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Is there a code to change the region of Gaiapolis?

XtraSmiley

XtraSmiley

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So I figured Gaiapolis needs a ROM swap to change from Japanese to English, like most games, but then I came across this post from 15 years ago. Is this guy full of shit, or is there a way to do this? Google has failed me on this topic. I'd love to play this in English though...

https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/fs-ft-gaiapolis-pcb-english-version-uaf-eaf.176165/

"This PCB was originally version UAF (USA), but changed to EAF (Euro) with a code (no chip swap/burn/etc). If you're looking for a non-JPN version this is good... if you're looking for an EAF version this is good enough until then. No, I don't know what the code is to change the regions so I won't be changing JAF versions to UAF/EAF and reselling them."
 
XtraSmiley said:
So I figured Gaiapolis needs a ROM swap to change from Japanese to English, like most games, but then I came across this post from 15 years ago. Is this guy full of shit, or is there a way to do this? Google has failed me on this topic. I'd love to play this in English though...

https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/fs-ft-gaiapolis-pcb-english-version-uaf-eaf.176165/

"This PCB was originally version UAF (USA), but changed to EAF (Euro) with a code (no chip swap/burn/etc). If you're looking for a non-JPN version this is good... if you're looking for an EAF version this is good enough until then. No, I don't know what the code is to change the regions so I won't be changing JAF versions to UAF/EAF and reselling them."
Click to expand...
Sounds unlikely that a code would change it.. could it be that he misunderstood the one who actually did it? Changing the “code” in some EPROMs might be difficult to someone who’s never programmed eproms to understand, but the word “code” most of us gamers know :) like the konami code etc
 
I took a look at the code and It's not posible to change region, except for changing the data roms: "123*af11.19p" and "123*af12.17p". The roms contains the data needed for the specific region and language. It will also be necessary to reinitialize the nv-ram, to make it pass the rom tests after the roms have been changed. To do that; press and hold down the "test switch" during boot..
 
Pythagoras said:
I took a look at the code and It's not posible to change region, except for changing the data roms: "123*af11.19p" and "123*af12.17p". The roms contains the data needed for the specific region and language. It will also be necessary to reinitialize the nv-ram, to make it pass the rom tests after the roms have been changed. To do that; press and hold down the "test switch" during boot..
Click to expand...
If this is true, how was this one changed with only ONE ROM swap?

https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/gaiapolis-konami-1993.16961/
 
The data in the eproms are interleaved. So you can not change only one of them.

Ah... I 'm sure he had to replace the maskrom because it was faulty. Not because he wanted to change language. All other roms are identical between the different regions. As you can see by comparing the crc checksums for the roms in the Mame driver source.
 
Pythagoras said:
The data in the eproms are interleaved. So you can not change only one of them.

Ah... I 'm sure he had to replace the maskrom because it was faulty. Not because he wanted to change language. All other roms are identical between the different regions. As you can see by comparing the crc checksums for the roms in the Mame driver source.
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I'm very confused. He did NOT change the region ROMs, yet he got it to display in English. Also, the source in MAME says they are identical. So, doesn't this mean there is a way to change the language without changing the ROMs?
 
I think the Asian region got English language by default. The roms are not available in Mame so I can not verify that. But perhaps someone else have an Asian version and can let us know for sure?
 
XtraSmiley said:
Yes, so how did he get it in English? Or is the Asia version in English already?
Click to expand...
Pythagoras said:
I think the Asian region got English language by default. The roms are not available in Mame so I can not verify that. But perhaps someone else have an Asian version and can let us know for sure?
Click to expand...
Asian version is the same as the Japanese one only with English text. Kind of best of both worlds.
 
There are some debug code left in the roms that can be used with some patching. For example this password generator...

Password.jpg
 
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