The "Moon Atomizer" bug. Playing US PSO on a non-US DC. Test

[Defend]

To anyone that has the US version of PSO and a JAP or PAL DC.
Or to any PAL owner trying to choose between the bug-safe PAL version or ISP-safe US version (ie, me).

While I have put heaps of hours into getting people to test, verify or simply report on this, nothing else was really my work. I don't have the game you see, so all I could do was hunt, and hunt, and hunt. And find other people's results.

The bug
Using any PSO on a DC that wasn't of the same region resulted in heal/revive/support spells and items not working. Also Rafoie would not work in some cases, while all the rest weren't clear on it.

The problem
Thanks to Dock's comment after seeing the varying results of himself (modded DC, no bug), Cooper (modded DC, no bug) and Dachande (unmodded DC, bug), a simple hypothesis was quickly in place. A modchip prevents the bug.

Search results
After 3 (or was it 4?) nights of running back and forth all over the net, plenty of case material was found, all proving the theory, but also suggesting solutions for unmodded DCs.

All these results are for a US PSO. Where I haven't said any other method, assume a Utopia boot disc was used to boot the US PSO.

On Jap DC:
Cooper - modded, no bug
Mellow - unmodded, bug
Anthroplasm - unmodded, no bug. => Was using "DC-X" to boot.
Sonia - unmodded, no bug. => Was using "CDX" to boot.

On PAL DC:
Dock - modded, no bug
robobit - modded, no bug
Dachande - unmodded, bug
Ivy - unmodded, bug
Kenny - unmodded, bug
Sega_Katana - unmodded, bug
Liquid_Snake - unmodded, bug
branners - unmodded, no bug => Used "website" option to connect his PSO


So all modded DCs avoided the bug. All unmodded DCs caught it, unless another method was used.

So to find a solution, i went hunting around, asking about booting witha gameshark or CDX disc. This went real slow, no one had a gmeshark except for people with a modded DC, and tests on this only gave non-bugged results everytime. As for the CDX, slow replies and confusion with the DC-X thingo also gave no concrete findings.

Finally I found branners. Quite quickly, in the middle of nowhere, a post in an old thread mentioned that he used the website option. He quickly explained how he did it, and that was it. Somehow on a site with two forums asking the same question (PSO World) and at least 3 people hunting for the answer in that same board, thatpost slipped by everyone.

Dachande was the first to test this method, and it works.

Results
To avoid the 'Moon Atomizer' bug online (unsure about offline implications) either:
1. Use a modchip

or

2. Use a boot disc, power up, and simply select WEBSITE to connect, then exit to game and continue to log in for online play.

or

3. Use a "DC-X". I do not know what this is, or if it is the same thing as a CDX.

Method 2 is the one you want.


Finding from all tests, using a US PSO on JAP or PAL machines:

modchip = fix

boot disc alone = bug
website option with boot disc = fix

DC-X disc = fix (Note #2)

gameshark = unknown (Note #1)
override code = unknown (Note #3)

CDX demo disc or CDX/PAR disc = unknown
swaptrick = unknown

I would hazard a guess to say that all these unknown trials would fix the bug. They have not been tested. I think the Utopia boot disc is the culprit

Note 1.
A side affect of this testing was that I think I've discovered that for some strange reason, the Gameshark converts only modded PAL DCs to NTSC outputting DCs.

Note 2.
I still don't know wether the DC-X and CDX are the same thing or not. Its all just typing. If anyone can clear this up, I'd appreciate it.

Note 3.
Anyone gotten the override code to work yet? I haven't rally tried it yet, but its gonna be hard.

Other unconfirmed areas
Does the bug occur offline?
Does Rafoie always fizzle as well?
Is the bug exactly the same with a Jap DC?
Is the DC-X the same device as the CDX (the demo found on some magazines)?

Thanks to Dock for suggesting the problem, branners for coming up with the fix without even knowing anyone wanted it, and Dachfor testing the fix.



Dan bows to the audience...
Sorry, this just cheered me up terribly.

EDIT - clearing some things up. Man a DC makes it hard to edit online, it keeps loading the old drafts!

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Defend on 2001-03-19 15:30 ]</font>

[Rei]

Question!!(raise hand)

On Jap DC:
Mellow - unmodded, bug

How do he play JPN PSO without mod chip or boot disk??

Can you tell more result if some one uses Utopia boot disk??

[Lamalas]

I think that all these results are for the US Version of PSO on foreign DCs...I'm not 100% sure, but that's how I read it.

Unless I've missed the question...which is a definite possibility

[Klakalou]

you can also use the swap trick.

[Defend]

"All these results are for a US PSO ..."
"... on Jap DC..."
...
...
...
"...on PAL DC.."


Sorry I didn't make it clear about the boot disc.
Read it as anyone who wasn't shown using a modchip was using the Utopia boot disc, unless I've said otherwise.

[Anthroplasm]

DC-X (bootdisk) isn't the same as CDX (GameShark/Action Reply), but they might operate in the same fashion.

The following is an explanation of why Utopia boot-disc has bugs. It might not be completely accurate, but should be close enough.



The bug is caused when the application (game) is running under an incorrect version of WinCE OS; it is usually the WinCE OS on the Utopia disc.

Based on information from Dreamcast/DirectX/WindowsCE conference, a boot-disc contains a versions of the WinCE OS (without the regional coding), plus additional codes to "run application" after the boot-disc is swapped with the game disc.

When you boot Dreamcast with DC-X, DC-X?s OS is loaded into memory and begin to run the DC-X application. After swapping the DC-X disc with the game disc, the DC-X application requests Dreamcast to "search" for the correct OS on the game disc, and then instruct DC to ?unload? the DC-X?s OS and "reload" the correct OS.

This way, DC-X ensures each game is using the intended version of OS.

Utopia boot-disc simply loads its WinCE OS, and then "runs" the game from the game disc under the Utopia?s WinCE OS, completely ignoring game?s OS.


Mod-chips work by tweaking the BIOS/firmware to by-pass regional check, ignore check results or return fake check results. So the game either use the on-disc WinCE (if one is present), or the on-board WinCE.



Web browser that comes with the game might serve two functions. 1) provide web brower (duh!) 2) provide network (DirectPlay?) API.

The web brower is a different application, therefore takes a while to load (the system must unload the main application first, then load the brower). During this process, the program can request the OS to reload again, thus the system ?unloads? Utopia?s OS and ?loads? game?s OS.


(IMO, that?s why Dreamcast is better than PS2, and why PalmOS is poop)

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Anthroplasm on 2001-03-19 19:34 ]</font>

[HellCastor]

Hey Rei, I have the answer to one of yer questions. The unmodded dreamcast played the game because they are burned games called Self-Boot which allows you to play the burned game without a modchip or anything. Hey It's me PROTOTYPE X! Yeeha!

[Defend]

i have had 4 people confirm this fix. I might get my PSO in the mail tomorrow. Did someone say the swap trick also does it?

[gabgab]

thank you thank you thank you
i hope this works, i'll try it later...
um, when i try to cast resta too (level is high enough) it doesn't restore my teammates health, this and that stupid moon atomizer bug...

oh yeah if you drop your moon atomizers, others can't pick it up too...

[Defend]

Didn't know that one!