SkyKid Flying SkyKid Deluxe on Rolling Thunder SkyKid Flying



OK so who's a big fan of SkyKid ?  Well.. me at least.

Soon as the ROM's for Skykid Deluxe  ( SkyKid DX ) were dumped it became a personal crusade to get this running on the Rolling Thunder Namco 'system 86'  game board. 

The Hardware used for Skykid DX is almost identical to the Rolling Thunder PCB, this boardset  is referred to as 'system 86'.  A change of one of the address decoding custom chips stops the upgrade being a straight ROM swap. The Hardware differences are pretty minor, some control addresses are modified to different locations. The Interrupt enable/watchdog timer reset are modified on the sound CPU, and the watchdog reset is modified on the sub CPU. Two simple program hacks and the game will happily run on a unmodified Rolling thunder.

The following is a walk  through of doing the upgrade, the only problems I can see if getting the color PROM's burned. Fortunately I had a universal programmable available that could handle these things.

Please Note: No Rolling Thunder boards were harmed during this upgrade, a specially trained volunteer board willing stepped forward to be 'upgraded'.

Before you Start 

This conversion hack requires a certain level of technical ability so DO NOT attempt this without the correct tools and some experience in board level repair work.

What Makes it 'Deluxe'

The game features upgraded music a few new characters appear, hidden bonuses, modified missions. Not a dramatic change to SkyKid but worth the effort of the upgrade, in my opinion.


Original Rolling Thunder PCB

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The voice board is the second smaller board, plugged on top of the main system PCB.


Removal of the sound effects PCB

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The sound effects PCB is not used with Skykid Deluxe, so it can be removed.


Rom Placement

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The last 2 digits of the ROM name give the board location.  e.g.. SK3_8.4s should go in location 4S. 

Program ROMs which have been modified, to run on the Rolling Thunder boardset  are skdx_6b.FIX  &  skdx_12c.FIX

-=Download the ROMs =-

Graphics ROM

27C256

sk3_5.12H sk3_6.12K  sk3_7.4R 
sk3_9.7R    

27C128

sk3_8.4S sk3_10.7S  

Program ROM

27C256

sk3_1b.9C sk3_2.9D skdx_12C.FIX

Sound ROM

27C128

skdx_6B.FIX    

Color PROM

 82S147 or 27S29

sk3-1.3R

 

82S131 or 27S13

sk3-2.3S

 
82S191 or 27S191

sk3-4.5V

sk3-3.4V


Color PROMs

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It cannot be stressed enough make sure ALL chips are inserted the CORRECT way around.

Note: PROM at location 6U does NOT need to be changed.


Completed Board

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Replacements ROMs plugged in, with all replaced IC's, in the above picture, pin 1 is in the bottom left corner of each socket.

Note the empty sockets, only two of the lower set of  graphic ROMs are filled.

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