Sir Guntz

The Coleco Chameleon is real after all

I have an issue with two games on my //e, Maniac Mansion and Prince of Persia. They flat out don't work, no matter that disk images I try. I've ruled out bad disks by copying known good games to those same disks and they work fine. I've heard that Maniac and POP require 128K RAM to run, I don't know if I have that. I have a //e with a 65c02 marker on the keyboard, I don't know what exact model of //e it is. Inside it has just a 64K RAM card in the AUX slot, maybe a double hi-res card. Do I need to get a 128K card for one of the expansion slots? I've also had some conflicting information that the //e has 64K on-board and using a 64K AUX card should work, but these games don't work. I think I should just get a 128K RAM card and be done with this.

Well, it doesn’t seem to be moving too fast. Toss me a PM if you’ve decided.

Price dropped

I'm not firm on the price. toss me an offer?

I got it from (I think) jelloslug on pcenginefx before the forum closed. See this thread: https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=18611.0

Shipping only to Canada and USA, Paypal only, Prices are in USD. --- PC Engine Duo system, the original black model. It's fully recapped with a console5 smd cap kit, with a new super capacitor for saving and an RGB amp mod + 8 pin DIN socket. It needed wires to fix a couple corroded vias from the original capacitors. The DC jack was replaced with a smaller socket to fit more common power adapters. It has a new 3D printed card slot cover. The CD drive hasn't been touched but works great. Console is fully tested, good audio from the AV port and the headphone jack. Comes with PSU, matching controller, AV cable and RGB SCART cable. Also includes 3 loose hucard games Victory Run, Legend of Hero Tonma, Be Ball SOLD $270 USD shipped to Canada and USA SOLD Pictures: https://i.imgur.com/ORU8Nat.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Gn4dpeV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/CSLdcSo.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TFbteBy.jpg https://i.imgur.com/WIA2cdy.jpg Composite video: RGB converted to component video: https://i.imgur.com/YmF1eVH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/usbcrms.jpg PCE card and CD games in cases. Panic Bomber (CIB) $15 SOLD (disc underside pic) https://i.imgur.com/82EHxug.jpg Advanced Variable Geo (CIB) $15 SOLD (disc underside pic) https://i.imgur.com/eLOxyx5.jpg L-Dis (CIB) $15 SOLD (disc underside pic) https://i.imgur.com/tjC8tRc.jpg Bomberman 94 (card and case, no manual) SOLD

I tried the checkout at arcadecomponents.com and their postage to Canada is very reasonable $8.50 USD), so I went ahead and ordered a CO10444 TIA and since it was on sale, a CO10745 6507 CPU too.

Did nobody notice the mention of Atari-style joysticks here? Last I checked, you can't get easily get those to work on later IBM PC compatibles. The focus here should mainly be on gameport controllers (DB15). I don't think there's a particularly easy option for a computer like this. If you had DOS drivers for the PCMCIA / CardBus / PC Card slots, then a Gameport card would work. Parallel port to gameport would be a pain in the ass.

Unless the game uses SRAM for game code (very rare in SNES games), then the only answer here is the Mask ROM. Do you by any chance have another SNES to test the game on?

So, the game doesn't boot then, just a black screen? PCB has no apparent damage? Probably a bad Mask ROM then. Yes, they can go bad. A friend of mine mailed me a non-working Super Metroid, the first print version with 3 Mask ROMs in it, the PCB was in amazing condition. After extensive tests (dumped game, examined ROM in hex editor), I found that ROMs 1 and 2 out of 3 had gone bad. The last ROM was still good, just had to burn EPROMs to replace the first two ROMs. The specific nature of failure was the first two Mask ROMs appeared to have a stuck lower data line, internal failure. The game's (Super Metroid) SNS header said "Sspprrmmttoodd", the header is located at the beginning of the first Mask ROM. Also, ROMs 1 and 2 were made by Toshiba, the 3rd one was by Hitachi.

He said the game boots to a black screen and the intro music plays. Sometimes the game displays the anti-piracy screen. I don't think the problem lies in the edge connector/trace area. It sounds more like a ROM/SRAM problem. The SNES cartridge slot is what some would call "OneBus", everything in the SNES has to share and take turns with the cartridge slot. A broken trace or a failing Mask ROM usually renders the game unbootable. This is unlike the NES which has two ROM buses in the cartridge slot, one for the CPU and one for the PPU. In a system like this, it's always possible to have a bootable game with graphical glitches. The PPU doesn't care if it's receiving graphics or not, but the CPU must get usable code or it can't work. The CPU also generates the music in the NES.

Actually, the DKC Trilogy and a lot of other SNES games will specifically check for SRAM more than what's installed on the retail cartridge. This is because many popular copier devices back in the day used much larger SRAM chips for holding data. The way the game is behaving could be bad SRAM or a bad Mask ROM. Assuming there's no damage on the PCB, the ideal option would be to dump the cartridge and examine the ROM in a hex editor against a known good ROM. This is the only sure-fire way to know if the Mask ROM is actually bad. In SNES carts, very seldom is discrete logic used to decode larger Mask ROMs, which can be another point of failure in cartridge games. This device is very inexpensive and dumps both ROM and SRAM in SNES games very easily. It's a vital cartridge diagnostic tool. It even has an option to show you the game's SNS header, so you can immediately see if the ROM is mangled or not.

I'll try to get some pictures or a video to better describe this. Some time ago I bought an Atari 2600 Jr console (short rainbow version). It was sold as having graphical glitches with every game. I cleaned the cartridge slot very well. As of this time I've only tested the console with Armor Ambush. In Armor Ambush, the game is visually sound, but on-screen action has problems. When moving either tank anywhere onscreen, they will flicker between the left and right halves of the playfield. Firing the cannon on either tank results in an instant hit no matter where the tanks are or where they're facing. I think what's going on is there's problems with the playfield, players and missiles working properly in relation to the TV output. I don't think the CPU has anything to do with what's going on. Can anyone wager a guess on which chip is failing here? I could also use a suggestion on where to buy replacement parts. I know arcadecomponents.com has 2600 Jr chips, but they might not ship to Canada.