Cobra BIOS version 1.1

**andlin** · 2005-04-15

Cobra BIOS Version 1.1 Released For Viper GC

Quote from NFO

What's New in this release

quote:

- Built-in Audio Fix, that could be Enabled/Disabled in the Config
Menu for full backward compatibility with your old backups.
- Music Player in Disc Explorer! Select an audio file to play it. For
now only ADPCM audio streams are supported (*.ADP, *.PCM, *stream*, etc.), the GC streaming format. Support for more formats, including MP3, is coming in a next release.
- Optimal DRE Handling, read more below.
- Improved Direct Boot mode Compatibility, now it should be compatible with every good media, including DVD+R.
- No need to enter Disc Explorer anymore to boot MultiBoot discs, just select Direct Boot Disc and the Cobra BIOS will detect automatically if you inserted a GC Original, DVD-R, DVD+R or MultiBoot Disc !
- Fixed a MultiBoot compatibility problem. Now it should work properly with every images.
- Upgrade with the Disc Explorer from Cobra 1.0 if you want to keep your AR codes and configuration intact.
- And some more bugfixes/changes

**RonaldV** · 2005-04-15

° ° °
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³ ÛÛ Û Û ÛÛß ÛÛ Û ÛÛ ²ÛßÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ Ü ÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û ÛÛß ³
³ ° ± ² Û ²Û ² Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ ² ßÛ²± ßÛÛ² ßÛÜ ßÛ²Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ²ß ßÛ²Û Û ² ± ° ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ ³
³ ³
³ - COBRA FOR VIPER GC V1.1 - ³
³ ³
³ 14th of april, 2005 ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ WHAT'S NEW ? ³
³ ³
³ - Built-in Audio Fix, that could be Enabled/Disabled in the Config ³
³ Menu for full backward compatibility with your old backups. ³
³ - Music Player in Disc Explorer! Select an audio file to play it. For ³
³ now only ADPCM audio streams are supported (*.ADP, *.PCM, *stream*, ³
³ etc.), the GC streaming format. Support for more formats, including ³
³ MP3, is coming in a next release. ³
³ - Optimal DRE Handling, read more below. ³
³ - Improved Direct Boot mode Compatibility, now it should be compatible ³
³ with every good media, including DVD+R. ³
³ - No need to enter Disc Explorer anymore to boot MultiBoot discs, just ³
³ select Direct Boot Disc and the Cobra BIOS will detect automatically ³
³ if you inserted a GC Original, DVD-R, DVD+R or MultiBoot Disc ! ³
³ - Fixed a MultiBoot compatibility problem. Now it should work properly ³
³ with every images. ³
³ - Upgrade with the Disc Explorer from Cobra 1.0 if you want to keep ³
³ your AR codes and configuration intact. ³
³ - And some more bugfixes/changes ³
³ ³
³ About Disc Read Error handling, we can't help you if you use a bad ³
³ burner, media or if your laser is not tweaked correctly. But we've ³
³ improved the error handling code A LOT. Here is a small experiment ³
³ we don't recommend trying at home, except if you know what youre doing: ³
³ You can remove the spinning disc for one second while it's playing a ³
³ movie or loading data. This will trigger some serious read error with ³
³ any other BIOS :-) Now put the disc back in quickly and it will ³
³ continue loading, without a crash! ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ FEATURES ³
³ ³
³ - Direct boot of all media, without swapping! ³
³ - Automatic Media Detection: Insert disc, turn on GC and play! ³
³ - Supports all regions PAL / USA / JAP ³
³ - Play originals or backups from any region, thanks to the built-in ³
³ region-free feature ³
³ - Built-in Audio Fix, that could be Enabled/Disabled in the Config ³
³ Menu for full backward compatibility with your old backups. ³
³ - Idle-bug free (no more Disc Read Errors when the drive is resting :-) ³
³ - Unique MultiBoot feature: put several games on one single disc! ³
³ - Disc Explorer to browse the content of original GC discs or DVDs and ³
³ that allows you: ³
³ - To flash your Viper GC by burning the flash file on a DVD ³
³ - To execute homebrew programs (.DOL) from DVD, and enjoy many ³
³ already-released homebrew productions! ³
³ - To play music, for now only ADPCM files aligned on a 32kb ³
³ boundary are accepted. This is the format of all GC games that ³
³ are using audio streaming, so listen to those games songs! ³
³ - To run the game you want from a MultiBoot compilation ³
³ - To load cheat codes from disc into Viper GC Memory ³
³ - Powerful Cheat Code System compatible with Action Replay codes, ³
³ codes are stored in the Viper GC Flash so no memory card is needed! ³
³ - Cheat codes can be either entered using Cobra Menus or loaded from ³
³ a file using the Disc Explorer ³
³ - BIOS Configuration stored into the Viper GC Flash ³
³ - Selectable default boot action (Main menu, Boot disc, Original BIOS, ³
³ Disc Explorer) and special boot action (when the X key is held) ³
³ - Calls Original BIOS Game Loader for 100% compatibility ³
³ - Supports all hardware revisions (including DOL-101 units) ³
³ - User-Friendly GUI ³
³ ³
³ A Swap disc option was left in (called "Change Disc" as you could also ³
³ replace a backup with another backup) to be totally backward ³
³ compatible. Read more below ³
³ ³
³ So what do you need exactly ? ³
³ - A Viper GC chip ³
³ - This very flash file ³
³ - Some Compatible Media and a DVD-burner ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ USER MANUAL ³
³ ³
³ - If you want to use full-size DVD-R you can remove the top of the ³
³ console. Team Xtender will be releasing replacement lids compatible ³
³ with full DVD-R within two week. Best of all, we learned this week ³
³ that they will be officially Viper GC branded! ³
³ ³
³ - Flash the Viper GC with this BIOS then remove the parallel port ³
³ connector from the programmer. If you prefear you can flash this ³
³ BIOS from DVD if you have Cobra 0.3+ already running on your chip. ³
³ We've heard Viper Team will release an USB programmer for the chip ³
³ soon if you prefear USB. ³
³ ³
³ - Turn on your GC with the disc you want to run. It can be an ³
³ original or a backup, but if it's a backup it should be filled with ³
³ 1.3GB of data at least (for now). If you have a black screen coming, ³
³ it's probably beause your Viper installation is not clean. ³
³ ³
³ - While turning on your GC: ³
³ - Hold Y to go to Main Menu (if it's not your Default Boot mode) ³
³ - Hold X for the other boot mode (can be set in Config Menu) ³
³ - Don't hold anything for Default Boot Action ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Direct Disc Boot" if you want to play a backup or homebrew ³
³ program from DVD. If you have problems using the Direct Disc Boot ³
³ method with your media, you can still use the Swap trick. ³
³ ³
³ - If you want to use the old Swap Trick Method (for discs that are ³
³ not full or that have problems to sync with the Direct Disc Boot) ³
³ boot your GC with an original disc. Then choose the "Change Disc" ³
³ option and follow the instructions. After the swap is done, you ³
³ can select Direct Disc Boot option again. ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Original BIOS" if you want to play an original Game ³
³ compatible with your GC region, or if you want to go into the ³
³ Original BIOS menus. ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Configuration Menu" if you want to change your Cobra BIOS ³
³ configuration. The options are quite self-explanatory. ³
³ ³
³ - Select "Disc Explorer" to enter to browse the content or your ³
³ original GC discs or DVDs. Supported file systems are FST ³
³ (GC File System) and ISO9660. Joliet encoding is not supported in ³
³ ISO mode. ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Cheat codes" to select, enable, disable and edit cheat codes ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" and select a .VGC file if you want to reflash ³
³ your Viper GC without the need of the Parallel port programmer! ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" and select a .DOL file if you want to run ³
³ a homebrew program! (You can put up to 1.4 GB of homebrew things on ³
³ a disc. We hope this will give some inspiration to emu authors :-) ³
³ Our DOL loader is not perfect for now and works for around half of ³
³ the public homebrew programs. Here are some of the programs booting ³
³ successfully: ³
³ GC-Linux, Ascii Fighter, DVD Browser, CTR_GCS, CTR_SND, GBQ Gameboy ³
³ emulator, PSOLoader "It's working" demo, Maze, Nitrorally, Yeti 3D ³
³ 3D engine, Chip8 emulator, Snowlords game, Terranigma, XRick and ³
³ probably many we missed! ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" and select a .VGC file if you want to reflash ³
³ your Viper GC without the need of the Parallel port programmer! ³
³ ³
³ - Enter "Disc Explorer" and select a .COD file if you want to add ³
³ cheat codes for a game without the need to enter it using the pad! ³
³ ³
³ - Make sure that the "lid passthru" wires of the Viper GC are ³
³ installed correctly or the disc won't spin. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ DIRECT BOOT LIMITATIONS ³
³ ³
³ THE MEDIA ³
³ ³
³ The GC drive in its default state only eats high-quality DVD-R and ³
³ a few MINI-DVD-R. But a couple of weeks ago, speedi from the afterdawn ³
³ forums found a nice way to tweak the laser so it reads almost any burned³
³ media including some DVD+Rs. We recommend doing this laser tweak if you ³
³ have any problems reading your DVDs. We are no laser experts, in fact ³
³ we think it would be more appropriate to just lower the value of the ³
³ variable resistor instead of setting it to an absoulte given value, ³
³ but lots of people including us have been using this laser tweek for a ³
³ couple of weeks without any problem reported so far. For more info on ³
³ laser tweaking please read this forum post: ³
³ http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/138930 ³
³ ³
³ You don't need to encrypt the disc or use a special burner firmware ³
³ to write the disc. Just burn your ISO/GCM (rename it to .ISO) with ³
³ Nero (or any other tool). ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ CHEAT CODES ³
³ ³
³ If you want to use cheat codes, enter Cheat Codes menu,select a game, ³
³ check the codes you want to use, exit the cheat selector and enable ³
³ cheats. ³
³ ³
³ To add new codes follow on-screen instructions. The codes are ³
³ compatible with decrypted AR codes. You can decrypt AR codes using ³
³ the great GCNCrypt by Parayste. Never enter the first code of a given ³
³ cheat code (validator code). You can also put .COD files on a DVD and ³
³ load cheat codes from there, each file corresponds to one game. ³
³ ³
³ Cheat codes are working for backups and original games. ³
³ ³
³ For now we've reserved 4kb in Viper GC Flash memory to store cheat ³
³ codes, that should be enough to store a few hundred of codes. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ TROOBLESHOOTING ³
³ ³
³ - If the disc stops spinning in the menu it means that the drive can't ³
³ sync with your media, or that there are not enough data on your disc. ³
³ In direct boot mode the GC is very selective about the media it ³
³ takes. If you have any problem please try the swap trick. If you ³
³ still have problems try with different media/burner. Make sure your ³
³ laser is correctly tweaked! We strongly recommend NEC burners, they ³
³ produce really good discs that won't give you any DRE. ³
³ ³
³ - Audio Streaming: Some games use a special audio streaming mode ³
³ that can be compared to CDDA. For now, the ISO of the file needs to ³
³ be patched with 0rbital's great ViperTemporaryAudioFix 1.1+. If the ³
³ ISO is not patched you'll have noise instead of music. We will try to ³
³ fix this issue so no patching is required. But in case we do, YOUR ³
³ PATCHED ISOS WILL BE FULLY COMPATIBLE and still work with music! ³
³ (so forget what is written in the fixer nfo file). Don't run the fix ³
³ on ISOs that don't need fixing as it will only destroy them :-) ³
³ ³
³ - Most multi-discs games are working, just play with Disc 1 until ³
³ you're asked to change disc and make a save here. Then boot with ³
³ Disc 2 instead. We started working on code to allow disc-change, ³
³ and we'll integrate it in a new release. ³
³ ³
³ All those problems could be fixed in a next update. ³
³ ³
³ Before burning an image, makes sure it is 1459978240 bytes long else ³
³ you may need to use the swap trick method. ³
³ ³
³ To know what's your GC Version code (2 digit number) go into Config ³
³ Menu, then Version Info, 2nd page. First digit corresponds to GC ³
³ mobo version, 2nd digit corresponds to drive version. ³
³ ³
³ IF YOU MAKE BACKUPS, DON'T USE ANY "WIPE" TOOLS TO SAVE SPACE. Unless ³
³ you know it's REALLY working. Most of thoses tools only work because ³
³ the current pso loaders patch libraries routines to emulate DVD. But ³
³ on REAL HARDWARE, each file/fst has to be aligned on a 4-byte boundary! ³
³ Else nothing will work. Audio Files (for audio streaming) even need ³
³ to be aligned on a 32kb-boundary ! So forget current "WIPE" tools until ³
³ they are fixed. But note that Garbage is NOT NEEDED by the GC. The ³
³ files must be correctly aligned that's it. So if your "WIPE" tool is ³
³ not changing the image size (meaning there's no relocation) then it's ³
³ probably fine. Use FSTFIX by LOONYCUBE to fix bad rips. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ TECHNICAL INFO ³
³ ³
³ We'll release a command-line MultiBoot Disc maker next week if nobody ³
³ releases a better one before we do :-) Here are the specs for Multiboot ³
³ discs. Note that every image should be aligned on a 32kb boundary. ³
³ At offset 0x00: 43 4F 42 52-41 4D 42 31 ³
³ 0x40: Position of the 1st image in bytes (Big endian) ³
³ 0x44: Position of the 2nd image in bytes (Big endian) ³
³ ....: ...etc... ³
³ ....: 00 00 00 00 ³
³ ³
³ The MultiBoot feature is stealth for the GC so it's 100% compatible ³
³ with homebrew images. If you want to put several backups on one disc ³
³ you'll have to remove the garbage at first. ³
³ The maximum size of a MultiBoot disc is 1459978240 bytes. ³
³ ³
³ You can use Viper_Multi_Boot_ISO_Creator by LoonyCube to create ³
³ MultiBoot discs easily. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ THE FUTURE ³
³ ³
³ Much more to come :-) ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ CLOSING WORDS ³
³ ³
³ Special thanks to E*Flash for his help, RoM for the early units, ³
³ Melan for the /48 GC and to everybody that tried Cobra V1.0 and posted ³
³ constructive feedback. ³
³ ³
³ You are free to redistribute this package as long as it's not changed, ³
³ patched, ported, or whatever. ³
³ ³
³ Our code is free of any copyrighted code from third party. ³
³ It is also free of any GPL licensed code, we have strong respect for ³
³ other people's hard work. We only ask you to show similar respect ³
³ toward our work. To put it in other words, if you are in the "right" ³
³ side, draw the line between learning and stealing. Thank you. ³
³ ³
³ Enjoy! ³
³ ³
³ ° ° ° ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ±² ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ °ÛßÜÜ °Ûßß ÜÛßß ²Ûß ßßÜ ²Û °ÜßÛ °Ü Û ²ÛßÛ °Ûßß ³
³ ÛÛ Û Û ÛÛß ÛÛ Û ÛÛ ²ÛßÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ Ü ÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û ÛÛß ³
³X ° ± ² Û ²Û ² Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ ² ßÛ²± ßÛÛ² ßÛÜ ßÛ²Û ßÛ²Û ÛÛ²ß ßÛ²Û Û ² ± ° X³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

**RonaldV** · 2005-04-15

Precis flashat om med Disc Explorer läget från mini-dvdr och allt funkar bra.

**Hansi** · 2005-04-15

http://forum.psxcare.com/support/showthread.php?t=20019

**JYO** · 2005-04-17

Hjälp!!
Testade att lägga in Cobra BIOS version 1.1 sen slutade chippet att funka. tankade hem det från psxcare. Ngn mer än jag som har fått samma problem. Det går att ladda upp bios till chippet. provade att ladda upp Cobra BIOS version 1.0 men fortfarande med samma resultat. Laddade upp biosen med kabeln, inte med skiva. Har du hört om detta förr Hansi?

**Hansi** · 2005-04-17

Om du flashar via parallellport, använd ingen extra parallellkabel utan koppla det du fick med chippet direkt in i pc:n

**andlin** · 2005-04-17

Om du verifirerar flashingen efteråt och den är ok så är det inte biosfilen som är felet. Kolla så att ingen sladd har lossat eller något stift är böjt på kontakterna på bioset.

Även som Hansi skrev, programmeraren direkt i datorn.

Jag har flashat in Cobra 1.1 utan problem.

**JYO** · 2005-04-17

ska kolla noga på stift och lödpunkter. tack för hjälpen

**JYO** · 2005-04-17

Tack grabbar!
Jag kom på att det nog var fel på datorn.
Har precis satt upp en dator till min lcd-tv. och för att slippa dra fram möbeln till min andra dator så koppla jag gamecuben till "tvdatorn". Har haft problem innan med att skicka bios till matrixchipet till xboxen. så jag fick flytta datormöbeln än en gång och vipps så funka det. Tack än en gång Hansi och Andlin. Ni har räddat husefriden!