What's new
I still have a mb + dong to sell.
... sell it here, skip the eBay and paypal fees!
The general issue with that is there are no recent sales to gauge how much to ask for.
Yes there are, I think 3 sales in the last few months in fact... and of course one nut who has one on there right now for $1,200! I offered him $250 and he said I must be joking...

The battery doesn't suicide in the traditional sense, it's more in the PGM or Neo Geo sense, it explodes and leaks all over the motherboard and destroys it. I have one like that, which is mint other than the RAM and sound sections. We shall see if it's fixable...
 
I just offered him $275 ;)
 
I still have a mb + dong to sell.
... sell it here, skip the eBay and paypal fees!
The general issue with that is there are no recent sales to gauge how much to ask for.
Yes there are, I think 3 sales in the last few months in fact... and of course one nut who has one on there right now for $1,200! I offered him $250 and he said I must be joking...
There have been 3 sales of mb+dong in the past few months?
 
No, no sales of dong. You could list it but my guess is you’ll get more from the people watching this thread than from an eBay listing. I’d probably miss the listing entirely (I’m only looking for crystal of kings, and I assume most others are too). This thread is now full of people with hope that they can get repro or multi carts!
 
I still have a mb + dong to sell.
... sell it here, skip the eBay and paypal fees!
The general issue with that is there are no recent sales to gauge how much to ask for.
Yes there are, I think 3 sales in the last few months in fact... and of course one nut who has one on there right now for $1,200! I offered him $250 and he said I must be joking...
There have been 3 sales of mb+dong in the past few months?
Sorry, I meant only the motherboard.
 
I'm curious about the software side, as @brizzo said it's probably possible (and not that hard) to patch code to get rid of the PIC.
But I don't own the hardware either.

I'm keen to take up the challenge of patching one game as a POC if someone is willing to test on real hardware.
I'm down with any assistance! :D

Not sure if anyone here has crystal mobo + smd tools + TSOP56 J3 chip adapter for testing. I am 95% finished the pcb schematic, then on to routing. If I have the time to get the routing done before Saturday I will have fabricated pcb for testing next week.

I assume the bios/boot rom located on the motherboard receives the pay load from the PIC, which provides a table of 16 bytes and 8 addresses to be patched in RAM. I just finished taking a closer look at the 'Top Blade V' PIC dump. Based on the peripheral registers accessed, it is compatible with PIC16LF88. On the cart, the serial line has a pull up resistor, so in theory the boot rom may be happy to do nothing? :)
 
I lack the adapter to help. But I do have a few of the Intel chips to spare if they're of help to someone.
 
I have a programmer and tsop56 adapters for both type a and b type flashes, and I should have an in circuit tsop56 clip as well. Also have a hot air station, but yeah, no motherboard yet, so can’t help with this.
 
For a SNES project I made this:
IMG_20190704_211606.jpg


I designed a PCB around 512KB Flash chips, and the blue pcb translates the cartridge slot connection back into the pinout of the original chip. The chip needs to be soldered in to close the shell, so this way I can update the cartridge with a new version if necessary.

If someone can confirm that the Brezzasoft slot connector is a plain PCI connector you could reprogram the cart with a simple pcb like this, and avoid the requirement for usb controllers or tsop adapters.
 
If someone can confirm that the Brezzasoft slot connector is a plain PCI connector you could reprogram the cart with a simple pcb like this, and avoid the requirement for usb controllers or tsop adapters.
The cart connector is in fact PCI, but I don't think this solution would be very practical for the flash type. I'm assuming not many people have a DIP48 programmer that supports J3 algorithm, along with solving the socket/adapter pinout for each programmer to be compatible.

Another advantage of using a multi cart with dip switches is low wear and tear on the crystal mobo cart connector. Looking through pci connector datasheets, most were rated for a cycle life of 100-500 insertions.

I wouldn't bother with USB for a project like this if I didn't already have a fully developed software stock. I've used the same microcontroller, usb, cpld, and flash in prior projects.
 
No, no sales of dong. You could list it but my guess is you’ll get more from the people watching this thread than from an eBay listing. I’d probably miss the listing entirely (I’m only looking for crystal of kings, and I assume most others are too). This thread is now full of people with hope that they can get repro or multi carts!
Relisted about 10 times over and finally sold for $104 USD + $30 USD shipping from Korea a few months ago: http://ebay.com/itm/Dongul-Dongul-Herongi-Jamma-Arcade-Pcb-Good-Working/173612163763

Thank link won't work unless I view it from my eBay, but here's an alternate link: https://picclick.com/Dongul-Dongul-Herongi-Jamma-Arcade-Pcb-Good-Working-182544269060.html

But, now there’s a spotlight on the system. The price won’t go down, and the scalpers and price gougers will be rampant. Welcome to the new Cave board :) don’t expect anything to go as cheap as it did. Even the guy I wanted to get boards for y’all won’t sell me boards reasonable anymore as he got slammed with requests recently. Expect to pay upwards of $500 USD for anything now :(
 
Last edited:
Well I won’t be gouged like that. It’s a nifty under-the-radar system with (imo) one solid game, but I’ll just run it in mame unless I can find, you know, a sanely priced motherboard!
 
If someone can confirm that the Brezzasoft slot connector is a plain PCI connector you could reprogram the cart with a simple pcb like this, and avoid the requirement for usb controllers or tsop adapters.
The cart connector is in fact PCI, but I don't think this solution would be very practical for the flash type. I'm assuming not many people have a DIP48 programmer that supports J3 algorithm, along with solving the socket/adapter pinout for each programmer to be compatible.
Another advantage of using a multi cart with dip switches is low wear and tear on the crystal mobo cart connector. Looking through pci connector datasheets, most were rated for a cycle life of 100-500 insertions.

I wouldn't bother with USB for a project like this if I didn't already have a fully developed software stock. I've used the same microcontroller, usb, cpld, and flash in prior projects.
I would much rather a multi cart than having to stuff around loading stuff in strange ways :)
The battery doesn't suicide in the traditional sense, it's more in the PGM or Neo Geo sense, it explodes and leaks all over the motherboard and destroys it. I have one like that, which is mint other than the RAM and sound sections. We shall see if it's fixable...
If you get it fixed, could it please go to whoever is going to help develop on this system... @Apocalypse ?
 
Well I won’t be gouged like that. It’s a nifty under-the-radar system with (imo) one solid game, but I’ll just run it in mame unless I can find, you know, a sanely priced motherboard!
This

That's a shame :( oh well
 
Well I won’t be gouged like that. It’s a nifty under-the-radar system with (imo) one solid game, but I’ll just run it in mame unless I can find, you know, a sanely priced motherboard!
I totally respect that stance. But there's always a wallet jockey out there willing to set a precedent that ruins it for everyone else and lines the pockets of those using the highest price on eBay as a price reference. It's priced me out of so many things that I should have bought only a year or two ago, but even then I thought they were too expensive.
 
Conversely I’d throw a bunch of money at a multicart or a repro cart. But that’s because I love those things, this community, and the innovation of the creators. Shit I’ll probably buy one of whatever is made here even if I don’t have a motherboard yet!
 
Wow, where does that spotlight come from? Did it get featured anywhere?
I mean it is a neat little system with the connection to SNK, but $500?
 
It’s been a hard system to pin down in the past couple of years with the few that are out there being thrown in the wild with hopes someone will bite. I actually overpaid greatly for mine considering how “cheap” the last lot went for in comparison. But it was one of a handful of games I truly wanted to play and I had a good run of work $ that week.

I also wouldn’t underestimate this forum and it’s users skills to procure items, therefore raising the prices too. Not that it’s a fault of the forum, moreso the profiteers.
 
I would much rather a multi cart than having to stuff around loading stuff in strange ways :)
You do need to get the roms onto a multi at least once, and this would help dumping unknown carts without strange adapters as well. :)

But I guess If brizzo already has the USB programming setup that may be the easiest way.
 
It’s been a hard system to pin down in the past couple of years with the few that are out there being thrown in the wild with hopes someone will bite. I actually overpaid greatly for mine considering how “cheap” the last lot went for in comparison. But it was one of a handful of games I truly wanted to play and I had a good run of work $ that week.

I also wouldn’t underestimate this forum and it’s users skills to procure items, therefore raising the prices too. Not that it’s a fault of the forum, moreso the profiteers.
To all eBay resellers:

I've got a super @@@!!!RARE!!!@@@ Samurai Shodown 2 cart here, I should show it to you. Not for sale though... At least not yet....

Bargain price for AP members, and only those who do nothing except use the trading section, $500US or trade for a Crystal System
 
Last edited:
Back
Top