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hi friends. I have a problem with the rom of game gear: Castle of ilusion...

This game dont runs in the emulators that i've tested... but if i rename it with extension .sms the game runs fine.

Some people tell me that the rom is the same... but i have the two games in the original cartidges and there was a little differences between two versions (sms & gg). Like walls that appears in game gear but in sms version not... or another little things...

Somebody knows the true?? :D

Some Game Gear games were made in the form of Master System games, with a built-in Master Gear Adaptor. This made things easier for a game developed for both, because apart from a few minor changes to make it show OK when squashed into the GG screen, it could basically be the same game.

Emulators can't know from the ROM file if the cartridge had the built-in Master Gear adaptor (which was, in fact, just a certain wire connection inside the cartridge). They rely on either (1) the filename ending in .gg or .sms, or (2) an internal checksum database. So, for most emulators, SMS mode GG games need to be named .sms to work properly.

Castle of Illusion is a good example of this. The Game Gear version has a different font to make it more readable when squashed, but apart from that (and the minor differences you mention) it's identical to the SMS version. SMS Checker can help you to identify and rename your roms, and I think Meka's database allows it to play it regardless of the filename.

thanks a lot for you magnific explanation. I use this tool (sms checker) and tells me that this rom is a sms rom and i must rename it to sms...

that means that not exist a dump of the original game gear rom?

in all web pages that i found this rom for gg, when i test it, is the same that i have already (the sms version but renamed to gg)

If the name ends with [SMS-GG] then it is an SMS mode GG rom. Thus, "Castle of Illusion [SMS-GG].sms" is a dump from a Game Gear cartridge, but it is an SMS mode game and needs the .sms extension to work in most emulators.

If it doesn't, it is the SMS version, "Castle of Illusion.sms" or "Castle of Illusion (US).sms".

You can download both here:

http://smspowermirror.tk

Scroll down to 11-Apr-2004. The download links are using the original release filenames, which can make it harder to find games, but I'm expecting most people to either find the release here first (which gives the filename) or just leech the lot...

thanks a lot for the rom!!

this is really of game gear... but there is no way to play it with the original gg resolution... :( i want to play it in a mobile device... for this i want the gg version, not the sms one....

if i try it with .gg xtension it runs in the correct resolution but the colors are fuckeds...

thanks a lot maxim.

As I described, the GG can run SMS games, and these SMS-GG games, but it squashes the graphics to fit on to the GG's small screen. The emulator you use would need to emulate this squashing to give the same effect.

If you're interested, here's how the GG does the squashing:

Charles MacDonald wrote

The GG's LCD screen isn't big enough to display SMS graphics in their
entirety when in SMS mode. Instead, the graphics are shrunk on the fly
by the VDP. Normally the display shows roughly 192 lines with a 16 line
overscan area at the top and bottom of the display. These two areas are
not visible when using a 224 line display, which takes up the entire
height of the screen. I don't know how the GG modifies the display to
pack 224 lines of graphics into just 144 lines, but it seems like some
rows are skipped.

For each line of SMS graphics, only the middle 240 pixels are displayed.
A single line is compressed into 160 pixels by using two RGB elements
from each pixel of the LCD screen to represent a dot of color from the SMS
display. This causes artefacting between pixels, for example a single bar
of a solid white color will never be shown as white, but only as cyan,
magenta, or yellow (as only the red+green, green+blue, or blue+red elements
will be used to represent that pixel). The effect is also very noticable
when the screen is scrolled horizontally.

So these SMS mode GG games looked bad a lot of the time, the colours are messed up and shimmer when scrolling.

(Sorry for reviving an old post).

I recently got this game from ebay and plugged it on a recently repaired GG (the usual leaked capacitors story).

Oh boy, what a shock that was... I thought something was wrong with the LCD or other components, but then I tested with other games and all was OK.

I wasn't expecting an official Sega game, published and developed by them with this presentation...

By the way, isn't there a hacked version of this game, working as a GG rom, with GG aspect ratio? I've googled and haven't found anything. I don't think it should be hard to make, but I'm no expert in hacking/developing software for our machines.

Regards!
CK

Author	Message
Hel Cyto Guest	problem with castle of ilusion for game gear. Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:13 pm
Hel Cyto Guest	hi friends. I have a problem with the rom of game gear: Castle of ilusion... This game dont runs in the emulators that i've tested... but if i rename it with extension .sms the game runs fine. Some people tell me that the rom is the same... but i have the two games in the original cartidges and there was a little differences between two versions (sms & gg). Like walls that appears in game gear but in sms version not... or another little things... Somebody knows the true?? :D

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14897 Location: London	Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:55 pm
	Some Game Gear games were made in the form of Master System games, with a built-in Master Gear Adaptor. This made things easier for a game developed for both, because apart from a few minor changes to make it show OK when squashed into the GG screen, it could basically be the same game. Emulators can't know from the ROM file if the cartridge had the built-in Master Gear adaptor (which was, in fact, just a certain wire connection inside the cartridge). They rely on either (1) the filename ending in .gg or .sms, or (2) an internal checksum database. So, for most emulators, SMS mode GG games need to be named .sms to work properly. Castle of Illusion is a good example of this. The Game Gear version has a different font to make it more readable when squashed, but apart from that (and the minor differences you mention) it's identical to the SMS version. SMS Checker can help you to identify and rename your roms, and I think Meka's database allows it to play it regardless of the filename.

hel cyto Guest	Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:23 pm
hel cyto Guest	thanks a lot for you magnific explanation. I use this tool (sms checker) and tells me that this rom is a sms rom and i must rename it to sms... that means that not exist a dump of the original game gear rom? in all web pages that i found this rom for gg, when i test it, is the same that i have already (the sms version but renamed to gg)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14897 Location: London	Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:32 pm
	If the name ends with [SMS-GG] then it is an SMS mode GG rom. Thus, "Castle of Illusion [SMS-GG].sms" is a dump from a Game Gear cartridge, but it is an SMS mode game and needs the .sms extension to work in most emulators. If it doesn't, it is the SMS version, "Castle of Illusion.sms" or "Castle of Illusion (US).sms". You can download both here: http://smspowermirror.tk Scroll down to 11-Apr-2004. The download links are using the original release filenames, which can make it harder to find games, but I'm expecting most people to either find the release here first (which gives the filename) or just leech the lot...

hel cyto Guest	Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:56 pm
hel cyto Guest	thanks a lot for the rom!! this is really of game gear... but there is no way to play it with the original gg resolution... :( i want to play it in a mobile device... for this i want the gg version, not the sms one.... if i try it with .gg xtension it runs in the correct resolution but the colors are fuckeds... thanks a lot maxim.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14897 Location: London	Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:24 pm
	As I described, the GG can run SMS games, and these SMS-GG games, but it squashes the graphics to fit on to the GG's small screen. The emulator you use would need to emulate this squashing to give the same effect. If you're interested, here's how the GG does the squashing: Charles MacDonald wrote The GG's LCD screen isn't big enough to display SMS graphics in their entirety when in SMS mode. Instead, the graphics are shrunk on the fly by the VDP. Normally the display shows roughly 192 lines with a 16 line overscan area at the top and bottom of the display. These two areas are not visible when using a 224 line display, which takes up the entire height of the screen. I don't know how the GG modifies the display to pack 224 lines of graphics into just 144 lines, but it seems like some rows are skipped. For each line of SMS graphics, only the middle 240 pixels are displayed. A single line is compressed into 160 pixels by using two RGB elements from each pixel of the LCD screen to represent a dot of color from the SMS display. This causes artefacting between pixels, for example a single bar of a solid white color will never be shown as white, but only as cyan, magenta, or yellow (as only the red+green, green+blue, or blue+red elements will be used to represent that pixel). The effect is also very noticable when the screen is scrolled horizontally. So these SMS mode GG games looked bad a lot of the time, the colours are messed up and shimmer when scrolling.

C3R14L.K1L4 Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 87 Location: Coimbra, Portugal	Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 12:26 am
	(Sorry for reviving an old post). I recently got this game from ebay and plugged it on a recently repaired GG (the usual leaked capacitors story). Oh boy, what a shock that was... I thought something was wrong with the LCD or other components, but then I tested with other games and all was OK. I wasn't expecting an official Sega game, published and developed by them with this presentation... By the way, isn't there a hacked version of this game, working as a GG rom, with GG aspect ratio? I've googled and haven't found anything. I don't think it should be hard to make, but I'm no expert in hacking/developing software for our machines. Regards! CK

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