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how to flash viper GC with plugin?

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:13 pm
by butfluffy
i would like to flash my original non extreme viper modchip to 2.1 with a plugin and be able to use the plugin to launch swiss from sd card so i wont need to use dvd to launch swiss.
i have some questions if anyone would be kind enough to help.
1. i know that the flash space in the original viper chip is very small so what plugin will fit in the space. i think i found the answer to be sdload but i can't find enough info to be sure.
2. how do you go about adding the plugin to the bios? do you add it to the bios image somehow and then flash it?
3. the cobra 2.1 bios comes with multiple vgc files. how do i find out which one i should use? the files are as follows.
COBRA21.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS
20010608.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS preloaded with GCOS external drivecode for drive 2001/06/08
20020402.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS preloaded with GCOS external drivecode for drive 2002/04/02
20020823.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS preloaded with GCOS external drivecode for drive 2002/08/23
any help would be great.

Re: how to flash viper GC with plugin?

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 9:41 pm
by emu_kidid
butfluffy wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:13 pm
i would like to flash my original non extreme viper modchip to 2.1 with a plugin and be able to use the plugin to launch swiss from sd card so i wont need to use dvd to launch swiss.
i have some questions if anyone would be kind enough to help.
1. i know that the flash space in the original viper chip is very small so what plugin will fit in the space. i think i found the answer to be sdload but i can't find enough info to be sure.
2. how do you go about adding the plugin to the bios? do you add it to the bios image somehow and then flash it?
3. the cobra 2.1 bios comes with multiple vgc files. how do i find out which one i should use? the files are as follows.
COBRA21.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS
20010608.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS preloaded with GCOS external drivecode for drive 2001/06/08
20020402.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS preloaded with GCOS external drivecode for drive 2002/04/02
20020823.VGC ;Cobra 2.1 BIOS preloaded with GCOS external drivecode for drive 2002/08/23
any help would be great.
You're meant to append it after the Cobra BIOS using something like copy /b from a command line. I'd just burn a Swiss boot disc (take one from the current release zip on github)

Re: how to flash viper GC with plugin?

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:47 am
by butfluffy
thanks for the reply.
after doing some more research over the last few days it appears that using dvd explorer from cobra bios i can load SD-Load Slot B.cbp included in a zip file posted by suloku in this thread http://gc-forever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=401
i already have cobra bios 1.2 which is capable of running plugins and according to cobra 1.2 release info here http://www.eurasia.nu/modules.php?name= ... t&sid=1094
it states this under disc explorer
CBP : Cobra plug-in. Select this file to load a plug-in into Viper GC Memory. You can then execute it from the Cobra main menu.
so i figure once loading the CBP file it stays in chip memory and the SD-Load Slot B.cbp is small enough to fit into the tiny original viper chip memory so it should work ok.
my main reason for wanting this setup is for ease of use booting gameboy/colour/advance games without inserting a a disc.
i would like to launch sd load from cobra plugin. then launch GBI from sd acrd and.
after discovering what the GBI player can do compared to the official gameboy startup discs i would really like to try it out. also swiss looks like a very useful tool aswell but due to the larger size i would need to use SD-Load Slot B to launch swiss from sd card if i'm not mistaken.

Re: how to flash viper GC with plugin?

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:52 am
by emu_kidid
Yes that will work. Just be aware that SDLoad is limited to a maximum of 2GB when it comes to SD cards and that SDHC/SDXC is not supported.

Re: how to flash viper GC with plugin?

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 2:23 am
by butfluffy
yeah 2gb limit is fine. i only want to store swiss and GBI on the card for loading the gameboy player games.
i got gamecube titles covered on the wii using nintendon't so no need to store a library of games on gamecube sd card. also homebrew is covered on modern systems.
i got really tired of having to use the gameboy start up disk just to play gameboy titles on my tv without emulating and nintendo really could have done a better job with that software. but thats another story.
thanks for the confirmation :)