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Convert Red Hawk/Stagger I from yoko to tate

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_rm_

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I know this will be a very long shot because most people don't even know this game, but it is something that allways intrigued me, so here goes:

This is a korean shmup from Afega. The game is known by Red Hawk or Stagger I depending on the market, this is very common, what it isn't that common is that the games plays in tate in most regions (Stagger I in Japan and Red Hawk in Korea or USA, for example) but there is a yoko version for Europe.

Looking at the available pictures online, the PCB looks exactly the same in all regions, so i decided to pick a european verision to try it out.

Since i don't know what each eprom does, i tried to burn eproms 4; 6 and 7 with stagger I code since they are the biggest and i assumed contained graphical information. Sure enough, the game boots in Tate with perfect sound but with some graphical glitches. I then added eproms 2 and 3 and the game stopped booting. Now only a few blocks appear and sound is all messy.

I've also tried Red Hawk eproms from USA version with same results. This mame version doesn't eeven have eprom 5 (no idea what it is).

Long story short:
Can anyone more knowledgeable look at MAME info (i guess) and see if something can be done?


Many thanks in advance if someone can spare a few minutes with this.Kind regards
 
That's interesting. Pretty drastic change for the European market.

I just tried it in Mame. Background scrolling doesn't work if you replace Red Hawk (Spain) roms with Stagger 1. Otherwise it seems to run fine. However, Mame isn't perfect emulation of the hardware. What works in Mame doesn't necessarily work on hardware (and vice versa).

_rm_ said:
This mame version doesn't eeven have eprom 5 (no idea what it is).
Click to expand...

No, because that's taken from the parent rom which I believe is Stagger 1.

Anyway, in Mame the game runs on the NMK16 driver. The below link should drop you where it shows how Mame loads the rom:

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers/nmk16.cpp#L7678

2 & 3 are the program roms.

1 & 5 are for audio. These are the same for all versions.

4 is background graphics. 6 & 7 are for sprites.

If it doesn't work by replacing 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, then just swapping rom data isn't enough.
 
nem said:
If it doesn't work by replacing 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, then just swapping rom data isn't enough.
Click to expand...
Not sure if i tried with all 5 eproms swaped at the same time, but will try again later and report back.
Hammy said:
Maybe a BPROM / Gal thing.... things such as screen resolution etc are done in hardware...
Click to expand...
As i said, at least the games changes to Tate when you change eproms 6 and 7
 
Just checked again and with all 5 eproms swaped (2,3,4,6 and 7)the game doesn't boot. Only thing that "kind of happens" is that you can hear the credit sound if you put a coin.

I've used the US version of Red Hawk for the test.

Anything else i could try?
 
Hi. I have a spanish Red Hawk horizontal board. Did someone archieved to pass it to Korea vertical version?
 
_rm_ said:
I've tried this (4 years ago, don't remember which version i tried) but with no luck. Still curious to know :)
Click to expand...
Spanish set 2 and USA set call for a decrypt function in mame: init_redhawksa and init_redhawk.

Red Hawk Korea and Stagger I japan call both for empty_init, so they are decrypted.

So, the only solution would be to modify Red Hawk Korea or Stagger I japan to work with the CPU encryption on Spanish and USA boards.
 
Tailsnic Retroworks said:
Spanish set 2 and USA set call for a decrypt function in mame: init_redhawksa and init_redhawk.

Red Hawk Korea and Stagger I japan call both for empty_init, so they are decrypted.

So, the only solution would be to modify Red Hawk Korea or Stagger I japan to work with the CPU encryption on Spanish and USA boards.
Click to expand...
That is beyond my ability i'm afraid.

Don't remember the exact version of my PCB, just know it is the yoko version. But i can burn eproms and do some testing if you need any kind of help and decide to dedicate some time to this subject.

It is kind of an obscure / less desired title, i don't believe many people will bother with it, lol.
 
_rm_ said:
That is beyond my ability i'm afraid.

Don't remember the exact version of my PCB, just know it is the yoko version. But i can burn eproms and do some testing if you need any kind of help and decide to dedicate some time to this subject.

It is kind of an obscure / less desired title, i don't believe many people will bother with it, lol.
Click to expand...
The only yoko version with no encryption is the Spanish set 1. Don't try a conversion, won't work
 
Ok, I can try to make an encrypted Korean version... Or do you want some other region?
 
Pythagoras said:
Ok, I can try to make an encrypted Korean version... Or do you want some other region?
Click to expand...
If you can replicate the encryption keys the Spanish set 2 version uses, I would glad test the Korea version. Since AFEGA is Korean, is the legit version to mount
 
Ok, You will need to burn Roms 2,3,4,6,7 (Rom 1 and 5 are same for all regions). I included them in the archive just for the Mame testing...
Mame render the screen wrong since the driver is configured for Horizontal. Hopefully it will look right on the hardware...

Korea.jpg
 

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Pythagoras said:
Ok, You will need to burn Roms 2,3,4,6,7 (Rom 1 and 5 are same for all regions). I included them in the archive just for the Mame testing...
Mame render the screen wrong since the driver is configured for Horizontal. Hopefully it will look right on the hardware...

Korea.jpg
Click to expand...
Right away
 
Congratulations, @Pythagoras

It almos perfect. At CPU level, the game boots, so you have nailed Spain set 2 encryption. Only there is one glitch left to solve: scroll movement for tiles. Here is a video of the issue.


Maybe there is something more need to modify? Is in the rom 4 section, that's for sure.
 

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Mame seems to configure different screen updates for Horizontal and Vertical in the video hardware settings. Maybe that's something the GALs do?? But they are not available in Mame. :unsure:
 
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