UniROM 8.0.K - GDB Debugging, install/backup to/from memory card, homebrew from memcard, etc

[Ichisuke]

Flashed an action replay pro with standard unirom.
Sometimes after resetting the console the menu simply freeze.
I have to turn off the console.

[tomexplodes]

I upgraded my UniROM to 8.0.bB, and now (backup copy of) Jumping Flash works ALMOST perfectly. Just the tiniest bit of music skipping and VERY occasional lag, but it's nearly 100% perfect now. So thanks for that! However, a burned copy of Gamera 2000 won't load at all. Also, the fan translated version of Clock Tower: The First Fear is pretty skippy during cutscenes. This is probably not a surprise. I'm not complaining by any means, just filling in my experiences with burned/backup copies of things. Hope it is helpful in some way. Thanks for all your hard work!

EDIT: Oh right I'm using just UniROM without Caetla, I only have a 128k cartridge.

EDIT AGAIN: Also, Metal Gear Solid hangs during cutscenes.
I should probably reiterate that I have an original 1001 model PSX, which I have heard is notorious for skipping cutscenes. I should also note that I've had audio CDs skip during playback. I should FURTHER note that on every legit PSX game I own, cutscenes never skip. Even the long ones in Chrono Cross and FF8-9. HOKAY.
aaaaand in case it was forgotten, I'm using Verbatim CDRs I bought off Amazon and burning them on my modern PC at max (48) speed.

[sickle]

New release!
Notably it's built on a completely new toolchain with tons of changes under the hood.
https://github.com/JonathanDotCel/uniro ... /tag/8.0.C

@sickle Thanks and what should I flash then? And to be clear, my GameBuster is only 128k or 256k with no (or yes?) possibility to get UniROM + Caetla?

New release should be good! Let me know if it doesn't detect the right cart type and I can put out an update much quicker this time!

I upgraded my UniROM to 8.0.bB, and now (backup copy of) Jumping Flash works ALMOST perfectly...

Hah, thanks for the detailed feedback, I'm not sure what's going on with jumping flash, it's been a weird one, but there does seem to be some interest in this one! I don't have a 1002 model atm - the cutscenes are alright on my 5555, but I'll check it out when I get a new PSU.

I have to turn off the console.

Should be fixed now, thanks.

[tomexplodes]

Turns out I was wrong! Your new version detected my V2 Gameshark and it turns out it has 256k, so it automatically installed with Caetla support as well. Which doesn't seem to help me with anything, but still, nice to know. So Jumping Flash works basically perfect, like I said, but MGS hangs during cutscenes (with a spinning disc load icon), though they're skippable and I can play okay (so far) and Gamera has skippy cutscenes (I didn't realize I needed to hit the Disc Swap NTSC-J thingity before booting it. Or that has nothing to do with it and I'm just stupid.) but is fairly playable so far. CT:TFF still has skippy cutscenes. Again, this could be my PSX, my discs, my burn speed, I have no real idea how to troubleshoot these things. If anyone else has a 1001 model US PSX, lemme know how your success rate is, thanks!

EDIT: Oh and Harmful Park seems to play perfectly.
EDIT: I take that back. A couple versions ago, HP was working perfectly, it's very skippy now, dunno why.

I'm also wondering if 480i load/intro videos give me more trouble than 240p ones.

[Puppydogpals]

getting 'Not a valid cd or the drive is locked' most of the time on first attempt, works on second try.

Am I not giving it enough time from power on or reset before trying to boot?

Missing the Blue screen not of fan of green and black lol



edit

no its every time even after waiting, went to status after power on cd unlocked :1

still gives error says press x to exit - error reading disc, boots fine then

[Squaresoft74]

New release!

Many thanks for this new release and all the hard work you put into it !

[tomexplodes]

Well I'll be darned. I recently built myself a Windows 98 SE machine, which has an older CD-RW in it. So, I burned a copy of Metal Gear Solid with ImgBurn at 8x speed and... I got all the way through the first cutscene, no skipping, nothing. I'm now going to go back and burn these other things and see what happens. I hope I've finally solved it! Thanks for UniROM and thanks for all the support!

[Puppydogpals]

I have had to flash back to previous version, Tomb Raider II kept freezing for like 10 seconds every now and again, had no problems up to now (nearly finished Opera House) with old version or with tomb raider 1

[Haker120]

@sickle GameBuster is 256k and I correctly flashed it to UniROM + Caetla this time and the same with XFX dual chip! And Smart Cartridge was finally correctly detected and flashed to standalone UniROM with no holding L1 + L2.

[Octane]

Hey, thanks for adding an error message when a game doesn't boot, and changing the button layout so that I can boot Wipeout without having to unplug my NeGcon first.

[Ichisuke]

I upgraded my UniROM to 8.0.bB, and now (backup copy of) Jumping Flash works ALMOST perfectly...

Hah, thanks for the detailed feedback, I'm not sure what's going on with jumping flash, it's been a weird one, but there does seem to be some interest in this one! I don't have a 1002 model atm - the cutscenes are alright on my 5555, but I'll check it out when I get a new PSU.

I have to turn off the console.

Should be fixed now, thanks.

Gonna try ASAP.

What's the issue with jumping flash? I can test it on my 1002.

[sickle]

@tomexplodes
Yay, sounds like success!
Glad the new CDR fixed it.

@puppydogpals
That's a weird one, it really should just work after a second or so.
I can't replicate it at all, but if you can put up with it for now, I'll get on it!

Ty for the tip about TR2 btw, I think it know what might be up.

@Squaresoft74
<3

@haker120
!

@Octane
I didn't change the button layout, are you able to use the ones on the lightgun now though?
That's awesome!

@ichisuke
The jumping flash issues were an older version problem
(E.g. copying the file straight into mem and executing vs letting the bios do the work)
Should be good now, but feel free to try!

Cheers!

[Puppydogpals]

@puppydogpals
That's a weird one, it really should just work after a second or so.
I can't replicate it at all, but if you can put up with it for now, I'll get on it!

Ty for the tip about TR2 btw, I think it know what might be up.

I've rolled back a version for now anyway.

The unlock thing was not a big issue just a few extra presses, the TR2 issue made me roll back.

Also should it of been green/ black if running off cart (that's what I had) and not blue/blue like old version?

[Jimplicity]

Latest version skips music in Spyro 2 NTSC on PAL console.

Croc PAL music skips on the menu track slightly but then catches up to itself but it was one of those ECM copies so I’ll test a Proper Rip soon.

[Jimplicity]

Update: Altered my POT on the laser and now both do not skip music, PSX must have been getting crusty haha

[sickle]

@puppydogpals
That's a weird one, it really should just work after a second or so.
I can't replicate it at all, but if you can put up with it for now, I'll get on it!

Ty for the tip about TR2 btw, I think it know what might be up.

I've rolled back a version for now anyway.

The unlock thing was not a big issue just a few extra presses, the TR2 issue made me roll back.

Also should it of been green/ black if running off cart (that's what I had) and not blue/blue like old version?

Right.
Finally got to the opera house (just now)
Wow, TR2 is sadistic

Seems good in the current version!

Update: Altered my POT on the laser and now both do not skip music, PSX must have been getting crusty haha

Haha, glad we're all good on that front. Cheers

[Puppydogpals]

Did you not have any issue?

Lol tr2 is a labour of love, not my favorite but has to be done, at the monastery now only 5 to go (no issues so far on old version)

Maybe it did not flash to my cart properly as I had a green/black screen running from cart?

[TheLomster]

The latest release loads title screens and menus fine, but when I try to boot into an actual level it fails to load. I'm using a gameshark with unirom standalone. I flashed an earlier version and now it works fine. The issue was present even while using an official disc. Also the only 2D game I tested did not have any issues.

[stirfry8993]

Having some issues with Legend of Mana, myself. Videos are skipping, which I'm generally okay with, burning it at a slower speed did help a lot with the audio kicking in later than normal. However, a couple of times I got this error, which, while slightly annoying, though understandable, it made me laugh my @$$ off. A crash like this has happened a couple of times. Just a heads up for anyone who might need to know its happening. Thanks for doing this project though!

Edit: L1+L2 seems to help a lot, I guess my drive is on it's way out.

[leafy]

Hi, I got this nifty ROM combination onto an Xplorer V2 cart. I'm running on a SCPH-7001 (NTSC). I used a Game Hunter cart with spring to do the swap trick.

I'm using a Windows XP machine to attach to my Xplorer. I have not wired up a serial connection yet for using PSX Serial, so to push PS-EXE over I need to use something like catflap. My Arduino Uno (revision 1) doesn't have any switch to make it 3 volts either.

To install UniROM, first I loaded the UniROM boot disk using catflap (with loaddrv and giveio.sys), but then I realized I still needed to swap disks anyway, and I couldn't really flash the entire ROM over parallel. This is because, although the UniROM boot disk loaded, the NoPS.exe program would not run under Windows XP.

NoPS.exe is not compatible with Windows XP, I guess.

There is a problem now that I have the UniROM / Caetla side by side. If I go to Caetla, then try to use a catflap funtion like catflap run PROGRAM.EXE then it just reboots the cart. and I'm back at the UniROM main menu.

So, unfortunately I can't get PS-EXE over to the cart. now via parallel with catflap.

I got Caetla on the cart. under real Windows 98SE DOS (boot USB disk) I used CAEFLASH.COM. This was the only way I could find to flash Caetla using parallel only and no disk.

This has left me wondering a few things... like how I might put Xplorer ROM side by side with UniROM. If maybe there is a place I can hex edit the Xplorer files to make them color on an NTSC playstation. I only see Xploder (U.S.) v1 dumped. I tried it, and it does let X-Killer sometimes send a PS-EXE, but it is buggy.

I also wonder how my Game Hunter CD version cart. stops the disk with the door switch down. I like this cart. because it because it came with a spring that holds down the disk switch at all times, and stops the disk, so a swap is super easy. It seems to be a rip-off of Caetla. But Caetla doesn't do this. I don't know if these have fully wired parallel ports, but I assume not. Anyway, using the Game Hunter lets me boot and swap, then hot swap carts if necessary to flash.

This is how I swapped out disks, and flashed, not wanting to bother installing a mod chip or try to master the disk swap.

My next project will be to build the serial cable with FTDI. Oh, and fire up PsyQ and make a Hello World!

What do you think, 50mA is enough, or do I need the 250mA? I would guess 50mA, that is the first cable on the list here: https://www.ftdichip.com/Products/Cable ... Serial.htm

Thanks so much for the hard work!

Cheers,

Leif