Street fighter Alpha 3 time switch?

[motorfish]

Hey All.

I had read on the CPS2Shock website that it is possible to set the "time switch" to 4 and access the time released characters such as Balrog, Juni and Juli, without having to keep the machine on for a month.

They say howe to do this, but fail tosay where you need to input these changes.

I'm using MAME32, and I've checked the sfa3.ini file, but there is no "time" file to alter. I tried adding one, but that didn't work either.

There doesn't seem to be an option in MAME32 itself to change such a setting.

Does anyone here know how to do this? I'm really stuck here.

- Dan

[walls83]

Im interested in this also.  Motor if you find out could you post if someone else doesnt.

Thanks

[motorfish]

I found it. It looks like it's as simple as enabling cheats for the game.

Problem, is that they're not saving after the Player exits the game, and then re-enters.

A few more tests.

- Dan

[walls83]

what cheat are you enabling? Are you playing the US version of Japan version?

[Marky_1979]

I love this game would be interested to hear how this works out

[motorfish]

what cheat are you enabling? Are you playing the US version of Japan version?

US version, Alpha 3.

- Dan

[TalkingOctopus]

This is not an option you are going to find in an ini file or in MAME32.

[TalkingOctopus]

I got a PM asking for more detailed instructions, so here we go:

1) Download the cheat.dat from: http://cheat.retrogames.com/
2) Put it in the same directory as mame.exe
3) Enable cheats by setting cheat to 1 in mame.ini
          - If you don't have mame.ini, run mame.exe -cc
4) Press tab and navigate to the enable cheat menu.  Put color unlock to green.
5) Reset (f3)
6) Choose your fighter.  To select balrog, leave the cursor on karin for 5 seconds.  Then move to random select hold start and press a button. (Look up how to select the other fighters)

To enable the cheat on mame startup, add the line above to your cheat.dat file.

[iamnaeth]

Is there any way to use the cheat file without all the numbers on the side of the screen?

[CrazyTerabyte]

I've found a way to edit SFA3 NVRAM file to unlock all time-based secrets. It is only needed to change one byte in NVRAM. I've documented everything in this page:

http://denilsonsa.hn.org/~denilson/sfa3.html

You may also download a ready-to-use NVRAM there.

[darthbane2k]

I've found a way to edit SFA3 NVRAM file to unlock all time-based secrets. It is only needed to change one byte in NVRAM. I've documented everything in this page:

http://denilsonsa.hn.org/~denilson/sfa3.html

You may also download a ready-to-use NVRAM there.

Okay, can someone confrim that if I download this ready to use NV file, it will enable all hidden fighters (is Guile one?) while NOT displaying numbers and code on the side of the screen?...

[pointdablame]

I've found a way to edit SFA3 NVRAM file to unlock all time-based secrets. It is only needed to change one byte in NVRAM. I've documented everything in this page:

http://denilsonsa.hn.org/~denilson/sfa3.html

You may also download a ready-to-use NVRAM there.

Okay, can someone confrim that if I download this ready to use NV file, it will enable all hidden fighters (is Guile one?) while NOT displaying numbers and code on the side of the screen?...

why not just try it out for yourself? It'd take 2 seconds.

[CrazyTerabyte]

Okay, can someone confrim that if I download this ready to use NV file, it will enable all hidden fighters (is Guile one?) while NOT displaying numbers and code on the side of the screen?...

AFAIK, guile is not available in Arcade version. Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_Alpha#Street_Fighter_Alpha_3

In addition, to play with hidden characters or hidden battle modes, you need to use some special "codes" (like: press LK+MK+HK). They are described in "History" info inside MAME (supposing you have history.dat). They are also available in one of the links on my page (the one with NVRAM file).

About those numbers... I think they are from some cheating options you may have enabled. With the "hacked" NVRAM, you can disable cheats (and the hiscores will be saved when you close MAME, which does not happen with cheats enabled).

[motorfish]

Correct. Guile is only available in Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper, which wasn't released in the arcades here in the states.

- Dan

[CrazyTerabyte]

http://denilsonsa.hn.org/~denilson/sfa3.html

Since hn.org service is closed, the above URL will stop working anytime. If that happens, try one of the following:

http://denilsonsa.homelinux.org/~denilson/sfa3.html
http://denilsonsa.selfip.org/~denilson/sfa3.html

Ah, if anyone wants to mirror that page and that file, feel free to do it.

[Howard_Casto]

Guys this question comes up about once every month or so.  You should really try teh search function before you post. 

Also, time-released characters are even covered in the mame faq if I'm not mistaken.