Nintendo High Score Save Kit self test compatibility?

hindered

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Nintendo High Score Save Kit self test compatibility?

Does anyone know if these high score save kits (either the ones from Mike's Arcade or from Braze) are at all compatible across boards with regards to the self test? Obviously, the ROM checks would fail if you used a DK kit on a JR board, but would the RAM checks pass? What about on a Mario Bros board?

I ask because it's hard for me to pony up $45 just for the purpose of saving my measly 90k in DK (and I use tokens so the attract-mode freeplay is not a bonus), but if the kit could also be used to diagnose the RAM on my DK JR board and the two non-working Mario Bros PCBs I just picked up, it becomes a lot more attractive.

Anyone know? Does it seem like it would work? Am I being stupid? Educate me!
 
I can't answer your question - no clue. But I can/will say for what you want to use it for would IMHO would be a mute point anyway. I've had faulty boards that power up showing no errors but yet there were hardware issues involved.
For instance:
You have a chunk of RAM that glitches as it warms up this kit won't eport any issues.
You restart the machine and the kit may or may not report the error. Sometimes it'll bounce back and forth between different failure locations.
The kit honestly is not meant to be a a full on repair tool.

Send the boards off to be repaired is what I would do. Speaking of - thanks for reminding me I have a DK3 board I need to send off to Dick Millikan that the Braze HS reports no errors on ;)
 
thanks for reminding me I have a DK3 board I need to send off to Dick Millikan that the Braze HS reports no errors on ;)

I didnt add a selftest to the DK3 HS kit, there is a minimal selftest already provided
by original nintendo DK3 in selftest mode IIRC. I only added HS save and maybe
saving the free play setting. About the only extra piece of debug information
you can gain on DK3 by using my kit would be that it bypasses the CPU roms.
Sorry, just not a huge demand for DK3 kits to justify writing extra sefltest code.
The only extra powerup testing my DK3 kit does is to validate itself (ie. checksum
the KIT single code eprom and run a quick test on the HS save chip (serial eeprom).
 
From emails with braze, posted with permission

Braze said:
You should be fine plugging in a DKjr/DK kit into the opposite board,
and the the entire selftest should pass, in fact it will play the game
but the graphics and sounds will be all wrong, but I do that all the
time for testing, test kits in the other boardtype when I dont want
to switch them.

You can also swap the eprom to make it a DK, DKjr or Mario kit.

My current released Mario kit does not do any additional selftests
other than the HS save chip on the kit, BUT IIRC I made/started a
mario kit with a selftest that tested some of the ram, but im not
sure of the state of that, but you are welcome to try it.
Braze Different Email said:
As for mario, not all the HW addresses are the same and the character
map is different and it is horizontal vs. vertical. Im sure it would not
hurt anything to try, but I have no idea what the results would be
either using a DK kit in a mario board or a mario kit on a DK board.
I think I added a CPU ram test, video ram test and maybe a sprite ram
test to mario, but never released it, again, not a high selling kit.
And Im reluctant to change things when they are working, but like I
said you are welcome to try it out.

When the RAM selftest fails on DK, I also do a few other things to
help indicate the problem, such as flipping the screen or not flipping
it, or changing the color of the screen or playing sounds. This is because
if the character ram is bad you may not have the ability to show something
reliably to the screen. So I usually use other indicators in additional
to attempting to display to the screen.

Well, that's too bad for me, because I'm mostly looking to try and find what I think are one or more bad RAM on a Mario PCB, and also get the usage of high score save from the tester, too. I'll probably still pick up the HSS kit sooner or later, but it's less of a priority than fixing the MB board.

So what are my options then for testing RAM on the MB board? Taking them out one at a time and putting them in a tester? Shotgunning new parts? Logic probe?
 
So what are my options then for testing RAM on the MB board? Taking them out one at a time and putting them in a tester? Shotgunning new parts? Logic probe?

You can try out my unreleased version 1.4 of the mario HS kit code which will run
on the DK/DKj kit you just need to program the eprom. I put some extra selftest in
that version it appears. I probably just never released it because I usually like to
do some thorough testing prior as to not introduce any new problems.
I just ran it mame because I could never remember how far I got with it.
A pic is attached. If you want, let me know, I'll send you the eprom image
for the HS kit.
 

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I didnt add a selftest to the DK3 HS kit, there is a minimal selftest already provided
by original nintendo DK3 in selftest mode IIRC. I only added HS save and maybe
saving the free play setting. About the only extra piece of debug information
you can gain on DK3 by using my kit would be that it bypasses the CPU roms.
Sorry, just not a huge demand for DK3 kits to justify writing extra sefltest code.
The only extra powerup testing my DK3 kit does is to validate itself (ie. checksum
the KIT single code eprom and run a quick test on the HS save chip (serial eeprom).

Don't be sorry - it's no big deal. I have 3 of your HS kits installed and love them to death. thanks for taking time out of your life to make them for us.
 
thanks for taking time out of your life to make them for us.

Seconding this -- braze is sending me a DK/JR combo HS kit and also sending a MB eprom with his untested self-test code on it -- Talk about awesome.

I'll post here when everything arrives and I get to try them out. Thanks again, braze!
 
FWIW I fixed the Mario Bros board tonight, swapped some roms out with another dead board, and soldered in a 1k resistor and a new 2sc1815 transistor with an ugly ass jumper job and it's back 100% with sound.
 
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