Bari-arm Import on NA Sega CD

[Craft_XIII]

Hello,

I recently bought a working model 1 North American Sega CD for cheap. My aim was to spend as little as possible in order to play only a couple games that interested me. Therefore, I opted to import the Japanese versions of both Robo Aleste and Android Assault(3x cheaper). In order to play the imported games I also bought myself an EverDriveMD flashcart, to load the Region-Free Mega CD bios onto my North American Sega CD console.

Fast-forward to today...

Dennin Aleste works great. However, Bari-arm won't load. It just sits at the Mega CD menu screen.
The disc itself is in near mint condition without any visible debris or scratches. This leads me to believe that either I need to find an updated Universal Bios for my EverDriveMD? Or, perhaps this particular game simply won't work on a non-Japanese Mega CD.

I've scoured the Internet and couldn't find any information on this particular scenario, so I figured this would be a good time to sign-up for a Shmups Forum account. Something I've meant to do for awhile.

Anyone have any suggestions, knowledge of this particular version of the game?
I'm really hoping I can get this game to work.

Thanks!

[BulletMagnet]

Moving to the Hardware forum.

[Craft_XIII]

Moving to the Hardware forum.

So you think it may be hardware related then? And not related to the game itself?
Lol, thanks for the suggestion.

[Craft_XIII]

Moving to the Hardware forum.

Any chance I can get this moved back into the Games forum? I still haven't gotten any clues.
If I can reach the people playing/who own Bari-arm then perhaps they can tell me how they are playing it, and with what hardware configuration.

[ApolloBoy]

Any chance I can get this moved back into the Games forum? I still haven't gotten any clues.

Doubt you'd have any success there, it sounds like a hardware issue more than the actual game being at fault. I never had much luck loading a BIOS ROM from the Everdrive so I wound up installing l_oliviera's region-free BIOS and I've never had an issue since.

[FinalBaton]

so I wound up installing l_oliviera's region-free BIOS and I've never had an issue since.

Go on...

This is a bios for the Sega CD that you put on an flash cart, correct?
Does it allows you to play import Sega CD games without any mod to the console? And how does the installation/operation of the bios works? (I mean : is the bios just a file that you dump on your everdrive, or are there more steps than that? And do you need to select the bios on the cart everytime you want to play an import CD?)

[rpgposer]

My guess is that there might be a problem with the game CD itself, however, as a test you could:
1. Rip your Bari-Arm CD to .iso.
2. Change the region code on the iso by using SDCONV http://www.segaxtreme.net/misc/downloads/scdconv.zip.
3. Burn the region changed iso to a blank CD-ROM.
4. Try it in your Sega CD.
Haven't tried this myself as I don't own a Sega CD. I had one back in the day and loved it, but it died before the Dreamcast was released.

[nem]

This is a bios for the Sega CD that you put on an flash cart, correct?
Does it allows you to play import Sega CD games without any mod to the console? And how does the installation/operation of the bios works? (I mean : is the bios just a file that you dump on your everdrive, or are there more steps than that? And do you need to select the bios on the cart everytime you want to play an import CD?)

I just looked into this not having heard about it before. It's meant to be installed inside the unit as a replacement boot ROM, although I guess it would work through an Everdrive to some capacity.

http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/meg ... scs.27562/
http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/reg ... -00.54254/

[Unseen]

This is a bios for the Sega CD that you put on an flash cart, correct?

You can put dumps of the original Sega CD BIOSses on a card and load them with a Mega Everdrive - but IIRC only if you do not have a 32X attached.

Does it allows you to play import Sega CD games without any mod to the console?

Yes and no - loading a CD BIOS from a different region will allow you to boot games from that region, but it will not switch the Megadrive itself to 50 or 60Hz, you still need a hardware modification to do that.

And how does the installation/operation of the bios works? (I mean : is the bios just a file that you dump on your everdrive, or are there more steps than that?

Copy file(s) to SD card, put card in Mega Everdrive, put Mega Everdrive in Megadrive, turn Megadrive on, select file using gamepad, watch startup screen of the selected Sega CD BIOS. Optional: Insert CD of correct region for that BIOS and boot it.

And do you need to select the bios on the cart everytime you want to play an import CD?)

Of course.

[Shoryukev]

I never realized you could use an everdrive to load bios for a sega CD unit, that's pretty brilliant! I only have a small handful of Sega-CD games (that aren't CD-R's....shh....lol) though, so it's never been much of an issue for me.

[ApolloBoy]

The Everdrive's been able to do that for years, but it doesn't work very well, at least in my experience. I wound up doing a BIOS mod on my European Mega CD II (which I normally couldn't use since I have a Genesis 2 and Japanese Mega Drive) instead and it plays everything now.

[FinalBaton]

The Everdrive's been able to do that for years, but it doesn't work very well, at least in my experience. I wound up doing a BIOS mod on my European Mega CD II (which I normally couldn't use since I have a Genesis 2 and Japanese Mega Drive) instead and it plays everything now.

Ah, good to know!

[Craft_XIII]

My guess is that there might be a problem with the game CD itself, however, as a test you could:
1. Rip your Bari-Arm CD to .iso.
2. Change the region code on the iso by using SDCONV http://www.segaxtreme.net/misc/downloads/scdconv.zip.
3. Burn the region changed iso to a blank CD-ROM.
4. Try it in your Sega CD.
Haven't tried this myself as I don't own a Sega CD. I had one back in the day and loved it, but it died before the Dreamcast was released.

Thanks for the suggestion.

So you're saying I should burn a Japanese region iso of Bari-Arm from my copy that won't work?
To see if it's a problem with my particular disc? I'll have to try this when I get some time.

I'm worried that much like Toaplan Shooting Battle Vol.1 the game simply won't work without the original Japanese system.
Ironically, Toaplan Shooting Battle was my prior purchase before Bari-Arm and Dennin Aleste. I knew TSBv1 needed to be played on an original PlayStation, but had no idea it needed to also be a genuine Japanese PlayStation and that a North American PS1 modded to play imports wouldn't work... The rabbit-hole never ends...

[Craft_XIII]

The Everdrive's been able to do that for years, but it doesn't work very well, at least in my experience. I wound up doing a BIOS mod on my European Mega CD II (which I normally couldn't use since I have a Genesis 2 and Japanese Mega Drive) instead and it plays everything now.

Hmm... interesting. On a scale of 1 to 10 how difficult of a hassle is it to perform such a mod?

[ApolloBoy]

Can't really give a scale, it depends on how skilled you are with desoldering since it involves desoldering the original BIOS ROM and sticking a socket in its place.

[Shoryukev]

So you're saying I should burn a Japanese region iso of Bari-Arm from my copy that won't work?
To see if it's a problem with my particular disc? I'll have to try this when I get some time.

Close, he was suggesting burning the ISO of the game onto your computer, and then using a tool to change the region of the ISO you just burned to USA......then trying it in your Sega CD. In theory I think that should work great, as long as playing it off a CD-R doesn't bother you.

[rpgposer]

So you're saying I should burn a Japanese region iso of Bari-Arm from my copy that won't work?
To see if it's a problem with my particular disc? I'll have to try this when I get some time.

Close, he was suggesting burning the ISO of the game onto your computer, and then using a tool to change the region of the ISO you just burned to USA......then trying it in your Sega CD. In theory I think that should work great, as long as playing it off a CD-R doesn't bother you.

This... and I had another thought about testing the game itself, but it really skirts piracy, which I do not condone. Using your purchased copy of the game you could rip it to iso and try it in an emulator. Region changing wouldn't be necessary.
Once you know the game is OK, then test the bios issue on real hardware by region changing the iso and playing it using real hardware.

[Craft_XIII]

So you're saying I should burn a Japanese region iso of Bari-Arm from my copy that won't work?
To see if it's a problem with my particular disc? I'll have to try this when I get some time.

Close, he was suggesting burning the ISO of the game onto your computer, and then using a tool to change the region of the ISO you just burned to USA......then trying it in your Sega CD. In theory I think that should work great, as long as playing it off a CD-R doesn't bother you.

Hmm... at that point I'd probably just buy the North American, localized, Android Assault version of the game.
There is something about playing burnt games that bothers me. I own a few for the Dreamcast and it seems I subconsciously choose to avoid them altogether. I cant actually explain why. It just doesn't feel right to me. And I'm not even talking about my overarching views on software piracy. It's something much deeper in my psyche. A ritualistic/nostalgic type thing? Pulling from old childhood desires, tactile feels, and symbiosis among physical objects?

Yeah... this might be good for testing purposes, but I don't see myself going the CD-R route. I'm weird like that.

[Craft_XIII]

Can't really give a scale, it depends on how skilled you are with desoldering since it involves desoldering the original BIOS ROM and sticking a socket in its place.

When its time to break-out the soldering iron I usually drink a 40oz of malt beverage then gether-dun.
I've done a bit of desoldering...

However, I've only ever desoldered a scart cable and arcade stick... both worked when I was finished...

What is this "socket" you speak of? Something you bought online?

[rpgposer]

So you're saying I should burn a Japanese region iso of Bari-Arm from my copy that won't work?
To see if it's a problem with my particular disc? I'll have to try this when I get some time.

Close, he was suggesting burning the ISO of the game onto your computer, and then using a tool to change the region of the ISO you just burned to USA......then trying it in your Sega CD. In theory I think that should work great, as long as playing it off a CD-R doesn't bother you.

Hmm... at that point I'd probably just buy the North American, localized, Android Assault version of the game.
There is something about playing burnt games that bothers me. I own a few for the Dreamcast and it seems I subconsciously choose to avoid them altogether. I cant actually explain why. It just doesn't feel right to me. And I'm not even talking about my overarching views on software piracy. It's something much deeper in my psyche. A ritualistic/nostalgic type thing? Pulling from old childhood desires, tactile feels, and symbiosis among physical objects?

Yeah... this might be good for testing purposes, but I don't see myself going the CD-R route. I'm weird like that.

And I have to chime in as well... these are the things I would do to test, but not to play. The original is always better. Back to game testing... here is the redump.org checksum info for Bari-Arm - http://redump.org/disc/3118/. They say it's good, I say caveat emptor.

[FinalBaton]

There is something about playing burnt games that bothers me. I own a few for the Dreamcast and it seems I subconsciously choose to avoid them altogether. I cant actually explain why. It just doesn't feel right to me. And I'm not even talking about my overarching views on software piracy. It's something much deeper in my psyche. A ritualistic/nostalgic type thing? Pulling from old childhood desires, tactile feels, and symbiosis among physical objects?

Omg I feel the exact same way. It's weird how the mind works, isn't it?

[ApolloBoy]

I've done a bit of desoldering...

However, I've only ever desoldered a scart cable and arcade stick... both worked when I was finished...

Doing this will take considerably more skill since you'll be dealing with a 40-pin chip on a double-sided board. If you don't have a desoldering pump or gun I wouldn't try it.

What is this "socket" you speak of? Something you bought online?

You'll need to install a 40-pin DIP socket (no quotes because it's an actual socket of course) in case you messed up programming the EPROM with the new BIOS or you want to switch back to the original BIOS ROM in the future. They're available pretty much anywhere you can get electronic parts.

[Craft_XIII]

OK, almost a year later and I've finally found evidence that I'm not the only one with this problem...
https://quitecross.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... y-kind-of/

I may fiddle around with my "Mega CD" bios file on my Everdrive again and/or see if another "region free" enabling device might work.
Anyways, figured I'd leave a record of my findings in case others find themselves with the same problem.

Thanks for all who replied with solutions or suggestions.