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twistedsymphony

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I follow a few arcades and arcade shops on Facebook. recently one of the (supposedly less than 6 in existence) Bio-Freaks cabs was sold by one of the original developers and is now in the hands of a private collector. I think it'd be fun to play around with this game on a proper cab.

Supposedly it runs on Midway Seattle hardware which is also used by NFL Blitz and has game data stored on a hard-drive similar to other Midway/Atari games of that era... I'm curious what the plausibility of running a Bio Freaks CF or HDD image on a Blitz PCB, or if anyone has ever attempted this.

Searching around I find lots of people converting Blitz 99 to Blitz 2000/Gold with a Simple ROM and CF swap. I'd suspect that to do BioFreaks at minimum it'd need a modified bios image to run a non-original hard drive.
 
Hmm. I thought Bio Freaks ran on the same hardware as War Gods. But if the game really does run on Vegas then the HDD is not protected. You would need the HDD, Boot Rom, and PIC chip. PIC chip being the important thing.

Also would need to know which video card it uses. Midway and Atari both used the Vegas hardware but Gauntlet Legends for example used a different video card than the Midway games did.
 
Doh! I'm an idiot. I read Seattle but had Vegas on my mind for some reason.

That being said, the HDDs are not protected. And you still need the Boot rom and PIC.
 
you're going to have a real hard time finding the Biofreaks PIC if it wasn't released though. MAME might list a conversion table that it uses, but as far as I've found people haven't released any PIC binaries. You'd probably need to find one and edit it to run this game. Dunno if the boot rom is dumped yet but at least it is a straightforward dump/burn
 
So... I saw that ToplessZ on KLOV had a Biofreaks PCB for sale a while back, I asked him a about it and found out that despite the fact that the MAME source has bio freaks on Seattle hardware it IS actually a Vegas hardware game.

he had this to say:
The middle board must be a vegas 777 not a Durango , basically it runs on the same board as Gauntlet legends , it won't run on the faster Durango board typically found in blitz , dark legacy and war .
 
Hm well Vegas is basically the same requirements. You'd need a boot rom and sound rom (no prob, in MAME) and a CF for the chd. But you still need a security pic and that source is not public that I've found.

Did ToplessZ rip the pic? He's one of the guys who sold them iirc. These guys sell some for Vegas boards, and I'm almost positive they're creating new ones somehow. maybe they're hiding the biofreaks source away?
http://www.arcade-service.com/parts/eproms-components/
 
Arcade-services was an official repair guy for Midway when they were still open. He then bought a huge lot of Midway and Atari parts when they closed shop. He's still selling those today. I've done business with him in the past including having a pcb repaired (KI2--sorta fixed it) but lately he doesn't seem too interested in pcb repair. I doubt he makes his own PIC chips and probably only sells NOS and used ones.

ToplessZ is here as Summitt Arcade. He isn't very active lately since he is on deployment. This is his last deployment until retirement though. I talk to him occasionally but I suspect we will see a lot more of him after he retires. He has other pcb projects in the works too btw. ;)
 
I've managed to make replacement PICs for other Midway games, but not Seattle/Vegas hardware as I do not have the hardware to test and develop with. Not long ago a NOS Blitz kit sold on eBay, regret not bidding on it.
 
ok... so it IS Seattle NOT Vegas... and ToplessZ sells the security pic.
Crap, sorry, yes BIO-Freaks only runs on Seattle boards, I was thinking about Tenth
Degree, there security is the barcoded security chip that you must have to run it. Ihave them for sale if needed.
 
Ha! Still the same story - you need a boot rom, sound rom, security pic and CHD. Boot / Sound / CHD should be in MAME. Seattle also did have most games run with a 150mhz cpu, but MACE (another 3d fighter) used a 200mhz one. I wonder which Bio Freaks needs? Cool that he has the boot rom even though it's a prototype. If he has two I'd buy one also (I have both CPUs so I could test that).
 
I wonder if the pic is just there for a security check or it's doing some real decryption...

Mame code should have more info but it should be patchable.
 
there doesn't seem to be any security PICs in the MAME ROM sets for this or blitz... just U32 (boot rom) U95 (sound rom) and the CHD HDD image.
 
well, @twistedsymphony... I have a soft spot for terrible fighters. I just bought a PIC from ToplessZ. If he doesn't have more I'll send you this one after I mess around with it!
 
I just bought a PIC from ToplessZ
how'd you get him to sell you one so quickly. I asked him a few days ago if he'd sell me one and he still hasn't got back to me about it :S
huh no idea. Just shot him a PM... he is leaving Thursday so you could still buy one. Good timing last night I guess?
 
I wonder if the pic is just there for a security check or it's doing some real decryption...

Mame code should have more info but it should be patchable.
The PIC has several functions, but it provides a small challenge/response algo to return the game id and serial number which is used to authenticate if the game can boot or not
 
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