Hello

I’m from the no-intro-project and as you may know we are dealing with the dumping/redumping and accurate classification of as many systems as possible.

It looks like there are some people around here who are able to dump their games. I’d be pleased if said people were able to redump the games they own to verify existing dumps or fix bad dumps that might be around. Currently all games are considered unverified. Needed are crc + md5-hashes at best and a cart-scan to proof you actually own the game.

I’m also curious about one thing: All other nintendo systems use a system of version history that might also apply to the VBoy. On the NES/N64 + SNES you have to hold the backlabel of the cart in the light and you will identify a 2-digit number “stamped” – not written – in the label. If this number is followed by an A the cart is an upgraded version and might contain a version 1.1 rom. B means 1.2 and so on. There are a few exceptions where the letter refers to something else in the cart like DSP-chips in Mario Kart etc. but it is a good indicator. For handheld systems this number is found on the front label. They slightly changed this system for the DS but I’m willing to believe the VB follows the old system. If anyone dumps a cart please check for this info.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks again for the PCB-pictures and all the additional info 🙂

Innsmouth actually was a plain bad dump with some bytes different here and there – not overdumped. There appears to be some confusion here. I’m glad we got a match here from both sides.

goodvboy 1.01 from 2001 did only contain one dump of Virtual Fishing. The other one was added later but I don’t remember when exactly. However it really might be a “leaked” version of your dump so if you could get the cart from your friend we’d be on the safe side.

Do you have a complete list of all games you dumped with the USB-linker? Would not hurt to include all dumps – why waste your hard work? As I understand you also did Virtual Bowling and now you just don’t have the cart anymore. So I’ll add that as a verification as well. I think we can easily count you as a trustworthy dumper 🙂

BigFred wrote:
Innsmouth actually was a plain bad dump with some bytes different here and there – not overdumped. There appears to be some confusion here. I’m glad we got a match here from both sides.

Ah, yes. I remembered the Japanese page with the overdump and just assumed the serial I obsoleted for DoM was the same. My bad on that part. Still should have been caught, though!

DogP wrote:
my point was just that by checking the CRC32 of my cart again (quick and easy to do), I could tell with very high confidence that the cart still matched the dump I had previously made […].

Sorry, I somehow did not get that part when I originally read your post. Thanks for the pics! I guess now we know that they also did the weird (K) code for VUE-AA-01(K). Do you have any idea what that means? It’s there for one Game Boy PCB, too. However, the PCBs definitely match, so I wonder if that’s an indicator for… anything, really 🙂

cYa,

Tauwasser

And I thought it was just me wondering about the K when adding everything to Dat-o-Matic 😀

BigFred wrote:
Do you have a complete list of all games you dumped with the USB-linker? Would not hurt to include all dumps – why waste your hard work? As I understand you also did Virtual Bowling and now you just don’t have the cart anymore. So I’ll add that as a verification as well. I think we can easily count you as a trustworthy dumper 🙂

I dumped the complete US and JP collection with my USB link dumper, and I checked all of my dumps against your database, and all ROMs match. I’d be glad to recheck/photograph any, except SD Gundam or Virtual Bowling, which I no longer own (though it sounds like Tauwasser confirmed the SD Gundam dump, and M.K. confirmed the Virtual Bowling dump, so you shouldn’t need confirmation from me for those).

Tauwasser wrote:
I guess now we know that they also did the weird (K) code for VUE-AA-01(K). Do you have any idea what that means? It’s there for one Game Boy PCB, too. However, the PCBs definitely match, so I wonder if that’s an indicator for… anything, really 🙂

Heh, I really have no idea. I looked at a few other carts, but didn’t find another (K). I also have a stack of opened JP Panic Bomber carts (waiting in the connector donor queue 😉 ), and they are all non-(K). The only difference I’ve seen with them is the number (I assume is which board it was on the PCB panel or something), and a marking in the soldermask on the back (some are circled I, others circled N). On the (K) PCB, it has RB circled in the copper. The (K) PCB also looks to be lower quality… you can see the ‘E’ in VUE and ‘G’ in GND didn’t etch properly. But the PCB design looks to be pretty much identical.

Unfortunately, I thinned the herd (er… maybe hoard) a few years back, so I no longer own several copies of every game. Maybe someone else with a US Jack Bros can check whether they have a (K) or non-(K). It looks like the PCB pic on this site is non-(K). I checked my JP Jack Bros cart, and it had a non-(K) PCB, though it had the circled N in the copper, rather than in the silkscreen like the JP Panic Bomber carts had.

I also checked for another Virtual Fishing here, and I didn’t find one… so I’ll see about borrowing my friend’s copy. Not sure when that’ll be though.

DogP

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DogP schrieb:

I dumped the complete US and JP collection with my USB link dumper, and I checked all of my dumps against your database, and all ROMs match. I’d be glad to recheck/photograph any, except SD Gundam or Virtual Bowling, which I no longer own (though it sounds like Tauwasser confirmed the SD Gundam dump, and M.K. confirmed the Virtual Bowling dump, so you shouldn’t need confirmation from me for those).
…
I also checked for another Virtual Fishing here, and I didn’t find one… so I’ll see about borrowing my friend’s copy. Not sure when that’ll be though.

DogP

I’d be happy if you could do pictures of all games you checked. Thanks in advance. I’ll also add Virtual Bowling. I cannot add M.K.’s verification for now as I still need some kind of proof like a cart/PCB pic. Sorry about that but it has to work like that to verify someone as a dumper who you don’t know yet (unless it is very obvious).

Looking forward to Virtual Fishing 🙂

If I remember tonight/this weekend, I’ll pop open my US Jack Bros. and grab some pics.

Edit:// This is the most interesting thread I’ve read in a while, haha.

BigFred wrote:
I’d be happy if you could do pictures of all games you checked.

Sure… I’ll try to do that this weekend.

DogP