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I recently snagged a Top Blade V and motherboard for the Crystal System.

Taking a look at the MAME driver both Crystal of Kings and TBV use the same cart PCB. The only differences I can see are that CoK has a 74HC138 on the PCB that's unpopulated on TBV.

Otherwise it's 3 ROMs instead of 1, and I assume the 18-pin chip needs to be programmed as u14 out of the MAME set.

Am I missing anything, or is it that easy?
 
Hi

My looking for evolution soccer also on crystal system since few years and i am loosing hope .

I’ve got Donggul Donggul Haerong and do you think it s seems possible to convert it to evolution soccer ?
 
I think u14 is the bios, which is the same across all carts (the file is from crysbios.zip). The MAME docs indicate there's an IC called "SMART-IC" on the rom board, and that code doesn't look like it's been dumped/released.
 
The security is different if you look at the init routines... so you'll need to program that PIC chip (I'm assuming this is the "SMART-IC"? maybe not?). Do you have any pictures of the CART PCB?

There is one on System 16 but it's unclear which game it's for: http://www.system16.com/boards/crystal_cart_pcb.jpg

it looks like there are dumps but from the notes it looks like it's not properly emulated, so maybe the init routine is emulating the PIC?

I would start by making a PIC for Top Blade V from the MAME dump and confirm that it works like the original, and if so then go forward with converting the cart with the proper roms, 74 series IC and PIC for Crystal of Kings.
 
The security is different if you look at the init routines... so you'll need to program that PIC chip (I'm assuming this is the "SMART-IC"? maybe not?). Do you have any pictures of the CART PCB?

There is one on System 16 but it's unclear which game it's for: http://www.system16.com/boards/crystal_cart_pcb.jpg

it looks like there are dumps but from the notes it looks like it's not properly emulated, so maybe the init routine is emulating the PIC?

I would start by making a PIC for Top Blade V from the MAME dump and confirm that it works like the original, and if so then go forward with converting the cart with the proper roms, 74 series IC and PIC for Crystal of Kings.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BrezzaSoft...zJ9DHgYEpY%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

The PIC is what I'd assumed the u14 file was.

I certainly didn't understand all of what's written in the driver.
 
Dude, you won that auction! Please don’t convert that super rare game!

I can trade you a soccer for it if you want!
 
Dude, you won that auction! Please don’t convert that super rare game!

I can trade you a soccer for it if you want!
Is there such a thing as a non super rare game for the Crystal System? Even the system itself is super rare
 
Dude, you won that auction! Please don’t convert that super rare game!

I can trade you a soccer for it if you want!
1) No interest in soccer.
2) The Beyblade game is rare?
Dude, you won that auction! Please don’t convert that super rare game!

I can trade you a soccer for it if you want!
Is there such a thing as a non super rare game for the Crystal System? Even the system itself is super rare
I think we're at 5? of them hitting US eBay in the past 3-4 months? They used to pop up ALL THE TIME back ~2006-08. Maybe they're finally making their rounds again.
 
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Dude, you won that auction! Please don’t convert that super rare game!

I can trade you a soccer for it if you want!
Is there such a thing as a non super rare game for the Crystal System? Even the system itself is super rare
I think we're at 5? of them hitting US eBay in the past 3-4 months? They used to pop up ALL THE TIME back ~2006-08. Maybe they're finally making their rounds again.
3 of those would have been me over the past few months. Decided to sell mine off since they just been sitting in storage for years. I still have a mb + dong to sell.
 
3 of those would have been me over the past few months. Decided to sell mine off since they just been sitting in storage for years. I still have a mb + dong to sell.
Ah, I'd only found out about them *after* they'd sold or I'd have bought one sooner (especially one of the Crystal of Kings that sold) :(.
 
Yeah I got his soccer game and it's in fantastic condition. I already had CoK or I would have bought his as well!

I really wanted that one you got, and I figured since you are converting it anyway, wouldn't you rather have one with a cartridge cover?
 
Yeah I got his soccer game and it's in fantastic condition. I already had CoK or I would have bought his as well!

I really wanted that one you got, and I figured since you are converting it anyway, wouldn't you rather have one with a cartridge cover?
I see what you're saying now.

It looks like the cartridge cover would only get in the way with the vertical orientation of this motherboard. Ack was telling me that these ones snap in on the bare board. So we'd need to swap the whole set-up.

Part of the appeal of this one is its just one rom to remove (less room for error with fiddly smd stuff). Is the soccer game the same PCB? I know at least one in MAME looked to be *entirely* different.
 
Top Blade V is arguably the rarest game on the system. This is the first time I've ever seen it show up in the while I've been looking around for Brezza Soft / Crystal System stuff.

I'd be holding onto that one @rewrite -- you could probably get someone with a Crystal of Kings cart to swap you for it potentially.

Crystal of Kings is the most sought after because it's a great game. The prices they sold for recently are great. I know I paid a considerable amount more for mine :(

Donggul Donggul Haerong is the most common and world_hobbyist_com has it listed (and relisted over and over again) quite frequently on Korean eBay for $100-125 USD.

Evolution Soccer is seldom seen too, but a pretty low tier game. I'll sell or trade my cart to anyone looking.
 
I don't know whether to feel fortunate or unfortunate at this point, ha.

It better be a fun game and not just a rare one..
 
It looks like it could be a fun 2 Player game... lots of button mashing and bombs from what’s on YouTube... The soundtrack seems pretty nutty too.

But if it’s not your thing, move it on! I stand firm in my stance by keeping only the games that have much replay value for myself, not what the Internet prices tell me :)
 
That looks like a reasonably easy PCB to clone...

Edit:
So based on the top comment in the mame driver:
The protection is a PIC deviced labeled SMART-IC in the rom board, I'm not sure how
it exactly works, but it supplies some opcodes that have been replaced with garbage
in the main program. I don't know if it traps reads and returns the correct ones when
reading from flash, or if it's interfaced by the main program after copying the program
from flash to ram and it provides the addresses and values to patch. I patch the flash
program with the correct data
Maybe you can just dump the patched program from mame and burn that, and not use the pic at all? Depends on how the pic is integrated into the system, and if it does anything like the SNES/NES/N64 CIC to validate the cartridge.
 
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A multi for this system, even though it’s very niche and has a handful of titles, would be very cool.
 
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