Mis-behaving Neo-Geo Bust-A-Move cart

mhkohne

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I've got a Bust-A-Move cart that has some graphical glitches, and some scoring glitches.

The photo (
DSC02977.JPG
shows the graphics glitches - look in the 'B' especially. The scoring glitch I'm not too sure about - I've had several instances where I've gotten to the end of a game and found myself with a score > 1 million, and I'm pretty clear that I shouldn't have had it.

I've had the cart apart and it matches the second set of pictures shown at http://mvs-scans.com/index.php/Bust-A-Move . The label on the cart matches the one shown on that page as well.

The problem happens no matter which slot of my 2-slot system that I put the cart into, and the other cart I have (Metal Slug) doesn't appear to have any problems in either slot.

Anyone got any good ideas on what to do about this (other than toss it and get a new one?). I like the game, and the graphical glitches don't bug me, but having it show scores that are way over what I actually achieved is bumming me out - I want to see my actual high scores!

Any help greatly appreciated!
 
You might want to start by reflowing the solder to all the chips on the game PCBs. That has fixed various sound/video problems for me in the past and it's easy to do.
 
You might want to start by reflowing the solder to all the chips on the game PCBs. That has fixed various sound/video problems for me in the past and it's easy to do.

I forgot to mention that I did try that. No effect. Is there some way to verify the rom contents?

Thanks!
 
ROM/RAM Check in service mode coming out ok?

Otherwise, you could unsolder the ROM's and check them against the MAME set, if you have access to a ROM Programmer.
 
ROM/RAM Check in service mode coming out ok?

Otherwise, you could unsolder the ROM's and check them against the MAME set, if you have access to a ROM Programmer.

I can't find an explicit ram/rom check in service mode. I ran through all the hardware tests, and if I assume that there is such a test somewhere, then it passed, but I couldn't find an explicit notation.

Sadly, I don't have a rom programmer right now.

Thanks for your help!
 
Ah, right. I forgot the Neo's don't have a specific check.

Your only bet is to either swap the roms with another set, or verify them against the MAME set.

Can't really point you in another direction beside that. I'm not having any luck finding cart schematics.
 
Ah, right. I forgot the Neo's don't have a specific check.

Your only bet is to either swap the roms with another set, or verify them against the MAME set.

Can't really point you in another direction beside that. I'm not having any luck finding cart schematics.

Well, I appreciate the help. I guess I'll pick up another cart when I find one cheap and see what happens. If I'm bored at some point I'll sit down and try to draw up a cart schematic so that I can get an idea of whether it's possible to test a cart's roms without removing them.

Update: Ahh, I found a cart pinout that someone did: http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/mvspinout.html
If MAME has more info, I could probably start to figure something out for doing a rom test. Again, if I end up with some spare time.
 
I'm not familiar with how this is done, but one of the main features reported is:

A ROM CRC32 check where you can confirm a games program roms are good.
 
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