Giving back to the community...

elekTRONarcade

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Hey all,

Since last year was such a great year for the wife and myself, and this year's shaping up to be even better, I wanted to give back a bit to the community. After finally getting a decent EPROM burning station set up on my workbench along with multiple successful burns, I've become pretty decent at phoenixing CPS2 boards, both working and dead. So far I've brought almost a dozen dead boards back to life, and phoenixed my own personal working boards without any problems. So, why am I telling you all this?

Because from now through March 15th, I'm offering to phoenix working or resurrect dead CPS2 B boards for free. You just pay for shipping to/from and the cost of materials for the EPROMSs. Why not use the existing mask rom EPROMs and reprogram them? Well that's the kicker...my programmer only supports certain brands/types of chips, and some of the boards I've done already had stock EPROMs my programmer couldn't handle (specifically, Mitsubishi M5M27C402Ks). So here's a list of what 16-bit, 4 megabit/512k EPROMs I CAN use:

AMD AM27C4096
Atmel AT27C4096
Fairchild or NSC NM27C240
Fujitsu MBM27C4096
Hitachi HN27C4096/4096G/4096H
Holtek HT27C4096
Intel or Philips 27C240
Macronix or NEC MX27C4096
SGS-Thompson M27C4002
Texas Instruments TI27C240

You can find them all over Google or eBay, if you'd like to order them yourselves and ship them along with the board. PM me with what board(s) you have and I'll tell you how many chips you'll need for a particular boardset. Some CPS-2 games only need one or two replaced, some need four or more. Also, X-Men COTA USA only has the Euro rom (3e & 4e) decryption tables available, so converting that game over will change it to the Euro version. That's the only game I've seen like that (so far).

Now some caveats...

1) This isn't my fulltime job and I do have a family, a job and a life, so keep that in mind. I'll work on them as quickly as I can, though turnaround time depends on how popular this becomes. Typically expect a week inbetween when I get the board and when it goes back out.

2) To prevent a backlog or get overwhelmed, I'll take a certain number of orders at a time, up to ten boards total, and won't accept any more until those ten are finished and heading back to their owners.

3) You pay ALL expenses, including shipping and materials. Basically labor is free, as I won't be pocketing anything from the deal (and won't pay out of pocket either). If you aren't able to pay the return shipping, I'll hold onto the board until you do. I'll ship each board individually via USPS Priority, so expect the cost to be around $15 per board for return shipping.

4) I'll phoenix a max of two (2) boards per person, per batch. So if five people come to me with 2 boards each, that's the first batch of ten.

5) I will accept donations to pay for supplies (tape, spare EPROMs etc) if interested. I'll also accept dead boards you don't want as donations.

6) This is for my friends and fellow asshats here at KLOV ONLY, not random Joe Schmoes at other forums.

7) First come, first serve. I'll update the thread when my weekly limit's been met. USA boards only (for now).

8) This is only for members who have been here at least a year or have at least 150 posts.

9) I make no expressed guarantees or warranties and everything is done at your own risk. I will not be liable for accidents. Keep that in mind.

PM me with a list of what CPS-2 boards you have that you want Phoenixed, and I'll let you know how many chips replaced they will need. Just remember I'll only do a max of two per person at a time.


-Rob
 
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Wow, this is super nice! Thanks for doing this. I might look for a dead board on the 'bay. :)
 
Wow, this is super nice! Thanks for doing this. I might look for a dead board on the 'bay. :)

No prob! I've been looking for a way to contribute to the community for a while, like cdjump, channelmaniac, Darin@Phoenix Arcade etc. Shipping to Raz overseas nowadays just isn't cost effective for many people, so a lot of boards sit dead or dying. Once my promotion is over, I'll probably charge $10-$20 per board for members here.

Also, someone asked about CPS2 conversions. I'm not there yet, but I'll be doing some research into that as well.


My goals in the next year:

1) Get established and build a good rep with the community
2) Branch out into Sega System 16/18 & CPS-1 resurrection
3) Possibly branch out into complete CPS-1/CPS-2/Sega System 16 conversions (I've already successfully converted a Clutch Hitter to Moonwalker and vice versa)
4) Remote chance I MAY start doing CPS-3 and other resurrections. Again, time is the limiting factor here, as is desirability
 
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Quick update: I've just successfully Phoenixed my first few Sega System 18 boards (Moonwalker and Clutch Hitter), so that's one step closer to adding those to the mix. Motorola 68000 processors are around $5 each. Once I get a bit more practice with System 16/18 boards under my belt, I'll offer that service as well.

Also, in case anyone didn't understand from my first post, my offer of free CPS2 phoenixing doesn't include free chips. You will still have to purchase those on your own from the list of allowable EPROMs on the first post. You can find them on eBay or elsewhere.
 
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Monday bump. For the time being, I'm only going to offer CPS-2 Phoenixing to KLOVers. I'll let everyone know when I move onto System 16/18 as well.
 
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