a seemingly infinite supply of tomato and corn seeds…
… and pretty much all you can do is grow tomatos and corn, and destroy things around you. There is no livestock, no point to getting money, no plowing, no women-wooing…
… no timer? No game-locking up after an hour? Where’s some of the quirky ROM behaviors commonly associated with Soundlink ROMs? Sure, there’s no sound at all, still, but… huh…

The game even runs on my Super UFO ROM copier, and I’m betting a SNES Powerpak can run it fine as well henceforth.

That all being said, considering some the strange things that occurs if you keep playing long enough, I do -not- think the game is playing the way it’s meant to. But for the moment, let me start by posting some of the more normal pictures.


Yes, it does rain sometimes.


Of course, the corn grows A-OK..


As do tomatos. You can even sell them, although the money is seemingly pointless.

Now, here’s where things start to kinda fall apart… I tried playing all the way through the “Summer’s” end, and got into the fall seasons…


Well… what do I do now?
My endless seeds do not grow, and I quite literally can’t do anything more, except… keep skipping days!


Here’s your humbugging Christmas picture, guys! Yes, I went into winter, and it’s even mooreeee pointless.


Eventually you can skip into spring, and even go back into summer, and seemingly start the process over again. Does it loop endlessly? I don’t know, I didn’t play that far, because I already knew when I couldn’t do anything in the fall that I was going way beyond the point I was supposed to be playing.

I suspect a large chunk of data may be absent from this ROM dump – Perhaps data that controller most of the Satellaview-specific handling, like a timer, new sound code, or automation of gameplay. Unfortunately I can’t verify much of that, as besides Kameb’s site, I can’t find much information on this entry in the series. Also, it’s rather weird that the removal of such data keeps the game as playable as it is…

So, ROM downloading time! This one will boot in nearly anything, even real hardware, with seemingly identical results.

BS Bokujo Monogatari Dai-2-wa
ＢＳ牧場物語 第２話
ROM DOWNLOAD