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BIOS font hacks

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eadmaster edited this page Mar 25, 2026 · 14 revisions

These are hacked BIOS with a 8x16 latin font stored inside 16x16 SJIS Kanji tiles.

It allows to store 2x ASCII chars using a valid 16bit Sjis encoding.

It is easier to use than SYSCARD_Translatefont, since you do not need to patch any text rendering routine, you only have to encode the text corectly (table file).

  • PCECD syscard 3 BIOS hack
    • 16x16 tile set
      • starts @ 0x1389e (corresponding to 889F=亜)
    • 12x12 tile set
      • starts @ 0x31FDA (corresponding to 889F=亜)
    • compatible emulators: Mesen2 (menu "Settings->Emulation->Firmwares->Super CD-ROM²"), Retroarch Beetle PCE Fast Core (replace system/syscard3.pce)
  • PS1 SCPH1001 BIOS hack
    • 16x15 tiles
    • starts @ 0x69D68 (corresponding to 889F=亜)
    • compatible emulators: Duckstation (menu "Settings->Game Properties->BIOS->NTSC-J (Japan)")

Example in action:

PopfulMail (English)_000

Popful Mail (PCECD)

demo

In Magical Adventure - Fray CD - Xak Gaiden (PCECD)

potion

Namco Anthology 2 - Valkyrie No Bouken 2 (PS1)

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