Monster Land English : from Encryption to Decryption...

[mpatou]

I'm not a professional at computer drawing, and I use Gimp (linux) that only works in RGB. But few years ago, I completely redrew some illustrations to make AES inserts (I know that making converts is bad ), here are some samples :



And when printed, they are as beautiful as guenine AES inserts.

[Braintrash]

Mpatou, keep working this way, you do great.

[mpatou]

coquinou

[Braintrash]

[emphatic]

coquinou

Beautiful inserts!

[pubjoe]

They're outstanding mpatou.

[Asure]

Looking at those bootlegs, they are very similar to the Choplifter(s) i have in my parts/tested/crap pile. Would it be possible to convert a working one (i have only one working atm) into Monster Land?
Board looks similar to this:



The two customs are daughterboards in TTL and it seems to run 100% original code

[mpatou]

Hello

Your Choplifter does run the original code, BUT I'm not sure you'll be able to run WBML on this : on original hardware, the three components used for colors are not the same between WBML and Choplifter. These are not eproms, but some kind of TTL programmable chips. I suppose the problem is the same on bootlegs, as they really are (cheap) copies of the original hardware.
Besides, compatibility depends on which choplifter version your bootleg PCB is supposed to run too.

EDIT : Does anyone have original artset for WBML to scan?

[cools]

Yes.

[pubjoe]

The art I have would be fine for scanning and tidying. The only thing is the colour is too faded and I'd be trying to match it blind. Hence me asking cools to be particular about testing his scan.

[Grish]

My wbml bootleg arrived yesterday and the first thing I noticed was that pin 1 on prom 7 has been bent out of the socket and soldered to a neighbouring chips (not a prom) pin 28!

I attempted a trace on the PCB and it seems this hack was to gain the 5v to the proms vpp pin.

Shame, as it means I have to get out the soldering iron everytime I swap out eproms plus I have to bend out pin 1.

Has anyone else seen this on their wbml BL boards? Please refer to my pic on previous post.

Edit: actually, wouldn't a better hack be to just solder a wire between these two pins on the sockets on solder side of the board? Or even better a wire between the prom socket pin1 and 5v?

[mpatou]

Hello

I already encountered that configuration on a bootleg PCB (Alpharabi's ). Just to be sure, can you take a good picture of the soldering side of your PCB, just below those eproms and the chip you discribed (Sram chip indeed) please?

[Grish]

Some pics:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mhidlqhqkos3i ... 4.jpg?dl=0"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uq9nqta6d8nw9 ... 2.jpg?dl=0"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zhsw4re90565w ... 3.jpg?dl=0"

[mpatou]

Ok

That's easy : you just have to unsolder ROM7 pin 1, download the archive file here, remove rom 5-6-7-8-9-10, and replace as shown below :


5=>mpatou.ic90c (27c512)
6=>mpatou.ic91c (27c512)
7=>mpatou.ic92c (27c512)
(for those 3, use files located in "512kb" directory of the archive file)

8=>mpatou.ic04 (27c256)
9=>mpatou.ic05 (27c256)
10=>mpatou.ic06 (27c256)

It should work

[Grish]

So I don't need to reattach/solder rom7 pin 1? Also, are you saying I should replace rom7 (currently a 256) with a 512? I don't understand why?

Thanks for all the help, I'm very new too all of this.

[mpatou]

I'll try to be as clear as possible (English is not my native language ). The socket for rom7 is wired for a 512kb rom/eprom. As the bootleggers used a 256 rom chip (I don't know exactly why, but I have an idea), they had to bend pin 1 and solder it to +5V, and pin 28 on the neighbor chip is +5V. Using a 512 rom chip, you don't need it anymore. Pinouts are a little different between 512 and 256 rom chips.

[Grish]

That's a perfect explanation, thanks so much for this your a life saver!!

I'm just waiting on a few more parts, then I'll follow your steps and post back my results

[pubjoe]

mpatou, thank you for not only the decryption but for staying and helping us mortals with your valuable knowledge. You are the Wonder Boy wonder.

[mpatou]

My pleasure, really !

[mpatou]

@Pubjoe

Do you have original artsets for WBML? I'm looking forward working on scanned documents