Desde ayer ya está entre nosotros la nueva versión (0.4) de la Cobra BIOS para el modchip Viper de GameCube. Su principal novedad es la resolución de bugs, disminuyendo las parones en muchos casos, aunque siguen habiendo problemas. En la próxima versión (0.5) esperan solucionar más de estos problemas e incluir un sistema de códigos similar al del Action Replay. En nuestro foro de
scene podéis encontrar multitud de experiencias de usuarios, así como varios métodos de parcheo para ayudar también a eliminar los parones.
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ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ ³
³ ³
³ - COBRA FOR VIPER GC V0.4 - ³
³ ³
³ 19th of january, 2005 ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ We promised you we would fix the latest drive issue within a week, so ³
³ here is the version 0.4 of your favorite Viper GC BIOS! If you had ³
³ tons of disc errors, you'll enjoy this new Cobra. Look at trouble- ³
³ shooting section for more info. Apart from that nothing was changed, ³
³ but there will be much more in the next release! Oh yeah... you can ³
³ flash this release from DVD if you already have Cobra 0.3 installed! ³
³ ³
³ What's the Cobra BIOS ? A special BIOS specially tailored for your ³
³ Viper GC that allows yo to run your backups (and now homebrew code!) ³
³ from the GC drive using DVD(-/+)R or Mini-DVD(+/-)R! You can also ³
³ enjoy imports (originals or backups) without the need of a boot disc. ³
³ ³
³ So what do you need exactly ? ³
³ - A Viper GC chip ³
³ - This very flash file ³
³ - Some Compatible Media and a DVD-burner ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ WHAT'S NEW ? ³
³ ³
³ - Fixed Disc Errors problem on drive 8 ³
³ - NTSC Regionfix issue on PAL systems is fixed! ³
³ - Wireless controller is now supported! ³
³ - Added a real GUI ³
³ - The following Cobra options can be changed (stored in Viper flash): ³
³ - Default boot action ³
³ - Boot action when the X-key is hold at boot time ³
³ - Video mode of the Cobra GUI (doesn't change Games' video mode) ³
³ - Behaviour of the lid sensor when booting Original BIOS ³
³ - You can get detailed GC Version Info ³
³ - You can explore the content of your GC discs (original and backups) ³
³ and even DVDs with ISO9660 filesystem! ³
³ - You can flash your Viper GC by burning the flash file on a DVD ³
³ (but don't throw away your programmer in case of a bad flash! :-) ³
³ - You can execute homebrew programs (.DOL) from DVD, and enjoy many ³
³ already-released homebrew productions! ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ USER MANUAL ³
³ ³
³ - Flash the Viper GC with this BIOS then remove the parallel port ³
³ connector from the programmer. If you prefear you can flash this ³
³ BIOS from DVD if you have Cobra 0.3+ already running on your chip. ³
³ ³
³ - Turn on your GC with an ORIGINAL DISC in the drive. ³
³ If there's no Title Screen coming, but the original BIOS instead ³
³ it's probably that you messed up your viper install:-) ³
³ Check that it's clean (and no wires crossing each other etc...) ³
³ If you have a black screen coming, it's probably because you have ³
³ some wierd BIOS we don't support (and don't know about) yet. ³
³ ³
³ - While turning on your GC: ³
³ - Hold Y to go to Main Menu (if it's not your Default Boot mode) ³
³ - Hold X for the other boot mode (can be set in Config Menu) ³
³ - Don't hold anything for Default Boot Action ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Boot DVD" if you want to play a backup / homebrew program ³
³ from DVD. "Please wait..." should appear. then "SWAP DISC NOW" and ³
³ the GC disc is stopped (and laser off). As soon as you see the disc ³
³ is slowing down it's safe to remove the original disc and put your ³
³ DVD-R instead. After a few seconds the drive will start to spin ³
³ again and disc will boot (if you didn't have enough time to do the ³
³ swap trick, turn off the GC and try again) ³
³ ³
³ - Remove the top of your GC if you want to use full-size DVD-R ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Original BIOS (Region Free)" if you want to play an original ³
³ import Game. ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Original BIOS" if you want to play an original Game ³
³ compatible with your GC region, or if you want to go into the ³
³ Original BIOS menus. ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Configuration Menu" if you want to change your Cobra BIOS ³
³ configuration. The options are quite self-explanatory. ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Disc Explorer" to enter what we belive is the best new ³
³ feature in this BIOS! It allows you to browse the content or your ³
³ original GC discs or DVDs (a swap trick is needed for them) ! ³
³ Supported file systems are FST (GC File System) and ISO9660. ³
³ Joliet encoding is not supported in ISO mode. ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" and select a .VGC file if you want to reflash ³
³ your Viper GC without the need of the Parallel port programmer! ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" and select a .DOL file if you want to run ³
³ a homebrew program! (You can put up to 1.4 GB of homebrew things on ³
³ a disc. We hope this will give some inspiration to emu authors :-) ³
³ Our DOL loader is not perfect for now and works for around half of ³
³ the public homebrew programs. Here are some of the programs booting ³
³ successfully: Kinderkram demo by Hitmen (you gotta see this), ³
³ GC-Linux, Ascii Fighter, DVD Browser, CTR_GCS, CTR_SND, GBQ Gameboy ³
³ emulator, PSOLoader "It's working" demo, Maze, Nitrorally, Yeti 3D ³
³ 3D engine, Chip8 emulator, Snowlords game, Terranigma, XRick and ³
³ probably many we missed! ³
³ ³
³ - If you didn't install the "lid passthru" wires of the Viper GC, then ³
³ simply tape down the lid sensor so the GC thinks the drive is always ³
³ closed. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ THE MEDIA ³
³ ³
³ The GC drive in its default state only eats high-quality DVD-R and ³
³ a few MINI-DVD-R. But a couple of weeks ago, speedi from the afterdawn ³
³ forums found a nice way to tweak the laser so it reads almost any burned³
³ media including some DVD+Rs. We recommend doing this laser tweak if you ³
³ have any problems reading your DVDs. We are no laser experts, in fact ³
³ we think it would be more appropriate to just lower the value of the ³
³ variable resistor instead of setting it to an absoulte given value, ³
³ but lots of people including us have been using this laser tweek for a ³
³ couple of weeks without any problem reported so far. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ You don't need to encrypt the disc or use a special burner firmware ³
³ to write the disc. Just burn your ISO/GCM (rename it to .ISO) with ³
³ Nero (or any other tool). ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ TROOBLESHOOTING ³
³ ³
³ - Sometime the "SWAP DISC" message doesn't appear (or disc doesn't ³
³ slow down/laser is still on). If this happen to you just turn off ³
³ your GC and try again (ok, this is clearly our fault :-) ³
³ ³
³ - If sometimes after you swapped a disc there is a sync problem with ³
³ the DVD-R and origial BIOS is not loading, then try again. If this ³
³ happen very often, then you need a better media. ³
³ ³
³ - If the drive becomes idle for a couple of minutes, depending on the ³
³ media you're using it might loose sync, and hang ("Disc Error"). ³
³ This is a bug of ours we will track. For now, if this happens to ³
³ you, avoid going into "PAUSE MODE" in games. ³
³ It should almost never happen with Cobra 0.4, but it can sometimes. ³
³ Use good media and tweak your laser to avoid this. If you're using ³
³ full-size DVD, pad the image up to 2.5GB (yes, 2.5GB!), this ³
³ dirty temporary fix just worked for us (no more disc errors at all) ³
³ on one system that gave us some troubles. If you're using minis, ³
³ pad your image to the max (1.4GB). We now know exactly what the bug ³
³ is, and will fix it in a future release. ³
³ ³
³ - Audio Streaming: Some games use a special audio streaming mode ³
³ that can be compared to CDDA. For now, the ISO of the file needs to ³
³ be patched with 0rbital's great ViperTemporaryAudioFix 1.1+. If the ³
³ ISO is not patched you'll have noise instead of music. We will try to ³
³ fix this issue so no patching is required. But in case we do, YOUR ³
³ PATCHED ISOS WILL BE FULLY COMPATIBLE and still work with music! ³
³ (so forget what is written in the fixer nfo file). Don't run the fix ³
³ on ISOs that don't need fixing as it will only destroy them :-) ³
³ ³
³ - Most multi-discs games are working, just play with Disc 1 until ³
³ you're asked to change disc and make a save here. Then boot with ³
³ Disc 2 instead. We started working on code to allow disc-change, ³
³ and we'll integrate it in a new release. ³
³ ³
³ All those problems could be fixed in a next update. ³
³ ³
³ To know what's your GC Version code (2 digit number) go into Config ³
³ Menu, then Version Info, 2nd page. First digit corresponds to GC ³
³ mobo version, 2nd digit corresponds to drive version. ³
³ ³
³ IF YOU MAKE BACKUPS, DON'T USE ANY "WIPE" TOOLS TO SAVE SPACE. Unless ³
³ you know it's REALLY working. Most of thoses tools only work because ³
³ the current pso loaders patch libraries routines to emulate DVD. But ³
³ on REAL HARDWARE, each file/fst has to be aligned on a 4-byte boundary! ³
³ Else nothing will work. Audio Files (for audio streaming) even need ³
³ to be aligned on a 32kb-boundary ! So forget current "WIPE" tools until ³
³ they are fixed. But note that Garbage is NOT NEEDED by the GC. The ³
³ files must be correctly aligned that's it. So if your "WIPE" tool is ³
³ not changing the image size (meaning there's no relocation) then it's ³
³ probably fine. It is also possible to write a tool that re-aligns the ³
³ files of a badly-wiped image. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ THE RUMORS ³
³ ³
³ We won't comment on the tons of rumors we read daily about the Cobra, ³
³ we can just say that what you don't read here is not official. But we ³
³ feel honored so many people decided to look at our code, too bad we ³
³ didn't expect your visit or we'd have added some funny hidden messages! ³
³ Depends on what your goal was, we made it even easier for you this ³
³ time. Just hold Z at boot time :-) ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ THE FUTURE ³
³ ³
³ Now that we have fixed the big issue with the 48 units, we will fix ³
³ our BIOS so the few people that still get a few Disc Errors sometimes ³
³ (with any drive) won't have any at ALL. (Same symptoms but the issue ³
³ is totally different). We'll also fix minor 0.3 bugs that people ³
³ reported. We have written a complete Cheat System compatible with ³
³ (decrypted) AR codes. The GUI for it has been partially written now. ³
³ (Maybe we can even support crypted codes if Parasyte allows us to ³
³ integrate his great GCNcrypt tool into the Cobra? :-) ³
³ We have lots of ideas to expand the Disc Explorer possibilities as ³
³ well! ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ CLOSING WORDS ³
³ ³
³ Special thanks to E*Flash for his help, RoM for the early units, ³
³ Melan for the /48 GC and to everybody that tried Cobra V0.3 and posted ³
³ constructive feedback. ³
³ ³
³ You are free to redistribute this package as long as it's not changed, ³
³ patched, ported, or whatever. ³
³ ³
³ Our code is free of any copyrighted code from third party. ³
³ It is also free of any GPL licensed code, we have strong respect for ³
³ other people's hard work. We only ask you to show similar respect ³
³ toward our work. To put it in other words, if you are in the "right" ³
³ side, draw the line between learning and stealing. Thank you. ³
³ ³
³ That's it for this NFO, hope we didn't miss some important point. ³
³ ³
³ Have a nice day :-) ³
³ ³
³ ° ° ° ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ °ÛßÜÜ °Ûßß ÜÛßß ²Ûß ßßÜ ²Û °ÜßÛ °Ü Û ²ÛßÛ °Ûßß ³
³ ÛÛ Û Û ÛÛß ÛÛ Û ÛÛ ²ÛßÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ Ü ÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û ÛÛß ³
³X ° ± ² Û ²Û ² Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ ² ßÛ²± ßÛÛ² ßÛÜ ßÛ²Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ²ß ßÛ²Û Û ² ± ° X³
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Recordad por favor no facilitar la BIOS ni enlaces a ella en los foros, ni tampoco preguntar por ellos. Puede encontrarse en los sitios habituales (redes P2P, IRC, etc.).