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Need some help with Genesis ROM files from a 3.5" flopp

 
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MrMark0673



Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:19 pm    Post subject: Need some help with Genesis ROM files from a 3.5" flopp Reply with quote

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on here so I figure I'll give a brief intro. I'm MrMark0673 and I post on several different forums. I (along with my brother) am the person who discovered the proto of the then unknown unreleased NES game, Hoppin' Mad. I have lurked on these board from time to time but I have recently come across a problem that I was hoping you all could help me with...



So I just received disk with ROM files for an unreleased Genesis game entitled Kartoon Kombat. I went out and purchased an external 3.5" floppy drive and popped the disk in. There are 4 files on the disk labeled as follows:

TOON.0
TOON.1
TOON.2
TOON.3

All files are 256 kb in size. I began copying the files from the floppy to my computer and all transferred correctly except for TOON.3 . I received an error message when trying to copy it that read:

"Error 0x800706F9: The disk media is not recognized. It may not be formatted"

So I have a couple of questions for you homebrewers/ROM masters...

What does that error message mean and can I ever extract that file?

I tried popping the other files into an emulator and received a message "IUSA system (60 fps)" for the first and third files and a message that read "Japan system (60 fps)" for the second file. What do I need to do to these files before I can put them into an emulator and get some usable info out of them?

I really don't know anything about this sort of stuff, its not as simple as a copynes where I pop in a game and then play it on an emulator 2 minutes later. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
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Wonderbutt



Joined: 30 Nov 2003
Posts: 323
Location: Doritos Inc.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok dude, thanks for Hopping Mad, first.
I am not a Rom master, but maybe this can help:

What format is the disk? Fat 16? or Amiga?
Remember, a lot of the Genesis programming was done on Amigas. Maybe you need an Amiga.
You have extracted the other three files, so maybe this is not an issue. But hey that's what I can contribute. Wait a few hours when the drunkards on this board sober up and have some Lucky Charms in their systems. Then you might get some actual useful help.
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MrMark0673



Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm, not sure what the format is, but I was able to use a recovery tool to extract the last file from the disc. I was looking around the web in hopes of finding a tool that will join them into one file capable of running on an emulator, and it seems that uCON should be able to do that for me. I downloaded the program, but can't seem to run it successfully. I'll see what I can do and hopefully have some more info as to what is on the disk shortly.
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handofg0d



Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 455
Location: PA

PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Try to get in touch with drx to see what utility he used to join his ROMs?
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Kiddo



Joined: 11 Jul 2008
Posts: 87

PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've messed around with splitting/joining ROM files in Ucon64 when using my ROM copier.

There's different builds of it, remember. For my setup I have the Windows GUI linked to... I think the minigw DOS app. It might be different for you.
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MrMark0673



Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I'll give you all an update. I've given the files to some very capable individuals, and they had come pretty far but it was determined that the last file was indeed corrupted. That being said, one was able to pull this info from the existing files:




SEGA MEGA DRIVE (C)WAVE 1994.XXXToon Fighters Toon Fighters GM XXXXXXXX-XX


(C)1994 WAVE SOFTWARE LTD.. BETA RELEASE



ONE PLAYER GAME.. TWO PLAYER GAME.. PRACTICE MODE.. (C)1994 WAVE SOFTWARE LTD.. A TECHNOS PRESENTATION




PLEASE CHOOSE FIGHT LOCATION.
FOREST
AIRPORT
MOUSE HOLE
JUNGLE
RUSSIA
WILD WEST
THE ALPS
THE GRAVEYARD



Demo Released to Elite Systems - 16/5/1994



NAME: CLIVE

CLIVE IS A WELL ROUNDED FIGHTER. HIS FELINITY GIVES HIM ADDED AGILITY. HIS PUNCHES AND KICKS ARE NOT STRONG, BUT HIS EXTRA SPEED MEANS HE CAN UNLEASH A STREAM OF ASSULTS VERY QUICKLY.


NAME: SCOTT

SCOTT IS ONE OF THE LARGEST TOONS IN THE GAME AND HAS LONG ARMS BUT SHORT LEGS. SLOW BUT POWERFUL. HE'S A FORMIDABLE OPPONENT!


NAME: DOUG

DOUG IS A SHERIFF FROM THE WILD WEST. HIS FORTE IS GOOD OLD FASHIONED FISTICUFFS. MAKE SURE YOU WATCH OUT FOR HIS GUN!


NAME: KEV

KEV IS A HARD NOSED RUSSIAN CHICKEN FROM KIEV. AN EX PARATROOPER. HE IS THE TOUGHEST TOON OF THE BUNCH, BUT HE DOES HAVE A WEAKNESS. HIS POWERFULL PECK CAN BE TROUBLE, SO WATCH IT.


NAME: FRANK

FRANK IS A BASHFULL CHARACTER, BEING A SQUIRREL. HIS ARMS ARE NOT HIS STRONG POINT, BUT THIS IS MORE THAN MADE UP WITH HIS STRONG LEGS & BIG FEET. HE HAS A SUPPLY OF NUTS SECRETED ABOUT HIS PERSON, WHICH CAN PROVE VALUABLE WHEN FACING A FORMIDABLE FOE.

NAME: MONTY

MONTY IS THE SMALLEST TOON AROUND. HIS SIZE CAN BE USEFUL FOR AVOIDING BEING HIT. HE HAS AN AMAZING SPECIAL WEAPON WHICH MAKES UP FOR HIS SMALL SIZE. HE ALSO HEADBUTTS HIS FOE IN THE NUTS



The whole "what to do with unreleased protos" debate has gone on forever, so I'll spare you. I don't care what people do with their shit, but the thought that someone can't take five minutes to make a copy of the ROM is really disappointing. This game is more than likely gone forever now, pretty shitty ending.

I'm going to go to a local PC repair shop and see if they can attempt to recover the last corrupted file from the disk. If they can, we're in business. If not, this one is gone for good.
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Smeg
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Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 1600
Location: beneath enemy scrotum

PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like a Street Fighter knock-off with furries from those character descriptions. This game might be better off lost Razz
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BMF54123
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Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 743
Location: Henderson, NV

PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Depending on how corrupted the last file is, someone might be able to manually repair it, or at least make the game playable. If you can find out exactly which bytes in the file aren't readable, it would probably help. I was able to fix most of the Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout prototype by figuring out which bytes would logically go in place of the corrupted ones, but in that case, it was just a few bytes at the beginning of each bank. Scattered or widespread corruption would obviously make things a lot harder. Confused
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MrMark0673



Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BMF54123 wrote:
Depending on how corrupted the last file is, someone might be able to manually repair it, or at least make the game playable. If you can find out exactly which bytes in the file aren't readable, it would probably help. I was able to fix most of the Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout prototype by figuring out which bytes would logically go in place of the corrupted ones, but in that case, it was just a few bytes at the beginning of each bank. Scattered or widespread corruption would obviously make things a lot harder. Confused


Well, I just dropped off the disk at a reputable mom and pop PC repair joint, I told the woman if she could get me ANYTHING from that last file that I will gladly take it. I'll keep you all posted, I should be hearing back from her in the next few days. Hopefully she can extract something usable, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!
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Druid II



Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Posts: 50

PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Isn't it possible that the four files are just four parts of the same rom? At the very least, you could try stitching them together (the three working part anyway), and see if it boots in an emulator that way.

Also, use Kega instead of Gens. It's a much more accurate emulator.
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drx



Joined: 15 Apr 2006
Posts: 150

PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If the recovery fails please try to at least get a partial recovery. I'm pretty sure what is happening is that some sectors are corrupted. But chances are not all of the .3 file is lost. If we could get some of it, I could attempt to fix the whole ROM to be at least playable. I've fixed binaries like this before. This one time I got a badly compiled unreleased game. It lacked absolute jumps. That was reaaaaaaaally fun to fix Razz

Let me know if I can help with anything, I've dumped/fixed/disassembled/etc more Megadrive roms than I really ever wanted.
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pcGTW_Webmaster



Joined: 25 Dec 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have hardware and software for restoring data from damaged floppy disks with ease. I can even restore data that has been overwritten. However, I guess you aren't from Germany, so I'm probably of no help. Though I could send you a small tool that I wrote long ago for a now-dead preservation project, which can read a disk sector by sector with endless retries for damaged sectors and showing a sector map so you see what is used/damaged/etc. Problem is, it will most likely not work with an external disk drive.

And, to be honest, I think bringing the disk to a PC repair shop was the worst you could do. These people have no clue anymore about how to restore data from ancient media. They may add even more damage to it.
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Computolio_



Joined: 25 Aug 2005
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seconding this. A "mom and pop repair joint" isn't going to be able to recover the file any better than you can.
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MrMark0673



Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had to try something, paying someone who supposedly specializes in the recovery of data sounded like a reasonably rational idea at the time. They're a mom and pop type shop that has been around 10+ years which means they must be doing something right, especially with the economy right now.

Regardless, if it doesn't work, I'm exactly where I was when I started. At least you guys have some text from a game that as far as I know there was very little info on.
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hellohole



Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2009 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

copy the file with dos.

when the file says disk read error, just press i (ignore) and it will keep copying the file. if you're lucky, only a very small part of the file may be damaged, and it can possibly be repaired, or used anyway.

i did this back in the days, copied roms from diskettes, like phantasy star for master system. the disk was corrupted in various parts, but i just ignored the disk read errors, and hey - the game played just fine anyway. some other times, i was not as lucky though.
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rbudrick
not rubrdick


Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 549

PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's a crazy amount of free programs that scan disks of all sorts and extract data from bad sectors and such. It's actually pretty rare for data to truly be GONE, unless written over.

-Rob
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