TL866IIPlus - Adapter #1 (MSP55LV650 & MSP55LV128)

 While dumping many of those Multigame-Consoles & -Handhelds the last couple of months, i designed some adapters for the TL866IIPlus, so dumping the unusual flashrom will be easier in the future.

In this post i will show the first adapter, which is for the MSP55LV650 (64mbit) and MSP55LV128 (128mbit) flashroms.

For all these adapters you will need a TL866IIPlus programmer (basically a TL866 should work too, but is not tested) and an TSOP48 V3 Baseboard:

  

For the adapter itself you will need the following parts:

- 1pcs of the Base-PCB, which can get ordered here

 - 2pcs 2.54 1x40 pin breakaway female header single row (look at ALIEXPRESS)

 

 - 1pcs 1P2T slide switch 2.54 (look at ALIEXPRESS)

 

 

 

 

- 2pcs female double row pin header 2x12 (look at ALIEXPRESS)

 

 

 

 

 - 1pcs PSOP44 to DIP44 Adapter (look at ALIEXPRESS)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solder all parts together and you will get this:

Now put all adapters into each other and insert it inside your TL866IIPlus:

DUMPING

1. Controll the DIP-Switch (DIP 1) on the adapter-board! It has to be in L-position!
   
2. Open your TL866IIPlus-Software and select the IC S29GL064A10TFIR3.
   
3.  De-select CHECK ID
   
   
   
4. Click on READ and on READ on the next screen
   
   
   
5. You have to get this ERROR-Message! 4 Pins should be not connected, that is correct! (If you have more Pins not connected, re-insert your chip and check your socket-connections, it has to be exactly 4 unconnected pins!)
   
   
   
6. Click Cancel and afterwards de-check the Pin-Detect
   
   
   
7. Now read the Chip again (Click READ and READ on the next screen), it should read the complete 8mb!
   
   
   
   
8. Save the dump to a file!
9. remove the chip from the socket, reinsert it and read it again (Step 2 - 7), compare both dumps and look if they have the same CRC...if not, repeat the Steps 2-8 until you have at least 2 identical dumps!
   
10. For MSP55LV650 you are finished, this chip has only a 8mb rom!
11. For MSP55LV128, change the DIP-Switch now to H and repeat the steps 2-8 for the second half of the chip. This chip has a 16mb rom. After you have dumped the first half (DIP-Switch to L) and the second half (DIP-Switch to H) you have to concatenate both 8mb files! Afterwards you are also finished with dumping the MSP55LV128.
    

I hope this will help some of you getting this stuff dumped! 

 

An blog-post about adapters for the MSP55LV100S and MSP55LV512 will follow in the next few days!

MCU - Side Pocket (Data East Corporation)

 Decapping is an adventure, mostly like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft searching for treasures from the past!

 

Brian shipped another needed MCU about two weeks ago, which i received today. It's from SIDE POCKET (Data East). Another game which is emulated in MAME since about 20 years, but all available revisions are missing the dump of the MCU.

 

 

 

Indy would say "It Belongs In A Museum"...i say "It Belongs in MAME"...and that's what now happening.

Decapping went pretty straight forward...another game completely preserved.

Thanks to Brian for the MCU!

Game King - 32mbit - Multicarts

EDIT 2022-07-25: This design is OLD and not available anymore! Here's is the latest design: https://team-europe.blogspot.com/2022/07/game-king-128mbit-92-in-1-multicart.html

 

 I reworked the GameKing-Multicarts and this new design uses now a 32mbit flashrom and also supports the 8mbit multigames for this console. While the previous version had only 4mbit of space and so could only support the 4mbit games.

 

 

That way i did go threw all available game-dumps and in the end i had a compilation which only needed 4 Multicarts. Which means, three Multicarts contain all 72 available GameKing games and one extra Multicart contains all 7 available GameKing3 games (this one is of course only working on a GameKing3-console!). See the DIP-Switch-Settings sheet below for the games on each Multicart.

Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta - ULTIMATE MULTICART

I finally found some time the last couple of months and created the ULTIMATE MULTICART for the Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta console.

 

It's basically an All-in-One cartridge for the Tutor, with some nice front- and back-covers, which act like a basic cartridge-case.

The cartridge contains ALL available games (8kb/16kb and 32kb), which got ever released for this console and it even has some space left.

No adapter or other cartridge is needed anymore. It's the ULTIMATE solution for the Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta, just plug it in the back-port of your console and select the games with the DIP-switches.

new homebrew:

On the cartridge are still two 8kb banks, two 16kb banks and one 32kb bank free. Perfectly for new homebrew games! Everyone, who create's a new homebrew for the Tomy Tutor, which can get added to the cartridge, will get a ULTIMATE cartridge for half the price! (Only shipping-costs have to get paid)

No matter if it's a TI99 conversation or a completely new game!

The ULTIMATE-CARTRIDGE is only working on an japanese Pyuuta console (first revision)!

Karnov (US, rev 5)

Another mcu decapped!

 

 

 

Karnov (US, rev 5) is now the first set of this game, which is fully preserved!

Thanks to Brian for sending me the mcu!

EDIT 20-SEPT-2020:

The MCU-dump got confirmed as working on real hardware and also got hooked up in MAME to both US-Revisions of the game.

For the JAPAN-Version, Dirk Best handcrafted the needed mcu-rom, based on this decap.

This is another huge step forward for preserving KARNOV.

THX to all involved!

Still alot of 8751H's are needed for decapping. If you can help, please contact me!

Legend of Hero TONMA (World)

This now confirms the last missing MCU for Legend of Hero TONMA.

Hammy sent me C-PR-B MCU which was marked as BAD DUMP in MAME, as it was taken from an bootleg-pcb. While it worked perfectly for the game in MAME, it had to be marked as BAD until we got a decap from the original one.

The new decap is identical to the existing dump from the bootleg.

=> Another "BAD DUMP" flag removed from MAME.

Thx to Hammy for sending this mcu for decapping.

More MCU's

I got delivered a small package from Hammy today, which included some nice 8751H mcu's inside!

Captain Silver (World)

 

The existing decap (i don't know who did it back then) was bad and had to be handcrafted to get the game working.

 
ROM_REGION( 0x1000, "mcu", 0 )    /* i8751 microcontroller */
// 017F: B4 4C 0D : cjne  a,#$4C,$018F   (ID code 0x4c = World version)
// 3 bytes (always bit 0x08 set incorrectly) had to be hand fixed, hence 'BAD_DUMP'
ROM_LOAD( "id8751h.mcu", 0x0000, 0x1000, BAD_DUMP CRC(c0266263)  
SHA1(27ac6fa4af7195f04249c04dec168ab82158704e) ) // dx-8.19a ?

Because of this, the dump was marked as "BAD_DUMP", so someone had to redump it. What i did today! The new dump matches the existing handcrafted dump...that way, the BAD_DUMP flag can now get removed!

Image Fight (World, revision A)

Another game, where we needed the mcu since years...done today!

This game is now completely preserved!



Thx to Hammy for these two mcu's! One is completely new, the other one confirms the handcrafted dump to be good.

Decapping is pure fun, fear and adrenaline

I decapped my last 8751H over 6 month's ago. So i was pretty excited when f250v contacted me for decapping a protected 8751H from his Street Figher (bootleg).
Read more about here.

He shipped the mcu last monday, i received it today and as i had a short period of free time i immediately started to work on it.

To be true, decapping a chip is pure adrenaline, a little bit of fear and in the end alot of fun. While it proved another time that my decapping method is working pretty good, it's always risky to decap a chip. (don't use too much heat / did i use enough polish / hopefully i did not accidentally cut a wire /...)

In the end it took about 15 minutes to open the chip, 5 minutes to erase the lock bit and after another 5 minutes we had the dump.

The next interesting fact was, that this dump matched the other existing Street Fighter mcu dump, which was just added 8 days ago to MAME (here). The previous dump was only possible, because an unsecured 8751H was found. 

Anyway, this confirmed the existing dump!

Thx to f205v for sending the 8751H to me, it was nice variety to my currently other work.

Preserving a rare V.Smile Motion Demonstration Station / Kiosk

While i always keep my eyes open for rare / obscure systems, a rare Demonstration Station / Kiosk of the V.Smile Motion system showed up on the net.
You will not find any information or picture of such system anywhere and i had never seen one before somewhere for sale.
So i had to buy it!

Like all other Kiosk-Systems it's a complete AllinOne-Package. You have a TV, a complete V.Smile Motion system and 5 games included in one demonstration-case. The controller is wired, so that nobody could take it away. (V.Smile Motion has a wiresless controller)

This german Kiosk-System has five german games included. Selectable by pressing each button. (Micky Maus Wunderhaus, Dora, Winnie Puuh, Meister Manny, Tinkerbell)

Inside the console is a cartridge, which has a unique cover that i never have seen before. The cartridge is mounted inside the console and could not get removed.

The button of the currently running games is lighting!

As this was completely new, i was not sure what i will find inside. It could have been 5 demo-versions of the games or just the final\retail versions of each games. So the first part was to remove the cover of the game-selection.

 What was behind the cover was pretty interesting. They basically moved the main-pcb of the V.Smile Motion outside the console and mounted it on the back-side of the Kiosk-Case. They soldered in a 90 degree cartridge-slot and inside this slot they insert a huge custom cartridge. Which looked like a 5in1 Multicart (5 globs, each for one game)

left: big custom cartridge        right: main-pcb of the V.Smile Motion console

Main-PCB of the V.Smile Motion (looks like a standard main-pcb)

Custom Cartridge, inside my dumper

The next part was to get the games dumped. Luckily this Multi-Cartridge worked like "normal" carts, while just selecting each bank with the buttons.
That way i could dump all games pretty fast with my V.Smile dumper.

Now to the (maybe) sad part. All games matched the already existing dumps of the retail cartridges. Only "Meister Manny" was new/undumped, as the retail cartridge of the V.Smile Motion version is not dumped so far. But mostly for sure, it's also the same as the retail version.

Nevertheless this was a fun challenge to document this pretty rare hardware and we now know for sure the games inside are just like the same as the retail games.



 Another interesting V.Smile Kiosk-System popped up recently for sale:

Too expensive for me, but if someone wants to help with money just contact me.