Day of the Tentacle / Corrupted Saves Games

Pyrrhic · Post by **Pyrrhic** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 1:53 pm

Hi all,

Thanks to the SCUMM VM team for easily the best piece of software on the DS!

I've been playing through Day of the Tentacle and I've hit a bit of a snag; my save files keep corrupting - all apart from one in the 2nd save slot. Basically any progress I make from then on past that point, if I try to save it (in any slot) it will corrupt.

The weirder thing is I can't even find these spurious save files on my microSD card - even the one that isn't corrupt! There's no trace in the system folder or any of the others.

Any suggestions on how to solve this would be greatly appreciated.

Some possible problems: I've recently upgraded from an M3 DS simply to an R4SDHC (the green and black box on this website: http://www.r4sdhc.com/) I did a fresh install etc. didn't just copy the files across. I hadn't started Day of the Tentacle on the M3 so it's not some kind of cross-card incompatibility. I'm starting to wonder if the R4 card I've got is a knockoff - can anyone confirm either way?

I tried making a second game configuration in SCUMM DS for DoTT, this time with the save game route set as the /DOTT directory. When I start a new game and save using this profile, a save file is created in the main directory. Is this perhaps the solution? Does DoTT not play nicely unless its savegames are put in the root directory?

I hope that's sufficient information. I'm using the latest versin of SCUMM VM DS natch.

Pyrrhic · Post by **Pyrrhic** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:05 pm

Additional weirdness just noticed: If I try and load one of these 'corrupted savegame' files straight from the SCUMM menu I'll get the beginning intro again, but if I load up the save that isn't corrupted first and then once in game try and load the corrupted file, it actually works.

However, if I try to create another save file while playing on the corrupted file, while it will say it has successfully saved on the next boot up I'll just have another corrupted save file that can't be loaded from the menu or from in-game using the method above.

Is my card just completely screwed?

md5 · Post by **md5** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:18 pm

Moving to the DS forum

another world · Post by **another world** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 9:16 pm

you failed to state which version of scummvmds you are using. i have found no save issues with dott. the r4sdhc is a clone card and has fat issues (among other problems). the problem with currupt saves is probably related to the flash linker itself. did you format your msd using the panasonic formatter? are you sure your dott files are not currupt in anyway? please don't assume but rather double check to be sure they match crc, etc.

as to your knock off question, EVERY (yes every single one) of the r4 cards made after the r4ds revolution is a clone/fake r4 card. the kit was so popular that people are selling clones just because of the "r4" name. the r4ds revolution is no longer made, the company was forced to close its doors last summer due to a lawsuit from nintendo and many other companies.

i can strongly recommend the acekard 2.1 to you. you can grab it off dealextreme for around $12 USD with free world wide shipping. if you go this route be sure to use the akaio firmware. for more information check the following link.

http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/index.php/AKAIO

-another world

MasterLeo · Post by **MasterLeo** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:58 am

I'm using 0.11.1 on R4 SDHC 1.25 and the solution to the savegame problem is to use default save names. For example, If I pick a new save slot and try to give it a custom name, it will create a 0 size file which will be reported as corrupted, but if I just keep the generic name the save will be created. This problem only occurs in games that require the SCUMM VM interface to save a game (in my case, indy 3 and 4). Games that save via ther own interface (fotaq) don't have this problem, you can save with any name you want and the save is created properly. Which leads me to believe it's a bug with SCUMM VM interface. Unfortunately from what I've read the current port maintainer doesn't have this flash cart so he can't fix the problem.

Please LMK if this works for you.

Pyrrhic · Post by **Pyrrhic** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:49 pm

Hi guys,

Thanks for the suggestions and apologies for sticking this in the wrong section originally - it was only afterwards I realised there was a specific DS section.

Well, blow. I probably shouldn't have bought two of these cards, got one for my girlfriend too

It certainly seems unreliable - I'm just reloading everything again because I lost everything trying to put SNESemulDS on.

I'll give the Panasonic formatter a shot for stability, thanks for the suggestion.

MasterLeo - I did experiment with naming; I actually never bother with changing the generic save name so once the issues arose I actually tried giving them a unique name to see if this would help.

I'll keep you all posted if I find a solution, but it looks very much like the answer is you get what you paid for - and I bought a lemon

MasterLeo · Post by **MasterLeo** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:30 am

I'm sorry to hear you're uncomfortable with the card, but it's actually pretty good. I've had it for over half a year now and it runs pretty much everything I've thrown at it. So it's not a "lemon" as you call it.

It's just a few things I forgot to mention in previous post,

First of all this cart only supports up to 4GB SDHC cards, if you use a bigger card, it will still only see the first 4GB. So don't use large cards on this, as it's still only a clone of the R4 which doesn't even support SDHC.

The next thing is I would recommend you try version 0.11.1 I'm sure it can run DOTT just as well, and perhaps doesn't have the save game issue.

Third you mentioned the SnemulDS emulator which is a seriously buggy piece of software. It will crash your SD card even if you don't install it properly, it has nothing to do with the flash cart itself. It can also crash if you save a game. So personally I don't use it. Other emulators work perfectly though. I often run Lameboy, jenesis and nesDS.

As far as Acekards 2 go, their team is really awsome, but they have serious manufacturing issues with their cards. Many bad batches have been released to market, which are poorly done and tend to fail within a month of usage. That's why they have rebranded and renumbered the card into Acekard 2.1, but I hear these cards have issues as well.

another world · Post by **another world** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:33 pm

i am a beta tester of both firmware and hardware. the ak2.1 has no issues what-so-ever. i have done so much benchmarking with them from games to emulation to music to just taking the msd in/out/in/out a few thousand times. i've yet to break any of the 2.1s that i have.

the ak2i, however, was rushed to market and suffers from contact issues, msd seat issues, and bootloader problems (which result from user error).

the bad batch was a factory problem and had nothing to do with the design of the kit. it came down to some bad solder points on a run of about 1,000 cards. they all hit the market and no one was the wiser. some of those kits were indeed fixed and rebranded to the 2.1. later the 2.1 was redesigned, new hardware, new controller chip etc. these have a black or dark forest green pcb. finally a blue pcb was released.

to set your mind at ease, acekard is the only company to offer a full warranty (afaik). 1 year on the kit with no questions asked. if you have a faulty kit they ask you to please contact your reseller first, if they will not replace it, you can then contact the team directly.

-another world

Bowen747x · Post by **Bowen747x** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:18 pm

CycloDS is superior to the R4 strictly because they still have a hugely active forum full of helpful members and they continue to update the cyclo with new features. just click the link in my signature and im sure you can find any answers your looking for (even to any R4 problems)

MasterLeo · Post by **MasterLeo** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:48 pm

Speaking of recommendations, nowadays it's best to buy a DSi compatible cart like the RedBox R4i, new Acekard 2.1 or DSTTi.

Red_Breast · Post by **Red_Breast** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:23 pm

MasterLeo wrote:Speaking of recommendations, nowadays it's best to buy a DSi compatible cart like the RedBox R4i, new Acekard 2.1 or DSTTi.

Even if you're not planning to get a DSi?

another world · Post by **another world** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:58 pm

the "i" carts all seem to have homebrew problems. not all have flashable boot loaders, nintendo could block those cards. the ak2i has really bad build quality. a few of the r4 lot are based on the ak2 and use source purchased from team acekard.

the more i read the more i hear that the "i" generation of cards are not worth the money. if you have a dsi, get one. if you have a dsi and a ds, do your homebrew on the ds. wait for a dsi mode flash linker to be released before picking up a new kit.

-another world