ranger_lennier

Curt's updated the MPT-02 colors in MESS: http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24861 If anyone tries this out, let us know if it looks like what you're expecting.

Wow, that's quite a collection there. I guess one of the films is for Sumo Wrestling, but not one with a close-up, so I'm not sure if anyone would even be able to read it.

Curt said this regarding MPT-02 colors: "You can get the RGB values by taking screenshots of MESS and colorpicking them There are no hardcoded values used since they are calculated with the MAME resnet.c code. I'll check the CDP1864 background selection logic."

The cart label has the basic instructions, which I had translated as follows: "Baseball (for two players) 1. Press clear, then press the 0 key on controller A (left). 2. Player A (left) goes to bat first. The 5 key is to swing. 3. Player B (right) pitches. The 2 key is an inside corner curveball. The 5 key is a straight ball. The 8 key is an outside corner curveball. If you hold the key you can throw a slowball. 4. When player B is catching a batted ball, use the 2 key to move up and the 8 key to move down. 5. After 3 outs, players change sides. Sumo Wrestling (for two players) 1. Press clear, then press the 5 key on controller A, and press the 0 key on both controllers to do the initial charge. 2. The left wrestler (A) uses the 6 key to push, the 5 key to throw, and the 4 key to pull. The right wrestler (B) uses the 4 key to push, the 5 key to throw, and the 6 key to pull. 3. When the match is complete, the winner will be indicated, both players will press the 0 key, and the game will continue for 15 matches. Note: For more information on how to play the game, please read the manual." Of course, I didn't completely figure it out playing around with it, either. But I didn't try very long since I didn't have a second player around.

I'm not really sure about the colors. I've never set up an MPT-02, since they're PAL. I'm not even certain mine still work. I was really more interested in dumping everything and using it in an emulator. But I'll see if I can figure anything else out from Curt and/or Guru. Curt has also updated MESS for Visicom colors now. http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24791

Guru checked the resistors on the MPT-02 to fix the colors in MESS. Here's the update to the code. Hopefully the information will be useful for Emma 02 or any other emulators. http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24771 I can probably get more information if there's not enough detail there.

We've finally got a Toshiba Visicom game dumped correctly--the very Japanese CAS-130 Sports Fan (Baseball & Sumo Wrestling). Thanks to Charles and Marcel for figuring out how to do it. I'm not sure if they needed to consult anyone else. Check it out here. It runs in Emma 02. http://www.mediafire.com/download/papn69k23pvv2o1/cas130.zip The only instructions I have are what was printed on the cart label. Here's a translation courtesy of Octocontrabass on the MESS forums. Baseball (for two players) 1. Press clear, then press the 0 key on controller A (left). 2. Player A (left) goes to bat first. The 5 key is to swing. 3. Player B (right) pitches. The 2 key is an inside corner curveball. The 5 key is a straight ball. The 8 key is an outside corner curveball. If you hold the key you can throw a slowball. 4. When player B is catching a batted ball, use the 2 key to move up and the 8 key to move down. 5. After 3 outs, players change sides. Sumo Wrestling (for two players) 1. Press clear, then press the 5 key on controller A, and press the 0 key on both controllers to do the initial charge. 2. The left wrestler (A) uses the 6 key to push, the 5 key to throw, and the 4 key to pull. The right wrestler (B) uses the 4 key to push, the 5 key to throw, and the 6 key to pull. 3. When the match is complete, the winner will be indicated, both players will press the 0 key, and the game will continue for 15 matches. Note: For more information on how to play the game, please read the manual. Probably the only Studio II-family cart of mind that's still undumped is Fun With Numbers, which we'll need to get back from Guru first. I also have several carts from different territories, but I haven't yet found a difference between the Studio II and MPT-02 carts. Is anyone able to loan out other any other Visicom carts to get them dumped?

I'm not sure. I don't see any dates on the manuals, carts, or boxes that I have.

I was testing with the most recent update of the Grand Pack st2 file. That's a clever test for running it on the Victory. I'm glad that it worked. I can't guarantee that Grand Pack would run on a Studio II system. I'll have to try that out on the real hardware when I get the cart back from Charles.

I did find this old WIP update from Guru. He dumped the TMM331 ROM in the Visicom system. Scroll down to the January 11, 2009, entry. http://members.iinet.net.au/~lantra9jp1/gurudumps/oldnews2009.html

Star Wars and Pinball work for me as well now, in both Victory and Studio II. Glad to have that sorted out! I've updated the file set again: http://www.mediafire.com/?w8tydhnqn4xo5l7 I still don't know about Grand Pack. If I load it into Victory in Emma, then press Keyboard A key 4 (Q in the default keyboard mapping), it starts up Blackjack. But it does the same thing with no cart, since Blackjack is build into the Victory. If I try the same thing in the Studio II, which doesn't have Blackjack built in, it doesn't do anything. All of the other MPT-02 games I've tried will work fine in the Studio II, though obviously in black and white.

I've played the Victory on emulators and it has the built-in games. I don't actually know who dumped the BIOS, so I guess there's a small chance it's mislabeled. I did buy the Grand Pack cart from a seller in France. Bingo does seem like an odd game to make a cart out of. All it really does is call out numbers, which I suppose is a little easier than doing it by hand, but not that much. And I generally think of Bingo as being played by older people, who probably weren't that likely to have a video game system.

You know, now that I think about it, I don't even know if the present School House I dump is from Math and Social Studies or Computer Quiz. Once I get my Math and Social Studies cart back, I'll get it dumped.

Thanks for looking at the files, Marcel. Is a description of the ST2 format available somewhere? I had just copied the header from baseball.st2 and updated the program names, but clearly there's more to it than this. I've updated my file on Mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/download/w8tydhnqn4xo5l7/mpt02_dumps.zip People who downloaded this before will probably want to update it.

I'm not really sure how to test this. It did seem to work on the Victory in Emma, but you can also play the same games without inserting a cart at all. I thought it might be better to test on the Studio II, since this doesn't have Blackjack built in. I couldn't get it to do anything when I tried this. Why does this cart exist at all? Are there some versions of the MPT-02 that don't have these games built in?

Good find! I wonder why it won't do it anymore once you start calling out numbers.

Yes, the headers were added later, and all the games I was able to check are identical between the Studio II carts and MPT-02 carts. I don't know if this will always be the case, though. I particularly wonder about School House I, which is named Math and Social Studies for the Studio II and MG-209 Computer Quiz for the MPT-02. I have the question booklet for the Studio II version, and the social studies section is pretty United States-centric, even though there are some world questions. I'd expect there to be different questions for the MPT-02, possibly several different sets of questions. Of course, since the cart just has the answers, and you have to look up the questions in the booklet, maybe they could get away with using the same ROM even if the question booklets are different. I've never seen any of the MPT-02 booklets, though.

I like the emulator, Marcel. The best technical information about the Visicom that I know of is in the MESS source code: http://git.redump.net/mame/tree/src/mess/drivers/studio2.c My system is currently with Guru, and I'm planning to get it back here within the next few months. So it may be possible to answer some more questions about it.

It's pretty wild that everyone's suddenly working on this system, after a long time not hearing much about it at all. Charles MacDonald completed his Studio II dumper and was able to dump all of the MPT-02 games I sent him. I have been making arrangements to get the carts and systems I loaned out to Guru back in the USA and send them to Charles, but that may take a few months. The Visicom cart I send has some differences as Charles previously posted about, and hasn't been dumped yet. This should happen at some point, though. All the dumps which had already been dumped for some system were identical. There was previously some discussion about a unique serial number in MPT-02 dumps, but after I looked at the dumps in a hex editor, I realized that this was simply in the header added for the .st2 format, and is not actually present in the ROM on the cart. The identical dumps are the old Math Fun dump labeled as coming from the Victory, and my Math Fun which based on the instructions would seem to be the French release. Then there were MPT-02 versions of Speedway, Biorhythm, and Gunfighter/ Moonship Battle, which I believe were previously dumped from the USA Studio II. Charles had also previously matched the old Tennis dump with the dump of a US cart I sent him. Can anyone confirm that all of those old dumps were from USA Studio II carts? If we want to be extra thorough, I do have all the US carts either here or with Guru. I tried testing the new dumps in both MESS and Emma 02. The results were pretty much the same, except that I think Emma 02 matches the colors better. Neither emulator supports the plain binary dumps at the moment, so I had to add a header to put them in .st2 format, I don't think there's any way to load Grand Pack as two ROM files without changes to the emulators, so I haven't tested that one. I don't know of any other cart quite like it. Of the others, Bingo and Concentration Match appear to work fine. They'll play in color on the MPT-02, or in black and white on the Studio II. I couldn't get Pinball or Star Wars to work. It's probably an issue with the emulators, since previously no games released only for the MPT-02 family have been available. I've combined everything I got from Charles with my .st2 conversions of Bingo, Concentration Match, Pinball, and Star Wars. Feel free to check them out. http://www.mediafire.com/?w8tydhnqn4xo5l7 I'd be particularly interested if anyone is able to get Grand Pack, Pinball, or Star Wars working. And since games for these systems aren't always very intuitive, here are the links to my scans I posted awhile back. Clone Cartridge Instructions: http://www.mediafire.com/?ybzl5fm12tblbpb Studio II Cartridge Instructions: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?khuy39x2dzimy9r Clone cartridges: http://www.mediafire.com/?a6rvdkkd26zyyzc Studio II cartridges: http://www.mediafire.com/?wudbpn9erc98pw2 Owners and Service Manuals: http://www.mediafire.com/?7jod7m8a63za1n9 TV School House I Booklets: http://www.mediafire.com/?737ozbndlar93zw System Photos and System Boxes: http://www.mediafire.com/?5ebmvf28e73709c Cartridge Boxes: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?95wih39jrj6ow49 PeT Scans: http://www.mediafire.com/?ojxprk04sqwfihf

Way back on page 7 of this thread, TLD1985 posted a picture that included 141 and 190. I've never seen them for sale myself. As long as these have gone undumped, I'd say doing it at the end of the year would be worth the wait.

Nice scans. It's interesting that your English-language Star Wars manual is completely different from my French one. It's not just a simple translation.

Does anyone know where the idea of a US Bingo release originated? Did someone say they saw one? Are there ads for it? I just know that I've seen it on some lists, but I've never seen one for sale, or even seen pictures of it.

Instructions are particularly important for the Studio II, as it's not always intuitive even how to start a game. TV School House I makes no sense whatsoever without the question booklets that came with it. For the clone instructions, I have a mix of English and French, along with some boxes in German. I don't have the instructions for Baseball/Sumo, but there is some Japanese text on the back of the cart, which might be a summary of how to play it.

OK, the scans are all organized and uploaded now. I've made them archive quality--300 dpi color PNG's. There are also some photos from my digital camera for the systems themselves, and the system box that's too large to scan easily. Feel free to distribute, reformat, etc. My U.S. collection is just about complete, though I don't have a box for TV School House I. For the clone carts, some I don't have boxes and/or instructions. Some of what I do have is kind of beat up. If anyone is able to scan missing items, or scan more pristine items, that would be great. I'm also including some miscellaneous scans I got from Peter Trauner (PeT). I'm not sure how widely these have been distributed. Clone cartridges: http://www.mediafire.com/?a6rvdkkd26zyyzc Studio II cartridges: http://www.mediafire.com/?wudbpn9erc98pw2 Owners and Service Manuals: http://www.mediafire.com/?7jod7m8a63za1n9 Studio II Cartridge Instructions: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?khuy39x2dzimy9r Clone Cartridge Instructions: http://www.mediafire.com/?ybzl5fm12tblbpb TV School House I Booklets: http://www.mediafire.com/?737ozbndlar93zw System Photos and System Boxes: http://www.mediafire.com/?5ebmvf28e73709c Cartridge Boxes: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?95wih39jrj6ow49 PeT Scans: http://www.mediafire.com/?ojxprk04sqwfihf

To clarify, I have the 9 carts with me. Guru has a Victory system which I purchased separately and had shipped directly to him.