PCE Fan X's observations of Ibara PCB + some ?s about it...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Upon booting up Cave's Ibara PCB for the first time, it goes into self check mode running diagnostics of various sectors.

The CR-2430 coin type lithium battery is for high score saving and clock/calendar record keeping purposes. (Is a bigger battery than your CR-2032 coin type battery, of course.)

I like how Cave was able to show Ibara players what time it is upon watching the "Garden" stage demo and showing the correct time that is displayed on the rose-themed clock shown...very cool feature indeed! There is even a minute hand that is set in motion as well... ^_~

At first, I couldn't get the high scores to save and went back to the operator's menu screen to see if I could get that particular problem solved -- it was solved by selecting "Save" game scores command.

I also intialized the Ibara PCB "high score ranking" -- what is this function for anyways?

Still can't believe how small it is compared to Cave's earlier arcade shmup PCB titles such as DP, DDP, ESP.ra.de & Ketsui... ^_~

And is it possible to convert a "plain-vanilla" Ibara PCB into a "Black Label" Ibara PCB through EPROM-burning or would I have to buy it seperately?

Cave should went for true stereo output (instead of the usual mono Jamma output) -- it wouldn't have cost that much more to implement, would it? (Just a pair of L & R RCA phono output jacks surface mounted on to the actual PCB itself and hooked up to a decent speaker setup, can't get any better than that here, folks -- try this stereo speaker setup with a Taito G-Net motherboard setup & you're in heaven.....) ^_~

Thanks for your informative arcade shmup PCB-related answers in advance...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[EOJ]

The CR-2430 coin type lithium battery is for high score saving and clock/calendar record keeping purposes. (Is a bigger battery than your CR-2032 coin type battery, of course.)

Actually the CR-2430 lithium battery is only used for clock/calendar record keeping purposes. The scores are saved on the board somewhere else (no one is quite sure where though). It is the same with all Cave SH3 PCBs. To test this, feel free to remove the battery and then boot up the PCB. You'll see your scores are still saved.

[rtw]

And is it possible to convert a "plain-vanilla" Ibara PCB into a "Black Label" Ibara PCB through EPROM-burning or would I have to buy it seperately?

There are no EPROM's on the PCB. The PCB is programmed using a process called JTAG. This means you connect a cable and burn/download the software to the FLASH ROM's.

So you will have to buy an Ibara black label.

rtw