[Saturn] Tamagotchi Park - save game restore/dump?

Did you use Save Game Copier? 3.6.2: Release Tweaks to Saves Listing, More .BUP Saves · slinga-homebrew/Save-Game-Copier. I just tested on Yabause and it appeared to work for me. Before copying the save I got an error message (I can't read Japanese). After copying the save with SGC it appeared to work. The Tamagotchi Park save is accessible via the "CD Filesystem" option. You don't need to add it to the ISO.

This should of worked with Save Data Manager as well. Did you unzip the zip? I can't think of what could go wrong.
 
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Did you use Save Game Copier? 3.6.2: Release Tweaks to Saves Listing, More .BUP Saves · slinga-homebrew/Save-Game-Copier. I just tested on Yabause and it appeared to work for me. Before copying the save I got an error message (I can't read Japanese). After copying the save with SGC it appeared to work. The Tamagotchi Park save is accessible via the "CD Filesystem" option. You don't need to add it to the ISO.

This should of worked with Save Data Manager as well. Did you unzip the zip? I can't think of what could go wrong.
Yes i unzipped. I don't have a cart capable of pseudo kai full version, i run modchips. The file is visable on the cart , 532 blocks, named "Tamagotcbup".
 
I offered to send you the tamagachi game so you could test without opening your disc; I bought the game for the save cart =)

I personally don't care to open mine, but didn't have (and still don't ...) have enough free time to test. Anyway, let's forget about that now that the dump and testing of this cartridge is over :)

Hi everyone. I used this thread to try and restore my cart as well. I got the .bup file on the cart, but it didn't recognize the file in game. Is it the .bup format? Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Are you still stuck in copying this save ? Here is an alternate method in the case you need :
1. Download latest build of Pseudo Saturn Kai Save Data Manager : PPCenter :: Pseudo Saturn Kai -> pskai_release_20210315.7z (or more recent if available)
2. Burn tools -> pskai_sdm.iso/cue disc image file on CD-R and load it with memory cartridge inserted on Saturn.
3. From Save Data Manager main menu, select "Save Data Import" -> "CAFEALPHA" -> "TAMAGOCHI" -> "TAMAGOCHI_PARK.BIN"
4. Please wait for a little moment until the file selected above is read from CD-ROM.
5. Select "TAMAGOTCHI_" save, which should be the only one listed.
6. In "Select Destination Device" menu, select "Cartridge", and then confirm operation with "Yes".
7. Please wait for a while until the save is copied. After that it is OK to turn off the Saturn and play Tamagotchi Park

Note : Any kind of backup memory cartridge should work : official ones, but also "all-in-one" red cartridge or Gamer's Cartridge etc. It should also work on emulator too. But, it won't work with cartridges not supporting in-game save access such as Action Replay installed with stock firmware.
 
Save Game Copier can be used (via the "Dump Memory" option) to dump the entire cartridge memory to SD card if you have MODE/Satiator.

That being said, I loaded this game in Yabause using the save game file provided and it worked. The zero block would not have been initialized to the authentication code in that scenario. Do you know why it worked? Perhaps I didn't attempt to save the game?
 
Thank you for the analysis @stevekwok !
There's one suspicious byte in the blank block : is it that which is preventing from using a standard memory cartridge ?
20210428_tamagotchi.png


From the fact that save record size is slightly larger than Saturn internal memory, I suspected some kind of artificial limitation to require a cartridge to work. And from this stupid limitation, we are now sure that it was an intentional design of this game in order to force the sale of backup memory cartridges colored in pink.

Save Game Copier can be used (via the "Dump Memory" option) to dump the entire cartridge memory to SD card if you have MODE/Satiator.

When dumping the save for this game, I also took a full dump of the contents of cartridge, in case of.
So it's available in Pseudo Saturn Kai Save Data Manager CD-ROM -> "SAVES->cafealpha\Tamagotchi\CartDump" folders -> Tamagotchi_Park.bin file.
 
Thank you for the analysis @stevekwok !
There's one suspicious byte in the blank block : is it that which is preventing from using a standard memory cartridge ?
20210428_tamagotchi.png


From the fact that save record size is slightly larger than Saturn internal memory, I suspected some kind of artificial limitation to require a cartridge to work. And from this stupid limitation, we are now sure that it was an intentional design of this game in order to force the sale of backup memory cartridges colored in pink.



When dumping the save for this game, I also took a full dump of the contents of cartridge, in case of.
So it's available in Pseudo Saturn Kai Save Data Manager CD-ROM -> "SAVES->cafealpha\Tamagotchi\CartDump" folders -> Tamagotchi_Park.bin file.
Hi, thank you for replying.

I checked the Tamgotchi_Park.bin file and realized that my previous inference was completely wrong.
My inference was based on false information, I thought the pink cartridge was a 4MB cartridge, but actually it is a 512KB cartridge (omits the even null bytes), I got some false information before.
And I also noticed that its block size is 0x100 (omits the even null bytes), AFAIK, the block size of a 512KB cartridge should be 0x200, it should be 0x400 in raw format. So it used a non-standard format.

I rechecked the function 060c3218.

060C3218: mov.l @r14, r2
060C321A: mov r4, r3
060C321C: add #H'4C, r2 ; 76
060C321E: shlr2 r3
060C3220: mov.l @r2, r2
060C3222: shlr r3
060C3224: shll r3
060C3226: add r2, r3
060C3228: mov.b @(H'01, r3), r0 ; 06089281
060C322A: mov r0, r3
060C322C: extu.b r3, r3
060C322E: mov r4, r0
060C3230: and r13, r0
060C3232: mov.b @(r0, r12), r2 ; 060EDBF1
060C3234: extu.b r2, r2
060C3236: and r2, r3
060C3238: tst r3, r3
060C323A: bt 060C323E
060C323C: add #H'01, r5 ; 1
060C323E: add #H'01, r4 ; 1
060C3240: mov.l @r14, r3
060C3242: mov.l @(H'38, r3), r2 ; 060892B8
060C3244: cmp/hs r2, r4
060C3246: bf 060C3218
060C3248: mov r5, r0
060C324A: add #H'08, r15 ; 8
060C324C: lds.l @r15+, pr
060C324E: mov.l @r15+, r12
060C3250: mov.l @r15+, r13
060C3252: rts
060C3254: mov.l @r15+, r14

It accumulates the total bits of the record in the blocks 02, 03(in raw format, [0x24000400, 0x24000800)).
Thank you very much, now we really learn the whole story clearly.
 
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The game doesn't seem to make any difference between the original pink backup cartridge, and an ordinary official backup cartridge loaded with the save...
 
@stevekwok : I set a breakpoint on 0x060c3218 and I'm not seeing it hit.

Here's what I'm seeing:
**************************************************************
* FUNCTION *
**************************************************************
undefined FUN_060c3218()
undefined r0:1 <RETURN>
FUN_060c3218
060c3218 18 ac mov.l r10,@(0x30,r8)
060c321a ce ce xor.b 0xce,@(r0,gbr)
060c321c ce 7a xor.b 0x7a,@(r0,gbr)
060c321e 18 99 mov.l r9,@(0x24,r8)
060c3220 92 ce mov.w @(DAT_060c33c0,pc),r2 = 1818h
060c3222 ce ce xor.b 0xce,@(r0,gbr)
060c3224 ce ce xor.b 0xce,@(r0,gbr)
060c3226 ce 90 xor.b 0x90,@(r0,gbr)
060c3228 8b ac bf LAB_060c3184
060c322a 67 18 swap.b r1,r7
060c322c 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c322e 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3230 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3232 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3234 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3236 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3238 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c323a 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c323c 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c323e 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3240 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3242 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3244 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3246 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c3248 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c324a 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
060c324c 18 18 mov.l r1,@(0x20,r8)
 
The game doesn't seem to make any difference between the original pink backup cartridge, and an ordinary official backup cartridge loaded with the save...
Yes your statement is correct from my understanding.

The claim is that:

1) With the pink backup cart you can delete the save and the game will recreate the save when it detects the magic bytes in the zero block of the cart. If you format the pink cartridge the magic bytes in the zero block will be zeroed out and you will no longer be able to use it.
2) With a standard backup cart if you have a save the game will work. If the save is not present the magic bytes in the zero block will be checked. Since they are zero (as this is a standard cart) the game will error out and not load.
 
Yes your statement is correct from my understanding.

The claim is that:

1) With the pink backup cart you can delete the save and the game will recreate the save when it detects the magic bytes in the zero block of the cart. If you format the pink cartridge the magic bytes in the zero block will be zeroed out and you will no longer be able to use it.
2) With a standard backup cart if you have a save the game will work. If the save is not present the magic bytes in the zero block will be checked. Since they are zero (as this is a standard cart) the game will error out and not load.
My previous analysis was based on false information and completely wrong. Please don't be misled by that. There is no authentication block or magic bytes. I'm very sorry for the misleading information.
 
My previous analysis was based on false information and completely wrong. Please don't be misled by that. There is no authentication block or magic bytes. I'm very sorry for the misleading information.

I overlooked @fafling 's post ( [Saturn] Tamagotchi Park - save game restore/dump? ) which confirms that importing the save in BUP format makes the game working, so authentication block seems not to exist. Anyway, because this save is just ~3% larger than Saturn internal backup memory and that it can't create an empty save by itself, I still consider this game as a scam :D

BTW, the non-zero byte in my previous post is set in other dumps of regular backup memory cartridge, so it's probably some kind of debug information or leftover set by Saturn BIOS.
 
I overlooked @fafling 's post ( [Saturn] Tamagotchi Park - save game restore/dump? ) which confirms that importing the save in BUP format makes the game working, so authentication block seems not to exist. Anyway, because this save is just ~3% larger than Saturn internal backup memory and that it can't create an empty save by itself, I still consider this game as a scam :D

BTW, the non-zero byte in my previous post is set in other dumps of regular backup memory cartridge, so it's probably some kind of debug information or leftover set by Saturn BIOS.
I have worried about that the data might lost forever. No matter whether it is a scam, it is part of the history. Thank you very much for preserving the data.
 
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