Thanks guys, I will stay away from the minipro for sure. Maybe Mike's Data I/O would be the way to go. Andy On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 5:48 PM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

That's the programmer I have (Mine is labeled as a MiniPro TL866A)

Looking in the software I don't see that chip listed. Here's the supported chip list: http://www.autoelectric.cn/minipro/miniprosupportlist.txt

The rom in the game is 512x8, 4kb according to http://www.datasheets360.com/part/detail/n82s115n/-5448291139594804698/? alternatePartManufacturerId=0

I don't know if the programmer supports this ROM, but hopefully that gives you some more more pointers to search on.

-J

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 5:33 PM, Andrew Molloy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

...

I've got this rare bowling coin-op game from 1977 that isn't yet in MAME, and it seems there are no known dumps of the ROM. It's a cocktail cabinet by Mirco called Strikes & Spares. The CPU is a Signetics 2650 and the ROM looks to be a Signetics N82S115N (it's the only socketed chip on the board that I can see).

Would a cheap eeprom reader such as this one do the job?

https://www.amazon.com/Signstek-Universal-MiniPro-Programmer-Support/dp/ B00K73TSLM

Here's some pictures of the game. I still have to remove and photograph a smaller circuit board that attaches via two ribbon cables to the mainboard.

https://goo.gl/photos/4Kv2njjy18ZGxBpr5

Thanks, Andy

-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 6:14 PM, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

Keep in mind that the ROM may be encrypted, similar to many other arcade games.

​this is the first I've heard about arcade roms being encrypted ​most of the time it was painstaking to decipher the bitmaps for their background screens, or sprites because the address boundaries of the bitmap images had to be extracted from the code and that's after you disassemble the machine code Dan

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 10:50 PM, Ethan <telmnstr@757.org> wrote:

​this is the first I've heard about arcade roms being encrypted

...

​most of the time it was painstaking to decipher the bitmaps for their background screens, or sprites because the address boundaries of the bitmap images had to be extracted from the code and that's after you disassemble the machine code Dan

I think it was more of the later games that used heavy encryption. Things like the CPSII which just finally got fully reversed (there are tools to reprogram the crypto keys into the hardware now.) Other games such as Arkanoid use a one-time-programmable microcontroller that looks like an EPROM to answer some sort questions for the main CPU. All kinds of tricks.

Current generation machines are being popped by using PCI-E DMA exploits to recover security keys used by the SATA controller chipsets and other crazy stuff on Linux/PC based systems. The hard drives require some sort of unlock command every so many nanoseconds or something.

My go-to programmer I have here is the Needham Electronics EMP-100. Hollar if I can be of any assistance!

- Ethan

​oh that yea, But we never called it encryption, it was really a form of copy protection, but then done in hardware Because the bootleg market was intense since the late 70s​. I don't recall every protection scheme, just some of the earlier ones That one with the microcontroller rings a bell, It wasn't so prevalent in the 70s and 80s, But it sticks out like a sore thumb when looking at the schematics Dan

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 6:44 PM, Dan Roganti <ragooman@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Andrew Molloy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

...

Thanks guys, I will stay away from the minipro for sure. Maybe Mike's Data I/O would be the way to go.

Andy

​Now Data I/O programmers are usually the safest path to go, most are expensive but there are still options, and there's one for sale that's not much more than what you found, eB@y item number:112246295959 <(224)%20629-5959>, only $49, there's no Prime shipping, but that's the breaks, and this supports a wide array of devices including these Proms this is a very good resource list on Data I/O programmers http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/DATAIO_212_programmer_resources.htm and bitsavers has the databook ftp://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/signetics/_dataBooks/1975_ Signetics_Bipolar_Memories.pdf Dan

​aw crap, that resource link has links to both device lists for the 212 and the other Data I/O programmers I was looking at the wrong file, sorry about that that programmer doesn't support these Proms ​