vitorvilela - Super R-Type SA-1, European version is now available for testing

Hi, everyone!

Happy to share the first game of the SA-1 Regional project, the one I promised on the announcement post: Super R-Type SA-1 now works with the European version.

If you never saw this patch before, it removes all the slowdown present on the original game and drastically reduces the loading times.

Here is the Original vs. SA-1 comparison of the game, also available on YouTube:

The only difference between European cartridge and the American one is seven bytes and they differ only be the internal cartridge header and the copyright string visible on the title screen, where the USA says "LICENSED BY NINTENDO" and Europe says "LICENSED TO NINTENDO". That's all. Same code, same data, same everything else.

I confess I didn't know there was an European version of the game. The SA-1 Root readme for Super R-Type only mentioned that the Japanese version was under investigation and at that time I found too many differences to be worth re-disassembling the game, so I ended up moving to the next one.

So the effort here was mostly testing and validation: Does the patch, even without any code change, works on a PAL system? Running at 50 Hz, slight different SA-1 (10.64 MHz vs 10.74 MHz) and SNES CPU clock rates? From my testing (sadly only via emulation because I don't own a PAL system), no issues was found, other than some audio desynchronization already present in the original game (see below for details).

Anyway, given that the European version only changed the header and the license string, this means that you could just have forced the USA version to run at 50 Hz or on a PAL SNES and technically you have the same game running, including the same audio desync on the opening that I mention below. Or you could have patched the USA BPS patch against the European ROM, but given the BPS file has internal checks for knowing it's patching the right thing, it would throw an error stating that you're patching the wrong version of the game:

The BPS patch compatible with the European version is available under the attachment sections and it will patch fine now. If you want the USA version, it's publicly available on SA-1 Root GitHub project.

Patch it with beat or FLIPS, the usual .bps patchers.

Your European ROM before patching:

CRC32: 1631740D

SHA256: 7C7E90FB7C762769219234BAF7B5FA6BF574FFF7DC63B7134D49EC7C8B38EA7E

After patching:

CRC32: A3CE72CE

SHA256: FAB5C40D95512D0E0E379BA38C5B1687C601917BFC1B6AC1945864AA78E10EAC

This game needs 32 kB (256 Kbit) of BW-RAM to run correctly, the same as the American patch. It should work on real hardware (sd2snes/FXPak or a SA-1 cart) and on Snes9x and bsnes/higan/ares/Mesen. ZSNES does not work with SA-1 Root patches.

(the opening, just for reference. The problem is on the audio, so you can't see it here)

The opening sound effect comes before the ship moves. This issue also happens on original and not on the American version, because the game developers never adapted the game to the 50 Hz PAL mode.

Not tested on a real PAL console. If you own an European console, or a flash cart on one, please let me know if it works.

Tell me in the comments what you played on (emulator, real console, flash cart) and how far you went. If something goes wrong, let me know.

In the next days, the Japanese version of Super R-Type should be ready for testing. This one while the gameplay is similar to the USA version, internally it's about 20% different and requires relocating part of the patch. Contra III Japan and EU are also work in progress and should have their initial versions available soon as well.

By the way, there is no issue to share gameplay, including pictures, videos or live streams of the beta work -- just make sure to mention me so more people know about my work :)

Thank you for the support and happy ROM hacking!