SOLVED: Gaplus/Galaga 3 high score save (Midway board)

[jimbodeanny]

SOLVED: Gaplus/Galaga 3 high score save (Midway board)

I see that JROK created a high score save mod for the Namco board of Gaplus/Galaga 3 (http://www.jrok.com/sohs/gap_shs.html), but does anyone know if a high score save exists for the Midway board or know which chips to replace? I haven't been able to find anything.

 

[PassivePac-Man]

Same design, different (shitty) layout... kit still works.

Bet Mark could tell you how to do it

 

[jimbodeanny]

Bet Mark could tell you how to do it

"Could" and "would" are two different things.

 

[mattosborn]

IIRC, JROK provides the modified ROMs for Galaga 3 as well. Figuring out which RAM to replace shouldn't be hard. I think I still have a Midway board....

 

[jimbodeanny]

IIRC, JROK provides the modified ROMs for Galaga 3 as well. Figuring out which RAM to replace shouldn't be hard. I think I still have a Midway board....

Yep, everything needed is on the site: http://www.jrok.com/sohs/gap_shs.html

According to the site, on the Namco board it's ROMs 8D, 8C & 8B, and the RAM at L10. Checking the ROMs on my Midway board, I'm guessing it's ROMs 9C, 9D and 9E. I just don't know which RAM I need to replace for the Midway board.

 

[mattosborn]

OK, I just checked my Galaga 3 board. There are only 4 possibilities for the SRAM, and they're all socketed on my board (look for the M58725P chips). Hopefully they're socketed on yours as well, which will make it a breeze. My first guess would be 3M. I would try it myself, but my board is currently lacking one of the custom chips (robbed to fix another board for someone).

 

[jimbodeanny]

OK, I just checked my Galaga 3 board. There are only 4 possibilities for the SRAM, and they're all socketed on my board (look for the M58725P chips). Hopefully they're socketed on yours as well, which will make it a breeze. My first guess would be 3M. I would try it myself, but my board is currently lacking one of the custom chips (robbed to fix another board for someone).

Yep, mine are socketed as well. I'll try it out! Thanks for the info!!

 

[KaBoom1701]

Let me know if you guys figure this out. I'd be interested in do this for my board as well. Thx

 

[jimbodeanny]

My NVRAM showed up so I spent all evening trying to get this HSS to work. I'm pretty sure I have the right ROM locations of 9C, 9D, and 9E. Tried every combination to no avail. The closest I got a screen that showed most of the scrolling starfield and some garbage, along with the "Push 1 player s button" (and extra life text) upside down. That was with the HSS roms in the following locations (8B in 9C, 8C in 9D, and 8D in 9E) and the NVRAM in location 9J. Every other combination either didn't boot to anything or garbage of some sort.

I then found this HSS: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=428949&highlight=gaplus+score+save

I patched my ROMs using the software, but had similar results as the JROK HSS.

I'm guessing both of these HSS only work on the NAMCO board. I haven't given up yet though.

 

[GreaseBall]

 

[jimbodeanny]

SUCCESS UPDATE:

My two PROMs came today (thanks Matt!). I swapped those out in their respective locations (3E/3F) and burned the proper ROM to swap with location 9L. Fired it up and I got my Gaplus back.




Next, I decided to try the HSS mods. First, I tried JROK's again and was unsuccessful again. Then I tried the ROM patch hack again (https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=428949&highlight=gaplus+score+save) that requires patching just ROMs 9D and 9E, as well as an NVRAM. I put an NVRAM in 9J, thinking that was the proper location and fired it up. The game booted properly so I played a game, got a high score, turned it off, waited 10 seconds and turned it back on. No saved score. So I tried the NVRAM in the next spot (3M), played a game, rebooted and WALA! The score was saved! I'm not sure if this will work with "Galaga 3" but it seems to work just fine on the Midway board, running Gaplus.



So to recap...

In order to get the HSS to work on the Midway board (the way I did it.)

1) The board needs to be running Gaplus (to convert from G3, PROMs 3e and 3f, and ROM 9L need to be swapped)

2) Patch ROMs 9E and 9F using GadgetFreak's HSS rom patcher
(https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=428949&highlight=gaplus+score+save)

3) Install an NVRAM in location 3M


Hope that helps some of you guys. Good luck!

 

[mattosborn]

3) Install an NVRAM in location 3M

Hey, my guess was right!

 

[Ghostlyguy]

Very very nice.... I'd be interested in this...

Edit: Hmm, I checked by PCB it appears to be the Namco version. Jrok it is I guess.

 

[Dialsoft]

Any chance i can pay one of you dudes to make this happen on my board? Ill send you my board and pay you.

 

[mattosborn]

Any chance i can pay one of you dudes to make this happen on my board? Ill send you my board and pay you.

Everything you need to change out is socketed, so really no reason to ship that big board.
Kit for conversion from Galaga 3 to Gaplus and adding score save would require:

3 new program ROMs (9C, 9D, 9E)
1 character ROM (9L)
2 sprite color PROMs (3E, 3F)
1 NVRAM (3M)

So 4 2764 EPROMs, 2 82S131 PROMs, and a 2K NVRAM. I'd do it for $60 shipped. But I wouldn't sell any until I've tried it out myself, and currently my board is out of commission until I get a new Namco 34 custom (address decoder chip). Maybe I've got another Namco board around here with one... anyone out there know where I can snag a 34 from?

 

[jimbodeanny]

Kit for conversion from Galaga 3 to Gaplus and adding score save would require:

3 new program ROMs (9C, 9D, 9E)
1 character ROM (9L)
2 sprite color PROMs (3E, 3F)
1 NVRAM (3M)

Of the program ROMs, only ROMs 9D and 9E need to be patched/swapped out. 9C doesn't need to be changed out.

 

[mattosborn]

Of the program ROMs, only ROMs 9D and 9E need to be patched/swapped out. 9C doesn't need to be changed out.

I don't believe that is so. The MAME driver I looked at did not indicate that Galaga 3 and Gaplus share any main program ROMs (at least not in general... perhaps there exists a particular version where one does?).

 

[jimbodeanny]

I don't believe that is so. The MAME driver I looked at did not indicate that Galaga 3 and Gaplus share any main program ROMs (at least not in general... perhaps there exists a particular version where one does?).

All I know is that I didn't replace ROM 9C as the ROM patcher that I used (https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=428949&highlight=gaplus+score+save)
only patches 9D and 9E, so those were the only ones I swapped. The JROK HSS didn't work.

 

[mattosborn]

All I know is that I didn't replace ROM 9C as the ROM patcher that I used (https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=428949&highlight=gaplus+score+save)
only patches 9D and 9E, so those were the only ones I swapped. The JROK HSS didn't work.

There are multiple versions of Galaga 3 and multiple versions of Gaplus, so not replacing the 3 program ROMs with a known consistent set is asking for trouble. A conversion kit that would work for everyone will need to replace all 3.
Strange that JROK's didn't work.... I'll have to check that out.

 

[jimbodeanny]

There are multiple versions of Galaga 3 and multiple versions of Gaplus, so not replacing the 3 program ROMs with a known consistent set is asking for trouble. A conversion kit that would work for everyone will need to replace all 3.
Strange that JROK's didn't work.... I'll have to check that out.

Interesting. Yeah, I'm not sure why JROK's didn't work. My ROMset was detected by the patcher as Galaga3c (aka "set 4"). For 3c (set 4) and 3m (set 5) it patched just those two ROMs.