Genesis controller compatibility fixes for SMS games

[huygens]

Posted about this in the Everdrive MD subforum as well. Thought it might be a bit more visible as it's own topic. There are a few master system games that don't work with genesis controllers. Note this is a problem with the games themselves not the Everdrive.

Alien Syndrome
Bomber Raid
Great Volleyball
Montazuma's Revenge
Penguin Land
Tennis Ace
Shanghai
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Wonder boy in Monster Land

I believe these games don't work due to the Japanese/Export check the games perform. Part of the region check toggles the select line on the controller port. It's supposed to be reset but these games fail to do that.

I patched the games to reset the select line or bypass the part of the region detection code that writes to the select line.

These were patched to reset the select lines (Please check crc of Patched rom if it doesn't work):
Montazuma's Revenge (8fc6bb9c)
Penguin Land (cb437bc2)
Wonder boy in Monster Land (cdc3c8df)
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (c63e4d42)
Shanghai (91387e3f)

Region detection patch:
Alien Syndrome (6b3e06ff)
Bomber Raid (c880978a)
Great Volleyball (bd29dabf)
Tennis Ace (b0b086bb)

[ConHuevos]

Awesome, thanks.  Been really wanting to play wonderboy SMS.

[Assman]

Great work! Now I don't have to buy and dick around with a controller extension like I figured I would.

I tried everything except Montazuma's Revenge and Tennis Ace and they all seemed to work flawlessly.

[keropi]

awesome! thanks for sharing them!

[Kyle]

This is great. Is it possible to patch Genesis games like Golden Axe 2 so that they don't require the mode button? I have an expensive arcade stick that lacks it.

[huygens]

I'm sure it's possible though I don't know how hard it would be. I'll take a look.
Edit: It's a more complicated problem. Don't think I can fix those games but once I get my Genesis for testing I'll see.

[butfluffy]

great work now i should be able to play these games using my ps2 to megadrive/sms controller adapter. i second the request for the megadrive/genesis possible game fixes. i have to use a standard 3 button pd with these titles. i have tried golden axe 2 using the mode button on my more comfy 6 button pad and converter but it still don't seem to work. i must be doing something wrong mode button wise lol.

[Kyle]

No worries at all. It was worth a shot. I appreciate the SMS fixes.

[Redifer]

Hey this is a GREAT idea for a patch! Definitely applying it to the affected games that live on both my Mega Everdrive and my Master Everdrive. I like to play on a real SMS sometimes instead of a Genesis and far FAR prefer a Genesis controller.  THANKS!

[Retro-Nerd]

Many thanks for the patches. All of them worked perfectly fine. 

[dplc81]

Dude, you are trully a hero for me! This is one of the "holy grails" that I tried to find on the internet for years.

I'm talking mainly about Wonderboy, I used to short a Genesis controller line in order to make it work.

It's worth saying that this patch works with Monica no Castelo do Dragao (brazilian version of this game) as well.

Thank so much, I really appreciate your effort.

Other hacking holy grail I don't have much hope to see soon is a saving rom of NBA JAM TE for the 32X. The only hack I find is one that disables EEPROM saving and enables the game to boot. But thats another story...

Cheers!

[huygens]

Thanks, glad they were helpful!

[phoenixdownita]

Not sure if it is the same but all I did was to buy a 9 pin genesis/megadrive controller extension cable and one 9 pin M-F gender changer (really a tiny extender more than a gender changer).
Connect the extension cable to genny/MD (or even real SMS), connect the gender changer F side to it (to the M on the extension cable), snip pin 7 on the gender changer M side and connect the controller cable to it.

That's it. Basically interrupt pin 7.
What you get is B = 1(Start) and C = 2 (the rest is unused) for a 3 button Genny/MD ctrl
Only that sucks is that you can't use it on MegaED menu' as it wants you to press A, I just connect the pad after I selected and started the game.

All SMS troubled games run fine on MD this way AFAIK, you can use the same contraption to use a Genny controller on a real US SMS, Jap SMS don't seem to mind if you use a Genny controller directly as I believe they do not connect TL (pin 7) anyway so the contraption is superfluous.

[huygens]

The benefit of the patches (attached to the first post) is that you can use the games without any hardware adapters. Of course if playing the actual carts the adapter cable you describe is required.

[gengus]

Hi, where are the patches? Anyone have them?