BPROM Adapter (14 in 1)

This blog is dedicated to my hobby "documenting, dumping, decapping, preserving games and all kind of software and constributing all this to MAME and other community's. Emulation got my attention in 1998 and while i used MAME since 2001 for playing the good old Arcade-Games, it took 7 years more until i started to constribute to MAME. 

Starting with an cheap WILLEM programmer, i only could dump the standard eprom's at the beginning. Even until 2011 and while i already had dumped many undumped and new games, i always had to ship the BPROM's via post-mail to f205v in Italy for dumping it. All changed, when i bought myself an expensive GALEP5 programmer and asked CONITEC (the company which produces this little monster) if they can add support (reading and writing) for BPROM's. => which they did! (for free!)

So for reading BPROM's these days, you have most likely only two choices:

1. Buy an modern extremely expensive programmer! (400EUR+)

2. Buy an very old programmer, which is in most cases also expensive today and even hard to get running these days on modern computer-systems.

 

So dumping Bi-polar PROM's (BPROM's) is in most cases nothing you can do with your average programmer. And that's also, why many external constributions to MAME are missing the dumps of the BPROM's.

My goal of this project is to make simple tools/adapters so anybody can dump even extremely rare chips with an cheap programmer.

 

While you can find single BPROM-Adapters on the web, there was no All-In-One-Solution so far.

I designed this 14-in-1 Adapter-Package to fit in the 10x10cm PCB-Production. It's cheap and easy for selfsoldering.

The adapter support's READING the following BPROM's and even the 2708 EPROM:

• 82S123 (32 byte)
  
• 82S129 (256 byte)
  
• 82S131 (512 byte)
  
• 82S135 (256 byte)
  
• 82S137 (1 kbyte)
  
• 82S141 (512 byte)
  
• 82S147 (512 byte)
  
• 82S181 (1 kbyte)
  
• 82S185 (2 kbyte)
  
• 82S191 (2 kbyte)
  
• 82S195 (4 kbyte)
  
• 82S321 (4 kbyte)
  
• 82S641 (8 kbyte)
  
•  2708 (1 kbyte)
  

Of course it also supports the equivalent BPROM's from other company's like the 24S10 or 74S287 for the 82S129.

 

 

 

 All BPROM's can get read as 2716 or 2732 (see the markings on the adapters) which should be supported by any programmer.

For reading 2708 eproms, you will need an external power-supply, which get's the needed +12V and -5V...just connect it to the adapter and read it as 2716.

 

 

Reading the BPROM's as 2716 will give you a 2kb file. Split the file to the correct sizes of the BPROM (The size of the BPROM is written above at the list of supported BPROM's) and you will get your correct dump of the bprom! (example 82s123: Split the 2kb file in pieces of 32byte each. All pieces should have the same CRC. Enjoy your BPROM-dump!)

If your programmer supports a "PIN-Check" before dumping you can have "1 Missing Pin" on some of the BPROM's. That's OK, don't worry ;-) !

 

Needed parts:

• 7 pcs 40 Pin 1x40 Male 2.54 Breakable Pin Header
  
  
  
• 3 pcs 1P2T Toggle Switch
  
  
  
  
• 2 pcs DIP16 IC Socket
• 1 pcs DIP18 IC Socket
  
• 3 pcs DIP20 IC Socket
• 2 pcs DIP24 IC Socket
  
• 1 pcs DIP24 IC Socket (wide)
  
  
  
  
• PCB Files: You can order the boards here.

Casio PV-1000 & PV-2000 - new Controllers

 Getting a controller for the PV-1000 (or PV-2000) is nearly impossible these days! So if you got a console without a controller or want a second controller for two-player-games you have to search for a very long time and most likely have to pay high prices if you find one for sale.

As i wanted to get a second controller for my console since some years, and never found one for sale, i made my own one!

 

Yes, this is a PV-1000 (and PV-2000) controller inside a NES-Case! The internal design is completely new and reverse engineered from the original controller with a nice black MiniDin8 cable! I even included the MAIN/ATTACK switch, with you can swap the functions of the button's A and B on the controller! The cables have a length of ~1m, which is exactly the same as the original controllers have.

Playing the games with this controller is really a new experience! To be true, they play better with this new controller as with the original "Joystick-Controller".

As the controllers for the PV-1000 and PV-2000 are identical, this new Controllers will work on both machines!

I only make a very small batch of these, most likely less than 10 pieces. So if someone is interested in buying one, please contact me via the email address on the first page.