It's been a long day. Here's my latest video, a comparison of the arcade and SNES versions of Gradius III. Please watch it and if you're a swell person, share and or repost it!

Link: https://youtu.be/vphOYY83MIw

#gradius #gradiusIII #gradius3 #arcade #snes

ok... I kind of not want to do this soldering in microscopic spaces ever again atm, but it was very fun 🤪

for some masochistic reason I decided to make a better version of a pico #micropython #snes ( super #famicom ) dumper I had made ( https://social.treehouse.systems/@xsk/114148413884475403 ).

so... after I improved the codebase to be able to dump a 4MB HiROM cartridge in less than 10 mins ( thanks @matt_trentini about that - can definitely be improved more if I rewrite it, used to be 2h+ ), I found that I got about 800 or so malformed bytes on a 4MB dump....

So..., blaming ( rightfully ) the dupont wires and breadboard connections, I moved the design on a prototype board, with pinouts to possibly attach a logic analyzer, an oscilloscope and anything I might need to make it faster and more reliable.... and that took hours... at least 6h went on putting this monstrosity in place, and one error from my side when arranging the shift registers was at least one hour of those.

Thankfully, after all done, it just worked, I didn't have to debug anything and even skipped the rudimentary error correction I had put int place before with no issues. I could enjoy #gradius3 on my PC knowing that it is coming directly from my cartridge 🤩

Now... I need to still implement all the other ROM makeups in order to dump all my collection, currently can only do 0x20, and 0x21 ( HiROM, LoROM ). I will rewrite most of the logic to use micropython's viper mode before I do so though, which should further increase dumping speed - possibly 10fold.

Have also plans to make and order normal PCB boards, add a rotary encoder, screen, 3d printed case, and maybe even attempt an emulator on it... fun project though.

P.S
I kind of hope that the person that used to own these cartridges before me appreciates the time I spent to get the saves out of them - even though we will never know 😇

Apparently there's a semi-invincibility glitch in Gradius III, across most versions.

Semi-invincibility, because it doesn't protect against obstacle/wall collision, a lot of stuff in the last stage, and cubes  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z4EcFWRdTA

#Gradius3 #GradiusIII #STG #Shmup

I'm pretty late for #VGMWednesday #FarFromEarth ... but oh, well. That's the work day and time zones for you.

Just to go with something nostalgic I'll put up "Departure for Space" from #Gradius3. I don't think anyone would put the soundtrack as a best of, but this one is burnt into my memory anyhow.

Let's go with a cover for this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnYAO_Jm6I4

I have to say that I find this quite impressive. I was curious on how this might impact playability, especially since the slowdown makes it easier on a #shmup like this when having to destroy so many enemies and avoid so many projectiles. Looks like the hacker noted that as well.  #gradius3 #snes

28 years later, hacker fixes rampant slowdown on SNES‘ Gradius III | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/28-years-later-hacker-fixes-rampant-slowdown-on-snes-gradius-iii/