SkyKid Deluxe on Rolling Thunder
Soon as the ROM's for Skykid Deluxe ( SkyKid DX ) were dumped it became a personal crusade to get this running on the Rolling Thunder Namco 'system 86' game board. The Hardware used for Skykid DX is almost identical to the Rolling Thunder PCB, this boardset is referred to as 'system 86'. A change of one of the address decoding custom chips stops the upgrade being a straight ROM swap. The Hardware differences are pretty minor, some control addresses are modified to different locations. The Interrupt enable/watchdog timer reset are modified on the sound CPU, and the watchdog reset is modified on the sub CPU. Two simple program hacks and the game will happily run on a unmodified Rolling thunder. The following is a walk through of doing the upgrade, the only problems I can see if getting the color PROM's burned. Fortunately I had a universal programmable available that could handle these things. Please Note: No Rolling Thunder boards were harmed during this upgrade, a specially trained volunteer board willingly stepped forward to be 'upgraded'. Before you Start This conversion hack requires a certain level
of technical ability so DO NOT attempt this without the
correct tools and some experience in board level work. The game features upgraded music a few new
characters appear, hidden bonuses, modified missions, flying while it's snowing ( that's kinda cool !). |
Original Rolling Thunder PCB
The voice board is the second smaller board,
plugged on top of the main system PCB.
Removal of the sound effects PCB
The sound effects PCB is not used with Skykid
Deluxe, so it can be removed.
Rom Placement
The last 2 digits of the ROM name give the board location. e.g.. SK3_8.4s should go in location 4S.
Program ROMs which have been modified, to run on the Rolling Thunder boardset are skdx_6b.FIX & skdx_12c.FIX
Graphics ROM
|
27C256 |
||
| sk3_5.12H | sk3_6.12K | sk3_7.4R |
| sk3_9.7R | ||
|
27C128 |
||
| sk3_8.4S | sk3_10.7S | |
Program ROM
|
27C256 |
||
| sk3_1b.9C | sk3_2.9D | skdx_12C.FIX |
Sound ROM
|
27C128 |
||
| skdx_6B.FIX | ||
Color PROM
|
82S147 or 27S29 |
|
|
sk3-1.3R |
|
|
82S131 or 27S13 |
|
|
sk3-2.3S |
|
| 82S191 or 27S191 | |
|
sk3-4.5V |
sk3-3.4V |
Color PROMs
It cannot be stressed enough make sure ALL chips are inserted the CORRECT way around.
Note:
PROM at location 6U does NOT need to be changed.
Completed Board
Replacements ROMs plugged in, with all replaced IC's, in the above picture, pin 1 is in the bottom left corner of each socket.
Note the empty sockets, only two of the lower set of graphic ROMs are filled.