Konami Viper - Game swap methodology?

[awbacon1]

Either my google fu is poor or what I thought I remember reading has been removed...

I know you can swap Viper CF cards so long as you swap the RTC and reinitialize the eeprom on board (similar to Konami M2) and I saw someone who made a triple RTC changer / CF card changer one-off mod, but I swear I read at some point the Viper could go into a security mode asking for a password nobody knows.

Has anyone looked into hex editing the CF card image to just match the RTC. From the MAME drivers it seems like Konami used the same rudimentary checks they did on M2, which can just have a few characters in hex altered to match the RTC already on board.

Just want to change this Warzaid out for a Thrill Drive 2 and figured I'd see if anyone else here had done that before

Any info will be valuable before I start poking at it!

 

[darkchao]

I've swapped a mocap boxing board into a Para 2nd, but that required swapping over the security dongle as well. The security dongle is in a transistor style packaging. Not sure if any other viper games utilize that protection method, but I'd assume all of them do. If the RTC fails I believe you can simply write another off the existing MAME image, similar to the hornet or 573. What you're describing with the password to initialize the RTC I've only ever seen be a hang up with the Firebeat, and there is a utility to get past that password out there.

In theory all you need to swap a Viper game is:
- security dongle or a way to write one
- whatever kind of media the other game runs on (cd, hdd, etc)
- initialize RTC, etc etc

It's much easier to swap vipers to keep an existing game alive.. unless someone can figure out what IC was used as their security dongle

 

[awbacon1]

I've swapped a mocap boxing board into a Para 2nd, but that required swapping over the security dongle as well. The security dongle is in a transistor style packaging. Not sure if any other viper games utilize that protection method, but I'd assume all of them do. If the RTC fails I believe you can simply write another off the existing MAME image, similar to the hornet or 573. What you're describing with the password to initialize the RTC I've only ever seen be a hang up with the Firebeat, and there is a utility to get past that password out there.

In theory all you need to swap a Viper game is:
- security dongle or a way to write one
- whatever kind of media the other game runs on (cd, hdd, etc)
- initialize RTC, etc etc

It's much easier to swap vipers to keep an existing game alive.. unless someone can figure out what IC was used as their security dongle

I know not all games require a dongle. My Warzaid does not. I believe only Mocap and maybe Police 911 used them? or those are the ones I know of

I guess I will just figure it out and do a video so people can use it in the future. As opposed to swapping the RTC I may try to hex edit the game itself to change the security code so the existing RTC will see it as "Warzaid" like I did with Konami M2 stuff. Since it is using the same hardware concept (RTC holds code that the game also holds, so they check against themselves) it should in theory be a V similar methodology to hex edit the files to match the code that is on the RTC in the first place

 

[stj]

firstly the dongle is an override, the board already has a dallas 1WIRE serial number chip on it - same as in the dongle.
you cant write them - but you can simulate them with a pic chip

i think the rtc contains the serial but i'm not sure if it's checked, it also seems to be very different between games - it's not just like a 2digit game ID in it.

 

[truxpin]

The only viper game i know of that uses a dongle is police 911 2 and the other game that uses the internal serial number is code one dispatch and the serial is tied to the rtc so if your rtc dies and you don`t have a backup for your specific main board you are screwed this game can only be board swapped if you also swap the orignal serial number chip along with the rtc and cf card

 

[stj]

i wonder how smart the 1wire routines are,
maybe if the serial is removed the game will see all "FF"'s or 0's rather than trip an error.

 

[Mrhide]

I know you can swap Viper CF cards so long as you swap the RTC and reinitialize the eeprom on board (similar to Konami M2) an

Just want to change this Warzaid out for a Thrill Drive 2 and figured I'd see if anyone else here had done that before

Any info will be valuable before I start poking at it!

Just that. Change the cf card, burn the RTC NVRAM and you're done. Don't even need to reinit the eeprom.

 

[stj]

i should probably say,
for anybody who hasnt already messed with the RTC, you have to desolder it and fit a socket first.

 

[Mrhide]

i should probably say,
for anybody who hasnt already messed with the RTC, you have to desolder it and fit a socket first.

see details on how to do it here

 

[awbacon1]

I think I will try to make new executables for existing chips first for fun. If that doesn't work I will just socket the RTC

 

[stj]

what do you know about the cf card?
is it a block of bytes, or does it have a filesystem?
thinking multi here!

 

[awbacon1]

what do you know about the cf card?
is it a block of bytes, or does it have a filesystem?
thinking multi here!

I will have to flash a CHD to a CF card to find out. I thought about plugging my Warzaid card into my reader but I have zero idea of the file structure and it’s an OG card so I’d rather not potentially nuke it.

My assumption is it’s file based. Time will tell!

 

[DaveR]

We got a Thrildrive 2, Viper Hardware. Left driver started playing up.
We get numbers in a texture map on the wheels on one of the cars
We get a huge delay starting the game (black screen) until it syncs with the other player.

We thought about swapping drives (if its just drives) but the security RTC is bothering me.

Will we be safe in swapping drives ? CF Cards?
I don't want to trigger password boxes or other non-sense, was thinking of eliminating HDDs first.

No errors on boot

 

[stj]

the rtc is specific to the game and region, not a specific card.

 

[DaveR]

Ok so I can do a test by swapping game drives over or CF cards (not been inside yet to verify)

 

[stj]

yes
but you dont have to,
one of the dipswitches triggers a drive diagnostic test

 

[DaveR]

Ok, we were in last night, we did swap CF's between both machines, problem remained with same side. Swapped PSU as one was sligthly undervolt and we did raise it a little, made no diffence. Change'd Phono network cable, not really did anything. Put both as Network ID 1 and attempted to make a single, made no difference.

So after RTC and Disk check TD2 start, it does the Konami Logo and then Please Wait and Good side starts and the bad side just sits there waiting for about 2-3 minutes. When in test and checking networks we do get errors and DNC messages, so we leaning toward Network comms issues but was hoping making both single players would sort it... nope

 

[stj]

biggest issue with viper is nobody afaik knows what all the diagnostic leds mean

 

[awbacon1]

biggest issue with viper is nobody afaik knows what all the diagnostic leds mean

same with the Konami 3D stuff that uses a two character code. None of the codes are really known and I've never found any information published that tells what the LED / alphanumeric numbers stand for unless someone figured it out and fixed it themselves and wrote what that LED / code signified

All I know about NWK-TR is -17N on screen is EEPROM on the network board having an issue

 

[Mrhide]

from WarZaid manual, unknown if this helps