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Very nice.

A few questions :

  • Besides the keyed connector, any reason not to go for the Q-Type ?
  • Is there a setting to use with non-encrypted B21 boards, say SF2'/HF or Pang 3 ?
  • Last question is beyond the scope of your product, but : I thought I understood it should be possible to program the B21 to mimic other B## chips, say a B03 (to fix a Willow board I have witha faulty B03), am I mistaken ?
 
  • Last question is beyond the scope of your product, but : I thought I understood it should be possible to program the B21 to mimic other B## chips, say a B03 (to fix a Willow board I have witha faulty B03), am I mistaken ?
This is a topic I was investigating some time ago, and I think you are right. We "only" need to figure out the proper keys to be programmed into B-21 to make it a clone of any other B-XX chip.
 
Any chance you're willing to share the expected price? :P
Not yet. I've not done any boards with this many connectors before, so I don't know what assembly cost will be. I should have a better idea later next month.

Besides the keyed connector, any reason not to go for the Q-Type ?
No. I originally wanted to make only one CPS1 InfiniKey and make it user-proof (all keyed connectors), but when I ran into the mechanical constraints of CPS1.5 plastic case, it was not possible. My hope is that only CPS1.5 owners will use Q-Type because I don't want to hear stories of people carelessly misplugging their C boards and blowing stuff up.

Is there a setting to use with non-encrypted B21 boards, say SF2'/HF or Pang 3 ?
No. Why?

Last question is beyond the scope of your product, but : I thought I understood it should be possible to program the B21 to mimic other B## chips, say a B03 (to fix a Willow board I have witha faulty B03), am I mistaken ?
Less custom chips was certainly the idea behind the B21. So, yes, provided you have all the key information, you could write it for any game. I think MAME notes say that B21 without key is same as B01.
-ud
 
Is there a setting to use with non-encrypted B21 boards, say SF2'/HF or Pang 3 ?
No. Why?
Because when you want to troubleshoot suicided games, switching between non-encrypted and encrypted B21 operation is useful.
And a suicided B21 needs a kind of "null" key to operate like a non-encrypted one, otherwise they need to be physically modified.


You should price the Q-Type slightly higher :)
Owners of actual CPS1.5 won't mind I'm sure, and others will just go for the cheaper one :D
 
You should price the Q-Type slightly higher :)

Owners of actual CPS1.5 won't mind I'm sure, and others will just go for the cheaper one :D
Remember that those of us with Q Sound actually need 2, one for Kabuki as well as the C board - so it's already more expensive for Q Sound owners :)
 
I would think that these devices would be sold in 3 "packages"

. Kabuki (Pre CPS1), 1 device
. CPS1, 1 device
. CPS 1.5, 2 devices where one of the devices is the low profile one for the C board.

In other words, you only get the low-profile one if you buy a Kabuki Infinikey as well :)
 
I would think that these devices would be sold in 3 "packages"

. Kabuki (Pre CPS1), 1 device
. CPS1, 1 device
. CPS 1.5, 2 devices where one of the devices is the low profile one for the C board.

In other words, you only get the low-profile one if you buy a Kabuki Infinikey as well :)
Yeah, that actually crossed my mind. Would help eliminate confusion regarding who needs what for which games.
-ud
 
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Is there a setting to use with non-encrypted B21 boards, say SF2'/HF or Pang 3 ?
No. Why?
Because when you want to troubleshoot suicided games, switching between non-encrypted and encrypted B21 operation is useful.
And a suicided B21 needs a kind of "null" key to operate like a non-encrypted one, otherwise they need to be physically modified.
Done.

Anybody who has a big CPS1 collection want to help me out? Key titles I need tested are:

Strider running a CPS-B-01
Strider running a CPS-B-21
Willow running on a CPS-B-03
Final Fight NOT running on CPS-B-04

Any other titles would be a bonus.

I would be sending out a "tester" C-Board to temporarily swap with your original C-Board. Verification is simply playing for a while to look for graphics issues (which requires that you have some familiarity with the original game).

I've already verified some titles (I'll take some test pics).
-ud
 
@djsheep has a Strider but I don't know if it's still on battery

I have 2 Captain Commando and a Knights of the Round here at the moment all running on battery (I just desuicided all 3 last weekend)
 
Willow running on a CPS-B-03
Final Fight NOT running on CPS-B-04
I have an EU Willow, as well as a JP Final Fight running on B-01, no Strider though.
If someone in the US can test all of those it might be easier to organize, but LMK if you need my help.

And thanks for doing this, that's going to be really great !
 
This might be a stupid question, but why couldn’t this have worked on the light grey cased games with the use of some spacers?
71Notj78WkL._SY450_.jpg
 
This might be a stupid question, but why couldn’t this have worked on the light grey cased games with the use of some spacers?
I'm not sure how those would help the situation. There is only so much room inside the case. Adding spacers would only make things taller.
-ud
 
Multiple people have inquired about adding to InfiniKey CPS1 the keys to configure a Battery B-21 to behave as all other B-XX chips. I don't know if I will support this upon initial release, as I have simply don't have a game for each B-XX chip type on hand with which to test. Here I've verified what games I do have on hand using a Captain Commando C-Board with InfiniKey CPS1:

As No Battery B-21 on SFII' CE
Gr121Hpl.jpg


As B-17 on SFII:WW
WjkMnnwl.jpg


As B-13 on Magic Sword
zDsBJ7Tl.jpg


As B-04 on Final Fight
h4cxel1l.jpg


As B-02 on Dynasty Warriors
AeM8ThJl.jpg


-ud
 
Anybody who has a big CPS1 collection want to help me out? Key titles I need tested are:

Strider running a CPS-B-01
Strider running a CPS-B-21
Willow running on a CPS-B-03
Final Fight NOT running on CPS-B-04

Any other titles would be a bonus.

I would be sending out a "tester" C-Board to temporarily swap with your original C-Board. Verification is simply playing for a while to look for graphics issues (which requires that you have some familiarity with the original game).

I've already verified some titles (I'll take some test pics).
-ud
Decent collection here :) I have 2 striders and I'll check my FF... will get back to you.
 
Multiple people have inquired about adding to InfiniKey CPS1 the keys to configure a Battery B-21 to behave as all other B-XX chips. I don't know if I will support this upon initial release, as I have simply don't have a game for each B-XX chip type on hand with which to test. Here I've verified what games I do have on hand using a Captain Commando C-Board with InfiniKey CPS1:

As No Battery B-21 on SFII' CE
......

-ud
Just for curious, how did you figure out the codes you need to set in B-21 to run as each other different B-XX? I was investigating this topic a while ago in order to get those keys to be programmed in a B-21 running on battery, and use it in other non-B-21 games.


PD: I have a Final Fight ETC board, I will check which B-XX it has, as I don't remember right now
 
Multiple people have inquired about adding to InfiniKey CPS1 the keys to configure a Battery B-21 to behave as all other B-XX chips. I don't know if I will support this upon initial release, as I have simply don't have a game for each B-XX chip type on hand with which to test. Here I've verified what games I do have on hand using a Captain Commando C-Board with InfiniKey CPS1:

As No Battery B-21 on SFII' CE
......

-ud
Just for curious, how did you figure out the codes you need to set in B-21 to run as each other different B-XX? I was investigating this topic a while ago in order to get those keys to be programmed in a B-21 running on battery, and use it in other non-B-21 games.


PD: I have a Final Fight ETC board, I will check which B-XX it has, as I don't remember right now
Eduardo made a pretty in-depth video detailing which data goes where, back when he released all the info on the Arduino revival kit. He had a few boo-boos in his presentation, but with some educated guesses I was able to sort it out. MAME source (God bless those people) actually has all the critical information that makes up the keys, but it must be massaged differently in order to be loaded into the B21. And within that data, there are a few key bytes that can be massaged one way or another, so you really have to test it to find out which way those bytes are supposed to be. I wish it were as simple as just writing a script, load in the MAME data, and call it a day, but it actually requires a bit more hand-holding than that.
-ud
 
Multiple people have inquired about adding to InfiniKey CPS1 the keys to configure a Battery B-21 to behave as all other B-XX chips. I don't know if I will support this upon initial release, as I have simply don't have a game for each B-XX chip type on hand with which to test.
I can test every B chip configuration, you should really include the default B21 and all other B chips.
I also have all the keys, be careful MAME lacks some important info like the ID register which is checked upon boot by some games. Sending you a PM.

Given it's possible to buy NOS CPS-B-21 chips, have you thought of including it in your design. This way you could have one unique design with keyed connectors that fits all configurations.
 
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This would be really nice, I've got two B-21 C-boards and if they could act as all other C-boards I wouldn't have to update my ROMs with conversion/hacked data when their C-boards die.
 
Yes, I finally managed to get keys for B-21 act as every other B chip too, but I could test it only in some boards I have, by programming B-21 in a 90631C-5 board powered by battery. I also plan to test it in a modified 92631C-6 (that is more common, because it’s the one mounted in sf2ce and sf2hf, however it is not battery backed) acts as a 90631-5, but I think this could not be a good idea... Lots of SF2 would be massacred to use their c board as trasplant in older cps1 boards...
 
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