uCON64 2.0 review
DownloaduCON64 is a port of an open source command line tool with many options for backing up, restoring, handling, managing, splitting, joining, converting and patching ROMs and more.
|
|
uCON64 is a port of an open source command line tool with many options for backing up, restoring, handling, managing, splitting, joining, converting and patching ROMs and more. Supports a large number of video game consoles and handhelds.
Here are some key features of "uCON":
It is Free/Open Source Software
(Therefore) support for MANY platforms like: Unix, Win32, MSDOS, etc...
Support for 14+ different cartridge and disc-based video game console systems
Support for ALL common patch file formats like: IPS *), APS, BSL, PPF and Game Genie *) with RLE compression
Support for RomCenter Data files
Support for more than 20 different backup units to backup/restore ROM(s), disc(s) and SRAM(s) like: Flash Advance Linker, Flash 2 Advance, Doctor V64 (Junior), Super Wild Card, Game Doctor, Dexdrive, Super Magic Drive, Game Boy Xchanger, Mad Catz Camera Link, Lynxit, MD-PRO, SMS-PRO, PCE-PRO, GG-PRO, Super Flash and more.
Finally 150+(!) different options/features for every kind of ROM Handling/management known to man :-)
Including:
*VERY* verbose ROM information for ALL systems, detection of bad dumps using internal checksums or DAT files, CRC32, SHA1 and MD5 calculation, ROM Comparison, modification (strip, pad, etc...), SRAM conversion (emulator backup unit), DiscJuggler and Nero image conversions, complete gzip and zip support for all file-related functions, etc...
Always up-to-date with support for new trends, formats, and headers like UNIF (NES), NSRT (SNES), etc...
What's New:
updated (GBA) fixed F2A USB send code (by dbjh; many thanks to David Gauchard for feedback, testing and sending a patch to fix the problem)
updated (N64) cleaned up Doctor V64 Junior transfer source code (by dbjh; thanks to TenOfTen and GameCopierUser0666 for testing)
updated (SNES) added new SWC "I/O mode" 0x100, dump BIOS (by dbjh)
updated (GB) improved ROM info (by dbjh)
updated (GB) fixed problem with dumping "Rocket Games" cartridges with the Game Boy Xchanger (by dbjh; thanks to Anna Kubisty for reporting the problem and testing, and thanks to Cowering for his help and providing us with the necessary information)
updated (GB) cleaned up Game Boy Xchanger transfer source code (by dbjh; many thanks to Anna Kubisty for testing)
added (DC) --scr scramble 1ST_READ.BIN for selfboot CDs (by NoisyB)
added (DC) --unscr unscramble 1ST_READ.BIN for non-selfboot CDs (by NoisyB)
added (DC) --mkip generate IP.BIN file with default values (by NoisyB)
added (DC) --parse=TEMPLATE parse TEMPLATE file into a IP.BIN (by NoisyB)
updated (SNES) corrected output of -dbuh (by dbjh)
added (GB) --xgbxm try to enable EPP mode (by dbjh)
added (SMS/Game Gear) --xgg & --xggs send/receive ROM/SRAM to/from SMS-PRO/GG-PRO flash card programmer (by dbjh; thanks to timofonic and Leo of ToToTEK Multi Media for providing us with the necessary information, many thanks to Walter van Niftrik for testing)
added (PCE) --xpce send/receive ROM to/from PCE-PRO flash card programmer (by dbjh; thanks to timofonic and Leo of ToToTEK Multi Media for providing us with the necessary information)
added (PCE) --multi create a multi-game file for use on a PCE-PRO flash card (by dbjh)
added (SMS/Game Gear) --multi create a multi-game file for use on an SMS-PRO or GG-PRO flash card (by dbjh; thanks to Walter van Niftrik for his patch and for testing)
added (SMS/Game Gear) --xggb=BANK send/receive SRAM to/from SMS-PRO/GG-PRO BANK (by dbjh; thanks to Walter van Niftrik for the suggestion and testing)
added (Genesis) --xmdb=BANK send/receive SRAM to/from MD-PRO BANK (by dbjh)
added support for I/O port driver DlPortIO to the Windows ports. See the FAQ for more information (by dbjh)
the Windows versions of uCON64 won't crash anymore without a (working) I/O port driver under Windows NT/2/XP. They display a helpful error message instead (by dbjh)
updated (GBA) improved recognition of GBA files and fixed start address information (by dbjh)
updated (GBA) added support for Linux 2.5 (and later) to F2A USB code (by dbjh; thanks to colle for sending a patch and testing)
added support for OpenBSD (by dbjh; thanks to timofonic for testing)
added (N64) --xcd64, --xcd64b, --xcd64s, --xcd64f, --xcd64e, --xcd64m & --xcd64p transfer ROM/boot emu/SRAM/flash RAM/EEPROM/memory pack data to/from CD64 (by dbjh; thanks to Ryan Underwood for libcd64 and testing)
added (Genesis) support for Mike Pavone's Genesis/Sega CD transfer cable (by dbjh; thanks to Mike Pavone for the information and thanks to timofonic for his PR work ;-)
updated (SNES) -gd3 does not produce 28 Mbit HiROM files anymore, it automatically pads them to 32 Mbit (by dbjh)
added (Genesis) support for Cyan's Megadrive ROM copier (by Cyan Helkaraxe and dbjh; thanks to timofonic for his PR work)
moved and split some files in the codebase and changed the workflow. Adding a new option/function now requires only two changes in the code (by NoisyB)
added --dual show ROM as dualdump (by NoisyB)
added --code show ROM as code (by NoisyB)
added --print show ROM in printable characters (by NoisyB)
added --findi find STRING in ROM and ignore case of alpha bytes (by NoisyB)
added --findr find STRING in ROM but look also for shifted/relative similarities (by NoisyB)
added (NeoGeo Pocket) --xpl send/receive ROM to/from Pocket Linker, --xpli show information about inserted cartridge & --xplm try to enable EPP mode (by Walter van Niftrik)
added (SNES) --multi create a multi-game file for use on a Super Flash flash card (by JohnDie)
added (SNES) --xsf send/receive ROM to/from Super Flash card, --xsfs to send/receive SRAM to/from Super Flash card (by JohnDie)
updated (Genesis) added support for 32 Mbit Intel MD-PRO flash card (by dbjh; thanks to Marc Haisenko for sending a patch and testing)
updated (Genesis) fixed -n and -n2 (-n did what -n2 should do and vice versa) (by dbjh)
added (Genesis) support for splitting and joining binary (Magicom) files (by dbjh; thanks to T. Reid for the information)
updated (NES) fixed -dumpinfo so that the year field is read correctly from the dumper info file if it has more than 2 digits (by dbjh)
updated (SNES) --swcs, --figs, --ufos & --gd3s now also work for backup unit SRAM files, i.e., files with a header (by dbjh)
updated (SNES) fixed a bug that caused several headerless dumps to be detected as SWC RTS or SWC SRAM files (by dbjh; many thanks to Dweezledap for reporting this bug and for testing)
updated (N64) added support for 6105 boot codes to check sum routine (by dbjh)
updated (SNES) fixed some other issues with auto-detection (by dbjh; many thanks to Dweezledap for reporting these problems and for testing).
uCON64 2.0 search tags