Legacy of Kain – Soul Reaver: Debug patch

Hi there,

Here is just one of the many small things I want to share. I have many 90% done projects and it has become quite difficult to find time to finish them. So here is my first attempt since a long time to release something new!

Some months ago I was digging in that game binary, almost out of curiosity. I remember reading somewhere online that the PSX and PC versions had debug menus. With no surprises, I found out that the debug strings where also present in the Dreamcast retail version, meaning there is a change to re-activate the debug features. I think the debug menu is interesting on this game. Many features are like cheats but some others make the game funny to play with: you can start a new game and right away equip Raziel with the Soul Reaver sword or enable Raziel capabilities like passing through barriers, etc. 🙂

Note that this patch is for the PAL-UK version of Soul Reaver on Dreamcast. If you want a patch for the other versions (like PAL-FR, PAL-ES, or even NTSC), send me a link to a gdi dump.

Soul Reaver with debug menu

Download link: jc-sreaver-debug.zip

Enjoy!

24 replies on “Legacy of Kain – Soul Reaver: Debug patch”

Thanks a lot for your answer on previous blog post !!
I hope i can play it online with my CRT TV with RGB Scart.
For the moment the game force NTSC 50Hz only =/

Here is the TOSEC Release :

Racing Simulation 2 – Monaco Grand Prix On-Line v1.002 (2001)(Swing! – Ubi Soft)(PAL)[!].7z
(h t t p s)drive.google.(nospace)com/file/d/1u8fSGME9SeluOkQu_-qX8xFT_3e6SRso/view

Here is the TRURIP Release :

Racing Simulation 2 – Monaco Grand Prix On-Line (EU).zip
(h t t p s)drive.google.(nospace)com/file/d/1lHuKcOXTceEXujWDAE0c9oN7jnpdoVYg/view

Best Regards !

Thanks for your answer.

This version is pretty rare and only released in Europe (in 2001).
It’s the only version of the game who had online functions.

All others versions of the game are offline only.

I’m hope you can patch it to NTSC 60hz for play in my Dreamcast with DreamPi 😀 !

My CRT TV can’t handle NTSC 50hz (picture flickering).

thanks for this amazing patch !!

You still here, I am very happy of that 😀 Still wait for your next precious release ^^

Don’t hesite to ask us if you need some help, for some minor things we could do for you.

For the patch we have to rename the first file in 1st_read.bin and replace the 1st_read.bin in the game data ?
After we will be able to build a .gdi without binhack anything ? Only using the classic gdi maker ?

Thank you fafadou!

As for patching the game, the binary provided in the archive must replace the one in the track05.bin. You yave two patches, one for the 1st_read.bin, to use if you are rebuilding the game (cdi or gdi) and one for the gdi track05.bin. Might be easier for you to simply patch the track file then extract its content and build a cdi file 😉 I hope it is clear enough.

Cheers

I know it’s not the right topic but I have just seen a project from ash evans from facebook and his had found a bios with more memory for his new amazing dc+naomi board.
May you have to contact it for you project ?

Next bios asking

Hi,

Is it true your next bios will be able to remove the bleem! protection in order to play bleem! whit gdemu, usbgdrom or even dreamshell ?
Because with a mil cd bleem! run and not with alternative boards…

Many thanks

RE: Next bios asking

sorry for the off again a talk about chip bios with more memory in assembler games assemblergames forum topic dual bios page 3.

Problems 🙁

Hello, I have an important question.
How to rip the whole patch?
I’m completely green in these blocks, someone would explain how to do it?
Would you throw a link from “gdi/cdi”; where the patch is already on it?
Thanks in advance and incredible work! 😀

RE: Problems 🙁

A release has be done on the isozone but the website is now down…
You have to find a gdi release extract all datas and replace the 1ST_READ.BIN and finally repack.

I’ll try to do it later.

For racing simulation 2, you can ask on assembler games forum in order to request a 60Hz patch.

VGA Dithering

Did you ever come across any code similar to this when creating your video patches?
Im trying to patch dithering out of some games to see if it clears up VGA quality

http://mc.pp.se/dc/pvr.html

A05F8048 – Render Output Pixel Format

31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
TH D COL
The pixel format of the frame buffer to which rendering is to take place.
TH – Alpha threshold
Set this to control the alpha threshold level when output colour mode is ARGB1555.
D – Dither enable
Setting this bit enables dithering in highcolour modes.
COL – Colour mode select
Selects the frame buffer pixel colour mode (all colour modes are little endian, e.g. in RGB888 the blue byte comes first)
Value Colour mode Bytes per pixel
0 0 0 RGB555 2
0 0 1 RGB565 2
0 1 0 ARGB4444 2
0 1 1 ARGB1555 2
1 0 1 RGB888 4
1 1 0 ARGB888 4

First of all, thanks a lot for all your great work in the Dreamcast-Scene. It is really great to have such talented people working on making those great games even better.
I was looking for an email or something to contact you, but coudn’t find one. On Assembler-Games my account for whatever reason does not get activated (are are all mods on vacation?). So I hope you don’t mind to much, that write here. I would kindly like to ask you, if you could take a look at the 1st_read.bin of the game “Seven Mansions” (aka Nanatsu no Hikan), which just a few months ago received an english translation, which is great. I was able to find the widescreen codes and correct FMV aspect ratio, but I don’t know how to make it work in VGA. When the VGA-Flag is set, the game will boot to a black screen. It seems to still work, react to Button-Press in menus and such, just shows no picture. When I boot it up with my RGB-Cable and then switch to the VGA-Cable, I got a picture. So, I assume it has to be some minor thing. The game already runs at 60 Hz and is also not a low resolution game. I think, it really deserves more attention and maybe a proper VGA patch 😉
Thanks a lot and hope you read this,
Seeker

Unfortunately we don’t have any news since january…

I didn’t know if you may be inspired by his others patches, I had a look between 1ST_READ.BIN patch and original and he had changed a pointer from no vga code I guess to text commentary and patch directly in the commentary…

Hmm… that’s a pity. Hope, he looks in here once in a while…

I’m not sure, if I understood that correctly. I also compared some of his patched 1ST_READ.BIN to the original, but couldn’t make much out of it. Additionally, he had to patch the games he has already done to 60 Hz first, I believe. That’s unnecessary for the japanese game, that I mentioned. There must be something else, something very simple in the 1ST_READ.BIN very similar to the VGA-Flag, because after switching cables, it works perfectly in VGA as far as I can tell.

I just want to thank you about your new vga patch !!
It’s so great you’re back.
Please do also a release on your journal too.

Hello i would just like to say that i appreciate the stuff youve done for the Dreamcast community thank you.

Anyway could you please look into Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service and Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service these games don’t seem to display properly when ran with RGB SCART cable showing only a portion of the image blown up.

Leave a Reply