I was thinking of more using clamps and wires than desoldering.
If all the intelligence in this device is in the ROM (the big chip being an processor of some sort, zillog clone?) I dont see why i shouldn't have some fun and try to replicate it 😀
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Btw, what is on the drivers disks any way?
I would leave it in one piece. Intelligent MPUs have become more common now that the retro community has started documenting them in much more detail. And SoftMPU has also made them less of a necessity unless you use really old PCs.
I've also never seen that one before!
I'd recommend using feeding thin wires around the base of each pin and pulling them taught, unless you think the clamps would be easier.The wires are nice because once you get a good connection, you can tape them down so keep them there.
The big chip is most likely a Z8 MCU clone , there is some SRAM there and unfortunately 2x PAL chips that are 99.9% read protected thus preventing cloning without some serious work.
It's actually worse than the Music Quest MPU in that aspect, as the MQ only has 1x GAL chip - locked : I've tried 😁 😁 😁
What if these were not programmed with protection?
So far the most important thing here is the ROM. Midi Land being long dead i dont think they would mind some clones.
[E]
http://8052.com/forum/read/122917
Also maybe that guy who recreated the Game Blaster CMS code can help? 😀
the rom alone won't do you any good if you don't know the PAL code or know how to hack it out... ChuckG might be able to do it but good luck getting him to bother... and is very unlikely that they programmed these PALs without protection... but you'll have to try to know that for sure.
IMHO if someone wants to clone a MPU and has the knowledge to extract GAL code then the MQ one is the best candidate , half the hacking , known ICs and tested to be fine.
^ by all means, don't give up... I didn't mean it like that.
If you can find people to read the chips then report back, I have one too 😀
I have made an Cable for it following the logic of Music Quest wiring.
Since all the lines on Midi Land 401-DX are the same as on Music Quest (go to same PIN number), except I am not sure for LINE 2, have connected it the same way as pictured in the thread.
http://puu.sh/betBV/b428bf5a59.jpg
When running Gateway i get no sound, and sound comes from PC speaker (beeps and blips). Monkey Island VGA also uses PC Speaker for music.
Is it possible that the pin out is different even if only two lines go to 5, 9 for MIDI IN and 1, 6 , 2(??) for MIDI OUT.
They say, if you can't solve something, leave it until morning.
And so I did. (Made that cable at 12:30AM)
I soldered the wires on the opposite side 🤣 , on 4 - 5 - 9 instead onto 1 - 2 - 6 .
Now when I insert it I had to set it to IRQ5 to run it over Gateway.bat , because something is already on IRQ2 and 9.
Gateway doesn't crash and there is music 😀
And also MIDIEX + PLAYMID work flawlessly with other MIDI, like Code Name Iceman.
And if you start mi with "monkey r" you'll hear Roland music as well
Cool! 😀
So this confirms that it is 100% compatible?
I will make an illustration of how to make an I/O cable and take HD photos of the card. Also i will write some short info about it.
We should make an topic about truly intelligent MPU-401 devices for others to be informed.
if it plays music in gateway and laser squad without errors then it is a good mpu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPU-401
So far in Google I have only seen very few Midiland cards. It was probably a very low volume non descriptive product.
Pretty interesting it ended up in Serbia 😀
Must have come from some European country, or maybe some music store here, who knows.
Any way, was searching for some stuff in the local electronics supplies stores here in Novi Sad today, and decided to buy components for an MIDI In/Out cable.
Didn't feel like sleeping so i made it. Finished it 10 minutes ago:
Looks great! 😀
