TMNT Free Play ROM Hack

DogP

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Similar to the Simpsons free play ROM hack I did ( http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=378060 )... here's a free play ROM hack for the 4 player TMNT. One of the main problems with TMNT for home use is inevitably someone will hit the credit button a bunch of times, adding a bunch of lives, then get bored and walk away... leaving everyone else to kill off all those lives.

This hack has the full attract mode, and to start/continue, you simply press any button. It adds 2 lives each time you start/continue, so if someone walks away, it's easy to kill them off. Of course you just press a button to join in or continue during gameplay.

I've only done the "World" ROM set so far ("tmnt" set in MAME), though hopefully the other 4P sets will be very similar (it's too late tonight... I'll check tomorrow). I can't make promises, but I plan to at least do a 4P US set... 2P sets may be quite different, so they may not get done. This does freeplay only... there is no DIP or menu selection to enable/disable free/coin play.

Anyway, attached is the hacked ROM set... burn the 2 ROMs to 27C010 EPROMs and swap with the corresponding chips at locations J17 and K17.

I've only briefly tested it (both in MAME and on a PCB on my testbench), so if you try it out, let me know how it works and/or if you find any bugs.

EDIT: All 4P ROM sets in MAME have been patched, and available for download in these posts: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=3376157&postcount=8 and http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=3376159&postcount=9 .

DogP
 
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Great job. :)

Any chance you plan to look at Turtles in Time? It would be great to have simpsons, tmnt and tmnt2 all running on free play in my cab. :D
I'm definitely not making promises, but TiT and X-Men are on my list to "look at". For comparison, Simpsons and TMNT were on my list to "do". Some day I'd like to get TiT and X-Men... though not at their current (particularly TiT's) prices.

DogP
 
The good news is that the other 4P ROM sets look very similar, so it's just a matter of replacing the same instructions and fixing the checksums (I've fixed both US sets so far)... unfortunately the 2P ROMs look a bit different, so I don't plan to focus on them, at least for now.

It would be great to have simpsons, tmnt and tmnt2 all running on free play in my cab. :D
I see you're from the UK... as I'm doing the hacks, I see Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (UK version), but see you refer to it as tmnt, not tmht. Just something I've been curious about... do you guys prefer Ninja or Hero over there?

DogP
 
Attached are the zips for the TMNT ROM sets, and the readme describing how to use the hacks. The forum size limit forced me to put each ROM set in its own zip. TMHT sets will follow.

DogP
 

Attachments

  • readme.txt
    998 bytes · Views: 265
  • tmnt_freeplay.zip
    117.4 KB · Views: 170
  • tmntu_freeplay.zip
    117.4 KB · Views: 163
  • tmntua_freeplay.zip
    117.4 KB · Views: 125
  • tmntj_freeplay.zip
    117.5 KB · Views: 91
And here are the TMHT ROM sets.

DogP
 

Attachments

  • tmht_freeplay.zip
    117.4 KB · Views: 57
  • tmhta_freeplay.zip
    117.4 KB · Views: 44
  • tmhtb_freeplay.zip
    117.4 KB · Views: 40
I see you're from the UK... as I'm doing the hacks, I see Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (UK version), but see you refer to it as tmnt, not tmht. Just something I've been curious about... do you guys prefer Ninja or Hero over there?

DogP

Even back in the day it was considered a joke that we weren't allowed to say ninja. Generally the only time people call it hero is refering to the '89 cartoon or early stuff linked to it.

Everything that follwed like the movies and reboots kept the ninja name. Even though they changed the title screen to hero in the arcade game the theme song that plays still says ninja. :D
 
Ah... interesting. I didn't realize it was a censorship thing. I just looked it up... apparently they censored out the word "bummer" too. Never heard that slang, but I LOL'd. :D

Even though they changed the title screen to hero in the arcade game the theme song that plays still says ninja. :D
Heh, yeah... I noticed that too. ;)

DogP
 
DogP, you're one of my favorite internet people ever. Seriously, there's a few times a year where I look into modifying or fixing something and it turns out you've made a ton of progress in whatever it is i'm trying to do. Thanks for doing all the crazy tinkering that you do!

I sold my original TMNT board a year or two ago because we switched our arcade over to a free play setting and this didn't exist - but I do still have a ..TIT board. Also, you're local apparently - so you're welcome to use it if you'd like. I'll PM you.

Time to buy another TMNT board!
 
So I have some questions. I just got a TMNT game and also bought the TiT PCB from the guy. What do I need to be able to use a jamma switcher and put both in the same cabinet?
Isn't the TiT stereo?

Also my TiT is 2 players. Where can I get the 4 player eprom?

Is there a free play option for TiT yet?

Could I also put Simpsons in this switcher too? If its a 4 game jamma why not try and use all 4 slots :)

Sorry for all the questions but I'm opening a pinball place but will have some classic arcade games in there too. I have a playchoice 10 coming loaded with games and a Neo Geo with lots of games. We are flat rate so people play all day or hourly.
 
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I recently got a TiT board with the USA 2P ROM setup. it has a freeplay option however this gets rid of the attract mode and the game just sits on a static screen that says PRESS START.

this is very much not ok with me as I'd rather not get burn in on my CRT.

I'm not sure if the 2P variants of TMNT1 are the same.

If you do ever work on a Free Play patch for TiT I'd be interested in a less shitty 2P freeplay version.
 
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