Out Zone Prototype? What do you think?

[RMRM]

I just found a super rare "Aut Zoon" prototype, this is even before the game was named Out Zone

Now on a serious note:

I bought this game as a non working PCB. At a first look, i thought it had some strange repair job, but after closer inspection i realised that the majority of components are in different places. Even the mask roms on the "additional" pcb are original.

Is this some kind of prototype, early release,a different revision i missed on my google search, or what?

I already dumped the 3 eproms and they don't match any of the eproms available in mame.

If this really is something "special", i won't even dare to try to repair it, i will just send it to someone with experience.


Here are a couple of pics:

[leonardoliveira]

Actually "Aut Zoom" sounds likely how a Japanese individual would re-write "Out Zone" in "roman characters" after bringing it back from "Japanese" form after hearing the name from other person.

Consider that their language is syllabic/glyph based. And I don't think someone would bother checking out how it's written for hand writing a simple name sticker.

That mess is such a great source of fun and confusion.

Btw, great catch.

[RMRM]

It is very common to find these kind of labels here in Portugal, lol, Portuguese OP's had a very "freestyle" kind of writing

I'm sure you find similar stuff over there in Brasil.

[coolmod]

Looks like a conversion from a Zero Wing PCB plus a riser card. Well, best bet would be to dump the program roms and boot them in mame to see.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

I have a PCB that says Robokap 2 on a sticker..

[n3o2o1o]

It remembers me a windjammer cart who was named : friesbies (that certainly means FREESBIE)

[geotrig]

It remembers me a windjammer cart who was named : friesbies (that certainly means FREESBIE)

I have a PCB that says Robokap 2 on a sticker..

that should read roboKrap 2 trk

[RMRM]

Looks like a conversion from a Zero Wing PCB plus a riser card. Well, best bet would be to dump the program roms and boot them in mame to see.

You are right, it definitely looks like a Zero Wing PCB.

Today i cleaned the PCB a little bit and found another interesting thing:
It has a stamp with some "japanese symbols and a 2.II.I" on it.

Will try to get a decent pic to post.

[RMRM]

Necrobump for help:

I got this PCB fixed but as i was expecting, this is the BRUTAL version,lol, the game is so hard that's totally not funny.

I've tried the dipswitches to at least set it to Easy but nothing seems to match online info, not even the Zero Wing version.

The perfect scenario would be to burn the "regular eproms" and use them in this PCB, but i've been told by the guy who repaired the game that's not possible because this version uses "especilaly adapted eproms" for this hardware. In order to use the regular eproms, they would have to be adapted aswell.

Can anybody give me a hint on this matter?

[Asayuki]

I wonder what exactly is meant by "adapted".
If it's about the pinout or splitting / merging then there's some work to do but it's not impossible.
If it's about software patching for the particular hardware then it's a whole different story.

[rugdoctor]

I think Caius converted a zero wing out of an out zone board as a proof of concept or something like that. Maybe he can revert the romset to a different set??

[RMRM]

That's exactly my board,lol, he was the one who repaired it.


I think he means this option "If it's about software patching for the particular hardware then it's a whole different story."

He told me it could be done but it's probably not easy, and i obviously don't have the knowledge

[Asayuki]

I think he means this option "If it's about software patching for the particular hardware then it's a whole different story."
He told me it could be done but it's probably not easy, and i obviously don't have the knowledge

On the other hand, you've probably got an original version of Out Zone which is worth quite some money as it is rare.
And by the way, before you think of what to do with the board if anything, have you made yourself sure that its romset is already dumped?

[RMRM]

I will check them out against what is available in MAME.

Guess i can only use this PCB to play Zero Wing

EDIT - I remember now that i've sent the eproms to system11. I think they weren't present in MAME, not sure if they are now. The Mask roms are the same, only the Eproms contain altered code by Toaplan to be compatible with this hardware.

[Asayuki]

Guess i can only use this PCB to play Zero Wing

I prefer the MegaDrive version! All your Toaplan prototype are belong to us!!!

[rugdoctor]

yeah, the flashing red light after confirmed kills are annoying...

[darksoft]

I got the same one up for sale. I think it is in MAME and the fact that the stickers are original, makes me think that this was an in-house conversion. I'll ask in the sales forum how much is worth.

[RMRM]

I got the same one up for sale. I think it is in MAME and the fact that the stickers are original, makes me think that this was an in-house conversion. I'll ask in the sales forum how much is worth.

This has been debated in other forums aswell and although it's uncommon there are other PCB's like this and there is no doubt that it's an official conversion done by Toaplan.

Never seen one for sale on the internet, just not sure about the value... I don't mind because mine isn't going anywhere

[darksoft]

I got the same one up for sale. I think it is in MAME and the fact that the stickers are original, makes me think that this was an in-house conversion. I'll ask in the sales forum how much is worth.

This has been debated in other forums aswell and although it's uncommon there are other PCB's like this and there is no doubt that it's an official conversion done by Toaplan.

Never seen one for sale on the internet, just not sure about the value... I don't mind because mine isn't going anywhere

I see. Any link to share?

[RMRM]

Here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=54348

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthrea ... -you-think