Megatouch Maxx Emerald 2 issues

[geforcefly]

I recently got a Megatouch machine for free, not working, (originally an XL Platinum and upgraded to a Maxx Emerald 2), and the original (proprietary) motherboard was dead and I tried everything.  So I hooked up an old Intel 810 board and the machine booted (which is how I found out it was a Maxx Emerald 2).  This board obviously doesn't have the IO board slot (coining it up is impossible) but the touchscreen works.  Is there a hidden keyboard combination I could use to put the game into service mode so that I could set it to freeplay?  If there's no way to do it, that's ok, since I would have another use for it.

[mahkeymike]

How is it working if the IOboard isnt connected? The IOboard holds the key, and without the key it should not be booting into the game. If you are indeed in the game and need to get into opsetup to change to freeplay you could backdoor into terminal with root access and bind opsetup.so to a game like hoopjones.so . This will launch the operator menu so you can temporarily get in and change to freeplay. You will have to reboot or unbind to play that game after your done with operator menu.

[geforcefly]

It's one of those versions that has the security key on the hard drive's firmware (it started life as an XL Platinum).  The original motherboard was a Unicorn Socket 7 unit that wouldn't boot.  It would power on, the fans would spin, and otherwise do absolutely nothing (tried known working power supplies with voltages in spec, CPUs, and RAM).  The 810 board that I tried (a DFI CW35) would start the software and get me into the game menus, but it had no sound through the motherboard audio connector (it's possible that the sound chip is incompatible or muted in the settings).  How would I backdoor into the terminal to get into operator mode?  I'm not so keen on my Linux skills so I thought I'd ask and find out how to get this working.  After that, fixing the horizontal width is the only other issue I have with this machine (the horizontal width control is broken and maxed out), but the thought of working on a CRT for me is a recipe for disaster.

[mahkeymike]

If it has a LILO bootloader this method should work to back door in with root access.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,138908.msg1462890.html#msg1462890

If you manange to get that far i can guide you on how to bind shared object files to other shared object files ( ie .so ) or you can look up binding files in linux. google is your friend.

[geforcefly]

I'm having trouble getting any farther than the actual bootloader menu. I have a boot prompt and the only command that works is merit-linux.

Edit : I got to the console but inputting mount -o remount,rw / gives me an error. I may have to go to plan b: using a Linux live CD to do this.

[mahkeymike]

Not sure why your having trouble. Were you able to get to LILO bootloader screen? If so, type linux init=/bin/bash   that should get you to a bash prompt where you can type mount -o remount,rw / then passwd and then change it and fiollow the other steps.

If that doesnt work, you can try a live cd and see if you can just rename hoopjones.so to something else and then rename opsetup.so to hoopjones.so and see if that works.

FYI, The .so files will be in usr/local/lib/merit/

[geforcefly]

Okay, I've made it so that hoopjones will go to the operator screen. But there's no way to get there when I have no credits to start the "game."

[mahkeymike]

Ok try this, rename idle.so to something else, then change opsetup.so to idle.so and just wait for the idle screen to get triggered. That should do it.

[geforcefly]

Okay, it worked. Now I just have to find a motherboard that has a sound card compatible with the Megatouch software (since it gives me an error on startup. USB sound cards don't work either), since the only thing I don't have is any sound.

[mahkeymike]

Does your i810 mobo have a pci slot? If so why not just get a CMI8738 chipset sound card like this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-CMI8738-4Ch-3D-PCI-Surround-Sound-Card-Mini-CD-for-Windows-XP-VISTA-64-Bit-/201143711674?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ed51977ba

[geforcefly]

All my 810 boards have 3 PCI slots. I have many sound cards that I could try as well, so long as the software doesn't just look on the motherboard (it says "Sound card is i810 chipset" .) Should none of them be compatible I will get the CMI8738 card.

[geforcefly]

This is what I see on screen right before the screen goes dark as the Megatouch software starts up.  It does NOT matter what soundcard is plugged into a PCI slot (it shows "sound card is i810 chipset" no matter what, even when the onboard sound is disabled!).  Otherwise it plays beautifully and is extremely fast with virtually no loading times (the CPU is a Celeron 1.0GHz Coppermine on the CW35 and a Celeron 1.3GHz Tualatin on a TriGem Lomita (HP) board).