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awbacon1

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This is part one of the MOST annoying conversion I've dealt with in my collection. What should have been an easy project has turned into a real migraine of a headache lol.

When I started the conversion, I had no reference as to whether anyone had every I/O board swapped a Hyper Neo Geo 64. All the old info indicated the motherboard is identical across all versions released, but I couldn't verify that. Once I finally found an I/O board (with masking tape marked "drive' on ebay) I bought it and decided "well it can't be that bad right"?

Wrong lol. While I did confirm swapping the I/O board does in fact "convert" one Hyper revision (fighting, driving, shooting) to the other, and that the drivers I/O is functionally similar to the Rev 1 fighting board, wiring became a nightmare. Normally these shipped with a wiring harness between the two 32 and 34 pin I/O mounted connectors to JST connectors mounted on the front of the motherboard tray on a metal bracket. My I/O board was missing these

and OF COURSE the schematics I could find did not show the I/O board connector pinout! It was only JST front mount! So now not only did I need to rewire a home wheel / pedal set to control the game, but I had zero idea where the damn pins were supposed to go in the first place ugh.

This is part one. Currently I have everything done except actually connecting the wheel and pedal to the board. It's booting games, the network check is spoofed to report back as a single cab, and the games are running. Still working on the connection pinout!

If anyone has suggestions / feedback lmk. This is the second "long form" video series I am doing on conversions, so whoever comes after me will have an easier time of it!
 
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https://youtu.be/KuvnHr1nZBw

part 2! It’s now converted and booting games. SNK did some weird stuff with how they moved ground and 12V around the board, and the schematic wasn’t clear, but once I figured out what needed to be hooked up and where, swapping the I/O board and booting the driving games was pretty easy

still finishing the controls up but halfway there :)
 
I never added part 4 lol...project done. Subbed in a flight stick since the pot on the wheel was trashed. Waiting on a new pot to arrive to add in but otherwise it was a success and I've captured both driving games with the pedals / stick combo

 
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