Namco System 2 PLDs

 PAL Updates  Comments Off on Namco System 2 PLDs
Jul 312013
 

caius and robotype sent me 4 more PLDs from a Namco System 2 board, in this case it was Ordyne.
Three of them are already in GAL16V8 format and have been tested. The forth is from an unlocked PAL12L10 and as of yet we have yet to convert it and test it.

Thanks once again to caius and robotype

 Posted by at 7:10 pm

P-47 Freedom Fighter repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on P-47 Freedom Fighter repair log
Jul 282013
 

Got this fairly cheap from eBay.
Didn’t really know what I was getting but was described as have a chip missing. How bad can it be??
Answer: Very bad.

On getting the board and doing my visual inspection I quickly located the missing chip.

Yes that’s right, an 82S131 PROM. NOTE: the above picture was taken AFTER cleaning up. The chip was forcibly removed and had several legs still remaining in the board. It was also a mess underneath.

Now as my programmer supports this chip I wasn’t too concerned but after paying over the odds eBay prices several times trying to find one that was actually blank only to find they were all used it became clear that I wasn’t going to obtain one easily.
Enter Steph at HobbyRoms. My savior. In a little over a week I had the new chip in hand and already programmed with the correct data too.

Back to the visual inspection. There was a bit of damage to several changes underneath that would obviously need cleaned up and patched.

I fitted the new PROM and patched the 3 broken lines and fired it up to test.

A green screen. All was not lost at this point as the game could be coined up and played blind.
I probed the newly installed PROM and found the chip enable pin was not connected to anything. This pin is grounded (enabled) constantly and it looks as though it picks this ground up via a ground plane in the middle of the PCB. As this was one of the holes that was badly damaged from the old chip removal I found it had not made a good enough contact when I installed a new socket. A lot of solder later and that has now been sorted.

Fired it up for another test.

Getting better but not quite there.
Whilst probing around the patches I made I found an additional 2 pads that were unconnected that I originally missed. Patching these fixed all issues and the game is fully playable.

I actually really like this game and think its very good for its age. As an added bonus it was also an undumped version so its now added to MAME.
Massive thanks to Steph at HobbyRoms. Without his help this board probably wouldn’t have been fixed.
I would also like to add a note to any sellers of bipolar devices on eBay. At least put in a little effort to check your goods before selling at an inflated price. I get the impression most of them don’t even know what they are selling.

 Posted by at 5:14 pm

Trio the Punch PALs

 PAL Updates  Comments Off on Trio the Punch PALs
Jul 242013
 

robotype and caius are back again with another set of dumps. This time from a bizarre game called “Trio the Punch – Never Forget Me”.
Ive never heard of this before and ive had a quick go of it in MAME. Very odd game!

Anyways, once again thanks to robotype and caius

 Posted by at 8:03 pm

Ikari Warriors PALs added. CPS1 PALs tested

 PAL Updates  Comments Off on Ikari Warriors PALs added. CPS1 PALs tested
Jul 232013
 

caius and robotype sent me a complete set of dumps from Ikari Warriors (US no continue).
All have been tested.

Ive had a couple of other untested sets available for a while from different versions. While I’m confident that they are all the same I will leave them available just in case.

Thanks to caius and robotype for these.

Muddymusic has also tested the 3 PALs I recently copied and has confirmed they all work fine.
Thanks mate

 Posted by at 6:48 pm

Various dumps added

 PAL Updates  Comments Off on Various dumps added
Jul 212013
 

Ive added dumps from:
CPS1 Lost World – LWCHR courtesy of Wishi-Washi
Liquid Kids
Scramble Formation
Strikers 1999

The LWCHR one has been tested (not by me)
The other 3 are untested.

 Posted by at 3:52 pm