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Taito F3 conversions

nem

nem

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So I bought a Bubble Memories cart recently. Sold to me as original. Surprise, it's a dirty conversion X(

I thought I might as well try to convert it to something that I can't afford, like a Darius Gaiden or a Riding Fight.

Googling around I found these tutorials in French:

http://retrogamebay.free.fr/?convertir-une-cartouche-taito-f3-en-darius-gaiden.html
http://retrogamebay.free.fr/?riding-fight-conversion-vers-taito-f3-package-system.html

Has anyone here done any conversions? The PLDs seem to be problematic. In the Darius tutorial, Google translates the bit about the PLD in IC21 (?) as follows: "ATTENTION in the choice of the PCB to sacrifice, it is necessary that the PLD in IC is marked D77-15 with a label (as on the following photos), the one with the inscription directly on the component will not work, as well as the D77-14".

Mine is a regular D77-14. However, I noticed you can download a D77-15 for a GAL from JAMMArcade.net. Maybe that will work?
 
I also got a Bubble Memories bootleg, I just donated the PCB and used its shell for my Darksoft F3 multi PCB. :D
n1GCpBj.jpg
 
Yes, but that still leaves me with a PCB I can use.

And used it I have, as here's my Darius Gaiden conversion:

dgaiden_boot.jpg

It almost works. Unfortunately, I have the same the same two issues as I did with the Bubble Memories conversion. I was hoping they were ROM related, but no such luck.

I have absolutely no sound, just a loud buzz.

I have graphics anomalies. You can see a video of it here. They're not hard to miss at 0:03 and 0:32.

Anyone have any ideas for either issue?

As for the PLDs, I have a jammaarcade.net D77-09 burned to a GAL in IC14, and original D77-14 in IC21, D77-10 in IC28, D77-11 in IC37 & D77-12 in IC48.
 
On closer inspection I noticed the PCB has bubbled up in the upper left corner. That's where OBJ GFX roms are. I guess whoever removed the original roms used hot air to desolder them. I wouldn't be surprised if that's where my graphics issues come from. I checked continuity on the tracks, but didn't notice anything out of the normal.

Still puzzled by the lack of sound though. Is it possible it's a PLD related issue?

Calling @Asure.
 
Hey i know this thread is old but I'm in the same boat. I have a few f3 games 2 are conversions, my puzzle bobble 2 works fine. But I bought an empty board that had all the traces ripped and managed to convert it to rayforce.

I have about 30 patch wires I don't what they were thinking, but yeah just buzzing on audio, does anyone have anymore info on this?
 
MIssed this topic and forgot about the mention.@'nem' all i have to show is a bubble memories conversion board with some Eproms on it, no wierd traces or jumper wires or anything odd. If i don't forget i can take a picture of it, it's in storage and i need to dig it out.

What's the GAL in the bottom right of your picture? I think i have the proper d77-15(?) in the center but no gals in the bottom right. Only stamped Taito PLD's, cept the -15.
 
Asure said:
MIssed this topic and forgot about the mention.@'nem' all i have to show is a bubble memories conversion board with some Eproms on it, no wierd traces or jumper wires or anything odd. If i don't forget i can take a picture of it, it's in storage and i need to dig it out.

What's the GAL in the bottom right of your picture? I think i have the proper d77-15(?) in the center but no gals in the bottom right. Only stamped Taito PLD's, cept the -15.
Click to expand...
No worries.

The GAL in the bottom right of my picture is mentioned in my post:

nem said:
As for the PLDs, I have a jammaarcade.net D77-09 burned to a GAL in IC14
Click to expand...
 
I swapped all of my chips from my rayforce boot with no audio into my bubble bobble 2 boot and the audio works fine, the chip layout is identical.

The pal chips were all the same except IC21 was D77-11 on the bubble bobble 2, but I assume its been written over with d77-14.
I will read some of the chips and try download some reference dumps.

I did think there was some broken traces causing the no audio on my rayforce originally, because well.. check out my repair lol.
(I bought it from yahoo japan with the chips ripped out, and it said it came with the original puzzle bobble 2 chips but it came with neo geo fatal fury chips?)

I will try and do some more testing Im not sure whats causing the audio issue yet, could be traces or pal chips at this point, any help would be appreciated.
UFnQ9UM.jpg
 
Sorry to bump an old post. Did this get figured out? Im doing a conversion as well (darius) but I get no sound
 
Hey I managed to make a few conversions, a darius gaiden and elevator action returns. Previously I made a Rayforce but the cart has damaged traces.
I found some pal files that worked, im pretty sure they arent protected just not easy to find.

I may have a D77-14 somewhere too but i think thats the common one.
 
That's great, @vaughan14! For the Darius Gaiden conversion, could you check what PALs you have in which sockets?
 
I got a spare Puzzle Bobble cart without a shell lying around since I've converted the multi.
Is it worth keeping around or could anybody use it for parts?
It works perfectly, and I still have the shell stickers.
 
@nem. I got one of my f3 board going. I had a bad/slow D77-11. I burn a new atf16v8 and got the sound working. Thinking I got something I moved on to the next board. Changed D77-11 and no sound ,but i also notice I don't have a D77-12. This revision board don't even have pinout in that location. I went back to the 1st board and pulled D77-12 and I got no sound. So it look like D77-11 and D77-12 control sound.
 
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I have a Puzzle Bobble 2 game board (no shell!) if anyone is interested...
J9100361A ROM PCB.
Has some graphical glitches mind... otherwise clean, no visible damage.
 
I had a Puzzle Bobble 4 (converted from Puzzle Bobble 2) that came free with a Taito F3 motherboard that I bought a while ago.
Because I own originals of both Puzzle Bobble 2 and 4 I decided I would try to convert it over to Elevator Action Returns.

It has a d77-15 PAL and was already running 27c4001 PROMs in the original conversion with no issues so I assume this is okay for this conversion.

I socketed the game board, erased the Eproms that were previously soldered in and reprogrammed them to Elevator Action Returns.

The game plays fine and the sound is perfect but for some reason I get the odd flickering pixels (they appear to always be in the same locations) that are especially noticeable in blue sky sections of the background and on the clear round screens.


Any idea why this is happening?
 
Suteneko said:
I had a Puzzle Bobble 4 (converted from Puzzle Bobble 2) that came free with a Taito F3 motherboard that I bought a while ago.
Because I own originals of both Puzzle Bobble 2 and 4 I decided I would try to convert it over to Elevator Action Returns.

It has a d77-15 PAL and was already running 27c4001 PROMs in the original conversion with no issues so I assume this is okay for this conversion.

I socketed the game board, erased the Eproms that were previously soldered in and reprogrammed them to Elevator Action Returns.

The game plays fine and the sound is perfect but for some reason I get the odd flickering pixels (they appear to always be in the same locations) that are especially noticeable in blue sky sections of the background and on the clear round screens.


Any idea why this is happening?
Click to expand...
I've had this happen on a Lightbringer conversion. I think the problem was bad Chinese sourced 27c160's. I bought a new batch and reburned all of my 160's and the problem went away. The 160's that I removed, I erased them and attempted to reprogram them for another conversion and they all failed programming, and simply would no longer program properly anymore after erasing.
 
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