CD Game Support

[livingonwheels]

On 4/15/2021 at 11:23 PM, PFG 9000 said:

The first thirteen Jaguar CD games I tried all booted up perfectly on the first try, and I played around a half hour of each without any problems.  Most seem to run better than the originals due to shortened loading times, most noticeable on Myst and Baldies for me.  Blue Lightning froze for a few seconds on the map/level select screen, but that was it.  For something in Beta stage, this is fantastic.  I did have the advantage of waiting 20 hours or so before starting the firmware update and ISO conversion process, giving me the benefit of several pages of comments here to help me.

 

The new firmware seems to have messed with my Rayman save files though.  Now when I get to the file select screen, I see "Error" in red text in place of each file.  No biggie, just mentioning it here in case it's an unknown issue.

Did you ever find a solution to the Rayman save file error? I've had the same issue with my Jaguar Multicart for years. I have 4 games on my Multicart ( Towers II, Zero 5, Atari Karts, Rayman) and Rayman is the only game of the 4 that gives me issues when attempting to save. I ordered a Jaguar GameDrive so that will be replacing my Multicart, but if I sell or trade away the Multicart, I'd like to fix this issue. There was some code I read about that is supposed to format the Rayman game's save files but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps it will solve the error problem.

Edit: I think I found the code - "hold down * and # and either the pause or option button, all at the same time until you get the "cartridge memory cleared" notice on screen".

I'll try it when I get the chance.

Edited May 11, 2021 by livingonwheels

[nicolaspersijn]

48 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Did you ever find a solution to the Rayman save file error? I've had the same issue with my Jaguar Multicart for years. I have 4 games on my Multicart ( Towers II, Zero 5, Atari Karts, Rayman) and Rayman is the only game of the 4 that gives me issues when attempting to save. I ordered a Jaguar GameDrive so that will be replacing my Multicart, but if I sell or trade away the Multicart, I'd like to fix this issue. There was some code I read about that is supposed to format the Rayman game's save files but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps it will solve the error problem.

Edit: I think I found the code - "hold down * and # and either the pause or option button, all at the same time until you get the "cartridge memory cleared" notice on screen".

I'll try it when I get the chance.

Rayman is the only retail cart that I’ve ever had to do repairs on. I’ve had to replace no less than 3 save chip eeproms on 3 different retail Rayman carts for save problems. Very strange. 

[PFG 9000]

4 hours ago, livingonwheels said:

Did you ever find a solution to the Rayman save file error? I've had the same issue with my Jaguar Multicart for years. I have 4 games on my Multicart ( Towers II, Zero 5, Atari Karts, Rayman) and Rayman is the only game of the 4 that gives me issues when attempting to save. I ordered a Jaguar GameDrive so that will be replacing my Multicart, but if I sell or trade away the Multicart, I'd like to fix this issue. There was some code I read about that is supposed to format the Rayman game's save files but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps it will solve the error problem.

Edit: I think I found the code - "hold down * and # and either the pause or option button, all at the same time until you get the "cartridge memory cleared" notice on screen".

I'll try it when I get the chance.

I haven't found a way to fix it, but I haven't tried.  I've been tied up with other projects.  I thought about just deleting the save files from the SD cart and starting over.  Rayman wasn't the only game effected - I believe Syndicate had the same issue.  Those were probably the only two games I had made save files on before adding Jaguar CD games and messing up the save files.

[PFG 9000]

Wow, this is strange. I fired up my GameDrive last night to play around with the save functions.  My Syndicate save file was working again, exactly as I had left it.  My Rayman save files were all deleted, which was a step in the right direction from the "error" message it had displayed the previous two sessions.  I didn't change anything though...how does something like this fix itself?  So weird, I feel like I lost my mind.

[livingonwheels]

23 minutes ago, PFG 9000 said:

Wow, this is strange. I fired up my GameDrive last night to play around with the save functions.  My Syndicate save file was working again, exactly as I had left it.  My Rayman save files were all deleted, which was a step in the right direction from the "error" message it had displayed the previous two sessions.  I didn't change anything though...how does something like this fix itself?  So weird, I feel like I lost my mind.

Funny that you posted this. Just yesterday the exact same thing happened to me. My Rayman save files no longer have an "error" message and are working correctly now. I'm able to properly save and load. I read somewhere ( I wish I could find it, it was a post from over a decade ago I think) that theorized Jaguar save files being corrupted or deleted due to the Atari Jaguar's cartridge contacts or even it's cartridge port pins. The Jaguar's cartridge port has always been finicky in my experience, and I've had multiple Jaguars. Seems I get that red Atari logo screen (the screen you get when your cartridge supposedly isn't inserted properly)  more often than I would like. I wonder if improperly inserted cartridges are wiping or corrupting saves in certain games? But then we have nicolaspersijn who had to do 3 repairs on 3 separate save chip eeproms.

[SainT]

52 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Funny that you posted this. Just yesterday the exact same thing happened to me. My Rayman save files no longer have an "error" message and are working correctly now. I'm able to properly save and load. I read somewhere ( I wish I could find it, it was a post from over a decade ago I think) that theorized Jaguar save files being corrupted or deleted due to the Atari Jaguar's cartridge contacts or even it's cartridge port pins. The Jaguar's cartridge port has always been finicky in my experience, and I've had multiple Jaguars. Seems I get that red Atari logo screen (the screen you get when your cartridge supposedly isn't inserted properly)  more often than I would like. I wonder if improperly inserted cartridges are wiping or corrupting saves in certain games? But then we have nicolaspersijn who had to do 3 repairs on 3 separate save chip eeproms.

 

That's an interesting idea. The cart port connections are definitely not very reliable and the EEPROM does use pins which are otherwise not needed for the game to function. So it's quite possible the save data is getting corrupted (or being read as corrupted) if the lines only used by the EEPROM are dodgy.

[RadiATIon]

After a quarter of an hour, the highlander game got stuck on this image. The music works but the controller no longer responds. Holy you think you can add the backup quickly of CD games? The story of not having to pick up any early deposits on adventure games

 

[+CyranoJ]

The crash is just emulating owning a real jaguar cd unit. 

[Clint Thompson]

51 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

The crash is just emulating owning a real jaguar cd unit. 

[RadiATIon]

2 hours ago, RadiATIon said:

Holy you think you can add the backup quickly of CD games? The story of not having to pick up any early deposits on adventure games

 

I wanted to write SainT no Holy. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by RadiATIon

[RadiATIon]

59 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

The crash is just emulating owning a real jaguar cd unit.

I don't remember that crash playing with the addon CD. I finished this game in '95 without a problem

[+CyranoJ]

1 hour ago, RadiATIon said:

I don't remember that crash playing with the addon CD. I finished this game in '95 without a problem

 

[SainT]

9 hours ago, RadiATIon said:

After a quarter of an hour, the highlander game got stuck on this image. The music works but the controller no longer responds. Holy you think you can add the backup quickly of CD games? The story of not having to pick up any early deposits on adventure games

 

I will be adding save support, yes, but I don’t really have a time it will happen yet. As always I have lot of things I am doing, and I’m but a single person doing everything, so it can take me a while...

[RadiATIon]

9 hours ago, RadiATIon said:

The story of not having to pick up any early deposits on adventure games

 

I wanted to write : The story of not having to start all over again on adventure games. 

 

But you understood what I wanted to write. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by RadiATIon

[joeyaage]

Yay, got CD support installed on my K serial Jaguar GameDrive. I have played a couple of CD's and the two new ST ports without a hitch.

Feels good running CD data from solid state storage. So quiet!

 

[kane459]

On 5/17/2021 at 8:06 PM, joeyaage said:

Yay, got CD support installed on my K serial Jaguar GameDrive. I have played a couple of CD's and the two new ST ports without a hitch.

Feels good running CD data from solid state storage. So quiet!

 

@joeyaage any idea if blue lighting works and plays 100% thats the reason i own a jag that game and alien vs pred

 

[doctorclu]

15 hours ago, kane459 said:

@joeyaage any idea if blue lighting works and plays 100% thats the reason i own a jag that game and alien vs pred

 

 

Was able to get at least get this partially working as I played the first level.

[+thegoldenband]

Great to see CD support up and running. Can someone give me a rundown of which retail games can reasonably be played without a Memory Track? (Googling failed to turn up a list.)

 

I know Baldies has passwords, I think Myst does too though the passwords don't save the status of every switch (or something like that), and IIRC Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, World Tour Racing, and Primal Rage either don't use the Memory Track or don't use it for anything but high scores. Not sure about Brain Dead 13.

 

How about Hover Strike, Iron Soldier 2, Battlemorph, Blue Lightning, and Highlander? Which of those offer an alternative (presumably passwords) to the Memory Track? My impression is that Highlander offers no other savegame option, but I'm not sure about the others.

[Zerosquare]

16 hours ago, thegoldenband said:

Can someone give me a rundown of which retail games can reasonably be played without a Memory Track?

If you include games where saving doesn't matter, because you're never going to want to play them a second time after trying them, you can add Highlander to your list.

[Derick2k]

On 4/15/2021 at 8:53 AM, KevinMos3 said:

Other notes:

World Tour Racing ripped/converted/loaded fine.  It freezes at the start of a race though.  I specify this for clarity, as SainT already said it wasn't working, but I don't know what point others got to with the game.

What version/settings did you use for WTR in DiscJuggler? Im trying to back up my copy, it converted fine to JCD format without issues, but it only loads into the "Licensed to Atari" logo and freezes. Trying to see if Im backing up my discs correctly. Thanks for any info you can provide.

[SainT]

WTR does not work -- it's my issue. If the conversion tool comes up with no errors, the rip is good.

 

Where it freezes is somewhat random, the best I've managed is the start of the race as mentioned before. But it can freeze much earlier.

[ZED216]

So stoked the Jaguar CD Support is up an running! Everything I have played on it runs awesome.

 

Bit of a random question here, but has anyone tried playing Brett Hull Hockey (CD) on the GameDrive? The cart version plays awesome on the Game Drive, but it would be cool to play the CD version as well because of the FMV portions etc. 

[+Stephen]

The wait is almost over - tracking says I should have my cart on Tuesday and as luck would have it, I am off all next week

[+thegoldenband]

On 5/26/2021 at 7:08 AM, Zerosquare said:

If you include games where saving doesn't matter, because you're never going to want to play them a second time after trying them, you can add Highlander to your list.

Very funny, though Highlander is one of the main reasons I was looking forward to CD support. I'm sure it'll be a painful experience, but I do like to make up my own mind about games -- some of my favorites are titles that other people describe as garbage that should be destroyed forever. Meanwhile, some games that most people love bore me to tears.

 

Anyway, witticisms aside, do Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands, Iron Soldier 2, Battlemorph, and Blue Lightning offer any alternative to Memory Track saving? I guess I could just play the cart version of IS2, but I'm still curious.

 

I read an old post from someone who said they marathoned Blue Lightning in a day without a Memory Track, so I'm guessing no passwords in that one. What about Battlemorph and HS:UL -- do they offer passwords when you clear a set of levels?

 

I also ask because as a Mac user, the process of setting things up and sourcing, prepping, and curating disk images won't exactly be straightforward, so I want to know whether my time would be well spent or guaranteed to end in frustration -- in which case I should hold off for now. (Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Brain Dead 13, and Myst I can play on my 3DO, and I have Baldies for PS1; it's the Jag CD exclusives I'm after.)

[doctorclu]

That is a good point on the password codes!

 

For Battlemorph looks like they have some cheat codes in the form of names entered to start a certain level with all possible weapons:

 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/jaguarcd/916015-battlemorph/cheats