Author Topic: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)  (Read 8208 times)

forgotusername

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"Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« on: August 06, 2022, 06:32:59 PM »
Fairly recently, a bootleg plug & play was produced called the Game Station 5 (or "GS5"); modeled after the PlayStation 5. I've known of this console for a while now; but watching videos, it clearly just had that one overabundant 200-in-1 menu (with a basic Nice Code-Inventor mix), just with the first 40 or so games replaced with actual NES titles.

Apparently, however, there are two Game Station 5 models; one with the 200-in-1, and a seemingly less common 1280-in-1 (model no. "NX-85"). Judging by video footage, on the 1280 game model - thrown in the "Etc. Game" category at #305 - is a game labeled "Pikachu5".

Pikachu5 appears to be the long-lost Pikachu version of Wonder Rabbit; which I've... literally been actively trying to find for like, half a decade. The preview image definitely looks like Wonder Rabbit (matching colors etc.), and shows a Moai head which is visible in Wonder Rabbit's CHR data. However, I can't find any videos of the Pikachu5 game being played; and the console itself, while common-ish, poses the risk of me accidentally buying crappy 200-in-1 versions trying to obtain it.

Does anyone here have further information on "Pikachu5", be it from owning this console or somewhere else? Picture of menu attached (sourced from https://youtu.be/0QWX8AZDc8s).

NewRisingSun

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NewRisingSun

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2022, 09:57:00 AM »
The PnP has been sent to TeamEurope for dumping, but they reported difficulty reading the ROM content, so they have forwarded it to Sean Riddle.

forgotusername

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2022, 02:00:59 PM »
Thank you for securing the console. Here's to hoping the dump is successful; but I'm glad the game is now properly documented in the first place.

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2022, 11:02:42 PM »
I'm interested in this and have tentatively sourced the "Game Station 5 1280-in-1" just in case.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2022, 11:58:17 PM by Tygerbug »

forgotusername

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2022, 01:38:33 AM »
I hadn't mentioned it here yet, but I did actually get a copy of the console as well. I don't have the ability to dump it or anything, but I recorded a full video playthrough of Pikachu5, which can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlXWPTYA-_c (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5zR70RhBFw (Part 2)

NewRisingSun

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2022, 07:19:39 AM »
Many thanks for uploading the video. It is like finally watching the original uncensored version of a film that for decades was only available in edited form. Unfortunately, I have no news about the dumping status.

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2022, 06:16:02 PM »
  I hear there should be an update on that at the weekend or next week.

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2022, 03:30:52 AM »
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7129/

Hack test, based on YT video.

Not perfect but good enough until the actual thing is dumped.

Added 16x16 block title screen, which was a bit of a chore.

Couldn't get a perfect scale-down from the Youtube video, so the graphics are only sort of right, but you get the basic idea.

Database match: Gardman (Asia) (Unl)
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
File SHA-1: 5E707B25BC69C2342B01163F147536B6BF6E6365
File CRC32: 956A2EE5
ROM SHA-1: 46900B667F4149444063F798C7C1744D5695170D
ROM CRC32: 7B40535C
« Last Edit: September 12, 2022, 02:47:20 AM by Tygerbug »

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #9 on: September 11, 2022, 04:27:03 PM »
Sean Riddle writes: "I dumped the Retro Station NX-85 1280-in-1.  Along with the normal 44 pads, there were 3 more address lines at the top.  They aren’t marked, so I have 8 dumps but I don’t know what order they should be in.  I assume Haze can figure it out by examination or trial and error."

https://archive.org/details/retro-station-nx-85

(This is a 1280-in-1 system so there's a lot of data in here- 256 MB in fact- but the Pikachu Gardman game should be in this dump .... somewhere. It appears to mostly be alphabetical in the data.)

(Logically it would be in mw9298.bin, which contains other "ETC" category games listed around the same point, like "New York Nyankies," "JB Harold Murder Club," "Panic Restaurant," "SD Ultraman," and "Utsurun Desu." If so I haven't spotted it.)

Many NES graphics are visible in the binaries, but sometimes they appear to be bit-shifted in some way, like the attached picture. Searching the hex for some of the hex of the Pikachu/Gardman graphics turns up no results.

177300 in the 97 binary is Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular, and 1c6ABf0 is Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle -- in both cases these are very glitchy in YY-CHR, suggesting bit shift or bit reversal.

I should compare the hex here to the actual Snoopy ROM. 176B000 is snoopy with his medals, the CHR before the one with Charlie Brown .... this would be 2B010 in the ROM proper ...

03 1F 2F 6F F7 F7
would I think become:
14 97 D6 F6 7F 7F

It's therefore verifiable that Pikachu Wonder Rabbit is in binary 96 from around 135FF00 -- 13A1F00, something like that, but glitched consistently in this way.

1388000 in binary 96 is a glitched version of the HUD used in Pikachu Gardman (my hack) at 048010.

1398000 in binary 96 has the Pikachu player graphics, present in the Pikachu Gardman hack at 058010. It's consistent

1385000 is probably the title screen, matching Gardman at 45010

« Last Edit: September 11, 2022, 08:28:41 PM by Tygerbug »

forgotusername

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #10 on: September 11, 2022, 07:58:51 PM »
Pikachu5 is definitely in mw9296.bin (PRG from 13A0000-13BFFFF, CHR from 1380000-139FFFF). However, I have absolutely no idea what's going on with the graphics; the game does run though, so it's not a bad dump or anything. It can probably be fixed in some way, as it's likely intentional scrambling (for. some reason), though I couldn't tell you how.

ROM attached, with extremely glitchy CHR.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2022, 08:02:36 PM by forgotusername »

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #11 on: September 11, 2022, 08:34:21 PM »
The CHR can almost certainly be find and replaced, based on a comparison of the data in other games like Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular, seen above. It's clear that every hex number is being replaced with a different "reversed" version of itself consistently.

Partial byte correction table attached for fixing some of the CHRs .... and a complete (?) version by Bavi_H.

According to Sean, bits 0 and 4, 1 and 2, 3 and 7, and 5 and 6 are swapped.

The PRG and CHR are on the same chip and were dumped with the same connections.

I spent ages doing a find and replace and only got partway, but there's an older EPROM Pin Swap Tool here which corrected it.

https://forums.nesdev.org/viewtopic.php?t=20122&start=15

via Sean Riddle, Bavi_H, lidnariq, Farid

« Last Edit: September 12, 2022, 01:21:37 AM by Tygerbug »

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2022, 12:19:19 AM »
Corrected ROM.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2022, 12:39:33 AM by Tygerbug »

forgotusername

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #13 on: September 12, 2022, 01:08:15 AM »
...How did you decode it, out of curiosity? Did you literally do it by hand with the values, or is there some kind of program that can be used? If it's an easy process, there are a few other undumped games on there that should probably be fixed too.

With that aside...with the search coming to an end, I want to thank everyone who worked on this, and just took interest in this silly little game. I truly appreciate it.

Tygerbug

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Re: "Pikachu5" (Pikachu Wonder Rabbit?)
« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2022, 01:27:56 AM »
   It was an easy process, although it was hours of work before I/we figured out what to do.

   As I said, I used Farid's EPROM Pin Swap Tool, linked above, running in Windows XP 3 compatibility mode, and swapped the D pins.

   It requires the CHR section of the ROM to be saved as its own file first, then corrected, which only took a few seconds.

   I worked on this with Bavi_H. Sean Riddle dumped the ROMs in full and explained which pins had been swapped, probably based on my notes. Lidnariq suggested the program by Farid which switches the pins.

   If you have suggestions for other rare/undumped ROMs, post them. That one with an amorous wolf maybe??
« Last Edit: September 12, 2022, 03:20:11 AM by Tygerbug »