Released: NBA Rewind 4 Jam (was: NBA Jam TE hacking.)

[Asure]

Are you upgrading an original NBA? Or another t-unit game?

Thanks for all the work. This is awesome.

I'm going to follow that with a couple questions that show my lack of knowledge.

1. Am I correct in assuming I can just have my original EEPROMs rewritten or do I need to replace those?
2. Is there a list of what versions haven't been dumped yet? If 1 is correct, I don't want to delete a piece of history.
3. Do I need my sound files updated as well?

1. Well, we need to know what are you upgrading.. a JAM To TE? (Most cases you can skip burning a few, and re-use the rest.)
2. What does the cmos/boot screen show, which version / date are you running? (There may be undumped revisions.)
3. Yes.

 

[twistedsymphony]

Am I correct in assuming I can just have my original EEPROMs rewritten or do I need to replace those?

There's a lot to unpack in this little question.
1. EPROMs are not the same as EEPROMs
EPROMs = has a window and requires UV light to erase
EEPROM = electronically erasable in circuit (by controlling the pins). usually a "serial" device rather than a parallel device like an EPROM

2. Your NBA JAM does not have EEPROMs
Your NBA JAM might not even have EPROMs, some boards used Mask ROMs which are NOT erasable.
Mask ROM = typically plastic casing instead of ceramic, no window on top of erasure, usually will have the game code label printed right on the chip instead of a sticker.

2. IF your NBA Jam uses EPROMs instead of Mask ROMs, then yes you can erase them and program the new code on it. However, I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THAT. It's useful to keep the original ROMs untouched so you have something to fall back on that is known working that you can test, not to mention the board is arguably more valuable with the original, unmodified ROMs than without. Also I've found that a lot these old ROMs often fail to properly erase or get reprogrammed, so you may end up erasing them only for them to become junk and have to buy more anyway.

Is there a list of what versions haven't been dumped yet? If 1 is correct, I don't want to delete a piece of history.

yes, MAME: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/midway/midtunit.cpp#L1832

the way to test this is to dump the code from your ROM and then run "romident" in MAME
you can do this on the commandline with MAME:

mame.exe -romident myromfile.bin"

I wrote a drag and drop batch file to streamline it: http://solid-orange.com/1558
or there are online tools: https://romident.coinopflorida.com/

Do I need my sound files updated as well?

Yes