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Reverse engineering 161 in 1 cartridge to change Rom games

Hey @Vortex, thanks for your great work!

I'm still getting through everything, but I'm getting closer every day to putting together my own multicart.

When I flash Xeno Crisis on the multicart, do I use 32MB VROM or the 16MB VROM version?
 
I flashed 16. I didn’t even know there were 32 :) however 32 should work too
 
Vortex said:
I'm DONE!

Two sets of cartridges containing all the official SNK games, several bootlegs, some "warez" and one utility. 157 in total.
The PCB's was completely reverse engineered, PCB's for the programmers were developed, firmware for the programmers was written, all flash memory modules were reprogrammed, a program was developed for compiling sets of games and creating index files on verilog. Verilog designs were re-developed from scratch for all cartridge CPLDs.

Credits goes to:
@Butter Meister - for the idea of RE
@rockbottom - for RE flash chip
@iq_132 - for help with games patches / decryption
furrtek - for RE of Neo Geo chips and verilog implementatrion.
everyone who helped in the development of the project.

All development results were published on my github: Link
Feel free to use them, just be sure to credit all authors.
I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Enjoy!


Click to expand...
So is there any kind of step by step to get this done?

I looked at the git link and I sadly cant make heads or tails of it. If there is a step by step with what tools, hardware and applications are needed, it would be greatly helpful.
 
HornheaDD said:
So is there any kind of step by step to get this done?

I looked at the git link and I sadly cant make heads or tails of it. If there is a step by step with what tools, hardware and applications are needed, it would be greatly helpful.
Click to expand...
Here are my cliff notes from doing a mvs cart that has dip style C/V rom daughter boards

This requires borderline advanced solder/desolder skills/tools. If this is not you, you will just break your cart.

  • Get 1 or more 161in1 V3 carts
  • Get the STM dev board, one that has an LCD screen
  • Get the dumper PCBs manufactured (Dumpers/Gerbers/)
  • Get 2.54mm dual row male+female headers
    • these will be used for connecting the STM dev board to the dumper boards
  • Get 1.27mm dual row female headers
    • You will want enough for 8 2x22 headers total (2x for the F0095H0 dumper board, 6x for the cart)
    • I would just get 2x50 and cut them down
  • Get a USB Blaster or something that can program the CLPDs

  • Populate the Compiler/Games/ dirs per the readme.txt in (Compiler/Games/)
  • Edit Compiler/bin/games.txt to contain the list of games to be included in the cart
  • Run Compiler/bin/_run.bat, this will create
    • Compiler/bin/ROM/
    • Complier/bin/Verilog/
    • Not all games are supported. The compiler will error out if you have one in your list
  • Copy each Compiler/bin/Verilog/ .inc into the correct CPLD/MVS/*/rtl/ folder
  • Use Quartus 13.0sp1 to compile/program the CLPDs with the corresponding CLPD/MVS/*/ projects

  • Install the 2.54 female headers into the STM board pointing down
  • Install the 2.54 male headers into the dumpers boards pointing up
  • Install the 1.27mm female headers into the F0095H0 dumper board
    • Important these need to be angled inward slightly because the spacing between the rows on the dumper board is off
  • Program Dumpers/Firmware/bin/cart.bin onto the STM dev board
  • Desolder all the flash chips from the carts
    • for C/V desolder the daughter board not the actual flash chip
  • Install the 1.27mm female headers into the cart at the C/V flash header locations
  • Put/Solder the flash chips onto the dumper boards and program them with the corresponding Compiles/bin/ROM/ files
    • Important: F0095H0 comes on a daughter board, when installed into the dumper board the F0095H0 chip should be facing inward, under the STM dev board.
  • Reinstall the flash chips into the cart
  • Cross fingers it works cause you just spent many many hours doing all that
 
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ack said:
Here are my cliff notes from doing a mvs cart that has dip style C/V rom daughter boards

This requires borderline advanced solder/desolder skills/tools. If this is not you, you will just break your cart.

  • Get 1 or more 161in1 V3 carts
  • Get the STM dev board, one that has an LCD screen
  • Get the dumper PCBs manufactured (Dumpers/Gerbers/)
  • Get 2.54mm dual row male+female headers
    • these will be used for connecting the STM dev board to the dumper boards
  • Get 1.27mm dual row female headers
    • You will want enough for 8 2x22 headers total (2x for the F0095H0 dumper board, 6x for the cart)
    • I would just get 2x50 and cut them down
  • Get a USB Blaster or something that can program the CLPDs

  • Populate the Compiler/Games/ dirs per the readme.txt in (Compiler/Games/)
  • Edit Compiler/bin/games.txt to contain the list of games to be included in the cart
  • Run Compiler/bin/_run.bat, this will create
    • Compiler/bin/ROM/
    • Complier/bin/Verilog/
    • Not all games are supported. The compiler will error out if you have in your list
  • Copy each Compiler/bin/Verilog/ .inc into the correct CPLD/MVS/*/rtl/ folder
  • Use Quartus 13.0sp1 to compile/program the CLPDs with the corresponding CLPD/MVS/*/ projects

  • Install the 2.54 female headers into the STM board pointing down
  • Install the 2.54 male headers into the dumpers boards pointing up
  • Install the 1.27mm female headers into the F0095H0 dumper board
    • Important these need to be angled inward slightly because the spacing between the rows on the dumper board is off
  • Program Dumpers/Firmware/bin/cart.bin onto the STM dev board
  • Desolder all the flash chips from the carts
    • for C/V desolder the daughter board not the actual flash chip
  • Install the 1.27mm female headers into the cart at the C/V flash header locations
  • Put/Solder the flash chips onto the dumper boards and program them with the corresponding Compiles/bin/ROM/ files
    • Important: F0095H0 comes on a daughter board, when installed into the dumper board the F0095H0 chip should be facing inward, under the STM dev board.
  • Reinstall the flash chips into the cart
  • Cross fingers it works cause you just spent many many hours doing all that
Click to expand...
Damn. Yeah thats not something I will be able to do. At least not the soldering part.

I was really hoping this could be used to send my carts somewhere to get this done, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Ah well.
 
Is there a tool that converts roms to darksoft format? Have searched but can't seem to find anything. Can we just combine the files with a hex editor end to end?

Vortex were you able to get MOTW non boot or proto to boot? Those versions don't have the endings, and other small changes are there. Found an old neoragex 5.2a version of the rom that appears to be a decrypted and patched final version. Would there be a way to test on an emulator the compiled games that you can think of?

Edit: Sounds like the mister core supports darksoft rom format, and also doesn't support encryption. Seems like a good platform to test some of these old neoragex, sets to see if they will run correctly on real hardware. If someone has a setup and is willing to test, feel free to Pm me.

Edit: I guess Mister doesn't use the FPGA files like Darksoft carts do. Probably best to test with a Darksoft Multi SD cart if someone has one like ack suggested to me originally.

​

 
Last edited:
darknezz19 said:
Is there a tool that converts roms to darksoft format? Have searched but can't seem to find anything. Can we just combine the files with a hex editor end to end?

Vortex were you able to get MOTW non boot or proto to boot? Those versions don't have the endings, and other small changes are there. Found an old neoragex 5.2a version of the rom that appears to be a decrypted and patched final version. Would there be a way to test on an emulator the compiled games that you can think of?
Click to expand...
https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/how-to-convert-files-to-work-with-neogeo-multi.24393/
 
The compiler gives me an error:

Error: bankswitching mode 4 in garou is not supported!

What am I supposed to do?

EDIT: The bootleg version seems to work fine. But there's another error: "Error: up to 8 pbanks is supported"
 
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I may just be overly tired, but can someone link the PCB files? Not finding them...
 
Hi, sorry is my first post.

Well, i test many neogeo mame roms with a tool to convert the games to use in the proyect.
I use this tool to convert a zip rom to a mister-darksoft compatible rom,
https://github.com/aluzed/MiSTer-Neogeo-Rom-Decrypter/tree/master

For a entire Neogeo romset i recomend the archive.org website and the mister-neogeo-pack, include bootlegs, normal roms, and HBMAME roms
Also i check almost neogeo romset, on mvs compilation and some games have errors.
I use some games (bootleg, converted with aluzed program) of mame 258 romset.

bankswitching:
Error: bankswitching mode 4 in garou is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 5 in garouh is not supported!
Error: graphics mode 6 in matrim is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 2 in svc is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 7 in kof2000 is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 2 in kof2003 is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 3 in kof99 is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 6 in mslug3 is not supported!
Error: graphics mode 5 in mslug4 is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 2 in mslug5 is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 3 in kof99e is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 3 in kof99h is not supported!
Error: bankswitching mode 3 in kof99k is not supported!

Size Error:
Error: nitd mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: pnyaa mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: sengoku3 mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: samsh5sp mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: samsho5 mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
garoubl mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: kof2003h mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: mslug3a mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: mslug3b6 mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: mslug3h mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: mslug5h mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: nitdbl mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: pnyaaa mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000
Error: sengoku3a mrom size 0x0000000000080000 bigger than 0x00040000

This roms is working on VTXCart.exe, compile, mame 258 romset:
garoub
matrimb
svcpcb
teot
xenocrisis
garoup
svcplus
kof99p
garouh
garouha
garoup
kof2000n
kof99ka
kof99p
matrimbl
mslug4h
mslug5b
samsho5b

I need to test some games, but is so hard to find some bootleg i so hard to find per example (kof2000b), please Vortex, can you put the romset version of each rom that the VTXCart.exe support.
 
I Pm'd you pluger. The set for neoragex ver 5.2a might be better suited. The garou in that set looks like the final version and not a proto with missing endings. Put it in the garoub folder and it compiles.

Noticed some M1 roms are indeed larger than 256KB. Mslug3 for example is 512KB. If you open it in a hex editor, everything after x00032BF0 is empty data. Except for the last 3 lines. on this one try to copy those last 3 lines and paste them so they end at 0x0003FFF0. Then split it into 2 256KB files and use the first one.

KOF2k3 m1, the first 128KB are unique, then the next 3 sets of 128KB are mirrored. This one just split the m1 into 2 256KB files and use the first one.

I don't know if it's going to run on real hardware, we need someone with a darksoft multi to test these things.

Edit: Guess that's not going to work on KOF2k3, started playing all weird in neoragex after modifying the m1 rom unfortunately. mslug3 seemed to work though.

Edit: I guess I didn't do it right the first time on KOF2k3, it's working as well in neoragex with the m1 split into a 256K and using the first half.
 
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Thanks again! Would you mind to share your "games.txt"-Files for the whole ROM-Set und two Cartridges? Like in your videos?
 
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