Eprom programmer question for older games

dyno

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 11, 2009
Messages
1,644
Reaction score
81
Location
Lower Mainland, Britsh Columbia
Still looking for a programmer and was wondering besides 2532 eproms what other eproms should the programmer be able to do for older games? All my games are from the 80's and was wondering what were common eproms used back then besides 2532 eproms.Would a programmer with the capabalities to programm 2716 to 27512 but sufficient? I now the older eproms need 21v & 25v to program them so an external power source would be needed.
 
From the 80s on up, you are OK with a programmer that can do the following:

2716
2532
271000 (non-JEDEC which are used by many Capcom games. Has /OE and A16 swapped from what a 27C010 has)
27C1024 (1mb 16-bit)
27C4096 (4mb 16-bit)
27C801 (8mb)

That'll get you by far most of the game boards out there.

If you are looking to do some oddball or old 70s games then I'd recommend one that can also do the 2708 and the strange TMS2716 EPROMs (which are FAR different than the standard 2716)

It's a plus if your programmer can do old fuse link PROM chips, PALs, or GALs but it wouldn't be a requirement for most users.
 
Still looking for a programmer and was wondering besides 2532 eproms what other eproms should the programmer be able to do for older games? All my games are from the 80's and was wondering what were common eproms used back then besides 2532 eproms.Would a programmer with the capabalities to programm 2716 to 27512 but sufficient? I now the older eproms need 21v & 25v to program them so an external power source would be needed.

Don't buy one of the cheap Willem programmers from Ebay. I made that mistake and the crappy electronics can not boost the voltage enough to program these older 80's chips even with an auxiliary power supply. I ended up getting a BP Microsystems EP-1 programmer for around 10 bucks on ebay. It works like a charm for all the chips I need to burn.
 
I came across one that has caught my interest but you have to change modules to program eproms and these are the eproms it is capable of doing: 2764A:12.5V - 27512:12.5V - 2732:25V - 27128A:12.5V - 27128:21V - 27256:12.5V - 27256:21V - 2764:21V - 2716:25V - 2732A:21V

Is this programmer any good? I read on bob roberts website that there is an adapter you can make so you can write a 2532 using the 2732 settings, anyone treid this?
 
Last edited:
If you are serious about programming the classics, my best advice would be to get an old Data I/O Model 29B with a Unipak 2. You use this programmer connected with a serial cable connected to a PC running Windows XP or older O/S with a program called PROMLINK (google and KLOV are your friends for info). You would be able to program the bipolar proms as well. With a little bit of a learning curve you will be up and running. The Data I/O is limited on the larger eproms but the 80's classics did not use them. I have a second cheap programmer for the larger eproms as it does not take a lot to program them, but I rarely use it.

I use an older color single core notebook (I traded for it but you can get them very cheap) running XP with all of the game ROM dumps loaded on it. It's part of my programming station and also I use it for web browsing next to my workbench. What's great is that I can take the notebook with me to visit a fellow collector as I also have all of my docs, data sheets, manuals, etc., stored on it.

The tough one for a lot of the programmers out there and a good test for suitability is to see if will program a 2532 EPROM. If the programmer that you are considering can handle that one, it probably will handle a majority of the classics including even the TMS2716 which is the most obscure Eprom. 2532 programming is a must if you are going to repair the classics.

Bill
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom