Alligator Hunt PCB Help

[XtraSmiley]

Hey guys I grabbed this really cool Spanish game called Alligator Hunt. It's made by Galeco and of course has a stupid suicide battery. So, I think the battery is either half dead (yeah I know, either dead or not), but anyway, I get a "coprocessor not ready" error on boot. Since the game seems to work fully (as far as I can tell) the first few levels anyway. I'd like to know know how to fix this.

David Haywood states that for AH specifically, it could be some other error.

https://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2017/08/15/th-strikes-back-is-now-working/

Anyway, my question is basically, I think think the battery has a problem or the data, so can I just burn new ROMs to ensure the game works properly?

 

[nem]

When World Rally (another game by Gaelco) suicides, it boots to a co-processor error.

There's some links to instructions for fixing WR here:

World Rally 2 help needed

Is the file you need possibly in Mame?

 

[XtraSmiley]

When World Rally (another game by Gaelco) suicides, it boots to a co-processor error.

There's some links to instructions for fixing WR here:

World Rally 2 help needed

Is the file you need possibly in Mame?

Thanks, I believe it is in MAME. My question is, the other Gaelco games boot to the error and the game won't start, AH, still works, so exactly what is going on?

Also, I have no idea what ROMs to burn, can someone hand hold me through it?

 

[nem]

It's possible you'll run in to problems later in the game. Maybe someone can look in to the Mame driver.

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers/gaelco2.cpp

 

[Astro X]

its easy,
burn a unprotected set.
ic 44 + 45, this bypasses the dallas chip.

works without any problem on my pcb................

 

[djsheep]

I found a copy of this locally for around $60 USD, just wondering if it's worth it from those who have played it / own it?

In theory it seems like it could be a fun game to play, but there's something about the videos I've seen that make it look clunky to play, and I'm not sure I could deal with that damn horrible soundtrack.

Someone let me know otherwise.

 

[nem]

Everything from Gaelco is somewhat clunky. For 60 bucks I'd definitely try it. The game usually seems to go for around 100 USD, so I'm sure you'll get your money back.

 

[nnap]

What Astro X said. I have tried the World Rally approach but was not able to fix the game that way. Replacing the two ICs worked fine on the two boards that I had.

 

[Trol]

What went wrong on the World Rally approach?
Yes indeed, some Gaelco games have a Korean romset, which is unencrypted.
Burn the eproms and don't forget to remove the battery. Things get nasty when it starts leaking.

 

[XtraSmiley]

I think $60 is a steal for this game, I paid $125 and it's pretty awesome! Yes, def clunky though!

So if I burn to two and replace them, no worries about the battery, but again, I'm getting an error (co processor not ready), not a dead battery, so does that mean it will by pass the potentially bad chip as well?

 

[nnap]

What went wrong on the World Rally approach?
Yes indeed, some Gaelco games have a Korean romset, which is unencrypted.
Burn the eproms and don't forget to remove the battery. Things get nasty when it starts leaking.

When I tried to upload the new code, it would just hang there forever and never finish the process.

I think $60 is a steal for this game, I paid $125 and it's pretty awesome! Yes, def clunky though!

So if I burn to two and replace them, no worries about the battery, but again, I'm getting an error (co processor not ready), not a dead battery, so does that mean it will by pass the potentially bad chip as well?

you get the 'co processor not ready' message when the encryption is gone. So normally when the battery is dead.

 

[XtraSmiley]

I think $60 is a steal for this game, I paid $125 and it's pretty awesome! Yes, def clunky though!

So if I burn to two and replace them, no worries about the battery, but again, I'm getting an error (co processor not ready), not a dead battery, so does that mean it will by pass the potentially bad chip as well?

you get the 'co processor not ready' message when the encryption is gone. So normally when the battery is dead.

So, then, why have a suicide battery at all? If the game still works? I think when the battery is dead, it says Co processor bad. According to David Hayes (link above) this error is actually a ROM/DATA error, that results in objects not appearing in the right spot/behaving properly. My question is, if i replace the EPROMs with the battery not needed data, will the game still have graphic errors?

 

[Trol]

If you install the unencrypted roms and remove the battery, the game will work fine, without errors.