Re: Help IDing unknown cards...

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

In article <5c07806a.0306050338.318043c0@posting.google.com>,
 julesrichardsonuk@yahoo.co.uk (Jules) wrote:


> ROM Card:  No idea what this is; presumably the 6 ROMs (2716 chips)
> contain utilities that could have been accessed under software
> control? No idea what the switch at the rear edge of the card does
> either.

Pure guess based on the chip count and switch: "You want //e ROMs with 
that? Or would you rather use ][ ROMs?"
 
> 80-column card:  Marked as 'Chinex' and made by Creative, presumably
> necessary software for this still exists somewhere? Any ideas what the
> 'middle' connector (with no cable attached) is for?

I'd bet on the connector being a serial port for attaching an external 
terminal.
 
> ZIF-socketed card ("unknown_04.jpg" on the website):  The ZIF socket
> is a 28-pin unit. I'd say it was a programmer, but wouldn't it need an
> external 24V (??) supply if that were true? 

Not neccesarily. That physically large electrolytic capacitor with the 
trnsistor right next to it (in the upper right corner of the board in 
your shot) screams "voltage doubler!" at me. I'd have to actually chase 
traces and see how it's wired to be certain, though. If it's wired as I 
expect it would be, there's your 24 volt supply, derived from the 
motherboard's +12V supply.
 
The 40-pin chip is marked
> as "S6821P", whatever one of those is. The first 3 of the switches are
> labelled as '16', the next 3 as '32' and the last 4 (overlapping by 1
> with the previous 3) as '64'.

Those are all but guaranteed to be your "Are you burning an 8, 16, 32, 
or 64K ROM?" selector.

I feel real confident about calling it an (E)EPROM burner.
  
> Card with 8 LEDs and 4 empty 16-pin DIL sockets ("unknown_02.jpg" on
> the website): Any ideas? Possibly a joystick controller or something
> and the joysticks plugged in via the DIL sockets? The two 40-pin chips
> are 6522's. There's a back of 8 DIP-switches on board, plus a switch
> in the top-right which just seems to enable or disable the LEDs as far
> as I can see.

Something about this one is tickling my brain. I'm getting the 
impression that I've seen this card (or one *VERY* like it) and I should 
*KNOW* what it is,  but I'll be dipped if I can figure out what/why...

> 
> Card with remote pushbutton switch ("unknown_03.jpg" on the website):
> All TTL logic on board, ROM is a 2716 chip. Underside is labelled
> "Wild card". Anyone seen one of these or know what it is?

That one I can ID...
It's a "WildCard II" - At one point, it was considered *THE ABSOLTE 
ULTIMATE* in copy-protection breakers. The remote pushbutton is an 
interrupt switch (hit it, and the computer gets an NMI), and on board 
there were ROMmed functions similar to the normal "monitor" routines 
that could be used for doing quite an amazing number of things like 
single-stepping code, (useful for boot-tracing) Snatching segments of 
code (like the "volatile" areas that the copy-protectors liked to 
clobber in order to hide their encryption routines) and so on. With a 
WildCard in a slot, no copy protection scheme has a ghost of a chance. 
For so-called "single-load" protection, boot the disk, hit the button, 
save a memory-image to disk, write a loader to drag it in via DOS3.3 or 
ProDOS, and the crack is done. No muss, no fuss, no bother. For 
multi-check protections, it'll basically lay the code out in front of 
you so that it can be worked with, stepped through, traced, or whatever, 
without needing to resort to the often tedious method of boot-tracing 
through it to find and neuter the protection.

For the rest, you're on your own, at lest as far as help from me is 
concerned... Sorry...

-- 
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