new dump(s)! sintax variations

got a bit of a backlog to clear here so i'm gonna get this stuff out of the way first - these are all Sintax games and they're all basically variations (different levels/intros/what have you) on existing dumps. They're all pretty decent anyway!

All the raw dumps here will work in hhugboy and they should also work in MESS thanks to etabeta's efforts on that front. but I'm also still posting fixed versions for other emulators where possible, because there are still plenty of platforms without any emus that support these things.

Shaoling Legend: hero, the saver (Fantasic ShaoLin Kungfu) / Shao Lin Shi San Gun - Ying Xiong Jiu Zhu (少林十三棍-英雄救主)

Basically a reskin of True Thre(e) Kingdoms/Shin Sangoku Musou/whatever the ROM version was called again. All the sprites have been badly re-edited but the new(?) backgrounds are quite nice. And I have both the English and Chinese versions here! so yay for that. (note that in the Chinese version, the in-game character portraits are glitched - it's like that on the real cart too)

english raw: Shaoling Legend - Hero, the Saver (Fantasic ShaoLin Kungfu) (Unlicensed, English) [Raw Dump].zip
english fixed: Shaoling Legend - Hero, the Saver (Fantasic ShaoLin Kungfu) (Unlicensed, English) [Fixed].zip
chinese raw: Shao Lin Shi San Gun - Ying Xiong Jiu Zhu (Unlicensed, Chinese) [Raw Dump].zip
chinese fixed: Shao Lin Shi San Gun - Ying Xiong Jiu Zhu (Unlicensed, Chinese) [Fixed].zip

2003 Ha Li Xiao Zi IV (2003哈利小子IV) / 2003 Ha Li Bo Te 2 - Xiao Shi De Mi Shi (2003哈利波特2-消失的密室)

The dumped "Harry Potter" platform game with different levels/intro/etc. The only difference between the two versions seems to be the titles (which translate to Harry Boy IV and Harry Potter 2, though the latter just uses its subtitle on the title screen, Chamber of Secrets).

hb4 raw: 2003 Ha Li Xiao Zi IV (Unlicensed, Chinese) [Raw Dump].zip
hb4 fixed: 2003 Ha Li Xiao Zi IV (Unlicensed, Chinese) [Fixed].zip
hp2 raw: 2003 Ha Li Bo Te 2 - Xiao Shi De Mi Shi (Unlicensed, Chinese) [Raw Dump].zip
hp2 fixed: 2003 Ha Li Bo Te 2 - Xiao Shi De Mi Shi (Unlicensed, Chinese) [Fixed].zip

Digimon Yellow Jade

Digimon 9 with a new title screen/story (in English!)/levels. Also the Agumon sprite has been redrawn for some reason. It's a bit skinnier and less cute but it has all the same animations.

raw: Digimon Yellow Jade (Unlicensed, English) [Raw Dump].zip
fixed: Digimon Yellow Jade (Unlicensed, English) [Fixed].zip

hhugboy v1.0 released!

well hey, I made an emulator! an emulator by the name of hhugboy, which is very very heavily based on GEST. because the world definitely needed another gameboy emulator. I have zero experience of emulator coding and I've done a little bit of C++ before (which 99% of emulators are written in) but I don't get along with the language one bit, so it's been kind of... a learning experience for me, to say the least, but I've finally got something I'm fairly happy with.

the major thing with this emulator is it supports Sintax and Li Cheng mappers on unmodified copies of their roms (ie the "raw dump" versions I've posted previously). I've been hacking these games to make them work on standard emulators, but this has proved a little difficult with a few games, which got me thinking - why not try and emulate their mappers instead? and so.. I did. Those two, anyway. Li Cheng's was easy, Sintax's was a bit more work and isn't 100% perfect (new dumps may or may not run, but most should). Also, for any other emu authors or other interested parties, I'm going to document those two as much as I can at some point soon.

This does raise the problem of how to detect which games use which mappers - I've kind of tried to fudge it based on the boot logo but that isn't 100% reliable so I've put in a manual override in the menu too. It'd be nice if the Game Boy had a ROM file format like the NES's (iNES and UNIF) containing cartridge info independent of the internal GB ROM header (which was set by the developers and often wrong for unlicensed games) avoiding the need for either hacks, dubious autodetection attempts or manual overrides to determine which mapper to use. I don't know if there's enough interest for something like this to take off, given that it's only necessary for unlicensed games (and Mani's multicarts) though.

Anyway I've made a bunch of other improvements and tweaks to the original GEST, including screenshots, a recent ROM list, sharper filtering at larger sizes, Unicode filename support (which I haven't seen in any other emu, so have fun naming your roms in whatever language takes your fancy), a nicer/somehow appropriate onscreen font (from codeman38), and more!

Latest downloads, source code and issue tracker can all be found on bitbucket, so..go there! and try it. and if you find any bugs add them to the tracker.

(also I realise there aren't any Li Cheng roms out there to play on this thing but I'm planning to fix that in the near future too)

new dump! E Mo Dao

now THIS is another one I've been after for what can only be described as a long-ass time. once again this comes from Qiezei's 8 in 1 - it's another Vast Fame game (hell yes) and it's an action game, so it's considerably more accessible than their RPGs for all you non-Chinese-speakers out there. It's called "E Mo Dao" (惡魔島) literally "Devil Island", also known as "Devil Land" (from the multicart menu).

Basically it's a clone of Konami's Getsu Fuuma Den gameplay-wise, but aesthetically closer to Castlevania, and for my money it controls better than the original did (though it can be hard to avoid enemies at times, much like Zook Hero 2). Music is excellent as usual, the graphics are really nice, and all around its just a good package.

Anyway, enjoy! No need for a fix this time, I think (but if you have any issues with saving please let me know)

E Mo Dao (Unlicensed, Chinese) (Multicart Rip).zip

new dump! Qi Tian Da Sheng

Got another one from Qiezei's 8 in 1 multicart today - a shooter by the name of "Qi Tian Da Sheng: Sun Wu Kong" (齊天大聖-孫悟空), also known as "West Story" based on its name in the menu of said multi.

You may have seen an alternate version of this game before - "Harry Potter 3" (which I happen to have made an English translation patch for) - and while I'd previously assumed this game was the original and Harry was made later, the header actually says "HARRY2002" which is a pretty clear indication it was the other way around.

It is, I'm fairly sure, by Vast Fame, although unusually for them they've "done a Sintax" and stolen music from somewhere else rather than composing their own. Fortunately the soundtrack they stole was from Parodius and it's excellent.

Qi Tian Da Sheng - Sun Wu Kong (Unlicensed, Chinese) (Multicart Rip).zip (no need for a fix this time, yay)

new dump! Sheng Shou Wu Yu

Sintaxmas may be over, but the most magical day of the year can come at any time - just when you're least expecting it.. it's New Vast Fame Game Day! (yay)

This is something I've been chasing for a while - it's a strategy RPG called Sheng Shou Wu Yu: Shen Long Chuan Shuo (聖獸物語-神龍傳說), which translates to something along the lines of "Holy Beast Story: Legend of the God Dragon". As you might expect from Vast Fame, it's pretty excellent.

Much like my previous dumps of Shi Kong Xing Shou and Xin Feng Shen Bang, this one was extracted from a Vast Fame multicart, this time an 8 in 1 - many thanks to Qiezei for providing the cart! You can find scans of the cart packaging, along with lots of other interesting stuff, on his blog.

Two ROMs this time, both work (ostensibly) but the raw dump has the wrong save type set in the header so fails to save properly in most emulators. The "Header Fix" version fixes that, and also the checksum too, just for the hell of it.

raw dump: Sheng Shou Wu Yu - Shen Long Chuan Shuo (Unlicensed, Chinese) (Multicart Rip) [Raw Dump].zip
header fix: Sheng Shou Wu Yu - Shen Long Chuan Shuo (Unlicensed, Chinese) (Multicart Rip) [Header Fix].zip