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Dongle conversion

I already shared my thoughts with Defor through IRC.

Mostly what keeps games from working are the fact that the games load stuff from the PS2 ROM on the board.

And maybe the FPGA. The 256 board has no FPGA. So a combination of hardware and software differences would be what cause the older games to not work correctly on the newer board.


Normally (normally being the retail PS2 programming rules) PS2 programmers are required to not link or load any libraries in the PS2 ROM. The game disc is supposed to bring all IOP modules it require to work, in a matching version to what it requires.

System256 has a newer ROM than 246 and because of that the modules on it are also for a newer development kit environment. So games which bring their own libs on the dongle should work fine.

That's the reason why the System246 modified micro launch elf only works with the 246.
 
nio said:
So I buy a 246 and 256 and wait for the multi dongles?
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That's definitely a thing you can do.
You may want to buy one or two games as well.

As explained, there's a few other games for both systems, but while a universal dongle will work with them, I feel that not that many people will be interested in those games due to the hardware required to implement.

Also, be careful if you're in the market for 246/256 pcb's- the market (outside japan) really has no set standard pricing, and it's easy to get ripped off in favor of convenience.
If you have the capability, order your pcbs from Yahoo Japan, or work with someone who's importing a lot of them...

(I may be doing a bulk order of 246C and 256's in a few months as this project wraps up)

The reality is that Gundam vs. games were IMMENSELY popular in Japan, with some multiple of 4 of them bare minimum PER arcade, as the game is networkable with 4 separate players. The game series is no longer relevant in Japan, and for the last 3 years, the PCB's are being dumped at dirt cheap prices.
 
Whats the typical good price you should be seeing for a 256? Ive tried a few old dvd drives with ine of my 246 and tekken 4 and most have worked. I know the game is suppose to be picky so im wonder what i should be looking for to know it is fully compatible. Ive just been booting the game playi g a few games and letting it run by itself for awhile. Would love to get a multi dongle btw!
 
would love to see a hacked bios for this system that plays play station 2. That would really open up the game library.
 
spilmer said:
would love to see a hacked bios for this system that plays play station 2. That would really open up the game library.
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Not going to happen mostly because of the massive amount of changed hardware....
might as well just put a ps2 in a cab....
also there's the whole argument that other than the slightly extra ram, the disk to ram buffers, and the JVS, it offers little that a retail PS2 doesn't already, somewhat in the same way that naomi had a lot of ports to dreamcast with little differences, so does the 246/256...
 
Coyo5050 said:
Whats the typical good price you should be seeing for a 256? Ive tried a few old dvd drives with ine of my 246 and tekken 4 and most have worked. I know the game is suppose to be picky so im wonder what i should be looking for to know it is fully compatible. Ive just been booting the game playi g a few games and letting it run by itself for awhile. Would love to get a multi dongle btw!
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if you shop around, they can be had for reasonable costs- the main issue is that importer costs and shipping will add a bit to the overall price.
 
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Do I need to be carefull and get a special revision?

I live in germany. If you do some group order over here I would be really interesseted.
 
if you want a 256, they're all looking equivalent (except for the "Super" 256 which has NO 246+ mode, and as-yet unknown differences).
On the original 256, I'm up to 3 "variants", but none seem truly any different.
- Original
- Lead-Free
- G-series serial numbers (This may NOT be any difference, but all PCB's carry a serial number starting in "G", instead of the normal "A")

the addon "options" for the system are
UE PCB (usb based network adapter)
EX CARD PCB (allows IC card readers to be connected)
EX SOUND PCB (only found in Time Crisis 4 "Super" PCB's)

The average cost increases are usually around 2000 yen for each of the UE and EX CARD.
I'll keep everyone here posted as I'll check in with my normal supplier and see what they can offer me.
Additional shipping to locations outside USA would be added however.
 
My normal lead was pretty useless when it came to the actual boards,and with shipping included, it was far higher than eBay pricing.

I've got a few spares in my stock that I might be clearing out in the coming months however.
 
I think I have a 246 B board..

what part do you want taken pictured sir?
(mine is partially broken). game loads but screen has moving horizontal wavy lines sometimes, and color is a bit bland.
 
We're good on 246's (Unless you have one of the weird AB boards) 256's were the issue, but it appears that all 256's (except super) are internally badged "256B", so this may be a moot point anyway- still researching.

f you don't mind checking your 246, this is the insides of the "AB" i'm searching for-
Note the lack of corrugated heatsinks on top of the board:
 

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Thinking about the touch-screen issues, would one of those FOBT's you see in bookmakers work - I had one a while back and the 20" VGA monitor had a serial touchscreen inside, seems to emulate a mouse..
 
I'm trying to convert a dongle to another, but I am not sure I'm doing it correctly. Any advice on how to read / write the flash chip, please?

My burner is a SP3000U from Xeltek. I can read the chip as Hard Copy to get most data out of it, but how do I extract the spare area exclusivley? (If at all it's necessary) I'd be grateful if someone would briefly describe howto read, and write the chip.

Thank you.
 
Hei UT :D

Depending on your software you either get it as one block or an extra file with the ECC.

Could you tell us which type of device you are trying to read and maybe share the dump ?
 
Hahah! Awesome dude!? How are you?? Now my hope is rising.

Well. I've borrowed a few of the "GSD1 Ver.A" dongles, and a TSOP44 type II adapter for my Xeltek burner. From testing some together with friends on AT the best way to read the flash chip is using the "Hard Copy" method. Then the file looks sort of like the dumps in MAME.

Then I've learned that there's a signature which is exclusive for each mem-card, due to the magic gate controller on there, so this signature must be copied and pasted into any new game-file written to the chip I wish to convert.

Just that my burner software has plenty of settings. I'm not sure how to configure it.

Here's the hopefully complete dump of the "GSD1..": http://www.albyhus2.se/_eget/system246/GSD1_TEST2.02.zip

And here's the standard/original settings when selecting the device (K9F6408) in my software for Xeltek SP3000U:

www.albyhus2.se/_eget/system246/setting_standard_Xeltek-SP3000U.jpg


Oops, I forgot to mention my goal, which is to convert one of those GSD dongles into a SC3 (Soul Calibur III). There are two versions dumped already I noticed.
 
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The most straightforward way of doing flashing on those PS2 dongles is move the flash chip to a PS2 memory card and use a modded PS2 to manipulate the flash at a file level. That way you don't need to worry about the ECC data.
 
Thank you both for your valuable advice. This will surely give some turbo to the project.

.. ah, I sold my PS2 years ago. But copy/pasting the signature from the boot.bin should be easy enough.

Thanks alot guys.
 
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