Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

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NewRisingSun
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by NewRisingSun »

goodnes Highway Star (J) [hM02] ,You seem to have posted PCB on the wiki.
I do not know what that sentence is supposed to mean, but the so-called "mapper 2 hacks" of "Highway Star" in GoodNES are not dumps from any cartridge, so any PCB image you may have found cannot be a PCB of said "mapper 2 hacks".

GoodNES' "Highway Star (J) [hM02]", PRG-ROM CRC32 0x24A0AA1A, is an iNES conversion of the Front Fareast Magic Card diskette catalogue number F2037.
GoodNES' "Highway Star (J) [hM02][p1]", PRG-ROM CRC32 0x0446282F, is an iNES conversion of the Bung Game Doctor diskette catalogue number G062.

I have both original disk images myself.

You can tell that both are hacks for Game Doctor/Magic Card types of RAM cartridges from their write to $42FF, which is the Game Doctor's Mode/Mirroring register.
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

Finally, after disassembling, I tested the ICs and confirmed they are all fine.
I remounted the PCB, this time knowing all them were OK.
Same problem!
Rechecked the wiring dozens of times and all was like planned.
Strangely the game booted fine when connected to a GameGenie!
Not sure if the problem are in the cartridge's contacts or if I need to delay M2.
I'm still having mirroring problems unfortunately. :-(
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krzysiobal
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by krzysiobal »

Fisher wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 6:45 pm I'm still having mirroring problems unfortunately. :-(
Did you read my post?
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

krzysiobal wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 2:26 am Did you read my post?
Yes I did, and forgot to thank you. :oops:
I didn't switch the PPU pins but the output pins from the FF, I think this should give the same result.
I think I should redraw that diagram, since I exchanged the 74'02 to a 74'00 and the 74'161 to a 74'175.
This should make easier to get help.

By the way I discovered that there's something wrong with the PCB, because if I plug it without the GameGenie and slightly push it to the front the game boots with glitched graphics.
I'm using a top loader clone.

I think I should be posting more pictures of the resulting mess, but unfourtunatelly the attachments tab just isn't appearing on my crap cellphone. :-(

Edit: a quick look on the circuit shows that I used an 74HC00 instead a 74LS00. Does it matter in this case?
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

Well, I found an interesting thing...
Looks like that the 74'74 isn't changing its outputs.

Looking at the debugger during the race, the game seems to write #$2A to $C0FF at scanline 180, then do the same at scanline 140 and then repeats this every frame.
AFAIK this should be changing the mirroring, but how would this work if the same value is being writting constantly?
Shouldn't this 74'74 be configured as a toggle FF?

Maybe I'm just totally wrong too...
If so, could someone please explain what I'm missing / doing wrong?
lidnariq
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by lidnariq »

$2A is the value in ROM mapped at $C0FF, not the value that's written.

I've only seen the values $1 and $E written to $C0FF.

Neither of these explain the crash, however.
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

Ok, probably it's something else.
Since I'm on a laptop now, it's easier to post an updated schematics and some (unfourtunatelly blurry) pictures.

Code: Select all

                                                   74LS00
                                                  ___
          74LS138              74LS74   PPU A11--|   \      ___
         +-------+            +------+           |    O----|   \
CPU A13-1|A0     |16---VCC---1|CLR  Q|5----------|___/     |    O---CIRAM A10
CPU A14-2|A1   O5|10---------3|CLK   |            ___  +---|___/
 CPU A7-3|A2   O4|11  CPU D0-2|D     |  PPU A10--|   \ |      ___
    GND-4|/E0  O3|12-+  VCC--4|PRE /Q|6-+        |    O+  +--|   \
CPU R/W-5|/E1  O2|13 |        +------+  +--------|___/    |  |    O---PRG /CE
     M2-6|E2   O1|14 |                            CPU R/W-+--|___/
        7|O7   O0|15 |                    74LS32 
    GND-8|8      |   |                     ____
         +-------+   |   74LS175  CPU A14--\   \
                     |  +-------+           )   )---PRG A14
                     +-9|CLK  Q0|2---------/___/
                        |       |          ____ 
               CPU D0--4|D0   Q1|7---------\   \
                        |       |           )   )---PRG A15
               CPU D1--5|D1     | CPU A14--/___/
                        |       |          ____        
               CPU D2-12|D2   Q2|10--------\   \  
                        |       |           )   )---PRG A16
                 VCC---1|MR     | CPU A14--/___/
                        +-------+


The bugged race screen:
Bugged race
Bugged race
Front:
Front
Front
Back:
Back
Back
Not sure if the inverter on the CPU R/W is necessary to avoid bus conflicts.
Hope someone can help me to figure out what's wrong.
Thanks in advance.
lidnariq
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by lidnariq »

The game does have some dummied out writes to $4FFF, which .. maybe are what are posing the problem? I don't see exactly the glitches you're seeing, but I see different glitches if I patch the writes to $4FFF and $4A00,x to instead be to $C0FF and $C000,x. Maybe it would be sufficient to connect CPU A11 to /E0 ...?
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

Finally I discoverd why the 74'74 wasn't switching!
Got better, but still buggy:
New Bug
New Bug
The 74'74 was simply not receiving power!! :facepalm:
The problem is that the MX8018-0002-A IC is gets GND on pins 7 and 14, while the VCC is on pin 13.
I can't facepalm enough!!
lidnariq wrote: Sat May 23, 2020 4:09 pm Maybe it would be sufficient to connect CPU A11 to /E0 ...?
Did it and it's almost perfect!
Just some slight glitching lines on the right of the screen.
Almost there
Almost there
Anything else I could try to change?

Anyway, thanks for all the help, Lidnariq and Krzysiobal
This game would be far from working whithout your help! :-D
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

Found another weird thing.
That 2 small lines glitch seems to be inherent from the Kaiser's hack.
When the game is paused, the lines change colors and go a little to the right according to what buttons I press on the 1st controller.
It looks like the same happens when the game isn't paused too.
It's a little difficult to take pictures. I'll try to make a video of this bug to better show what's happening.
Can someone please confirm if there's a similar bug in the "original pirate" cartridge?
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

Did a video with very bad sound here.
I suggest to watch it with low or mute volume.
There's 2 small lines on the right side, near the middle of the screen.
Maybe that's also present on the real cartridge I'm trying to mimmic.
zxbdragon
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by zxbdragon »

I finally found cart

To test it out,

The same is true of real machines

If Fisher, my friend wants the PCB, I can send it to you.
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

zxbdragon wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:33 am I finally found cart

To test it out,

The same is true of real machines
That's great to know!
It's confirmed that the clone is faithful to the "original".
Thank you zxbdragon!! :-D
zxbdragon wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:33 am If Fisher, my friend wants the PCB, I can send it to you.
That would be really nice.
You mean to send the PCB scans, right?
zxbdragon
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by zxbdragon »

Yes, photos of PCB

I'm sorry. It took me a long time to find it.

Sent to your Yahoo email
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Fisher
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Re: Help with Kaiser's Highway Star repro

Post by Fisher »

That's great my friend. :-D
Thanks for taking your time on helping to solve this "mistery".

Any chance to know the capacitor's value?
It seems like a low pass circuit to help a little with the glitch.

Do you mind if I post the pictures here?
The board has a little different implementation of the mapper.
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