Sunday, January 16, 2022

Long trip to get some Mouse Trap's

 One week ago we did find a german version of MOUSE TRAP near the Austrian-Czech border. So far nobody did know, that a german version of this game even exists. Luckily, the owner allowed us to dump it, so i did the nearly 300km roadtrip today to get the board dumped and preserved. Not only was this interesting because of the german version of the game, all other official MOUSE TRAP sets in MAME also have one bipolar prom marked as BAD DUMP, as it was used from an bootleg and not confirmed from an official board so far.

 As it takes about 1,5hours of driving-time to the board, i started my trip at 08:00am. The streets were nearly empty this sunday at this time and while i was getting nearer and nearer to the czech border the adventure started to take off.

"Zacky", the owner, was a nice guy and shortly after my arriving, i had the board infront of me.

While this board is over 40 years old, it was in a pretty good shape! I took nearly my complete dumping-equipment with me, just to be sure to get everything dumped and preserved. Most work was finished after 30 minutes, i dumped all eproms and bproms at least 3 times and always checked that the CRC's matched between the dumps of each chip.

A quick romident in the newest MAME showed that 11 of the 17 roms did match the other MOUSE TRAP sets in MAME. The other 6 roms (marked "GMTL") had no match. I expected this already before i did the romident, as the G stands most likely for GERMAN.

Identifying mtrapde.zip....
GMTL-4.a10           NO MATCH
GMTL-4.a11           NO MATCH
MTA-1.5a             = mta_5a.5a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_5a.5a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_5a.5a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_5a.5a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
MTA-1.6a             = mta_6a.6a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_6a.6a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_6a.6a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_6a.6a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
MTA-1.7a             = mta_7a.7a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_7a.7a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_7a.7a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_7a.7a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
MTA-1.d2             = mta_2a.2a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_2a.2a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_2a.2a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_2a.2a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = mta_2a.2a             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = ms2a.8d               mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
MTA-1.d3             = mta_3a.3a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_3a.3a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_3a.3a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_3a.3a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = mta_3a.3a             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = ms3a.8e               mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
MTA-1.d4             = mta_4a.4a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_4a.4a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_4a.4a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_4a.4a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = mta_4a.4a             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = ms4a.8f               mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
MTA-1.d5             = mta_1a.1a             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mta_1a.1a             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mta_1a.1a             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mta_1a.1a             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = mta_1a.1a             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = ms5a.8h               mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
MTL-1.d11            = mtl_11d.11d           mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = mtl_11d.11d           mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = mtl_11d.11d           mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = mtl_11d.11d           mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = 2516.j6               mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = ms11d.6j              mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
742s97-VEL5C-1.c5    = vel5c_1.c5            mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = vel5c_1.c5            mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = vel5c_1.c5            mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = vel5c_1.c5            mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = 24s10n.1c             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = 24s10n.1c             mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
                     = tt5c.129              teetert     Teeter Torture (prototype)
                     = vel5c-1.c5            venture     Venture (version 5 set 1)
                     = vel5c-1.c5            venture4    Venture (version 4)
                     = vel5c-1.c5            venture5a   Venture (version 5 set 2)
7603-HRL6D-1.d6      = 74s288.d6             mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = 74s288.d6             mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = 74s288.d6             mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = 74s288.d6             mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = 74s288.3d             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = 74s288.3d             mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
                     = (BAD) prom.6d               spectar     Spectar (revision 3)
                     = (BAD) prom.6d               spectar1    Spectar (revision 1?)
                     = prom.6d               spectarrf   Spectar (revision 2, bootleg)
                     = stl_6d-1.6d           targ        Targ
                     = stl_6d-1.6d           targc       Targ (cocktail?)
                     = tt6d.123              teetert     Teeter Torture (prototype)
                     = hrl6d-1.d6            venture     Venture (version 5 set 1)
                     = hrl6d-1.d6            venture4    Venture (version 4)
                     = hrl6d-1.d6            venture5a   Venture (version 5 set 2)
                     = sn74s288n.3d          venture5b   Venture (version 5 set 2, bootleg)
7603-HRL14H-1.h14    = fxl-11b               fax         FAX
                     = fxl-11b               fax2        FAX 2
                     = (BAD) 74s288.h14            mtrap       Mouse Trap (version 5)
                     = (BAD) 74s288.h14            mtrap2      Mouse Trap (version 2)
                     = (BAD) 74s288.h14            mtrap3      Mouse Trap (version 3)
                     = (BAD) 74s288.h14            mtrap4      Mouse Trap (version 4)
                     = (BAD) 74s288.6c             mtrapb      Mouse Trap (bootleg)
                     = 74s288.6c             mtrapb2     Mouse Trap (version 4, bootleg)
                     = hrl14h-1.h14          pepper2     Pepper II (version 8)
                     = hrl14h-1.h14          pepper27    Pepper II (version 7)
                     = hrl14h-1.14h          spectar     Spectar (revision 3)
                     = hrl14h-1.14h          spectar1    Spectar (revision 1?)
                     = hrl14h-1              spectarrf   Spectar (revision 2, bootleg)
                     = hrl_14h-1.14h         targ        Targ
                     = hrl_14h-1.14h         targc       Targ (cocktail?)
                     = tt14h.123             teetert     Teeter Torture (prototype)
                     = hrl14h-1.h14          venture     Venture (version 5 set 1)
                     = hrl14h-1.h14          venture4    Venture (version 4)
                     = hrl14h-1.h14          venture5a   Venture (version 5 set 2)
                     = sn74s288n.6c          venture5b   Venture (version 5 set 2, bootleg)
GMTL-4.a6            NO MATCH
GMTL-4.a7            NO MATCH
GMTL-4.a8            NO MATCH
GMTL-4.a9            NO MATCH

 

 To get a quick confirmation that everything is dumped and good, i started the new roms as mtrap in MAME and quickly got a fully working german version of MOUSE TRAP up and running.





All three bprom's matched the existing bprom-dumps in MAME, so the BAD DUMP flag can get removed from all set's too.

With the new dumps on my laptop i started my 150km roadtrip back to my home, knowing that we now have a new version preserved and documented.

Summary:

Driven distance: 300km

Expenditure of time: ~5 hours 

New preserved data: 24kb (6 roms with 4kb each)


Credits: team europe, rtw, f205v, darksoft, zacky

8 comments:

  1. Amazing work! That's the real preservation spririt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are all grateful, thanks!

    I remember a similar trip to grab a bunch of 8751 MCUs which eventually made it to your hands for a successful round of dumping. The things we do for preservation :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great story, and great job to preserve these EPROMs and this version of MT.

    As a big fan of these old Exidy games (and the current WR holder for Venture :)), would you be amenable to share the ROMs so I could burn a set to use on my original MT board?

    FYI, I have an original Venture upright, and 2 sets of MT boards that are plug and play in the same cabinet (along with a control panel that I made an adapter for so it will work also in this cabinet).

    Cheers,

    Jonathan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the roms will be available everywhere in the next few days...

      Delete
  4. Great and I did not realize you are so close to Czech borders. Maybe we could meetup sometime?
    Cheers and thanks for all your hard work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome, thanks for doing this. I really enjoy German versions of games. Need to play some Berzerk (German) now :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great job! Your efforts are not only helping to preserve the digital heritage, but also inspire others to do the same.

    ReplyDelete