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How Do You Play The Virtua Racing Rom?
THX 1138 - Mar 31, 2002
  THX 1138 Mar 31, 2002
How can you get the Virtua Racing rom to work in an emulator? Wasn't there an extra processing chip in the cartridge? Do you need the bios image of the chip for the game to work?

 Captian Crazy Mar 31, 2002
The specal chip in this game isin't emulated yet. It probely never will be eather

 THX 1138 Mar 31, 2002
Great....so I can never have every Genesis rom...####!!

 Curtis Mar 31, 2002
Well if you can dump it you can have it...it just won't work is all

 segasonic Apr 2, 2002
Apparently the Sega Vitua Processor is a Hitachi SH1... SH2 has already been emulated, so fingers crossed for the future I guess... I believe the Saturn used an SH1 as the CD rom controller or something. It definitely had one in there somewhere.

 ExCyber Apr 2, 2002
Saturn does use an SH-1 as part of the CD subsystem. The thing is, these are microcontrollers with embedded ROM, so knowing how to emulate them isn't very useful unless someone can dump the internal ROM...

 racketboy Jun 23, 2004
Is the Genny game still unemulated?

 antime Jun 23, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by segasonic@Apr 2, 2002 @ 05:23 PM



 Apparently the Sega Vitua Processor is a Hitachi SH1


It's not. The code for this processor has been dumped by Charles MacDonald, but the processor itself remains unidentified. Charles did manage to identify one or two opcodes but no progress has been reported since.

 racketboy Jun 23, 2004
bummer

at least I have the cart

 Link Hylia Jun 23, 2004
the 32x version of Virtua Racing works better, and runs fine with Gens.

 Quakester2000 Jun 25, 2004
Here is the info on the Virtua Processor.

------------------------

Virtua Racing from Sega uses the Sega Virtua Processor created in conjunction

with Hitachi.

The specifications of the SVP are as follows:-

Chip Command Type: DSP, 1 command, 1 clock

Speed / Instruction per second: 23MHz (23 mips)

ROM: I-ram (instruction RAM) 2048 bytes

Polygons per second 300-500 (16 colours) with 4 interrupts

RAM: D-RAM (optional installation)

Sound expansion: 2 channels PWM (pulse wave Modulation)

Data BUS bandwidth: internal / external 16 bits

 fonzievoltonov Jun 26, 2004
Where did you get these infos?

Seems very official (RAM: D-RAM (optional installation) Sound expansion: 2 channels PWM (pulse wave Modulation))

The thing i don't understand: why the VR cartridge (genesis version) don't work with the 32x?

Some guys says that its because of the same brand of chip (SH1/SH2), but thats not a reason.

 Mask of Destiny Jun 26, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by fonzievoltonov@Jun 26, 2004 @ 01:44 PM



 The thing i don't understand: why the VR cartridge (genesis version) don't work with the 32x?



Some guys says that its because of the same brand of chip (SH1/SH2), but thats not a reason.


Best guess is that the VR cartridge uses DTAK to steal cycles from the 68K when the DSP is reading from the cartridge. The 32X does the same thing and so it doesn't pass the DTAK line through to its cartridge port.

 fonzievoltonov Jun 26, 2004
Ha, ok,

So thats maybe why i can't save in MicroMachine96 with my 32x.

 Quakester2000 Jun 26, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by fonzievoltonov@Jun 26, 2004 @ 01:44 PM



 Where did you get these infos?


Got it out of a gensis FAQ. I always thought the CHIP was 35MHZ anyway thats what i remember reading but it seems is just a measily 23MHZ. Though im sure if sega could make the cartridge affordable you would have been able to get more colours of the game.

Another cool thing about the VR chip also interferred with cordless phones making them ring which i find pretty cool, i think it was the old model ones from early 90s days though.

 fonzievoltonov Jun 26, 2004
Ha, ok.

For the colors, there isn't any way to boost them without adding a new video proc (and a tv connector on the cartridge) but you know, it's the 32x..

For the mobile phones, youre true, its only for the old one.

I tried to put the vr cartridge very close from my mobile phone and the communication was still great.

 Quakester2000 Jun 26, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by fonzievoltonov@Jun 26, 2004 @ 09:17 PM



 For the mobile phones, youre true, its only for the old one.



I tried to put the vr cartridge very close from my mobile phone and the communication was still great.


Its not mobile phones that it makes ring its cordless phones you know ones for the house.

 WiseMan Jun 26, 2004
i'm more than sure the arcade version of VR is *available*.

wouldn't bother with the crappy genesis version. it is very interesting i think to consider the other potential uses for the chipset. does anyone know of any other projects that would incorporate the chip or was it specifically designed for use with virtua racing only?

i suppose with the introduction of the 32x any plans to further use this chip would have become obsolete.

 racketboy Jun 26, 2004
I think they were going to use it for something else (Daytona?) but they scrapped the plays after they realized it wouldn't be commerically successful

 Quakester2000 Jun 27, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by racketboy@Jun 27, 2004 @ 01:26 AM



 I think they were going to use it for something else (Daytona?) but they scrapped the plays after they realized it wouldn't be commerically successful


When the VR chip was created they had a few games that they were considering porting.

1 Daytona USA

2 Virtua Racing

3 Virtua Fighter

They obviously went for the Virua Racing route, if VR racing had have been successful they would have probably done ports of the other games, but due to the high cost of the game when it came out it didnt sell as well as expected so canned those ideas.

In the end they decided to go for the 32x as the games could be cheaper if there was no extra hardware to add to the games. Of course the 32x wasnt that successful so maybe they should have stuck to extra hardware in the cartridges.