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| pbj:
So, Wonder Boy in Monster World is an interesting one. I was doing some reading on the various saving methods and there’s a PDF out there that talks about the serial eeproms and all that. Basically I’m trying to figure out which worthless sports games with saving circuits can be converted. https://krikzz.com/pub/support/everdrive-md/v2/gen_eeprom.pdf Turns out Wonder Boy uses the same set up as Sports Talk Baseball. So, I burn the ROM on a 2MB chip. On my 2MB SRAM tester pcb, the game boots up to the title screen. You hit start and it attempts to check for a save file and it locks. No error message, nothing. Totally locked. I mean, this is a very early game so I can kind of understand it but I guess you’re boned if any of the save game chips fail. Anyway, when soldered to the Sports Talk Baseball pcb, it won’t even boot. After the panic subsides, I decide it has to be related to pin 42 on the eprom. By default on this board it’s already connected to 5V, which ordinarily disables that line and makes it act like a 1MB chip. I cut that connection and jumped it to ground and we’re in business. Playing and saving perfectly. Monster World 4 also working perfectly on that Troy Aikman pcb with a new battery. Some of the soldering jobs on the old batteries are beyond terrible. Lot of kids out there with games that never worked right I imagine. Okay, so onwards to another experiment. I’ve got all these damn EA boards, they’ve all got complicated saving circuitry, and I don’t want to do 20 jumper wires and trace cuts like I did on my first copy of Blades of Vengeance. My theory is that so long as the rom is the same size or smaller as what was on the donor board, a new game shouldn’t ever try to address the saving circuits and it’ll just run cheerfully ignoring half the pcb. Grabbed a copy of Madden 93 and burned a 1MB Blades of Vengeance without any padding. The EA pcbs are such a pain in the ass. SEGA boards you kiss with the desoldering rig and I swear you can just shake the old rom chip off. EA omfg. Even with hog flux, I wasn’t having much luck. The eventual solution was to snap off the rom, then add fresh solder to the legs, and then desolder. That worked well. So, my theory was right. Boots and plays fine and I didn’t do a thing to the pcb. |
| pbj:
EA boards are such a pain in the ass I may start throwing them away…. Or upgrade equipment. Two hours later and a jumper wire from pin 42 to ground and here’s Madden 93 running Micro Machines. |
| pbj:
Turns out my desoldering iron was clogged in the metal tubing. Since I no longer rent and don't want to stick this thing in a fire place, to the grill it went. 20 minutes with all burners going and the thermometer pegged on danger cleared it right out. Here's my high tech drying system for shells that have been soaked in lighter fluid and then rinsed with water. |
| bobbyb13:
Gotta love simple- How's the paint on the grill lid holding up?! |
| Zebidee:
I like that you included the spatula/flipper, for context, in that grill shot |
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