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Is there any way to region swap these PGM carts? My DDP2 comes up as "Taiwan" it'd be nice if I could get an English title screen and mode selection.
Some games (Martial Masters and KOV2ND) can have the 68k rom patched to disregard the region the ARM chip dictates and force another region (e.g. Export/English).
The ARM protection chip sets the region though for all PGM games.
I’ve used your patch to modify my copy of Martial Masters and it worked beautifully. I’ve never seen the patch for KOV2ND, any idea where I can find it? Thanks!
 
Is there any way to region swap these PGM carts? My DDP2 comes up as "Taiwan" it'd be nice if I could get an English title screen and mode selection.
Some games (Martial Masters and KOV2ND) can have the 68k rom patched to disregard the region the ARM chip dictates and force another region (e.g. Export/English).The ARM protection chip sets the region though for all PGM games.
I’ve used your patch to modify my copy of Martial Masters and it worked beautifully. I’ve never seen the patch for KOV2ND, any idea where I can find it? Thanks!
Sure, shoot me a PM. :)
 

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  • ddp2_force_world_xdelta.zip
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25 freaking PGM games to my name, is DDP2 one of them? Of course not.

Either way that's freaking awesome man, keep up the good work, I love seeing *any* of these games patched to English. Just cuz I want them all done! :D
 
25 freaking PGM games to my name, is DDP2 one of them? Of course not.

Either way that's freaking awesome man, keep up the good work, I love seeing *any* of these games patched to English. Just cuz I want them all done! :D
Oh man, you gotta add it to your collection - it's a lot of fun! :D

Thanks for the kind words. As MAME emulation gets more accurate, these patches become easier to achieve. I'm not sure if they could all be done without somehow re-writing the internal ARM code on the protection chips though.

There is a weakness in the way the ARM type 2 device is implemented (as named in MAME) by the 68K which makes the KOV2ND, Martial Masters and DDP2 patches possible.
 
25 freaking PGM games to my name, is DDP2 one of them? Of course not.

Either way that's freaking awesome man, keep up the good work, I love seeing *any* of these games patched to English. Just cuz I want them all done! :D
Oh man, you gotta add it to your collection - it's a lot of fun! :D
Thanks for the kind words. As MAME emulation gets more accurate, these patches become easier to achieve. I'm not sure if they could all be done without somehow re-writing the internal ARM code on the protection chips though.

There is a weakness in the way the ARM type 2 device is implemented (as named in MAME) by the 68K which makes the KOV2ND, Martial Masters and DDP2 patches possible.
Oh I want to, just gotta find it for sale at the right price.

Is the ND patch for English? I think I saw it posted but something about it made me think it was to convert KOV2 to KOV2ND, which I already have. If that's an English patch for ND I gotta get someone to burn it for me lol
 
25 freaking PGM games to my name, is DDP2 one of them? Of course not.

Either way that's freaking awesome man, keep up the good work, I love seeing *any* of these games patched to English. Just cuz I want them all done! :D
Oh man, you gotta add it to your collection - it's a lot of fun! :D Thanks for the kind words. As MAME emulation gets more accurate, these patches become easier to achieve. I'm not sure if they could all be done without somehow re-writing the internal ARM code on the protection chips though.

There is a weakness in the way the ARM type 2 device is implemented (as named in MAME) by the 68K which makes the KOV2ND, Martial Masters and DDP2 patches possible.
Oh I want to, just gotta find it for sale at the right price.
Is the ND patch for English? I think I saw it posted but something about it made me think it was to convert KOV2 to KOV2ND, which I already have. If that's an English patch for ND I gotta get someone to burn it for me lol
Yeah it's KOV2ND to English.

I didn't make this one; actually I'm not sure who did. Apply to 'u8-27322.rom' from 'kov2p.zip' in MAME, then burn to M27C322.
 

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  • kov2nd_M27C322_WORLD_xdelta.zip
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Oh I want to, just gotta find it for sale at the right price.
There are a few brand new kits on Ebay right now. The same seller had others for $50 cheaper not too long ago but I think he got wise the people were buying them up as soon as he listed them.


Let me know how it works for you guys.
Thanks so much for making this. I've already programmed the EPROM using game version 202 from MAME and it seems to work great so far.
 
Here's a patch per @twistedsymphonys request for DDP2 to force English/World region.

Apply to 'v102.u8' from MAME 'ddp2.zip' and burn to an M27C160 EPROM.

Let me know how it works for you guys.

As always xdelta UI can be found here: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/598/
The other nice thing is this can also upgrade v100 carts to add the extra button for shot type that's present on v102
 
Next up, here's one for KOVSH.

Apply to 'p0600.322' from MAME 'kovsh.zip' and burn to a M27C322 EPROM.
Would this work on Super Heroes Plus too? I know sometimes these incremental updates share a lot of code.
It would need its own patch as it's essentially a different game and is its own parent in MAME, has different graphics, etc.
 
I haven't got around to attempting any of the cave conversions yet but would they also need to be patched since they'd be running using the ARM encoded with whatever region the donor cart came from?
 
I haven't got around to attempting any of the cave conversions yet but would they also need to be patched since they'd be running using the ARM encoded with whatever region the donor cart came from?
They are already patched, you would have to use the bootleg ROMs to make a conversion afaik. I haven't tried making one.


Next up, here's one for KOVSH.

Apply to 'p0600.322' from MAME 'kovsh.zip' and burn to a M27C322 EPROM.
Would this work on Super Heroes Plus too? I know sometimes these incremental updates share a lot of code.
Here is a patch for Super Heroes Plus, tested in MAME but not on real hardware. Let me know if it works for you.

You need to apply the xdelta against 'p0600h_101.rom' from 'kovshp.zip' in MAME.

Some other findings:
  • Oriental Legend / Oriental Legend Super Special - Nothing really changes to English with "World" region except the title screen on the former. Doesn't seem to be worth patching.
  • KOV / KOV Plus - I made patches for these and they work in MAME. I don't have a regular KOV cart to test, but when I test the patch on KOV plus the game refuses to boot on real hardware. My thought is that something is getting tripped in the protection chip, but since it works in MAME I don't think I'll spend any more time on it. Maybe if/when the emulation for the protection chip improves in MAME I can revisit it. If someone wants to try the regular KOV patch on their cart, lmk, but have the understanding it probably won't boot.
  • Demon Front / The Gladiator - First of all, I'd really love to see an English patch for The Gladiator, as it's one of my favorite games for the platform. However, these two games are run primarily from the ARM protection chip and almost nothing is handled by the 68K. Doesn't look like a patch for these is going to be plausible.
 

Attachments

  • kovshp_force_world_xdelta.zip
    277 bytes · Views: 348
KOV / KOV Plus - I made patches for these and they work in MAME. I don't have a regular KOV cart to test, but when I test the patch on KOV plus the game refuses to boot on real hardware. My thought is that something is getting tripped in the protection chip, but since it works in MAME I don't think I'll spend any more time on it. Maybe if/when the emulation for the protection chip improves in MAME I can revisit it. If someone wants to try the regular KOV patch on their cart, lmk, but have the understanding it probably won't boot.
I have a regular KOV I'd be willing to test.

Have you played around with Killing Blade at all? I don't have many PGM games but that's one of the few I do have.
 
KOV / KOV Plus - I made patches for these and they work in MAME. I don't have a regular KOV cart to test, but when I test the patch on KOV plus the game refuses to boot on real hardware. My thought is that something is getting tripped in the protection chip, but since it works in MAME I don't think I'll spend any more time on it. Maybe if/when the emulation for the protection chip improves in MAME I can revisit it. If someone wants to try the regular KOV patch on their cart, lmk, but have the understanding it probably won't boot.
I have a regular KOV I'd be willing to test.
Have you played around with Killing Blade at all? I don't have many PGM games but that's one of the few I do have.
Cool I'll shoot you a pm with it.

I played around with Killing Blade a bit earlier today actually. The protection device is pretty different, but it may be possible to patch the original game.

Killing Blade Plus on the other hand uses the later 'Type 3' protection device as used in Demon Front and The Gladiator, which makes that one dead in its tracks unfortunately.
 
Next up, here's one for KOVSH.

Apply to 'p0600.322' from MAME 'kovsh.zip' and burn to a M27C322 EPROM.
Worked great. My cart was v103 CN, and now it's v104 world. Thanks again!
I'm loving these good news posts...

I swear this thread alone might get me to buy my own programmer lol
 
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