Hacking Castlevania PoR randomly freezes on DS Simply

[Syntheticfish]

Doesnt the Micro SD not matter on the Simply or R4... i thought it pre-cached the game into a seperate memory bank so everything would run flawlessly.
I was under the impression that this is why most homebrew that acesses the filesystem doesnt yet work with slot 1 cards.

As to Castlevania I have the retail version and it works flawlessly (17 hours logged and lvl 1 hard mode beaten), and I have a fiend who has the retail version and it freezes ocasionally.
I would suggest:
- Try a different rom dump from a more reputable location
- Clean the contacts on your card and DS with either contact cleaner or rubbing alcohol

 

[krdvmus]

OK...

I've got a Kingston 1G (made in Japan) today, and it works flawlessly with Castlevania PoR (I used the same rom and save file).

So, I can confirm that the problem did happen by my fucking Apacer 1G.

 

[looopz]

Well I reformated my card as fat with 64 cluster size - not one crash at all = happy man. Great game too!

 

[SpaceJump]

looopz, which MicroSD card do you have?

 

[Destructobot]

I have a sandisk 1gb microsd

 

[Shirakani]

The crashing is NOT an issue of either M3S or R4. ppl using R4 have exactly the same problems as M3S users...the two carts are IDENTICAL ffs.

It's an issue of the memory you're using, basically Kingston (japan) is the best. I have zero issues w/ this game on a Kingston 1g (japan) microSD and a Kingston 2g CF for my old M3 CF. Zero freezes.

I'll tell you one GUARANTEED way to get the game to freeze as a test. Enter any warp point, and quickly spam-cycle thru all the available destinations, just tap one direction as fast as possible in the main castle. If it's going to crash, it will crash there. If not, it'll NEVER crash.

 

[sabinraijin]

I've played through the game with 1000% and have went through to finish all the quests and all the items/rings and I have yet to see one freeze out of the game. The problem lies in the reading methods these flashcarts are using to run the rom, there appears to be some operation this game requires that the flashcarts generally perform too slow but it seems that some faster cards circumvents the problem. I don't know about all this crap people are spewing about the real game freezing because I've been on gamefaq forums gathering information about the game as well and I haven't seen one thread on freezing on a real cart.

You mustn't have been there around the time the game was first released. There were at least two or three threads with freezing complaints from real cart owners within the first few days of release. I'm thinking that Konami included a fix for future carts, which would explain why there aren't anymore threads about it there (there aren't currently).

What I'd like to see is someone re-dump a real cart proven to not freeze and see if that makes a difference on flashcarts. I don't think the rom has ever been re-dumped aside from the original dump, so it could be that the original dump was from one of the supposed buggy carts.

 

[tama_mog]

I don't know about that, I pre-ordered the game through EBgames to get in on the special bonus bundle....so I'd say it's part of the 1st batch of games released. Haven't seen any freezes.

 

[Shirakani]

There is nothing wrong with any current dump. Just to prove it, myself and a friend dumped the game off our legit carts using an M3 CF and M3 Lite. The CRC of the rom we dumped matched up EXACTLY with the Xenophobia dump.

The rom is good, there is nothing wrong with it. Hell, i've 100%'d the entire game, 100% drop list, 1000% map completion, 100% absolutely everything, lvl1 hard mode completed, on my old M3 CF w/ 2g Kingston (japan) card until i got the M3 Simply.

Transferred my save over, continued playing for the hell of it...ZERO freezes using a 1gb Kingston (japan) microSD.

The problem is NOT in the rom NOR is it in the flashcart peoples, the problem is with the memory you're using and it's access speed/compatibility. I fully 100%'d using a slot2 M3 device before transferring my save over to my legit card w/ R3IN, and everything is just fine.

If you're getting freezes, try another brand of memory stick/card. CV DoS used to be the compatibility test benchmark, now i guess PoR is the new benchmark. If your memory can run this game w/o any freezing, you're pretty much good to go on all future games compatibility wise.

Like i said before, best way to do the freeze test is have most of the castle warp points open, go into any one and spam-cycle through all destinations as fast as you can tap a direction on the dpad. If it doesn't freeze doing that, it will NEVER freeze, and you can rest assured.

 

[BlueStar]

Well I reformated my card as fat with 64 cluster size - not one crash at all = happy man. Great game too!

I've got the same card as you and it works generally OK with the occasional crash talking to the shopkeeper or wind. I've formatted it FAT and that cut down the crashes a bit - how do I format to 64k cluster sizes?

 

[tama_mog]

Search please, countless topics involving this subject, many of which I've posted. Here's a short blur from m3wiki:

"Go to: Start -> Run -> diskmgmt.msc

Select your SD card and right-click "Format"

* Volume Label: Whatever you like
* File System: FAT
* Allocation unit size: 64k


FAT32 Always select the highest cluster size your card can handle (1GB=8192; 2GB=16k; 4GB=32k).

FAT16 Always select the highest cluster size your card can handle (1GB=64k; 2GB=64k; 4GB=64k).

If a specific cluster size breaks Fast Open or Real Time Save in GBA mode, experiment with different cluster sizes to find one that works for you. "

 

[jbullfrog]

How would PoR work on this 1GB Kingston? I don't know if it is made in japan.


http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...4127&adid=17662

I have this microSD and a M3 Simply.

 

[amrod]

on a corsair card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820233039

it wont even get past the 1st saving screen

 

[zeis]

Ok I know not all cards can work (flawless) but that's a bit disappointing. I already thought about returning my M3 and buying a Supercard

 

[krdvmus]

How would PoR work on this 1GB Kingston?  I don't know if it is made in japan.


http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...4127&adid=17662

I have this microSD and a M3 Simply.

I don't know for sure if yours are one of those made in Japan.

Mine looks like this, which looks different from yours.

 

[Nichotin]

For what it is worth:
I also have a Kingston 1GB MicroSD, formatted with fat16/64k. I have played for a while now (halfway through the second painting), and no freezes at all. With Sandisk (not ultraII) fat32/8k it usually froze every ten to twenty minutes.

 

[krdvmus]

Ok I know not all cards can work (flawless) but that's a bit disappointing. I already thought about returning my M3 and buying a Supercard

It seems that SCDS is also not free from micro SD compatibility issues on it.

I mean you still need to get a proper micro SD with SCDS.

 

[jbullfrog1]

krdvmus, I have a Kingston made from Taiwan. Will this work fine?

Also, mine is formatted FAT 32. When I right click the drive in My Computer, there are only 2 options, to format as FAT or as FAT 32.

How do I format FAT 16, and do I even need to?

 

[g.crow]

fat is fat 16

mars

 

[tama_mog]

krdvmus, I have a Kingston made from Taiwan. Will this work fine?

Also, mine is formatted FAT 32. When I right click the drive in My Computer, there are only 2 options, to format as FAT or as FAT 32.

How do I format FAT 16, and do I even need to?

Christ now people are too lazy to read the actual thread or scroll up? I posted how you go about doing it in details just a couple replies above you.