I made a code tonight for Mega Man X to prevent the Dash Upgrade Capsule from appearing. It worked fine in emulators. I converted it to a Game Genie code and put it into my PowerPAK but no matter what it seemed it wouldn't work. Holding select shows the code is correctly decoded. I actually then took my Pro Action Replay and Mega Man X cartridge and tried the code there and it worked. What is going on? Has anyone else has trouble getting Game Genie codes to work? I didn't have any problems using them on the NES PowerPAK.
And whenever I pause the game is black screens which suggests the code is doing something unintended like patching somewhere else in ROM.
Please do not assume that all Game Genie and Pro Action Replay codes are interchangeable. They are two different devices.
Just because you found a tool that can convert codes, does not mean that they will work on the real system. It's very likely that a Game Genie code can be converted into PAR, but not all PAR codes can be successfully converted to Game Genie.
I know what I'm doing actually. Game Genie codes modify ROM. PAR codes can modify RAM or ROM. The codes in question modify ROM and can be converted to Game Genie codes. The codes in question are properly decoded by the PowerPAK. However they do not function properly.
If you would like to try, the code is this.
Code:
3CAA-CDB3
3CAA-CD23
This should work on both 1.0 and 1.1 versions of the US Mega Man X rom. I used 1.1 to make the code. The code makes it so the capsule for the dash boots upgrade never appears. To test if it works, you should use a password to skip the intro stage and go right to Chill Penguin and see if the dash capsule appears. This password can be used.
Code:
Opening Stage beat 5385 7136 6321
As I said, it works on my PAR with my real Mega Man X cartridge. But not on the PowerPAK. I tried my Game Genie but it wouldn't run Mega Man X in its current condition, I'm guessing it is dirty and needs a cleaning so I couldn't test it.
But it seems like something is wrong with how PowerPAK applies Game Genie codes to ROM.
Maybe the PowerPak doesn't take LoROM/HiROM into account when applying ROM codes? That would break GG support for many more games than MMX, so maybe that's not the case.. Should be relatively easy to find out if it is though.
One thing I was wondering is that Mega Man X uses banks $80 and so on rather than $00 to $7D for ROM. I don't know if that affects how it applies the code.
If I can I'm going to try to get my actual Game Genie to work to test the code on it. If it works there, its definitely the PowerPAK's fault.
The fact that the game is accessing ROM through one of the mirrors shouldn't matter. But the fact that your codes refer to these mirrors can matter depending on how/when the PowerPak applies the codes.
Try using 3CAA-6DB3 & 3CAA-6D23 instead.
I think I tried that when it wasn't working but it didn't make a difference. I will try again soon.
If that doesn't work either you can test whether it's assuming HiROM when applying the codes (use 3CAA-6D63 & 3CAA-6DA3)
I'll try that. I can't try my actual Game Genie, the cart port is messed up or dirty or has a bad solder joint. Either way it won't work right now.
Edit: Those don't work either. Again though pausing the game crashes/black screens like whenever I tried any version of my code. But again it works fine with Pro Action Replay and on emulators. All Via Game Genie code format too.
Edit: I put the ROM with the GG code pre-hacked onto my powerpak and it all works as intended. So the question is why is it the PowerPAK atleast in this instance doesn't apply GG codes correctly?
Bunnyboy asked me to test a new SM.MAP with the codes and it fixed it. =)
MottZilla wrote:
Bunnyboy asked me to test a new SM.MAP with the codes and it fixed it. =)
Hello there! I'm having the same issue with Contra III. I have attempted to update the firmware and it's still not working for me. Would you mind sharing with us what the SM.MAP you received? I own both the NES and the SNES version of this unit. Thank ou very much for your time!
That's up to BunnyBoy. I didn't ask about distribution and I don't want to give it out if he didn't intend for that. I assume it would be part of the next update.
I realize this thread is almost a year old now and apologize about the necro, but didn't find this updated fix via a quick web search.
BunnyBoy posted the fixed file up on the NA forums last year; mentioned something about it not being a Hi/Lo Rom issue but rather messy coding losing a couple bank bits.
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/SM.BINrename to SM.MAP
Thanks for sharing the link for others that may be experiencing the problem.
jupitersj wrote:
BunnyBoy posted the fixed file up on the NA forums last year; mentioned something about it not being a Hi/Lo Rom issue but rather messy coding losing a couple bank bits.
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/SM.BINThanks!
What's strange is that I've never encountered any problems at all when trying out MottZilla's Mega Man codes with the latest official mappers available (v1.05) and can't possibly imagine what bunnyboy might have changed to make them "work". I'll disassemble and compare this to the original source as soon as I have the time (low priority though since I can't even reproduce the issue).
Ramsis wrote:
jupitersj wrote:
BunnyBoy posted the fixed file up on the NA forums last year; mentioned something about it not being a Hi/Lo Rom issue but rather messy coding losing a couple bank bits.
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/SM.BINThanks!
What's strange is that I've never encountered any problems at all when trying out MottZilla's Mega Man codes with the latest official mappers available (v1.05) and can't possibly imagine what bunnyboy might have changed to make them "work". I'll disassemble and compare this to the original source as soon as I have the time (low priority though since I can't even reproduce the issue).
It's possible that BunnyBoy slipped the updated file into the archive on his site without mentioning anything, but I haven't re-downloaded it to confirm.
I haven't used my PowerPak in ages, but I distinctly remember having issues with Game Genie codes. I just pulled out my PP to confirm.
PowerPak revision D
Boot ROM v1.02
Card ROM v1.05
DSP1 installed
Just tested
Pocky & Rocky (U) [!].smc
DDA7AD65 - inf lives for Pocky
doesn't work, infact none of the google searchable P&R GG codes work at all.
I can send you my 1.05 SM.MAP from my PowerPak if you'd like.
Before assuming the PowerPAK doesn't work with those codes, make sure those codes actually work either on an emulator or with a real Game Genie.
MottZilla wrote:
Before assuming the PowerPAK doesn't work with those codes, make sure those codes actually work either on an emulator or with a real Game Genie.
The codes do work with a PowerPak when using the updated SM.BIN(SM.MAP) file I linked earlier in the thread. They don't work when using the old 1.05 SM.MAP I offered to send(if anyone still wants it I have no problem sending it).
The codes are from the .com domain Game Genie website that some random dude purchased. I haven't tested them in an emulator or real GG(I don't own), but I have a feeling they will work.
*edited for thefox*
Happy?
jupitersj wrote:
The codes are from the official Game Genie website.
Just because somebody bought a .com domain doesn't make the website official.
jupitersj wrote:
BunnyBoy posted the fixed file up on the NA forums last year; mentioned something about it not being a Hi/Lo Rom issue but rather messy coding losing a couple bank bits.
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/SM.BINFor the record, this file indeed differs greatly from the SM.MAP found in the latest official mapper package (POWERPAK134105.zip, with all S?.MAP files bearing a datestamp of 2010-10-14 13:32).
So I went ahead and recompiled SM.MAP from the original source I received from bunnyboy last summer. And voilà: I ended up with a file identical to the one linked above.
So thanks to bunnyboy, this hasn't been an issue in any of my unofficial releases. (No idea what went wrong -- or rather, right -- when I thought I was testing the "stock" v1.05 mappers. Oh well!)
That new SM.BIN still doesn't fix the game genie issues for me. Codes in Contra 3 and Pocky & Rocky still dont work and several other games. I've tested the game genie codes in on bsnes and snes9x and they work fine there, so it's not the codes.
This thread is rather obsolete with the new unofficial firmware now. The GG codes do work on the latest firmware.