Unit 504's GTI CLUB 2 problem...

[bbz149]

What ever you do don't fit timekeeper from ebay, doesn't matter if they are new, if they've been sat on a shelf for years they are useless, you need to buy them from a good supplier where you know your going to get a recent date code.

If anyone needs these repairing I can do them, its not the internet myth of fitting one and holding reset down, that works on the original GTI club's eeprom, also the only game where I know you can just replace it is a a baseball game as it has no security on it.

Is there a date or year code stamped on the units then? if not how do you tell how long a supplier had the unit on a shelf?

 

[Ordyne]

yes, they all should have a date code printed on them but it's not as simple as month/year etc.

Buy them from somewhere like RS or Farnell who run out of stock and restock them monthly. These IC's cost £15 to £20, cheap as chips on ebay may well be because they are old stock.

 

[Ordyne]

No not tried replacing the rtc chip as i hear from electrocoin after sales the chip needs to be re flashed and the data/info on the rtc needs to be married up to the coding on the game on the cf card.

Simply swapping cf cards to a different board will not work and can risk causing that board to rtc error also.

Best thing it to get someone who know about these boards and how to fix them.

BTW thats correct and yes I've seen putting a cf card in from another game corrupt the CF so it wont work with what was previously in there. I've also seen a dump from one game put in another RTC for the same game and version and it not work, this only really happens on viper... Had it on Driving Part and Silent Scope Fortune Hunter.

 

[Ordyne]

lol, just looked at that ebay auction, no date code and a Chinese supplier! who'd have though that!

Ohh and the package type is mega old, that package was used in the original build of the Konami boards, ST changed the package slightly and they did that well over 5 years ago.

Ordyne2012-07-23 14:51:58

 

[Unit504]

mmmm seems legit

lol, just looked at that ebay auction, no date code and a Chinese supplier! who'd have though that!

 

[drh]

What ever you do don't fit timekeeper from ebay, doesn't matter if they are new, if they've been sat on a shelf for years they are useless, you need to buy them from a good supplier where you know your going to get a recent date code.

If anyone needs these repairing I can do them, its not the internet myth of fitting one and holding reset down, that works on the original GTI club's eeprom, also the only game where I know you can just replace it is a a baseball game as it has no security on it.

ah
i already sent you an email today asking information, after some researches looks like you're the only one able to fix this

just a little consideration: i didnt know about this issue, otherwise i wouldnt bought the cab, now i have 2 choices: burn or fix

anyway, why these manufacturers sells stuff that will stop working within 10 years or less (konami or cps2/3 and others) ?
if i was a reseller/pro and bought these boards at their original cost....i would be really pissed off or i would have ask for a big discount

now i know that after 10years of arcade gaming you should got enough money, and also the repairing service is a good business, but is there a technical reason for this?

 

[Ordyne]

Yes, it's how they wrote their protection to stop operators/boot leggers changing the games and upgrading their cabinets. "Working life" of a video game is supposed to be 5 years

 

[lovecraft]

Hi Ordyne,

(PS: sorry for my english)

Thanks for the interesting infos you shared here.

I would have a question :

To summarize my story, I bought a GTI Club 2 board on eBay a couple of months ago, but actually got ripped off by the seller ("gameboardsoc1234http://myworld.ebay.fr/gameboardsoc1234/?_trksid=p4340.l2559"...very bad and rude person, awful service... be EXTREMELY cautious before buying any thing from that seller...), as the board was completely defective (randomly booted up, let's say once in 10 attempts, then freezed, etc etc). Fortunately, Paypal forced the seller to accept the return and will refund me soon, but before the case ends, I bought a low cost "Mahjong Fight Club" PCB stated as "junk" from a japanese seller. I just received it yesterday. That game runs on the Konami's Viper Satellite Terminal hardware ( http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=866 ), and I notice it's EXACTLY the same board as the GTI Club 2 ! More interesting is this board boots up correctly but has the "RTC Check Bad" error.

So here is my question : would it be possible to re-flash the SD card and replace the game roms on it with the GTI Club 2 roms ? Then replace the RTC chip (soldered on this PCB) ? Basically, is it possible to convert this "Mahjong Fight Club" board in a GTI Club 2 fully functional board ?
And could I hire your services to make such a conversion/repair work ?

Please let me know, thanks for your reply Ordyne
lovecraft2012-08-15 10:43:48

 

[Ordyne]

I've never seen a board from a satellite terminal game but if it's the same then yes it should be doable to convert it. Are you wanting GTI club 2 or driving party? I've never seen a board with a GTi Club 2 title screen, all euro machines were renamed to driving party. GTI2 screen might be doable on a Jap flash image.

I've seen the fault you describe on the other board, it happens a lot to them if them.

 

[lovecraft]

Sounds great !

Thanks for the super fast reply Ordyne.
A friend of mine owns a Thrill Drive 2 (running on the same hardware as GTI Club2 / Driving Party), so I might be able to see if the Thrill Drive 2 SD card is recognized on my board. I suppose if it is before the "RTC error", that would mean it can be converted !

 

[Unit504]

Thrill Drive 2 will not recognise the gti board as i have both of them and they are not swappable.

well mine don't anyway..

Sounds great !

Thanks for the super fast reply Ordyne.
A friend of mine owns a Thrill Drive 2 (running on the same hardware as GTI Club2 / Driving Party), so I might be able to see if the Thrill Drive 2 SD card is recognized on my board. I suppose if it is before the "RTC error", that would mean it can be converted !

 

[lovecraft]

OK, well it's just to see if the "Device Check / Disk Media Check" go fine on boot up, in this case it should mean this Viper Satellite board I have can be converted in a GTI Club 2