VOGONS


What do I have here?

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First post, by Abstracted

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Joined because I can use some help ID'ing my unit.

I got it many years ago. Just got it out of storage to sell.

I've googled a ton and can't find any info on the custom ROM chips.
I've compared the sounds between the stock and those on the ROM and there's a huge increase in quality.

Anyone know their history?

Reply 3 of 5, by Deano

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The blue sockets are ZIP sockets, someone has changed the A and B ROMs to a new set. The chips on the black foam are the originals A and B ROMS (C is still installed).

Game dev since last century

Reply 4 of 5, by Abstracted

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Deano wrote on 2023-12-12, 07:00:

The blue sockets are ZIP sockets, someone has changed the A and B ROMs to a new set. The chips on the black foam are the originals A and B ROMS (C is still installed).

Thanks! And do you happen to know anything about the new A and B ROMS? Like if they were hand programmed or commercially available at one point in time? Who made them, etc.

I posted a photo of the new set of sounds to maybe help with identification...

Reply 5 of 5, by Spikey

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I don't know much about it, but the reverb I think is different from memory?

From the internet:
"This is firmware revision “Blue Ridge” is an enhanced version of 1.0.7, which is the latest official released operation system by Roland. This operation system update/upgrade requires two eprom chips.

Features:

Volume knob changes are now interpolated as opposed to directly applied to the data, allowing for much smoother volume changes when using the knob
Rhythm selection Bender Control is now reset when MIDI All parameter reset is received, and when MT-32 Active Sensing is not received. Displays will not change, even when a Display Change exclusive MIDI message is recognized, unless the current mode is Master Volume input mode.
Fixes a bug related to specific values in uninitialized sram on startup causing the unit to act bizarre.
Backed RAM modification to avoid MT-32 clearing the RAM after each restart."

As for the sounds, I'm not familiar with them, nor is Google. Although given the way the MT-32 works, the default sounds aren't very important given they're overwritten. Although although - maybe this would mean games that use a combo of internal and custom sounds would no longer work completely.. curious.

Anyway, there's not a lot of info about this mod, unfortunately. Thanks for showing us the sounds at least!