The Lord of King MMC3?

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Fisher
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The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

Recently I bought a pirate version of this game.
It didn't work on one of my clones.
I opened it and found a 9102 mapper IC wich is an MMC3 clone.
AFAIK this is the Japanese version of Astyanax, and should be a mapper 18 game.
Is it a known bootleg?
Should I dump it to try to understand why it won't boot on my clone?
Thanks in advance.

Edit.: Used the proper name of the game and clarified some points.
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comp
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20190313_153526.jpg
zxbdragon
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by zxbdragon »

try dump
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Fisher
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

zxbdragon wrote:try dump
OK. I'll try that tomorrow with TapeDump.

An interesting thing I discovered is that the game boots fine with a GameGenie.
I tested the adapter with other games and they ran fine. So it's not a connection problem.

I also tried to add a delay circuit on the mapper M2 line without success.
I used this citcuit:

Code: Select all

Console's M2 --+--1k----> mapper
               |
              33pf
               |
              GND
I also tried to plug the capacitor on the other side of the resistor with the same results.
Any ideas?
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Fisher
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

Dumped!
I couldn't dump with TapeDump, because I had trouble with my audio cables.
So, I did it the old way!

Code: Select all

32	83173b10
33	7a2dcf20
lk.nes	7c652099
Interestingly, the CHR ROM's CRC32 is the same as the original japanese game, according to BootGod's site.

Worked fine on Nestopia 1.45 after I added the proper header.
Here is the IPS:
Lord.ips
Apply to The lord of King
CRC32: af267213
(391 Bytes) Downloaded 262 times
Apply to The lord of King CRC32: af267213

Any ideas why it only works with the GameGenie?
I'm willing to try to substitute the 74LS32, because the game couldn't boot without a CHR ROM.
If that's the problem, maybe the CHR is not being enabled at power on.
Does it make any sense??
Thanks in advance.
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krzysiobal
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by krzysiobal »

Any ideas why it only works with the GameGenie?
Clean cartridge connector.
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Fisher
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

krzysiobal wrote: Clean cartridge connector.
I already tried that with the cartridge and the adapter, using an eraser.
I tried other games with the adapter to make sure it was fine.
That's why I started something more "radical'.

This makes me think... could this clone have some timing problems?
It's made of discrete chips (UA6547 & UA6548) and it's the 3rd game that fails on it.
I think only a proper analisis with a good osciloscope or logic analyser can tell.
zxbdragon
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by zxbdragon »

this version Lord of King, Bug version.
1.Vertical levels Graphics fault。
2.Some bosses, lost weakness
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krzysiobal
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by krzysiobal »

To which pins does this capacitor connect underneath mapper chip?
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Fisher
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

krzysiobal wrote:To which pins does this capacitor connect underneath mapper chip?
It's PPU-A12 (pin 55) and GND.
I tried to play without it and got the status window very jumpy, going as far as the middle of the screen.
zxbdragon wrote:this version Lord of King, Bug version.
1.Vertical levels Graphics fault。
2.Some bosses, lost weakness
Yeah, I could only finish it by cheating.
I had to use magic to be able to kill at least 2 bosses, including the last one.
Also, in the tower when I was fighting the 1st boss my character got stuck after I used the magic and I had to reset.

Maybe the best thing to do with this is to make a repro of Astyanax, so the bugs get "fixed".
Probably that's why it's not widespread.
Was this hack even known?
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Fisher
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

So, since I'm planning to do a repro of the same game, why not some p0rn??
Component.png
Solder.png
I think no surprises will be found here, did it mostly for fun. :-D
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Ben Boldt
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Ben Boldt »

Fisher wrote:
zxbdragon wrote:try dump
OK. I'll try that tomorrow with TapeDump.

An interesting thing I discovered is that the game boots fine with a GameGenie.
I tested the adapter with other games and they ran fine. So it's not a connection problem.

I also tried to add a delay circuit on the mapper M2 line without success.
I used this citcuit:

Code: Select all

Console's M2 --+--1k----> mapper
               |
              33pf
               |
              GND
I also tried to plug the capacitor on the other side of the resistor with the same results.
Any ideas?
Hi Fisher, you have your low pass filter backwards, it should be like this:

Code: Select all

Console's M2 ---1k--+--> mapper
                    |
                   33pf
                    |
                   GND
Or in general:

Code: Select all

Whatever generates the signal -/\/\/-+--> wherever the signal goes to
                                     |
                                     =
                                     |
                                    GND
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krzysiobal
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by krzysiobal »

I think no surprises will be found here, did it mostly for fun.
Really? Then what about the MMC3 chip with yet different pinout? You can add it to your collection at http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/MMC3_pinout

Mirroring configuration on this board is done by OR gate

Code: Select all

CIRAM_A10 = OR(PPU_A10, PPU_A11)
resulting in quite weird nametable configuration:
$2000: VRAM Page 0
$2400: VRAM Page 1
$2800: VRAM Page 1
$2C00: VRAM Page 1

Image

BTW. What unpopulated IC5 chip could be? 74*04?
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Fisher
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Re: The Lord of King MMC3?

Post by Fisher »

Ben Boldt wrote:Hi Fisher, you have your low pass filter backwards
Thank you. I always had doubts on how this should be done correctly. :-)
I did both ways with similar results.
I even tried a diode and resistor, similar to that famous Famicom's schematics WRAM /CE, and it didn't boot on the clone either.
I suspect it's something related to CHR ROM timing, but I can be wrong, of course.
krzysiobal wrote: Really? Then what about the MMC3 chip with different pinout?
That's great! :-D
I was confusing this IC with the 9112. :oops:

That mirroring configuration explains why it's not booting on my test board.
Could some timing oddity be causing the bosses' bug?
I was trying to change the LS part for an HC part to see if anything would change.
Unfortunately I only found an F part. Would this part have better/faster timing?
I'll give it a shot, since I'll probably be able to boot it on the test board now.

Thanks guys! I'll post the results later.

Edit: clarified a little about the delay circuit.
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