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Simpsons Bowling Flash Drive Available?

lukemorse1

lukemorse1

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Ive got a Simpsons Bowling that wont boot because it comes up with "CDR Bad" and is constantly rebooting due to it.
Assuming it is either the disk (which is a copied one and possibly encrypted), the drive (which is an old HP replacement it seems) or a problem with both. Either way, this isnt going to work without a functioning drive.

Wondering is there is a flash drive solution to getting this up and running again. Very interested in finding a replacement for this board ?(
 
i dont think there is a cd emulator available with an atapi connector - i looked a couple of years ago.
there are a few with usb outputs - but that's pretty useless for anything other than booting install images on a pc.
 
stj said:
i dont think there is a cd emulator available with an atapi connector - i looked a couple of years ago.
there are a few with usb outputs - but that's pretty useless for anything other than booting install images on a pc.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

I was searching the net and saw there was a SCSI2SD set up someone had made. Not sure if it is actual or not but if it works, Id love to go that route. The drive I have Im not even sure if it works or not. There are 3 jumpers on the cd drive itself and it seems a bit strange as one pair of Jumpers is Ide2 on, Id4 on, and then a bridged jumper for term on/off and prv alw but I have no idea what the original drive is nor the jumper settings.

The disk I had has 1 scratch on the top so I tried to make another one using chdman. I was able to burn a disk (once again not sure if it works or not) but when the board is powered up and it does the ram/rom check the disk is spinning.

Once the words Media Check come up, the disk stops for about 2 seconds, then starts up and sounds like it is reading but soon after I get a CDR Error and Reboot (Consistantly)

If I knew that the disk was ok, I would like to find a replacement CD drive and the correct jumpers but as of now, not sure what is good and what isnt.
 
that sounds promising, but it sounds like luke needs a scsi version.

@luke, try cleaning the laser lense with some IPA and a cotton but.
optical drives drag in dust when the disc spins.
 
@stj

Yeah, Ive stripped down the drive, regreased the reails, cleaned the lens, removed the ribbon cable to the laser mech and cleaned that, checked each pin on the connecting cables for continuity but still, no go.…… :(
 
stj said:
is it a scsi drive? what's the model no?
Click to expand...
yes, its a SCSI drive. looking at the bottom of the drive, Its a:

Toshiba CD-ROM DRIVE but the label is torn off so not sure of anything else
 
does anyone else have this game with a different drive?
Drive number or pictures of jumper settings on the drive would be great
 
the issue with drives may be block-size.
i'v not dealt with this for a long time, but when i worked with SGI workstations we had issues with some scsi drives.
it came down to the packetransfer size - very old stuff used 512bytes and newer stuff was 2k i think.

the good news is that plextor and pioneer drives - atleast the ones we tried, had a jumper to select the size.

try to find a plextor TS-40PXi
aka the 40MAX.

they show up on ebay a lot from server rooms where they used them for o.s. installs - they are usually hardly used.
 
The SCSI2SD V5.0b (the small red one) works great with Simpsons Bowling as a CD drive substitute. However, I never managed to get it working with the V5.1 SCIS2SD, no matter what I tried.

The flash ROM daughterboard is VERY unreliable in my experience; I've had several which reported bad flash ROMs during boot. I never got round to figuring out if the flash was actually bad or if it was the CPLDs that were at fault.
 
Phil Bennett said:
The SCSI2SD V5.0b (the small red one) works great with Simpsons Bowling as a CD drive substitute. However, I never managed to get it working with the V5.1 SCIS2SD, no matter what I tried.

The flash ROM daughterboard is VERY unreliable in my experience; I've had several which reported bad flash ROMs during boot. I never got round to figuring out if the flash was actually bad or if it was the CPLDs that were at fault.
Click to expand...
Phil Bennett said:
The SCSI2SD V5.0b (the small red one) works great with Simpsons Bowling as a CD drive substitute. However, I never managed to get it working with the V5.1 SCIS2SD, no matter what I tried.


Hey Phil.


That is some great news. Do you know where to buy The SCSI2SD V5.0b?


Id really like to pick one up for sure
Click to expand...
 
Konami must have also used ATAPI (or similar) for their m2 system but unlike Simpsons Bowling, the game data never stores on a flash device. It will have to constantly load data from the cd. Given in an arcade environment with the machine on at least eight continuous hours, it will put quite some strain on the cd drive greatly reducing the lifespan (one major sign is the increased load times compared to factory load times).

I'm going to keep a lookout for this because I intend to ditch the cd drive on my Total Vice for a more reliable CF.
 
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