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There's a demo/review version of the game on hidden palace dated June 8 2004. It features a lot of differences from the retail version. Recently someone published a PNACH file that allows you to go to any menu option you want (previously you could only go to crash nav). Since the burnout 3 online revival is a thing, i've been trying to somehow go online on that version. Most likely it will fail but here's my biggest issue.

Without any modifications, if you enter the online option in the main menu, the game will hang on checking your memory card. This issue can be fixed, if you copy the IOP folder from the retail version to the Prototype. However this does a very weird thing. Once you enter the option, it quickly checks your memory card and asks you for a network configuration. If you do the whole process of doing this, and go to the online option again, it will AGAIN do the same thing as mentioned. So why is it doing it?
Well the answer is...

IT FORMATS YOUR MEMORY CARD.

Yes you heard that right. When checking for a memory card, it just wipes your whole memory card and there's NOTHING (not even pcsx2!) telling you that it has been formatted. I've been trying to somehow avoid this by making the memory card read-only, but it doesn't stop it. In fact, nothing at all. This whole thing is so fascinating that i just can't. I don't really expect a solution to this issue but if you know something about this behavior, lemme know in this post.

Should also mention it, it does it like it's a switch. Normally formatting takes time but in this occasion it's just one frame.

Damn that's wild, I guess there's a reason those options were blocked out haha

I'm actually pretty familiar with this prototype, I've spent a lot of time comparing it to retail and the two biggest differences seem to be sound and netcode - the netcode in particular seems very different, and may have even been completely rewritten by the time of the retail build. I'm not sure how this affects your prospects of getting this version online, but best of luck!

MattKC wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 5:18 pm Damn that's wild, I guess there's a reason those options were blocked out haha

I'm actually pretty familiar with this prototype, I've spent a lot of time comparing it to retail and the two biggest differences seem to be sound and netcode - the netcode in particular seems very different, and may have even been completely rewritten by the time of the retail build. I'm not sure how this affects your prospects of getting this version online, but best of luck!

I think (for now) it's more about the script that handles the memory card checking and formatting. Something is incompatible probably.

I'll copy things from this build https://hiddenpalace.org/Burnout_3:_Tak ... prototype) and i'll see what happens

No luck! I also tried getting files from different demos and all but hangs on checking the memory card. I'm tempted to try pulling files from the Xbox version, since it still uses DirtySock AFAIK. If that doesn't work then i'll have to figure out which file is which and somehow try to put a frankenstein edit of the network files.

Xbox is useless, doesn't have any files at all regarding network. My only option is to test it on a real PS2, since PCSX2 has some bugs still, and those fixes to any potential problems haven't been incorporated into prototype versions for mostly obvious reasons. Maybe this whole memory card thing is a facade and not a big problem for PS2?

See the answer to this question in the next post of "June 8 Prototype: Electric Boogaloo"!

They must have been working on the netcode up until the last minute. The June 8 proto is dated less than two months before the final build (July 29), and from my analysis and what you've said, it seems like that the online component was the part that changed the most in that time.

Trying on console is an interesting idea, you never know what might just be an emulator glitch.

I'm having issues with OPL at the moment, but one time i got the game working, it wouldn't detect my memory card. Interesting enough, when i tried to create a new profile it said it needs around 155 mb to create it...? Def a weird bug.

Blue Burnout 3 logo lul

There's a weird issue. The game isn't detecting the memory card unlike in the emulators. The game was swapped with retail files so i don't know what's happening. I'll try to get a clean iso, replace the files and build the iso again and check the thing but for now it's going nowhere.

If i launch OPL and launch June 8 Proto, OPL for some reason stops detecting the iso's for the prototype. Can't figure out why.

CrabHead wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 12:48 pm There's a weird issue. The game isn't detecting the memory card unlike in the emulators. The game was swapped with retail files so i don't know what's happening. I'll try to get a clean iso, replace the files and build the iso again and check the thing but for now it's going nowhere.

Try creating a virtual memory card in OPL, that's what I did when OPL didn't detect my memory card when starting playing Burnout 3 (Retail)

TheGoat62 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 12:24 am Try creating a virtual memory card in OPL, that's what I did when OPL didn't detect my memory card when starting playing Burnout 3 (Retail)

I wanted to do this but OPL is not detecting my prototype for some reason.

Hmm that's odd, I've definitely managed to get that proto playing on OPL before. I assume you're using HDD, what are you using to load the ISO onto it?

MattKC wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:13 am Hmm that's odd, I've definitely managed to get that proto playing on OPL before. I assume you're using HDD, what are you using to load the ISO onto it?

Im using usb since i dont have any fat consoles. I'm using ImgBurn, since it's the most reliable for me during my times with modding ps2's

Quick update: using VMC worked, now to create a network config...

So after bit of testing, i'm afraid it's not an emulator bug.

I created DNAT_200.45_0.bin (VMC file) and went to the prototype, entered online, it checked the VMC, and asked for a network config. I pressed to go into it and the game froze. No big deal. However, to be sure nothing happened, i copied over the VMC file to my PC and downloaded a version of MyMC that supports .bin files. I tried to open it... and it threw out an error. I still didn't think much, maybe the VMC changed over the years, since the version of MyMC is from 2016...

So i created a generic_0.bin, a clean file. I copied the file onto my pc and checked with MyMC and it loads... normally. No doubt the prototype is doing something with memory cards now. At this point i have no idea on what to do, i'm attaching the both DNAT and generic VMC's if someone wants to take a look.

So the story isn't quite over yet. Scourging the June 21 demo files revealed a fully packed IOP folder. Inserting it into the June 8 Prototype gets over the checking memory card thing and tells you to create a network config. Creating it and going to online gets stuck at checking the memory card but it doesn't format it. I feel like i'm only one piece away from getting that sweet, sweet select config menu.

Oh wow I didn't know you could swap out entire modules like that, I would have assumed everything would be compiled into the main executable.

IOP is interesting, presumably referring to the PS2's IOP chip? What interests me is I'm fairly certain the IOP is not responsible for memory card communication specifically, but is responsible for the MagicGate encryption used in some circumstances. I wonder if that explains why it didn't work before, do we know if B3 uses MagicGate for its save files? There's definitely a benefit to encrypting online save data to prevent cheating, but I'm really just speculating here.

MattKC wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:55 pm Oh wow I didn't know you could swap out entire modules like that, I would have assumed everything would be compiled into the main executable.

Burnout 3 is quite flexible in that matter, it seems.

My plan is to just add a file and check if it does the thing (format the mc). Then i can check what's up with the file (to be totally honest i have almost no hex editing knowledge )

So far those files are excluded
Entire NETWORK folder
mcman.irx

Haven't sent anything here for a while but i found some discoveries.

The culprit is a file called mc2_s1.irx . There is a 1 kilobyte difference between proto and retail versions.

I dont know anything about networking nor hex editing so if someone would want to take a look, be my guest.