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Pirate Discussion => Famicom/NES => Famicom/NES dumps => Topic started by: davidstech on January 12, 2018, 10:55:07 AM

Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 12, 2018, 10:55:07 AM
This is a dump of one of the new low-res handhelds that are NES-based. I'm not sure if there's anything that interesting in this, but it was an easy dump so why not? This is definitely using one of the newer VTxx chipsets as it runs of SQI flash rather than parallel ROM/flash that earlier VTxx chips use. It runs in EmuVT using the VT09 settings, but with some graphical corruption.

http://davidstech.net/games/multis/300-in-1%20NES-based%20handheld%20(SY-889,%20W25Q64%20serial%20flash).7z (http://davidstech.net/games/multis/300-in-1%20NES-based%20handheld%20(SY-889,%20W25Q64%20serial%20flash).7z)

Attachments:
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: Y2K05 on January 12, 2018, 11:43:08 AM
Thank you davidstech! :D
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 12, 2018, 05:27:50 PM
How odd. It writes to $411C, setting the VT16+ bits for EX2412EN and IRQVS, but the acts as if it didn't. I don't know what's going on with the palette at all.

Can you post one picture each of of the dancing cats, the language select, and the Chinese and English menu screen, just so I know what it's supposed to look like?
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 12, 2018, 05:53:19 PM
I need to put it back together and solder back the ROM to get pictures which will probably be tomorrow as I want to double check the dump first.

I'm not surprised about odd memory behaviour, the fact it uses an SQI flash means the memory interface must be new compared to earlier VTxx devices. I suspect this is a fairly recent and totally new VTxx platform, or maybe not even made by VRT at all but simply with a degree of compatibility.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 12, 2018, 06:06:56 PM
It runs well in my Nintendulator build if I ignore the 411C write, apart from the menus colors being wrong, and the IRQs firing somewhat too soon. I can get the menu palette closer to being meaningful if I interpret the bits as direct RGB bits, rather than VRT's method described here (https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/VT03%2B_Enhanced_Palette), although it's not perfect.

I would say it's a clone of the VT03. That would explain the odd IRQ behavior as well as the $411C write having not the meaning that VRT described in their VT16 and VT18 manuals. Are the square wave duty cycles as they are on an original NES, or are they swapped? Because original VRT chips  always swap the 50% and 25% duty cycles, so if they are as on the original NES, it can't have been made by VRT.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 12, 2018, 06:34:06 PM
Interesting, thanks for taking the time to look at this. I'll investigate the the audio once it's put back together.

 Unfortunately I fear the exact chipset will remain a mystery maybe it's the "new" VT32 announced on VRT's website. Either way, do you it's worth adding a NES 2.0 header of some sorts to the ROM if you're thinking about adding support in your Nintendulator?
Wellminds have a list of platforms that they develop for here. Although I don't know if they were involved in this console, some of the ROMs are touchgameplayer ones that I think also feature on their consoles.

http://info.lcd88.com/201506/26-89861261844.shtml (http://info.lcd88.com/201506/26-89861261844.shtml)

The only candidate on the list for this console would be the VT32, but I'm not sure if that means much.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 12, 2018, 07:00:46 PM
Here is how my emulation looks right now:
(http://symphoniae.com/nrs/pgc/300-in-1pic1.png)
(http://symphoniae.com/nrs/pgc/300-in-1pic2.png)
(http://symphoniae.com/nrs/pgc/300-in-1pic3.png)
(http://symphoniae.com/nrs/pgc/300-in-1pic4.png)
The first three look somewhat plausible, but the last one looks odd. Judging by similar multicarts, the background should be blue, not gray, and the lowest parts of "N" and "1" look incorrect as well.

I just noticed that the palette format that I am emulating for this cart resembles the VT168's...  :unsure:
And the IRQs seem to be expected one scanline earlier, but 32 or so PPU clocks later, than a standard VT03 (or MMC3, for that matter).

All of these changes would of course break existing VT02/VT03/VT09 games, although I could implement both, and use the very first register write that the game makes ($01 to $4304) to tell them apart.

NES 2.0 headers are nice, but Nintendulator should load the .BIN file just fine. The NES 2.0 header would have to specify mapper 256, and 4 KiB of PRG-RAM (possibly just 2 KiB, but they would then have to start at $6400, which is implausible).
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: Y2K05 on January 12, 2018, 08:44:31 PM
How do you make those screenshots if Nintendoulator does not have such a function?
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 13, 2018, 07:20:21 AM
Actually all those screenshots look correct, give or take LCD colours being slightly off. The only difference is that the menus on the handheld are cut off so you don't see the bit at the bottom. I've attached pictures taken from the hardware to compare.

(http://b3.ifrm.com/30023/163/0/p3006277/cats.jpg)
(http://b3.ifrm.com/30023/163/0/p3006275/langsel.jpg)
Posted Image
Posted Image


Looking at strings in the ROM, towards the end there is "WISE@DJJUNGLE.CO" at 0x7FE4F3, which does suggest that VRT's tools were used at some point to build the ROM. Also very near the end there's a credit at 0x7FED23 "Program : Zhang Yuan Shen".

Attachments:
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 13, 2018, 08:07:58 AM
Oh, so the emulation is right, and the graphics are just ugly. Okay. :) Thank-you for the pictures.

I have implemented support for this chip variant in Nintendulator, distinguished from VT03 et al. via the $4304 write.

Oh, one more thing: Game #41 is Sachen's "Magic Mathematic". If you let the Title Screen run, there should be a scrolling glitch because they used the PAL version of the game. Can you confirm that? (If not, then the console does not use NTSC timing.)
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 13, 2018, 08:20:24 AM
Awesome, I look forward to playing with it in Nintendulator :)

Game 41 does indeed glitch on the hardware.

I think the manufacturer of this handheld is Dongguan Changping Shengyuan Electronic Factory (东莞市常平胜源电子厂, aka "SY"), but the ROM was not built by them as many of the ROMs used were the "touchgameplayer" hacks.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 13, 2018, 08:26:16 AM
What keeps me from releasing a new Nintendulator version is that I still have not found the reason why switching to Fullscreen fails 50% to 75% of the time. It's a problem in Quietust's original version as well, and he has basically confirmed it (although on his machine it only fails the first time), but we have not found the cause.

Oh, before I forget it: what about the square wave duty cycles? The title screen music of "Adventure Island" (game #10) is the most obvious example.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 13, 2018, 08:43:01 AM
No worries, better to release it once the problem's solved.

Music sounds VTxx like to me, not sure what you think?
http://davidstech.net/games/multis/Adventure%20Island%20Intro%20-%20SY889.mp3 (http://davidstech.net/games/multis/Adventure%20Island%20Intro%20-%20SY889.mp3)
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 13, 2018, 08:50:15 AM
Your recording sounds more like the original NES/Famicom with correct duty cycles (http://symphoniae.com/nrs/pgc/CorrectSquare.flac) than the VRT Famiclones with the swapped duty cycles (http://symphoniae.com/nrs/pgc/SwappedSquare.flac).
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 13, 2018, 08:52:47 AM
Interesting, yes comparing them I think you're correct. In that case, it does remain a mystery what chip is inside this handheld - maybe someone really is cloning the VRT chips these days...
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 14, 2018, 01:29:11 PM
Just a head's up that I'm working on adding this system to MAME

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/3069 (https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/3069)

At the moment I've sorted out palette and memory issues, but there are graphical glitches I think due to the scanline IRQ issues that NewRisingSun2 discovered.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: Y2K05 on January 14, 2018, 03:09:56 PM
Nice :D I wonder if this means further VT03 and VT09 compatibility will be added to MAME as well.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 14, 2018, 03:24:47 PM
Hopefully, a few people have developed a good base now, I might look at improving VTxx support in MAME (and possibly integrate my VT168 stuff too) if I'm able to find the time.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 14, 2018, 03:43:53 PM
"Y2K05"
 
I wonder if this means further VT03 and VT09 compatibility will be added to MAME as well.[/quote]I sure hope not, but I fear it's unavoidable.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: Y2K05 on January 14, 2018, 03:45:41 PM
You hope not?
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 14, 2018, 03:55:42 PM
davistech
 
there are graphical glitches I think due to the scanline IRQ issues that NewRisingSun2 discovered[/quote]Try modifying the MMC3 scanline counter emulation to skip one scanline per frame, and then trigger the IRQ 32 PPU cycles/pixels later than when it would normally be triggered. That's what made it look clean in my emulation. I also return to normal IRQ behavior once the 4bpp mode is turned off, to make the original Mapper 4 games on that multicart look right, though I don't know whether that is what the actual hardware of that handheld does.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: casperdj777 on January 15, 2018, 09:58:43 AM
which emulators run this? cant getting it working -thanks
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 15, 2018, 11:35:55 AM
It runs in EmuVT under the VT09 settings with some issues, otherwise you will need to build MAME from source, or wait for MAME 0.194 or NewRisingSun2's latest build of Nintendulator to be released.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: casperdj777 on January 15, 2018, 12:59:57 PM
can someone record a short clip of just the dancing fox into on this or will the record not work with this one?
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: NewRisingSun on January 15, 2018, 01:19:50 PM
I am uploading a video right now.
There you go (https://youtu.be/RzMCMh_U-Ts).
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: Y2K05 on January 15, 2018, 01:31:53 PM
It says www.touchgameplayer.com on the copyright screen for Contra? Did they add that in?
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 15, 2018, 07:30:01 PM
Yes, they have included their website into a number of games in many recent Famiclones, although their exact relationship to this product isn't known. I suspect they developed the software at least though.
Title: 300-in-1 SY-889 Handheld Dump (VTxx)
Post by: davidstech on January 20, 2018, 12:22:06 PM
It seems VRT must have fixed their sound hardware recently - I decapped the glob top inside and took a macro photo of the die, and it is indeed marked VRT. Still not sure what the part is, maybe a new part they haven't got on their website.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DT_0NohW4AAEr00.jpg:large)