Pr3tty F1y
Student
I'm not actually asking for help this time! I just wanted to share this in case anyone in the future wants to do the same thig.
Panic Street probably isn't in the top tier of desirable conversions for the Super Kaneko Nova System (or, as I will call it from here on out, the Kaneko Super Nova, as that just sounds better
), but it is in my top 3 games for the system (which would also include Puzz Loop and Cyvern).
I've had this Jan Jan Paradise cartridge for probably a year or so, but I just won an auction for $0.99 for an untested Super Nova PCB. I had to fiddle a bit with it (I think that the VEGA chip near the resistor packs next to the JAMMA connector needs reflowed and/or has a loose leg - but after pressing on it long it enough it seems to be sticking for now
) as it was originally black screening.
However, aside from some slightly jittery video (it probably needs recapped and I'm assuming it had some sort of liquid/solvent on it as the region paint on the solder side of the board is completely gone), it works. Unfortunately, it does not work with the Asia region Puzz Loop cart that I picked up regardless of the BIOS (modded or original). Mitchell created some sort of horrible, in-game security verification that fails with "Security Error" then the region of the BIOS in parentheses even when paired with the matching BIOS for the cartridge when used on this board (and a brief googling shows that I'm not alone on this). I'll get back to dealing with that at another time as that Puzz Loop is ROM 4 BOARD is probably a good candidate to become a Sengeki Striker.
Anyway, back to the ROM 2 BOARD from Jan Jan Paradise. I hot air blasted all of the SOP44 surface mounted ROM chips off the board face, cleaned up the pads, burned four MX29L3211MC SOP44 chips and two 27C801 DIP32 chips, got a new 25V 220uF capacitor, and one HiLetgo AMS1117-3.3v buck power converter from my back stock to step down the 5v in current to 3.3v for the MX29L32211MC chips, lifted the opposing corner legs of each of the SOP44 chips, and got to town with some solder paste to resolder the surface mount chips with the hot air station.
After removing the pin header on the buck power converter, I just slipped the long legs of the new capacitor through it (positive on V-in and negative on ground, middle hole on the HiLetgo is the outputted 3.3v), soldered the capacitor to the power converter, and then placed the remainder of the long legs through the holes of the cartridge PCB and soldered it there and then wire nipped the remaining. Then it was just using 30 gauge wire to connect the lifted legs (which I still suck at but it was MUCH easier this time with the thinner wire).
I was amazed how quickly I got through this vs. my tortuous first go at making a Cyvern last year. I guess it is all about practice, practice, practice.
Of course, I was not lucky enough to get it to work the first time. The Super Nova powered on but was in vertical orientation mode and Panic Street, and I believe even Jan Jan Paradise, are horizontal games.
Rather than being smart and looking up information that has been definitely documented here in the Cyvern conversion thread, I just started playing around with the R# jumpers on the rear of the cartridge as that was going to be faster than trying actually verify that right settings. That being said, I can't actually say I have the right setting now, but the cartridge works with out issue, so I'm going to let it roll
After moving one resistor from R3 to R4 (it looks horrible and I think it's resting on a mountain of solder... I'm still really bad with tiny components) and the other resistor 0 ohm resistor (clearly marked with 000, the other one on R3/R4 didn't have any discernible markings that I could read) from R2 to R1, the game booted through the Japanese modified universal BIOS, past the in-game brief RAM/ROM check, and it worked!
Here are the pics for reference:
Panic Street probably isn't in the top tier of desirable conversions for the Super Kaneko Nova System (or, as I will call it from here on out, the Kaneko Super Nova, as that just sounds better
), but it is in my top 3 games for the system (which would also include Puzz Loop and Cyvern).I've had this Jan Jan Paradise cartridge for probably a year or so, but I just won an auction for $0.99 for an untested Super Nova PCB. I had to fiddle a bit with it (I think that the VEGA chip near the resistor packs next to the JAMMA connector needs reflowed and/or has a loose leg - but after pressing on it long it enough it seems to be sticking for now
) as it was originally black screening.However, aside from some slightly jittery video (it probably needs recapped and I'm assuming it had some sort of liquid/solvent on it as the region paint on the solder side of the board is completely gone), it works. Unfortunately, it does not work with the Asia region Puzz Loop cart that I picked up regardless of the BIOS (modded or original). Mitchell created some sort of horrible, in-game security verification that fails with "Security Error" then the region of the BIOS in parentheses even when paired with the matching BIOS for the cartridge when used on this board (and a brief googling shows that I'm not alone on this). I'll get back to dealing with that at another time as that Puzz Loop is ROM 4 BOARD is probably a good candidate to become a Sengeki Striker.
Anyway, back to the ROM 2 BOARD from Jan Jan Paradise. I hot air blasted all of the SOP44 surface mounted ROM chips off the board face, cleaned up the pads, burned four MX29L3211MC SOP44 chips and two 27C801 DIP32 chips, got a new 25V 220uF capacitor, and one HiLetgo AMS1117-3.3v buck power converter from my back stock to step down the 5v in current to 3.3v for the MX29L32211MC chips, lifted the opposing corner legs of each of the SOP44 chips, and got to town with some solder paste to resolder the surface mount chips with the hot air station.
After removing the pin header on the buck power converter, I just slipped the long legs of the new capacitor through it (positive on V-in and negative on ground, middle hole on the HiLetgo is the outputted 3.3v), soldered the capacitor to the power converter, and then placed the remainder of the long legs through the holes of the cartridge PCB and soldered it there and then wire nipped the remaining. Then it was just using 30 gauge wire to connect the lifted legs (which I still suck at but it was MUCH easier this time with the thinner wire).
I was amazed how quickly I got through this vs. my tortuous first go at making a Cyvern last year. I guess it is all about practice, practice, practice.
Of course, I was not lucky enough to get it to work the first time. The Super Nova powered on but was in vertical orientation mode and Panic Street, and I believe even Jan Jan Paradise, are horizontal games.
Rather than being smart and looking up information that has been definitely documented here in the Cyvern conversion thread, I just started playing around with the R# jumpers on the rear of the cartridge as that was going to be faster than trying actually verify that right settings. That being said, I can't actually say I have the right setting now, but the cartridge works with out issue, so I'm going to let it roll
After moving one resistor from R3 to R4 (it looks horrible and I think it's resting on a mountain of solder... I'm still really bad with tiny components) and the other resistor 0 ohm resistor (clearly marked with 000, the other one on R3/R4 didn't have any discernible markings that I could read) from R2 to R1, the game booted through the Japanese modified universal BIOS, past the in-game brief RAM/ROM check, and it worked!
Here are the pics for reference:
Last edited: