Casio Loopy - Multicarts

The CASIO LOOPY, another obscure console from Japan, which had no flashcart so far.

 

Back in 2019 i already had a basic cartridge-design ready, which had space for 1-2 games and while it had no RAM-support, it worked pretty good for most of the games. This was basically just a proof of concept and shortly after i sent the design to Phil Bennett, who did an amazing job with it, which will most likely be in MAME sometime in the future.

In 2022 i took the basic-design and reworked it from scratch. I added RAM and did fill up the cartridge with four 27c322 eproms. This means the cartridge has 16mb (128mbit) of space for 4-8 games.

The game-library of the Loopy is not big, only 10 games (9 are dumped) and 1 extra device (Magical Shop) got released.

Which means, with only two multicarts you can basically have a full-set of all Loopy games. My next task was to design cartridge-shells and that worked out pretty good too.

The 8in1 multicart is full with all eight 2mb games. The 4in1 has the two 3mb games included and has space for 2 other games. It's extendable, which means if ever the missing "Chakura-kun no Omajinai Paradise" get's dumped, just program it on a 27c322 and solder the eprom into the cartridge. Even a forth 27c322 could get soldered in, if someone will do a homebrew game for the console in the future.

 The battery for the RAM is easily accessable from the backside of the cartridge.

The labels on the cartridge are self-printed and hand-cut and include the switch-settings for each game.

After everything was finished i designed a minimalistic cartridge-stand which can hold five Loopy cartridges:

And here are some pictures of all games on the multicarts:

i have only a very limited amount of each multicart available (4 pieces each). If someone wants a full set (both multicarts) i will include a cartridge-stand for free.

If all multicarts are sold, i will most likely do one more batch of 5 pieces each. Most likely i will not do a third batch, as they are just to much work to get them assembled and the prices of the needed components got insanely high the last few months...

1st Batch - SOLD OUT

2nd Batch - SOLD OUT

No carts are available anymore!

Air Duel (World, M72 Hardware) - MCU decapped

 Finally after so many years, we got another needed MCU for MAME. This is another example of great team-effort, where people around the world worked together to get this finally done.

Brian A Troha found an ebay-auction where the complete chip-set for Air Duel (World) got sold. At the same time i got contacted by Silvio from Swiss, that he has an MCU for Air Duel, but as it's missing it's labels, nobody know's if it's for the World or Japan version of the game, and that he can ship it to me for decapping.

So we had a little dilemma. When Silvio's MCU is for the World-Version we don't need to spend a lot of money for the ebay auction. If it's not, we need money to get the chip-set from ebay...

Another example why the mail-list of the Dumping Union is really important! DU-member's teamed up to assure money for the ebay-auction.

The strategy was to wait until Silvio's MCU arrived here and could get decapped. => If it's from the Japan-Version, we have to buy the World-chips from ebay.

Silvio's MCU arrived at my home on tuesday the 14-06-2022 and shortly after i got home from work i directly decapped it. Sadly it was the MCU for the Japan-Version and matched the existing decap, which i already did some years ago.

So with the amazing financial help from the other DU-members we could buy the chips and the package arrived today at my frontdoor.

 The decapping-process worked flawlessly and just after a couple of minutes, the chip was desecured and i had the 4KB of data dumped.

Finally another MCU preserved!

Many thanks to all people who were involved in this task and helped to get another game on the M72-hardware finally fully preserved.

The rom will most likely be supported in the next MAME version (0.246) which will most likely get released at end of July 2022.

Credits: Brian A. Troha, BillD, rtw, f205v, darksoft, Gor, Smitdogg, Sean Sutton, Team Europe

And a Special Thanks to Silvio, for shipping the other MCU to me. Sadly not what we needed but as always very good practice for decapping chips.

If you want to read about another great team-effort, to get the two games on the Konami Polygonet arcade platform finally emulated in MAME, head over to Mog's Blog for an amazing summary of the complete emulation-history of this platform. How the journey started nearly 20 years ago, when the roms of Polygonet Commanders were added to MAME, what happened the next 19 years and how everything come together in the last couple of three weeks! => Amazing work guys and congrats to all who helped to get this done!

BPROM Read-Adapter v0.2 (21in1)

 In August 2021 i released the first version of the BPROM-Read-Adapter...which supported reading 14 different bproms with your programmer. You can read about it here.

As some boards from Funworld use the extremely rare CY7C291 bproms in PLCC28 package, i reworked the complete adapter-design and added support for it too. Previously i always had to handsolder the CY7C291 to something useful for reading it with a programmer.

 

In the end i added the following devices to the new design: CY7C261, CY7C263, CY7C264, CY7C291, 2564, 2532 and 2516.

The CY7C*-devices are even supported as PLCC28- and DIP24-package!

So the new adapter support's READING the following 21 devices (Of course it also supports the equivalent BPROM's from other company's like the 24S10 or 74S287 for the 82S129):

• 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)
• CY7C261 (8 kbyte)
  
• CY7C263 (8 kbyte)
  
• CY7C264 (8 kbyte)
  
• CY7C291 (only 2 kbyte! - so split the 8kb dump into four 2kbyte pieces!)
• 2564 (8 kbyte)
  
• 2532 (only 4 kbyte! - so split the 8kb dump into two halves!)
  
• 2516 (only 2 kbyte! - so split the 8kb dump into four 2kbyte pieces!)
  

 

All BPROM's can get read as 2716, 2732 or 2764 (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, read it as 2716 and split the dump afterwards into two halves.

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:

• 8 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
  
• 2 pcs DIP24 IC Socket (wide) 
• 2 pcs DIP28 IC Socket (wide)
  
• 1 pcs PLCC28 to DIP28 Adapter.
  
  

  

•  2pcs 12pin single row female Pin Header.
  
  
  
  
• PCB Files: You can order the boards here.

PV-1000 Homebrew-Cartridge

2021 and 2022 were good years for the Casio PV-1000 so far. Nine new hombrew games got released and this is a huge update to the existing small game-library of only 13 games, which this console ever had.

I had already designed a HOMEBREW-cartridge for this system some years ago, but as no hombrew-stuff was ever released (which also worked on the real hardware), i did not post about it.

But with the 9 new games, this was a good point to finish this cartridge and design a 3d-printed case for it.

 

Youtube-Videos of all nine games:

The flashrom (39sf040) is removable and with most likely every programmer reprogramable, so if more homebrew-stuff get's released it's easy to add those to this cartridge.

Here's the actual DIP-Switch-Sheet:

 

I will most likely only built a maximum of 20 pieces of this cartridge, so if someone is interested, just write.

Multi Game Hunter - MD & SNES Copier - Replacements

 I wrote about the MGH already some month's ago here and i really like this copier pretty much. It's a solid machine and easy to use.

The last couple of weeks i reversed two hardware-parts, which looks like some people are having problems with or which are missing from their machines. Missing one of these parts makes your copier pretty much useless.

So here we have a new 16mbit RAM-modul for the MGH:

TOP: Original - BOTTOM: new replacement module

New Module inside my MGH

 

The new RAM module is working exactly like the original one. The MGH copy's the ROM from your floppy on this RAM-module and afterwards loads the game from it. So with a dead or missing RAM-modul, no games will start on your MGH.

Next i designed a replacement for the SEGA Adapter, as it looks like this is missing on many machines:

TOP: Original - BOTTOM: new replacement PCB.

 

The replacement PCB fits inside the original case, and if i find some free time the next couple of weeks i will most likely draw a case for it for 3D printing. You can use it without any case in your Sega consoles too, so a case is not really needed.

Below are two pictures, to show in which direction it needs to get insert in the console.

Console-Front

Console-Back

I hope this will bring some machines back to life. I have nine RAM-modules and nine Sega-Adapters still here. So if someone wants to buy some, just write a short message to te@crazy#2001#.33mail#.com (remove all # from the address) with the words "[Contact TE]" in the message-header...

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

YENO - Masters of Multicarts

The PC-Logomax 2 is a "learning pc" for kids (Age 6+). YENO released this machine in 1992 in Germany, Austria and Swiss. Also three cartridges "LOGO-DENKSPORT", "LOGO-WORT" and "SAY IT IN ENGLISH" got released here. Thats the only know cartridges for this system.

PC-Logomax 2 with all three cartridges

The main-unit uses a TMS50C44N2S chip with internal ROM. This chip was also used in some dolls in the late 80's, which had speech synths.

The cartridges just have a glob on top of it:

 

Luckily the pinout was pretty straight forward! But the most interesting part was on the backside of the cartridge-pcb:

While i already knew, that VTECH at least did put 2 games on each cartridge, where they could select each game with solderable pins (like a DIP-Switch), this is now one big step better!

YENO made these cart-pcb's extremely flexible and the highest 4 addresslines could get modified in all possible ways on the PCB, by just soldering some bridges. That way you could select banks and even change banksizes on each pcb.

 

The biggest possible size of the rom-chip is 128kb. the selected banksizes on "LOGO-DENKSPORT" and "LOGO-WORT" are just 8kb. which would mean, that this cart can hold up to 16 games!

I changed all four pads the get the maximum output on the chip and dumped the full 128kb from it, from both carts. guess what, both dumps matched! Which means both cartridges have the completely same romchip inside.

Now i had to analyse the complete 128kb, as LOGO-DENKSPORT and LOGO-WORT only use 8kb each. What are the other 112kb inside the rom?

After stepping threw the 128kb ROM, i found another game for the PC-Logomax 2 inside. It was "SAY IT IN ENGLISH", but this game uses 16kb, which means you have to change the banksize too on the cartridge! Changed the solder-bridges on my LOGO-WORT cartridge and voila i had SAY IT IN ENGLISH running on my machine.

The other 96kb of ROM-DATA are another three games (32kb each), but it looks like these are not for the "PC-Logomax 2"! I believe they are for another YENO learning laptop...the PRIMUS EXPERT...as the cartridge-cases for this machine look nearly identical. This is not confirmed so far!

The Rom-Content looks like this:

 This means, if you have one cartridge for the PC-LOGOMAX 2, you basically already have all three available games in your hand and just need to change the solderbridges to get your game started on the console.

You also have three games for another console included, which is most likely the PRIMUS EXPERT.

Here's the cartridge-pinout (cardridge-edge):

CHIP-SIDE | BACK-SIDE

        +---+
    D03 |- -| GND
    D04 |- -| D02
    D05 |- -| D01
    D06 |- -| D00
    D07 |- -| A00
      E |- -| A01
    A10 |- -| A02
    A16 |- -| A03
    A11 |- -| A04
    A09 |- -| A05
    A08 |- -| A06
    A13 |- -| A07
    A14 |- -| A12
    VCC |- -| A15
        +---+

Conclusion:

It was a fun challenge to get all this documented and to get the cartridge-design reverse-engineered. This means 6 new cartridge-dumps for MAME and some documentation of the PC-LOGOMAX 2.

YENO made a good trick to just produce one cartridge and get it sold maybe even 3 times to each customer.

The TMS50C44N2S will most likely get shipped to caps0ff, maybe they can decap it, to get this machine fully preserved. I will try to get a PRIMUS EXPERT next to confirm some stuff.

Dragon Breed (Japan) - MCU decapped

Brizzo contacted me, that he has the DB CP-R-B mcu, which is needed for the DRAGON BREED (World) board and as it's on the list of missing MCU's he will ship it to me.

The MCU arrived today. But sadly it was not the needed DB C-PR-B mcu, it was the DB C-PR- which is for the DRAGON BREED (Japan) board and is already decapped since two years. (see here)

So it's really important to check, that the markings on the chip are exactly like on the list of the missing MCU's!

As the chip was here, i decapped it, as it's good practice anyway. The process worked without any problems and within 10mins i had the internal data dumped. It matched the existing dump, which i did in October 2019.

Thanks to Brizzo, for shipping the mcu. Sadly nothing new, but it at least confirms the existing dump to be good!