° ° ° ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³X °ÛßÜÜ °Ûßß ÜÛßß ²Ûß ßßÜ ²Û °ÜßÛ °Ü Û ²ÛßÛ °Ûßß X³ ³ ÛÛ Û Û ÛÛß ÛÛ Û ÛÛ ²ÛßÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ Ü ÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û ÛÛß ³ ³ ° ± ² Û ²Û ² Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ ² ßÛ²± ßÛÛ² ßÛÜ ßÛ²Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ²ß ßÛ²Û Û ² ± ° ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ - COBRA FOR VIPER GC V1.0 - ³ ³ ³ ³ 1st of april, 2005 ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ So, you were wondering what was the surprise in Cobra 1.0 ? Well... ³ ³ We are proud to give you the very first Gamecube BIOS that works ³ ³ Without swap. Seems that the Viper GC was unwittingly 2nd Generation ³ ³ from the very beginning, since we made nice use of the lid switch ³ ³ sensor cable designed by the Viper Team. Thanks guys you made it easy ³ ³ with your foresight, for us to make the Cobra BIOS swapless. Don't ³ ³ mess with the disc & lid anymore. Turn on your console and play. ³ ³ ³ ³ FEATURES ³ ³ ³ ³ - Direct boot of all media, without swapping! ³ ³ - Automatic Media Detection: Insert disc, turn on GC and play! ³ ³ - Supports all regions PAL / USA / JAP ³ ³ - Play originals or backups from any region, thanks to the built-in ³ ³ region-free feature ³ ³ - Idle-bug free (no more Disc Read Errors when the drive is resting :-) ³ ³ - Unique MultiBoot feature: put several games on one single disc! ³ ³ - Disc Explorer to browse the content of original GC discs or DVDs and ³ ³ that allows you: ³ ³ - To flash your Viper GC by burning the flash file on a DVD ³ ³ - To execute homebrew programs (.DOL) from DVD, and enjoy many ³ ³ already-released homebrew productions! ³ ³ - To flash your Viper GC by burning the flash file on a DVD ³ ³ - To run the game you want from a MultiBoot compilation ³ ³ - To load cheat codes from disc into Viper GC Memory ³ ³ - Powerful Cheat Code System compatible with Action Replay codes, ³ ³ codes are stored in the Viper GC Flash so no memory card is needed! ³ ³ - Cheat codes can be either entered using Cobra Menus or loaded from ³ ³ a file using the Disc Explorer ³ ³ - BIOS Configuration stored into the Viper GC Flash ³ ³ - Selectable default boot action (Main menu, Boot disc, Original BIOS, ³ ³ Disc Explorer) and special boot action (when the X key is held) ³ ³ - Calls Original BIOS Game Loader for 100% compatibility ³ ³ - Supports all hardware revisions (including DOL-101 units) ³ ³ - User-Friendly GUI 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 Well, as you can see from the feature list, there are a lot of new ³ ³ features we introduced in this release. ³ ³ - Direct boot of all media, without swapping ! ³ ³ - Fixed compatibility problem with DOL-101 units ³ ³ - Automatic Media Detection: Insert disc, turn on GC and play! ³ ³ - Fixed Idle bug, you won't have any DRE if the drive is resting :-) ³ ³ - Powerful Cheat Code System compatible with Action Replay codes, ³ ³ codes are stored in the Viper GC Flash so no memory card is needed! ³ ³ - Cheat codes can be either entered using Cobra Menus or loaded from ³ ³ a file using the Disc Explorer ³ ³ - Unique MultiBoot feature: put several games on one single disc! ³ ³ - A lot of fixes and low-level changes ³ ³ ³ ³ A Swap disc option was left in (called "Change Disc" as you could also ³ ³ replace a backup with another backup) to be totally backward ³ ³ compatible. Read more below ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ USER MANUAL ³ ³ ³ ³ - If you want to use full-size DVD-R you can remove the top of the ³ ³ console. Team Xtender will be releasing replacement lids compatible ³ ³ with full DVD-R within two week. Best of all, we learned this week ³ ³ that they will be officially Viper GC branded! 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 We've heard Viper Team will release an USB programmer for the chip ³ ³ soon if you prefear USB. ³ ³ ³ ³ - Turn on your GC with the disc you want to run. It can be an ³ ³ original or a backup, but if it's a backup it should be filled with ³ ³ 1.3GB of data at least (for now). If you have a black screen coming, ³ ³ it's probably beause your Viper installation is not clean. 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 "Direct Disc Boot" if you want to play a backup or homebrew ³ ³ program from DVD. If you have problems using the Direct Disc Boot ³ ³ method with your media, you can still use the Swap trick. ³ ³ ³ ³ - If you want to use the old Swap Trick Method (for discs that are ³ ³ not full or that have problems to sync with the Direct Disc Boot) ³ ³ boot your GC with an original disc. Then choose the "Change Disc" ³ ³ option and follow the instructions. After the swap is done, you ³ ³ can select Direct Disc Boot option again. 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 to browse the content or your ³ ³ original GC discs or DVDs. Supported file systems are FST ³ ³ (GC File System) and ISO9660. Joliet encoding is not supported in ³ ³ ISO mode. ³ ³ ³ ³ - Enter "Cheat codes" to select, enable, disable and edit cheat codes ³ ³ ³ ³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" to select a game from a MultiBoot disc 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: 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 - 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 .COD file if you want to add ³ ³ cheat codes for a game without the need to enter it using the pad! ³ ³ ³ ³ - Make sure that the "lid passthru" wires of the Viper GC are ³ ³ installed correctly or the disc won't spin. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DIRECT BOOT LIMITATIONS 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 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 CHEAT CODES ³ ³ ³ ³ If you want to use cheat codes, enter Cheat Codes menu,select a game, ³ ³ check the codes you want to use, exit the cheat selector and enable ³ ³ cheats. ³ ³ ³ ³ To add new codes follow on-screen instructions. The codes are ³ ³ compatible with decrypted AR codes. You can decrypt AR codes using ³ ³ the great GCNCrypt by Parayste. Never enter the first code of a given ³ ³ cheat code (validator code). You can also put .COD files on a DVD and ³ ³ load cheat codes from there, each file corresponds to one game. ³ ³ ³ ³ For now we've reserved 4kb in Viper GC Flash memory to store cheat ³ ³ codes. If that's not enough we'll add some more space in next release. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ TROOBLESHOOTING ³ ³ ³ ³ - If the disc stops spinning in the menu it means that the drive can't ³ ³ sync with your media, or that there are not enough data on your disc. ³ ³ In direct boot mode the GC is very selective about the media it ³ ³ takes. If you have any problem please try the swap trick. If you ³ ³ still have problems try with different media/burner. Make sure your ³ ³ laser is correctly tweaked! 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 Before burning an image, makes sure it is 1459978240 bytes long else ³ ³ you may need to use the swap trick method. 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. Use FSTFIX by LOONYCUBE to fix bad rips. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ TECHNICAL INFO ³ ³ ³ ³ We'll release a command-line MultiBoot Disc maker next week if nobody ³ ³ releases a better one before we do :-) Here are the specs for Multiboot ³ ³ discs. Note that every image should be aligned on a 32kb boundary. ³ ³ At offset 0x00: 43 4F 42 52-41 4D 42 31 ³ ³ 0x40: Position of the 1st image in bytes (Big endian) ³ ³ 0x44: Position of the 2nd image in bytes (Big endian) ³ ³ ....: ...etc... ³ ³ ....: 00 00 00 00 ³ ³ ³ ³ The MultiBoot feature is stealth for the GC so it's 100% compatible ³ ³ with homebrew images. If you want to put several backups on one disc ³ ³ you'll have to remove the garbage at first. ³ ³ The maximum size of a MultiBoot disc is 1459978240 bytes. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ THE RUMORS & EVENTS ³ ³ ³ ³ Lately there has been a few events we'd like to comment. First, ³ ³ congratulation to Utopia for the deobfuscation work you did and the ³ ³ release of Anaconda. We like your style :-) Except maybe for the ³ ³ "Mentalcube [...] did a well job while choosing the neccessary patches" ³ ³ we find that "choosing" is not exactly the right term, as this patch ³ ³ is the results of tousands of lines of firmware code and several months ³ ³ of hacking and debugging. And thanks for the obfuscation tips :-) ³ ³ Anaconda led to a lot of stuff from the best (GCOS) to the worst ³ ³ (people selling our code without authorisation). Anaconda code is ³ ³ a 1:1 rip of our code, except for the loading part running on the GC ³ ³ CPU that was rewritten by Utopia (they made it clear but some people ³ ³ just didn't get it). ³ ³ ³ ³ Now about GCOS. We like what you're doing, even if up until now you're ³ ³ using our code without authorisation. But we're releasing Cobra 0.4 ³ ³ drivecodes under GPL license so it matches the license of other files ³ ³ you're using. Feel free to use, abuse it and improve it! ;-) ³ ³ Cobra 1.0 drivecode might follow in the future, but for now we chose ³ ³ closed source. ³ ³ ³ ³ It appears that one of our beta-testers leaked a beta of Cobra 1.0 one ³ ³ month ago. We'll do all beta testing by ourselves now. We find it's an ³ ³ amazing coincidence that a swapless chip was announced two weeks after ³ ³ the leak. Please don't support thieves. ³ ³ ³ ³ Oh and about Idle-bug, it was a BUG, yes a BUG of our old cobra ³ ³ code in the way we were handling a protection. The bug is now fixed ³ ³ and now the laser won't go out of the data area anymore, causing idle ³ ³ DREs when it couldn't focus. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ THE FUTURE ³ ³ ³ ³ There's MUCH more to come, you'll see soon :-) ³ ³ And our low-level hackers are currently working on the disc calibration ³ ³ code to improve Direct Boot Media compatibility. We'll mess with that ³ ³ only when we are certain that the code won't hurt your console! 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 V0.4, posted ³ ³ constructive feedback. Thanks a lot for your patience. You'll never ³ ³ wait that long anymore for future release, this was a very special ³ ³ milestone :-) 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 Enjoy! 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 ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ