Arcade Otaku - アーケード オタク

You have to reprogram all four chips at same time using the four files from the archive. Unlike other games which have just chip 03 or 03 and 04 encrypted, this one has the whole program encrypted.

leonardoliveira wrote:You have to reprogram all four chips at same time using the four files from the archive. Unlike other games which have just chip 03 or 03 and 04 encrypted, this one has the whole program encrypted.

I actually did this

I talked with idc a week ago and he said that the actual ROMs on the site may have an issue.
There should be an older version, which works.
Is this version still available?
If yes, I would like to try that.

I just went to the avalaunch site, downloaded the file uecologydl.zip from there, compared against the uecology set used with Darksoft's CPS2 multi and it's exactly the same data.

Indeed, the file has problems but here's the fix:

At position 0x1F4A change value 0xFF for 0xBF. That will prevent a memory clear routine which executes during display of the regional usage rules screen from writing zeroes to one of the sprite control registers (I suspect that causes the sprite hardware to stop asserting the /DTACK pin on the CPU, causing a freeze).

I will update the roms at the site now, as well.

Edit:

File repaired. On a sidenote I had this file working since 2016, I have no idea how or why the file in the site was outdated patching wise. I am really sorry about this.

Oh thanks
Will download it this evening, make a test run and update this thread here.
Hopefully everything works fine.

meijin wrote:Oh thanks
Will download it this evening, make a test run and update this thread here.
Hopefully everything works fine.

If you look around the site you will notice that I updated all versions of Ultimate ecology, including the non Japanese ones. The problem was that I re-ripped all of them using decryption masks in 2016 (improved decryption accuracy) but when I applied the patches I let the second memory wipe (after power on self test) unpatched and that was making the game crash at the export rules warning screen. Sad but yes the older versions had proper patching, they were actually booting up. Thank you so much for reporting this.

Man this game is so frigging hard.

Still no success

Downloaded the file, burnt the 4 roms, but same result.
I know that the battery was dead (measured it), so I still hope that there is only something with the Roms.
I also tried using different Eproms, but still no boot.

@ leo
could I get your older version?
Just want to see, if this game boots.

Please look the zip file, inside if the date of the file 03 is from yesterday. I tested the file which were at the site, which indeed failed as you described. I patched, updated the file 03 from the zipfile and uploaded again. All six versions of "Ultimate Ecology/Eco Fighters.


I know it is working this time because after repairing the files, I loaded it on the Darksoft's CPS2 multi and it played correctly. I even played through the game once.

You should need to rewrite only the chip 03 from the faulty set.

I will check this over the weekend.
But as you said, I've downloaded all updated files (also the updated 03 file) and rewrote my chips.
I didn't get an error message, but you never know. Will try it again.

If it doesn't work, then I have a different fault.
Would be horrible though. Bought the game from a Japanese store, tested without faults, but got it with a dead battery, so I thought that it is just dead, not broken

I suggest you try moving your 03-06 EPROMs into another CPS2 game (that is battery less) and see if it boots up. Even with screwed graphics and sound you can at least see if the programmed EPROMs are working properly...

So, tried a lot, but still didn't get it working

First I burnt all Eproms again with the latest files. I also used a different Eprom for the 03 file, just to sort out a fault in the chip.
Didn't work.
So I placed the eproms (03-06) into my battery less Vampire board. Didn't work.
Worst is that now the Vampire board also won't boot anymore Same as the Ultimate board, it just shows a blank screen.

Tried a bit to short cap the ECX3 capacitor like in the below link (thanks to our Aerocitymayor), but also here no success, though I have to try it again.
https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39171

Don't know what went wrong!?

What? You put the eproms on another board which were working and it no longer works now? It's impossible for data in the eproms to cause any damage, even on boards which still have encryption data in them, they will just not work. Returning the original eproms to the board should resume it's operation.

leonardoliveira wrote:What? You put the eproms on another board which were working and it no longer works now? It's impossible for data in the eproms to cause any damage, even on boards which still have encryption data in them, they will just not work. Returning the original eproms to the board should resume it's operation.

There is a chance he killed a custom when he shorted out the EXC3 capacitor. I've seen mainman on neo-geo point it out that it can happen once in a blue moon.

This happened btw. before I shorted out the EXC3 capacitor :/
No clue what happened?!?
Once I tried only the 03 file in my Vampire and got a black screen, but after swapping the Eproms back, Vampire worked.
Then I put out all Eproms out of my Vampire, swapped them with my UE 03-06 Eproms and got a black screen.
Returned the Vampire Eproms into the Vampire board and from this point onwards I constantly get a black screen...

It doesn't work that way. You need all four eproms connected (and in the correct sequence, too) for Ultimate Ecology (or any other game, depending on it's program size can be more or less eproms) to work properly. It doesn't care about sockets 07-10 but it sure does care for sockets 03-06.

Mixing main program EPROMs from different games will not damage anything but will surely cause you frustration.

Actually I did this ....

All Vampire eproms out and only UE eproms 03-06 in the correct sequence in. Didn‘t work though.

Then I put out all Eproms out of my Vampire, swapped them with my UE 03-06 Eproms and got a black screen.
Returned the Vampire Eproms into the Vampire board and from this point onwards I constantly get a black screen...

I know that the eprom swap doesn‘t do any damage, but something happend?!?
I have only one board left with decrypted roms, but feel not really confident to try this out at the moment.
First I want to get UE and Vampire working.

Curious enough I took the roms I modified for you (the fix) and made them into a CPS2 multi set. Loaded it there and played through the game. Everything worked fine.

I believe that the files work fine and thanks to you, but something is **** up with my boards
I‘m next week off for a long holiday and when I’m back I will look for fault again.

meijin wrote:I believe that the files work fine and thanks to you, but something is **** up with my boards
I‘m next week off for a long holiday and when I’m back I will look for fault again.

It's good to be sceptical about my files, though. That's why I always try to give the best possible support. When I renewed the Ultimate Ecology sets I didn't test them properly and they were indeed faulty (hang up at the export warnings screen) and I had to fix them all.

Nice one Leo, thanks for updating.

meijin, are you still having issues? It's quite unlikely that your boards have just "died" from having the ROMs swapped. It could happen, but you'd have been extremely unlucky if it did.

Have you tried Raz's CPS2 test ROM? You need to burn it to a single 27C4096 and pop it into socket 03. Doesn't matter whether you have any other ROMs in sockets 04 to 10.

http://cps2shock.emu-france.info/downlo ... sterv2.zip

If your boards work fine with that, then you can almost certainly rule out the majority of the most common faults.

If you're having issues where a board that was once working before you removed the ROMs, then not working when you replaced them, then it might be worth looking at the legs of your ROM chips. Make sure they're all in the sockets correctly, not bent outwards or inwards and missing the hole.

Hi Ian,

sorry for the late reply.
I will try Raz's test ROM within the next days and see if something works.

The legs looked ok, when I changed the ROM chips, so this wasn't the problem.