Seibu SPI System - Region Questions

[shmup-o]

I've been searching like crazy but can't find some info... hoping that someone here knows what is going on.

I just bought a Viper Phase 1 combo off of Ebay and it looks like it is a Japan combo. I also have a BattleBalls cart/mobo from when I bought my cab, but it doesn't work. I'd like to test my BattleBalls cart on the other mobo, but I don't want to screw anything up. So here we go...

1) How do you tell which region you have without booting it up?
2) I know that changing the carts incorrectly can damage them, if I put a US cart on a JP mobo, will that damage either the mobo or the cart? Or can I just test it out and hope the cart is JP?

I probably would have just thrown it on, but Raiden is scaring me in some older threads:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=963
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=3224

EDIT
Looks like I have a VP1 USA cart. Still not sure what region the Senkyu/Battle Balls cart is...

Thanks!

[fuko]

All my SPI carts are JP and have a small colored seal stamped in the bottom right corner (as in this pic: http://www.pici.se/192537/). Not sure about the USA carts. I'd be curious to know what your US VP1 has on the label.

They all say "use in japan only" at the title attract, but that obviously requires a boot...

I don't think you can damage the cart/mobo by attempting to boot a region swap. Only interrupting the ROM load process (accompanied by the 999 countdown) prior to completion can potentially ruin the board. However: I've never tried it so can't say for absolute sure.

[shmup-o]

I think all of the carts look the same. The VP1 cart looks the same as VP1 JP carts shown on Ebay and have the same stamps in the photo you linked above. Upon boot, it says VP1 USA Version on the title screen. What's strange is that it came with original Japanese instructions and photocopied US instructions.

I'll probably just try to boot up Battle Balls later this weekend and cross my fingers.

[rtw]

1) How do you tell which region you have without booting it up?
2) I know that changing the carts incorrectly can damage them, if I put a US cart on a JP mobo, will that damage either the mobo or the cart? Or can I just test it out and hope the cart is JP?

EDIT
Looks like I have a VP1 USA cart. Still not sure what region the Senkyu/Battle Balls cart is...

Open the cart and dump one of the ROM's and use "mame -romident file" to get the version.

Have you got a picture of the Battle Balls cart ?

A picture of your SPI board will be useful as well. There are three different revisions.

Your cart cannot destroy your motherboard if its the wrong region. All you will get is an error. You can change the cart region to match your motherboard.

But you need to know exactly what type of motherboard you have, does it say licensed to FABTEK on the title screen ?

rtw

[shmup-o]

Open the cart and dump one of the ROM's and use "mame -romident file" to get the version.

Have you got a picture of the Battle Balls cart ?

A picture of your SPI board will be useful as well. There are three different revisions.

Your cart cannot destroy your motherboard if its the wrong region. All you will get is an error. You can change the cart region to match your motherboard.

But you need to know exactly what type of motherboard you have, does it say licensed to FABTEK on the title screen ?

rtw

I'm not too sure how to dump a ROM - is that an easy process?

I think I answered my own question though, I threw the cart on there and got a checksum error. I found some info on the web that says a region difference would cause that.

Can you verify?

Thanks!
Andy

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Open the cart and dump one of the ROM's and use "mame -romident file" to get the version.

Have you got a picture of the Battle Balls cart ?

A picture of your SPI board will be useful as well. There are three different revisions.

Your cart cannot destroy your motherboard if its the wrong region. All you will get is an error. You can change the cart region to match your motherboard.

But you need to know exactly what type of motherboard you have, does it say licensed to FABTEK on the title screen ?

rtw

I'm not too sure how to dump a ROM - is that an easy process?

I think I answered my own question though, I threw the cart on there and got a checksum error. I found some info on the web that says a region difference would cause that.

Can you verify?

Thanks!
Andy

For shmup-o,

Sounds like you got a SP1 JPN region board with a USA region Battle Balls SP1 cart...I could be wrong though. It helps if you do have both a JPN & USA region SP1 motherboards. That way if such booted-up SP1 cart doesn't work on one mobo, it'll definitely work on the other one... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[shmup-o]

Yeah, that's what I'm going with for the time being. The mobo for the VP1 is US while the Senkyu is JP. Hopefully I can pick up another JP mobo to see if it's the cart or mobo.

Thanks!
Andy

[rtw]

Yeah, that's what I'm going with for the time being. The mobo for the VP1 is US while the Senkyu is JP. Hopefully I can pick up another JP mobo to see if it's the cart or mobo.

If the mobo is US all you need to do is to reburn one of the EPROM's in the cart with the correct language id.

rtw

[shmup-o]

If the mobo is US all you need to do is to reburn one of the EPROM's in the cart with the correct language id.

rtw

Soooo... how does one go about doing this?

[rtw]

If the mobo is US all you need to do is to reburn one of the EPROM's in the cart with the correct language id.

rtw

Soooo... how does one go about doing this?

You need an EPROM burner or access to one.
Then you open the cart and post a picture of it here. I'll tell you
which EPROM to read.

rtw