How do I play this game??? (Snail Maze)

skj · 17 Aug 2018, 21:50

You need to search for "snail maze sega master system" you should be able to find the game

Amishgamer · 17 Aug 2018, 21:57

I couldn't find it before, but I have now. It's called Snail Maze (which I guess makes perfect sense), and my googling says it was never released on a cart. How do I dig in to one of the sms bios files to get at it? Or, is it even possible?

mediamogul · 17 Aug 2018, 21:58

@amishgamer , @skj

You need to search for "snail maze sega master system" you should be able to find the game

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's that simple. I don't believe the game was ever released outside of v1.3 of the E/U Master System BIOS. If you're unable to find the game as a ROM, you may be able to rename bios_E.sms or bios_U.sms (md5sum 840481177270d5642a14ca71ee72844c) to something like Snail Maze.sms and try to launch that. If that doesn't work, you may be able to launch a dummy file using lr-genesis-plus-gx with bios_E.sms or bios_U.sms located in the RetroArch system directory.

Edit: If you try the latter option, you may need to also hold 'Up', '1' and '2' at the same time.

Amishgamer · 17 Aug 2018, 21:59

@skj Thanks for the video. That's exactly the game I'm referring to.

mediamogul · 19 Aug 2018, 01:14

I just gave it a shot and can confirm that the game is playable by launching v1.3 of the E/U Master System BIOS (md5sum 840481177270d5642a14ca71ee72844c) in both lr-genesis-plus-gx and lr-picodrive. Once the Master System instructional screen appears, press the 'Up', '1' and '2' buttons at the same time and the game will start. To my surprise it even had RetroAchievements.

skj · 19 Aug 2018, 13:55

@mediamogul

I have an actual rom version that does not require you to press up 1 &2 it just boots right into the game

mediamogul · 19 Aug 2018, 14:03

@skj

I did find mention that it exists, but was unable to source a copy. Could you post the CRC32 and MD5 checksums of your ROM so that it might be easier for people to narrow a search past the BIOS listings?

skj · 19 Aug 2018, 14:47

@mediamogul said in How do I play this game???:

@skj

I did find mention that it exists, but was unable to source a copy. Could you post the CRC32 and MD5 checksums of your ROM so that it might be easier for people to narrow a search past the BIOS listings?

CRC = 5ad6edac
MD5 = 4f47e48248f6498bff9018789f26c9f8

Hope that helps

mediamogul · 19 Aug 2018, 15:40

@skj said in How do I play this game???:

Hope that helps

It did indeed and it's pretty interesting. The checksum belongs to the TOSEC release, Sega Master System BIOS v1.3 (1986)(Sega)(EU-US)(en)[h].bin . The '[h]' at the end denotes a hack, which means that this is still the original BIOS file, but hacked to receive the instructions to start the game automatically. I'll report back a little later to say whether or not it registers the RetroAchievements, but it's on the list, so it should. Thanks for taking the time to post those checks.

skj · 19 Aug 2018, 16:01

@mediamogul said in How do I play this game???:

@skj said in How do I play this game???:

Hope that helps

It did indeed and it's pretty interesting. The checksum belongs to the TOSEC release, Sega Master System BIOS v1.3 (1986)(Sega)(EU-US)(en)[h].bin . The '[h]' at the end denotes a hack, which means that this is still the original BIOS file, but hacked to receive the instructions to start the game automatically. I'll report back a little later to say whether or not it registers the RetroAchievements, but it's on the list, so it should. Thanks for taking the time to post those checks.

Your welcome. I hadn't played the game in a while but I remembered the version I had booted into the game without having to do any key presses, I guessed it was a hack as this was never officially released as a stand alone game/rom. When I googled the checksum against my rom it did indeed show the the info you suggested.

mediamogul · 19 Aug 2018, 17:07

RetroAchievements do indeed trigger, including even 'Enjoy the Snail's Journey!', allowing the game to be fully mastered.

Amishgamer · 24 Aug 2018, 04:23

So, thanks for the help.

I found on my computer the file SMS BIOS V1.3 (UE) [h1].sms. I started it up. It showed the Sega Master System startup screen, then it went to the Snail Maze without any prompting from me. So, thanks for the help everyone. I feel 14 years old again :D