Sentimental Graffiti 2 and RGB swap

[Manji]

I've been visiting to this board for over 2 years and this is the first time I post. :P

Anyways, I'll get straight to the point.

Sentimental Graffiti 2 (R18's release, Hooligans' pack) 2 cds, with R18's "almost hidden" TOC (You can actually see the whole cd with CDmage, but it reports that the index structure is broken) with pal protection 1 (Reboots after the Sega license screen when RGB cable is connected).

Well, Megalex's Pal Patcher 1.1 didn't clear the protection. Could it be possible that R18's hidden file system doesn't allow Pal Patcher to remove the protection? (I didn't succeed removing the fake TOC from the image, because I lack skill in hex stuff. :P ) It finds 2 Pal Protection 1's, (I guess the first one is in the fake TOC) but no-go. Anyways, a few interesting points arose after fiddling with the image.

Roadster's 09 00 09 00 26 4F 03 E4 03 E0 hexcode actually stopped the rebooting, but the NTSC videomode doesn't initialize because of this. (JUST like Card Raptors and Super Boom Tread Troopers, like Megalex stated in his html help) With Roadsters, this code works because AFTER that code, the game re-initializes the video. Sentimental Graffiti seems to initialize the video within that hex segment, thus no video. (Looks like Card Raptors and SBT does the same thing.)

Anyways, after finding this out, I tried the game with my VGA box and of course it works. Senti2, CR and SBT all checks if the RGB cable is connected, and then initializes the video.

I'm not sure if someone has invented this before, but here goes: Here's a way to get Sentimental Graffiti 2, Super Boom Tread Troopers and Card Raptors to work with RGB cable until Megalexx finds a way to patch these rebooting games.

Pull out the RGB cable and turn the power on. Listen to the drive to speed up and the lens goes from the inner rim to the outer rim. Just when the DC shows the Sega license screen, you should hear a small loading sound. After you hear it, wait for 5,5 seconds and put in the RGB cable. Now you can play the game in full RGB with NTSC! The main idea is to keep the cable unconnected from the start and plug it in JUST before the game starts to load. (So you actually plug the cable in ~0,5 seconds after the game checks for the RGB cable, which happens right after the license screen) You don't have much time to put the cable back in, only ~0,3 seconds. I tried for like 2 hours before I got this to work, but I finally did succeed. IT TAKES PRACTICE and lots of patience. If you put it the RGB cable in too early, the game reboots. If too late, the video won't initialize. Find your own way to eg. count for seconds if neccessary. Personally, I count to six after hearing the sound and then plug it in. I get it to work almost every time (~80%). After succeeding, just keep practising.. you will eventually get it to work almost every time.

Good luck!

PS. Megalexx, is there actually a way to add a video initialization code to that 09 00 09 00 26 4F 03 E4 03 E0 string?

-Manji

[Megalexxx]

I'm looking for it for about 1 year now.