How to get Skies Of Arcadia (echelon) working properly!!!!

[aika-san]

I'm not sure I completely understand what you are saying moxing, but it looks like you are running the game fine now. Thankyou for the VMS saves. They will be included, as will your name, in the next version of SOAPatcher.

 

[moxing]

code breaker is like a cheat............

It's on CMGSCCC.com ..............but it don't work on chankast alpha 0.25 Utilities's gamebuster's codebreaker!

because the 1st_read.bin file change...............I search it again by myself,

here I found..........
soa.cht.................it's only work on STR 's ips file(I test).........

[Aika Infinite/Max HP]
ON=4DA488,270F270F

[Aika Infinite/Max MP]
ON=4DA47D,63;4DA47E,63

[Aika Level 99]
ON=4DA47B,63

[Aika Infinite/Max Spirit]
ON=4DA48C,03E7;4DA48E,03E7

[Aika Hella Exp Points]
ON=4DA494,05F5E0FF

[Aika Quick Level Up]
ON=4DBB44,1

[Aika Max Power]
ON=4DBB74,270F

[Aika Max Vigor ]
ON=4DBB76,270F

[Aika Max Will ]
ON=4DBB78,270F

[Aika Max Agile ]
ON=4DBB7A,270F

[Aika Max Quick ]
ON=4DBB7C,270F

[Aika Max Attack ]
ON=4DBB7E,270F

[Aika Max Defense ]
ON=4DBB80,270F

[Aika Max MagDef ]
ON=4DBB82,270F

[Aika Max Hit% ]
ON=4DBB84,270F

[Aika Max Dodge% ]
ON=4DBB86,270F

[Aika Have Most Spells]
ON=4DA49C,FFFFFFFF

[Aika Max All Stats don't use with Max Power]
ON=4DBB74,00060001,03E703E7

[Vyse Infinite/Max HP]
ON=4DA42C,270F270F

[Vyse Infinite/Max MP]
ON=4DA421,63;4DA422,63

[Vyse Level 99]
ON=4DA41F,63

[Vyse Infinite/Max Spirit]
ON=4DA430,03E7;4DA432,03E7

[Vyse Hella Exp Points]
ON=4DA438,05F5E0FF

[Vyse Quick Level Up]
ON=4DBACC,1

[Vyse Max Power]
ON=4DBAFC,270F

[Vyse Max Vigor ]
ON=4DBAFE,270F

[Vyse Max Will ]
ON=4DBB00,270F

[Vyse Max Agile ]
ON=4DBB02,270F

[Vyse Max Quick ]
ON=4DBB04,270F

[Vyse Max Attack ]
ON=4DBB06,270F

[Vyse Max Defense ]
ON=4DBB08,270F

[Vyse Max MagDef ]
ON=4DBB0A,270F

[Vyse Max Hit% ]
ON=4DBB0C,270F

[Vyse Max Dodge% ]
ON=4DBB0E,270F

[Vyse Have Most Spells]
ON=4DA440,FFFFFFFF

[Vyse Max All Stats don't use with Max Power]
ON=4DBAFC,00060001,03E703E7

[Rating Modifier]
ON=4DA75C,FF

[GameInfo]
Name=soa
System=Dreamcast
Text=soa


CMGSCC WEBSITE CODE IS
Character Codes--------> Vyse Codes------->Description Code
1 Infinite/Max HP 0256DD88
270F270F

u can change 0256DD88 to 56DD88

here a code 9395C .

you can use 56DD88-9395C=4DA42C

4DA42C IS chankast alpha 0.25 Utilities's gamebuster's codebreaker code address.
Character Codes--------> Vyse Codes------->Description Code
1 Infinite/Max HP 0256DD88
270F270F
change to
[Vyse Infinite/Max HP]
ON=4DA42C,270F270F

now the code work.......you can find others 15XX Codes.................you can use these cheat play game if you want....................enjoy.

 

[Garderal]

First of all, sorry for my bad english :saint:

and... 2 questions...

I have got the NTSC version of SoA, and it's non-echelon, it works perfectly, but it has some bugs, like the famous black screen after exiting the inventory.
I have read that after aplying your patch, aika-san, that crashes dissapear, so I tried to patch my image, but, as I expected, it didn't work, it patches correctly, but when I run the game, it exits to the bios... So, these are the questions:

-Is there any manner of patching a non-echelon image??

-If not, is it possible to fix the black screen bug without running the whole patch??

 

[aika-san]

First of all, sorry for my bad english :saint:

and... 2 questions...

I have got the NTSC version of SoA, and it's non-echelon, it works perfectly, but it has some bugs, like the famous black screen after exiting the inventory.
I have read that after aplying your patch, aika-san, that crashes dissapear, so I tried to patch my image, but, as I expected, it didn't work, it patches correctly, but when I run the game, it exits to the bios... So, these are the questions:

-Is there any manner of patching a non-echelon image??

-If not, is it possible to fix the black screen bug without running the whole patch??

Sorry to break this news to you Garderal. I have a non-echelon version too. The image filenames of my non-echelon version are like this:

TAL-SOAD1CD1.mdf
TAL-SOAD1CD2.mdf

This version is a US non-echelon version where the echelon version is European. Unfortunately you will always have the black screen on inventory exit while using ANY US version. I have not been able to find a fix for this version. Even if I did, the non-echelon version I have is not complete, and therefore part way through the game I will have a crash which you won't ever get past. I know it looks like it is complete, but you will just have to trust me when I say it isn't. Less than half the game is there. Even if you can find a complete non-echelon US version, the inventory exit crash will remain. The inventory crash is related to the US version only

Unfortunately, the only solution for you is to get the standard echelon version (the most popular one). This version is a complete european version. SOAPatcher works fine with that and the black screen on inventory exit is gone, mostly. There are still other bugs and black screens but nothing that has stopped anyone from progressing through the game yet.

Sorry I can't help further. If it's any consolation, I got caught with the same US non-echelon version too.

 

[dreamer]

Sorry to break this news to you Garderal. I have a non-echelon version too. The image filenames of my non-echelon version are like this:

TAL-SOAD1CD1.mdf
TAL-SOAD1CD2.mdf

This version is a US non-echelon version where the echelon version is European. Unfortunately you will always have the black screen on inventory exit while using ANY US version. I have not been able to find a fix for this version. Even if I did, the non-echelon version I have is not complete, and therefore part way through the game I will have a crash which you won't ever get past. I know it looks like it is complete, but you will just have to trust me when I say it isn't. Less than half the game is there. Even if you can find a complete non-echelon US version, the inventory exit crash will remain. The inventory crash is related to the US version only

Unfortunately, the only solution for you is to get the standard echelon version (the most popular one). This version is a complete european version. SOAPatcher works fine with that and the black screen on inventory exit is gone, mostly. There are still other bugs and black screens but nothing that has stopped anyone from progressing through the game yet.

Sorry I can't help further. If it's any consolation, I got caught with the same US non-echelon version too.

yeah your right, actually it's only because of me that you have 'TAL-SOAD1CD1.mdf'

i convinced the guy to rip it in alcohol and send it to me, then i sent it to someone else and he seeded it.

anyway it's a shame that it doesnt work as well as we all hoped. so the best thing is to get the echelon version and patch it up. it looks like Fina is ahead of me with the game (i have been busy) so expect him to complete disk one first. i'm at the rixis point and should follow up completion of disk one to make sure its running, i didnt suffer any crashes around the desert area :| i only have found it crash a few times that are either related to the ending of battles (black screens, once a victory pose freeze) or pressing keys too fast and exiting meus (again, black screen crashes). ok good luck people!

 

[Fina]

I'll bring up some other oddities I've ran into.

When I had Aika use a healing item, the audio clip "Let's try this..." looped indefinitely until I turned up the CPU usage, which seemed to kick it back in gear.

When I fought Vigoro in the cell, the first time I started the battle, the camera endlessly looped around the battle, but never actually started. I restarted the emu and got back to the part, this time with the CPU set to 100. It worked fine the second time. This may or may not be due to the CPU setting.

On the Grand Fortress outer wall, the spotlights do not render at all. If you walk into the spotlights, you get caught and thrown into a battle. Since you can't see the lights, you're going to get yourself into some annoying random battles. Not a game stopper by any reach, though.

 

[scbwdt]

Sorry to break this news to you Garderal. I have a non-echelon version too. The image filenames of my non-echelon version are like this:

TAL-SOAD1CD1.mdf
TAL-SOAD1CD2.mdf

This version is a US non-echelon version where the echelon version is European. Unfortunately you will always have the black screen on inventory exit while using ANY US version. I have not been able to find a fix for this version. Even if I did, the non-echelon version I have is not complete, and therefore part way through the game I will have a crash which you won't ever get past. I know it looks like it is complete, but you will just have to trust me when I say it isn't. Less than half the game is there. Even if you can find a complete non-echelon US version, the inventory exit crash will remain. The inventory crash is related to the US version only

yeah your right, actually it's only because of me that you have 'TAL-SOAD1CD1.mdf'

i convinced the guy to rip it in alcohol and send it to me, then i sent it to someone else and he seeded it.

anyway it's a shame that it doesnt work as well as we all hoped. so the best thing is to get the echelon version and patch it up.

you will find your answer on this post for why isnt this version working =)
http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showpost.php?p=756865&postcount=32
sorry im bit lazy to type
and nice work guys ^^ i always wanted to let other enjoy this game as well and you guys make it possible without illegal stuff!! keep up the good work arty:

 

[Fina]

Okay, I've been really getting pissed with the random battles crashing, so I tried something.

The emulator loads the battles much, much faster than the Dreamcast ever did. In fact, on the Dreamcast, the music seemed timed so that the beat kicked in as soon as you 'got control' of the battle.

With this in mind, I waited for the music's beat to start before I started issuing commands. Doing this has decreased my battle crash rate considerably. I've crashed only twice since trying this, and both of these were seen coming as the music and sound stopped working before hand.

 

[Fina]

Oh, forgot to add this.

I'm almost at Esperanza, and should be onto disk 2 by tomorrow night if I play hard enough. I've been keeping an archive of saves, and might host a small page with saves from throughout the game, especially before and after major events for people who want to revisit them. If I work hard enough, I should have it up over the weekend sometime.

 

[dreamer]

Good work fina, i have a problem with the game atm. i cant play it at all :|

i am on a new computer and i get 'io control error' when i try to load a disk. i did look in the 'read first' chankast post, and it said to get a version of daemon tools which i couldnt find from googling, i got the newest version (only one i could find) and that wont work either. so no play for me, can anyone work out why this is happening?

lain:

later all

 

[Shakey_Jake3]

i am on a new computer and i get 'io control error' when i try to load a disk. i did look in the 'read first' chankast post, and it said to get a version of daemon tools which i couldnt find from googling, i got the newest version (only one i could find) and that wont work either. so no play for me, can anyone work out why this is happening?

lain:

later all

I got that problem when I tried to mount the image using Alcohol 120%. I switched to using the version of Daemon Tools that is packed the SOAPatcher, and it worked fine. So no need for Googling, just use the one in there.

Oh btw, this 'Non-Echelon' version you guys speak of... I assume this is a full disc image? Does this mean the issues caused by Echelons compression scheme, such as off-synced sound, b0rked intro, loading pauses etc (all of which occur on a real Dreamcast with their release) are non-existant?
I was actually just about ready to get the stuff to rip my original GD's of the game to see if it solved that!

 

[dreamer]

I got that problem when I tried to mount the image using Alcohol 120%. I switched to using the version of Daemon Tools that is packed the SOAPatcher, and it worked fine. So no need for Googling, just use the one in there.

Oh btw, this 'Non-Echelon' version you guys speak of... I assume this is a full disc image? Does this mean the issues caused by Echelons compression scheme, such as off-synced sound, b0rked intro, loading pauses etc (all of which occur on a real Dreamcast with their release) are non-existant?
I was actually just about ready to get the stuff to rip my original GD's of the game to see if it solved that!

good, i'll try that now (forgot the patcher included daemon, i patched it on the other computer) and as for the non - echelon version, i think it was much the same as the echelon on chankast, i think the sound was slightly better on the non - E version. but it had way too many crashes. in my opinion (the parts that ran) werent much better anyway, so its probably chankast's fault rather than the compressed E version. i wonder how bad the sound was on a real DC :huh: i havent tried it.
if u can rip your G-D roms...try it, might be good, i wasnt even aware that it was possible to rip your own games. lain: oh and thanks for the help with daemon, now soa should work.

 

[Shakey_Jake3]

Well the Echelon release is very problematic on a real DC too, some of the visual and audio errors occur on there too, so they aren't necessarily emulator bugs. That said, the problem with the Dreamcast was it couldn't decompress the data on the fly fast enough - I wouldn't have expected that to happen through emulation. Many of the audio sync issues with the Echelon release are caused by the fact that they patched a 50Hz PAL game to run in 60Hz. It totally messed up the intro for a start...

My original GD's of the game are PAL, so I doubt they'd be of real interest to anyone. Besides, can't really continue discussion of game ripping on here so I'm gonna zip up about that.

 

[aika-san]

Hi all.

Just got CD2. The current version of SOAPatcher does not patch CD2, but I have been able to manually patch CD2 and it works fine.

I'm going to start programming SOAPatcher v3 tommorrow night. Probably won't be ready till around mid next week. I'll put CD2 support in plus all the things I mention on the main download post and update the documentation with all the new bugs/solutions.

About the bad rip dreamer. Don't worry too much. I should have known better by looking at the size of it anyway. :happy:

Looks like some of you are nearly at CD2. It's good to see there have been no game ending bugs so far.

I have the non-echelon version and it has all the same bugs that the echelon version has plus more including the dreaded inventory black screen. I'd say 95% of these bugs are why Chankast is still at Alpha stage. Chankast still needs more work before we will see games running flawlessy. Take a look at how long ePSXe has been in development, emulating a comparable system, and it's still not perfect. Future versions of Chankast will most probably not have a problem with echelon and other incompatabilities will be removed. This will make SOAPatcher redundant. But that could be months from now. At least we are running it now, even if it is full of bugs. If you, like me, have a dead DC, then this is really the only option of playing the game.

 

[dreamer]

Hi all.

Just got CD2. The current version of SOAPatcher does not patch CD2, but I have been able to manually patch CD2 and it works fine.

I'm going to start programming SOAPatcher v3 tommorrow night. Probably won't be ready till around mid next week. I'll put CD2 support in plus all the things I mention on the main download post and update the documentation with all the new bugs/solutions.

About the bad rip dreamer. Don't worry too much. I should have known better by looking at the size of it anyway. :happy:

Looks like some of you are nearly at CD2. It's good to see there have been no game ending bugs so far.

I have the non-echelon version and it has all the same bugs that the echelon version has plus more including the dreaded inventory black screen. I'd say 95% of these bugs are why Chankast is still at Alpha stage. Chankast still needs more work before we will see games running flawlessy. Take a look at how long ePSXe has been in development, emulating a comparable system, and it's still not perfect. Future versions of Chankast will most probably not have a problem with echelon and other incompatabilities will be removed. This will make SOAPatcher redundant. But that could be months from now. At least we are running it now, even if it is full of bugs. If you, like me, have a dead DC, then this is really the only option of playing the game.

i have skies running on daemon, but i forgot i dont have my original game save *starts from beginning* @_@
last time i loaded up my dreamcast it made weird noises and stopped reading the disk (thats the third dreamcast console to mess up on me! one wasnt even mine >_>!)
so i give up with playing the original, it must be hard work for the DC lazer to read those weird G-D roms. much better on a virtual system!

 

[Shakey_Jake3]

I've had 5 Dreamcasts in my time.... my current one still works.

With all of mine, the PowerVR chipset fried. Every single one. It must have been a really buggy system...

I'm too scared to use my Dreamcast now, I have most of my favourite games for it (SoA, Shenmue II, Biohazard Code Veronica Complete...)...

On that note, excellent work on the patch aika-san! Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to see this game emulated on a PC.

 

[aika-san]

I've had 5 Dreamcasts in my time.... my current one still works.

With all of mine, the PowerVR chipset fried. Every single one. It must have been a really buggy system...

I'm too scared to use my Dreamcast now, I have most of my favourite games for it (SoA, Shenmue II, Biohazard Code Veronica Complete...)...

On that note, excellent work on the patch aika-san! Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to see this game emulated on a PC.

Yeah. I'd wrap that DC (and games) up in pillows and never even breath on it again. Unfortunately, all DC's will eventually die. That's why I consider Chankast to be such an important emulator. It or some other emulator like it is going to end up being the only way you will be able to play these games in the not-so-distant future.

Thankyou for the kind comments about SOAPatcher. I wouldn't have gone to all the headaches, if i didn't get the warm-fuzzies helping everyone do it. Besides, we can't have such a cool emulator not running one of the best DC games. Not if I can help it. When I originally came here and looked at all the requests and failed attempts to get this game going, it brought a tear to my eye. It was so tragic. Something had to be done otherwise I was going to be really annoyed and probably start self-mutilation, or end up drooling my life away in an asylum somewhere.

Don't laugh. Seriously, I was really pissed off when I found out this game was not working. It bugged the crap out of me. :happy:

EDIT - Have started working on SOAPatcher v3.0. Did a few hours on it today. Here's a list of improvements made so far:

- Now properly patches CD2 as well as CD1.
- Can now patch both CD's at once if you mount them on different drive letters.
- Now gives the patched image files more meaningful names. Now calls your patched images 'SkiesOfArcadia-CD1.cdi' and 'SkiesOfArcadia-CD2.cdi' instead of the less descriptive 'image.cdi'
- Now recognizes CD's when they are mounted on any drive letter, not just D:\, E:\, F:\ or G:\
- Strict MD5 checking to make sure that you have the correct echelon version.
- It won't attempt to patch the wrong CD anymore, even if you have other non-SOA CD's mounted with a 1st_read.bin file. This would result in a bad image anyway.
- Also, it won't attempt to patch an SOA image which already has been patched. This would also result in a bad image.
- The DOS window is now invisible. Not to be seen anywhere.
- Minor changes to the dynamic batch file generation.
- Made a few changes to the log file system.

Still needs to be done:

- Tidy up the existing windows and update them to suit the new 2 CD capability. Maybe put the SOA logo on the title window.
- Add a patch progress window so you know the patch is working.
- Completely remove the 'c:\soatp' folder instead of leaving it there empty.
- Update the documention.
- Check for bugs.

I also notice that someone has taken it upon themselves to upload v2.1 on P2P. You have broken the agreement contained in the docs by changing the name of the file. You have also uploaded an early incomplete version. The correct way of doing this would have been to ask first. I would have said no, because of the fact that the program is not yet complete and to wait for the complete version 3.0 before putting it on P2P. If I find out who you are, I will hack your PC and format your hard-drive buddy. lain:

 

[Fina]

If you need for me to get up an SoA logo setup for you, I could do it however you need. I have all of the SoA related files from Sega's PR FTP server.

 

[aika-san]

If you need for me to get up an SoA logo setup for you, I could do it however you need. I have all of the SoA related files from Sega's PR FTP server.

That would be a big help Fina. :happy: I'm good at doing window layouts and interface design (when I put the work in) but I'm not the most artistic person in the world when it comes to making pretty pictures and logos. I tend to do boring/predictable geometric based designs. :whistling Any colour depth/resolution would be fine. Please keep a widescreen style aspect ratio. That way I can put the credits list/version number underneath and the finished window would end up being square, or close to it. If you want to get fancy you could do a SOAPatcher logo too, but don't stress about it too much. I'm pretty easy with whatever u come up with.

I may need to rescale it because I want all windows to fit nicely on an 800*600 screen. I won't alter anything else you do though.

EDIT - Completed most of the main window layout and gadgets for SOAPatcher v3.0. Now has hotlinks on the interface to this thread and the user manual. Working Cancel and Exit buttons. I'll do the cdi detection gadgets next. Removed the annoying 'disk not inserted' windows error message which appears during cdi detection if you don't have any image files mounted.

 

[Fina]

Do you have a suggested pixel size? 400w200h?