Sega Programming FAQ

From <U6C16@wvnvm.wvnet.edu>

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,rec.games.video.sega

Subject: Sega Programming FAQ Version 6

Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 13:09:29 EDT

Sega Programming FAQ September 14, 1994, Sixth Edition

=============================================================

This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is about how to program

the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive Video Games Systems.

This file IS Public Domain, and can be used by all.

You may copy and post this file elsewhere. Share and enjoy.

If you want to add anything, especially game code or

information on the hardware please E-mail me. My E-mail

and real address are below and at the end of this FAQ.

Disclaimer : In no way I am indorsing any products, systems,

etc. What I am doing is providing the information that I

have found throughout internet and other network systems and

reporting them here, with out reverse engineering. All

information is reported as is- I will not accept any

responsibility if you fry your system trying something out.

All copyrights are owned by their respective owners, no

infringements intended.

Henry Rieke

<U6c16@Wvnvm.Wvnet.Edu>

US Mail:

Henry Rieke

Attn: Sega FAQ

161 Poplar Dr

Morgantown, Wv 26505-2340

=============================================================

0.1 Changes, Updates and Coming Soon

1) Graphic, Video, and processor maps have been added. Major stuff here.

In fact, enough to being programming your own games.

2) With a sad note, I have to report that the Sega listserver

has died a death of low usage, and long with that went the site

on Busop. I am in the process of locating a new site(s), and

will make the apporte posts when I do. If you have a site that you

admin, and are willing to donate some disk space, let me know please.

The good news of this is that these new sites will be mirrored so you

could find the files quicker. I am also working on a WWW version of this

document, and if you know of a site to put it, let me know.

3) Coding for the four player tap from Electonic Arts has been added.

Does anyone have the code for the multi-tap from Sega, and how it works?

4) I am now beginning to work on a topic header on languages that

you can program in for the Sega and Sega CD ROM. If you have any

direct information (compiler, how to compile, etc) let me know so

I can include it.

=============================================================

1.0 Questions

Q) What are the differences between Mega Drive and Genesis?

What are the differences between Mega CD and Sega CD?

A) Physically, on the outside, the only difference is the

plastic case, the cartridge shape is slightly different on

the American version, smaller in size. On the inside there

are four jumpers labeled J1 though J4. J1 and J2 is the

language switch, between English and Japanese, J3 and J4

select the output between PAL and NTSC. You can build a

switch that can allow you to select between these options.

The diagram is included in this document (Chapter 5.0,

called "Language Switch"). The reason for the language

switch is to keep people from getting the game before it

is officially released elsewhere in the world. The newer

Sega Machines do not have the jumpers, and hence you can

not build a switch (as of yet).

The difference between Mega CD and Sega CD are internal.

In side the machine there is a ROM BIOS chip which is changed

for different markets. Sega has a version of the BIOS which

will play any system's games, but this is for Game developing

and testing. There is a device called Pro-CDX which will allow

you to by-pass the lockout and play any country's games.

Q) Where to find files on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive

hardware?

A) You can find the files on the Sega hardware from one of

the following FTP sites. A brief section describing memory

and cartridge ROMs are included in this FAQ. The author

Rick McTeague, is from Louisville and the most current copy

can be found there first.

FTP ftp.spd.louisville.edu

pub\sega\hardware.txt

FTP sunsite.unc.edu

pub\micro\games\sega\faqs\incoming\hardware.txt

It's in there. I'm not sure of the exact location.

There are also many other files here as well as a few

68000 ASM. <-- yet to be moved and posted. Working on

it.

Q) What does it take to program the Genesis?

A) Development kits can be bought from many companies, a list

is included in the section called "Companies". These kits

require an IBM or Amiga computer to compile the code,

which is usually assembly, but can be in C as long as it

can be compiled into 68000 binary. SEGA's own kit is extremely

expensive and they are rumored to have slow response time

to answer questions. The price of the kits cost from $1000

to $4000.

Q) Is IBM or Amiga the only two platforms for game

development?

A) No. The Apple Macintosh does have a system, which does allow

you to compile games, but it is a do-it yourself job (See below

for the whole scope). There also is a system for the Apple IIgs,

called Sluggo from Parsons Engineering. As for the Mac, if you

know, please pass it on. It is rumored that Electronic Arts uses

a priority system on the Macintosh for porting the games.

-- This information comes from Landon Dyer <landon@apple.com>,

-- You can generate 68K code for the Sega "trivially" with the

C compiler and assembler in the Macintosh programmer's workshop

(MPW). You'll need to hack up some transfer utilities, but this

is not really hard. You can wire-wrap a ROMulator, or buy one;

there are a bunch on the market that should work just fine.

I had a ROMulator and a debugger up and running in about a

week, working evenings. (Ed note: ROMular information can be found

at the FTP sites)

Q) How do I program the SEGA CD Rom?

A) I am beginning to understand how to program this device,

but more information is needed, so if you have any, please

pass it along to me so I can include it in the next update.

Look under Hardware 2.1, Sega CD for more information about

the unit.

Q) What is Saturn, and how do I program that?

A) Saturn is Sega's next generation game machine, which

is based on Sega's S-1 /S-2 arcade Machine's motherboard.

Rumor has it that it will allow programming in C as

well as Assembly, and porting of arcade games that are

based on the S-1 and S-2 boards will take only a week.

There is good news and bad news as well.

Good news, Microsoft will be writing the OS.

Bad new, Microsoft will be writing the OS.

Q) What else is there on Internet?

A) Well there is the Sega Programming forum, which you can

join by subscribing to it with this command:

Send a message to Listserv@Busop.Cit.Wayne.Edu with the

first line reading SUBSCRIBE MEGADEV

To unsubscribe, do the same above, except the first line

should read UNSUBSCRIBE MEGADEV

There is also Rec.Games.Video.Programmer and

Rec.Games.Video.Sega where you can ask your questions.

There are also files on how to use the old SEGA 3D glasses

with your IBM compatible computer which can be found all

over the place (including the above FTP sites).

=============================================================

2.0 Hardware : This is the inner workings of the Sega system

ROM and Memory. For a better understanding Sega Hardware I

suggest reading Hardware.txt. An up-to-date version of this

file can be gotten by anonymous ftp from Ftp.spd.louisville.edu,

in the file "Pub/sega/Hardware.txt".

Genesis - this information comes from Rick McTeague.

Sega Genesis Hardware Internals - Revised: 04/07/1993

Please send corrections or comments to:

Rick McTeague

Sysrick@starbase.spd.louisville.edu

Disclaimers:

The following information was extracted without the use of

official information from Sega Enterprises, Ltd. I therefore

offer no warranty on the correctness of this information.

Use it at your own risk.

This information was gathered as a personal project, and is

not the responsibility of my employer.

Different versions of the Genesis exist, so I won't suggest

that any of this information is right for anybody's Genesis

but my own.

Sega, Genesis, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Ecco the Dolphin are

trademarks of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Other trademarks are the

property of their respective companies.

The Cartridge ROM

-----------------

As others on the net have observed, a standard Genesis

cartridge is nothing more than a small printed circuit board

with a ROM on it. There are some cartridges which have

battery-backed RAM for saving high scores, configurations,

etc., but I haven't seen these, so I don't know about them.

If you know of a particular cartridge that has RAM, let me

know so I can go rent one and take it apart (shhhh!) to see

what's in it.

A cartridge contains a word-wide (16 bit) ROM with up to 2

Meg words (4 Mbytes). This is based on the signal !C_CE, which

is used as the cartridge ROM's chip enable on the cartridges

I've looked at, and which is active at addresses $000000-$3fffff.

It may be possible to have more than 4 Mbyte cartridges; if

so, either they ignore the !C_CE line and do their own

address decoding, or there's a register somewhere in the

Genesis which changes the default address decoding scheme for

!_CE.

Note that cartridges are advertised as being "8 Meg"; as far

as I know, is 8 Meg _bits_, not bytes. 1 Mbyte is still

pretty impressive for a game machine.

SONIC uses a 40-pin 256Kx16 (512Kx8) ROM in word mode.

Ecco the Dolphin uses a 42-pin 512Kx16 (1024Kx8) ROM in word

mode. This one confused me because I'd never seen a 42-pin

DIP before, so I thought it was 40 pins. No wonder the

signals didn't look right...

Putting together a little bit of information from a Sharp

data sheet for a 512 Kword ROM with a bit of conjecture based

on the Sonic and Ecco cartridges, this is what I can come up

with for pinouts:

Sonic Ecco

(256 Kword) (512 Kword)

----u----

----u---- A18 1=| |=42 VCC?

A17 1=| |=40 A 8 A17 2=| |=41 A 8

A 7 2=| |=39 A 9 A 7 3=| |=40 A 9

A 6 3=| |=38 A10 A 6 4=| |=39 A10

A 5 4=| |=37 A11 A 5 5=| |=38 A11

A 4 5=| |=36 A12 A 4 6=| |=37 A12

A 3 6=| |=35 A13 A 3 7=| |=36 A13

A 2 7=| |=34 A14 A 2 8=| |=35 A14

A 1 8=| |=33 A15 A 1 9=| |=34 A15

A 0 9=| |=32 A16 A 0 10=| |=33 A16

!CE 10=| |=31 !BYTE !CE 11=| |=32 !BYTE

GND 11=| |=30 GND GND 12=| |=31 GND

!OE 12=| |=29 D15 !OE 13=| |=30 D15

D 0 13=| |=28 D 7 D 0 14=| |=29 D 7

D 8 14=| |=27 D14 D 8 15=| |=28 D14

D 1 15=| |=26 D 6 D 1 16=| |=27 D 6

D 9 16=| |=25 D13 D 9 17=| |=26 D13

D 2 17=| |=24 D 5 D 2 18=| |=25 D 5

D10 18=| |=23 D12 D10 19=| |=24 D12

D 3 19=| |=22 D 4 D 3 20=| |=23 D 4

D11 20=| |=21 VCC D11 21=| |=22 VCC

--------- ---------

Note that the address line numbering is different than that

of the 68000; line A0 of the ROM is really connected to the

68000's A1. This is because of the way the 68000 handles

even/odd byte addressing using !UDS and !LDS.

The !BYTE line is held high. This puts the ROM chip into

"word" mode, where data is accessed 16 bits at a time.

The convenient correspondence between ROM and 68000 data and

address lines (ROM D0 = 68K D0, ROM D1 = 68K D1, etc..., and

ROM A0 = 68K A1, ROM A1 = 68K A2, etc...) may not exist in

all cartridge designs. This is sometimes difficult to

visualize, but keep in mind that the ROM doesn't care whether

its D0 is really D0, or if its A3 is really A3, etc. As long

as each data line is used as the same D## line for both

programming and reading, and each address line is used as the

same A## for both programming and reading, the ROM will

function properly and the 68000 will see the right

instructions. Think about it...

Why bring this up? If you remove the ROM from the cartridge

PCB and try to read it with a EPROM programmer, there may be

situations where you won't see valid 68000 instructions, or

things won't be in the right place... Assuming your

programmer isn't messed up, this would be because the address

and data lines on the ROM aren't assigned the way you'd

expect.

Why would someone make a cartridge like this? To make your

life difficult, if you're wanting to hack their ROMs, or to

make their life easy, by making the cartridge PCB easier to

design.

The easiest way to avoid this potential problem is to build

an adapter from your programmer's EPROM socket to an edge

card connector into which you plug the cartridge. This is a

bit safer, too, so you don't have to remove the ROM from the

cartridge (or even open it up).

The Memory Map

--------------

$000000 $3fffff Cartridge ROM, when enabled by cartridge

control register and !CART_IN.

$000000 $0007ff Internal OS ROM, when enabled by cartridge

control register and !CART_IN.

$ff0000 $ffffff 64Kbytes scratchpad RAM

Partially decoded; RAM actually appears repeated between

$e00000 through $ffffff.

$a14101 cartridge control register

bit 0 = 0: cartridge disabled, OS ROM enabled

bit 0 = 1: cartridge enabled, OS ROM disabled

$a00000 $a????? Unknown. Audio? Controller I/O?

$c00000 $c????? Video display controller registers

The OS puts the top of its stack at $ffff00, and defines a

"user stack pointer" at $000000 (building down through the

top of RAM memory).

The Z80 processor is used for sound and has 8Kbytes of RAM.

I don't know anything about how the Z80 does its work, as I

haven't looked.

Acknowledgements

----------------

Thanks to:

dt93tn@pt.hk-r.se (Tore Nestenius) for info on older Genesis

systems.

lewism@rpi.edu (Michael Lewis) for info on the Sony CXA1145

and Samsung KM6264 chips.

crs@crs-sys.uucp (Chris Gregors) for posting a version of the

Genesis cartridge port pinouts.

merlyn@digibd.com (Brian Westley) for Game Genie information

and decoder program.

------------------------------------------------------------

Brief technical description of the Genesis:

---

The genesis graphics hardware consists of 2 scrollable planes.

Each plane is made up of tiles. Each tile is an 8x8 pixel square

with 4 bits per pixel. Each pixel can thus have 16 colors. Each

tile can use 1 of 4 color tables, so on screen you can get 64

colors at once, but only 16 in any specific tile. Tiles require

32 bytes. There is 64K of graphics memory. This would allow

for 2048 unique tiles if memory were used for nothing else.

Each plane can be scrolled independently in various ways.

Planes consist of tables of words, where each word describes a

tile. The word contains 11 bits for describing which tile, 2 bits

for flip x and flip y, 2 bits for the selection of the color table,

and 1 bit for a depth selector. Sprites are composed of tiles also.

A sprite can be up to 4 tiles wide by four tiles high. Since each

tile is 8x8, this means sprites can be anywhere from 8x8 pixels to

32x32 pixels. There can be 80 sprites on screen at one time. On a

scan line you can have 10 32 pixel wide sprites or 20 16 pixel wide

sprites. Each sprite can only have 16 colors but they are out of the

4 different color tables. Color 0=transparent.

Colors are 3 bits for each gun, so 512 colors are possible.

There is a memory copier that is in hardware. This does fast copies from

the 68000 ram into the graphics ram.

The 68000 runs at about 8 mhz. It has 64K of memory devoted to it. The

ROM cartridge appears at 0.

The Z80 has 8K of ram. The 68000 can download programs to the z80 and

let them go. The z80 can access the graphics chips or the sound synth

chips but usually those things are controlled by the 68000.

The sound chips consist of a Yamaha synthesis chip and a TI programmable

sound generator. The PSG has 3 square wave tones and 1 white noise tone.

Each tone/noise channel can have its own frequency and volume.

The Yamaha chips are based on FM synthesis. There are 6 voices with 4

operators each. The chips are similiar to those used in the Yamaha

DX27 and DX100 synthesizers. By setting up registers a rich variety of

sounds can be created.

------------------------------------------------------------

2.1 Sega CD Rom. The following information came from

Leyland@island.COM (Robert Leyland), who was a programmer for the

most excellent Sega CD Rom game - Flying Aces. (Plug!Plug!

Plug!Plug!Plug!Plug!)

-- The Sega CD is ISO 9660 format, with proprietary start-up code

that must be licensed from SEGA in order to work. For programming

you use two PC's, one connected to a debugging system and the other

emulated an CD-ROM drive.

The trickiest part of programming the Sega CD/Genesis combo is

keeping the two CPU's synchronized. For some reason the single

hardest thing to do with any computer is get it to talk reliably

with another computer.

------------------------------------------------------------

2.2 Joystick - 3 button version - Could some please post a 6

button version?

By: nhowland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Neal Howland) for information

on the Joystick port.

First some background info: The chip inside the controller

is a 74HC157. This is a high-speed cmos quad 2-line to

1-line multiplexer. Basically how this works is there are two

inputs ( A and B ) for every output ( Y ). There are four

groups like this. There is one select signal for the whole

chip. When the select signal is low, the output ( Y ) is the

same as input A. When the select signal is high, the output

Y is the same as input B. The pinout for the chip is as

follows:

Pin 1 - SelectPin 16 - Vcc (+5V)

Pin 2 - 1APin 15 - G (? must be low)

Pin 3 - 1BPin 14 - 4A

Pin 4 - 1YPin 13 - 4B

Pin 5 - 2APin 12 - 4Y

Pin 6 - 2BPin 11 - 3A

Pin 7 - 2YPin 10 - 3B

Pin 8 - GndPin 9 - 3Y

All the controls are done with switches. Up is a switch,

Down is a switch, etc. Now, I will be referring to the output

of these switches later on. What I mean is that the output is

usually high, that is when the switch isn't pressed.

When the button is pushed, the output goes low. This is

accomplished by connecting the output to +5V through a 10k

resistor. The button is then attached between the output and

ground. It looks like this:

+5V -----/\/\/------+--------- Output

10k |

/ |

Ground -----/ -------+

button

(normally open)

For all of those who could actually decipher the above

schematic, congratulations!

I will now run down what lines from the plug are connected to

what. The line numbers are determined as follows, looking

straight at the plug on the front of the Genesis the numbers

are:

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9

(For those of you who buy a joystick cable from radio shack

the pin #'s to wire colors are as follows: 1-white 2-blue

3-green 4-brown 5-yellow 6-orange 7-red 8-black 9-gray )

anyway, line connections:

Line 1 - Up output These are the only two direct

Line 2 - Down output connections

Line 3 - Pin 4 of the chip output 1Y

Line 4 - Pin 7 of the chip output 2Y

Line 5 - This line carries in +5V. It is connected to the

+5V bus line.

Line 6 - Pin 9 of the chip output 3Y

line 7 - Pin 1 of the chip this carries in a select signal

from the Genesis. This is a signal which varies

rapidly and controls which input goes through the

output.

Line 8 - Ground This is connected to the Ground bus line.

Line 9 - Pin 12 of the chip output 4Y

Now for the chips pin connections:

Pin 1 - Line 7 (select)

Pin 2 - Ground (1A) Don't ask me why they do this. Maybe

Pin 3 - Left (1B) future expansion

Pin 4 - Line 3 (1Y)

Pin 5 - Ground (2A) Again, possibly future expansion

Pin 6 - Right (2B)

Pin 7 - Line 4 (2Y)

Pin 8 - Ground (GND)

Pin 9 - Line 6 (3Y)

Pin 10 - Button B (3B)

Pin 11 - Button A (3A)

Pin 12 - Line 9 (4Y)

Pin 13 - Button C (4B)

Pin 14 - Start (4A)

Pin 15 - Ground (G) This must be connected to ground

Pin 16 - +5V (Vcc) Power source for the chip

Anyway that's all the info needed to build your own joystick.

Now as an added bonus, additional information!

A simple source for a joystick cable is the Radio Shack

joystick extension cable. It is around $5 and is 10 ft. long.

Just snip off the connector that won't plug into the Genesis,

strip the wires back, and use the color pinout list I gave

above.

I went to my local arcade game repair company today and

purchased the supplies I needed. They were much cheaper than

I expected. Things you would need to buy from them would be:

an 8-way joystick this ran me $15

3 buttons $2.50 apiece

I only bought three buttons because I am going to use a Radio

Shack push button switch for my start button. You can purchase

4 arcade game buttons if you wish.

Interesting ideas for extras on the joystick:

1. Autofire can be achieved with a simple 555 timer circuit.

For anyone wanting a challenge it should be possible to

build a digital autofire using a divide-by-n counter with the

select signal as clock input.

2. Slow down mode is just autofire for the start button.

=============================================================

3.0 Companies - these companies produce the hardware that is

required to write games for the Genesis. The original

document came from: Scott Golby <sgolby@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

Hi Everyone,

Here is the current list of info I have about the Sega.

I have had about 10 replies so far asking to pass my

info on. If people want I will pass their EMail address on

to everyone else so we can work as a group. Drop me a line

if you want to be added to the 'group' list.

***** <----- Five astrict like this means info from

different people

Sega Genesis Developer Resources

Dan Chang April 18, 1993

Sega of America Inc

Consumer Products Division

125 Shoreway Road

San Carlos, California, 94070

Tel : (415) 802-4400

Fax : (415) 802-4458

Stuart Kosoy is the person to contact at Sega of America

at (415)802-4407.

Products : Detailed SEGA Genesis technical information. GEMS

SEGA music development package.

Solution : Music and Sound effects package for the Sega. SOA

can provide detailed information on programming the Genesis;

however they will want to know more about your company first.

Western Technologies, Inc.

12057 Jefferson Blvd

Culver City, California, 90230

Tel : (310) 821-7880

Fax : (310) 306-1739

Products : SegaDev Card. PC-Hosted Genesis development

hardware, which includes SEGADEV.EXE, a Windows-hosted

source-level debugger, and SEGALOAD.EXE, a PC_hosted 68000

object code downloader.

Solutions : SEGA Genesis Hardware, WT recommends Sierra

Systems 68000 Assembler.

Sierra Systems

6728 Evergreen Ave

Oakland California 94611

Tel : (510) 339-8200 or (800) 776 4888

Fax : (510) 339 3844

Products : PC-hosted Sierra C cross-compiler, which included

68000 C compiler, assembler, linker.

Contact person at Sierra Systems is Larry Rosenthal

E-Mail Sierra@netcom.com

Motorola, Literature Dist

This entry basically has a list of 68000 reference and

programming books.

Echidna

1101 W Stevens Ave, Suite 232

Santa Ana California 92707

Tel : (714) 545-2662

Fax : (714) 545-3705

Products : tUME - the Universal Map Editor. PC-Hosted tool to

edit tile-maps.

Solutions : Saves time in designing game maps and placing

level information. Downloads maps to Western Techs SegaDev

card.

A tUME demo can be found by FTP busop.cit.wanye.edu under

/pub/megadev/incoming/tumedemo.zip

Well worth a look.

Cross Products Limited

23 The Calls

Leeds LS2 7EH, England

Tel 0532 429814

Fax 0532 426163 (dial 011 44 532 426163 from USA)

Product : SNASM68K : PC-Hosted SEGA Genesis development

system, which includes a 68000 assembler, linker, debugger.

Parsons Engineering

Imhurst Ave

Covina California 91724

Tel (818) 966 5538

Products : PC/Apple IIgs hosted Sluggo Genesis development

hardware.

Advantech

1333 E.9400 South, Suite 160

Sandy Utah, 84092

Tel : (801) 572-5410

Fax : (810) 572-5674

Products : blank SEGA Genesis cartridge PC boards, blank

EPROMS.

*****

Genesis Development System Frequently Asked Questions

Q:What is the Genesis Development System?

A:The GDS is a cross development system that lets you develop games and other

software to run on the Sega Genesis. The system consists of a 4 inch by 8

inch printed circuit board that plugs in the cartridge slot of the Genesis,

and has a cable going to the parallel port of the host computer. A complete

software set is included consisting of an integrated editor/assembler, a

stand alone assembler, a symbolic debugger, a music and sound effect editor,

a utility to break standard 16 color IFF images into tiles to be downloaded

to the Sega, a utility to capture screen graphics on the Genesis, a

utility to send an LBM image to the Genesis for preview, a linker for

joining multiple object modules, and several example files.

Q:Does it come with any source files?

A:You get source to the music editor, source to a Z80 program to run on the

genesis to interpret the music files, source to a demo program that plays

music and has sprites bouncing around behind the Sega logo, source to the

download utilities. Complete source is provided on communicating between

the host machine and the Genesis.

Q:How much memory does it have on the board?

A:It comes with 2.25 or 4.25 megabytes of memory. Older versions had 1.25

megabytes. 256K is reserved for use by the debugger for variable

storage and symbols.

Q:Can you program CD games with it?

A:It is not specifically designed for a CD. You could program as if you're

creating a cartridge then modify the code later to make it work on the

CD. I provide no information on the Genesis CDROM drive. I don't own one

myself. The Genesis CDROM market is perhaps 10% of the cartridge market.

Q:Does it include technical specifications for the Genesis?

A:Yes, it comes with descriptions of the memory map, graphics registers, the

Z80's functions, reading the joysticks, sprites, scrolling, tiles, the

DMA copier, the audio chips-in short everything required to program the

genesis. Also provided are several working demos with source.

Q:Is this proprietary information stolen from Sega?

A:No, the information on the Genesis came from reverse engineering it,

completely independent of Sega. There are no copyright violations in the

purchase or sale of this development system, nor is there anything illegal

about any use of it.

Q:How does it work?

A:The board has ROMs on it which contain the monitor and debugger that runs

on the Genesis. When the Genesis is reset, the ROMs take over and wait for

commands to come from the host machine-commands like download bytes, send

bytes back, set up registers, define a symbol, or enter the interactive

debugger. When in the interactive debugger the host machine acts as a

terminal, and characters are sent over the cable. Full 68000 debugging

is possible, including disassembly, single step, register view and modify,

breakpoints, expression evaluation, memory view, modify, search and copy,

symbol definition, memory compare. There is also a z80 disassembler built

in.

Q:What about the assembler?

A:The assembler is a full macro 68000 assembler, and includes the full 8080

and parts of the Z80 instruction set. It generates symbol table information

that can be downloaded to the Genesis to allow for symbolic debugging.

On a 66 Mhz DX2 the assembler is about 550,000 lines/minute. There is also

a linker which combines multiple object files.

Q:Can I program in C?

A:There is no C compiler included in the package. In the future there

may be.

Q:How do I make artwork? Is there a sprite editor?

A:Originally I planned on including a simple graphic editor, but I found that

no one used it-instead they used Dpaint. The best way is to use dpaint to

create graphics in lo-res 16 color mode, then to use the utility I provide

to convert them to raw data to be sent to the Sega. Animation can be done

within Dpaint. Unfortunately there is no editor for manipulating giant

figures made out of sprites, but in principle it would be possible to do. So

probably you will use dpaint or some other painting program to create the

artwork.

A:Can you backup existing cartridges like the game backup systems?

Q:The system is intended for game development. However if you were able

to obtain ROM images, they can be downloaded just like original code.

When running a ROM under the system, you can tinker with memory, modify

gameplay, add lives, etc. You can do all the normal debugging functions,

like single step, breakpoints, etc, to see how the program is working.

In the future (Mid March, 1994) a reader will be available for $100 which

will let you read out the contents of your cartridges.

Q:How fast are downloads?

A:The current board has transfer rates of up to 105K bytes per second. Older

versions of the board had a 49K bytes per second transfer rate.

Q:What host machines is this available on?

A:Currently the complete system is available on the IBM PC. There is also

an Amiga version but it has fewer features than the PC version.

Q:Why should I buy your system and not go through Sega?

A:My system is better and cheaper than those provided by Sega. I sell to

anyone. Sega sells only to large companies. I require no non-disclosure

statements to be signed. Sega requires you to sign extensive non-disclosure

statements, and you essentially have to be subservient to them forever.

If you buy my system you immediately have the ability to create software

for the Genesis. If you create a game, you can then sell it outrifht or

attempt to publish it yourself. You wouldn't have to pay Sega any of their

rediculous royalties on each unit, regardless of how well your program

sells.

Q:How long has this system been available?

A:It first became available in April 1991. The 2 and 4 megabyte versions

first became available in February, 1994.

Q:How many have already been sold?

A:I've sold around 30 units so far.

Q:How much does it cost?

A:For the 4 megabyte version the cost is $1600. For the 2 megabyte version

the cost is $1500. For the duration of March, 1994 there is a special

introductory price of $1000 for the 2 megabyte version and $1100 for the

4 megabyte version. After March, 1994 the price will be raised by $500.

Q:Will it be ported to other platforms?

A:There are no plans to port the software to any other platforms.

Q:What about technical support? How about software upgrades?

A:You can send me email and I will answer questions and help solve your

problems. If I'm home you can call me. Concerning software support: I want

you to be happy with this. If you want some program written, and it seems

like a good idea, chances are I'll do it for free and include it with the

system. Currently if the software seems sparse it's because no one has

complained so I guess I include enough. There's no point in writing

software if it isn't going to be used. In any case software upgrades are

free unless it's some major upgrade like including a C compiler-I don't

believe in selling something for hundreds of dollars then nickel and diming

you on upgrades. EPROM upgrades are free if you send back your originals.

Q:Do we need to pay you any royalty on games developed with the system?

A:No. Once you bought the system you can do anything you want with it-except

copy it and sell it yourself...

Q:How can I contact you?

A:Send me mail, email or call.

818-584-0357

INTERNET: dash@netcom.com

David Ashley

395 Sierra Madre Villa

Pasadena, CA 91107

USA

*****

=============================================================

4.0 Code samples. The following code was graciously given to

me by David Ashley, inventor of the GDS. We all owe him a big

Thanks!

Here's sample code for reading the joystick:

------------

;jsinit must be called to set up the joystick, otherwise

reading back will ;have errors. This need only be called

once.

jsinit: moveq #$40,d0

move.b d0,$a10009

move.b d0,$a1000b

move.b d0,$a1000d

rts

;The following two routines can be used for reading from the

joystick

;ports.

;porta and portb return a byte in d0. 0 bits mean button is

not down,

;1 mean button is down.

;The order is:

;76543210

;SACBRLDU

;meaning Start, A, C, B, Right, Left, Down, Up

porta: move.b #$40,$a10003

nop

move.b $a10003,d1

andi.b #$3f,d1

move.b #$00,$a10003

nop

move.b $a10003,d0

andi.b #$30,d0

lsl.b #2,d0

or.b d1,d0

not.b d0

rts

portb: move.b #$40,$a10005

nop

move.b $a10005,d1

andi.b #$3f,d1

move.b #$00,$a10005

nop

move.b $a10005,d0

andi.b #$30,d0

lsl.b #2,d0

or.b d1,d0

not.b d0

rts

-----------------------

Graphics code is another matter. Since I sell a development

system, and one of the features is I provide technical info

on the Genesis hardware, it would sort of be a conflict of

interest for me to give things away :^).

-----------------------

The whole sample is not inlcuded because of it's size.

However you can find the rest of the code, about 5 pages worth, at the

same locations as this file. Look for a file called code.txt.

These files will always be posted together.

dc.l $FFFE00,$D7E,$200,$200,$200

dcb.l $17,$200

dc.l $E9E,$200,$EAE,$200,$20E

dcb.l $F,$20E

dcb.l $F,$200

dc.b "SEGA MEGA DRIVE (C)SEGA "

dc.b "1989.AUG _____",$87,"V "

dc.b " "

dc.b " ",$87,"V "

dc.b " "

dc.b " GM 00054010-01",$93,"G"

dc.b "JD ",$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,$3,"",$FF

dc.b $0,"",$0,$0,$0,"",$FF," "

dc.b " "

dc.b "JUE "

move #$100,$A11100

=============================================================

4.11 Four Way Player Tap from Electonic Arts. While no code

is prodived, here is a hack of sorts. I am honoring the request

of anonymity from the sender. The $__ are ports calls by the

software to control the hardware (of couse).

With the EA 4 way play adapter, all the controllers are read through

controller 1's port after sending the selection data out of controller

2's port. The selection data is $0C for controller 1, $1c for controller

2, $2c for controller 3, and $3c for controller 4.

The adaptor is detected by setting the registers in the following way.

(This is from G______ C____ code, so don't ask me why they did some of

this stupid stuff.)

$40->CTRL1

$40->CTRL2

$43->CTRL2 (This doesn't make sense... why set it twice?)

$7C->DATA2 (This is probably masked off by the $43 above...)

$7F->CTRL2

$7C->DATA2

If you read DATA1 and either of the low 2 bits is set, there isn't a 4

tap. You must enable writing to port two after that so that you can

select the port.

Well this is the view from inside the machine... hope this helps you

somewhat.

=============================================================

4.2 Graphics, Color Palette and sprit control

Hi,

I found a file called 'MegaDrive Documentation' on a BBS in Holland.

I dunno which format it use (maybe an Amiga one) but it's easily redable.

You'll maybe find some info in it for your faq. So here it is...

Regards,

David Delabassee <delabass@nic.INbe.net>

==============================================================

DATABASE

NODE MAIN "Table of Contents"

Table of Contents:

{"About" LINK About }

{"MegaDrive MAP" LINK Megarivemap}

{"The VRAM" LINK TheVRAM }

{"The Tiles 8*8" LINK TheTiles8*8}

{"Horizontal Scrolls" LINK HorizontalScrolls}

{"The CRAM" LINK TheCRAM}

{"The Screens Maps" LINK TheScreensMaps}

{"Priority of Plans" LINK Priority}

{"The SRAM" LINK TheSRAM}

{"Sprites List" LINK SpritesList}

{"Access to the VRAM" LINK AccesstoVRAM}

{"Video Registers" LINK Video-Registers}

{"Interruptions" LINK Interruptions}

{"Exceptions of 68000 of the GENESIS" LINK Exceptions}

{"More InFormAtions" LINK Informations}

NODE About "About"

* MEGADRIVE DOCUMENTATION VERSION 1.0 *

Date : 09-02-94

Author : All Writen by MuMBlY / {"MYSTIC" LINK Informations}

ENDNODE

NODE Megarivemap "megadrive map"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

MEGADRIVE MAP

----------------------------------------------------------------------

000000-3FFFFF : 4 Megas Rom Cardtrige

400000-9FFFFF : Reserved

A00000-AFFFFF : I/O Ports

B00000-BFFFFF : Reserved

C00000-DFFFFF : Vdp

E00000-FEFFFF : Ram Image

FF0000-FFFFFF : 64kb RAM

ENDNODE

NODE TheVRAM "The VRAM"

The VRAM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The 'RAM video' (64 kb) is used for countaining all informations of

the screen.

- Caracters (tiles) of 8*8 pixels in 16 colors (32 bytes per caracters).

- Screens (2 screen of 32*32 to 128*128 in 64 colors).

- Attributs of Sprites (maximum of 80 sprites).

- Horizontal pointers of scrollings (1 pointer per line).

ENDNODE

NODE TheCRAM "The CRAM"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The CRAM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The 'RAM color' (128 bytes) is used for containing the 4 palettes of 16

colors (1 word per color).

- Each Color is coded on 12 bits:

Bit 11-8 : Bleue Value

Bit 7-4 : Green Value

Bit 3-0 : Red Value

THe least signicative bit of each value is ignored, that is given a palette

of 8*8 values =3D 512 differents colors

ENDNODE

NODE TheSRAM "The SRAM"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The SRAM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The 'Scroll RAM' (128 Bytes ?)is used for countaining values of vertical

scrolling.

ENDNODE

NODE TheTiles8*8 "The Tiles 8*8"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tiles 8*8

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tiles of 8*8 pixels in 16 colors.

Each tile is longer of 32 bytes.

The Format is simple : 1 longer word per line*8lines.

Each Pixel is represented in an half-byte.

Example : dc.1$01111100 ; letter A in Color 1 !

dc.1$11000110

dc.1$11111110

dc.1$11000110

dc.1$00000000

ENDNODE

NODE TheScreensMaps "The Screens Maps"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Screens Maps

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The GENESIS is able to manage 2 SUperposed screens (Playfields).

Each palyfield can do of 32*32 tiles until 128*128 tiles.

Each tiles is coded on 1 word and are consecutive in the screen map.

The Format is

Bit 15 : {"Priority" LINK Priority}

Bit 14-13 : Palette ( 0 to 3 )

Bit 12 : Vertical Flipping

Bit 11 : Horizontal Flipping

Bit 10-0 : Tile number ( 0 to 2047 )

Example :

dc.w $8001 ; Priority =3D 1, Pallette =3D 0, no Flipping, Tile number #1

ENDNODE

NODE Spriteslist "Sprites LIst"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sprites List

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The GENESIS is able to manage until 80 sprites on the screen.

The only limit is of 20 sprites per line of pixel and of 320 pixels

of sprites per line. ( ya can display 20 sprites of 16 pixels of large

with the same Y-axis but which 10 sprites of 32 pixels of large )

The sprites used the same tiles that the screen.

THose lastest can do of 1*1 tiles to 4*4 tiles.

Format of the list of sprites to display (8 bytes per sprite) :

byte 0-1 : Y-axis (0 to 511)+$80

byte 2 : SIze (bit 0-1 : height 0-3+1 , Bit 2-3 : width 0-3+1)

byte 3 : Link Data ( next sprite in the list or 0 for end of list)

byte 4-5 : Fisrt number tile sprite (See farther !)

bute 6-7 : X-axis (0 to 511)+$80

It indicate that the first tile of sprite b'coz the GENESIS deduces

automaticaly the next as that :

Tile #1:Tile #4 ; Sprite of 16 pixels on 24 pixels

Tile #2:Tile #5

Tile #3:Tile #6

=09

The format of tile number is same at format of screens

That's limit the sprites to 16 colors (maxi!).

The Flipping is indicated for the complete sprite.

example List :

=09

dc.w $0+$80 ; Y-axis in the top of screen (0)

dc.b %0101 ; Size 16*16 pixels

dc.b 1 ; Number of the next sprite in the List for the priority

dc.w $4001 ; Palette =3D 2, First tile =3D 1, No Flipping=

(Tiles#1,#2,#3,#4)

dc.w $0+$80 ; X =3D 0

dc.w $40+$80 ; Y =3D 64

dc.b %0001 ; Size 8*16 pixels

dc.b 0 ; Last sprite

dc.w $5001 ; Palette 2, Vertical Flipping, Tile #1 (Tile #1,#2)

dc.w $40+$80 ; X =3D 64

the order of sprites in the list indicates the priority of sprites between

them : the first sprite is First Plan.

ENDNODE

NODE HorizontalScrolls "Horizontal Scrolls"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Horizontal Scrolls

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The GENESIS is able to manage an horizontal offset for each line.

The Format for each horizontal offset :

1 word for each offset of playfield A

1 word for each offset of playfield B

...

Example :

dc.w $0001 ; A move of 1 pixel about right for playfield A

dc.w $ffff ; A move of 1 pixel about left for playfield B

dc.w $0002 ; 2 pixels to right for A (second line)

dc.w $0003 ; 3 pixels to right for B (second line)

...

it's possible to have a pointer which functions for all screen or for all

tiles or for all lines.

The numbber of pointer is in function of choose mode.

ENDNODE

NODE Priority "Priority of Plans"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Priority of Plans

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Each Tiles of each screen and each sprite countains a bit of priority.

That settles the priorities of plans between them and the sprites with

plans.

When all bits are to 0 : the sprites are on the screen A which is on the

screen B. Each bit that we have putting to 1, does moving the plan.

Example :

Screen B=3D1, Screen A=3D0, Sprite=3D0

The screen B pass in front of the sprites which goes in front of the

screen A.

ENDNODE

NODE AccesstoVRAM "Access to the VRAM"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Access to the VRAM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

On MAnual Mode (without SRAM) :

2 ports are used : 1 for the address and 1 for the data.

the two ports are on 32 bits and the address increases itself

automaticaly.

the only prolem is that it must to code the address which follows the type

of RAM that we want to address.

For the VRAM : Address 0-FFFF

((address and $3fff)+$4000)*$10000+(($1c000 and address)shr 14)

For the CRAM : Address 0-7F

($c000+address)*$10000

For the SRAM : Address 0-7F ?

(($3fff and address)+$4000)*$10000+$10

The address is putting in the vdp_cmd ($c00004)

The Data is putting in the vdp_dat ($c00000)

Example :

move.1#$c0000000,vdp_cmd ; Address 0 of the CRAM

move.1#$c0000eee,vdp_dat ; color 0 and 1 of the first palette (black&white)

move.w#$0444,vdp_dat ; color 2 of the first palette (Dark Grew)

ENDNODE

NODE Video-Registers "Video Registers"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Video Registers

----------------------------------------------------------------------

the write access to video regiters does by the vdp_cmd

it codes on a word :

Bit 15=3D1 : indicates that's a register

Bit 14-8 : number of register

Bit 7-0 : Value to write in the register

Example :

move.w#$8000,vdp_cmd ; Register #0=3D0

move.1#$81ff8200 ; Register #1=3Dff, register #2=3D0

Bit 7 : 0

Bit 6 : 0

Bit 5 : 0

Bit 4 : Control interrupt H(Niv 4) 1:ON 0:OFF

Bit 3 : 0

Bit 2 : 1

Bit 1 : Control mode screen ?

Bit 0 : 0

Bit 7 : 0

Bit 6 : TV 1:ON 0:OFF

Bit 5 : Control Interrupt V(Niv 6) 1:ON 0:OFF

Bit 4 : DMA 1:ENABLE 0:DISABLE

Bit 3 : 0:NTSC(28 lines Cell) 1:PAL(30 lines Cell)

Bit 2 : 1

Bit 1 : 0

Bit 0 : 0

Address of base of the Screen MAP A/$400 (that all the $2000).

Address of base of the window/$400 (Third Screen) (D000)

Address of base of Screen MAP B/$2000 (E000)

Address of base of the list of sprites/$200 (BC00)

Not used (0)

Background Color (0 to 63) : 'Border' color.

Not used (0)

Line counter per H interrupt (0 to 255).

Bit 7-4 : 0

Bit 3 : Level 2 Interrupt 1:ON 0:OFF

Bit 2 : Vertical Scroll Control 1: An offset per 16 pixels

0: An Screen offset

Bit 1-0 : Horizontal Scroll Control

00 : An Screen offset

01 : Not Used

10 : An offset per cellule

11 : An offser per line

Bit 7 : Must be as the bit 0

Bit 6 : 0

Bit 5 : 0

Bit 4 : 0

Bit 3 : Shadow effect between Playfields and the sprites 1:ON 0:OFF

Bit 2 : Vertival Resolution (224 or 448 pixels)

Bit 1 : Entrelaced ( only on entrelaced : 448 pixels are possible)

Bit 0 : 32 Tiles per line or 40 tiles per line (320 or 256 pixels)

Address of base for Horizontal Scrolls/$400 (B800)

Not used (0)

Increase offset of vdp_cmd in word

Bit 7-6 : 0

Bit 5-4 : Size Vertical Screen Maps A and B 00:32 01:64 10:USED 11:128

Bit 3-2 : 0

Bit 1-0 : SIze Horizontal Screen Maps A and B ( Same format as Vertical)

Horizontal Dimension Window

Vertical Dimension Window

Less weight longer transfert DMA

Strong Weight longer transfert DMA

DMA Source Less Weight

DMA Source Strong Weight for VRAM or Middle Weight for RAM

DMA Control

Bit 7 : Source 1:VRAM 0:RAM

Bit 6 : Source 1:ON 0:OFF (or Bit 23 Source RAM)

Bit 5-0 : RAM Source ( Bit 22-17)

In thiz case of RAM Source, the bits 6-0 are considerated as the strong

weight of the source.

ENDNODE

NODE Interruptions "Interruptions"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

INTERRUPTIONS

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The interruptions are of the 68000 : (!!!!!!)

Level 2 : External Interrupt (???)

Level 4 : H interrupt (Interruption Raster Runs by the VDP)

Level 6 : V interrupt (Interruption Vertical Blanck)

...

ENDNODE

NODE Exceptions "Exceptions of 68000 of the GENESIS"

*****************************************************************

EXCEPTIONS OF 68000 OF THE GENESIS

*****************************************************************

$00 SYSTEM SSP

$04 SYSTEM PC

$08 BUS ERROR

$0C ADDRESS ERROR

$10 ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION

$14 DIVISION BY ZERO

$18 CHK EXCEPTION

$1C TRAPV EXCEPTION

$20 PRIVILEGE VIOLATION

$24 TRACE EXCEPTION

$28 LINE-A EMULATOR

$2C LINE-F EMULATOR

$30 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$34 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$38 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$3C RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$40 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$44 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$48 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$4C RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$50 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$54 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$58 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$5C RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$60 SPURIOUS EXCEPTION

$64 INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 1

$68 INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 2

$6C INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 3

$70 INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 4 (VDP INTERRUPT)

$74 INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 5

$78 INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 6 (VERTICAL BLANK)

$7C INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL 7

$80 TRAP #00 EXCEPTION

$84 TRAP #01 EXCEPTION

$88 TRAP #02 EXCEPTION

$8C TRAP #03 EXCEPTION

$90 TRAP #04 EXCEPTION

$94 TRAP #05 EXCEPTION

$98 TRAP #06 EXCEPTION

$9C TRAP #07 EXCEPTION

$A0 TRAP #08 EXCEPTION

$A4 TRAP #09 EXCEPTION

$A8 TRAP #10 EXCEPTION

$AC TRAP #11 EXCEPTION

$B0 TRAP #12 EXCEPTION

$B4 TRAP #13 EXCEPTION

$B8 TRAP #14 EXCEPTION

$BC TRAP #15 EXCEPTION

$C0 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$C4 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$C8 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$CC RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$D0 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$D4 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$D8 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$DC RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$E0 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$E4 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$E8 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$EC RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$F0 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$F4 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$F8 RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

$FC RESERVED BY MOTOROLA

ENDNODE

NODE InFormAtions "More InFormAtions"

=============================================================

The 68000 keeps all of it's interrupt vectors in the first 1k of memory

(this is cartridge ROM!) The first 10 longwords are:

Stack pointer after reset

Program counter after reset

Bus Error

Address Error

Illegal Instruction

Division by Zero

CHK instruction

TRAPV instruction

Priviledge violation

Trace

The external interrupts start at $60 (vector 25-31) and end at $7F. Now

all videogame units have a variety of interrupts of VBlank and HBlank. If

you poke arount the interrupt table with the hints I've given you, and

follow those addresses into the code, you can probably find the VBLANK

and HBLANK routines for any given game. The vblank routines often read

the controllers, do DMA, access video RAM, etc. so this is a good short

cut to find meaty code within the machine! (Look for nice round addresses

close together... wouldn't those be VDP registers?) HBLANK is even better

if a game uses it (look at any sonic game!) because they must be short

(and are thus easily identifiable when traced from the interrupt table

vectors), generally they only have one or two instructions to load their

data into the VDP before it will be displayed on the screen, so you

should immediately be able to figure out how to load palettes into the

Genesis.

Look atSonic the Hedgehog 1 dissassembly, following the interrupt vectors

to find the HBLank routine. (All interrupt routines should end in RTE.)

Notice there is one branch and then some set up and a lot of longword

writes. Try changing these writes to write constant data and then look at

some section of the game which uses Hblank interrupts. Betcha the colors

have changed...(oops... the game will hang because the checksum is

no longer good. You must find the checksum and step over it... trace

through initialization till you find it... I think it should end on a

nice round address, but it's been a while so I am not sure. Look for a

loop with an add in it and nothing else. The checksum is stored in a

place where changing it will not change the checksum, lots of other data

like that is there... good luck!) Anyway, if you disable the checksum and

change the data in hblank then play a board with water I think you will

understand how to change color palettes on the Genesis!

If you can figure this out, you can probably guess that writing other

data to the VDP is very similar. Look at the VBlank code to see what it

does with similar addresses to figure out how to write characters and

stuff. This is pretty convoluted, unfortunately. I can only suggest that

you look at very old games for this information as they are programmed

more simply.

I hope this helps you somewhat. I ask that you don't print this as I have

written it, and what you do print please don't mention me as I could get

in trouble. If you do some hacking and get stuck, let me know and I'll

give you some more hints. I hate not being able to say things directly,

because I think the Genesis is a wonderful piece of hardware and wish

everyone could know how great it is.

P.S. don't look at Road Rash, it will drive you INSANE! It seems to run

entirely in VBLANK and HBLANK! I figured out the 4-TAP by looking for

Joystick accesses in the VBLANK code... easy!

=============================================================

5.0 Language Switch, from Rec.Games.Video FAQ

How to make a language switch (Genesis/MD).

On a Genesis/MD, there are jumpers labelled JP1, JP2, JP4,

and JP3. The Genesis has a capacitor on JP1 and a trace on

JP2; the Mega Drive has a capacitor on JP2 and a trace on

JP1. The bottom ends of JP1 and JP2 are connected together.

So if you cut the trace and the top end of the capacitor, and

install a DPDT switch between them which reconnects them

either unchanged or swapped left to right, you have a

language switch. You'll need some wire, a soldering iron,

solder, and a DPDT switch.

Some machines have an open circuit instead of the capacitor.

Also, I've been told that even if there is a capacitor, you

can throw it out and leave an open circuit. Either way, the

switch is a lot simpler, requiring a SPDT switch and less

wire and solder.

Several people have told me that you could just cut both JP1

and JP2 and put a SPST switch on JP1. This is even simpler,

but I'm not sure it really works, as opposed to putting your

machine in an intermediate state that only sort-of works.

The redesigned Genesis 2 machines don't appear to have either

the capacitor or circuit. Nobody yet knows how to make the

language switch for one, though there are language switch

cartridges you can buy to act as one.

IF YOUR MACHINE HAS NO CAPACITOR (or if you want to cross

your fingers and throw away your capacitor) and is not a

Genesis 2:

Cut JP2. The trace might be covered with paint and hard to

see. (If you started with a Mega Drive, JP2 is open and you

have to cut JP1 instead.) If you aren't sure which end I mean

by "bottom", just check the back of the board to see which

end is connected together.

Original state of machine: After cutting:

JP2 top JP1 top JP2 top JP1 top

| | | |

\ / \ /

\_______/ \_______/

bottom of both bottom of both

Add a SPDT switch which can be in one of two positions:

._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

. .

. . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

. . . .

JP2 top JP1 top . .

| | . .

| | _________

| o o |

| \ |

\___o___/

| | .

\ / .

\_______/ - - - - - - - - - - - -

bottom of both

._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

. .

. . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

. . . .

JP2 top JP1 top . .

| | . .

| | _________

| o o |

| / |

\___o___/

| | .

\ / .

\_______/ - - - - - - - - - - - -

bottom of both

-------------------------------------------------------------

IF YOUR MACHINE DOES HAVE THE CAPACITOR:

Cut both sides. (Note: if you started with a Japanese Mega

Drive the capacitor will be on the side labelled X instead)

Original state of machine: After cutting:

JP2 top JP1 top JP2 top JP1 top

| | | |

| |

| | |

X | ### X | ###

| ### | ###

\ / \ /

\_______/ \_______/

bottom of both

add switch which can be in one of two positions:

JP2 top JP1 top

(Connect 2 to 2

| |

and 1 to 1)

| |

2 1 2 1 1 2

______________

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | o o o o |

| ` | \ \ |

X | ###` ` | \ \ |

| ### ` ` \____o__o____/

| ### ` ` ' '

\ / ` `- - - - -' '

\_______/ ` _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ '

bottom of both

JP2 top JP1 top

(Connect 2 to 2

| |

and 1 to 1)

| |

2 1 2 1 1 2

______________

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | o o o o |

| ` | / / |

X | ###` ` | / / |

| ### ` ` \____o__o____/

| ### ` ` ' '

\ / ` `- - - - -' '

\_______/ ` _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ '

bottom of both

50/60 hertz switch.

You can build a 50/60 hertz switch on a Genesis/Mega Drive

like a language switch, but using jumpers JP3 and JP4. The

standard setting is 50 in PAL areas such as Europe, and 60 in

NTSC areas like the US and Japan. In the 60 hertz mode, the

game is faster and the screen taller; however, not all TVs

and monitors in Europe can display this mode.

Some American/Japanese games are protected to keep Europeans

from playing them; this protection checks the 50/60 hertz

setting. You can usually get around it by installing the

switch and switching when starting the game, then switching

back afterwards.

Many European games are simple ports of American or Japanese

games and are not redesigned for 50 hertz, so work faster and

with "better" screen proportions if played at 60 hertz.

Genesis/Mega Drive dual version (language switch) list:

*Battle Maina 2: The game plays in both positions. However

with both controlers removed, a system info screen appears

which informs about system version, langauge mode.

Bonanza Brothers: Game plays in Japanese. (Maybe. There

seems to be more than one version floating around.)

Columns: Game plays in Japanese.

*Cyberball: Japanese version has a modem option.

Dragon's Fury: Works only with language set to English.

The original, Devil's Crush MD, works either way.

Dynamite Duke: Harder on the Mega Drive.

Elemental Master: Harder on the Mega Drive.

Fatal Labyrinth: Game plays in Japanese.

Fire Shark: Different title screen with Kanji.

Flicky: Characters have Japanese names and instructions

are in Japanese.

Forgotten Worlds: Game plays in Japanese.

Gaiares: only mentions the Japanese licensee on the title

screen, and has Japanese text; you can also select

Japanese text from the option screen.

Ghostbusters: Game plays in Japanese.

Ghouls and Ghosts: Different title screen with Kanji. To

see it on a Genesis, select the last music and sound (26

and 56) from the options screen, then press lower left;

A, B, or C; and Start all at the same time. (I never

tried this, but Gamepro magazine claimed it works.) The

game shows some other Japanese text, and when you die

during a boss you start out earlier.

Insector X: Title screen refers to company as Hot-B, not

Sage's Creation. The MD version shoots more slowly. The

ending text is still English.

*Marvel Land: The Japanese version says "for Mega Drive"

or "for Genesis" but the language stays Japanese. (What

does an English version do?)

Monaco GP: Game plays in Japanese (also an option on the

option screen).

Mystic Defender: This game is actually the anime-based

Kujaku-Ou (Peacock King) 2 game. In Japanese mode, the

opening text is replaced by a graphics screen (never

seen in the US version) with Japanese. The levels have

names, the main character wears a white robe, the

lightning magic effect is different, and the character

is named Kujaku in the ending (which is still English).

Outrun: The attract mode lacks sound, the startup screen

says "push" (not "press") start button, and "(C) Sega

1986, 1991" is printed in reverse order. The default

options are KM/H and a different button selection (but

can still be changed on the option screen).

Quackshot: Game plays in Japanese.

Raiden Trad: The "licensed to Sega" line is absent on

both title screens, and the second title screen includes

only the Japanese part instead of the non-Japanese part

of the first one.

Revenge of Shinobi: Title changes to Super Shinobi;

credits show at the end.

Rolling Thunder II: The Japanese version only works on a

Japanese setting. The US version works either way (and

isn't bilingual).

Sonic the Hedgehog II: Tails is renamed to "Miles".

Streets of Rage: Title screen changes to Bare Knuckle,

and all text is in Japanese, including the introduction.

The clock resets when you encounter the bosses.

Streets of Rage II: Turns to Bare Knuckle II, and renames

Skate to Sammy --_if_ you change the setting sometime

after turning the machine on (to skip the lockout).

Thunder Force II: Title screen has "MD" on it, and

company name is "Tecnosoft".

Thunder Force III: company's name is spelled "Tecnosoft".

*Thunder Storm FX (CD): Turns to Cobra Command in US mode.

Truxton: Japanese title is Tatsujin.

Twin Hawk: Different title screen with Kanji.

*Wrestle War: The wrestler is blond on a Genesis and

black-haired on a MD.

* Information from testing a Japanese game

=============================================================

6.0 Sega Internet Information - This information came from

Bernd P. Ziller. Mailing to any of these site (or FTP, gopher,

etc.) will not work due to a firewall. They are looking out, but

we can't look in. I stongly suggest that you don't try anything

stupid.

segaoa.com 198.176.13.13 130slmail 198.176.14.65

loghost 198.176.13.13 localhost 127.0.0.1

400mail 198.176.14.57 pd275 198.176.14.68

trixie 198.176.9.40 torcable 198.176.14.53

pd130 198.176.14.61 storm 198.176.11.47

segaintera 198.176.14.52 segaoa 198.176.13.13

sonic 198.176.13.13 blackhole 198.176.14.69

multimedia 198.176.14.63 pd1 198.176.14.62

segard 198.176.14.51 segaeurope 198.176.14.50

tormail 198.176.14.54 si32 198.176.14.55

sb1mail 198.176.14.60 macpo 198.176.14.67

pluto 198.176.9.52 fremontml 198.176.14.56

racerx 198.176.9.41 hummer 198.176.11.55

303tdmail 198.176.14.64 sb2mail 198.176.14.58

ftp 198.176.13.13 gambit 198.176.11.46

Emerald_Dragon 198.176.8.22

=============================================================

I am still hoping to expand this document. I am looking for

information on the Sega Multitap, CD, 32-X (Mars), HMD, hardware

in general, Saturn, and the controllers.

Please E-Mail me for a copy or to add information to this

list. Again My E-Mail address is:

U6c16@Wvnvm.Wvnet.Edu

Snail Mail:

Henry Rieke

Attn: Sega FAQ

161 Poplar Dr

Morgantown, Wv 26505-2340

A Very Special Thanks to:

David Ashley <dash@netcom.com>

Rober Leyland <Leyland@island.COM>

David Delabassee <delabass@nic.INbe.net>

Special Thanks to :

Scott Golby <sgolby@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

Rick McTeague <sysrick@starbase.spd.louisville.edu>

Landon Dyer <landon@apple.com>

Neal Howland <nhowland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu>

Bernd P. Ziller <bziller@ba-stuttgart.de>

WPCD12cpiPanasonic

KX-P118017 Feb 94 09:30:55 +0100

>From:

Subject: Re: What Language are games programmed in?

To: U6C16@WVNVM.BITNET

Message-id: <9402170830.AA16515@leda.pt.hk-r.se>

X-Envelope-to: U6C16@WVNVM.BITNET

Heres an extract from the game _____. I just included some of the beginning

of the code and some ASCII segments. I hope you are satisfied with this.

dc.l $FFFE00,$D7E,$200,$200,$200

dcb.l $17,$200

dc.l $E9E,$200,$EAE,$200,$20E

dcb.l $F,$20E

dcb.l $F,$200

dc.b "SEGA MEGA DRIVE (C)SEGA "

dc.b "1989.AUG _____",$87,"V "

dc.b " "

dc.b " ",$87,"V "

dc.b " "

dc.b " GM 00054010-01",$93,"G"

dc.b "JD ",$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,$3,"",$FF

dc.b $0,"",$0,$0,$0,"",$FF," "

dc.b " "

dc.b "JUE "

move #$100,$A11100

nop

rte

bra.s $20C

bra.s $20E

move.l a6,d5

lea $C00004,a5

move.l #$940000,d4

move d6,d4

lsl.l #8,d4

move #$9300,d4

move.b d6,d4

move.l d4,(a5)

lsr.l #1,d5

and.l #$7FFFFF,d5

move.l #$960000,d4

move d5,d4

lsl.l #8,d4T move.b d5,d4

move.l d4,(a5)

swap d5

move #$9700,d4

move.b d5,d4

move d4,(a5)

or #$80,d7

swap d7

move d7,(a5)

swap d7

move d7,-(a7)

move (a7)+,(a5)

rts

move.l #$7C000002,$C00004

move.l #$0,$C00000

rts

bsr $3BCC

lea $FFFFC800.w,a6

moveq #$0,d6

move #$13F,d7

move d6,(a6)+

dbf d7,$282

move.l #$78000002,d7

move #$13F,d6

bra $2B8

move.l #$40000003,d7

bra $2A6

move.l #$60000003,d7

move #$1FFF,d6

bra $2B8

move.l #$60000002,d7

move #$DFF,d6

moveq #$0,d5

move #$8F01,$C00004

lea $C00004,a5

move.l #$940000,d4

move d6,d4

lsl.l #8,d4

move #$9300,d4

move.b d6,d4

move.l d4,(a5)

move #$9780,(a5)

or.l #$40000080,d7

move.l d7,(a5)

move.b d5,$C00000

move (a5),d4

btst #$1,d4

bne.s $2EC

move #$8F02,(a5)

rts

move.l #$40000010,d7

moveq #$28,d6

moveq #$0,d5T move d5,$C00000

dbf d6,$30A

rts

lea $C00000,a5

move.l #$800000,d3

move.l d7,$C00004

move d6,d2

move (a6)+,(a5)

dbf d2,$32A

add.l d3,d7

dbf d5,$322

rts

move d6,d2

lea (a5),a4

move d4,(a5)+

addq #1,d4

dbf d2,$33C

lea $80(a4),a5

dbf d5,$338

rts

bset #$6,$FFFFC127.w

bra.s $36E

move.l #$C0200000,$C00004

move #$0,$C00000

bclr #$6,$FFFFC127.w

move $FFFFC126.w,$C00004

rts

bset #$0,$FFFFC15E.w

moveq #$0,d0

moveq #$0,d1

move.b (a6)+,d0

lea $FFFFC080.w,a1

add d0,a1

move.b (a6)+,d0

move (a6)+,(a1)+

dbf d0,$38C

rts

bclr #$0,$FFFFC15E.w

beq.s $3CE

btst #$6,$A10001

beq.s $3AE

move #$6EE,d0

dbf d0,$3AA

lea $C00004,a5

move.l #$94009340,(a5)

move.l #$96E09540,(a5)

move #$977F,(a5)

move #$C000,(a5)

move #$80,-(a7)

move (a7)+,(a5)

rts

moveq #$7,d1

lea $FFFFC080.w,a6T moveq #$E,d7

move (a6),d4

move d4,d2

and d7,d2

beq.s $3E4

subq #2,d2

asl #4,d7

move d4,d3

and d7,d3

beq.s $3F0

sub #$20,d3

asl #4,d7

and d7,d4

beq.s $3FA

sub #$200,d4

or d2,d3

or d3,d4

move d4,(a6)+

dbf d0,$3D8

bset #$0,$FFFFC15E.w

moveq #$7,d2

moveq #$1,d0

jsr $F80(pc)

dbf d2,$40C

dbf d1,$3D2

rts

moveq #$1F,d0

lea $FFFFC080.w,a2

lea -$80(a2),a1

move.l (a2)+,(a1)+

dbf d0,$426

moveq #$1F,d0

clr.l (a1)+

dbf d0,$42E

rts

moveq #$E,d1

lea $FFFFC080.w,a6

lea -$80(a6),a1

moveq #$3F,d0

move d1,d5

moveq #$E,d7

move (a1)+,d4

move d4,d2

and d7,d2

sub d5,d2

bpl.s $452

moveq #$0,d2

asl #4,d7

asl #4,d5

move d4,d3

and d7,d3

sub d5,d3

bpl.s $460T asl #4,d7

asl #4,d5

and d7,d4

sub d5,d4

bpl.s $46C

moveq #$0,d4

or d2,d3

or d3,d4

move d4,(a6)+

dbf d0,$442

cmp #$8020,$FFFFC142.w

bne.s $48E

lea $FFFFC0A0.w,a2

lea -$80(a2),a1

moveq #$7,d0

move.l (a1)+,(a2)+

dbf d0,$488

moveq #$7,d2

bset #$0,$FFFFC15E.w

jsr $F7E(pc)

dbf d2,$496

subq #2,d1

bpl.s $438

rts

........

move #$B4,$FFFFC150.w

clr $FFFFC152.w

moveq #-$79,d7

jsr $748.w

lea $16F8,a0

jsr $14F4(pc)

lea $1700,a0

jsr $14F4(pc)

lea $1296(pc),a6

lea $FF03A0,a5

jsr $197A

lea $FF25A0,a5

lea $1274(pc),a6

bsr $19E8

lea $FF359A,a5

lea $127E(pc),a6

bsr $19E8

lea $FF37A2,a5

lea $128E(pc),a6

bra $19E8

dc.b "GAME OVER",$0,"CONTINUE PLAY "

dc.b "^",$0,"YES NO",$0,$0,"PLAYER 1",$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,$0

T dc.b "NUS@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@",$0,"MISSI"

dc.b "ON COMPLETED BONUS@@",$0,"MIN"

dc.b "//SEC",$0,"OVER/////SEC///NO/"

dc.b "BONUS",$0,"UNDER////SEC",$0,"PTS",$0,"P"

dc.b "TS",$0,"PTS",$0,$0

dc.b "INFILTRATE ENEMY LINES?",$0

dc.b $12,"RESCUE SECRET AGENT?",$0,$0,$14

dc.b "GO TO THE ARSENAL?",$0,$8,"BLOW"

dc.b " UP ALL THE ENEMY WEAPON"

dc.b "S?",$0,$10,"PENETRATE THE FORTRE"

dc.b "SS?",$0,$E,"RESCUE COLONEL TRAU"

dc.b "TMAN?",$0,$0,"PLAYER 1 START",$0,$0

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