What's new
I WILL TRADE FOR YOU MY FRIEND VERY RARE SEGA BOARD COLUMNS.
 
Love to have one again. Had a system w/ Crystal of Kings around 2006-ish or so.
 
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?
When @lukemorse1 made it his profile pic on this forum it jumped $300 instantly ;)
 
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?
This forum itself is a spotlight.

When we posted how to convert Quiz Gakumon to TMNT2 the QG PCBs went from $35 to $150+

When I posted the conversion ROMs for Big Striker those when from a hard to find but cheap $35 PCB to an impossible to find and expensive ($200+) PCB.

When the M72 multi was announced those games went from $300 to $700.

and none of those things really got much attention outside of this forum.
 
Except the m72 multi. I see mentions of it on AO, KLOV, and Facebook all the time.
 
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 ?
If @Apocalypse or @brizzo needs or wants this it is theirs. In fact, it can be a donation to one of them for all the awesome work they have done. @brizzo needs to finish up that Atomiswave project he's been work though, so don't distract him too much! :)

This site, and the members on here are great and since I cannot contribute technically, I'd be happy to do so in other ways!
 
If @Apocalypse or @brizzo needs or wants this it is theirs. In fact, it can be a donation to one of them for all the awesome work they have done. @brizzo needs to finish up that Atomiswave project he's been work though, so don't distract him too much!

This site, and the members on here are great and since I cannot contribute technically, I'd be happy to do so in other ways!
Thank you for the generous offer; it is this kind of attitude that makes AP such a great community. Someone else in this thread already reached out and offered to send me a newer reversion motherboard as well (and I accepted).

As for Atomiswave, got a DigiKey shipment today, sending out some packages to my testers next week ;)

But on topic, almost finished routing the crystal multi cart pcb :thumbsup:
 
Tell everyone that there’s a Darksoft Kit that will convert a common Mah Jong game into a Cave game and laugh at the prices rising and those buying them.
 
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?
When @lukemorse1 made it his profile pic on this forum it jumped $300 instantly ;)
lol, probably only up by +$100 if that.

In all honesty though, the crystal system has always been a bit of a unicorn to get especially with the crystal of kings. I paid a lot of money for my set up and it was broken due to the leaking battery. It took a month to get running and I was lucky.

I can say safely though that there are still a lot of people who have never heard of the system :)
But if i had Metal Jesus status on Youtube, the system would be close to a couple thousand easily by now ;)
 
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?
This forum itself is a spotlight.
When we posted how to convert Quiz Gakumon to TMNT2 the QG PCBs went from $35 to $150+

When I posted the conversion ROMs for Big Striker those when from a hard to find but cheap $35 PCB to an impossible to find and expensive ($200+) PCB.

When the M72 multi was announced those games went from $300 to $700.

and none of those things really got much attention outside of this forum.
THIS! right here is why the arcade hardware and systems are going up. Look at the pgm games now used for conversions. They will probably be all gone in the next year or so. Promotion leading to higher demand here
 
Before the influx of boards on this system that sold cheaply recently, Crystal of Kings had sold multiple times on eBay for between $700-800. It’s also something that’s not many people were looking for, and those that were, were willing to pay the price. With the renewed interest, I guess we will have to wait and see what sells and what sits. Neo Geo collectors also want that particular game due to former Neo Geo employees working on its development.
 
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.
The Crystal Of Kings patched and working in MAME.
Incoming PM!
P.S.: I have the tools too.
If @Apocalypse or @brizzo needs or wants this it is theirs. In fact, it can be a donation to one of them for all the awesome work they have done. @brizzo needs to finish up that Atomiswave project he's been work though, so don't distract him too much! :)
This site, and the members on here are great and since I cannot contribute technically, I'd be happy to do so in other ways!
Thanks mate; I think it would be of much use for me.
However I need to have a permanent address first. :D
 
P.S.: I'm fairly certain PIC isn't needed at all with the patched ROMs.

BCS copies content of the ROMs in RAM on boot up that's why it's so "long" and the PIC does a kind of on the fly patching, that means there's absolutely NO difference between an OG game + PIC and a patched game without PIC.
Code executed from RAM is exactly the same at the end.


Problem solved, thanks for reading.
 
P.S.: I'm fairly certain PIC isn't needed at all with the patched ROMs.

BCS copies content of the ROMs in RAM on boot up that's why it's so "long" and the PIC does a kind of on the fly patching, that means there's absolutely NO difference between an OG game + PIC and a patched game without PIC.
Code executed from RAM is exactly the same at the end.
Problem solved, thanks for reading.
Yes, of course. The only thing I would be worried about is: Does the bios detect that no pic is present and just start whatever it downloaded, or does the cart need to signal the bios this in any way? Of course, since Brizzo has carts without pic he can just check for pull up/pull down/bridges present on the board.

(I mean, in theory the PIC could return any patch address and value, including those outside the executable space.)
 
P.S.: I'm fairly certain PIC isn't needed at all with the patched ROMs.
Yes, I agree as well. ElSemi did a great job on the PIC analysis and implementation of the patches in MAME.

since Brizzo has carts without pic he can just check for pull up/pull down/bridges present on the board.
I mentioned on in a previous post there is a pull up resistor on the pic serial data line, but otherwise there is no other circuit or jumpers involved with the PIC.
 
I mentioned on in a previous post there is a pull up resistor on the pic serial data line, but otherwise there is no other circuit or jumpers involved with the PIC.
I wasn't sure if you mean with or without a pic present, but I guess this answers the question. :)

...ok I guess that doesn't make a difference.
 
Last edited:
I mentioned on in a previous post there is a pull up resistor on the pic serial data line, but otherwise there is no other circuit or jumpers involved with the PIC.
I wasn't sure if you mean with or without a pic present, but I guess this answers the question. :)
...ok I guess that doesn't make a difference.
I haven't got into details about BIOS subroutines and I don't have the hardware handy but by looking at the replaced values in MAME it could very well be that the data coming from the ROMs are ANDed with the serialised data from the PIC.
This would mean no PIC + pull-up resistor = bare data from the ROM.
 
Back
Top