Can Blitz 99 be converted into NBA / Blitz99 combo?

[ToplessZ]

I see that ArcadeMojo on ebay sells Blitz99/NBA on NBC showtime harddrives.  If you have a Blitz99 boardset is it as simple as a harddrive swap?  Are there eproms that need swapped?  Is that boardset even capable of playing both?

[johnnya]

I k now you need to swap hard drives and some roms. I think there is a daughterboard you would need to, but I'm not positive on that.

[MonMotha]

Blitz 99 used Seattle hardware.  The Blitz/Showtime I'm pretty sure all ran on Vegas as Showtime did.  Seattle and Vegas are similar, but I'm fairly certain that you can't just swap programs between them like that.

If you happen to have Vegas hardware, this would be entirely possible.  I know there were some Blitz 2k Gold dedicated setups that used Vegas, but I'm not aware of any 99s.  You'd need a security chip, boot ROM, and hard drive.  Most of the hard drive flash replacements only have the boot ROM.

[ToplessZ]

Thanks for the help!

[jimbomame10]

Sorry in advance for being such a noob but I have a question about this type of conversion.  I have a dedicated nfl blitz 99 arcade and want to convert it to an nba blitz 2000 gold/nba showtime.  I've read all about the seattle vs vegas board issue and understand that I can't just buy the upgrade kit and use my same board and hard drive.  BUT, if I buy the actual blitz/showtime board and hard drive can I just plug them into my cab?  Do I have to replace any sound board or anything?  Is there anything else I would need other than just the new board and new hard drive to play it in my cab? 

[MonMotha]

You would need a full set of Vegas boards (all 3 boards) plus the I/O adapter board.  The I/O adapter board is used to convert the connector that Seattle used for the outputs to the I-40 board to the connector that Vegas uses.  If you can't find the I/O adapter board, it can be faked with a custom wiring harness.  If you only have 8-way joysticks or a 2 player cabinet (and hence no I-40 board), you don't need this, but a dedicated Blitz 99 setup should have 49-way sticks with an I-40, so if you aren't sure otherwise, you probably do need this I/O adapter board.

If you plan on buying the boardset separately from the game program (as in buying a Vegas boardset running something other than the Blitz/Showtime combo), you'll need to acquire all four items from the "upgrade kit": hard drive, boot ROM, security chip, and sound ROM.  If the boardset started out running Blitz or Showtime, then you probably (but I cannot confirm) do not need the sound ROM and possibly the boot ROM, but you still need the hard drive and security chip.  New upgrade kits are not generally available, but bootlegs are pretty common.  They usually work fine, but they aren't real.  Every once in a while, you can find someone with a NOS legit kit, but that's getting rare.

Easiest path is to buy a boardset already running the Blitz/Showtime combo.  Then it's just plug and play as long as you have that little I/O adapter board.