SF-2 / SF-II / SF2 Rom/Eprom conversion help

steph

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I get asked often to provide eproms to convert one version of SF2 to another version of SF2
(World Warrior, Champion Edition, Hyperfighting, Accelerated, etc... ),
and it's never a clear cut rom-only upgrade (rom 21, 22, 23 ) ..

There are so many versions, and bootlegs & hacks, and board combinations,
that it's always hit-and-miss as to which conversions will work, and which won't.

So I'm looking to the Capcom Guru's to share their knowledge on the topic.

ie. which conversions work as direct roms swap, and which need extra PALs and
security chips to work.

I don't need all the gory details of date revisions (ie. USA 910206 vs. USA 910214),
but regional differences would be useful (ie. USA roms are usually 4Mb, but Japanese roms
are sometimes 1Mb ).

I will share what I "think" I know, but please correct any erroneous statement.

---

I believe there were 3 "official" Capcom versions:

World Warrior
Champion Edition
Turbo: Hyper Fighting

All other versions, are hacks or bootlegs derived from one of these 3 Capcom SF2 "streams"

The basic version is SF2 :
World Warrior MAME file = SF2U (Capcom Rom stickers S92-E)

SF2 Champ Edition was an upgrade that required different PAL chips and other mods.
It is NOT a directly 3-eprom swap.
[ ie. what are they ? What do I need to go from SF2-WW to SF2-CE ? ]

MAME file = SF2CEU (Capcom Rom stickers ?)

From the SF2-CE are a few direct eprom upgrades (.... please confirm)
Rainbow (MAME file = SF2RB)
RedWave (MAME file = SF2RED)


HyperFighting (Turbo) was a CAPCOM upgrade to Champ Ed.
(MAME File = SF2HF2 ) (Capcom Rom stickers S2TU )

I don't know if this is a direct 3-eprom swap from Champ Edition,
or if other chips (or boards) are needed.

--

Also thrown into the mix is an SF2 Accelerated Pt.2 hack/bootleg
which would "seem" to run off the Champ Ed version,
... but it does not.

I found this page
http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/tech/vidchip.txt

which seems to indicate needing different PALs:

Street Fighter 2CE Acce
27C220 21 A5E8 Rom 21-C Accelerator requires PAL
27C4096 22 AF19 Rom 22-C Accelerator requires PAL
27C4096 23 5A5C Rom 23 Accelerator requires PAL

---

So....

Complicated enough for 'ya ??? ;-)

If anyone can shed any light on this, or has any website with info,
I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
Steph
 
I'm not an expert, from memory you shouldn't/can't upgrade WW to CE because WW boards have a 10MHz crystal and CE (dash) boards have 12MHz. More importantly though CE requires a CPS-B-21 c-board and no WW comes with that. However, I might be wrong on the details :)

Any CE can go to Hyper Fighting with only the 3 eproms.

Most of the bootleg gameplay hacks are based on CE and so just need the 3 eproms changed (no PAL).

sf2accp2 has some special notes in Mame src though.

if (strcmp(gamename, "sf2accp2") == 0)
{
/* Patch out a odd branch which would be incorrectly interpreted
by the cpu core as a 32-bit branch. This branch would make the
game crash (address error, since it would branch to an odd address)
if location 180ca6 (outside ROM space) isn't 0. Protection check? */
uint16_t *rom = (uint16_t *)memregion("maincpu")->base();
rom[0x11756 / 2] = 0x4e71;
}

that suggests that bootleg may have had a custom PAL that returns 0 for reads outside the regular program address space. You could patch the first eprom as above and see if it works.

Note that even if that bootleg PAL was dumped it may not work on a real board because the bootleggers often took shortcuts (for example hardwiring parts of the memory map).
 
You could patch the first eprom as above and see if it works.

Thanks for the info. Good to know.

As for patching the eprom as mentioned above, I'm not a MAME expert,
but I can change bytes on a eprom.

Which byte(s) (from which eprom) would need to be changed, ... and to what ?

Thanks,
Steph
 
Thanks for the info. Good to know.

As for patching the eprom as mentioned above, I'm not a MAME expert,
but I can change bytes on a eprom.

Which byte(s) (from which eprom) would need to be changed, ... and to what ?

Thanks,
Steph

The eprom is sf2ca-23.bin, which is the first ROM in the memory map - the byte offset is 0x11756 - change the 2 bytes there to be 0x4e 0x71 OR 0x71 0x4e. The reason I don't know which is off hand I don't know what endian-ness the ROM is stored in.

If you can't get it PM me your email and I'll test it in MAME.
 
The eprom is sf2ca-23.bin, which is the first ROM in the memory map - the byte offset is 0x11756 - change the 2 bytes there to be 0x4e 0x71 OR 0x71 0x4e.

Thanks for the info.
I should be able to figure it out from there (using MAME)

Cheers,
Stephan
 
I have a Street Fighter compulsion. I have owned at least 10 Street Fighter cabs and 20+ boards. I usually have 2 or 3 cabs and 5 or more boards at any given time. I'm not an expert, but I do have some experience swapping board stacks and doing ROM mods.
I believe there were 3 "official" Capcom versions:
World Warrior
Champion Edition
Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Correct
ie. which conversions work as direct roms swap, and which need extra PALs and security chips to work.
I can confirm that the World Warrior board set is not compatible with the CE roms. There are two variations of the WW A board, but neither works with CE or Hyper. CE and Hyper do share a common board set.

World Warrior has 2 hacks made by Testron, Quicken pt 1 & 2. They are both 2 roms on the B board and a pal on the A board. I have working sets of part 1, one NOS with the install instructions and the other a burned set. I have seen footage of a bootleg board running Quicken pt 2, but never the roms. I am fairly certain pt 2 has not been dumped.

I have personal experience in upgrading CE to Hyperfighting by simply swapping ROMs.
The majority of the simple swaps people are looking for can only be done on CE. I know that Rainbow Edition is also a simple rom swap and I'm 99% that Redwave is as well along with all their variants.

The Accelerated version you linked is also by Testron, so it looks like they liked to use hacks involving pal chips but they are the exception to the rule.
 
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Just an update to this post... It WORKED !!

Thanks to Tendril's info, changing the two bytes at 0x11756 worked !

I provided the modified eprom to the user, and he confirmed it worked in his game.

I'm including the modified eprom file for all.
(it's a single eprom replacement at U23 from the sf2acc2 MAME file )

Thanks for all the help.

Steph
www.hobbyroms.com
 

Attachments

  • sf2ca-23_714E.zip
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But this is for which board version?

Was he doing this on a world warrior or CE?

The main reason people like the ce boards is because different characters and faster play? The whole ghosts and goblins thing drove the price of sf2ce boards up also.


I reread this.. Looks like acce was for a ce board...


Is there nothing for a sf2ww board?
 
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Tendril is awesome. I have sent 5 boards (Battletoads, My Hero, Legend of Kage, Popeye, and Mario Bros) to him for repair in the past few months. He has repaired all without issue. Great for the community.

And no the Popeye is not still available.
 
Tendril is awesome. I have sent 5 boards (Battletoads, My Hero, Legend of Kage, Popeye, and Mario Bros) to him for repair in the past few months. He has repaired all without issue. Great for the community.

And no the Popeye is not still available.

New repairers grow up...:)
 
But this is for which board version?

I reread this.. Looks like acce was for a ce board...

Is there nothing for a sf2ww board?


Yes, the accelerated hack is for the CE board.

As for why there are fewer options for WW,
according to a previous post (post #3 in the thread),
the WW hardware is different than CE, so CE mods won't work on WW.

... and I guess CE was "newer" and more popular,
so hackers built from that version.

Steph
 
I have a ww board and am curious too

The quicken Mod for WW brings gameplay up to Hyperfighting speeds and adds some fun tweaks, it also allows you to run player vs player but you can't play as a Boss. I think that's the big limitation for most people. If you have a WW board the mod is a great way to upgrade your set for faster fighting without dropping the money for the rising prices of CE or Hyper boards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dXAFSMI3Vk
 
Great read thanks for the info, I've burned many sets of roms for friends on ce boards but never messed with ww. I'm gonna get this out
 
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