CPS2 Progear no Arashi (Conversion)

 General  Comments Off on CPS2 Progear no Arashi (Conversion)
Jan 102011
 

I got my hands on this very rare and expensive game today.
Although this game is a conversion and not original it still normally has a high asking price and this one was no exception!
I initially tested the board and found it wasn’t a Phoenix but it uses another set of decrypted code, this looks like it is already in MAME so I wont dump it.
Inside, all the GFX ROM’s are now 27C322 EPROMs and there is a small wiring mod too.
(Apologies for the picture quality here)

Im not sure if this mod makes the conversion work or if it is part of a repair, I cannot see any signs of track damage so ill assume its part of the conversion.

Being a conversion, the game also didn’t have a label. I have a decent scan of the label from Progear both the Asia and Jap versions so I printed one off and it now looks much better.

The game works just fine and is probably the closest I’m going to get to owning this game, a genuine Capcom release goes for a lot of money.

 Posted by at 5:31 pm

Dreamcast SD Card mod

 Guides, Mods  Comments Off on Dreamcast SD Card mod
Jan 082011
 

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.






 Posted by at 7:14 pm

Finally…….Rainbow Islands!

 General  Comments Off on Finally…….Rainbow Islands!
Jan 032011
 

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

 Posted by at 2:47 pm

ABI Chipmaster Compact Pro

 General  Comments Off on ABI Chipmaster Compact Pro
Jan 022011
 


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.

 Posted by at 10:03 pm

Cabal repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on Cabal repair log
Dec 292010
 

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.

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