Super Pro Fighter Q - help!

Hi All

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask questions about this? If not - can someone point me in the right direction?..

Recently I've got my mitts on a Super Pro Fighter Q. The floppy drive is duff and just makes a loud whizzing noise when any disk is inserted to it. Firstly is there anywhere I can get a replacement drive as it looks to be unique with the ribbon cable coming directly out of it?

Also more importantly I'm really struggling to figure out how to use the system with my SNES, Windows XP machine and parallel to parallel cable. I've downloaded UCON64 as from what little i can find out on the web - this is what i need to use to load roms from my machine onto the Super Pro to play on the SNES. I've figured out I need to load the parallel port driver/address and there is something about DAT files I need to use. I'm not sure which rom file format it supports as from memory SNES roms come in .src (or similar) format. I have gone through the FAQ of DCON64 a few times, but this is new territory for me and I could really use a few pointers...

As you may have guessed I'm pretty much a complete newbie - but I have used other backup utils on different consoles before. However admittedly they all had pretty GUI for me to use and it seemed alot easier!

Any help would be very gratefully received!

Cheers

 

You can replace the drive with any PC floppy.

Configuring the parallel port driver will depend on your system. If the port is on your motherboard you probably don't need to do anything. It will choose the default parallel port driver and address (0x378).

To send a ROM type "ucon64 -xfig game.smc" (it can be in any format, if it's not Pro Fighter format it will try to convert it on the fly.)

 

thanks for the reply

Ok well it looked alot more promising with one rom it had a progress bar and looked like it loaded the rom without any errors! But i think the rom was too big at 32MB to launch as nothing happened after that....
I've taken some pictures of what i have on screen etc but cant upload them here as its asking for a URL to attach them too OH:

I have a choice of 'run file' - which just says insert disk
'gold finger' & 'realtime save'
gone into all 3 without success...
Plus a load of memory info

It seems the rest of my smc roms wont load as it has 'no header' and i 'need to convert to a FIG compatible format'...

 

Also just because it has a parallel port in the back doesn't mean the necessary upgrade is present. You should replace the floppy.

To convert ROMs with uCON64: "ucon64 -fig game.smc".

 

oh i see - i thought you could launch roms via the parallel port as standard. Is the upgrade something i could do?...

The floppy ide/ribbon cable is hard wired into the floppy device and the other end doesnt have a 'plug' like with PC IDE cables, just the wires tips which you lock into the mobo. A pic would explain it better. But trust me its not a standard floppy drive. I would love to replace it though and actually use it. I could mail you a pic?

the fig conversion worked a treat - but i cant see how to launch the game. Maybe like you say the device needs the upgrade? So close yet so far...

 

You would need to buy a couple parts, one of them is custom though and needs to be programmed. The only person around that can program this part is Tomy at Tototek because it's copy protected. You may not even need to, that's just in the case your SPFQ doesn't have the chips populated (a lot of them don't even though they have the connector).

Upload pics to Imageshack and link them here. I'm still not sure what you're describing. Even if the ribbon is hardwired to the drive, as long as there's a male IDC socket on the PCB, you can use a standard drive and ribbon.

To launch a game you need a working floppy, from there you just "Run file" and select the game you converted or better yet, backup your own games.

 

Thanks for all your help so far Calpis!

Here you go - let me know what you think

 

That's because it's a slimline drive, just remove the adapter board and connect a normal floppy. BTW, are you using a power supply? That could be the problem, you need one for the floppy. It should be 9-12V and the center polarity should be negative, an original model Mega Drive supply is suitable.

 

ahh ok got it - removed the board and attached a regular floppy + data cable. Got a megadrive power supply too.
however i've got no idea what to do what you've asked with it...

I did fire it all up with the new floppy using the power cable by a PC sitting right next to it. But it didnt even search/light up when i hit run file. Is this because the Super Fighter Pro needs to control both the power and the data, rather than just the data?

forgive me for asking - but this is all new to me!

 

You're trying to power the floppy with a PC? That should work. The PF doesn't control the floppy's power so that's not an issue, the power comes directly from the power supply through a regulator. The other floppy lit up right? If so, did you use a power supply? Some Pro Fighters require a power supply, on some it's optional to assist the console.

 

As purely a test i was trying to use a PCs power to power up the floppy drive yes. But it didnt work.

The original (faulty) floppy did light up yes - but only that one ribbon was attached. If you look back at the pictures there is a yellow wire that connects from the slimline connection board to the main board - maybe this is where is was getting its power from?..

 

Yeah, the +5V came through the wire, GND through the ribbon. If the PC supply isn't working, I'd guess the floppy drive is bad. Did you try reversing the floppy ribbon?

 

ok so now the yellow wire has come loose so i cant get the old slimline drive to even power up. but i could go down the road of buying that type of slimline drive? or is it rare old-skool kind?..

but IF i replace the floppy drive to a standard drive the yellow wire will be redundant anyway - right?..

I've tried 2 new standard floppys now, no joy. I'm going to grab another ribbon cable too and try that. I'm matching the red line on the ribbon cable to the 1 or 2 labelled on the that side of the port where the ribbon connects (if that makes sense)
I just cant seem to get any darn power from the floppy drive whatsoever. I'm so close and its driving me nuts!

 

Don't bother finding another slimline, typically Pro Fighters don't come with them anyway. If you put in a standard floppy you will need to find a 4-pin to 2-pin adapter to connect the floppy's power to the PCB header. Because of that adapter thing the header might not even be there so you'd have to solder one or just solder a couple wires directly to the floppy.

 

you mean my slimline adapter or the 4>2 adapter?
can you give me a tech name for this 4>2 adapter so i can search on ebay?

what do you mean by header? is this the tech name for the power board on the unit?

cheers

 

Header is just the name for male pins that connect to a female ribbon/other things. Because the Pro Fighter had a slimline adapter, it doesn't need a header/jack/molex connector for a full size floppy so I'm not sure if yours has one. Normally there's a 2-pin white connector near the floppy header (34 male IDC pins) to which a 2-pin to 4-pin cable is attached. The other end goes onto the floppy's power connector.

 

I have the same device but it's branded as 'Turbo Fighter 32M D.S.P. & CD ROM'. There's a little silver badge next to the 'Turbo Fighter' logo that says 'FMC'. I run it through a Datel cartridge converter to get it to work on an unmodified PAL SNES (but you then have to balance the weight somehow!).

The floppy definitely needs around 9 to 12v (centre negative polarity), otherwise it doesn't run and the interface reports a read error. I've never tried intefacing the parallel port with a PC, but it says 'CD ROM' version so maybe the parts are inside it. Thinking about selling it soon as it doesn't get a lot of use nowadays:

 

sorry for the delay - i've been away

ok heres the board without the slimline board attached and shows the header underneath. dont think i can see that 2-pin white connector though..

 

Hi, basically I used the little 'A/V in' socket on the back of the PSone screen, which is a 4-pole 3.5mm A/V jack: http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/camcorder-3xphono.html
The LCD screen is powered on as soon as it senses the video signal (the PSone console itself remains powered off).

OK, I'll PM you when I come round to selling it. Not sure how much it's worth but it's in good condition and has never been opened up (the little 'Void' stickers are still in place).