Anyone have those old planetweb gamexch Saturn saves?

[cafe-alpha]

Thank you for testing 🙂 It saves time on my side.

So my guess Yabause is the problem, not the save itself.

Are you using a BIOS in yabause settings ?
Using SEGA BIOS makes save data 99% safe under Yabause, while using Yabause internal BIOS functions (= not setting path to BIOS) may cause problem.

And theses save data were created by hand with hex editor, so I guess the problem is me rather than Yabause 🙂


I will modify my Save Game Manager in order it automatically converts Planetweb images and saves to Saturn internal memory. It may require around a week on my side in order to code this so please be patient.
After coding the convertor, I will send you bkram.bin generated by it, so I may ask for re-test on your side. In advance, thank you 🙂

After that, I will first release converted save data, so that everybody can convert them, and then (a couple of months after or so) Save Data Manager itself.

 

[ReyVGM]

Are you using a BIOS in yabause settings ?
Using SEGA BIOS makes save data 99% safe under Yabause, while using Yabause internal BIOS functions (= not setting path to BIOS) may cause problem.

Yep, I used the bios.

I will modify my Save Game Manager in order it automatically converts Planetweb images and saves to Saturn internal memory. It may require around a week on my side in order to code this so please be patient.
After coding the convertor, I will send you bkram.bin generated by it, so I may ask for re-test on your side. In advance, thank you

Sure, let me know and I'll test it.

I have a favor to ask in the meantime: could you convert that Albert Odyssey save the same way you converted the Sonic R save? I would love to try that level 99 save 🙂

 

[cafe-alpha]

I have a favor to ask in the meantime: could you convert that Albert Odyssey save the same way you converted the Sonic R save? I would love to try that level 99 save 🙂

OK, I will convert Albert Odyssey and Sonic R saves in the same bkram.bin file.

 

[ReyVGM]

Thanks!

 

[cafe-alpha]

Sorry for the delay.
Here is another bkram.bin file for testing :
divers/20160124_bkram_test.7z (removed link)

- ALBERT_G_01, SONICR___01 : saves imported from Planet Web saves
- SEGARALLY_0, VF_KIDS_AJO : saves imported from files available here (*1)
(*1) Format is different than Planet Web one, can anyone confirm the 32 bytes header was added by old Comms Link program ?

Please verify at least one save from each format. I noticed that Planet Web saves have some weird bytes (very similar in all data) at the end of the files, but couldn't guess what it was about and imported theses as-is, so Albert Odyssey and Sonic R saves are probably broken ...

edit : removed link to broken test data

 

[ReyVGM]

On both SSF and Yabause:

Albert Odyssey loaded. However, the save seems to be glitched? The save is called "Albert test" and when I load it, I start in the middle of the ocean and I can't do anything.
Sonic R loaded. It had one Gem collected.

Sega Rally did not load. I got an error message from the game.
Virtua Fighter Kids did not load. I got an error message from the game.

 

[cafe-alpha]

On both SSF and Yabause:

Albert Odyssey loaded. However, the save seems to be glitched? The save is called "Albert test" and when I load it, I start in the middle of the ocean and I can't do anything.
Sonic R loaded. It had one Gem collected.

Sega Rally did not load. I got an error message from the game.
Virtua Fighter Kids did not load. I got an error message from the game.

I will verify the conversion things with planet web format. However, since not all the data is saved in planet web files (it seems that save header is missing), I can't guarantee it will work.

For Sega Rally and Virtua Fighters Kids (in "Comms Link" format), I probably found in which format theses data are :]
I will re-upload save file for testing (in bkram.bin format) after modifying conversion algorithm for theses saves.

 

[ReyVGM]

Alrighty, let me know.

 

[cafe-alpha]

Here is the updated test data : /divers/20160125_bkram_test.7z (removed link)
I fixed both "Comms Link" and Planet Web format.
Please let me know if it works this time 🙂

edit : removed link to broken test data

 

[ReyVGM]

On both SSF and Yabause:

Albert Odyssey loaded just fine. Save is called different from the last one through, but it loaded just fine.
Sonic R loaded fine. It had all emeralds collected.

Sega Rally did not load. I got an error message from the game.
Virtua Fighter Kids did not load. I got an error message from the game.

 

[cafe-alpha]

On both SSF and Yabause:

Albert Odyssey loaded just fine. Save is called different from the last one through, but it loaded just fine.
Sonic R loaded fine. It had all emeralds collected.

Sega Rally did not load. I got an error message from the game.
Virtua Fighter Kids did not load. I got an error message from the game.

According to the work (coding and verification) done on each (Planet Web vs Comms Link) data converters, I was expecting the contrary : Planet Web not working, and Comms Link finally working 😀

Here is another bkram.bin file with nearly all the Planet Web saves you converted.
http://ppcenter.webou.net/divers/20160126_bkram_planetweb.7z
Please let me know if you find some problems with theses saves 🙂

About Comms Link (Sega Rally and Virtua Fighters Kids) format : can you let me know which version (PAL or NTSC) of the Virtua Fighters Kids you used to test ?
I'm asking this because saves may be incompatible between different versions of the games. In fact yesterday I tested the reference save data for Virtua Fighters Kids (generated by PAL version of the game), and ... it showed error message on game startup ...
Unfortunately, I don't have a PAL copy of the game nearby, so I can't test further.

 

[ReyVGM]

The Comms Link saves are Japanese (according to the site). I tested both Japanese and USA versions of Sega Rally and VFK. Apparently they both use the same save name in the cart, so I get the same error message on both regions.

I tested 5 saves from that bkram and they all loaded just fine. It looks like the planetweb saves should all be loading correctly 🙂

 

[cafe-alpha]

The Comms Link saves are Japanese (according to the site). I tested both Japanese and USA versions of Sega Rally and VFK. Apparently they both use the same save name in the cart, so I get the same error message on both regions.

OK, thank you for the clarification. I will verify in details what's wrong with conversion process for theses saves.

 

[cafe-alpha]

I probably fixed problem with Comms Link format. Problem was hidden in my spaghetti code 😀
http://ppcenter.webou.net/divers/20160129_vfk_test.7z

I only converted Virtua Fighter Kids for testing. I verified on emulator, and intro video finally shown without yellow "save data is corrupted blah blah" screen :]
But I couldn't verify after that because of problem on emulator side, and because I'm too lazy to setup real Saturn today.
Please verify if it works well or not. This save is indicated as "unlocked all movies", so you just need to go to the movies room and verify if all the characters are present or not in order to verify.

Special Thanks to hitomi2500 for his ss-save-parser tool that helped me A LOT in order to extract/convert/whatever theses saves data 🙂

 

[ReyVGM]

Bad news...

Just kidding, it works!!

Yabause doesn't play VFK, but SSF does and the save worked just fine. You finally cracked it, congrats!

 

[cafe-alpha]

Bad news...

Ouch, my heart x_X

Just kidding, it works!!

OK, I feel relieved now 🙂

Yabause doesn't play VFK, but SSF does and the save worked just fine.

Yabause is open source (and personally, my favorite emulator), so let's hope it will be improved someday 🙂
Here are all the save gathered in two (they didn't fit in a single one) bkram.bin files :
http://ppcenter.webou.net/divers/20160129_commslink_saves.7z
Please let me know if everything is still OK or not.

You finally cracked it, congrats!

Actually, "cracking" it was easy, because it appears to be save data directly as it would be stored in backup memory. The more difficult (and the cause of the bugs above) was to make an user-friendly interface in order to import the saves on Saturn.


To everyone else : additional saves in weird format are still welcome 😉

 

[ReyVGM]

Thanks CA.
Did you take a look at all the saves I posted on that other thread weeks ago? There are some GiriGiri bin files that I haven't tested, I don't know if you already support those. There was also a rar included with a bunch of saves with no extension, I haven't tested those either.

 

[cafe-alpha]

> Did you take a look at all the saves I posted on that other thread weeks ago?
I did 🙂

> There are some GiriGiri bin files that I haven't tested, I don't know if you already support those.
This is same format as yabause's bkram.bin, so it should be supported.
However, because of copyright issues, I can't add theses Panzer Dragoon Saga saves to my application ... I should someday contact theses saves owner if I can reuses theses saves or not.


> There was also a rar included with a bunch of saves with no extension, I haven't tested those either.
Theses save data with no extension are also included in x.bin file, at usual raw format, so exporting theses saves will be possible (however, untested).

 

[ReyVGM]

Alrighty, thanks for the info. Let me know when you launch the tool so I can test it.

 

[cafe-alpha]

Alrighty, thanks for the info. Let me know when you launch the tool so I can test it.

OK 🙂
BTW, I added SSF file format support when importing data : can you verify if your saves imported from SSF format to bkram.bin format are still OK for using ?
/divers/20160202_ReyVGM_test.7z (removed link)

edit : removed link to broken test data