(Request) Sega CD Codes

[Liquidpolicenaut]

First off, thanks to the new created Sega CD Codes! I used many of the Sega CD ISO hacks and it's also nice to have just codes instead of a full hack

Now to my request. I tried many of the codes and most work perfectly.... except for ones like Eternal Champions and Lunar Eternal Blue. I noticed those are the ones where the first part of the code has 8 characters while the ones that DO work only have 6 characters (like the ones for Final Fight CD and Popful Mail). Any chance of fixes?

[King Of Chaos]

Simply put, those are Sega CD RAM (or PRG RAM) cheats, which (as far as I know) no emulator supports. The FF-style RAM cheats work because some CD games use "Genesis" RAM for things. A good example of this is Sonic CD, thus some emulators like Genesis Plus GX and the MegaSD flash cart support them. To use PRG RAM cheats you'd probably have to use something like Cheat Engine or ArtMoney with an emulator to get them working. I believe lee4 has a signature link to a tutorial on using ArtMoney to cheat with Sega CD games.

It's actually not as simple as creating a cheat that uses the Genesis RAM either since the game could be using PRG RAM (or Word RAM) for such things which I believe Lunar Eternal Blue is an example of.

EDIT: Here's lee4's ArtMoney Sega CD cheat tutorial for emulators: https://gamehacking.org/vb/forum/vid...559#post143559

[toro00]

Simply put, those are Sega CD RAM (or PRG RAM) cheats, which (as far as I know) no emulator supports. The FF-style RAM cheats work because some CD games use "Genesis" RAM for things. A good example of this is Sonic CD, thus some emulators like Genesis Plus GX and the MegaSD flash cart support them. To use PRG RAM cheats you'd probably have to use something like Cheat Engine or ArtMoney with an emulator to get them working. I believe lee4 has a signature link to a tutorial on using ArtMoney to cheat with Sega CD games.

It's actually not as simple as creating a cheat that uses the Genesis RAM either since the game could be using PRG RAM (or Word RAM) for such things which I believe Lunar Eternal Blue is an example of.

EDIT: Here's lee4's ArtMoney Sega CD cheat tutorial for emulators: https://gamehacking.org/vb/forum/vid...559#post143559

friend King Of Chaos could you give me a hand for the codes I'm looking for game gear and master syste please

[Pugsy]

Simply put, those are Sega CD RAM (or PRG RAM) cheats, which (as far as I know) no emulator supports.

MAME segacd cheats work with pretty much everything, in the plugin cheat finder you can select what memory region you want to search in.

Segacd does work in MAME even though it says it doesn't, there maybe issues with some games.

The problem is most people don't want to learn how to use MAME or get the softwarelist images for each system.

[King Of Chaos]

The problem is most people don't want to learn how to use MAME or get the softwarelist images for each system.

Honestly? I don't blame them. It is a bit of a hassle to set up, when most people just want to open an app and play the game. That said, once a user has taken the time to set up MAME, it works pretty nicely.

Anyways, the MegaSD's developer (neodev) has said he plans on adding PRG RAM cheat support in the MegaSD, so hopefully we'll be able to use those cheats on a real Genesis. Also I was thinking about it, and if BizHawk supports looking at the Sega CD's memory in the RAM search feature (it should, as far as I know) you might be able to freeze RAM addresses there, not sure, never tried it. Nonetheless, using ArtMoney with an emulator should work.

I suppose somebody could request to an emulator author like Genesis Plus GX's ekeeke to see if adding PRG RAM cheat support is possible.

[Tony H]

Pugsy, I'm not too familiar with Sega CD specifics, but I've made some Sega CD ISO assembly hacks and when they are patched into the ISO file, the code/patch works perfectly. I'm wondering if Mega SD, MAME, or anything else supports ISO/assembly type codes? If so, what format?

[Pugsy]

Pugsy, I'm not too familiar with Sega CD specifics, but I've made some Sega CD ISO assembly hacks and when they are patched into the ISO file, the code/patch works perfectly. I'm wondering if Mega SD, MAME, or anything else supports ISO/assembly type codes? If so, what format?

Stuff on the CD will just get loaded into RAM, just find the RAM address holding the program code and change it

Here's an example for one of your flashback cheats in MAME

Add this to cheat\segacd\flashb.xml

<mamecheat version="1">

  <cheat desc="Walk on air"> <comment>Can walk across any opening without falling.  Release the directional pad to drop down</comment>
    <script state="run">
      <action>segacd:segacd_68k.pw@11568=4E75</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>segacd:segacd_68k.pw@11568=70FF</action>
    </script>    
  </cheat>

</mamecheat>

Note, the address was found with a similar technique you have for iso modification, in the MAME debugger just type F 0,FFFFF,d.660470FF

If you don't have the softwarelist chd and have loaded the iso manually then just typing segacd:segacd_68k.pw@11568=4E75 in the debugger will also poke it

EDIT:
Of course as it's a RAM cheat in affect you could just use the MAME plugin cheat engine and add this single line to cheat.simple:
segacd/flashb,:segacd:segacd_68k,11568,w,4E75,Walk on Air

This is reliant on having the softwarelist images though....which is a good thing anyway

[Tony H]

Thanks for the info Pugsy, I appreciate it.

I've had MAME partially setup for several months now. Getting it up and running properly can be a little difficult for the first time user. One of the more difficult things is finding the right place for accurate information. My current MAME folder has IV-Play and MameUI64. Are those what I should be using? (been so long, I don't even remember what they were for). Where is the best place to get good information for beginners?

[Liquidpolicenaut]

Thank you very much for the detailed break down as to why certain Sega CD codes won't work in certain emulators. At least a few work for me and, plus the great ISO hacks, I pretty much have all the games I wanted "hacked" done. Now if only more PC-E CD/Turbo CD could get their ISOs hacked...lol

[King Of Chaos]

Right now the MegaSD supports the "Genesis RAM" cheats for Sega CD games, so it only works for those games that use that for stuff like health, lives, etc. The MegaSD's developer is highly considering adding PRG RAM cheat support for Sega CD games soon too. But emulators that support the "Genesis RAM" cheats for Sega CD games (e.g. Genesis Plus GX) don't directly support PRG RAM cheats for Sega CD games. The emulator developers might be willing to support them if there's an established standard in place for PRG RAM Sega CD cheats (and how they should look, etc.). Perhaps that's something that will be done if/when the MegaSD supports PRG RAM cheats for Sega CD games and it works on a real Genesis.

Having more Sega CD cheats, along with the tools to be able to use those cheats will help greatly. It's a really exciting time for the Sega CD in that regard.

[Pugsy]

I've had MAME partially setup for several months now. Getting it up and running properly can be a little difficult for the first time user. One of the more difficult things is finding the right place for accurate information. My current MAME folder has IV-Play and MameUI64. Are those what I should be using? (been so long, I don't even remember what they were for). Where is the best place to get good information for beginners?

Personally I just use the standard MAME from https://www.mamedev.org/

It's commandline but it does include a simple UI if you start it by just typing mame or doubleclicking mame.exe

On a fresh extract navigate to the directory and type

mame -cc

this will create a mame.ini file just open it in notepad and edit one line to point it to your audited (eg clrmame\romvault) mame roms, chds and softwarelist stuff similar to this:

rompath D:\Images\MAME\ROMS;D:\Images\MAME\CHDs;D:\Images\ MAME\SoftwareLists

Once you've done that you can start a softwarelist item by typing
mame systemname softwarelistname

so for eternal champions on segacd, just type
mame segacd eternalc

if you don'e know the softwarelistname then just try a non-space text sequence and mame will give you some suggestions for the softwarelistname
eg try typing mame segacd eter

[Tony H]

Thanks for the info. Will see if I can get it figured out.

[Pugsy]

Thanks for the info. Will see if I can get it figured out.

Gimme a shout if you get stuck anywhere