Drakon Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Me and doug stumbled across a way to get the gsu 2 starfox 1 running much faster than before. Previously the cartridge had a top speed of 28.3 mhz, but now it runs at 40 mhz without any issues. The game could probably go even faster but at 40 mhz the game is very difficult and I think if I made it faster it would become too difficult. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47rcZa72XAw&list=UU9G7zkSqL0nMI5eNk0uN65A&index=1&feature=plcp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psy_commando Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Great, but now it runs too fast :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon Posted January 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Great, but now it runs too fast Worry not. I can set it to any speed below 40 mhz. I can do 35.5 mhz, 34 ish mhz, 33.33, 33, 32, 30, etc etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon Posted January 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 New video: Here's the game being cleared from start to finish running at 42 mhz (2x speed) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRwtrdPkvJA&feature=channel_video_title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patch93 Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 Do you think you could make the game slow down at times at parts where the audio is supposed to completely play out? (Example: Intro, Emergency Call Sequence, Asteroid Belt/Space Armada Hyperspace Jump Sequence, Game Clear Sequence, etc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Do you think you could make the game slow down at times at parts where the audio is supposed to completely play out? (Example: Intro, Emergency Call Sequence, Asteroid Belt/Space Armada Hyperspace Jump Sequence, Game Clear Sequence, etc.) I have a switch installed on my cart that lets my switch the game speed between overclocked and default while it's running. But you have to manually flick the switch and sometimes it can crash the game from moving the cart around too much. The game is fine going at super speeds. I actually managed to get it going at a top speed of 48 mhz but once you go over 42 mhz the framerate doesn't improve at all so there's no point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NayibPastrana Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 This is impressive. Now for someone who has no idea what any of it means, can you explain? XD From what I understand, you modded the cartridge to improve framerate on the console? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salem Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 This is impressive. Now for someone who has no idea what any of it means, can you explain? XD From what I understand, you modded the cartridge to improve framerate on the console? basically he upped the speed of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NayibPastrana Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 basically he upped the speed of the game. See, I understood THAT. But what I'm asking is HOW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patch93 Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 See, I understood THAT. But what I'm asking is HOW. He overclocked the FX chip basically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon Posted January 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 This is impressive. Now for someone who has no idea what any of it means, can you explain? XD From what I understand, you modded the cartridge to improve framerate on the console? It's more than just an overclock, I wish it were that simple. Yes you can plug this cartridge into any regular non-modded snes and it'll run at the same super speed. All the necessary mods are built right into the game cartridge. First to understand this a little better you need to realize there's three versions of the superfx chip. The first version is called the mario chip it was only used in starfox 1. The second superfx chip is called the gsu 1. The mario chip is basically just a beta version of the gsu 1 so both the mario chip and gsu 1 pretty much run the same (both chips suffer from the same amount of slowdown). The third and final version of the superfx is called the gsu 2. The gsu 2 is way better than the gsu 1 / mario chip. The gsu 2 has wayyyy less slowndown and can overclock much faster than the gsu 1. Luckily for us all three versions of the superfx chip are both forward and backward compatible with each other. Meaning you can play any superfx game on any version of the superfx chip as long as the cartridge has enough ram on the pcb. When I first started overclocking games I had a gsu 1 starfox 1 cartridge built for testing. When I overclocked the gsu 1 cart the game would have nice smooth framerate when there was barely anything to draw. However when more than just a few objects appeared the gsu 1 would suffer slowdown and the framerate would drop down to the original game speed which is horribly slow. Overclocking a gsu 1 is a waste of time because of the frequent slowdown. Also the gsu 1 can overclock up to a certain speed before it can't go any faster. The gsu 2 I've had starfox 1 running at an insane 48 mhz without any issues. So the gsu is necessary for any overclocked superfx game. I actually hire a friend to wire up eproms of superfx games to gsu 2 cartridges because he has all the gear and skills to do that kind of work. Then he mails the cart to me and I do the overclock. The overclock is nothing super complicated you need to find to trace of the gsu 2 that feeds the gsu 2 the clock signal. Then you disconnect this trace from everything and wire it into a 4 pin crystal oscillator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milkyway64 Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 This is incredible. It take the number one gripe I've had about SNES Starfox, that being how sluggish it feels, and all but eliminates it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon Posted January 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 This is incredible. It take the number one gripe I've had about SNES Starfox, that being how sluggish it feels, and all but eliminates it. Yup. When I started out with modding this's something I always wanted to do. But I sort of didn't try too hard for a long time because I didn't actually think it was possible. I really have to thank doug as he's built me a whole bunch of superfx repros which gave me the carts I needed to do the necessary testing and modifications. Most of the necessary information was out there we just had to put all the pieces together. The only thing I did that hadn't been done before was disconnect the gsu 2 and gsu 1 carts from the onboard clock circuit and wire a crystal oscillator directly into the chip. When I first tried overclocking the carts I followed an older superfx overclock guide that doesn't work one bit. Here's the writeup I made regarding the old mod: http://forums.benhec...hp?f=58&t=44345 Also I can build and sell this carts by commission request. But the carts are going to cost 130$ plus the price of shipping. And it can take a very very long time to build one of these (depending how busy doug is) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakon Posted January 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 New fun little video I made. 2x framerate with the flick of a switch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icy Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 Wow, that really is cool. I can't really keep my attention on SF SNES because it's so… slow. Good job and all that stuff. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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