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Titel: SNES: Neviksti's X-Band Revival project
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 15:46 Uhr
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From: http://board.acmlm.org/thread.php?id=14914
"Hello, for those that don´t know of me, I love playing with old hardware. Half the fun is learning how it works ... or in some cases, just getting it to work.
I have considered this for quite some time now, and decided I want to work on the SNES X-Band. I am looking for people to help."
Zitat: For those that don´t know, the X-Band was a device for the SNES that:
- in essence was a massive "Game Genie", it is a hacker´s dream come true, allowing fairly massive patching of almost any game
- the "main program" on the device itself was updatable
- it contained a modem
- there used to be a service that you could call into and download updates, and hacks ... Which allowed many games to be turned into multi-player modem games!
- the US user base was fairly large and enthralled with it, but when the company was bought out the service was shut down (I´m probably getting history a bit wrong here, but they were bought out ... eventually leading to Qualcomm as the owners I think)
- From the sounds of it, the programmers were a close knit group of hard working youngsters just out of college. They disassembled and gutted many a game to hack it and over came the obstacles to make games 2-player modem games ... which they obviously weren´t originally designed to be!
- You could also send mail and read news "online".
and finally
- There is actually a secret built in memory viewer/hexeditor! (This means if we can get something working, by making just a couple changes, ie the dialup number in memory, anyone with an X-Band could try out what we create... they don´t need a copier or any other special equipment.)
This thing has plenty of potential. Who´s interested in helping?
What would really help:
- If you own an X-Band, check if the memory (battery backed SRAM) is still good by starting it up. If so, I´d love to get a copy of some real patches (haven´t found any X-Bands with good bateries yet).
- Try checking local used game stores and seeing if they have some X-Bands that still have the saved memory.
- If you have an X-Band and can´t help, but would like to donate it ... well, it would be very much appreciated
Side oddities that would be fun to fiddle with:
- If you own an X-Band keyboard (or know where to get one), I´d be interested seeing how it works. (This was added later in its life, and I´m not sure if it got beyond the proto-type phase.)
For those interested in helping with the hacking, some skills that would be helpful (not required though):
Code readers:
- understand SNES asm
- understand C at a low level (We will be looking at the code in asm, but it was originally written in C and then compiled ... so it looks kinda weird unless you understand C at a low level.)
- goals are to figure out software protocals and hardware features so that we can make this puppy do whatever we want
Code writers:
- can write a modem program for a PC (I have done this in DOS in C with asm thrown in as well, but I used direct register writes and swapped interrupt vectors ... I´m not sure how to do it "the modern way" in Windows)
- this is for eventually making a new "server" ... which will depend on info from the code readers above, but I´d like to have at least the fundemental communication routines setup so we can play with / test info as it comes in.
- also plenty of test programs to figure out the hardware will be necessary (SNES programs)
- ultimately, it would be fun to do a proof of concept with MarioWorld (It´s two player, but you take turns ... so there are no synchronizing issues). Then try out MarioKart.
- maybe someone that could write a crude "decompiler" to turn the X-Band code back into a crude form of C (would make reading it much quicker).
Hardware skills:
- even if you don´t understand asm, you may be able to help interpret strange findings from the code ... a good understanding of the memory map and chips involved will help us figure out the hardware (I already have a rough sketch of the memory map, and have a datasheet explaining the modem chip used in this cartridge)
- For testing purposes, it would be nice to connect the X-Band directly to the modem of a PC. There appears to be a mode of the modem chip on the X-Band that supports this ... however, I have no idea how to get the PC modem to do this. Help here will be nice as well.
- help with understanding the theory behind how they overcame the lag in a phone line to make a synchonous multiplayer modem game
Basically, there are plenty of fun things to work on.
After this progresses a bit, I can supply the following to big helpers that need it:
- a SF3 or SF7 (an SNES copier) which is versatile enough to use the XBand on pass through and still allow modifying the ROM
- an X-Band for testing
So who´s up for the thrill of conquering this rom hacking challenge?
People with all ranges and levels of interest are welcome!
Thanks,
-nevisti...
Related links:
[ SNES Emus ][ SNES Infos ][ Nintendo Infos ]
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retroK
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 15:54 Uhr
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Site Admin
Anmeldungsdatum: 04. Jul 2004
Beiträge: 12.008
Wohnort: Frankfurt a.M.
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Sounds very interesting - hope to see something soon out of this project.
Thanks for submitting this news! |
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Matze2005
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 15:56 Uhr
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Banned
Anmeldungsdatum: 21. Mai 2005
Beiträge: 278
Status: Offline
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Und jetzt bitte auf Deutsch. |
_________________ Meine Freunde: hakke
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retroK
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 16:01 Uhr
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Site Admin
Anmeldungsdatum: 04. Jul 2004
Beiträge: 12.008
Wohnort: Frankfurt a.M.
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Schnapp Dir ein Wörterbuch und schlag nach. Haste kein Englisch auf der Schule? |
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ROHGA
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 16:10 Uhr
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Retrohling
Anmeldungsdatum: 02. Jun 2005
Beiträge: 25
Wohnort: bei Köln
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Jugend von heute... echt armseelig... genau so wie dieser Post *spöm* -_,- |
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Matze2005
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 16:28 Uhr
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Banned
Anmeldungsdatum: 21. Mai 2005
Beiträge: 278
Status: Offline
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Ich bin noch in der schei.. Schule, aber jetzt habe ich SOMERFERIEN. |
_________________ Meine Freunde: hakke
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retroK
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 16:32 Uhr
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Site Admin
Anmeldungsdatum: 04. Jul 2004
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Schei.. Schule... wenn ich das lese. Schule ist neben dem Studium die schönste Zeit des Lebens ...
Wart ab bis Du arbeitest, dann denkst du anders darüber. |
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adventureFAN
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 17:46 Uhr
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Retromeister
Anmeldungsdatum: 14. Jul 2004
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Soweit ich verstanden will er ein SNES-Modem (was es wirklich gab) programmieren, womit man wohl leichter hacken und Online spielen kann... ist das richtig? |
_________________
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Q-Marine
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 18:02 Uhr
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AEP Team Member
Anmeldungsdatum: 04. Jul 2004
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[quote:5c2da2598a="retroK"]Schei.. Schule... wenn ich das lese. Schule ist neben dem Studium die schönste Zeit des Lebens ...
Wart ab bis Du arbeitest, dann denkst du anders darüber.
Dann denkst du schei.. Arbeit. |
_________________
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Jezze
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 18:32 Uhr
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Banned Team Member
Anmeldungsdatum: 30. Okt 2004
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Ach Matze ... Du schaffst es aber auch immer, zu einem interessanten und sinnvollen Thread, einen weniger interessanten und vollkommen sinnlosen Post zu verfassen. |
_________________ Test your limits and break through!
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Matze2005
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 19:36 Uhr
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Banned
Anmeldungsdatum: 21. Mai 2005
Beiträge: 278
Status: Offline
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Also ganz sinnlos ist er ja wohl nicht und außerdem wollte ich eigentlich nur wissen über was sie zum Anfang reden. Auf DEUTSCH. |
_________________ Meine Freunde: hakke
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JohnPlayer
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 19:46 Uhr
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Retrokenner
Anmeldungsdatum: 26. Sep 2004
Beiträge: 256
Status: Offline
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Matze2005
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 20:11 Uhr
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Banned
Anmeldungsdatum: 21. Mai 2005
Beiträge: 278
Status: Offline
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Wie jetzt? Willst du mich jetzt verarsch..? Das heißt übersetzt Was ist English. |
_________________ Meine Freunde: hakke
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JohnPlayer
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 20:32 Uhr
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Retrokenner
Anmeldungsdatum: 26. Sep 2004
Beiträge: 256
Status: Offline
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Na, siehst Du! Dein Englisch ist perfekt! |
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Matze2005
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Titel:
Verfasst am: 22.06.2005, 20:36 Uhr
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Banned
Anmeldungsdatum: 21. Mai 2005
Beiträge: 278
Status: Offline
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Toll aber ich kann nicht den ganzen Text von Anfang übersetzen. |
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