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 / ____|  /\       /_ | |  __ \           | |  
| (___   /  \ ______| | | |__) |___   ___ | |_ 
 \___ \ / /\ \______| | |  _  // _ \ / _ \| __|
 ____) / ____ \     | | | | \ \ (_) | (_) | |_ 
|_____/_/    \_\    |_| |_|  \_\___/ \___/ \__|
    Version 1.1              by Vitor Vilela

SA-1 Root is the base pack of patches for activating and using SA-1 on many different games. SA-1 Root currently has patches for the following games:

• Gradius III v1.5
• Super Mario World (SA-1 Pack only)

SA-1 is a co-processor used on some special SNES games, made to work together with the Super NES CPU and enhance its processing speed, graphics and memory.

With its base 10.74 MHz clock, the SA-1 CPU is four times faster than the normal SNES CPU processing. The SA-1 CPU and SNES CPU also runs simultaneously, which can result in five times faster processing over game with a standard cart setup. With that much power, the Super Accelerator System (SAS) can be used to process game engines much faster than the normal, allowing more sprites to be processed at once, more in-game effects, faster loading and much more.

SA-1 Root not just activates the co-processor, but also modifies a good part of the game engine to use and explore the chip features, which gives an extreme boost to the overall performance of the game.

• 16-bit 65c816 processor clocked at 10.74 MHz.
• 2 kB fast internal work memory (I-RAM), clocked at 10.74 MHz.
• Multi-processor processing, with parallel operating mode and memory sharing control.
• Large capacity memory, with a total capability of 8 MB of ROM clocked at 10.74 MHz and 256 kB of BW-RAM, clocked at 5.37 MHz.
• High speed arithmetic hardware of multiplication, division and cumulative sum.
• Bitmap and Character Conversion functions for fast graphics manipulation.
• Custom DMA circuit for fast transfers between ROM, I-RAM and BW-RAM.
• Variable-Length Bit data processing for enhanced algorithms such as graphics and data compression.
• Super MMC memory mapping capabilities for BW-RAM and bank switching for multiple ROM image access and mirroring.

SA-1 Root is intended to be the base pack for enabling SA-1 on the games and optimizing it. SA-1 Pack is intended to be a full featured pack that not just enables SA-1 and accelerate the game, but also improve the game engine and provide additional tools for ROM hacking.

For example, Super Mario World's SA-1 Pack doubles the maximum physical amount of allowed enemies on screen and includes different shared routines for additional SA-1 features.

SA-1 Root is warranted to work with real hardware, including SA-1 carts plus the most up-to-date SNES emulators including bsnes and Snes9x.

ZSNES is not compatible with the SA-1 Root patches.

SA-1 Root wouldn't be that awesome without help from these people:

• indcsion (additional testing)
• Vitor Vilela (crazy author that did most of the patches)
• You (for using it :D)

Useful documents for understanding SA-1:

• SA-1 article at SnesLab: https://www.sneslab.net/wiki/
• SNES Dev. Book: https://www.romhacking.net/docs/226/
• SA-1 Registers: https://wiki.superfamicom.org/sa-1-registers
• SA-1 Doc: https://github.com/VitorVilela7/SNES-SA-1-doc/

You can contact make though the following links:

• My Github profile: https://github.com/VitorVilela7
• My Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/HackerVilela
• My personal blog: https://vilela.sneslab.net/