About selfbooting Perpetual Blue

[Megalexxx]

I'm still trying to selfboot Perpetual Blue, and now, I'm (almost) sure of something : the problem is in Title.sfd.

I've tried almost everything.
I've tried selfbooting it keeping the EXACT LBA for each files, on the 1st session (data track), but it still freezes before Title.sfd.
Title.bin is some kind of video. I think it's the one with the very first logos, and this one passes fine.

Any selfbooting method "works", but you've got to push Start or A button before Title.sfd to skip it...

Any idea is welcome !!!

[djgarf]

what about making a dummy file to replace the one that is giving you trouble??

[Megalexxx]

I'd like this movie to work.
It might be the same problem with the other movies...

I think the sfd is OK (I tried to remake it), but the SFD player might have trouble playing this one...

[djgarf]

wasnt it a r18 release??
they did some really weird stuff to some of their releases and it looks like this is one of them!

[Megalexxx]

The video works on non boot version...
I wonder why it doesn't when you selfboot it.

I tried to find some hidden files, like on some other R18 releases, but didn't find anything. Anyway, I use exactly the same image for some of my tests, so every files where there.

I think 1st_read.bin doesn't properly load Title.sfd when it's selfboot. But why ?!?

[djgarf]

the only thing i can think of then is by altering the 1st_read.bin for the lba that it is doing something so it dont read the sfd file but i dont know what

[Megalexxx]

Yep, I thought of that but...
1) the non selfboot version works
2) I tried with exactly the same image non selfboot (and so with the same LBAs) and it doesn't work

The differences might be :
1) LBAs => I've tried with same LBAs
2) it detects if the CD contains several session and if so, it fails loading the 1st SFD, but I don't see why programmers would do that...
3) 1st_read.bin from Utopia's boot CD loads properly SFDs, but the one on Perpetual Blue release doesn't

So, after playing the movie with logos, 1st_read.bin seems to not being able ta "catch" Title.sfd. Maybe the SFD player can't work properly because I didn't hacked it. The problem is I didn't find any other bin files that would be some kind of SFD player. I think it's built in the DC. So I can't see why it doesn't work...

[jeffma68]

did you try 45000 LBA
as some games Only work with this LBA
like KOF2001/2002

[Megalexxx]

Yes I tried 45000 trick, and it does the same : Title.sfd doesn't load.

But I've just tried with DP3 and it seems to work.
I've got to find why 1st_read.bin can't load properly title.sfd...
It must be some kind of initialization problem.

[Megalexxx]

I think I might have found something :
_ 1st_read.bin from Perpetual Blue uses CRI SFD Ver.1.14 and fails to load Title.sfd
_ 1st_read.bin from DP3 uses CRI SFD Ver.1.43 and loads Title.bsfd with no problem

Maybe R18 compressed these sfd files using a too recent compressor, and the original 1st_read.bin can't read them any more.

If that's the case, I've got 2 solutions :
1) rebuild 1st_read.bin with a newer SFD player => impossible without the source code
2) recompress SFD files using an older compressor => I don't know which one I could use...

Any suggestion ?

[djgarf]

i thought it booted ok as a nonboot game in that case how can it be the sfd player causing the problem??

[Megalexxx]

I thought of this too.

I tried to find a default SFD player in Utopia boot disc, but I didn't find anything...

[jeffma68]

try yursoft's SFD-Fixer.exe

[Hacker999]

Originally posted by jeffma68
did you try 45000 LBA
as some games Only work with this LBA
like KOF2001/2002

KOF 2001 & 2002 don't need that LBA. I have both of those games each with a LBA of 11702.


Megalexxx, I can only suggest that you take the sfd file the the non-selboot disc you have and try re-encoding it with the Sega Dreamcast Movie Creator.

BTW, try it with a completely different sfd file and name it Title.sfd to see if it works. Just an idea.

[Megalexxx]

Yes, I've thought of that : it doesn't work. Even with a blank SFD...

What's weird is that if you push start just before the SFD is played, the game boots fine.