Magic card v2

[generic_username]

Hello,

I dig up this card from a box in my garage that sat there for a long time, and I was wondering if you guys got any instruction on how to use it.
I don't seem to have the attached CD with it.

I couldn't find any official PAL game to try it out (Only US one) , I guess any (cheap) PAL game could make it work ?
Picture attached.

 

[Knight0fDragon]

It is a swap disc cart. A legit disc is needed to activate the cd ring check, the card is used to get to a boot screen that lets you open the drive without going to menu.

Has this been dumped? I have one myself, I should probably dump it if not.

 

[generic_username]

Thanks for the clarification, I've order some cheap legit game on ebay in order to test it.
It's not dumped, I don't have any ROM reader.

 

[privateye]

Magic Card V2 dumps are available in in tools\pskai_sdm.iso in the Pseudo Saturn Kai archive :
https://ppcenter.webou.net/pskai/#download

Mount the disc image and then browse to FW\MCARDV2

 

[xhul]

Out of curiosity, did anybody test the available dumps on other cartridges than the original?

 

[privateye]

Out of curiosity, did anybody test the available dumps on other cartridges than the original?

A while ago I flashed some of the dumps onto my Action Replay but none of them worked, they all froze at the SEGA logo screen.

 

[xhul]

A while ago I flashed some of the dumps onto my Action Replay but none of them worked, they all froze at the SEGA logo screen.

I see, thanks for sharing.
I guess that could imply the original 32K ROM chip operates using very specific timings or something.
What model of action replay was it?

It could also be that the code performs a hardware check, but that sounds less likely.

Anyway, i might give those firmwares a chance on my all-in-one cart, who knows...

EDIT:
For science, i tested all 3 dumps on my AR4M+ (512KB boot ROM) and all-in-one cartridge (256KB boot ROM).
On each test, i tried without CD, with an original, and with a backup.
Freeze at sega logo each time, yep.
A hardware compatibility issue i'd say, since i'm convinced at least one of those dumps isn't corrupted (specifically the one that could be retrieved from 2 different cartridges).
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the boot ROM is split into 2 separate chips, which doesn't seem to be the case on the original.

 

[rorirub]

I think it also bypasses the region, but don't quote me on that.

I have some memory cards that also do that, bypass the region, and compress 8M memory into a 1M flash chip on board; you can tell they do some funny stuff because they boot up themselves and drop you back to the cd player to boot a game. Or play the Sega logo twice. I forgot...

 

[antime]

It's probably either relying on mirroring, or it also decodes some of the other chip selects. Either should be fairly obvious from looking at what addresses are used in the ROM. If it's mirroring, you can just fill your flash with duplicates of the ROM.

 

[xhul]

It's probably either relying on mirroring, or it also decodes some of the other chip selects. Either should be fairly obvious from looking at what addresses are used in the ROM. If it's mirroring, you can just fill your flash with duplicates of the ROM.

Actually, the data on the tested firmwares was already mirrored (8*32KB).

2 more things now that i think about it:
- The fact that the freeze occurs at the sega logo may imply that there's something wrong with the security code (0x100>0xDFF).
- According to the photos, the original PCB clearly doesn't use all the track lines. It could be that the code somehow fails if the juice happens to travel through tracks that are supposed to be isolated.

 

[Knight0fDragon]

It's probably either relying on mirroring, or it also decodes some of the other chip selects. Either should be fairly obvious from looking at what addresses are used in the ROM. If it's mirroring, you can just fill your flash with duplicates of the ROM.

I wonder if it mirrors the other way. something like the lower bank is a mirror on itself, causing the data to overwrite earlier written data.