Nightmare in the Dark - Glitchy Scrambled Graphics

[noir]

Recently acquired a copy of Nightmare in the Dark. The game fires up, but the entire screen is glitchy. You can see things moving and animated, but can't make out any of the sprites or graphics (http://i.imgur.com/rvIuzS2.jpg). Tried cleaning the pins, but no luck.

Looking at the boards, I didn't see any obvious signs of damage or corrosion or broken traces (http://imgur.com/a/CBGze).

I found this thread for an issue that sounds very similar with Metal Slug 5.

So first, does it seem likely that the problem is a bad CMC chip?

Second, if it is a bad CMC chip, is my understanding correct that I would want to try and get a donor board from another game that had the same CHA board and a working CMC chip, then transplant the three game chips from my bad CHA board to the good donor board?

 

[BIG BEAR]

It appears to be your CMC..
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[noir]

Bought a working copy of KoF '99. Tested it and it worked fine. Transplanted ROM chips from Nightmare in the Dark CHA board to KoF99 CHA board. Still hitting the exact same problem. Safe to say at this point the Nightmare in the Dark C ROMs are dead? Anything else I should try?

 

[egg_sanwich]

That was my thread with the ms5 you linked previously. I did the transplant and everything tested fine. Went to play the game again a couple months later and it was back to the same graphics problem. If you find another solution I'd love to hear it haha

 

[madman]

Does the music play? It's either something with the C ROMs we talked about in chat, or I wonder if something bad on the PROG board could cause this somehow? Did you try a CRC check if you have a Unibios? I can look and see if I have the right EPROMs to burn the C ROMs if you're interested.

 

[BIG BEAR]

The security check is on the CHAFIO with this particular game and all other games that use the CMC ending with 42 If a C chip goes bad you will get that garbled screen,if the CMC goes bad,you get that screen and even if the m1 goes bad, you get that garbled screen.If the music plays,it's probably one of the C chips and you don't want that to be the case. If it is the m1 chip, you can replace it by burning another one using a m27c4001 or 27c040 eprom.
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[noir]

Does the music play? It's either something with the C ROMs we talked about in chat, or I wonder if something bad on the PROG board could cause this somehow? Did you try a CRC check if you have a Unibios? I can look and see if I have the right EPROMs to burn the C ROMs if you're interested.

No music. After you mentioned jumpers I compared the boards and the one jumper different between the two I noticed was next to the sound chip. So I may need to move that, but also, sound didn't work before doing the transplant either.Don't have a Unibios, so no CRC check.

The security check is on the CHAFIO with this particular game and all other games that use the CMC ending with 42 If a C chip goes bad you will get that garbled screen,if the CMC goes bad,you get that screen and even if the m1 goes bad, you get that garbled screen.If the music plays,it's probably one of the C chips and you don't want that to be the case. If it is the m1 chip, you can replace it by burning another one using a m27c4001 or 27c040 eprom.
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Out of curiosity, any idea why a bad M1 chip would affect graphics like that rather than just giving garbled sound? Because the CMC was tested and known to be working on KoF before moving chips, while it's possible something could have happened to it doing the transplant, seems less likely.

 

[madman]

Out of curiosity, any idea why a bad M1 chip would affect graphics like that rather than just giving garbled sound? Because the CMC was tested and known to be working on KoF before moving chips, while it's possible something could have happened to it doing the transplant, seems less likely.

I believe the M1 is used in part to decrypt the C ROMs. So if the M1 is bad, decryption won't work.

 

[BIG BEAR]

I believe the M1 is used in part to decrypt the C ROMs. So if the M1 is bad, decryption won't work.

BOOM!If you need a burned copy of the m1,drop me a pm.I have a few chips lying around and one should work

 

[noir]

Received a replacement M1 from BIG BEAR tonight. Replaced the original M1 with that EPROM and moved the one jumper I noticed different between the KoF 99 and NitD boards. That seems to have done the trick. The game now fires up just fine; no more garbled mess. Big thanks to madman and BIG BEAR for the help.

 

[BIG BEAR]

OKAY. I was about to tell you to check those jumpers through PM. No need to return the PM . Glad everythig is is good! Cool game too!
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