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Midway Wolf conversions

If NBA resets the defaults each time, we loose the player's custom characters and progress in the game. At 4 credits per play, and 1 credit to edit your character, this is really too bad :(
 
Asure said:
If NBA resets the defaults each time, we loose the player's custom characters and progress in the game. At 4 credits per play, and 1 credit to edit your character, this is really too bad :(
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Yes, unfortunately this is the situation for this specific conversion, which makes me think should I re-convert the PCB back to the original UMK3.

I've tested this on 2 wolf-units and got same results. Still, there is possibility that this behavior might be related with

(a) the original pcb might be slightly different
(b) different components might have been used on the original PCB (i.e. a different cpu supervisory chip - MAX693 is the one used on my UMK3 PCB)
(c) the original security PIC might have additional roles regarding CMOS settings.

Again, these are based on "my" observations and the equipment I have. If I had an original NBA Hangtime security PIC to test, I might be more confident with these results...
 
this sounds familiar, i think you will find that some boards have some eeprom/novram and some dont.
the real question is does your board have an empty place to fit one!!
 
stj said:
this sounds familiar, i think you will find that some boards have some eeprom/novram and some dont.
the real question is does your board have an empty place to fit one!!
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Yes I've read some boards have those extra stuff. None of my PCBs have those but there are empty places. My problem here is that I do not have an original PCB or find a detailed photo of an original PCB that I can check.

Anybody having an original NBA Hang Time can please confirm whether these extra components at location U55 and Y5 (Right next to U64, the security chip) do exist or not?
 
Looks like yes, but I think the CMOS would be different for NBA as well. The writing on the PLCCs while blurry is definitely a different shape to the writing on a UMK3

Anyone have an original NBA Hangtime to confirm?
 
I have NBA Hangtime, UMK3 (from mk3, factory conversion) and WWF to take some pics from later today :)
 
what's "area51mx_patched" all about??
is it R3000, or 68020 hardware? :)
 
Asure said:
Pics are here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t7fvweg3x43i6pt/AAAxDRENmy7KnRlv2ynk-j8ma?dl=0

At a cursory glance, I do not see any differences between these boards. MK3, NBA, WWF..
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@Asure , thanks for the detailed pictures. I do see differences with your pictures and my PCBs. None of my UMK3 PCBs do not have anything on location U55 (right next to security PIC) whereas your detailed pictures clearly shows there is a chip there and a small cylindrical crystal next to it. Do you mind me asking what is written on the chip and what is the value written of the crystal?
 
I zoomed into pictures and see that the chip on location U55 is a serial timekkeper sram MK41t56N

Which makes sense. It is probably related to the game statistics CMOS settings and perhaps some other settings might be related with this SRAM which is clearly missing in my PCBs.

If I find that chip (or any equivalent) and the crystal, I may complete my NBA hangtime conversion.

I just need the value on the crystal since I can not read it from the pictures.
 
Will get the serial tonight.

What board were you converting?

Nba uses this for custom player stats
UMK3 for extra char unlocks
WWF for .. ?

I see no reason for this to be missing on yours unless someone borrowed it :/
 
All my Wolf units (I have 4 of them) have UMK3 security PIC and related stickers/markings. And they were indeed populated with UMK3 ROMs and playing UMK3. None of them, not a single one, have that chip or the crystal :) Moreover, there is no evidence that these components have been snatched (i.e solder holes are full, no flux residue etc)

weird?
 
As far as i remember, this was for some RTC things. You mean U55 right?

This board also does not have any component there? (NBA Hangtime to MK3..?)


I am guessing it is a problem in the hacked rom at this point :/
 
Asure said:
As far as i remember, this was for some RTC things. You mean U55 right?

This board also does not have any component there? (NBA Hangtime to MK3..?)


I am guessing it is a problem in the hacked rom at this point :/
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Yes, U55. And yes, there are different videos and posts on the internet regarding conversions with or without these RTC components. I really do not know the exact reason for these random CMOS errors so I was just speculating if these RTC related components might have a role in this.

And you may be definitely right that there may either be a problem with the hacked ROMs or the way they've been hacked might also be blocking/affecting certain in-game/cmos-settings related operations...

Anyway, I'll order some MK41t56N from aliexpress and until it arrives to my door, I'll shelve this case :)
 
RTC is a bit of a miss-description.
8bytes are the RTC, the rest of the 64bytes is cmos ram!!
 

Attachments

btw, that datasheet clears up your other question.
the crystal is 32.768KHz
:)
 
how so?
if the game is writing data to a non-existant cmos ram - it's not the games fault!
 
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