I dumped the PAL chip from my FF bootleg today.
Its a strange hybrid using a genuine Capcom CAP1 A board but the B & C board was bootleg.
The PAL was unlocked and is different to a genuine Final Fight 1A PAL chip
Its a little known fact that whilst doing some major testing recently I accidentally blew up my B-21 C board.
Ive looked around a bit but these things are getting difficult to find for a reasonable price these days.
On a CPS2 motherboard there is a B-21 chip.
I have a scrap one so I thought it was time to do a transplant so I removed the chips off each board and set about swapping them
This is the end result. It looks worse than it actually is in the photo but make no mistake, its by no means the neatest of jobs.
Anyway, time to boot this thing up
NICE! Happy days
Zabanitu tested 3 of the 4 dumps in the M72 archive. All the tested ones worked.
Im not sure where the forth one is from but it is the same file exactly as the one I have listed for R-Type.
I would like to confirm if R-Type uses a different PAL or not. I dont see why it would but you never know.
Until we can confirm it, Ill leave both entries in the table.
Thanks to Zab for testing.
Today has been a good day for the PAL archive.
First of all Andrew96 submitted a tested dump of a PAL from his Terminator 2 PCB.
Next up Dion sent me 19 attachments!
He tells me that they are from an old drive and are to be labelled as untested but from what ive seen they look like valid dumps so there is a good chance that they would work. Im more than happy to have untested dumps too as without them you have pretty much no chance if it goes down. At least this way there is a little hope.
Here is a list of what Dion sent:
Blue Hawk (in a strange format but may still work)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (A11F bootleg)
Dynasty Wars 2 bootleg
Red Zone
Knights of the Round bootleg
NeoGeo motherboard PALs
play Girls 2
The Punisher bootleg
Raiden
R-Shark
Sailor Moon
Sky Smasher
Sunset Rider bootleg
Super X
Tetris bootleg
Thunder Dragon
Vapor Trail
Zero Team
Massive thanks to both of you and indeed everyone that has ever contributed in any way.
The archive is nearly at 400 entries now!
I recently got my DD Crew FD1094 back from Charles after he dumped it and despite liking the fact that we now have decrypted ROM sets, I do love my stuff to be original wherever possible.
I did attempt a battery change on one of these a few years ago and it ended in disaster so I was keen not let it happen again.
I ordered a couple of CR2032 batteries up and set to work.
First thing was to make the helper battery up. This was just another tabbed CR2032 with a couple of flying leads on with crocodile clips on the ends.
Then gently pry the lid up from the body.
To be sure I checked the voltage on the current battery. I’m glad I did as the + and – wires from the CPU had a layer of crud on them that meant I could not get a reliable connection. I took a stanley knife blade and scraped away at the top and sides of the wires which allowed me to get a good connection.
Next I attached the helper battery.
As the original battery was 3v and the helper battery was 3.3v it allowed me to check if the helper was connected properly, which it was.
Time to disconnect the old battery.
No I probably should have prepped the new battery before removing the old one but I never did. I got it ready though and proceeded to solder it in
Once I got the battery in place it became clear that with the plastic surround on it, it wouldnt fit in the CPU housing at all so I carefully snipped it away.
I closed the CPU back up
Now came the testing part.
Very pleased with that. I’m now going to order another battery up to do the other board I have still running on its original battery.