can anyone here replace cps2 roms for me?

I have a super street fighter 2 cps2 board that I believe to have suicided. It powers up to a black screen. I've looked around on the internet for info and of course saw cps2shock (I see there is somebody there named razoola, is this the same as the unibios razoola?), but I don't have a programmer and I really don't want to take the time to open up the board and desolder/resolder the roms.

For a nominal fee and the cost of shipping, is there any (reputable) member here that can bring my board back to life (assuming it's suicided)?

http://cgi.ebay.com/CPS2-Board-Revi...ryZ13718QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Dont know anything about the guy, but using the "buy it now" it comes out to about 22 dollars which aint bad. Like I said though, I am not sure who the guy is but it is at least one alternative to sending the board to razoola in finland (?)

thx for the link, i saw that on ebay before and i definately considered it...but at the time i didn't see anything on his feedback page for a similar deal (although maybe that has since changed) so i was hesitant to go for it.

i would rather see if theres somebody on the boards who could do it. like how billd does the cps3 batt swap (i think thats correct?)

Yes, Raz from CPSII Shock is the same Raz. The thing is, this guy on eBay is pretty much undercutting Raz by doing this service. I'm not sure that's groovy. I've reprogrammed two of my suicided boards myself and the replacement code costs more than this guy is charging for the code and the programming service combined. Granted he doesn't have all the CPSII games, but he mentions he can do games that aren't in his list. If he gets 3 people interested in a game that's not on his list, that will pretty much pay for the code and the rest of it's profit.

It's seeing things like this that scares the hell out of me. Raz has developed the Phoenix ROM sets and when people do this it makes me hope that Raz doesn't discontinue his service. There's still plenty of suicided games that I may need to repair for myself, but if the code isn't available anymore, then it's truely dead. Similar to no longer having the latest UniBios available for download.

Yah thats not cool people stealing Razoola's hard work and selling it as their own. I reported the auction to ebay already, hopefully they snag it. As its been said before, I'd hate to see Raz discontinue the pheonix and unibios services. They're really cornerstones to the hobby we all share.

-Bill

It seems more like a assumption that he is "stealing" the code. Is there not the complete possibility he is simply doing it from scratch,like Razoola once did,and that this could explain why he is not doing every title as of yet? I mean,Razoola doesn't offer them for download,and via Razoolas method this guy would have had to have sent into Razoola alot of program roms in order to get the code. Razoola is not the only one out there in the world who knows how to reprogram and edit code on rom and ram chips I would think. I think your loyalty has blinded you guys to this simple fact.

Razoola did basically state a tad of what code was involved on the CPS-2 shock site,so I mean,if he was wanting to be the only person on the market with this,then maybe he should have kept it all to himself,correct? No one is really undercutting him. Thats just simply a biased opinion.

I understand he is a forum favorite.and alot of you are going to feel a loyalty issue about this,but I mean,the guy isn't even charging for the code really,his incredibly reasonable fee is for the repair. Its a great price for anyone who cant do this kinda work,surface mount soldering,ect ect,plus for people who do not have the required bit to pop open the case,they save money on that.

Not only all that,but the guy is located in the USA,not on the other side of the world,so this saves people alot on shipping and turnaround time. Imagine being someone who cant do any of the solder work or anything,and he lives in the USA,so he has to send the whole damn thing to Razoola,the extra cost would be way too much. Trying to get the guys auction kicked off is just plain out rude. Maybe if Razoola has a personal problem with it,you should let Razoola himself address the issue,by maybe contacting the guy himself.

Between all that,and the possibility of just sending the chips themselves half way across the world with a good chance of being lost in the mail makes the ebay guys service more preferable. And you guys make it out like hes going to get rich or something off this service in the profit area. 20 bucks a pop isn't much of nuthin,esp if he only ends up doing a few a month. Its not even going to pay his rent people. If nothing else the guy is cheating himself out of money on the service. I would charge 30-35 myself.

Monolith said:

It seems more like a assumption that he is "stealing" the code. Is there not the complete possibility he is simply doing it from scratch,like Razoola once did,and that this could explain why he is not doing every title as of yet? I mean,Razoola doesn't offer them for download,and via Razoolas method this guy would have had to have sent into Razoola alot of program roms in order to get the code. Razoola is not the only one out there in the world who knows how to reprogram and edit code on rom and ram chips I would think. I think your loyalty has blinded you guys to this simple fact.

Razoola did basically state a tad of what code was involved on the CPS-2 shock site,so I mean,if he was wanting to be the only person on the market with this,then maybe he should have kept it all to himself,correct? No one is really undercutting him. Thats just simply a biased opinion.

I understand he is a forum favorite.and alot of you are going to feel a loyalty issue about this,but I mean,the guy isn't even charging for the code really,his incredibly reasonable fee is for the repair. Its a great price for anyone who cant do this kinda work,surface mount soldering,ect ect,plus for people who do not have the required bit to pop open the case,they save money on that.

Not only all that,but the guy is located in the USA,not on the other side of the world,so this saves people alot on shipping and turnaround time. Imagine being someone who cant do any of the solder work or anything,and he lives in the USA,so he has to send the whole damn thing to Razoola,the extra cost would be way too much. Trying to get the guys auction kicked off is just plain out rude. Maybe if Razoola has a personal problem with it,you should let Razoola himself address the issue,by maybe contacting the guy himself.

Between all that,and the possibility of just sending the chips themselves half way across the world with a good chance of being lost in the mail makes the ebay guys service more preferable.

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Ok tell you what. I'm going to get a "fix" from this dude, and I'll take a pic when it says "copyright razoola" in the pheonix test menu. I'm not going to do this to to support this guy, but rather to prove he is indeed ripping off Raz's work. I can guarantee that this dude didn't learn how to fix the games himself. If that was the case, he'd offer EVERY cps2 game every made, not just a small list of pheonixed eproms that he dumped over time.

Its easy for someone who didn't put any time, money or effort into making something this valuable a resource for the arcade community. As a programmer, I would personally be RIPSHIT if someone jacked my code, and sold it as their own. Its just plain unethical and immoral.

FYI, there's no surface mounting involved, they're all socketed chips. You send this guy your eproms and he reprograms them. You don't send the entire game.

-Big Bill

Jacked from the auction:

These roms also allow you to choose which region of the game you want to play. Jap, USA, Euro, Asia, etc. You will be able to pick any region at any time you want once your board has been revived!!!

I find it interesting that his fix also has the same exact functionality as the Pheonix fix does.

I find it interesting that you think Razoola is the only one in the world with the ability to do this......for that matter why you wont just let Razoola take care of it himself.

Monolith said:

I find it interesting that you think Razoola is the only one in the world with the ability to do this......for that matter why you wont just let Razoola take care of it himself.

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Proove me wrong then!! Have you looked at the CPS encryption tables? Its some complex ass shit dude. You are indeed naive if you think others have the ability to do this from scratch.

The guy is selling phoenix roms and indeed I am not really cool with it though he did initially buy the fixes from me. There isn't really alot I can do to stop him doing this however apart from charging him through the nose for any future fixes he needs.

Raz

that sucks

pm sent to razoola for cps2 fix

[btw thanks for hijacking my thread everyone] :-P

Lochlan said:

pm sent to razoola for cps2 fix

[btw thanks for hijacking my thread everyone] :-P

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I'm just glad that your sale was re-directed towards the man who deserves the $ and credit for supplying such a fix, and not that joker on ebay.

-B

Razoola said:

The guy is selling phoenix roms and indeed I am not really cool with it though he did initially buy the fixes from me. There isn't really alot I can do to stop him doing this however apart from charging him through the nose for any future fixes he needs.

Raz

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do you charge for the roms?

do you specify that the roms are not redistributable (which i dont even know if you can as they already contain copyrighted content)?

hes just providing the same service you are. if the roms are freely distributed then i dont see the problem.

of course i think it would be best to get in touch with this person and see if you two can set up some kind of deal.

not sonic said:

do you charge for the roms?

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I charge for the fixes, the ROMs are already in dead CPS2 games. What I actually charge for is the time it took to create the fix for each game. The proces is actually very complex and requires much checking of data (weeks to be sure). It is not something that is easy to do and to my knowledge no one else has actually managed to do it. Reprogramming the data onto the ROMs is the easy part once the fix has been made.

Im actually thinking about a system to upload and downlad hiscores to CPS2 games, soon these older phoenix fixes will be replaced with something better. A note of caution too, some people were actually selling faulty phoenix fixes some time ago and some of those eventually ended coming back to me for repair. The down side of course is the user had to end up paying for a fix twice due to being ripped off the first time.

Raz

i understand charging for your work then thats cool.

but i think it would be best to set up a deal with this guy as hes in the states, and i'm sure a lot more people would be willing to send to someone more local than to finland.

not sonic said:

i understand charging for your work then thats cool.

but i think it would be best to set up a deal with this guy as hes in the states, and i'm sure a lot more people would be willing to send to someone more local than to finland.

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Thats possible and not something I would rule out.

Raz

good information guys thanks. And razoola I certainly did not try to clip your heels on the suggestion made to the lochlan, simply pointing out a link for something I saw that might be of some assistance. I think you are doing a great service for everyone and will eventually need to send some things your way when the time is right.

Razoola said:

Im actually thinking about a system to upload and downlad hiscores to CPS2 games

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WOW that would be sick Raz! Thats my one biggest gripe about CPS2 games. When I play non-fighters, I like to only do 1 credit runs and try and top my high score. Since the CPS2 deletes them when you power down, its sometimes hard to keep track of where my skills are at.

Would this system work with additional hardware, or would everything be stored within the eproms?

-Bill

Monolith said:

I find it interesting that you think Razoola is the only one in the world with the ability to do this......for that matter why you wont just let Razoola take care of it himself.

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hey
do you happen to know the ebay guy or are you the ebay guy ?? you seem to be taking a pretty hard stand for the ebay guy


ps just so you know RAZ is the first one to come up with the pheonix fixed it's a know fact to the cps2/ gaming community and all the credit goes to him !!

racecar said:

hey
do you happen to know the ebay guy or are you the ebay guy ?? you seem to be taking a pretty hard stand for the ebay guy


ps just so you know RAZ is the first one to come up with the pheonix fixed it's a know fact to the cps2/ gaming community and all the credit goes to him !!

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No,I do not know him personally,he lives in a completely different state then me...,but I think its shit that others try to stomp on him for offering the same service when all he is really seemingly doing is charging for the service,not really the code. Hes taking the time to unpack,open the thing up,do the fix,close it back up,test it and pack and ship it back to you all at a really reasonable price. There is not much room for massive profits there,esp if he has a full time job and other things to do,and very few people are even using this service.

To me his asking price for all of this is pretty fair esp if doing it for someone with zero knowledge on how to do this. And I mean,if people are so worried the guy is making tons of Razoolas work,like he is cheating Razoola or something,then I would wonder how much Razoola has already made on these fixes as is to begin with.

Has the profit margin on it already paid back for the time involved? If not,how much will it take before Razoola makes the supposed recoup so it can finally turn a profit for him? To me,it shouldn't even be about it,as its a hobbiest thing,I would think serving the community comes first and Razoola would actually have little interest in "getting rich" or "profiting" off this fix.

I also think if Razoola feels cheated,and knows for sure the ebay guy is just copying the exact roms Razoola has sold people then its up to Razoola to contact him,not everyone else on here,and without making a massive specticle of it. Im not saying he has made a specticle ,because as far as I can tell he has not,but Im just saying Im sure the whole situation can be resolved,and its true,there is copy righted code I would think on the chips that actually belong to Capcom,not Razoola or the ebay guy. I am basic in this knowledge but I was under the assumption Razoola was just changing the read and writes to the 0x400000-0x40000A memory area to 0xFFFFF0-0xFFFFFA after decryption.


For that matter,if it is indeed Razoolas roms being copied,and all his boot up junk appears,then maybe he should be flattered someone feels his fix is good enough to use,and after all,its almost like free marketing if his name is going around. Thats just my tiny opinion on this matter,and Im sure everyone here disagrees with me.

I know Razoola did some fine work and it is well appreciated, but he isn't the only one capable of doing this.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12536&highlight=CPS2

Granted...d4s isn't distributing his...but the point remains.

That said...this doesn't stop the fact that this guy is apparently using Razoola's ROMs without permission...which is bad. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like theres much that you can do about it.

Monolith you dont know what your saying, he is stealing the code everyone knows Raz created and thats wrong. Raz did alot of work and NO ONE and I mean NO ONE did all the hard work and created thier own fix its Raz's. So quit assuming other people could do it because yes other people could read the code and could have spent the time to create a fix but DIDN'T. Thats what you need to understand is that No one did what raz did so give some respect you fool.

Originally Posted by Monolith
I would wonder how much Razoola has already made on these fixes as is to begin with.

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None of your business & I hope he made alot on it. He's done alot for our hobby like billd420 said.