Weird MD pirate cart, Saddam/Bush - Intel flash memory?

I think that TmEE is the only person to have mod his megadrive to enable/disable the TMSS.
Best way is to find a first generation megadrive 1 (1600-XX)

 

http://emu-russia.net/ru/roms/gen/0-Z/full/Iraq-War-2003/
Click on game name to download...

 

I must find my notes again but this is not a region-lock issue neither a BIOS protection issue.

TMSS (see patent here and here) is an internal register that games must write with "SEGA" string in order to "unlock" the VDP: if a different value is written in this register (which this game and a few others, all apparently made using TomSoft devkit, are doing for an unknown reason), any access to the VDP will lock the console.

I think TmEE's mod only bypass the BIOS: TMSS and BIOS are however two independant things (I even think that some models without BIOS have that TMSS thing). I don't know if it's possible to catch unwanted writes to the TMSS register, it would probably require some complex comparator logic.

 

yeap, I only bypass TMSS screen, but the VDP write will still have to be done... I did make a patcher at some point that will put the TMSS write into some games that normally lack it but it won't work on games that do not have regular MD header but these pirate carts are generally full of empty space so it should not be difficult to put the write code elsewhere.

 

That reminds me a handheld LCD with Bin Laden destroying the Twin Towers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGcE7IudRKE

 

For anyone else who can't bear listing to that arsehole's hyperactive voice there's a Wikipedia article here.

 

Yep, that guy is so anoying. It's as if he's on LSD or something :lol:

 

Oh my God! There's even a Wikipedia entry for this game? Now I have seen everything.

 

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but this was really the only discussion Google found about this.

I came across a copy of A Bug's Life for MD and it's made the exact same way,with a slightly different PCB schematic. That one is PCB model MD-03B and has a date of 08.06.10 stamped on it. How is flash memory somehow cheaper than using globtops? If PCB fiber is so expensive that they'd even try to cut that out, I don't see why they'd invest in using that type of memory.

 

I had a lot of pirates inckuding bugs life that used flash memory. The do look nicer than globtops but I have a feeling that the flash chips are stolen since they had all been sanded down to remove the code numbers.

Yakumo

 

Flash chips are also removable and erasable.

China is the resting place of a lot of old tech - you will find its probably cheaper to pull chips out of hardware going in a landfill than it is to make something new (even globtops)

 

It's now common to see flash chip like that in pirate cart. At least for the famicom it is common (FFVII, FFIV and newer multicart). I actually have about 3 right that use TSOP flash chip. Also, If I were you I would try the cart on a clone system. Sometime pirate develop their original game on clone hardware and don't bother testing on genuine system and it can lead to some problem as clone are not accurate at all and might be more forgiving to the hardware/circuit used in the cart.

 

The newest Genesis/Mega Drive release "Star Odyssey" from Super Fighter Team uses the same type of Intel flash memory that is used in these pirate cartridges.

The PCB and the rest of the components look to be high quality; it even uses a battery holder instead of a soldered in battery, but I was surprised to find it didn't use a regular ROM chip (or a globtop).

 

I also wonder if the intel memory isn't either used or pirated. when I was in Singapore and/or Malaysia, there was lots of shops selling both in electronics stores. Those electromalls have everything from any recordable media you can think of, to digital camera parts, ram, fake nds games..etc. Funny thing was is that they were selling the Iphone 9:lol:. Basically a squished mini version of the 3gs that can accept 2 sim cards.

 

Yeah, I was sad to discover this after finding the game at a flea market years ago. Luckily, I now have the proper set up to get it up and working.

Sure it's nothing incredible, but it is quite cool if you're into that sort of cheesy bizarre type of game.

Pretty sure most pirate game collectors share a bit of that same sentiment over these games. Plus the cartridge cover just cries :033:

 

That reminds me, I need to try this game on the EverDrive with the non-TMSS Model 1 I recently picked up. It definitely doesn't work on my TMSS Genesis consoles, just as Eke said, and I don't think anyone's patched it yet to remedy that (?).

 

I have owned about 3 - 4 carts only one worked :lol:

 

It's probably second hand - the Intel logo is the old one with the dropped "e" and those J5 parts are not in current production. I am pretty sure they are all non-RoHS compliant, too. This also means that it's unlikely to be fake - they tend to copy new parts.

The Hitachi RAM chip on the board looks to be second hand, too - it's got a '95 date code and those little SRAMS are not the sort of things that would be lying around NOS for 15 years.

 

Huh, I wasn't able to get this to work on the EverDrive on a non-TMSS Model 1 either. Has anyone been able to run it on the ED? If so, what OS are you using?

Normally I'd assume it was a copy protection hardware thing or a bad ROM, but I'm able to get the ROM to load in Generator (of all things!).

 

If you're talking about Iraq War, it will work on an ED.

Most of the games I've ran into that used the Tomsoft SDK will work fine on a TMSS console as long as you're either using a Japanese machine or have a region switch to set your console to Japanese mode. This game, Death Caliber, Deer Hunter, and a few more worked in this manner.

I know it makes no sense... but it works.