What's new

caius

Grand Master
Joined
Nov 21, 2016
Messages
611
Reaction score
1,107
Location
Italy
Last edited:
I've already asked Caius on Twitter about my TH Strokes Back, which is freezing suddenly on the second stage, always in the same spot, and he said this could mean partial suicide and suggested I go along with the revival procedure. However, since I'm too much of a noob, I need some pointers. I dug up a post by Apocalypse, in which he discussed the World Rally fix. Is the pinout for TH Strikes Back the same?

- 1 (closest to the printed 0) = VCC
- 2 = TXD
- 3 = RXD
- 4 = /PROG
- 5 = GND

Since only GND/TXD/RXD are used, will this cable suffice to connect the board to the PC?

According to Apocalypse's post on Neo Geo:

The port settings are 2400b/s, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and XON/XOFF flux control. With hyperterminal (or any other serial communication software) send a carrier return. The game should answer "DS5002 LOADER VERSION 0.1..." Then send U, the game should answer "UNLOCKED". Send L, the game waits for a file to load. Transfer is quite long (between 5 and 10mn?). When finished type Z to lock the DS5002.
Now, I assume the program you're supposed to send is the contents of the thoop2_ds5002fp.bin [CRC32 6881384D] file, just rename it to hex. It's 32 bytes. I'm asking for some guidance, because it's the only TH SB board I have, and Gaelco games are really dear to me, so I wouldn't want to screw anything up.

Also, I have already asked this on Twitter, but got no reply. This method will still rely on the battery being alive and well. You just return the board to its original, non-suicided state. Is there a way to get rid of the battery altogether? Specifically, would a Infinikey type device be possible in this scenario? Remove the battery, and have a small circuit connected to the communication pins that will perform the desuicide on boot-up?
 
Can anyone explain to me why my Alligator Hunt says coprocessor is Not Ready, yet the game still seems to play (haven't played more than 1 stage however).

Is AH different in regards to the suicide battery?
 
@Morden pinout is the same, there should be a dot on the silkscreen indicating pin 1. You can also probe pin 5 to confirm it's ground.
And you're correct about the file to load (32kB).

[EDIT]
Sorry I forgot the bin to hex conversion (see @caius post below).
Haven't slept last night...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Now, I assume the program you're supposed to send is the contents of the thoop2_ds5002fp.bin [CRC32 6881384D] file, just rename it to hex. It's 32 bytes. I'm asking for some guidance, because it's the only TH SB board I have, and Gaelco games are really dear to me, so I wouldn't want to screw anything up.
You must first convert the MAME dump from .bin (binary format) to .hex (Intel hexadecimal format), there are different tools avaiable on the net.Then you have to open the .hex file with a text editor, copy the content and paste it on the terminal program.
 
I have a THSB board as well. It's a really neat game and by far Gaelco's best. So super happy to see instructions on how to desuicide it. It's already been battery swapped once, but there's always the next time and the risk of fucking that up.
 
How does a "suicided" Gaelco board behave? Do they just not boot, or are there other issues with it?

I'm asking because I have an Alligator Hunt board that acts like video ground or sync isn't functioning well, but it seems to be related somehow to the video chip or even the software, rather than an issue with the pure video signal (since it's reacting to what's actually going on in the graphics) - and I've had people speculate that it had something to do with its suicide "feature".

Example of it in action:
 
i've done this with my copy of world rally, worked very well.
game started randomly glitching the days prior to the suicide, until the boot screen actually shows an error on the last test. game still worked mostly but glitched out pretty badly.

just be patient with the terminal window, its slow to load the file. you can use putty as an easy free terminal emulator to connect to your serialport device.


I can do these for members just msg me.

edit: @Sumez your board has committed suicide, mine looked like that too.
 
@evilsim
Cool, that's actually good news. Means I have a way of fixing it without needing to diagnose the error first.
Now I just need to find one of those USB UART thingies.
Any suggestions for what precisely I need?
 
I just realized an Infinikey type circuit wouldn't really work. While I guess it is possible, technically, according to Apocalypse, the Dallas HEX write takes several minutes, which would be impractical if performed on every boot-up.

Is there a way of permanently desuiciding these boards, eliminating the battery?
 
Is there a way of permanently desuiciding these boards, eliminating the battery?
Only using patched program code.Some games, like Alligator Hunt, have also unprotected ROMs.
 
@Sumez yes that device looks just fine. i have one just like it :)

@caius on my world rally i added a second battery, however, if one battery fails it may just drain the other one. i was hoping to not have to phoenix it again for a long time hehe
i suppose if you were really wanting to try and go a permanent fix, you could use a re-chargeable coin battery and insert a small charging pcb next to it, then tap 5v or whatever the charger wants from elsewhere on the pcb. would look like a bit of a frankenstein.
 
Can anyone explain to me why my Alligator Hunt says coprocessor is Not Ready, yet the game still seems to play (haven't played more than 1 stage however).

Is AH different in regards to the suicide battery?
How does a "suicided" Gaelco board behave? Do they just not boot, or are there other issues with it?

I'm asking because I have an Alligator Hunt board that acts like video ground or sync isn't functioning well, but it seems to be related somehow to the video chip or even the software, rather than an issue with the pure video signal (since it's reacting to what's actually going on in the graphics) - and I've had people speculate that it had something to do with its suicide "feature".
edit: @Sumez your board has committed suicide, mine looked like that too.
Guys, my AH says it has suicided, but I don't have the same symptoms that @Sumez has. Any idea what is going on? Could mine possibly have the patched ROMs loaded? If they do, would it still say coprocessor is Not Ready?
 
@xtrasmiley have you played your AH for a long time eg 30min-1hr, I mean, after seeing the coprocessor not ready ? my WR would work perfectly for a while then glitch out and sometimes crash.
 
I just realized an Infinikey type circuit wouldn't really work. While I guess it is possible, technically, according to Apocalypse, the Dallas HEX write takes several minutes, which would be impractical if performed on every boot-up.

Is there a way of permanently desuiciding these boards, eliminating the battery?
Is there a way of permanently desuiciding these boards, eliminating the battery?
Only using patched program code.Some games, like Alligator Hunt, have also unprotected ROMs.
What about using FeRAM?
 
Back
Top