Limenko Games

[channelmaniac]

Model: Legend of Heroes
Symptom: Graphics corruption

Customer wnted 2 ROMs replaced that were physically broken. One was the Sound ROM LM-07 and the other was the Graphics ROM LM-04.

LM-07 had a pin soldered to the broken one. Read that one and programmed the data onto a new IC. LM-04 was totally missing 2 pins, one of the data lines and the CE* line were affected. Used the MAME dump to program another ROM. Game had vertical lines through assorted graphics elements.

Took the broken ROM and placed it in a wire wrap socket and used 30ga kynar (wire wrap) wire to connect the pin on the IC to the socket. It took a few tries as there was maybe 1mm of pin sticking out of the body of the EPROM but was finally able to get a good connection. Read the EPROM and received a different checksum. Programmed that data into a new EPROM, inserted it into the game, and the graphics corruption was fixed.

While the cartridge was on the bench I reflowed 4 surface mount ICs that had horrible soldering.

This repair is a reminder that while MAME dumps are VERY useful in repairs they aren't always the version of the game you are working on. Either try to read the broken chips or be prepared to erase and reprogram multiple EPROMs to use the version available in MAME.