May Day! May Day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAh-u2iwEm0
64DD cart conversions are now being released into the wild. Each one is being released as it is complete and bug tested.
So no, there wasn't a magically "hardware revision 3". They do use a specialized bootstrap though, implementing the system initialization and disk initialization usually performed by the IPL. It's a much higher-level hack than Dezaemon is, making no attempts to simulate register behavior. Read/write requests are converted directly into EPI requests.
All confirmed working on a 64drive. Use menu 1.12d or later. I happen to know they will also function on a v64jr though am not testing each one that way. Everdrive64 will not load them as of yet and full functionality can be somebody else's project. Emulators are hit-and-miss; even when the CIC is handled correctly Talent Studio has an unimplemented video microcode and Polygon Editor has core issues with all PJ64-derived emulators. MESS, Nemu64, and Cen64 have had the most success so far. That said, unless cartrom is rewritable no saving or loading will work and the most important feature of these titles is interoperability and storage.
Obvious features not implemented:
- Can't use a modem or video capture cart with these. Would require additional reverse-engineering and hacking to provide similar functions via USB.
- RTC reports the time of the disk pressing. The RTC differs in its storage format and access method from Animal Forest significantly. In all cases, games using the clock only load the time once, usually before actual gameplay, and time continues to tick forward based on the system clock. This is the same way Animal Forest functions and why it is fully playable even without the RTC present. As far as I know this only sets the timestamp for saved data, and so far the only one being problematic about it is Doshin 1. It expects the time of day to match or exceed that of the current clock time due to some lazy testing, and if it's less the day ends shortly after starting. Resetting its save so the time always matches works fine though, just like setting the RTC to match or exceed the time. SM64's library doesn't even support the clock.
As per forum rules I can't directly link the ROMs but can indirectly direct you to them via the video.
As of this post all the Doshins are released as well as Japan Pro Golf Tour. As you can see in the video the Artist titles are all converted but require a degree of bugtesting to confirm interoperability. I'm also waiting on a GB camera to test international camera support.