PCM Sound & Stability Fixes Multicarts - 120 in 1, 138 in 1, 161 in 1 and others.

GadgetUK

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I tested Puzzle Bobble on 138 in 1, you are right - crackly sound on level warning sound. That's a corrupt VROM I think. Tested MS2 on 138 in 1, no issues at all, but just realised you said 161 in 1 lol. Will test that again later.
 

donluca

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pff, now I see the small lines appearing on Matrimelee too, especially during the intro. This is the same problem gadgetuk showed in his puzzle bobble video.

Should I really clean all the flux on the board? I'm afraid to damage the chips or stuff.

EDIT: I haven't shaved the borders of the 138-in-1 and 161-in-1 PCBs. How much should I shave them? They slide in kinda ok, I don't have to apply huge force. I have an MV-1FZ.
 
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SmokeMonster

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EDIT: I haven't shaved the borders of the 138-in-1 and 161-in-1 PCBs. How much should I shave them? They slide in kinda ok, I don't have to apply huge force. I have an MV-1FZ.

Take just a hair off of each side and then test until it goes in and out perfectly smoothly.

Jibbajabba said:
You have to take the boards out of the shell and use some sandpaper to narrow the portion of the board that slips into the edge connector (like 0.5 mm or so off of each side. It sounds like a pain, but it takes like 5 minutes and after that the cart will feel just like any other MVS cart.
Discussed here
 

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donluca

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Two more questions: do I have to do this on the 138-in-1 too?

Should the cart... err... "slide in effortlessly"? Or do I have still to put some force to get it in? Just to understand if I've scratched enough.

Right now they go in alright, just have to apply a bit of force to get them in, same force I use, let's say, to put a Mega Drive/N64 cartridge in.
 

SmokeMonster

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Two more questions: do I have to do this on the 138-in-1 too?

Should the cart... err... "slide in effortlessly"? Or do I have still to put some force to get it in? Just to understand if I've scratched enough.

Right now they go in alright, just have to apply a bit of force to get them in, same force I use, let's say, to put a Mega Drive/N64 cartridge in.
I can't comment on the 138, but if it's hard to insert then I would say yes. After sanding, my 161 slides in almost exactly like a genuine MVS cart.
 

donluca

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Thanks for the replies!

Since I don't have a genuine MVS cart at the moment (waiting for a fair price to come up for KOF2000, Windjammers or Magician Lord) it's kinda hard to feel how easily the cart should slide in :P

I'll try sanding very slightly the borders and see how that goes.
 

GadgetUK

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If the cart goes in easily (138 in 1) don't worry about shaving anything off. I think I shaved off a tiny bit on my 138 in 1s just for the hell of it tbh. The 161 in 1 is different in that it does scratch the sides of the cart slot - if you look at the sides of the 161 PCB they are a bit black after being pushed in and out when its too tight.
 

donluca

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Found another bug: in the 138-in-1's Metal Slug 2, when inserting a coin as player 2, 2 credits are added instead of 1.

Can anyone confirm this?
 

MtothaJ

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For the 161-in-1 for me the most important mod was shaving the edge connectors - otherwise the cart was really difficult to insert into my MV-1FZ and once it was in - even more difficult to remove. I think I bought mine around 2013 so perhaps the newer ones do not have this problem.
As for general quality issues, I can't really complain. It has been very reliable, no random resets etc. Having done GadgetUK's mods I feel things are more or less at the stage where the problem may be more on the bad rom dumps side than the hardware side.

PS. This hasn't been said outright but it seems that the 138-in-1 is available again - it seemed like it wasn't available / was discontinued for the better part of the last two years but recently it has surfaced again on Aliexpress et al.
 

GadgetUK

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Found another bug: in the 138-in-1's Metal Slug 2, when inserting a coin as player 2, 2 credits are added instead of 1.

Can anyone confirm this?
That's region related I think - I read something that if you set the region to a certain region P2 start gives P1 a credit. Whether its related to not using a unibios or something I don't know.
 

donluca

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Today I finally found time to install my shiny new Unibios.

A couple strange things happened though.

I wanted to check if Puzzle Bobble was a proper ROM (we already know it should have a corrupt VROM due to the glitched SFX ceiling warning), so I did the CRC check and it only checked the region ROM (which reported OK).
Is it normal?

Another curious thing: when I start the game, before it sent me straight to the game. Now, in both Euro and Jap region, it takes me to a menu where I can choose between 1 player and 2 player VS mode.
 

aha2940

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Today I finally found time to install my shiny new Unibios.

A couple strange things happened though.

I wanted to check if Puzzle Bobble was a proper ROM (we already know it should have a corrupt VROM due to the glitched SFX ceiling warning), so I did the CRC check and it only checked the region ROM (which reported OK).
Is it normal?

Another curious thing: when I start the game, before it sent me straight to the game. Now, in both Euro and Jap region, it takes me to a menu where I can choose between 1 player and 2 player VS mode.

AFAIK, no game on the 161 (probably other multicarts too) passes the unibios CRC, because the roms are modded to work with the menu.

Regards.
 

GadgetUK

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Tested MS2 on 161 in 1, no sound issues at all. All the MS games are perfect on 161, 120 and 138. No problems with boss explosions like you experienced!?!
 

GadgetUK

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If unibios is set to console mode you will get different options on some games. Hold A+B+C on boot to change region and toggle between AES/MVS. CRCs on 138 do show as correct, presume that's what you were checking with Puzzle Bobble? Not sure what u mean about 'region' rom, the CRC checks ROMs at different addresses - sometimes there's more than 1 ROM. I think maybe it says region nnnnnnn meaning address range.
 
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Never had any issues with my 161, but recently i went for a 6 slot multi jamma switcher in my cab, and it messes with the video from my MVS, causing a slight bend (betamax style!) at the top of the picture at best, and at worst, a rapid horizontal rolling! ofc, using a real cart there is no problem, and running the MVS straight into the cab's jamma harness with the 161 there is no problem.

I tried patching the (alredy modded for MVS) extender loom with beefier cables for 5 and 12v, and all the video lines, and it did seem to make a difference, but the video still goes nuts depending on the location of the MVS inside/outside the cab! maybe some induction caused by all the other stuff in there?

I see a ~.1v voltage drop on 12 and 5v between the PSU and the multi switcher, and then .1v again from the slot to the MVS itself, but it still shows 5.1V on the MVS itself and it's fairly steady and clean enough. PSU is a switcher with 7a on the 5v, 1a on the -5 and 3a on the 12v.. I also run some legacy boards (non jamma) on the switcher with modded looms and -12 and -5 and blah, and they are all solid, as is my ST-V etc., so the PSU is good.

I think i'll add the second regulator in the 161 (and lose that diode) and see where that brings me..

All the games on my 161 are solid BTW.. no PCM glitching, only issues are with the usual suspects with no sound or stuck sprites which i expect are ropey dumps to start with.

Also: @GadgetUK - love the Youtube stuff, roll on my son :)
 

GadgetUK

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What stuck sprites or missing sounds you getting? Worth mentioning them so we can work out if it's just your cart or a common issue! PCM issues on 161 are quite rare, you might get glitches in Pulstar and nothing else. I hardly noticed any issues with my 161. Thanks for comments on vids - I've kinda lost motivation to do them tbh!
 
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Missing sound game i read the fix for it, well, the work-around, only today - so that's explained. The stuck sprites thing is Aero Fighters 3 (runs as sonic wings 3) where the enemy shots hang in glitchy clusters sometimes in the top part of the playfield, and still kill You. Think this is known?

Yeh, get You on the vids thing. It's hard to find inspiration as time goes on.. Whatever - did a good binge on Your channel over the past while :)
 

MtothaJ

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The stuck sprites thing is Aero Fighters 3 (runs as sonic wings 3) where the enemy shots hang in glitchy clusters sometimes in the top part of the playfield, and still kill You. Think this is known?

This has been mentioned on a multitude of occasions on the forums - its a bad rom dump and there is nothing you can do about it.
 
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Yeh thought it was well known alright.. DOES add an element of difficulty though. Surprised they didn't rename the game "AERO FIGHTERS 3+++" or something and claim it was a mod ;)
 

GadgetUK

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Funny thing is, I've played Aero Fighters 3 all the way through on the 161 in 1 and not had the issue. I wonder if its because I played in console mode?
 
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Really? that's interesting.. i have Unibios in the mvs, i'll give this a try when i get some time next week..
 

MtothaJ

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Funny thing is, I've played Aero Fighters 3 all the way through on the 161 in 1 and not had the issue. I wonder if its because I played in console mode?

Interesting and most likely the case, since I only play in arcade mode.
 

GadgetUK

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Confirmed it seems to be related to region on Aerofighter / Sonic Wings 3. If set to europe, bullets stick, if set to US or JPN, works fine for me. Interestingly I also spotted on the 120 in 1 the difficulty cannot be changed in console mode, and the same thing holds true of the 138 in 1 version. I think its a protection thing or something since the version on the 138 in 1 has correct CRC. MVS difficulty can be set on the 138 in 1 without issue, but if you swap to console mode using Unibios the difficulty is always insane no matter which you choose in AES mode and no matter soft DIP settings. I wonder if its related to the unibios?
 
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I only stuck in the Unibios recently - it was glitchy on the stock MVS bios as well i'm sure. So, the console mode must tolerate the 'hold player 1' patch better then arcade mode. is this common with the other multicart games that have problems? console mode is cleaner?
 

GadgetUK

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Other games work fine in either console or mvs mode. It's only AF3 with that issue on 161 in 1, and only when set to Euro mode.
 
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