Super Street Fighter II-Protection or Defective?

[ST Dragon]

Hello.

I recently bought Super Street Fighter II JAPAN region, brand new for the SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis).

I have a EURO-PAL SEGA Mega Drive & a Universal Adaptor to play import games.

The game starts up fine but when you get into a match, the character & level graphics are really messed up making it unplayable.

This is surprising as the game was brand new-boxed & doesn’t look defective in any way.

Is this some kind of region-lockout protection CAPCOM has installed into this cart to eliminate the universal adaptor, or is this simply a defective cart?

I’m aware that some protected Mega Drive games did exist in the past, but I’m not sure if this was one of them?

All my other imports work fine…

So do you guys think this cart is defective & should send it back to the shop & get a different game or is it just a CAPCOM region protection?

Thanks in advance.

 

[msimplay]

Originally posted by ST Dragon@Thu, 2005-06-23 @ 11:22 AM

Hello.

I recently bought Super Street Fighter II JAPAN region, brand new for the SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis).

I have a EURO-PAL SEGA Mega Drive & a Universal Adaptor to play import games.

The game starts up fine but when you get into a match, the character & level graphics are really messed up making it unplayable.

This is surprising as the game was brand new-boxed & doesn’t look defective in any way.

Is this some kind of region-lockout protection CAPCOM has installed into this cart to eliminate the universal adaptor, or is this simply a defective cart?

I’m aware that some protected Mega Drive games did exist in the past, but I’m not sure if this was one of them?

All my other imports work fine…

So do you guys think this cart is defective & should send it back to the shop & get a different game or is it just a CAPCOM region protection?

Thanks in advance.

[post=135635]Quoted post[/post]​

Not exactly sure since i used to have similar problems i used to have a Japanese Sega Megadrive and i wanted to play uk Super Streetfighter on my JAP model. For me however the universal convertor did the trick also it was the only game that i actually needed the convertor for the rest of the Megadrive games i personally had played were not protected

 

[ST Dragon]

Well at another forum, someone mentioned this:

This game is bigger than the maximum size allowed by the hardware, accessed using a technique called bank switching.

It's possible that it doesnt work when connected to a Universal Adapter?

Also:

Its a Lock out one there are 2 things you can do.

50/60Hz switch and Lanuage switch or the possibly harder is find a convertor that has the switches on them.

These could be true...?

 

[Zziggy00]

I have the US version of Super Street Fighter II and a US model 1 Genesis, I installed a region switch... The US version of the game will not play on a Japanese system. So I don't know how it will work when you try and put a region switch on a European system.

 

[ST Dragon]

From this list:

http://www.videogame-classics.de/genesis.txt

Apparently the SSF2 Japan cart does have a territory lock out judging from that list.

I tried SSF2 (J) on Gens emu that was set to PAL territory & a red error screen comes up saying that this is meant to be played only on NTSC Mega Drive consoles...

But when I use the Universal Adaptor on the real Euro PAL Mega Drive model 1 & insert the Japan SSF2 Cart, no error message comes up. The title & character select screen load up fine, but when the match starts, all the characters & level graphics are messed up!

Is it natural that the Japanese version of SSF2 boots up fine on the EURO PAL Mega Drive Model 1 (Using a Nitro 2 Universal Adaptor) but when the match begins, all the level & character graphics get completely messed up.

Is this because of the region lock or is it because the game is bigger than the maximum size allowed by the hardware & the universal adapter isn't allowing it to get accessed using the bank switching technique?

How come it only gets messed up in the levels & not in the title & character select screen?

If I install a region language switch & 50/60HZ switch in the Mega Drive, will it fix this problem?

When you say that "the US version of the game will not play on a Japanese system" does it act like mine? Starts fine & then the levels get messed up?

I just want to make sure that this isn’t a messed up cart, because if it is I’ll give it back to the shop tomorrow & get something else.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Zziggy00]

Originally posted by ST Dragon@Thu, 2005-06-23 @ 03:50 PM



When you say that "the US version of the game will not play on a Japanese system" does it act like mine? Starts fine & then the levels get messed up?

[post=135666]Quoted post[/post]​

no, it does not act like your problem... It will display a message saying something along the lines of "This cartridge will only play on a _____ System", sorry i'm not of more help

 

[Mask of Destiny]

Sounds like your adapter is mucking up the bankswitch hardware. There's a special line that's used by the bankswitch hardware to map it's registers into the Genesis/Megadrive I/O region. It's possible your adapter either uses this line to do it's work or it just doesn't bother passing it through to the cartridge.

 

[ST Dragon]

How can I know for sure if it's the bankswitch hardware getting messed up by the U.Adapter or because of the region lockout not being properly unlocled by the adapter?

I mean....

Shouldn't a Region lockout suppose to just prevent you from importing? They're not supposed to make you think that your computer/game is broken, and that the company you bought it from is crap.

So should I return his back to the shop as a defective cart?

 

[yourmaster]

The only way to know for sure if the adapter is messing with the bankswitching is to play the game on a Japanese system. I doubt your game is defective, but it is possible. Maybe the shop you bought the game from can test it for you on a Japanese system?

I have the American version of this game, so I'll try playing it while it's plugged into a Game Genie and see if I get the same problem you have, but keep in mind that the Game Genie doesn't use hardware to bypass lockout code so I might not get the same results.

 

[ST Dragon]

There is no way I'll find a Japanese Mega Drive to test this. Not even the shop has one...

I opened up my Mega Drive & plugged the cart directly to the port without the U.Adapter & the same Red Error message came up as in Gens Emu, informing me that it can only be played in Japan region Mega Drives & would not load any further.

Some guy at another forum mentioned the MegaKey 2 converter, which is supposed to be very good.

Not sure if it's the same as MagicKey III which was described in another thread but...

It's supposed to be the absolute best import gadget there is for the genesis, the only one that allows games to run, even the heavy protected ones.

Has anybody tried this MegaKey 2 with SSF2 Japan on a EURO PAL Mega Drive & worked perfectly or any other adapter or region/50/60HZ switch for that matter?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mask of Destiny]

If you have a Sega CD, you can try dumping the cart with my cable and see if it works in an emulator. My dumping software supports the bankswitching in SSF2. If the dump is good without the adapter then you know the adapter is at fault.

 

[ST Dragon]

Sorry?

What cable and what dumping software?

Why do I need a SEGA MEGA CD for this task?

I'm sure I can find a brand new MEGA CD II at a down town Super Market.

Sounds interesting never the less, if you have time post some more detailed info on this subject, I would love to try it out.

I thought I needed an aditional-special cart reader to dump real Carts into ROMs?

 

[Borisz]

Originally posted by ST Dragon@Sat, 2005-06-25 @ 12:27 PM

Sorry?

What cable and what dumping software?

http://www.retrodev.com/transfer.html

Why do I need a SEGA MEGA CD for this task?

The software that tells the machine to dump the cart via the controller port into your pc runs from a CD.

I thought I needed an aditional-special cart reader to dump real Carts into ROMs?

[post=135759]Quoted post[/post]​

Not anymore.

 

[Mask of Destiny]

Oh and I wouldn't use tape like I originally recommended on my web page. It's a real pain to get off later. A small piece of paper works reasonably well (easier if you take the top off your Genesis/Megadrive). I added a switch to my Genesis to disable the pin. It's definately worth it if you're going to be dumping any substantial number of cartridges (not really worth it for a one off though).

You'll need the more recent version of the software which I only ever bothered releasing a US binary for. Works with convscd though so you can make a European version out of that. If you bug me enough, I might even post a European version on my website.

 

[ST Dragon]

Originally posted by Mask of Destiny@Sun, 2005-06-26 @ 12:54 AM

Oh and I wouldn't use tape like I originally recommended on my web page. It's a real pain to get off later. A small piece of paper works reasonably well (easier if you take the top off your Genesis/Megadrive). I added a switch to my Genesis to disable the pin. It's definately worth it if you're going to be dumping any substantial number of cartridges (not really worth it for a one off though).

You'll need the more recent version of the software which I only ever bothered releasing a US binary for. Works with convscd though so you can make a European version out of that. If you bug me enough, I might even post a European version on my website.

[post=135787]Quoted post[/post]​

That's so Cool!

I'll start making this cable next week.

By the way, when I dump the real SFF2 (J) cart, I should not use the U.Adapter & insert the cart directly into my Euro Mega Drive (with the plastic top of the console removed), right?

 

[Mask of Destiny]

That is correct. The region protection is only executed when you actually boot off the cart. My dumping software doesn't care.

 

[ST Dragon]

Besides, I don't think it would be a valid/accurate dump if I tried to dump it (using your software) with the Universal Adapter plugged on the SSF2 (J) cart.

The Adapter would probably mess it up even more, since it can’t do the bank switching properly...

But you know better…

 

[Borisz]

Well, dump it both ways then.

MOD: speaking about bugging you, when do you plan to add bin/cue support to ConvSCD? It's a bit useless to some people because of the lack of that...