New Custom Dreamcast BIOS v1.032 Relased

Bottom of here
http://japanese-cake.livejournal.com/9115.html

 

Would love to flash it to my dreamcast but I'll keep using the older region free hacked one because Pier Solar is not supported.

 

The one prior v1.031 works fine with Pier Solar. Going to try to get mine out of storage this evening and test sone of the other indie games as well like Ghost Blade.

 

@RaZiel you'll get same result, these games's protection system check some parts of boot ROM and will not work if it different from original ones.

 

Thanks for the heads up, Ghost Blade is still sealed so I will leave is as so then.

 

I've tested my only genuine MIL-CD and it works (but this was expected). I've also tested independent games, with cdi rips floating on internet:
Ghost Blade: does not work
Last Hope: ok
Sturmwind: ok

There is no need to test those games in their retail version, I am sure they won't work.

 

I guess the reason Ghost Blade does not work is the fact that the image out there is not cracked, as where Sturmwind did get it's protection stripped. I hope you'll find a way to get all indies working on your custom bios
Curiosity question, with all the 16:9 hacks getting out there for retail games, would it be possible to change the aspect ratio of the bios menu? I understand this will not affect the games, but it would be really nice to also have the system menu in widescreen.

 

hope so too. Time is the main constrain though :/
Regarding the widescreen hacks, yes it is possible to do so for the bios menu. As now anything in the bios (except the first 1024 bytes) can be modified, someone (@S4pph4rad, @Esppiral)
can take my bios and patch it. I will be happy to integrate the patch later on.

 

When it is integrated though, will this be added as a new bios option? I switch back and forth between 4:3 CRT and 16:9 TV. A compressed 16:9 image to 4:3 looks crappier than a 4:3 image stretched to fit a 16:9 screen, at least in my opinion

Though stuff like this is why I'll probably be glad I'm waiting to upgrade the bios. Because this is a vast upgrade rather than a hack or a mod in my opinion

 

@japanese_cake: I understand you had to replace the BIOS bootstrap for the beta NAOMI bootstrap but how that changes the way the Holy controller checks the bios? I mean, why changing the bootstrap makes holy checks only 1kb? Looks like a egg-chicken situation...

 

And Naomi games?

 

but do you know why and how this works ?
based on numerous tests - after single failed security check system becomes in 'locked until reset' state, and passing through it 1KB valid data block (like you do in GD-ROM Init SysCall) doesn't work anymore.
so as I suppose, the only option 'why it works ?' can be - after your changes whole 2MB BIOS becomes to have valid magic checksum as well (accidentally?)

 

HOLLY just sum data and check result, amount of this data set by code itself. read more there -
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/machine/dccons.cpp#L173