Basically, it freezes during the in-game event below, when initiating dialogue with the first Gym Leader. I found mention of it in this Reddit thread.
I dumped the game and save data with godmode9 and loaded them with MelonDS, and the same issue occurs.
The most likely issue is that it's just counterfeit and an untested ROM was loaded onto the memory, right? I've attached images of the taken-apart shell and board if you're knowledgeable about spotting fake copies.
The labels on each IC seemed correct to me, and the cartridge itself seems fine too. The serial number on the back looks like it was worn away through usage, it's only visible if you look really closely.
There were 6 cartridge revisions of Pearl in Japan, but the later revisions trimmed down the ROM size from ~128mb to ~64mb. Comparing the dumped ROM with the only early revision ROM i have, 7 hexadecimal bytes are different between them.
When the save file is loaded with this other ROM, the dialogue in-game completes successfully and the battle starts.
please help me, gamers
A small update: I tried reflowing the solder on the ROM chip, still nothing. So I looked into the ROM itself with Tinke to see where the mismatched data actually was in the game files by comparing it to the working reference ROM.
The first six mismatched bytes belong to the field_encounteffect file, which I think means the game is failing to pull up the Gym Leader challenge animation. It would explain the freeze at this specific point.
There's also an additional byte in the font file that doesn't match.
The one Reddit thread I mentioned above posted an image of their cartridge, and the numbers above the contacts seem to match mine. So, it's either an obscure batch of bad Diamond/Pearl cartridges in Japan, or a (very convincing) counterfeit cartridge...?
I guess I'll try to find where I bought it in the first place. I think it was eBay, but it has been a few years.
I dumped the game and save data with godmode9 and loaded them with MelonDS, and the same issue occurs.
The most likely issue is that it's just counterfeit and an untested ROM was loaded onto the memory, right? I've attached images of the taken-apart shell and board if you're knowledgeable about spotting fake copies.
The labels on each IC seemed correct to me, and the cartridge itself seems fine too. The serial number on the back looks like it was worn away through usage, it's only visible if you look really closely.
There were 6 cartridge revisions of Pearl in Japan, but the later revisions trimmed down the ROM size from ~128mb to ~64mb. Comparing the dumped ROM with the only early revision ROM i have, 7 hexadecimal bytes are different between them.
When the save file is loaded with this other ROM, the dialogue in-game completes successfully and the battle starts.
please help me, gamers
Post automatically merged:
A small update: I tried reflowing the solder on the ROM chip, still nothing. So I looked into the ROM itself with Tinke to see where the mismatched data actually was in the game files by comparing it to the working reference ROM.
The first six mismatched bytes belong to the field_encounteffect file, which I think means the game is failing to pull up the Gym Leader challenge animation. It would explain the freeze at this specific point.
There's also an additional byte in the font file that doesn't match.
The one Reddit thread I mentioned above posted an image of their cartridge, and the numbers above the contacts seem to match mine. So, it's either an obscure batch of bad Diamond/Pearl cartridges in Japan, or a (very convincing) counterfeit cartridge...?
I guess I'll try to find where I bought it in the first place. I think it was eBay, but it has been a few years.
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