CD Game Support

[SainT]

5 hours ago, mario64 said:

Same here. No ccd’s work. I thought it was my rips. perhaps it’s a bug in cd2jcd

Quite possible I’ve broken it, I’ll take a look later. It was working...

[SainT]

1 hour ago, Zerosquare said:

I wonder if there would be a need for a tool which would copy files to a SD card while making sure they're not fragmented. (The "lazy" way would be generating a fresh FAT32 file system image and writing it to the card.)

That sounds like a lot of trouble when you can reformat...

 

Or you could defrag it.

[ctrl_alt_rees]

Windows 10 doesn't seem to have an option to defrag SD cards. I just copied the existing files from the card to my HDD, formatted the card, copied the CD images across and then copied my original files back. Easy peasy and only a few minutes' work.

 

I ran into some issues with slower cards but can confirm that a Samsung 32GB EVO+ SDHC UHS-I card works perfectly.

[doctorclu]

This only with Jaguar games for the Game Drive...

 

[KevinMos3]

15 hours ago, CD-i said:

Ok so noone got Robinson's to boot?

Robinson's Requiem is working for me.  Ripped with DiscJuggler.  First cdi ripped did nothing in cd2jcd, but the second attempt converted and plays fine.

 

12 hours ago, UHATEIT said:

...but cd2jcd freezes and force closes anytime I try to convert a .ccd

 

The only conversions that have worked are .cdi I had bit don't know what program does those. As I want to try American Hero and Robinsons Requiem to make them .cdi and then try cd2jcd to make them into jcd

4 hours ago, SainT said:

Quite possible I’ve broken it, I’ll take a look later. It was working...

Yes, seems CCD format is broken in cd2jcd.  It just crashes/exits any time I try an image I've ripped with CloneCD.  Tried all the settings as well.

 

Other notes:

World Tour Racing ripped/converted/loaded fine.  It freezes at the start of a race though.  I specify this for clarity, as SainT already said it wasn't working, but I don't know what point others got to with the game.

 

Varuna's Forces - 1st disc fine. Cannot get a good conversion of 2nd disc.  I've tried ripping the disc from GoodDealGames and converting a downloaded cdi, but both give the same error result while converting with cd2jcd.

 

SoulStar - Seems to work fine.  No music in game.  I don't remember if it had music when playing from disc.

 

Jaguar Hockey (disc bought from from JSII many years ago) as well as the downloadable Brett Hull Hockey - Neither will convert with cd2jcd.  DiscJuggler rips do nothing in cd2jcd.  Isobuster rip to bin/cue give errors when converting.

 

BIWN - Converts, but have not succeeded in booting yet.

 

Elansar & Philia both work fine.  Ripped with DiscJuggler.

[Atari Jaguar Fanatic]

On 4/13/2021 at 6:05 AM, SainT said:

Early CD game support is now available with the latest firmware. Any game ISO's (CCD/IMG, CDI and CUE/BIN) will need to first be converted into JCD files before they can be run on the GameDrive cartridge. To do this you will need to run your ISO's through this Windows command line tool:

 

https://www.retrohq.co.uk/product/jaggd/cd2jcd.zip

 

You may also need to install the latest Visual Studio runtime libraries from Microsoft if you don't have them already:

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0

 

The JCD files need to be stored contiguously on the memory card for the CD support to be able to work. Basically this means you need to use a freshly formatted memory card to copy the images onto. The launcher will tell you if there are any issues with the JCD image when you try and run it, if the file is not contiguous it will not try and run it.

 

You will also need to make sure you have the latest firmware installed on your Jaguar GameDrive cartridge. To do this press OPTION when prompted as the cartridge is booting and visit the URL given to you on-screen.

 

If (and only if) you do not have the "Press OPTION for firmware update." prompt come up during boot and you bought the cartridge directly from me a long time ago, then grab the firmware update from the product page.

 

This is early support for CD games, there are issues, but it's at a point people can start playing with it and get something out of it.

 

Also be aware I have had reports (and experience myself) of some memory cards not working with CD support. I believe this is due to the cards being too slow to respond to data requests and starving the data through to the Jaguar and causing games to fail.

SainT - Can I install the JDC files in my GAME folder and SD card that currently holds the Jaguar complete ROMset.  Wasn't sure if this needs to be installed on a separate SD card.  Thanks

[Indcsion]

[+cubanismo]

Does windows still have that defrag utility? I used to run that thing like once a week.

[PeterG]

2 hours ago, Atari Jaguar Fanatic said:

SainT - Can I install the JDC files in my GAME folder and SD card that currently holds the Jaguar complete ROMset.  Wasn't sure if this needs to be installed on a separate SD card.  Thanks

You don't need another SD Card, you can have it all on one.

[RadiATIon]

On 4/13/2021 at 1:05 PM, SainT said:

The JCD files need to be stored contiguously on the memory card

My solution is simple: if I have an image with the contiguously error, I copy the image in question a second time with another name. Often this second copy is then in "one piece" and it work. So I can delete the first file. 

[Indcsion]

Someone removed the 81 track limit for me and brett hockey works fine

[+Mitch]

Can someone post what sd card they are using that works? I have tried two different ones and am just getting a black screen after the Atari logo. No errors, just the black screen. Reformatting the sd card doesn't make a difference.

 

Thanks,

Mitch

[Atari Jaguar Fanatic]

1 hour ago, PeterG said:

You don't need another SD Card, you can have it all on one.

Thanks - Everything works great with the exception of Vid Grid.  The game boots up but appears to freeze at the title screen showing "Vid Grid" and loading.  Has anyone else had this same issue or not.

[Johnpv]

33 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Can someone post what sd card they are using that works? I have tried two different ones and am just getting a black screen after the Atari logo. No errors, just the black screen. Reformatting the sd card doesn't make a difference.

 

Thanks,

Mitch

I'm using a 32 gig SanDisk one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JWXGNT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Atari Jaguar Fanatic]

12 minutes ago, Johnpv said:

I'm using a 32 gig SanDisk one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JWXGNT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have a SanDisk Ultra 32GB.

[SainT]

I have a request! The old issue of some jags freezing while loading ROMs seems to have returned in the new CD firmware. You’ll know about it if it affects you, as the cart will regularly freeze while loading ROMs.

 

If your jag either works, or doesn’t, with the CD firmware and you have a K... serial number, can you let me know what it is?

 

The issue is with V1.0 GPU chips, but I’m trying to figure out if there is a serial number correlation.

[SainT]

2 hours ago, Indcsion said:

Someone removed the 81 track limit for me and brett hockey works fine

It won’t work when it tries to read tracks 82 and above... but nice to know it boots! ?

Edited April 15, 2021 by SainT

[mario64]

@SainT  Need some help.  My launch edition JagSD refuses to update. I even freshly formatted my SD card with nothing but firmware.upd on it.  It boots straight to the menu screen. Totally ignores the update file

Edited April 15, 2021 by mario64

[SainT]

3 minutes ago, mario64 said:

@SainT  Need some help.  My launch edition JagSD refuses to update. I even freshly formatted my SD card with nothing but firmware.upd on it.  It boots straight to the menu screen. Totally ignores the update file

Did you try the previous update which had issues? As this caused an issue which meant it wasn’t updating the menu.

 

Try renaming it to firmware.ovr, this will force a full update.

[mario64]

10 minutes ago, SainT said:

Did you try the previous update which had issues? As this caused an issue which meant it wasn’t updating the menu.

 

Try renaming it to firmware.ovr, this will force a full update.

No. I never used that originally posted firmware but renaming to .ovr did the trick. Thank you!

[SainT]

2 minutes ago, mario64 said:

No. I never used that originally posted firmware but renaming to .ovr did the trick. Thank you!

That’s ingesting to know! The fix was literally changing a delay value, so I think it must have been pretty marginal on timing on the boot up to check for the update. Even different speed memory cards may have caused issues as they can take more or less time to initialise, so this could well have been a bit of a sleeper bug in the old cart update.

[CommodoreCEO]

14 hours ago, SainT said:

Quite possible I’ve broken it, I’ll take a look later. It was working...

I have the same issue as mario64 sadly. No CCDs will convert to JCDs on CD2JCD. I've been trying to get Primal Rage converted but it just does nothing after I enter in the command prompt instructions.

[PFG 9000]

The first thirteen Jaguar CD games I tried all booted up perfectly on the first try, and I played around a half hour of each without any problems.  Most seem to run better than the originals due to shortened loading times, most noticeable on Myst and Baldies for me.  Blue Lightning froze for a few seconds on the map/level select screen, but that was it.  For something in Beta stage, this is fantastic.  I did have the advantage of waiting 20 hours or so before starting the firmware update and ISO conversion process, giving me the benefit of several pages of comments here to help me.

 

The new firmware seems to have messed with my Rayman save files though.  Now when I get to the file select screen, I see "Error" in red text in place of each file.  No biggie, just mentioning it here in case it's an unknown issue.

[Hastor]

Got mine set up today. Only tried a few verified against redump and all worked great except Vid Grid which seems to be the norm! Didn't try everything, but good so far!

[Hastor]

Actually spoke a bit soon, Highlander froze on me... though that could be normal there. I played for a few minutes then it just froze while I was walking. I might have just hit a 'load next screen' spot - its hard to tell where those are.

 

It also says 'No Memory Track' every now and then after loading the game or title screen. Is that expected on some currently? I searched this thread for 'memory track' and only found one other mention of it for Battlemorph, and I get the message there as well.

 

BTW, using a SanDisk Ultra 32GB card - formatted with the SD formatter, and CD images copied over first. Should be plenty fast enough for that not to be the cause of the freeze anyway. I understand it is a work in progress, just reporting my own experience.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Hastor