0.139u1 [Roberto Fresca, ChrisQC, Smitdogg]
WIP:
- 0.162: Clean, spaces and alignment [Roberto Fresca].
- 0.140u1: Roberto Fresca added clone Mega Double Poker (conversion kit, set 2). Changed parent description to 'Mega Double Poker (conversion kit, set 1)'.
- 0.139u1: Roberto Fresca, ChrisQC and Smitdogg added 'Mega Double Poker (conversion kit)' (Blitz System Inc. 1990). Mega Double Poker is distributed as standalone PCB, or as upgrade kit for modified Golden Poker boards. The game has an undumped MC68705P5 MCU, so the emulation should be impossible till this device can be decapped and properly dumped. New driver for Mega Double Poker, from Blitz System Inc [Roberto Fresca]: Initial release. Preliminary memory map. Hooked both PIAs, but need more analysis to confirm the offsets. Accurate graphics and color decode. Added main PCB and daughterboard layouts. Added partial docs and diagrams about the CPU/MCU/ROMs addressing. Added debug and technical notes.
- 10th August 2010: Roberto Fresca - Thanks to ChrisQC and Smitdogg, I'm currently working in another rare poker game. This one is Mega Double Poker, manufactured by Blitz System. The game was released in two flavors: As standalone board, and as "upgrade" kit for modified Golden Poker hardware. Seeing the program flow, I can say that game's programmers were extremely twisted. The program is way soooo obfuscated to cover almost everything. There is a terrible issue with the way the program roms are working. There are 2 program ROMs that share the same addressing space and seems to be bankswitched through a MC68705P5S MCU. However, the second one seems totally encrypted/scrambled and I suspect it's also driven by the MCU+PLDs. Addressing and data is a whole mess and need to be figured out. Obviously the MCU decap could enlight a bit the hardware architecture. On the other side, the daughterboard need to be totally traced to see the connections. At this point I have a vague, incomplete and erratic map, but is better than nothing. The board also has a definitly damaged 2716 device. And is expected to be that way. Let me explain a bit about it... The 3rd cards graphics layer shares the romspace with the char data (being the last bitplane of the 1st graphics bank). The 2716 is a leftover from the old board, and need to be blank, damaged, or just an empty socket, so the remaining chars bitplanes could be read as blank, thing needed for the whole bank since it's phisically 3bpp and chars data is treated as 1bpp. So... They used the damaged device just to complicate the things to operators that want to dump the whole set. BTW, I got the whole graphics banks sorted out. All data seems to be there. Also the color PROM is accurately decoded. Here the decoded tiles and some cards arranged.
- 7th July 2010: Smitdogg - We have recently been collecting more chips for decapping to send to the doc. As Guru mentioned earlier, I have located lots of other games that need their MCU dumped. Most or maybe all of them currently have things simulated that could be hooked up properly to run more like the original machines - including gameplay. I got the 68705 from Blitz Mega Double Poker from ChrisQC.
- 25th June 2010: Smitdogg - ChrisQC sent me a Blitz Mega Double Poker PCB to dump. It's rare as most of them were seized and destroyed in 1999 to make way for a lottery-monopoly on gambling in the area. Unfortunately, the boards need to be returned soon and it uses a 68705P that needs to be decapped, and on top of that, I can't get a good read of the MBM2716 it uses. There's one other guy with an upgraded set (called the "Maxi Double") who might have another copy of the ROM, but he might only have the upgraded chips for that set. I'm not sure yet. Anyway, I'm not holding my breath for the emulation.
