Tengai Makyou Zero Reproduction

Discussion in 'Modding and Hacking - Consoles and Electronics' started by jaskamakkara, Feb 15, 2018.

  1. jaskamakkara

    jaskamakkara Tinkering in the dark

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    Hi guys,

    I have a couple of copies of Tengai Makyou Zero lying around and, since there was the releatively recent translation release, I am interested in making them into English versions. From what I understand of the patch, this translation works a little differently than usual - is that correct? Or was that something to do with playing it in an emulator (since it uses the SPC7110)? I remember reading something about an xml file...

    Anyway, is there any good info on how this repro can be made? I would assume that both the Mask ROMs need swapping, U2 is proabably compatible with the 27c322 with an adapter similar to the ones from @TheRealPhoenix , I wonder if there is a 5V (E)EPROM that is compatible with the smaller U1 ROM...
     
  2. Mugi

    Mugi Site Supporter 2013,2014,2015

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    i would assume the best way to get to that is to ask DDStrans who's responsible for hacking it and as far as i know, produced a physical cart
    to test the translation on real hardware.
    I dont really know how to reach him personally, but I'm working with Tom (the translator of TMZ) on another translation project, im sure he can point you in the right direction. His twitter is https://twitter.com/RetroTranslator

    you can see him talking about a reproduction cart here: https://twitter.com/RetroTranslator/status/953313417212735488

    needless to say, if you manage to get a spare done, which you're willing to part with, let me know :p
     
    jaskamakkara likes this.
  3. TheRealPhoenix

    TheRealPhoenix Spoken Language: French & English

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    I'm in the middle of moving in my new house, so I cannot focus properly on this until the end of april.

    But I'm currently looking for an adapter for Far Est of Eden Zero.
    However this by far the most complicated repro I've ever seen, due to the fact the translation is way bigger than the original cart.

    The original game use a 8Mbit maskrom (1Mo) for the "code" and a 32Mbits one for the "data" (4Mo).
    The translation adds 1Mo for the code, and 1Mo for the data at the end of the file.
    So the 8Mbits maskrom has to be replace by a 16Mbits one, and the 32Mbits, well, either by a 64Mbits one or two 32Mbits plus a chip to handle them.
    Because you'll need to access to those new memory ranges that the SPC7110 is not supposed to handle, you'll need a chip to handle /OE on the new eproms the jumps on the new memory ranges for "code" and "data", and a chip for the jumps between the eeproms when going on those new ranges.

    I've seen bad quality pictures of an actual repro, and even I can see the chips used, the wiring is done under a lot of glue and I'm still missing some infos.

    The final product I have in my head will be more like a second PCB nearly as the same size than original cart, because there'll be lot of things to fit Inside (especially if I want two 27C322 for a +5V design).
    Or design a brand new PCB and cannibalize a SPC7110.

    But right now all my stuff is packed and I can only try to make scematics.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018
  4. jaskamakkara

    jaskamakkara Tinkering in the dark

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    Nice one, thanks for the info! Keep us all updated on any progress :) I'll have a look at it myself and see if I can come up with something.
     
  5. jaskamakkara

    jaskamakkara Tinkering in the dark

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    Hi, quick question about this:

    I was looking into the SPC7110 here. From the pinout it seems that the highest address line connected is A21. This line is connected from the SNES to the SPC7110, and also from the SPC7110 to the U2 Mask ROM (at least on the "type 1" board that TMZ uses). The U2 Mask ROM is a word-wide device, meaning that if the original ROM was 32Mb then the device is arranged as 2M x16 words. If only 2M address are required then A20 will be the highest functioning address for ROM, since 2^20 is 1M (highest address switches chunks half the total ROM size). Since A21 seems to be connected then we can go to 64Mb without needing any extra decoders, right? We only need to select between 2 M27c322 (since I don't know of any 64Mb x16 5V PROMs), and we can do that with a 139 and the A21 line switching between them. I only ask since you mentioned something about hardware needed to handle addresses that the SPC7110 can't handle, but it seems to me that the SPC7110 is set up to deal with 64Mb ROMs already. Do I have this wrong?

    As for replacing U1, this will be tricky since the existing ROM only has addresses up to A19 (so max size 8Mb, since this chip is byte-wide), so what would be involved in allowing the SPC7110 to communicate with the upper 8Mb of the new 16Mb PROM that would go in it's place? (Something like a M29f016 on an adapter board here I reckon) I'm guessing that we need to tap into the A20 line somewhere else on the board and use another 139 (or the other decoder on the same 139 as above) to decode which half of the program ROM we are looking at. Is this correct?

    Thanks for any help.
     
  6. TheRealPhoenix

    TheRealPhoenix Spoken Language: French & English

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    The main problem is not how to switch inside the same eprom, but between two different eprom at memory range not supposed to exist.

    From the pics I saw, the repro used :

    - a 29F016 (16Mbits) for Maskrom U1 ("code" for the SPC),
    - a M29W640FT (64Mbits 3.3V) for Maskrom U2 (data)
    - what I supposed is a level-shifting, like a LVC164245, but 1° the pinout is not matching the M29W640FT, and 2° it's a TSOP48 chip so if it's a transceiver, only half of the outputs from the eprom are converted (A0 to A21 I supposed),
    - I guess a ISL84544 (more likely for handling the 64Mbits chips similar as Mario RPG Armageddon repro apparently).
    - a 74HC32D (for the 64Mbits) and a 74HC00 (for the 29F016) somehow linked to each other (hard to tell Under the glue),
    - a 3.3V voltreg

    The RTC chip is pushed on the back for leaving room for the 64Mbits adapter

    As I said, still missing info and I couldn't precisely identify some wiring.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2018
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