Heavy Shreddin' Possible Prototype Found

[johnsodu]

Hello,

 

I found a Heavy Shreddin' which I believe might be an early version or prototype which I was able to dump the ROM. This ROM does not work in emulators but the cart does work in my NES top loader. This is my first attempt to dump the cart so I might have done something wrong. Attached are pictures of the board with EPROMs and different labels which I have never seen in my collection before which prompted me to get an NES cart dumper in the first place. Also attached is the ROM I dumped. I have no idea how to compare it to any other dumped ROMS for this game and it might be the same as the retail or close to the same or something else. I need help in this regard from the community.

Heavy Shreddin' (Unknown).NES

[+Mitch]

How did you dump it? You file looks too small.

 

Mitch

[johnsodu]

I got the only NES/Family Computer dumper I could find in the last few months and that was the fc dumper v3. I also got an NES to Family Computer converter cart and was able to dump some of my other NES games (Dragon Warrior III and internal save file successfully at 512 K and works in an emulator so I think the device works....maybe?) I did notice that if a cart read failed, the default is "MAP 0" so know that it is very unlikely that Heavy Shreddin' at any point was a Map 0 (Dragon Warrior III was a Map 1), maybe the auto detect doesn't play well with EPROMS, or maybe the device sucks, or maybe I am still doing something wrong as I am a noob to the dumping scene. I know there are so many better dumpers out there, but they are either unavailable or scalper priced.

 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Tanooki]

Wish I could help but odds are something glitched or was done wrong as that file size is just too small, and map0 = mapper 0, then that's entirely on the wrong track too.  I think you have a partial dump along with a bad header which would stop any emulator or even flash kit back on real hardware too.  Since the game itself works as is, we know it's fine.

[kmg]

johnsodu, were you ever able to dump this? The mapper is 1 for this prototype. Are you able to manually select that for your dumper?

[sirlynxalot]

Any differences to the retail version?  I like this game minus the weird halfpipe stages. 

[johnsodu]

I have the world's crappiest rom dumper because finding a proper rom dumper currently is all but impossible (Chinese HVC-DUMP-STM Family Computer Rom Dumper with NES Mod), everything is automated. If there is a way to get settings on this rom dumper or if anyone knows how to get the rom dumper I really want (INLretro programmer-dumper) for not too ungodly a price, that would be ideal (I think I saw a stack at Midwest Gaming Classic in a John Riggs video, I should have gone there). Thanks!

 

This is the one I have.

 

Even if I can get the above working on all NES & Family Computer carts, I still want the one below but I have no idea how to get it. Any help with this would be appreciated.

 

[johnsodu]

Update - Successful Dump of the game, now very likely to be a prototype, see attached full dump and working bin/nes file in Mesen

 

I got a new ROM dumper (sanni) and have been putting it through it's paces. After multiple failed attempts, I was able to dump the Heavy Shreddin' PRG, CHR and RAM bin files out of the cart. I was unsuccessful until I manually added 8k of WRAM (Despite the NesCartDB saying there isn't any, another possible difference in this prototype/beta cart?). Attached are all of the files dumped from the Sani for the community to review. It includes the original CART.bin, the CART.bin with added header from the NES header DB, a copy of the CART.bin with header with the .nes extension for other emulators/flash carts, the PRG.bin, the CHR.bin and the RAM.bin.

 

When I successfully dumped a working ROM, I then played for about 10 minutes for the Prototype/Beta vs the Retail ROM I already have and there were differences right off the bat. There is no licensee Parker brothers intro screen. First event has no time limit, 1st event has slalom Gates where I did not see any in the retail ROM. I stopped there as I am very unfamiliar with this game so I don't want to talk out of my limited knowledge of this.

 

Let me know if I missed something in Dumping or any other info about this kind of neat discovery.

Heavy Shreddin' - Prototype Dump.zip

[sirlynxalot]

I think this is awesome.  I bet the community at hidden Palace will readily help to pinpoint differences between the prototype and retail copy.  https://hiddenpalace.org/

[kmg]

Awesome. Thank you for seeing this through and releasing the dump to everybody, johnsodu! In addition to hiddenpalace mentioned above, I'll be preserving this in MAME's software lists (should make it into the next 0.246 release), and I'm sure groups like No-Intro would be interested as well.

 

As for the files, it looks like PRG.bin and CHR.bin have checksums that match what is written on the EPROMs in your photo, so I'd say it was likely a clean, successful dump. These two files roughly match about 80% with the US release. Some of that may just be stuff moved around, but someone will have to explore the data to know for sure.

 

The RAM file is not necessary for anybody wishing to emulate this or burn the files to a cartridge. RAM.bin ended up being all 1s, since there is no physical RAM installed (where the board is labeled W-RAM IC2).

[johnsodu]

I am glad that a random EBAY purchase turned out to be a somewhat unique find that all can enjoy. Thanks to you all for helping me, I am a retro game player first, and a retro game collector second. Games are meant to be played