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Is Shadow Dancer for the SMS not compatible on a US Gen with PowerBaseConvertor? I've bought 2 copies now, and neither work on it. I've searched the net, and cant seem to find any incompatibility claims, but I find it odd that BOTH of my copies dont work. :daze::confused:
Is SegaCD/MegaCD connected? It may not be the point but I know there are some rare korean and bootleg games that don't work if your setup includes SCD/MCD.
Tried it without SegaCD, and even tried it without a Gen controller. So basically, a Gen1/PBC with SMS controller, power cord and AV cable. I can't get it anymore striped down than that. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Golpezas
which is the region of the cart?
Related question: Is this game any good? It looks like it co go either way from the screen shots.
Works fine for me on my Model 1 Genesis and PBC combo. Works on my SMS as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaijuboy
It's OK, but the Genesis version trounces it in every aspect.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry coeurl
I didn't see this question earlier.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry coeurl
The problem is, they cut out A LOT of levels from the arcade game. So it's not even really a port. It feels a bit more like a demo or something.
It's a fair port, but as stated by ApolloBoy, the Genesis version's better... and it's actually a full game.
Both are EUR, it was never released in USA.Quote:
Originally Posted by villahed94
Well crap, I guess it's off to find #3. I'm beginning to think I wasn't meant to have this... :'(Quote:
Originally Posted by The Coop
I also just tested this on a completely different Gen, and it did the same thing (pink screen of nothingness).
This may be a dumb question, but have you taken a Q-Tip and cleaned the holy hell out of the carts? Tried only sliding it partially into the PBC/SMS instead of all the way in?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaijuboy
Is it an official PBC ?
Shadow Dancer SMS (as well as Aces of Aces) is special as it requires the Z80 SP register to be initialized by SMS BIOS, otherwise it doesn't run properly.
On Genesis, there is no SMS BIOS and the state of this register is undefined (it might be random on each power on).
I think (this would need to be confirmed) that the official PBC is not only a pass-through device and has a chip that is supposed to handle sega card support but might also do Z80 register initializations with a very simple bootcode. It's possible there are cut-down versions of the PBC where this was dropped.
Plug in another SMS cart, boot the game, pull out the cart, push in the Shadow Dancer, hit reset...
For some reason, games like R-Type need this to be done, otherwise they do nothing on MD... weird...
My R-Type cart works fine. I don't have Shadow Dancer to test out... just the ROM and an Everdrive.
tried to change region on the genesis? because of probable 50hz optimizations
That wouldn't matter at all since almost all PAL SMS games run perfectly fine on an NTSC Genesis or SMS.Quote:
Originally Posted by villahed94
I tried the ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ROM on my Genesis via the Everdrive and it worked fine. The game is damn hard, though... it's ridiculous.
Yeah it is. I've only made it up to the stage three boss. It's just four stages, and the stages aren't that long, nor are the boss battles. But dear God...Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Redifer
Didn't know this trick - I have a copy of R-Type that never worked, will have to locate it and try this sometime :)Quote:
Originally Posted by TmEE
Shadow Dancer is weird on my PBC, game wouldn't load and just repeated the same sound clip over and over forever - though tbh I did find this far more entertaining than actually playing the game. Shadow Dancer = meh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TmEE
You know, before Game Genie, I used to enable cheats on Genesis games using this method... :p
I think it has more to do with the Genesis. Some games that were finicky with the PBC on one Genesis, worked right away on another.
I can agree with that. On one of my Genesis consoles, 95% of the times I tried to boot up Astro Warrior, there was some ridiculous glitching going on. On my other Genesis (and on my SMS), SMS games boot up fine for the most part.Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianC
Actually, it can be finicky even on the same Genesis. My copy of R-Type apparently doesn't like starting up very much, as I'll have to fiddle with it, remove it, and re-insert it for a bit before it finally starts.
This defies all gaming instinct and yet for some completely crazy reason WORKS!. \(@_@')/Quote:
Originally Posted by TmEE
Thank you for this bizarre fix, which I guarantee you, I would NEVER have tried!
Although instead of hitting reset, i have to turn system off/on again quickly, but it's worked every time I tried it.
*crazy!* :daze:
Oh, and to answer a previous question, yes I've completely cleaned the contacts to a shine.
It's not crazy, I told you, it's related to the initial Z80 registers state. Some SMS games expect them to be initialized before they start (most likely, it's a software bug where they forgot to initialize some registers) .
On a real SMS, all registers are initialized by BIOS so everything work fine (and this kind of bug can not be spotted by devs).
On a Genesis however, there is no SMS BIOS and Z80 registers are in a random state after each power-on but keep their previous state on a simple reset (or a very fast power off/on), which explain why those games randomly work and why swapping with another game (which initialized registers correctly), then resetting, fix them.
PS: EverDrive OS initializes those registers so those games work fine as well this way.