Converting empty MVS boards to full games

Broomfield · Jul 5, 2017

Hi guys

I have afew empty neogeo mvs boards here, (see picture) they came in mvs shell cases but the roms have been taken off the PROG and CHAR boards. Thats how I got them.

It would be a shame to just throw them away, can I convert these games into something by adding the roms onto the top and bottom boards?

The boards are labelled PROBK1 and CHA512Y

Is it possible? and what are my game choices in regards to the board numbers? also which positions do the roms need to be put onto the boards?

I wanted to do something with them, as it would be a shame to leave them or throw them away as I have 2 sets of them in total.

If someone can tell me what I can do in regards to turning them into playable fully working games it would be greatly appreciated. i was thinking something like Crossed swords 2 (if possible) as I've never played that game and something else for the second board

thanks guys

skate323k137 · Jul 5, 2017

progbk1 is a very useful board.

Check here: http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/mvsboardcodes.html

If I had these boards I'd probably make a blazing star and breakers. Your easiest games are the ones that use these exact boards normally, i.e.:

Blazing Star
Breakers Revenge
Irritating Maze, The
Last Blade (or LB2)
Slug 2
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
Neo Geo Cup '98
King of Fighters '97

The V roms can get interesting if any are 32mbit... aside from that it should be pretty straight forward to program roms, set the jumpers, and go.

Making neo conversions or games from scratch like this isn't too bad but it's definitely harder than CPS2 for example.

There's definitely no need to toss them... If you're not comfortable doing it I'm sure myself or someone would love to take the boards off your hands for repair stock :glee:

Of course, hopefully the roms weren't pulled due to faulty IC's on the boards.

Neo Alec · Jul 5, 2017

I would use them for repros of unreleased games or give them to people interested in making those. I would not waste them on bootlegs of games that did get released.

Tanooki · Jul 5, 2017

I've got to second that. It you could toss something on there with unreleased or converted to MVS games that would be best.

skate323k137 · Jul 5, 2017

Really good point.

Broomfield · Jul 5, 2017

Thanks so much for the info and link its very interesting, so im thinking "Crossed swords 2" and "Ironclad" would be good games to put on there? as they never got any mvs releases

If I didnt do those 2, I'd love to do Metal Slug 5 as I always wanted that game. Is it even possible with the combination of PROG and CHAR boards that I have? How would I even begin to do that, and do Crossed swords 2 and Ironclad use the same PROBK1 and CHA512Y boards? how about setting jumpers and rom positions etc. I can see that Metal Slug 5 uses BK3S and FIO, does that mean its impossible to do?

any info would be great, thanks

wyo · Jul 5, 2017

You can't do Metal Slug 5 and no one here is going to help you bootleg officially released games.

egg_sanwich · Jul 5, 2017

Broomfield said:
Thanks so much for the info and link its very interesting, so im thinking "Crossed swords 2" and "Ironclad" would be good games to put on there? as they never got any mvs releases

If I didnt do those 2, I'd love to do Metal Slug 5 as I always wanted that game. Is it even possible with the combination of PROG and CHAR boards that I have? How would I even begin to do that, and do Crossed swords 2 and Ironclad use the same PROBK1 and CHA512Y boards? how about setting jumpers and rom positions etc. I can see that Metal Slug 5 uses BK3S and FIO, does that mean its impossible to do?

any info would be great, thanks

PROGBK1 is pretty universal, not sure about CHA512Y (I know CHA256 is a good donor board, but I'm sure someone else can chime in).

MS5 is not possible as there are no 64Mbit EPROMs available that MS5 requires.

Broomfield · Jul 5, 2017

wyo said:
You can't do Metal Slug 5 and no one here is going to help you bootleg officially released games.

egg_sanwich said:
PROGBK1 is pretty universal, not sure about CHA512Y (I know CHA256 is a good donor board, but I'm sure someone else can chime in).

MS5 is not possible as there are no 64Mbit EPROMs available that MS5 requires.

No worries, I understand completely lets forget MS5

If anyone can help me with what exactly I need to do in regards to the "Ironclad" and "Crossed Swords 2" that would be fantastic, I've never played those 2 games and always wanted to. So any help from any of you guys would be greatly appreciated

aha2940 · Jul 5, 2017

Broomfield said:
No worries, I understand completely lets forget MS5

If anyone can help me with what exactly I need to do in regards to the "Ironclad" and "Crossed Swords 2" that would be fantastic, I've never played those 2 games and always wanted to. So any help from any of you guys would be greatly appreciated

First step would be getting the roms. Next, write them to EPROMs. Which ones? try here: http://www.mvs-scans.com/index.php/Ironclad. The pic can also help you understand where to put the jumpers and the chips.

Regards.

HeavyMachineGoob · Jul 5, 2017

skate323k137 said:
Blazing Star
Breakers Revenge
Irritating Maze, The
Last Blade (or LB2)
Slug 2
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
Neo Geo Cup '98
King of Fighters '97

Almost all of those use 64Mbit C ROMs, also too many to split into 32Mbit files.

There's two cardinal rules everyone needs to remember with Neo Geo cartridge work. If you're using EPROMs, your maximum for V ROMs is 16Mbit (27C160) and 32Mbit (27C322) for C ROMs. Why? For V ROMs, the YM2610 has an 8-bit data bus and there isn't an 8-bit 32Mbit EPROM, the 27C322 everyone uses is only 16-bit compatible. As for the C ROMs, there doesn't exist a 64Mbit EPROM, so you can't make any of the huge Neo carts that way.

If you're using flash chips on adapters, then those rules don't apply. Good luck finding such parts though.

Broomfield · Jul 6, 2017

Thanks for the info

Looking at that picture of the ironclad cart, it looks like it uses for the first board 1 "PROGBK1" board (which I have) but for the second board it uses "CHA256". The boards I have are "CHA512Y".

Is it possible to use a "PROGBK1" and a "CHA512Y" combination for an Ironclad conversion?

Also does anyone know what "PROG" and "CHAR" version boards "crossed swords 2" uses? does a scan of crossed swords 2 even exist?

thanks guys

BIG BEAR · Jul 6, 2017

Both sets of boards you have are great for CSII & IRONCLAD.Actually the 512Y is ideal imo as the 256 would serve you better when using c rom size mismatches 32mbit & under.
BB

Broomfield said:
Thanks for the info

Looking at that picture of the ironclad cart, it looks like it uses for the first board 1 "PROGBK1" board (which I have) but for the second board it uses "CHA256". The boards I have are "CHA512Y".

Is it possible to use a "PROGBK1" and a "CHA512Y" combination for an Ironclad conversion?
Also does anyone know what "PROG" and "CHAR" version boards "crossed swords 2" uses? does a scan of crossed swords 2 even exist?

thanks guys

HeavyMachineGoob · Jul 6, 2017

Yes, a 512Y board will work for your purposes. It's named 512 because it supports up to eight 64Mbit C ROM sockets. 64 x 8 = 512. It has double the C ROM capacity of CHA256. 32 x 8 = 256.

Nearly every official SNK board has jumpers to configure the ROM sizes and any miscellaneous options. You can go by board scans of official games to see how they're jumpered, just check through MAME ROM sets to see how big each ROM is, usually they'll be the same as the ROM chips in original cartridges (with the odd exception of course).

Broomfield · Jul 6, 2017

i think I found the Ironclad rom (not sure if its the right one) and I checked the "mvs scan" of it on that website. So inside the zip the numbers that show after the individual rom files corresponds to the layout to which I need to put the roms on the CHA and PROG boards? is that right?

Only problem is the scanned boards on the "MVS scans" website has an extra rom, it has a rom that goes in V2. But the rom file I have dosent have that v2 rom. Any idea's guys? I'm getting confused, you can tell I'm new at this

roger45 · Jul 6, 2017

This is an interesting conversion. Subscribed to see which game you will end up with.

wyndcrosser · Jul 6, 2017

You want the wiiware light color ironclad rom, because it has sound and music.

madman · Jul 6, 2017

Broomfield said:
i think I found the Ironclad rom (not sure if its the right one) and I checked the "mvs scan" of it on that website. So inside the zip the numbers that show after the individual rom files corresponds to the layout to which I need to put the roms on the CHA and PROG boards? is that right?

Only problem is the scanned boards on the "MVS scans" website has an extra rom, it has a rom that goes in V2. But the rom file I have dosent have that v2 rom. Any idea's guys? I'm getting confused, you can tell I'm new at this

Both of those mvs-scans photos are using 16mbit EPROMs, the V1 ROM is 32mbit and needs to be split.

mikejmoffitt · Jul 7, 2017

Metal Slug 5 could be done if you used multiple ROMs and did some bankswitching of your own, but that's a waste of PROGBK1 I think.

bustedstr8 · Jul 8, 2017

I think you should toss them, starting with unverified pcbs is a great way to release your inner rage monkey :very_ang:

....just saying.

Broomfield · Jul 8, 2017

bustedstr8 said:
I think you should toss them, starting with unverified pcbs is a great way to release your inner rage monkey ....just saying.

Is there anyway to tell is any of the other components are bad on the two sets of boards before I attempt to convert them to something? I have an MVS 1 slot with unibios 3.3, I also have the two neogeo diagnostic roms (never used them before though).

HeavyMachineGoob · Jul 8, 2017

The issue is the boards could have broken traces is missing vias, on top of bad components like the off-the-shelf logic and the SNK customs.

Broomfield · Jul 8, 2017

HeavyMachineGun said:
The issue is the boards could have broken traces is missing vias, on top of bad components like the off-the-shelf logic and the SNK customs.

I've checked the boards with a magnifying glass, all of the traces and vias are all there, it all looks very clean boards. Not sure about the other chips, is there any way to tell? It does make me question why these roms were taken off in the first place though.

If those other chips are bad, is there any sort of replacements you can get? I'm not bad with a soldering iron

aha2940 · Jul 8, 2017

Broomfield said:
It does make me question why these roms were taken off in the first place though.

Conversions, probably.

Broomfield · Jul 25, 2017

Can anyone point me to the location of the newest version of the "Ironclad" rom plz? I read there is lots of versions of it out there and some of them have a glitchy title screen and spanish language. I just wanted to get the correct version.

If anyone has, or can point me to the location via a pm please let me know. Thanks

Also I think I found out which jumper settings to use on the PROBK1 board, but not 100% sure what jumper settings to use on the 512y board. If anyone knows please let me know.

Converting empty MVS boards to full games

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