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CD Game Support


SainT

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21 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

To each their own. Highlander was always my favorite Jaguar CD game, by far.

 

I had fun playing through it, wielding the powerful rubber chicken.

 

Svengoolie would have been proud.

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13 hours ago, SainT said:

WTR does not work -- it's my issue. If the conversion tool comes up with no errors, the rip is good.

 

Where it freezes is somewhat random, the best I've managed is the start of the race as mentioned before. But it can freeze much earlier.

Thanks for confirming, so the rip I made of my disc works, the conversion tool converted it without issues and it loads on the GD and freezes at random places as you said. Now to rip the rest of the games I have.

 

Thank you for making this awesome product available to the masses.

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On the Jaguar GD, I found a way to start up Blue lightning and Battle Morph more reliably after the first time playing.  I would configure my memory card with two folders (CD Games Set1 and CD Games Set2).  Then, I would place the same CD games in both folders and copy one at a time to configure it).  The CD Games Set1 would be my main game folder to always use first.  If Blue Lightning or Battle Morph would boot to a black screen in CD Games Set1, I would go to the CD Game Set2 folder and boot the same game again.  100% of the time, the same game would boot to a black screen in CD Games Set2.  As a final step, I would go back to CD Games Set1 and the game would start up just fine.  I'm guessing that there's some type of residual system memory error somewhere whenever the Jaguar is turned off after playing these games.  This method seem to be working for me every time and hopefully for you as well until a fix is created.  I also found out that Blue lighting would not boot when I used a 32 GB SanDisk Ultra A1 (gray label) SD card.  The 16GB SanDisk Ultra A1 (gray label) version works without any problems.  SainT, thanks for creating an awesome device.

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I ran into some very basic issues that I guess nobody else did because theyre not mentioned, but I will mention them in case there are other noobs reading. When people are talking about pressing the option button when prompted, they mean a screen that flashes for a split second right when you boot up the cart. I never actually could read it I just saw the flicker and assumed thats what it was so I jammed the options buttons at that time. When you do this you get the mentioned QR code, and you may have a phone like mine that doesnt read QR codes well. I tried a few sketchy apps in the app store before finding one that works and reveals the code thats just listed at the bottom. Not sure how this is linked to the firmware update, but what you actually have to do is press the option button again and it takes you to a 2nd screen that has the url that gives the firmware. When typing in the URL note that the zeros are the ones with more pointy inner spaces while the Os are just round. 

 

Then I also had the issue others mentioned of CCD not working but its no problem I found some CUE files. 

 

Results so far:

Baldies boots but freezes when I try to start a game. 

Highlander worked long enough for me to fight a guy but froze when I tried to go to a hut. 

Braindead 13 works perfectly.

Primal Rage works perfectly, and looks much better than the 32X version. Those smooth animations. It seems harder to do special moves in this version but it might just be the Jagpad. Kinda wish Jag had some more FTGs so I could convince myself to wire up a stick controller.

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The press option message comes up for 2-3 seconds, unless you power your console on before the TV is turned on, I’m not sure how you are unable to read it. It could just be I’m used to being hooked up to a CRT which displays the picture instantly on boot and LCD TV’s are taking a while actually sync and display the image?

 

And the QR firmware update screen IS the first screen which comes up after pressing option. I’ve had a few people saying the serial number screen is the one that comes up for them. I’m not sure quite how this happens, the controller is somehow registering two presses. I’m not sure if it’s related to having multiple controllers attached, even. But, yes, unless you know there are two screen here, both containing QR codes, this can be confusing.

 

Which CD games are working for people is a little inconsistent. I would say, though, if you have issues try a different memory card. This does make a difference. But equally I think some consoles just have more issues than others as well.

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7 hours ago, Kirkman said:

Any update on the possibility of a Mac-native version of cd2jcd? 

 

I have tried to run it under Wine in MacOS Mojave, but it crashes every time.

 

 

No, not yet. I'll publish the source before long -- as ever, just trying to find some spare time to get it done. Someone will be able to do a Mac build easily.

 

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16 hours ago, Kirkman said:

Any update on the possibility of a Mac-native version of cd2jcd? 

 

I have tried to run it under Wine in MacOS Mojave, but it crashes every time.

 

While waiting for the source for Linux, I tried to run the windows binary with Wine and it worked just fine.  I would imagine, but can't guarantee, that wine for MacOS should be able to run it as well.  

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2 hours ago, BitJag said:

While waiting for the source for Linux, I tried to run the windows binary with Wine and it worked just fine.  I would imagine, but can't guarantee, that wine for MacOS should be able to run it as well.  

As I mentioned in my message, I tried to run cd2jcd using Wine under MacOS Mojave, but cd2jcd always crashes. I tried re-installing wine in various ways, and installing the microsoft libraries, but it made no difference. Hence my desire to see a Mac-specific build of cd2jcd.

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52 minutes ago, Kirkman said:

As I mentioned in my message, I tried to run cd2jcd using Wine under MacOS Mojave, but cd2jcd always crashes. I tried re-installing wine in various ways, and installing the microsoft libraries, but it made no difference. Hence my desire to see a Mac-specific build of cd2jcd.

Just installed wine on a fresh install of Linux (installed this morning).  Works out of the box.  I can't imagine what the big difference would be with wine between platforms with a relatively simple program like this.  Does it give you any message when it crashes after running it from command line?

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Decided to investigate why cd2jcd.exe won't run through wine on a mac.  Turns out there is a huge difference when running wine on Linux vs. MacOS.  It would seem that the latest version of MacOS has dropped 32-bit support.  For wine this means that you can only run a 64-bit version of wine.  When trying to run cd2jcd.exe with wine64, it doesn't work.  I am guessing that cd2jcd.exe is a 32-bit application.  Unless you are using an older version of MacOS, it looks like you will need to wait for the source code or a build cd2jcd for MacOS Catalina.

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On 6/1/2021 at 2:56 AM, SainT said:

The press option message comes up for 2-3 seconds, unless you power your console on before the TV is turned on, I’m not sure how you are unable to read it. It could just be I’m used to being hooked up to a CRT which displays the picture instantly on boot and LCD TV’s are taking a while actually sync and display the image?

 

And the QR firmware update screen IS the first screen which comes up after pressing option. I’ve had a few people saying the serial number screen is the one that comes up for them. I’m not sure quite how this happens, the controller is somehow registering two presses. I’m not sure if it’s related to having multiple controllers attached, even. But, yes, unless you know there are two screen here, both containing QR codes, this can be confusing.

My Jag connects by RGB to Frameister Mini then HDMI to flat panel.  After the Jag is turned on, it takes the Framemeister several seconds to start to output a picture. My understanding is the delay is due to locking in the signal.  Usually the start up animation is either done and it shows the GD home screen or the start up animation is just ending.  Maybe others are using this or other moden tv adapters and are seeing something similar.

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4 hours ago, BitJag said:

Decided to investigate why cd2jcd.exe won't run through wine on a mac.  Turns out there is a huge difference when running wine on Linux vs. MacOS.  It would seem that the latest version of MacOS has dropped 32-bit support.  For wine this means that you can only run a 64-bit version of wine.  When trying to run cd2jcd.exe with wine64, it doesn't work.  I am guessing that cd2jcd.exe is a 32-bit application.  Unless you are using an older version of MacOS, it looks like you will need to wait for the source code or a build cd2jcd for MacOS Catalina.

Thanks for this -- very helpful. Fortunately I'm still running Sierra on my personal machine so I'm guessing it'll work.

 

How would people (specifically @SainT and @Albert) feel about posting the MD5s of disk images that are known to work successfully with cd2jcd? Not filenames, not links to tHe rOMz, just checksums that could among other things be used to verify one's own rip from CD. And not necessarily in this thread (though certainly it could be helpful with troubleshooting).

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Having now tried all the official CD games I thought I should note the compatibility for my unit so far. They pretty much all work partially before they crash besides Primal Rage and BD13 which work fine. Iron Soldier 2 doesnt crash but it does lose sound whenever I smash buildings. My first attempt to fix things was the old alcohol and q-tips scrub and it actually helped a lot. Before Hoverstrike CD would freeze whenever basically anything happened in the game, now it only freezes when I drive up cliffs quickly which I can strategically avoid in most levels. Battlemorph worked perfectly for the 1st level and wow its an amazing game. I froze on the 2nd level when I crashed into a train at high speed. This one seems to be playable as long as you dont get crazy, like in hoverstrike. As imperfect as things are its really amazing to finally play these games, excellent work @SainT ! I will try some of the tricks mentioned in this thread to try and get Battlemorph and Blue Lightning to not crash. Those are the two CD games I'd really love to sink some time into. 

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5 hours ago, thegoldenband said:

Thanks for this -- very helpful. Fortunately I'm still running Sierra on my personal machine so I'm guessing it'll work.

 

How would people (specifically @SainT and @Albert) feel about posting the MD5s of disk images that are known to work successfully with cd2jcd? Not filenames, not links to tHe rOMz, just checksums that could among other things be used to verify one's own rip from CD. And not necessarily in this thread (though certainly it could be helpful with troubleshooting).

 

I can't see how a list of games and MD5's would be an issue myself, it's in no way linking to anything copyrighted.

 

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19 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

Good luck getting an md5 to match on a jaguar cd. You could rip it yourself 10 times and never have 2 the same. 

It's so bonkers that they went with a format like that. Based on the sizes of circulating ISOs, it appears they didn't even need or make use of the extra space provided by ditching error correction. Did it increase throughput/data transfer rates, at least?

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On 6/1/2021 at 5:31 AM, wasteddude said:

On the Jaguar GD, I found a way to start up Blue lightning and Battle Morph more reliably after the first time playing.  I would configure my memory card with two folders (CD Games Set1 and CD Games Set2).  Then, I would place the same CD games in both folders and copy one at a time to configure it).  The CD Games Set1 would be my main game folder to always use first.  If Blue Lightning or Battle Morph would boot to a black screen in CD Games Set1, I would go to the CD Game Set2 folder and boot the same game again.  100% of the time, the same game would boot to a black screen in CD Games Set2.  As a final step, I would go back to CD Games Set1 and the game would start up just fine.  I'm guessing that there's some type of residual system memory error somewhere whenever the Jaguar is turned off after playing these games.  This method seem to be working for me every time and hopefully for you as well until a fix is created.  I also found out that Blue lighting would not boot when I used a 32 GB SanDisk Ultra A1 (gray label) SD card.  The 16GB SanDisk Ultra A1 (gray label) version works without any problems.  SainT, thanks for creating an awesome device.

Now work with me !!! Thanks 

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I can confirm this blackscreen issue with Battlemorph,  Blue Lightning and Highlander are working on the sort-of recommended Sandisk UltramicroSDHC UHS-I 32GB Card.  Using the method above, adapted to my directory structure of CD-ROM games in the Base directory and then a copy of them with the Cartridge ROMs in their alphanumeric directories, I was only partially successful.  Loading the file to a black screen, and then loading it again from another directory does indeed get a good boot to gameplay.

Something else I can confirm, my much older Sandisk 8GB card I've been using with Everdrives works until it doesn't, but then works again if I defragment the drive with Defraggler.  Mac users I hear have better defragmentation software built in to MacOS than Windows default defragmentation. Windows defragmentation has never been worth the effort or complete in its process.  Defraggler however can make files on the SD card work when they were not previously.  I can also confirm that none of my Adata or "generic" SD cards work at all for CD-ROM games no matter what I have tried.

Finally, I have multiple SD card readers across laptops and a Rosewill adapter for my Office PC, and I have found both of my older readers work fine at transferring the CD-ROM files one-by-one, not a mass cut and paste.  However, after that initial card setup, after formatting it as Fat32, the cards were seen as read only on one, not visible at all on the other laptop, and needing repair which worked on the newest Windows10 laptop.

I have cleaned all of my SD cards with 91% isopropyl alcohol and blown out the connections with compressed air to no effect.  After format they just stopped working, and I wonder if this is contributing to others' not being able to load files consistently. 

 

Saint, I totally appreciate all of the hard work and testing that goes in even just the software support you already have provided.  This is awesome, and I hope my testing can help others get into the CD-ROM support aspect sooner than they might have otherwise. 

 

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