Okay, more info on Infinity game board salvage. I have two dead motherboards with damaged tiny components in that same poop spot just rear of the main processor. In one case, the petrified poop I scrubbed off seems to have eaten through some of the legs of whatever those little rectangular surface mount thingys are. The other board is super clean and looks almost new but mysteriously has a bit of damage in that same place (maybe even a production defect from the factory? Very coincidental though...) This may have nothing or everything to do with the board being dead. I dunno.
I do have a motherboard that's good, but its dedicated companion dolphin I/O board is so dead (with an obvious burnt IC) it's not even recognized as being connected. I tried two other I/O boards, which both let the software run and are reported flawless in self-test, but they can't be used for game play due to the software security measures I've described before. So, still looking for a way to erase or bypass memory of the serial number match on the I/O board.
Now, here's the new discovery that got me writing today. A lucky miracle occurred this week when I found a NOS never before used replacement I/O board. At start up, the software asks for the serial number of the motherboard and a country code, and before accepting entry, it warns that this can NEVER be changed once entered, which permanently dedicates the new I/O board to only that one mobo. Fortunately, it gives the option to do it later, after which the game will play normally, but strictly on FREEPLAY. I'm a kook who likes putting money into my games for a more authentic good-ol-days experience (and to limit how much time my kids spend playing), but I'll sacrifice that for this one game so I always have the option to swap this I/O board to another mobo.
Whoever grabbed the mobo's out of my games must have either found out too late they should've taken the I/O's too, or they had access to fresh unused replacement I/O boards, or they know the hack to erase I/O memory of having been used before.
So, my game is fixed and workin' after months of obsessing and iffy parts buying. Yay! But, I'll hold onto the busted mobo's in case we ever run into someone good at fixing them, and I'll keep the working-but-unusable dedicated I/O boards in hope of finding a way to re-flash them someday...
Best,
~Eric
