Cobra BIOS v0.2 by Mentalcube
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mentalcube
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2004 December 15
"it appears that some fucker leaked a -PRE-ALPHA- version two days ago together with a screenshot (fuck you Vincenzo)".
- Text / NFO file or scene release
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├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ │
│ - COBRA FOR VIPER GC V0.2 - │
│ (Proof Of Concept Version) │
│ │
│ 15th of december, 2004 │
│ │
│ │
│ You didn't expect it to be true, right? Well, guess what... it IS! │
│ As of today, no need for PSO anymore, you can boot your code directly │
│ from the GC drive using DVD-R or Mini-DVD-R! This also includes the │
│ ability to boot your backups. │
│ │
│ So what do you need exactly ? │
│ - A Viper GC chip │
│ - This very flash file │
│ - Some Compatible Media and a DVD- burner │
│ │
│ In fact, we wanted to release the first version of our Viper BIOS │
│ around Xmas time, but it appears that some fucker leaked a -PRE-ALPHA- │
│ version two days ago together with a screenshot (fuck you Vincenzo), │
│ together with a screencap. We decided to release a proof-of-concept │
│ version as soon as possible so that people can stop spreading rumor │
│ about it (and DON'T USE the pre-alpha as it has some major bugs). │
│ We feel it's totally natural that most people did doubt it was true, │
│ as most of them have been waiting for such a solution for years! So │
│ now those people can try the thing for REAL :-). │
│ │
│ USER MANUAL │
│ │
│ - Flash the Viper GC with this BIOS then remove the parallel port │
│ connector from the programmer (well, their manual says so) │
│ │
│ - Turn on your GC with an ORIGINAL DISC in the drive. │
│ If there's no Title Screen coming, but the original BIOS instead │
│ it's probably that you messed up your viper install:-) │
│ Check that it's clean (and no wires crossing each other etc...) │
│ If you have a black screen coming, it's probably because you have │
│ some wierd BIOS we don't support (and don't know about) yet. │
│ │
│ - While turning on your GC: │
│ - Hold X if you want to boot Original BIOS instead │
│ - Hold Y if you want to boot Original BIOS with region-free hack │
│ - Don't hold any button if you want to run DVD-R :-) │
│ │
│ - "PLEASE WAIT" should appear. then "SWAP DISC NOW!" and the GC │
│ disc is stopped (and laser off). As soon as you see the disc is │
│ slowing down it's safe to remove the original disc and put your │
│ DVD-R instead. After a few seconds the drive will start to spin │
│ again and disc will boot (if you didn't have enough time to do the │
│ swap trick, turn off the GC and try again) │
│ │
│ - Remove the top of your GC if you want to use full-size DVD-R │
│ │
│ THE MEDIA │
│ │
│ The GC drive only eats DVD-R, MINI-DVD-R and single-layer silver DVD, │
│ it doesn't work with + media or DL at all. │
│ But, like Xbox thomson drive, it is very "sensitive" to the brand of │
│ media you're using. Some are working better than others, some even │
│ NOT AT ALL! So better check what media other users recommend. │
│ │
│ After a few tests here is what we think: │
│ │
│ - For DVD-R, most media are working, except some cheap no-names. On │
│ some drives only the best media is working really fine. │
│ │
│ - BUT FOR MINI-DVD-R it's more tricky. We tested the following brand: │
│ SONY DVD-R 1.4GB handycam: doesn't work │
│ TDK DVD-R 1.4GB scratchproof: doesn't work │
│ MAXELL DVD-R 1.4GB: sometime boots, but then loose sync │
│ DATAWRITE DVD-R 1.4GB: on some drives it works 100% like the │
│ best DVD-R, but on some other drives it just can't sync │
│ (when it does its working perfectly) │
│ │
│ In fact, we have some idea on how to improve the compatibility with │
│ bad media in our next BIOS. For now we really suggest you to find │
│ a good full-size DVD-R media, and get the opinion of other users. │
│ │
│ You don't need to encrypt the disc or use a special burner firmware │
│ to write the disc. Just burn your ISO/GCM (we use Nero). │
│ │
│ Maybe different burners will lead to different results too, for now we │
│ just tried a cheap NEC burner. │
│ │
│ │
│ TROOBLESHOOTING │
│ │
│ REMEMBER, THIS IS A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT-VERSION ! │
│ There are probably lots of bugs we need to fix including: │
│ │
│ - Sometime the "SWAP DISC" message doesn't appear (or disc doesn't │
│ slow down/laser is still on). If this happen to you just turn off │
│ your GC and try again (ok, this is clearly our fault :-) │
│ │
│ - If sometimes after you swapped a disc there is a sync problem with │
│ the DVD-R and origial BIOS is not loading, then try again. If this │
│ happen very often, then you need a better media. │
│ │
│ - If the drive becomes idle for a couple of minutes, depending on the │
│ media you're using it might loose sync, and hang. This is also a │
│ bug of ours we will track. For now, if this happens to you, avoid │
│ "PAUSE MODE" in games. │
│ │
│ - Audio Streaming doesn't work. So, the games/programs using the │
│ special streaming commands will work, but instead of a nice MUSIC │
│ you'll hear annoying NOISE :-). We'll have a look at those issues as │
│ well ! │
│ │
│ - Doesn't work with multi-discs games yet │
│ │
│ REMEMBER, THIS IS A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT-VERSION ! All those problem │
│ could be fixed in a next update, except for media maybe (if someone │
│ wants to try laser tweaking we'd be interested by the results!) │
│ │
│ Note that on screen there's a two digit number corresponding to your │
│ GC version (right after the Cobra Version). Here are the current │
│ versions we support: 14,16,18,24,26,28,34,36,38,44,46,48. If you have │
│ another version, then we don't know about it yet... │
│ │
│ IF YOU MAKE BACKUPS, DON'T USE ANY "WIPE" TOOLS TO SAVE SPACE. Unless │
│ you know it's REALLY working. Most of thoses tools only work because │
│ the current pso loaders patch libraries routines to emulate DVD. But │
│ on REAL HARDWARE, each file/fst has to be aligned on a 4-byte boundary! │
│ Else nothing will work. Audio Files (for audio streaming) even need │
│ to be aligned on a 32kb-boundary ! So forget current "WIPE" tools until │
│ they are fixed. │
│ │
│ THE FUTURE │
│ │
│ Apart from fixing the current bugs, we have plans to make a (better │
│ looking) real GUI, and some other surprises :-) │
│ │
│ For coders it's a bit(!) annoying to burn DVD-R for each test. We'll │
│ try to work on a better solution (either using BBA or viper debug │
│ IO) │
│ │
│ CLOSING WORDS │
│ │
│ Special thanks to E*Flash for his help, and RoM for the early units. │
│ │
│ You are free to redistribute this package as long as it's not changed, │
│ patched, ported, or whatever. │
│ │
│ Our code is free of any copyrighted code from third party. │
│ It is also free of any GPL licensed code, we have strong respect for │
│ other people's hard work. We only ask you to show similar respect │
│ toward our work. To put it in other words, if you are in the "right" │
│ side, draw the line between learning and stealing. Thank you. │
│ │
│ That's it for this NFO, hope we didn't missed some important point. │
│ │
│ Have a nice day :-) │
│ │
│ ░ ░ ░ │
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