+bfstats Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Here is the board of my NICS Electronics TV-Boy, recently acquired, and works perfectly: I bought it because, to my knowledge, it has never been dumped. I have a suspicion that some of the ROMs in the chip are, perhaps, uniquely modified NTSC versions of PAL binaries. So, I'm anxious to run its contents through CloneSpy. Inquiries with the gentleman who had a similar challenge... you can read about his console dumps here: ...solved his problem with the help of a friend in Slovakia. Cool! But I was hoping to ship it to someone in the US (MUCH less costly) who has the necessary equipment and soldering skill. Here is what he told me needs to be done in order to fulfill my objective: "The ROM could be that DIL32 signed as NS-31(N) TV-BOY(127G). It could be a classic 512KB (4Mbit) mask ROM, so it should be de-soldered, inserted to a programmer with 27C040 support and dumped, then re-soldered onto the board." So, anyone monitoring this Forum live closer to Maryland than Slovakia, have the ability to solder, have the equipment mentioned above and the ability to use it, AND have the inclination to take this on and return the TV-Boy to me in full working order along with the dumped file? Not asking much, am I?! I will pay for shipping in both directions, of course, and compensation can be discussed. I'm prepared to ship it to Slovakia if necessary, but am hoping to find a local solution to save on the overall cost. The separated binaries will be shared with the community if any are previously undiscovered. Please advise... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 I agree that it is likely the chip that says TV-Boy on it. I could do it but I am on the wrong side of the country from you. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Interesting, how many components are not populated. I assume the big chip is a VCS on a single chip, if the pinout for that is known, it should be fairly easy to trace. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tavi Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 15 hours ago, CPUWIZ said: Interesting, how many components are not populated. I assume the big chip is a VCS on a single chip, if the pinout for that is known, it should be fairly easy to trace. To completely derail this topic, but I am wondering if this system does have a 'VCS on a chip' if these units could be a suitable replacement for those looking for the holy grail Jr. 2600's with the single chip? From my understanding they are quite rare, and also difficult to discover if a system actually has one or not short of opening the case up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bfstats Posted February 12, 2020 Author Share Posted February 12, 2020 Not derailing at all, Tavi. I am intrigued by your question. Worth further research... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bfstats Posted February 12, 2020 Author Share Posted February 12, 2020 To Tavi and anyone monitoring this thread, here is a photo of the "VCS on a chip" taken directly from a rare 2600 Junior (not mine). As you can see, this is a 64-pin chip. The one in the TV-Boy is 48-pin. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oriskanytinterent Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 On 2/12/2020 at 12:34 AM, bfstats said: Not derailing at all, Tavi. I am intrigued by your question. Worth further research... The TV Boy does indeed have most of a VCS on a chip as the large IC contains a 6507 processor and the necessary TIA and RIOT chips to complete the set. The other ICs are the ROM - (512K containing the 127 (hacked) 4K games and a 4K program to allow the user to select a game on start-up. This program is badly written as anyone who has heard the scratchy and stuttering audio will tell you), a latch to select the correct game by manipulating the ROM's upper address bits to select the correct 4K segment and two TTL chips of glue logic. The only way to change games is to reset the unit as once programmed, the latch only allows the processor to see that games' 4K segment. I became interested in these and bought many of them whilst they were still plentiful and cheap on eBay. They almost all (in the UK) came from Argos and went through an evolution. The early units contained "Defender" as game #91 and the large IC was a mock-up of a chip glob topped onto a small PCB the same size as the eventual IC and soldered in place on pins. The latch of earlier models was 8 bits wide and took care of latching the top seven address bits of the ROM to select a game - it is a 74LS273. The other ICs present are a 74HC00 and 74HC32 which perform some address decoding and reset functions. Later versions lost the d type 9 pin connectors for external VCS controllers and game 91! Game 91 was relabelled "factory test game" but was really just a nobbled version of Defender whereby it displays the gun but does not respond to switch pushes. Other options included one with a SCART output - difficult to see what's going on inside as there are tinplate shields over everything, and the last iteration of the modulated "RF out" model where the glob-top IC and PCB unit has morphed into a proper DIL IC. I found the TV Boy fascinating for a time as so much effort had gone into developing this unit but it was left a bit naive as they never went the extra mile of just mounting the chips on the PCB and glob topping the lot as they do today. It actually contains common, stock ICS and is soldered together by hand off the look of it. When buying a TV Boy the two things to watch out for are (1) - if it was put away containing batteries in the late 90s, these will, by now, have destroyed everything in the unit so avoid crusty battery compartments. (2) - the "Buttons" are all implemented by using rubber cups containing a conductive rubber pad onto a series of PCB tracks - not gold plated. Consequently a lot of the time the buttons don't work. To get around this you have to dismantle the unit, unscrew the pcbs for the joysticl and fire buttons and clean the PCB tracks beneath the buttons - a good rub with a rough cloth works or if you are posh a dab of "Autosol" metal polish. Lastly, some units have a link on the PCB to select NTSC but I've never tried using it. The games inside the unit were originally NTSC I believe which is why the colours under PAL are so bizarre. Would the modulator work if you changed the signal to NTSC? I don't know. Toodle pip. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 (edited) Love the TV Boys, the first Plug n Plays Edited May 6, 2020 by high voltage 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 4 hours ago, Oriskanytinterent said: The TV Boy does indeed have most of a VCS on a chip as the large IC contains a 6507 processor and the necessary TIA and RIOT chips to complete the set. The other ICs are the ROM - (512K containing the 127 (hacked) 4K games and a 4K program to allow the user to select a game Do you know anything about what the pinout of the ROM chip is? If someone wanted to dump it, what would be the Eprom equivalent? Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oriskanytinterent Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 (edited) On 5/6/2020 at 8:47 PM, Mitch said: Do you know anything about what the pinout of the ROM chip is? If someone wanted to dump it, what would be the Eprom equivalent? Mitch The pinout of the GAME BOY ROM appears to follow this model - same as used for 32 pin SNES mask ROMS. Don't know the equivalent though. PS - I manually traced out the diagram from a TV Boy - don't blame me if you blow a ROM up due to my mistake! Edited May 8, 2020 by Oriskanytinterent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 I assume you mean tv boy not game boy but thanks for the pinout. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oriskanytinterent Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 2 hours ago, Mitch said: I assume you mean tv boy not game boy but thanks for the pinout. Mitch Game Boy....where did that come from...? But yes, I meant TV Boy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 is each model you posted all vcs stuff? incredible, especially that top one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepho Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 EPROM type M27C512 matches the pinout shown by Oriskanytinterent . But I have no idea if that matches your actual chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oriskanytinterent Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) Here's my TV Boy collection - the one at the rear left is in an immaculate box and has the original instruction book with the games listing. Game 91 is listed as "factory test game" as it's a TV Boy II and so lacks the joystick controller ports. The boxes, paperwork and RF leads are hard to come by now... Edited May 9, 2020 by Oriskanytinterent mistake 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 any pre typed out game list to ponder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oriskanytinterent Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 7 minutes ago, chewy said: any pre typed out game list to ponder? Here's a link to the Wikipedia page - the games are listed along with their "original" names before being modified for inclusion into the TV Boy ROM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Boy The typed list on the leaflet and the box back are the same as this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 3 hours ago, chewy said: is each model you posted all vcs stuff? incredible, especially that top one TV Boy 3, the rarest one to find. And yes, all VCS stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Oriskanytinterent said: Here's a link to the Wikipedia page - the games are listed along with their "original" names before being modified for inclusion into the TV Boy ROM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Boy The typed list on the leaflet and the box back are the same as this. I made that Wikipage, long time ago. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 7 hours ago, stepho said: EPROM type M27C512 matches the pinout shown by Oriskanytinterent . But I have no idea if that matches your actual chip. That is a 28 pin chip. The TV Boy has a 32 pin ROM chip. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oriskanytinterent Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 2 hours ago, Mitch said: That is a 28 pin chip. The TV Boy has a 32 pin ROM chip. Mitch After some further digging and checking I have concluded that I may have made a mistake in the diagram offered earlier - since pin 1 in my TV Boy is NC. Therefore I have found that the TV Boy rom is actually pin compatible with this beast - sorry for any confusion caused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepho Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 18 hours ago, Mitch said: That is a 28 pin chip. The TV Boy has a 32 pin ROM chip. Mitch Doh! What was I thinking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slydc Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) Oriskanytinterent has described on the nose the working of a TV-Boy and so far, the Akor Super TV-Boy has been dumped and also the Systema TV Boy II. Both these ROM dumps are playable in the emulator MAME: And if i remember correctly, someone did a dump of a TV-Boy 1 and put the dump on the newsgroups about 20 years ago. Apart TV-Boy's released by Akor, SystemA and Nics, there is also other clones of these like the Brazilian Dynacom Megaboy: Which has been also dumped. The "Master Boy": The "Mega Boy WS-11" and also the "Wonder Boy WS-11": The "PTG-2600": http://discreteconsoles.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-ptg-2600.html The "Nics Mega-Game NS-21": And some others i don't remember by memory...but are all Atari 2600 "Plug & Play" game consoles. Edited May 18, 2020 by slydc 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the info, but where are the dumps? Found some: https://bda.retroroms.info:82/downloads/mame/update-packs/mame-0194/ (stvboy.zip and tvboyii.zip) Edited May 24, 2020 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 (edited) Question: So far I only found ROMs, pictures and videos with this menu screen: But there exists another menu ROM which displays the following screen (and has different music). Where does this one come from? Maybe from another TV Boy variant? Edited May 25, 2020 by Thomas Jentzsch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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