Question on the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on

[ríomhaire]

Hey this is a pretty cool device and even though I don't have the spare cash right now to get it but it's on my future purchases list (along with more Mega Drive games, my collection seems to have had a few casualties over the years). I was just curious about those of you who have successfully dumped Sonic 3 & Knuckles (or Knuckles in Sonic 2) with the Retrode 2 or a modified Retrode 1. Does S3&K show up as just one ROM/file when you copy it with the Retrode? Does it work just as easily with emulators as normal games do?

Also, what does "Extra ROM chip active" mean on the instructions page? Is that relevant to the Retrode 2 or only the original?

[MasterOfPuppets]

I have dumped Knuckles in Sonic 2 and yes, it comes out as one file. Just load it in the emulator and it works fine.

[Muzer]

Hey this is a pretty cool device and even though I don't have the spare cash right now to get it but it's on my future purchases list (along with more Mega Drive games, my collection seems to have had a few casualties over the years). I was just curious about those of you who have successfully dumped Sonic 3 & Knuckles (or Knuckles in Sonic 2) with the Retrode 2 or a modified Retrode 1. Does S3&K show up as just one ROM/file when you copy it with the Retrode? Does it work just as easily with emulators as normal games do?

Yeah, as MasterOfPuppets has said, both come out as a single ROM file.

Also, what does "Extra ROM chip active" mean on the instructions page? Is that relevant to the Retrode 2 or only the original?

The Sonic & Knuckles cart contains an extra ROM chip that is activated only when Sonic 2 is inserted. This ROM is concatenated with the Sonic 2 ROM (automatically by the Retrode 2, or Retrode with the modification) to give us the full game. That's all it's referring to.

[ríomhaire]

Thanks for the info guys

[ICEknight]

Just wondering, is there no way for the Retrode to access that chip without Sonic 2 inserted?

[Matthias_H]

Sure, that's technically possible, but what for?

[ICEknight]

Well... it would be useful for those who want to dump the whole contents of the game, and for some reason don't have a Sonic 2 cartridge handy. =|

The ROM's name could be its chip number (as seen in MAME ROMs), so the emulators won't confuse it with a game ROM.

[JoeMD]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I just wanted to be clear on this point; the Retrode 2 can play Sonic 3 & Knuckles from cartridge (so the S3 cart locked on to S&K) with no issues?

[Zerker]

It worked for me. I technically copied it and played it after, but if that gave me the correct data, it would work if you played it direct from the cart.

[JoeMD]

Thatnks Zerker. Much appreciated.

[Ness and Sonic]

Actually I have had some troubles with the lock on games, but I think it might have something to do with the voltage set 3.3V instead of 5V. Just a guess on my part, though. Don't ask me to explain it, I am not sure I can remember it too well. I think it was like the device could detect what it was supposed to be, but only loaded half of the game.

[JoeMD]

Hmm. Well hopefully it'll work when I try it.

[Pat1986]

Has the Lock-On for Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3 been broken in later firmwares? I'm on .24a and eventhough my Sonic & Knuckles (World) and Sonic 3 (Europe) dump flawlessly seperately, locked on i only get a rom with a broken looped boot screen.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/46bfunijbhnk9wx/Sonic3%26Knuckles.DFB3.md?dl=0

Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 1 and 2 locked on dump and play fine.

[skaman]

Yes, I tested Sonic 3 & Knuckles and it is broken in v0.24a.  The upper addresses are not completely dumped.

If you need to dump Sonic 3 & Knuckles, then use a firmware up to v0.24.

I'll look for a fix.

[skaman]

Identified the setting that is messing up Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  An instruction was added to enable reading of SSF2.

I'll have to add some code to make sure both carts work with the same firmware.

EDIT:  Fixed.  Both Sonic 3 & Knuckles and SSF2 now work on the same firmware.  I'll compile a new v0.24 version with the fix and also merge the fix into the later firmwares.