I need some info on suicide batteries

[muell67]

There are a few pcb's im interested in but I believe they have suicide batteries in them. Correct me if Im wrong but all capcom cps I, II & III games had them. I no there are ways to replace the batteries but Is there a way to eliminate the battery? I really dont like the Idea of my expensive game possibly being turned into a brick because the battery died prematurely. Is there a way to recover a pcb if the battery dies? If anyone has a link to any good sites that explain suicide batteries pleas pass them on.

[StephenH]

The Games That Have Suicide Batteries Are:

* Certain (not all) Capcom CPS-1 Games
* Capcom CPS-2 and CPS-3 Games
* Certain Sega Pre-System 16, System 16, System 18, System 24, and System 32 Games
* Some Orca Games
* UPL's Rad Action
* Many Early Nihon System Games
* Many Modern Galeco Games
* And a Few Others


* Capcom CPS-1 Games can be revived by using some Blank EEPROMs, an EEPROM Programmer, and some rewiring to the board.  For details, go to http://www.arcadecollecting.com/dead/dead.html .  The other option is to send your board back to Capcom.

* CPS-2 Games Can be revived with a decrypted, heavily patched, and modified ROM.   No Circutry changes to the board are needed, but these ROMs are hard to obtain.   You can also send your board back to Capcom to have it revived too.   http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/suicide.html has some info on this.   You can also easily change the battery on these games before it dies, too.

* Capcom CPS-3 Games have a suicide battery in the security dongle, but there is no revival method other than sending the game back to Capcom.

* Sega System 16, 18, and  games use a custom 68000 or Z80, made by hitachi.  Basically, these games use encrypted program code and/or sound code.  Some of them have been decrypted, but patches are hard because of some state info the custom processors use but not the regular 68000 or Z80.  ROMs can be hacked, but they are not authentic.    http://www.arcadecollecting.com/dead/dead.html and http://www.leopardcats.com/decrypt/decryption.htm .   Some examples of Decryption Progress can be found at http://cgfm2.emuviews.com .   Some of them can be revived by replacing with a non-encrypted ROM version, as Sega made some non-encrypted as well as encrypted, and replacing the processor chip with a standard 68000 or Z80.


* Sega System 32 Games use an encrypted CPU module, similar to the Sega System 16/18 method, but its processor is a 32-bit CPU.   I don't think there is a revival method for these.

* Orca games can be revived by burning a modified ROM with an EEPROM programmer and a replacement EEPROM, plus replacing the processor chip.  See http://www.arcadecollecting.com/dead/dead.html for details.

* Gaelco games use suicide batteries.  There is no way to fix most of them without sending your board back to Gaelco.

* Some early Nihon Games, can be fixed with a Modified ROM.

[Stingray]

There was a thread a few months back in this forum that had a weath of info on boards that use suicide batterys. You might try searching that one up.

-S

[muell67]

Thanks