Back from my vacations, I was contacted about a potential patch for the PAL versions of Dino Crisis. As with Resident Evil: Code Veronica, there are several PAL versions (UK, French, Spanish, Italian and German) and except for the UK one they are all localized with subtitles during the game and the FMV playback.
Unfortunately, the game has no VGA support. The game can boot in VGA mode with the disc swap trick (or one of my custom bioses) but the FMV playback does not work on VGA display. Furthermore, if you force the game to NTSC-60hz, the subtitles are not in sync anymore.
I’ve found it really challenging to patch this game. While the game itself plays flawlessly in VGA, the FMVs change significantly the complexity of the patch, at least the way it is coded. Basically it’s like opening a can of worms. And if you add the subtitle thingy on top of that, it’s a nightmare! But after spending some (read many) hours on disassembling the game, I think I nailed down the way the subtitles are generated.
Now remains fixing the subtitle delay (50–>60hz). I know where to patch but I need more time to implement a way to remove the delay all at once.
So yes the game can be played on VGA and yes a patch will come to light 🙂
UPDATE: Yes I still am working on the patch. I will post more details next week. Everything is patched and works correctly (even/especially on real hardware). There is one glitch I am struggling with though… hope I can overcome this soon 🙂
12 replies on “You have mail!”
Superb! 🙂
Great Work!
Wonderful work!! Does this mean it’s possible to get games like Plasma Sword and Psychic Force working in VGA?
Hard to tell without having a glance at the code. But those titles are on my todo list 😉
Great work, I have trying to sample the FMVs in 640*480 in the pal french version but it doesn’t work…
Nice work, I wait your patch 🙂
Thanks,
This was what I thought, but actually there is no need to resample those videos. If you have the official SDK you can compile a SFD example and put the OPENING.SFD video instead of the one of the example and you will see that it plays correctly in VGA. Here with Dino Crisis the problem(s) was (were) somewhere else. Also if you try to patch things related to video or timing, you have better to test on the real hardware as emulators behave differently and sometimes tend to fix/stretch images.
Patch will come soon, just need time to pack up everything 🙂
You have right, with my emulator FMVs are running in vga mode with changing resolution or framerate, I don’t don’t know exactly what happened but when I burn and try with my deramcast it doesn’t work.
Your patch will saved me ^^
..!!
ooo wow .. I read that the NTSC-U version can’t be helped that the FMV do not display in VGA
Why would you need the US version when the PAL-EN supports VGA and has the 60hz forced? What is the difference with the PAL release?
I understand now .. all of PAL releases had VGA removed entirely =/ Sucks
Update
Hi japanese_cake.
Any news? Tnx
I am looking forward to this
Any plans for the US and JP release
Any plans to cover any other games that don’t support VGA, though I am sure Dino Crisis is the only one that it is just the FMV’s that do not play in VGA, unless that was the issue with the Original Mill-CD disc that does not work in VGA (I forget the exact one)
Hi,
I am wondering whether you are the guy who created the VGA compatibility list on, I think, epforum? IMO that list is the best one 🙂 Easy for me to pick up a title and know what to expect! This is really good work.
So back to the topic, yes I think DC is the only title with this FMV problem. I haven’t planned to patch the US or JAP version though. IMO there is no point to patch the US one as I believe the PAL-UK, with now the 60hz forced and VGA fixed, is strictly the same (unless there are some features only for the US one??) Patching the JAP one would make more sense as there are probably some Japanese speakers playing that game. What do you think?
If you remember the milcd not supporting VGA and can get a copy, I would be interrested 😉