Finally got around to starting the Dreamcast SD mod and its all over and done with in 15 minutes.
It involves soldering 7 wires to the back of the serial port and soldering them directly onto an SD socket. I used a cheap sd card reader as a donor.
Today I found someone over at Arcade Otaku selling Rainbow Islands.
Ive been after this game for ages and now Ive finally got it and at a pretty decent price too.
The board looks in excellent condition from the pictures and the seller tells me all is well apart from a couple of the DIP switches have broken levers, I can live with that.
Rainbow Islands
Option Switch Settings
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIP Switch A Settings
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Option
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Style
----------
Off Cocktail Table
On Upright
Screen
------
Off Normal*
On Upside Down
Game Mode
---------
Off Normal*
On Test
Demo Sound
----------
Off Yes*
On No
Credits per Coin
----------------
Coin Mech 1
Type 1 Type 2
---------------- ----------------
Off Off 1 Coin 1 Credit 1 Coin 1 Credit*
On Off 1 Coin 2 Credits 2 Coins 1 Credit
Off On 2 Coins 1 Credit 3 Coins 1 Credit
On On 2 Coins 3 Credits 4 Coins 1 Credit
Coin Mech 2
Type 1 Type 2
---------------- ----------------
Off Off 1 Coin 1 Credit 1 Coin 2 Credits*
On Off 1 Coin 2 Credits 1 Coins 3 Credits
Off On 2 Coins 1 Credit 1 Coins 4 Credits
On On 2 Coins 3 Credits 1 Coins 6 Credits
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Option
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIP Switch B Settings
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Option
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Difficulty
----------
Off Off B*
On Off A
Off On C
On On D
Bonus
-----
Off 100k/1,000k*
On None
Complete Bonus
--------------
Off 1 Up*
On None
Number of Lives
---------------
Off Off 3
On Off 4
Off On 1
On On 2
Language
--------
Off Japanese*
On English
Coin Type
---------
Off Type 1*
On Type 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Option
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* = default settings
Ive been using this device for a while now but never really mentioned it.
Its a very useful device used for testing digital IC’s up to 40 pin for correct logical functioning. Any discrepancy results in a FAIL result and the fault information is displayed. It can execute various test loops including repeated test until pass, repeated test until fail and permanent loop test, the device can also search for unknown devices providing they are functional.
There is an RS232 port on the device which allows software to communicate with the Chipmaster and upload new software or create new truth tables of your own.
The device can test:
54/74 CMOS and TTL IC’s
RAMs
Interface/peripheral/microprocessor and LSI IC’s
Bring able to test logic, RAM and Z80s if a massive help to me when troubleshooting arcade PCB’s.
The Chipmaster is an excellent bit of hardware but it does have a couple of annoying traits.
Firstly, the screen has a slow refresh and results in ghosting when it scrolls the fail information making it very hard to read properly.
Second, the CompactLink software to upgrade the device does not come with it and is not free. In fact it costs a few hundred pounds which I think is ridiculous considering the cost of the unit if you were to buy it from normal vendors.
I know the software also allows the user to create their own libraries but I believe it should be capable to apply the software updates from ABI for nothing.
There is a JTAG connector inside which I have been tempted to test out but I really see no point at this time.
Got a Cabal game. It looks like a bootleg but is pretty good quality. The ROM’s match that of the joystick version which is good because it means I can test it properly.
As it turned out, the joystick controls were completely erratic and all over the place. I took the top board off to give me access to the traces from the edge connector.
There is a small daughter board present which is silkscreened with “Joystic Sub”. I removed this and found the likely cause of the problem, several of the pins had broken off.
I cut the pins out that were broken and replaced them as required. Pins 13 and 14 were not connected to anything so I didn’t bother replacing them.
Fired the game up and the controls are working again. Pretty addictive game too.
I stumbled across a forum post a while back detailing a switchless mod for the SNES.
A forum member Ikari_01 has reverse engineered the CIC lockout chip and created his own and it is stunning.
I followed these diagrams and burned the latest .HEX from Ikari_01 to a PIC16F630.
The mod works very well so far, am waiting for a few more games to get here and a dual LED.
Ive got some different games coming and will update this post when I’ve finished testing.
UPDATE: I’ve finished testing this mod using 3 of the cheapest games that eBay had to offer, one from each region.
Ive also now hacked away a little at the casing of the SNES so US cartridges will fit in too. Its VERY rough but functional.
