keropi wrote:

First post edited, rom version 010 corrects the Wing Commander crashes, so basically the card just works fine. If you know another problematic game please tell me to test it.

Well done, good to know it's not the hardware. So where do I get me an EPROM with the newer firmware in it to upgrade my card? Do I have to keep an eye out for a dead card too?

^ What version is your card? if there is no sticker on the rom chip then you can use MQDIAG from the driver disk I posted to find it out...
Updating the firmware requires removal of the original chip and the use of a 27C512 or compatible one to burn and solder the new firmware (on a socket preferably). I don't think you can get the firmware anywhere, what's the deal with Music Quest nowdays? Do they exist?

I can program a new chip for you if I get a copy of the ROM dump. Is the ROM chip on the card UV erasable? If so, I can reprogram the same chip - if its a mask ROM with no window you'll need a new chip. I doubt a card that age would have a EEPROM.

Both 004 and 010 roms on my cards were OTP devices , so you need a 27C512 or equivalent to update

If I recall correctly a local place to me has the MQX-16 for $25 or so. Always eye-ball it, but I have nothing to put it in so I just ignore it.

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hey. got my wing commander working. when you guys say it crashed after the intro did it freeze or just boot you to DOS? I get this error

"error while allocating memory"
INTRO.DAT #0 (ERR 2 PS-1 LB319958 FL0) at LP4

^ in my case it was a hard lock , you needed to power cycle

Are there any schematics of this card?

I'm sitting on a idea for a while, let's call it HardMPU, inspired on the XT-IDE project and SoftMPU. It is an ISA card with a 100% compatible MPU-401 interface, Waveblaster header and optionally an YMF262 chip (OPL3). It has to be a maiden design (no copyrighted code), and compatible with fast computers. The PCB's can be made cheaply in China.

^ I've been meaning to strip down the components from the dead card , I only removed the rom so far and won't continue with the rest until I find someone with a desoldering station, the card is too fragile for my taste 🤣
If I ever strip it down I will scan the pcb.

got wing commander to run and I can doubly confirm it runs with the v.010

today I finally made soviet conscript's breakout cable from the cables he sent me:

and here is a shot next to the original cable , needless to say the cable works perfect... Yellow tube is the OUT jack , couldn't think something better to differentiate it from the IN jack since they are the same...

and I have fixed the schematic on the 1st page, I had some errors due to pin mirroring (solder/front side...)

Ummm...shouldn't that have come with a dongle with the midi ports? You shouldn't have had to made your own cable to use it.

Here's a pic of the 8-bit card. The dongle is black. The 16-bit card has a white dongle. Oddly, the 16-bit card only uses a few pins of the extended part of the slot so it's not much longer than the 8-bit card. It makes me wonder how important those extra pins actually are and what they are used for.

16-bit card

^ it should have but dongles are not always included in 2nd hand ebay stuff... look at the 1st post, my boxed card comes with a cable breakout , not a molded dongle. It's the same actually, the dongle was newer and cheaper to manufacture I guess...

n1mr0d wrote:

Are there any schematics of this card?

I'm sitting on a idea for a while, let's call it HardMPU, inspired on the XT-IDE project and SoftMPU. It is an ISA card with a 100% compatible MPU-401 interface, Waveblaster header and optionally an YMF262 chip (OPL3). It has to be a maiden design (no copyrighted code), and compatible with fast computers. The PCB's can be made cheaply in China.

You would have to reverse engineer the ROM program the microcontroller uses. However, if you are using a microcontroller, how much more effort would it require to implement sound blaster capability?

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PeterLI wrote:

I also have both the 8BIT and 16BIT versions. The dongles are interchangeable.

Have you ever tested to see if the 16-bit card will work in an 8-bit slot? The front part of the two versions look like they both use the same pins.

sliderider wrote:

PeterLI wrote:

I also have both the 8BIT and 16BIT versions. The dongles are interchangeable.

Have you ever tested to see if the 16-bit card will work in an 8-bit slot? The front part of the two versions look like they both use the same pins.

It should work, the 3 pins on the 16-bit portion of the ISA connector are just the IRQ 10, 11 and 12 lines. As long as you stick to IRQ9 or below, that card should work fine in an 8 bit slot.

Does anyone know if the 16-bit card has compatibility issues with any games?

^ I believe it's fine