Dragengard
New member
I have tried with CDmage but he not open the non patched .CDI and stops the PC.
Very thanks for the help.
Very thanks for the help.
How to get Skies Of Arcadia (echelon) working properly!!!!
- Thread starter aika-san
- Start date
I recently obtained a NTSC USA rip of Skies of Arcadia (apprently, it was released in Nov. '05). I ran it in chankast, and it sounds, and looks, mildly better than the Echelon rip. I did notice at least one problem though. On my PC, it seems "jumpy-er." Mainly when transitioning to a battle sequence, it seems to require more CPU than my PC can provide, and so it stops for a bit while it "loads." So far, that's the only complaint I have for it. The text looks a lot smoother (it looks the way you'd expect it to, instead of rough, and glitchy looking), and the sound doesn't seem to be as glitchy. I've heard of the "black screen glitch" where the emu hangs because of some bug. I haven't experienced that yet, but I only played about 10-15 minutes into it, so I might not have played long enough for the glitches to show.
The reason I'm posting this at all is because I wanted to ask how to convert PAL saves into NTSC saves. I know it can be done, and from what I've heard, it's pretty easy, but I don't know how to do it. Also, I just wanted to mention that, so far, the NTSC rip I've got seems to be AT LEAST as good as the Echelon rip, if not better (for emulation, at least. It's a 4 disc rip. If you're emulating it, then I suggest you conglomerate CD1a with CD1b to re-create CD1. Sure, the resulting image is too big to burn, but so what? It's not like you're going to burn it off to CD anyway, are you?).
Anyway, if someone can tell me how to convert my PAL saves into NTSC, it would really be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Mouser X over and out.
The reason I'm posting this at all is because I wanted to ask how to convert PAL saves into NTSC saves. I know it can be done, and from what I've heard, it's pretty easy, but I don't know how to do it. Also, I just wanted to mention that, so far, the NTSC rip I've got seems to be AT LEAST as good as the Echelon rip, if not better (for emulation, at least. It's a 4 disc rip. If you're emulating it, then I suggest you conglomerate CD1a with CD1b to re-create CD1. Sure, the resulting image is too big to burn, but so what? It's not like you're going to burn it off to CD anyway, are you?).
Anyway, if someone can tell me how to convert my PAL saves into NTSC, it would really be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Mouser X over and out.
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Chilly0123
New member
How did you get the NTSC us version to work? it always crashes when entering battles and when entering or leaving an island.
Anyways, to change pal saves to ntsc and back first you need a hex editor, i use the free one at http://www.expertcomsoft.com/
Then go to your chankast folder and use the vsmbrowser program to get to your save files and find the skies of arcadia save you want to change (should be ARCADIA_E001). click it, then click Export .DCI and it will show up in your chankast folder as ARCADIA_E001.DCI. Next load the hex editor and in the hex editor open the file you just exported (ARCADIA_E001.DCI). A window with a bunch of numbers and a few letters should show up in the hex editor. On the first line in the top right conrer it should say ARCADIA_E001, change it to S.ARCADIA001 and save the file and exit the hex editor. The last step is to go in the chankast folder change the file name from ARCADIA_E001.DCI to S.ARCADIA001.DCI and Import it back in to the vmsbrowser program.
There may be other ways to do it that are easyer but this is the only way i know of and it works everytime for me, hope it helps.
Anyways, to change pal saves to ntsc and back first you need a hex editor, i use the free one at http://www.expertcomsoft.com/
Then go to your chankast folder and use the vsmbrowser program to get to your save files and find the skies of arcadia save you want to change (should be ARCADIA_E001). click it, then click Export .DCI and it will show up in your chankast folder as ARCADIA_E001.DCI. Next load the hex editor and in the hex editor open the file you just exported (ARCADIA_E001.DCI). A window with a bunch of numbers and a few letters should show up in the hex editor. On the first line in the top right conrer it should say ARCADIA_E001, change it to S.ARCADIA001 and save the file and exit the hex editor. The last step is to go in the chankast folder change the file name from ARCADIA_E001.DCI to S.ARCADIA001.DCI and Import it back in to the vmsbrowser program.
There may be other ways to do it that are easyer but this is the only way i know of and it works everytime for me, hope it helps.
Thanks for the help on converting the saves. I was able to load some of my PAL saves on the NTSC version. As for how I got it to work, it was quite simple, really. I loaded it up, and started a new game. As I said, I only played for 10-15 minutes. And, now that I'm able to load my PAL saves, I can say for sure that 10-15 minutes was not enough time for the glitches to show. In other words, you're correct. When leaving the inventory screen, it hangs (I was able to access it just fine). When getting into a battle on-deck, it hangs (I found that out from my saves). But, the game plays great for the first 10-15 minutes, as long as you don't access the inventory screen. I got into, and out of, battles just fine during that time. But they weren't on-deck battles, so that was probably it. I must admit, I was slightly disappointed that it didn't work after all. Hopefully though, I'll be able to copy over the audio files from the NTSC version into the PAL version (and, if I'm really lucky, I might even be able to copy the NTSC text over to the PAL as well. That might fix up the glitchy text). If that works, it might decrease the likelyness of crashes/hangs, since that seems to be what's causing the problems right now.
On the other hand, it could be the decompression technique overall that's causing the problem (yah, I have no idea if that's the case at all, it's basically speculation on my part). If that's the case, then using the program data from the PAL version (the PAL version doesn't crash in the places mentioned), and the file data from the NTSC version (basically, copy over everything except the DC executables) might clean up some graphics glitches, and get rid of crashing. I might have to try that. Anyone here know which files are executables, and which aren't?
Again, thanks for the help in converting my saves. Unfortunatly, all it's done (so far) is help me to find out that what others have already said is true. The NTSC version crashes Chankast. Just, not within the first 10-15 minutes (at least, for me). Mouser X over and out.
On the other hand, it could be the decompression technique overall that's causing the problem (yah, I have no idea if that's the case at all, it's basically speculation on my part). If that's the case, then using the program data from the PAL version (the PAL version doesn't crash in the places mentioned), and the file data from the NTSC version (basically, copy over everything except the DC executables) might clean up some graphics glitches, and get rid of crashing. I might have to try that. Anyone here know which files are executables, and which aren't?
Again, thanks for the help in converting my saves. Unfortunatly, all it's done (so far) is help me to find out that what others have already said is true. The NTSC version crashes Chankast. Just, not within the first 10-15 minutes (at least, for me). Mouser X over and out.
Update: I've been testing out various combinations of files from the NTSC disc to the patched Echelon disc. So far, I've tried copying over nearly all of the NTSC files. While that did work (and it seemed to make crashing/hanging less), it messed up the text. My guess is that it's because some langauge files on the PAL disc are different from the NTSC disc, and aren't really compatible. The text is still fully readable, but the punctuation seems to suffer (that's all I've noticed so far).
So, in an attempt to fix the text, I rebuilt the image, copying only the files contained in the "sound" and the "field" directory. The results weren't noticeably different from my previous image, including the text errors. I rebuilt the image a 3rd time, copying over only the files in the "sound" directory (minus 3 files. One of them seems to mess up the audio in the title screen (I got static when I used it), and the other two had been edited by the dumper somewhat, so I decided I didn't want them, since they *might* cause problems). While this did fix the text, the likelyness of a crash/hang was negligeably different, if different at all, from the original patched Echelon disc.
Perhaps with more experimenting, I could narrow down what files are the language files, and not include those from the NTSC image. If I could do that (or if anyone has any ideas of what (files?) not to include), then using NTSC files on the patched Echelon disc might help stability of the game in Chankast. However, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to track it down, since I'm not sure the increase in stability was great enough to warrant going through the trouble (if there was an increase at all, which I think there was, but not by too much).
I hope that someone can find this info useful. Perhaps someone out there can help narrow down the problem(s) some more, and find alternate/more stable versions of specific files. Which reminds me. It was noted that Yafutoma (where I'm at now) crashed frequently (which it seems to be doing for me). However, I loaded a save game from disc 2 (Dangral Island, apparently the very first disc 2 save possible), and went to Yafutoma. It seemed perfectly stable to me, and in fact helped clear up the some sound issues (sound cutting out, going silent altogether) when I went in the city. Perhaps there's files/sounds/ect. on disc 2 that cause less issues than their counterpart file on disc 1? Just a thought. Mouser X over and out.
So, in an attempt to fix the text, I rebuilt the image, copying only the files contained in the "sound" and the "field" directory. The results weren't noticeably different from my previous image, including the text errors. I rebuilt the image a 3rd time, copying over only the files in the "sound" directory (minus 3 files. One of them seems to mess up the audio in the title screen (I got static when I used it), and the other two had been edited by the dumper somewhat, so I decided I didn't want them, since they *might* cause problems). While this did fix the text, the likelyness of a crash/hang was negligeably different, if different at all, from the original patched Echelon disc.
Perhaps with more experimenting, I could narrow down what files are the language files, and not include those from the NTSC image. If I could do that (or if anyone has any ideas of what (files?) not to include), then using NTSC files on the patched Echelon disc might help stability of the game in Chankast. However, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to track it down, since I'm not sure the increase in stability was great enough to warrant going through the trouble (if there was an increase at all, which I think there was, but not by too much).
I hope that someone can find this info useful. Perhaps someone out there can help narrow down the problem(s) some more, and find alternate/more stable versions of specific files. Which reminds me. It was noted that Yafutoma (where I'm at now) crashed frequently (which it seems to be doing for me). However, I loaded a save game from disc 2 (Dangral Island, apparently the very first disc 2 save possible), and went to Yafutoma. It seemed perfectly stable to me, and in fact helped clear up the some sound issues (sound cutting out, going silent altogether) when I went in the city. Perhaps there's files/sounds/ect. on disc 2 that cause less issues than their counterpart file on disc 1? Just a thought. Mouser X over and out.
Dialog is stored in .SCT files.
The difference between NTSC dialog and PAL is that in NTSC there is a special escape sequence "\c" (IIRC) that the game replaces with "...". So that's one reason why you'll see garbled text.
You might want to check out the editor I wrote (a long time ago) for SOA full/NTSC version.
Program:
http://geocities.com/adnova2001/soa/soaeditor.zip
There's even a guide here:
http://geocities.com/adnova2001/soa/
The difference between NTSC dialog and PAL is that in NTSC there is a special escape sequence "\c" (IIRC) that the game replaces with "...". So that's one reason why you'll see garbled text.
You might want to check out the editor I wrote (a long time ago) for SOA full/NTSC version.
Program:
http://geocities.com/adnova2001/soa/soaeditor.zip
There's even a guide here:
http://geocities.com/adnova2001/soa/
Daidoji
New member
just some information
Hello ^^
For start, thanks for the patch and the patience you demonstrate.
Second, just 2 cent about the "compatibility" problem mentionned here lot's of time : when i launch the patch (on C:, 6G free), i have 2 type of figure :
in the second case, after some trial, i kill the patch and see the batchs files in the cfg folder. i understood then that each "%" (or bar) of the progress bar are sanctionned by the final line of each batch file ("C:\p\cfg\SetClip.exe" DONE). So the problem may be on the fourth bat.
At this moment, i done all the work of the exe patch at "hand" on the cmd windows : cdpatch1, result OK, return to cfg folder, cdpatch2, result ok, return to cfg folder, cdpatch3, result ok (iso done), return to cfg folder, cdpatch4 ... PATATRAC !! problem here :
And so, impossible to continu.
When i retry and i have a first figure case (no hangup of the patch), i look carefully on the specific folder, and i see the image.iso and no cdi ever. when it's deleted by the batch files, it continu on something wich doesn't exist WITHOUT any error popping at the screen
by the way : on windows XP pro sp2 with all last security patch. Imagine the resultat when i try after all this trials on a windows xp pro sp1 ? mmm ? it works ! i can only imagine the reason, but it seems that xp2 modify something on the file access :S.
I hope you understood all i said, because my english isn't my mother language and i think i must be (a little ?) glibberitch, and i hope too to have be a little helpful there
Hello ^^
For start, thanks for the patch and the patience you demonstrate.
Second, just 2 cent about the "compatibility" problem mentionned here lot's of time : when i launch the patch (on C:, 6G free), i have 2 type of figure :
- the patch complete without error popping
- the patch stuck at the second bar
in the second case, after some trial, i kill the patch and see the batchs files in the cfg folder. i understood then that each "%" (or bar) of the progress bar are sanctionned by the final line of each batch file ("C:\p\cfg\SetClip.exe" DONE). So the problem may be on the fourth bat.
At this moment, i done all the work of the exe patch at "hand" on the cmd windows : cdpatch1, result OK, return to cfg folder, cdpatch2, result ok, return to cfg folder, cdpatch3, result ok (iso done), return to cfg folder, cdpatch4 ... PATATRAC !! problem here :
And so, impossible to continu.
When i retry and i have a first figure case (no hangup of the patch), i look carefully on the specific folder, and i see the image.iso and no cdi ever. when it's deleted by the batch files, it continu on something wich doesn't exist WITHOUT any error popping at the screen
by the way : on windows XP pro sp2 with all last security patch. Imagine the resultat when i try after all this trials on a windows xp pro sp1 ? mmm ? it works ! i can only imagine the reason, but it seems that xp2 modify something on the file access :S.
I hope you understood all i said, because my english isn't my mother language and i think i must be (a little ?) glibberitch, and i hope too to have be a little helpful there
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kikoodelolarf
New member
arf
hello all i have patched the soa cd1 echelon image with soa v.3 ....all is correct then when i want to mount my new image on daemon tool (or other programm like this), it don't work...said that it's a corrupted image ...i always have my original version...what can i do? i see that some people have the same problem but i don't see any solution. Please help me
EDIT :
ARF i found the solution.....you absolutly must use the 3.29 version of daemon tool...just that yippeee !!!
hello all
i have patched the soa cd1 echelon image with soa v.3 ....all is correct then when i want to mount my new image on daemon tool (or other programm like this), it don't work...said that it's a corrupted image ...i always have my original version...what can i do? i see that some people have the same problem but i don't see any solution. Please help me EDIT :
ARF i found the solution.....you absolutly must use the 3.29 version of daemon tool...just that
yippeee !!!
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kikoodelolarf
New member
sound
It's me again....sorry....my soa sound is too bad what must i do to have a good sound?
It's me again....sorry....my soa sound is too bad
what must i do to have a good sound?Get a real Dreamcast. Bad sound is a known issue, and there's really no way to fix it in the current version of Chankast. You *could* do what I'm doing, and download the NTSC version of SoA, and use the NTSC music files to replace the Echelon compressed files, but the audible differences between doing this, and leaving it alone (meaning, just play it as it is now), is negligeable. If you want good sound, get a Dreamcast. Mouser X out.
during the install of 3.29 i get a blue screen crash then a restart. I've tried uninstalling all my dvd/cd burner programs and all other drive emulators like alcohol so just 3.29 would be on the system but still happends. after the reboot from the crash my system is unstable and crashes again within 5 min with the same blue screen. I have to revert the system back to before 3.29 install to have it work again.
WonderfulDays
New member
The actual game, skies of arcadia, plays in spanish...not in english. so this could be a problem when i try to...well...play/enjoy the game. i searched this thread, but to no avail except for some shmuck who was banned a few years ago.
any help getting this game to play in english? i already changed my bios to english, so thats not the problem...
any help getting this game to play in english? i already changed my bios to english, so thats not the problem...
diablo2121
teh diAbLo
Perhaps you simply have the Spanish version of the game?