Bubble Bobble Bootleg info

[Hewitson]

The VP-280 is nice. Unfortunately it was discontinued and replaced with the VP-290, which only supports up to 40 pins.

[joaoljr]

but i have another problem with this pcb:
in the treasure room (reaching round 20 without dieing) - the pcb has grafic foults and its not possible to see the highscore. (only in treasure room) after that room , everything is ok.

Simon, could you post a picture of the issue? It may help analysing it.

Also, does that issue only happen with the Redux images? What happens if you flash the original "boblbobl" images?

EDIT: With the level skip mod, it is possible to go from level 1 to level 20 right after starting the game and try the treasure room.

Punji

[joaoljr]

The VP-280 is nice. Unfortunately it was discontinued and replaced with the VP-290, which only supports up to 40 pins.

What about MiniPro TL866? I don't have one but Dave seems to like it for the price:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLG03f_ua5g

Punji

[spacebert]

The MiniPro TL866 is great for its price. I used it to burn the new roms. There is no support for very old bipolar proms etc.

[joaoljr]

I actually have a GQ-4X, it works quite nicely but I got very disappointed when I found that it has no support for PAL and GAL devices.

Punji

[idc]

I actually have a GQ-4X, it works quite nicely but I got very disappointed when I found that it has no support for PAL and GAL devices.

I have a GQ-4X too. I picked up a Genius G540 purely for programming GALs.

[joaoljr]

Simon, could you post a picture of the issue? It may help analysing it.

Also, does that issue only happen with the Redux images? What happens if you flash the original "boblbobl" images?

EDIT: With the level skip mod, it is possible to go from level 1 to level 20 right after starting the game and try the treasure room.

I got the issue reproduced on my more recent single board as well (similar layout to Simon's).
The screen looks completely filled with garbage graphics:

Now, that does not happen neither on MAME nor with my double board (closer to original one).

That is puzzling...

Simon, could you please try with the "boblbobl" images?

http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/22071 ... obble.html

Also, was it working before you replaced the images?

Punji

[golani]

hello,
if you want a picture from this fault , please wait one week it is not possible to send
it earlier.

nothing happens after rom swap with redux images.
it was not working before i replaced the images (same fault as before)

if i flash the original "boblbobl" image also the same.

i guess the two 27512 eprom chips at the down side are the reason

i have more from this single boards. every pcb has the same isue in the treasure rooms.

my idea is: the programmer make the fault by put together the programm (or cut out something)
from 2x 27256 to 1x 27512 chip.

but how can i test this chips? there is no rom download ,
and i cannot get 2. 27256 programms together on 1. 27512 chip .

maybe get some help.
simon

[ninn]

Hi Golani!

You dont need your programmer to do it, you can do it with windows on-board-tools:

Code: Select all

copy /B file256+file256 file512

How many of those boards you got?

ninn

[joaoljr]

i guess the two 27512 eprom chips at the down side are the reason

I was able to further investigate the issue and confirmed that it is caused by the last pair of EPROMs that hold the video graphics.

In my dual board, which works fine, there are six pairs of video EPROMs, all 27256, which gives a total of 2 x 192KB.

In my single board, there are three pairs of video EPROMs, the first two are 27512 and the last is 27256, which means a total of 2 x 160KB.
So, some information was dropped. The game code still tries to access that missing data, but it ends up getting the incorrect information.

As ninn said, just take the images from the original game "bublbobl":

http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/22137 ... obble.html"

And do:

copy /b a78-13.16 + a78-14.17 r18
copy /b a78-19.34 + a78-20.35 r20

And then flash r18 and r20 on a pair of 27512 or equivalent chips.
Unfortunately I don't have any at hand, so I can't test it.

Punji

[golani]

thanks for the info.
has 3 pice of this pcbs at the moment
i will try that programm swap next week.
i let you know.
simon

[joaoljr]

Take the images from the original game "bublbobl":

http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/22137 ... obble.html"

And do:

copy /b a78-13.16 + a78-14.17 r18
copy /b a78-19.34 + a78-20.35 r20

And then flash r18 and r20 on a pair of 27512 or equivalent chips.

I tested the recipe above on a pair of 27C512 and installed them on my single bootleg board.
The treasure room is working fine now!

Just to make it clear, this issue is NOT related to the REDUX mod.
It seems whoever created those single boards thought about saving some money by using a pair of 32K EPROMs
instead of 64K, assuming people wouldn't usually get that far in the game to see that screen perhaps...

That reminds me of something I saw in the official Romstar Bubble Bobble board manual:

Optimize Your Profits

Through Research shows that two and a half minutes games both satisfy players and also keep the quartes flowing.

How far in the game can someone go in that time?

Punji

[ninn]

2 1/2 minutes Atari designed their games around a 30-second-limit iirc



Yesterday, I tried the latest patches, and the highscore-save-feature.

All patches worked great. Except the Highscore Save Mod - but back to that later on.

I was just quickly testing, since i just wanted to get it back working, not actually playing. After testing the Levelskip-Feature I came to a stage that which was blue with about 7 or 8 whales. Guess level 29 or something like that. bubbles came from the bottom - and after a while (30 secs) I experienced slowdown.
Otherwise, everything else was very nice and working good. can't wait to play that board again!!
So very happy you gave me a non-crimpled version of Bubble Bobble. Thanks again


The problem started when using the AT29HC256-chip. I couldnt get it working, thou I am pretty sure I did everything correct. You did a great job of explaining the process, but my board never booted up with that patch. It am used to a wierd startup-procedure on that board, not exactly sure whats wrong with that board. Anyhow, - i suspect that I either messed up the programming several times, or that the chip gets programmed with garbage date while booting-up. Not entirely sure whats wrong - at least i double- and tripple-checked the solder-jobs.

As soon as i am able too ( missus found some.... lots of ... more important tasks for me to do ) i will check cabling and programming again.

My main concern was getting the board running again, which was accomplished. Still would like to have that cool highscore-save-mod too.

tbc.
Ninn

[joaoljr]

After testing the Levelskip-Feature I came to a stage that which was blue with about 7 or 8 whales. Guess level 29 or something like that. bubbles came from the bottom - and after a while (30 secs) I experienced slowdown.

True. I saw the issue on other levels too. The code struggles to manage all those enemies and bubbles flying around at the same time, that is why it takes a few seconds for the issue to show up. The original game also has a bit of slowdown in those cases, but the bootleg is more pronounced because the main CPU is also executing the PS4 emulation. The REDUX mod already has some simple logic to detect that issue and take it easy on the CPU by executing the emulation only every other frame. I thought about reducing the emulation execution even further at those moments (like every 4 frames or even less), but that could impact the enemy movement.

The problem started when using the AT29HC256-chip. I couldnt get it working, thou I am pretty sure I did everything correct. You did a great job of explaining the process, but my board never booted up with that patch. I suspect that I either messed up the programming several times, or that the chip gets programmed with garbage date while booting-up.

The correct chip number is AT28HC256, but I guess that was a typo...
Please make sure:

- All pins of the Atmel chip should be correctly connected to the board. You need a multimeter to verify this. Do a continuity test between each pin and the corresponding solder pad at the bottom of the board.

- It is very unlikely that Atmel was programmed with garbage at startup because I'm using some logic to write protected it. You may confirm it by reading the chip contents with your EPROM programmer and comparing to the bb4 image.

- Did you connect the WR signal wire to the correct via in the board? Please post a picture.

Punji

[VectorGlow]

The correct chip number is AT28HC256, but I guess that was a typo...

As an aside, if anyone has a problem obtaining an AT28HC256 I can confirm that an AT28C256 works just fine - I bought and tried this one:

http://uk.farnell.com/atmel/at28c256-15 ... dp/1095782"

[joaoljr]

New release below.

I have improved the logic to avoid game slowdown. This should address the issue reported by ninn to a certain extent.
It is not as good as the original game but it seems a bit better than the previous REDUX release.

Punji

Code: Select all

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M<V%V92]02P$"%``*``````"D9$)"````````````````#````````````!``
M_T$Y#P``:6YC<F5M96YT86PO4$L!`A0`%`````@`S)DY0I:(F=Q/````4@``
M``D````````````@`+:!8P\``&)B,RYP871C:%!+!08`````$0`1`-0$``#9
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`
end

[idc]

Updated link: https://ianc.net/temp/boblbobl/boblbobl ... -03-11.zip"

[ninn]

my adapter was defective. Pin27 was not isolated enough. If I had more sockets, I'd already rebuilding it. but I don't. Will have to save that for tomorrow. pretty sure i checked that before plugging it in, maybe it became somehow loose in the process.

will rebuild it tomorrow.

my programmer got no profile for an at28hc256, so i am using profile at28c256.

[ninn]

definitely the adapter - just had a look after I disassembled it: the isolation was ripped open.

[joaoljr]

my adapter was defective...will rebuild it tomorrow.

Ok, I hope it works this time.

my programmer got no profile for an at28hc256, so i am using profile at28c256.

That should not be an issue, since both are functionally identical. As far as I understand, the write access time is the same.

Punji