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.

Space Harrier (Rev A, 8751 315-5163A) - MCU decapped

 Finally, after so many years, Alex got his hands on an MCU for Space Harrier (Rev A, 8751 315-5163A) and shipped it directly to me for decapping.

This is one of the games, i always had big hopes we will get the MCU decapped.

It's now done!

The decapping-process worked straight forward without any problems.

Another game completely preserved!

Credits for this decap: Alex & TeamEurope

Still alot of 8751 mcu's are not decapped. If you have one of the missing ones and want to help preserving it, please contact me.

Super Cassette Vision - Project finished

 Finally, the SUPER CASSETTE VISION is finished for me. With these four cartridges you can play ALL available games for the system.  To the already existing three cartridges, i finally finished the long awaited 128kb+RAM cartridge, which is needed for POLE POSITION II.

Pole Position II is one of the rarest and most expensive games for this system and cartridges get sold easily for over 250EUR.

As this was the last game, which was not playable with the existing three carts, i had to solve this problem. ;-)

All four Multicarts for the SCV.

 

If you want to play all available games for this system, you will need all four carts. I also finally redesigned all carts to be the same design, with front- and back-cover.

Cartridge-Stand for the complete Multicart-Set

I also designed a small cartridge-stand which will get included to a full set of carts.

Here's the full DIP-Switch-Sheet for all four carts:

Stay tuned for me next project...

Shooting Master (315-5159A) MCU verification

 I got two 315-5159 MCU's for Shooting Master sent from Brian and Joe.

CHIP 1:

CHIP 2:

Decapping both chips worked without any problems and in the end i got good dumps from both chips. Both dumps were identical.

Looking at the driver, both even matched the existing dump of it. Which was marked as BAD in MAME since years.

At least we now know that this dump is good and another "BAD DUMP" flag can be removed.

Monon Color - 128mbit Flashcart

 The Monon Color is another obscure handheld, which never got released in Europe and America...

I got contacted, if i can make a Flashcart for this system and got shipped a complete console and two games afterwards.

So here's the first Flashcart for this system. It can hold any games from 4mb to 16mb and the cartridge has a nice 3D-printed case.

 

You will need a programmer, which can program 25Q128 chips (e.g. the TL866II Plus is most likely the cheapest option, if you don't already have a programmer).

 

Also included is the "Program-Adapter", which can get used to program the Flashcarts and can even get used for dumping original cartridges.

This flashcart does only support the game-rom! As the latest emulation-progress showed, the original carts contain a game-rom + music-mcu inside. As of AUG-2022 the music-mcu can't get decapped/dumped so far.

Games on this flashcart will not have any background-music!

Tomy Tutor/Pyuta - RAM Cartridge

 I just finished a RAM-Cartridge for the Tomy Tutor/Pyuta consoles. The cartridge has space for sixteen 32kb games, while currently only 3 games are used. So alot of space for new homebrew stuff!

All carts get a nice 3D-printed cartridge case. The eeprom is easily changeable, if new homebrew get's released.

You will need my "Game-Adapter" board to use this RAM-Cartridge with your Pyuta/Tutor console.

DIP-Settings:

Super Cassette Vision - RAM Cartridge

Making a RAM cartridge for the SVC was not an easy task for me, as i never had done flashcarts with ram's before.

While this was my first version, it had the big problem that the battery was empty after just one day, loosing all saved highscores.

The second version was to split the the three RAM-games on two cartridges. One S-RAM cartridge and one F-RAM cartridge. Basically the designs looked to work, but had some problems. The F-RAM-cartridge needed a diode (i used a LED) to get the needed 3v for the f-ram chip. While i thought it looks kinda cool at the beginning, it wasn't that cool after longer useage of the cartridge. The S-RAM cartridge had the problem, while you could play Dragons Slayer, it did not save your game...because of the missing battery...

 

This is now my third RAM-Cart for SCV and most likely this will be my last/final one. This cartridge uses now S-RAM again and can play and save all three available RAM-games for the console. It uses a CR2032 battery for the S-RAM chip. I tested the prototype now over 6 months, and the S-RAM still keeps the saved data, so i'm pretty sure this is now working correctly and should at least work for several years with one battery.

It also has four 8kb ram-banks, which means you can have four different save-states if you want.

The cartridge also has now a front- and back-cover.

 

 

Below are the three currently available Super Cassette Vision Multicarts: 

 

S-RAM; 27in1; 3in1 Multicarts

Bandai Datach - Cartridge Case

I just finished the Bandai Datach - Cartridge Cases. Basically i made it only for my multicarts, but they should also work with the original pcb's.

The cartridge worked out pretty nice, as i did not even have a real case for the system here.

Download the files here.

VTech Socrates / Prof. Weiss-Alles - Cartridge Case

I just finished a cartridge-case for my Socrates 8in1 Multicart. It also contains a TOP-Cover without the hole for the DIP-Switch and is compatible with all regular game-pcb's too!

The files can get downloaded here