INL FlashCart - New Host App (RELEASED)

[wiiman119]

What should I do to get a 4mb hirom game to run on an 8mb cart? I've having trouble. I've only gotten super mario world to run so far

I personally have not been able to get hirom to flash correctly with this software. mirror your rom to 8mb and flash it with the original kazzo software from INL.

[abstract3000]

I havent gotten anything to run with this software to be honest, Anytime I try to use Auto Mirror option I get an Index out of Bounds error, and anytime I try and mirror the rom myself it writes it almost to the end then the program crashes. Any better alternatives to flashing these carts as it appears this software is in its final form of beta?

[Beji]

I've successfully flashed a copy of Dragon Quest I & Ii and Earthbound using this software. It was fairly easy to do.

With that being said, it'd be nice if Paul would just implement better software support himself.

[jowijo]

I've successfully flashed a copy of Dragon Quest I & Ii and Earthbound using this software. It was fairly easy to do.

With that being said, it'd be nice if Paul would just implement better software support himself.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you go about writing these games? The software provided here doesn't seem to work at all, so seeing how it is done outside of it would help give this board some use.

[Beji]

I've successfully flashed a copy of Dragon Quest I & Ii and Earthbound using this software. It was fairly easy to do.

With that being said, it'd be nice if Paul would just implement better software support himself.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you go about writing these games? The software provided here doesn't seem to work at all, so seeing how it is done outside of it would help give this board some use.

Sorry, completely forgot about this... And I haven't been making repos as much as I used to. It's kind of expensive after getting the boards, cases, labels and boxes.

Anyways, it was fairly straight forward for me. I re-flashed my INL board using the included firmware for the software. When putting the board into the programmer the software automatically detects the size of the board's memory.

When dropping the rom into the software, it also automatically detects the required size and padding. On the advice of the author, I always have the automatic board erase option set as well. I let the software do it's thing and bam, it's done.

I have run into two issues - the first being that once I've flashed a board, I haven't been able to erase and re-use the board for another game. For some reason it just won't do it. The second being that I couldn't get a specific game to work, I forget the name of the game, but it's some JP only RPG release that uses a patch to decompress it. I don't know if this is the software or hardwares fault. I just gave up on it.

With that being said, this software was really my only option. Paul's software (last time I checked..) wasn't very helpful and for some reason I've found that the avaible tools for SNES reproduction is much more lacking then the NES.

Like I said, I really hope Paul eventually gets around to just updating his software to make everything automatic.

[MottZilla]

Are you allowing the board enough time to erase the flash? If you aren't using INL's less user friendly program, the "wait time" of the newer program might not be allowing the programmer enough time to fully erase flash before it attempts to reprogram it.

The RPG you are talking about is Star Ocean. You need the data of the decompressed hacked version in a certain order for it to be programmed to the board correctly. If not the game just won't work.

[Beji]

Are you allowing the board enough time to erase the flash? If you aren't using INL's less user friendly program, the "wait time" of the newer program might not be allowing the programmer enough time to fully erase flash before it attempts to reprogram it.

The RPG you are talking about is Star Ocean. You need the data of the decompressed hacked version in a certain order for it to be programmed to the board correctly. If not the game just won't work.

I would think so, I put the board in and I do not remove it until it says it is complete.

As far is Star Ocean goes, I had the hacked, decompressed version of the rom, but someone was saying that you need to do something else to it as well. I don't really understand why people aren't just making the specific rom needed available online. The guy who did the new Host App, said that he wasn't even sure if his software was compatible with it.

I've also noticed that some games don't like padding. I've had some roms work fine on smaller boards, but some of them go haywire if you try using a bigger board.

For the time being I've just kind of given up making any more reproductions. I don't feel like learning to solder, de-solder, messing with chips and all this other nonsense, and while Paul's boards and software are useful, they aren't always all that reliable and I've had issues with really late orders in the past.

Don't get me wrong Paul is great and always tries to make things right, but when you gotta wait 6+ weeks for a package in the mail and then they forget stuff or send you the wrong thing it can be frustrating. I also learned the hard way that if you accidentally put a SNES board in the programmer in the wrong way, it can permanently ruin the board.

[jowijo]

Sorry, completely forgot about this... And I haven't been making repos as much as I used to. It's kind of expensive after getting the boards, cases, labels and boxes.

Anyways, it was fairly straight forward for me. I re-flashed my INL board using the included firmware for the software. When putting the board into the programmer the software automatically detects the size of the board's memory.

When dropping the rom into the software, it also automatically detects the required size and padding. On the advice of the author, I always have the automatic board erase option set as well. I let the software do it's thing and bam, it's done.

I'm still not quite certain of what you are talking about. I would like to, if possible, flash EarthBound, or Final Fantasy V, or any other hirom game for that matter; onto my INL board. I am using the latest host app, my board is SNES only, and every attempt has failed. Black screen. Most lorom games work just fine. I am aware this isn't an Everdrive or SD2SNES, I got this for programing.

With people saying they can get X game to work however, it has piqued my interest. When people mention it though, they never go into detail as to how they did it, let alone what software they are using. The only two I know of, is the older kazoo package, and this new Host App.

[MottZilla]

I generally have used the original INL RetroProg program. This requires manually padding the ROM file to the size of the flash but it's pretty reliable for me. I haven't found any game that wouldn't work or couldn't be made to work.

Star Ocean's 96mbit hacked version originally was designed for the Game Doctor copier which has a different file format which is interleaved. You need a deinterleaved version oft he hack to program it sucessfully onto this cartridge I believe.

HiROM games unlike LoROM games are probably going to require proper mirroring of ROM data. The easiest cartridge to work with is the one with 32 megabits (4 megabytes) of flashrom. This means that for a game that is exactly 32 megabits, you don't have to do anything other than make sure there is no 512 byte header on the ROM file before programming it.

Smaller games will work just fine on larger boards, but you must *mirror* the data appropriately. Padding is not the correct way to do it. I don't know how the new app handles things exactly but it could be incorrect. The boards certainly do work and work with any game that any useful flash cartridge can run.

As for being able to put the board in backwards and possibly cause damage, that's not really his fault. He didn't design the SNES cartridge pinout.

[Beji]

Sorry, completely forgot about this... And I haven't been making repos as much as I used to. It's kind of expensive after getting the boards, cases, labels and boxes.

Anyways, it was fairly straight forward for me. I re-flashed my INL board using the included firmware for the software. When putting the board into the programmer the software automatically detects the size of the board's memory.

When dropping the rom into the software, it also automatically detects the required size and padding. On the advice of the author, I always have the automatic board erase option set as well. I let the software do it's thing and bam, it's done.

I'm still not quite certain of what you are talking about. I would like to, if possible, flash EarthBound, or Final Fantasy V, or any other hirom game for that matter; onto my INL board. I am using the latest host app, my board is SNES only, and every attempt has failed. Black screen. Most lorom games work just fine. I am aware this isn't an Everdrive or SD2SNES, I got this for programing.

With people saying they can get X game to work however, it has piqued my interest. When people mention it though, they never go into detail as to how they did it, let alone what software they are using. The only two I know of, is the older kazoo package, and this new Host App.

I explained exactly how I did it though. I used the INL board, I used this Host App, I made sure the firmware on the INL boards was flashed over to this, used his software and it worked. I don't even bother dicking around with the rom headers or anything. There's a few apps out there that are supposed to remove rom headers or pad the roms for you, but every time I have tried using them, they break the roms and make them unplayable, even in emulators. I just take a fresh rom from a website, plop it into the software and let it do it's thing.

I had a few issues in the beginning. One of them was I put a SNES board in backwards on the programmer and it blew a fuse and I had to send it back in for repair.

If I ever get around to doing any other games, I'll try and remember to do a video or something.

[Danin]

Alright, so I'm back from hiding. If anyone is still interested and having problems with any of the features in the software, you have two choices;

1) PM me for a link to the pre-release version of the newly-written, fresh-from-the-ground-up, improved and better version of my software. I'll be releasing it very soon, it's basically done on the SNES side, I just need people to throw things at it for a little while for stability testing.

2) Wait a week or two for me to release the new version.

In related news, I've been hard at work on this software for the last month or so. I've rewritten it from the ground up. I've improved just about every aspect of it. I've added features, I've added feedback, I've improved performance - and most of all, I've tested it thoroughly. Presently, there are only two ROMs I can't get it to write so they will play properly (First one has region protection? Copy protection? Dunno... Second one is the interleaved Star Ocean S-DD1 hack, which is out there deinterleaved if you need it) but beyond that, everything I've thrown at it (within the bounds of INL boards' limitations of course) works. It still won't play Star Fox, Super Mario RPG, etc (due to missing expansion chips) but everything else I've tried runs the first time, every time. I need a few more testers to report back with suggestions/success/failure/whatever...but soon, I'll release it to the wilds.

[Beji]

Alright, so I'm back from hiding. If anyone is still interested and having problems with any of the features in the software, you have two choices;

1) PM me for a link to the pre-release version of the newly-written, fresh-from-the-ground-up, improved and better version of my software. I'll be releasing it very soon, it's basically done on the SNES side, I just need people to throw things at it for a little while for stability testing.

2) Wait a week or two for me to release the new version.

In related news, I've been hard at work on this software for the last month or so. I've rewritten it from the ground up. I've improved just about every aspect of it. I've added features, I've added feedback, I've improved performance - and most of all, I've tested it thoroughly. Presently, there are only two ROM I can't get it to write so it will play properly (First one has region protection? Copy protection? Dunno... Second one is the interleaved Star Ocean S-DD1 hack, which is out there deinterleaved if you need it) but beyond that, everything I've thrown at it (within the bounds of INL boards' limitations of course) works. It still won't play Star Fox, Super Mario RPG, etc (due to missing expansion chips) but everything else I've tried runs the first time, every time. I need a few more testers to report back with suggestions/success/failure/whatever...but soon, I'll release it to the wilds.

Good to hear it, are you planning, on sometime in the future working on the NES side of the INL board? I e-mailed Paul about software updates awhile ago and never got a response. The NES software could really use an update as well. It'd be amazing if you could combine the two into one.

[Danin]

Good to hear it, are you planning, on sometime in the future working on the NES side of the INL board? I e-mailed Paul about software updates awhile ago and never got a response. The NES software could really use an update as well. It'd be amazing if you could combine the two into one.

Hey there. Good to see you're still around. Yes, I do plan to add NES support, the problem is that I will only be able to test a very limited set of its functions. Paul was kind enough to send me a monstrosity of a 'dev board' for NES games, but I never could find out how to use it or what mappers it supported or any of that stuff..and that alone is putting a serious damper on my desire to work with it - I need to be able to understand it, to play with it, to test it, in order to figure out the best way to code for it..and since there are approximately a billion combinations of NES boards out there, I can't exactly just buy a bunch and cross my fingers that those are the ones I should be using. It'll be a chore, but I am going to add NES support. In fact, after polishing out any remaining bugs and implementing new feature requests, that is next in line for this project.

[Patman]

Is this software available anywhere still? The posts seem very positive and I'm having trouble writing to 8MB boards.

[Danin]

Is this software available anywhere still? The posts seem very positive and I'm having trouble writing to 8MB boards.

Actually I've been trying to motivate myself to finish a few small functions, however I've been presented with another very promising project idea that'll make this whole package obsolete, in the very best possible way. Due to some life issues etc, motivation and productivity have been fairly low, but I'm going to strip out the non-functional bits I've started to add and release a Final on this app.

The new project will be much more dynamic, but I haven't been given the go-ahead to talk about it yet so I'm just gonna tease you guys with that. Rest assured, SNES support isn't going anywhere, and the new project will do all of the same things this one does (if I can pull it off) and far more. I'll get off my butt and wrap the SNES Flasher to a reasonable release condition, and update the main post detailing its state. With the pre-release I've sent out previously, I've had no significant bug reports that were unexpected or reproducible, so I'm fairly confident in it, minus the features (aka frills and fluff) I'd started to add recently. Expect that today or tomorrow.