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undamned

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I landed a Raiden 2 a little while back and was curious about the possibility to convert to DX? I'm reading that there are 2 extra ROMs/EEPROMs on one or the other and I was wondering if it was as simple as combining files into larger EEPROMs and maybe changing a PAL?

Thanks!
-ud
 
Haha converting Raiden II has got to be arcade gaming sacrilege!
 
What I know for sure is the "new" versions (with lower quality sound) are in fact dual game boards.
IIRC by maintaining 4 directions (yes I know...) plus start on boot up it switches from Raiden II "new" to Raiden DX "new" and vice versa.

So I'd say conversion is possible.
 
Haha converting Raiden II has got to be arcade gaming sacrilege!
Why is that? Isn't DX just an update from 2?

What I know for sure is the "new" versions (with lower quality sound) are in fact dual game boards.
IIRC by maintaining 4 directions (yes I know...) plus start on boot up it switches from Raiden II "new" to Raiden DX "new" and vice versa.

So I'd say conversion is possible.
Cool, thanks for the info! I've not played with any of the early arcade Raiden games (I used to own RFJ), so this is new territory :D
-ud
 
Why is that? Isn't DX just an update from 2?
I'm just being nostalgic. I grew up playing Raiden II and it was one of my grail games. From what I've read DX is Just Raiden II with some extra stuff so probably all good to go.
 
@undamned did you ever attempt this conversion? I recently picked up a Raiden II PCB and am interested in converting it, or maybe even finding a way to swap between the two games on the same PCB.
 
has anybody found new Information on this Topic?

i also would like to run the raiden DX on a Raiden 2 board.

is there perhaps also a guide somewhere that teaches the General use of These eprom burners and which one to get and whre to get the blank Chips.


thanks
 
I looked into this a little further.
from what I could glean from MAME both games appear to use the same protection code which is good
however R2 stores it's program code on 2x 27c4096 ICs (16-bit 40pin) and RDX stores it on 4x 27c040 ICs (8-bit 32pin).

the PCB appears to be setup for either sized chip but not at the same time. the way it's laid out you'd have to remove the two 40 pin sockets and then install 4 32 pin sockets. It's unclear if there are any other modifications necessary to accommodate the chip swap.

There are an number of other ROMs on this PCB that are not socketed from the factory, so those would need to be removed in order to perform the conversion.

Interestingly there seem to be some obscure versions of R2 that use the 4x 32-pin 8-bit ICs instead of the 2x 16-bit 40-pin ICs. I think one of the German releases and some other release that was R2 on a RDX PCB.

it's also worth noting that the PCBs are masked for their game R2 says "RAIDEN II" and RDX says "RAIDEN DX" considering this there may be other differences between the two PCBs.

As of right now my R2 PCB is really mint and I don't want to take an iron to it to experiment. if I find another cheap working R2 PCB I'll pick it up and try out the conversion to see how it goes.
 
thank you guys for your help.

i have two raiden 2 pcb here right now.

one from italy and one i am not sure where from the second looks like half original....

I would take the risk and do it but I am not that skilled like @twistedsymphony

By the way do you guys also have that sound noise at the silent opening sequence when the intro shows the jet go up?
 
By the way do you guys also have that sound noise at the silent opening sequence when the intro shows the jet go up?
I don't recall any noise at all on the intro of it taking off from the woods. I will verify mine after work and report. As I believe mine is the original ver. with the better sound.
 
I have some background noise on mine... it's not normal, but mine also has some dying audio components that will need replace soon (I knew this when I bought this board).
 
I have some background noise on mine... it's not normal, but mine also has some dying audio components that will need replace soon (I knew this when I bought this board).
you replace only the elko? or also oter parts?


By the way do you guys also have that sound noise at the silent opening sequence when the intro shows the jet go up?
I don't recall any noise at all on the intro of it taking off from the woods. I will verify mine after work and report. As I believe mine is the original ver. with the better sound.
it sounds like wind blowing into a microphone. and when i touch the Sound pot it crackles.

both of mine have the 1993 board
 
1993 board here and no crackling. A lil scratch when I adjust the volume pot but it goes away.
 
1993 board here and no crackling. A lil scratch when I adjust the volume pot but it goes away.
thank you very much..... i will check again tonight perhaps i can make a sample of that sound
 
So I looked into this conversion a little further today. and I'm going to say it'll be difficult and probably ugly if at all possible.

While the PCBs are "nearly" identical and the protection chip is the same Raiden DX uses program ROMs twice the size of Raiden II.

Raiden DX uses 4x 27c4001 EPROMS while Raiden II uses 2x 27c4096 EPROMS.

the Raiden II PCB has solder holes available for 4x 32pin EPROMs, so my initial thought was to remove the 40 pin sockets for the 27c4096 chips and install the 32 pin sockets for the 27c4001 chips.. looking at the masking on the PCB for these chips though they're labeled "27c020" and indeed checking the pin locations the address line necessary for a 27c4001 EPROM is tied to +5V. In short this means that they wont support the proper sized ROMs for Raiden DX.

It looks like the ROM address lines are run to the Seibu custom at U0135 (SEI1000 SB01-001). I believe this is the protection IC, but it's unclear if the version of this chip installed on Raiden II will suppor the higher address lines, and even if it does it would mean running some wires from the program ROMs to this chip to "attach" those address lines. We likely would need someone with a Raiden DX PCB to determine which pin(s) these address lines attach to. Also there may be some other differences related to these address lines that aren't immediately apparent.

looking at MAME source there are some differences regarding the memory banks, it's possible a patch would have to be made to accommodate this.

for now though this conversion seems like it would require more adjustments to the PCB than I'm interested in performing.
 
@twistedsymphony

Thank you very much for your help.

Too bad that it is more complicated than we wished it would be.
 
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