Amiga Action Replay MK III replica

[na103]

Hi EAB,

I reverse engineered and rebuilt the Action Replay Mk III and made the project free available for anyone who wants to make it.

https://github.com/na103/ar3

[Jope]

Super cool! :-)

Did you manage to find a switch that fits the original case? My original one needs to have its switch replaced.

[fryguy]

Cool!

[demoniac]

Oh, this is interesting. I made my own freezer cartridge decades ago.

I didn't own an ARIII until later, but I got these chip info from Churchy back in 1998:

4 chips glued over with a paper reading DATEL 1 to DATEL 4 (I suppose this
is the ROM)
1 Phillips 'FCB61C65L-70P' 'K9E287NB' 'HSH8949 2'
1 Phillips 'FCB61C65L-70P' 'K9E289NB'(!) 'HSH8949 2'
1 "Firm with S Logo" '27C256-20 N' '2292A18' '8914KJ' (I suppose 32 KB
RAM ?)
1 "Firm with S Logo" '27C256-20 N' '2292A17'(!) '8914KJ' (I suppose 32
KB RAM ?)
1 'M8948' 'LM' '555CN' (I suppose this is a transistor)

I also vaguely remember that someone mentioned that some chip surface on their cartridge were filed to prevent reading.

[jotd]

very good!! I still have my MKIII from 1992.

[Trigger58]

Very very nice work. I would take one as a replacement. I own an MK3 but this is my third in the last few years. The other both died suddenly.

It would be really nice if they could be software upgraded. They only works with Kick1.3. If thry could work with 3.1 and 3.2 too that would be awesome.

[na103]

Originally Posted by Jope

Super cool! :-)

Did you manage to find a switch that fits the original case? My original one needs to have its switch replaced.

yes, only the trimmer is different

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by Trigger58

Very very nice work. I would take one as a replacement. I own an MK3 but this is my third in the last few years. The other both died suddenly.

It would be really nice if they could be software upgraded. They only works with Kick1.3. If thry could work with 3.1 and 3.2 too that would be awesome.

maybe someone can grab/beg hoffman's attention?, he likes 'hack' projects for his twitch streams and i think? he uses an action replay of some sort as well, would be weirdly meta for him to try and hack the very thing he hacks with.

[h0ffman]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

maybe someone can grab/beg hoffman's attention?, he likes 'hack' projects for his twitch streams and i think? he uses an action replay of some sort as well, would be weirdly meta for him to try and hack the very thing he hacks with.

HAHA, literally talking about starting a disassembly on our discord this morning

Excellent work na103, I'm gonna have to get one of these soon.

[na103]

Originally Posted by h0ffman

HAHA, literally talking about starting a disassembly on our discord this morning

Excellent work na103, I'm gonna have to get one of these soon.

Thanks !!
I'm in TTE's crew (nalos)

[Jope]

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=31211

I wonder if ARPRO (zoned) is really this same code as AR IV and whether parts of it can be back ported to AR3 HW. :-)

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by demoniac

I didn't own an ARIII until later, but I got these chip info from Churchy back in 1998:

The 4 'DATEL' chips are likely PLD's (i.e. programmable logic), and the main culprit when trying to reverse engineer the AR
The FCB's are 8KB SRAM chips
27C is rom
555 is a timer, most likely used for the slow down function.

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

The 4 'DATEL' chips are PLD's (i.e. programmable logic), and the main culprit when trying to reverse engineer the AR

I found a [ Show youtube player ] showing the 2 UV EPROM M27C1001 being used.

At some point, Datel used other EPROMs (likely for cost reducuction) such as the AT27C010 and NM27C010V OTP EPROMs. Images from the Big Book of Amiga Hardware.

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by Jope

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=31211

I wonder if ARPRO (zoned) is really this same code as AR IV and whether parts of it can be back ported to AR3 HW. :-)

I really doubt this. I communicated with Nicholas Clarke of ParCon back then and he wrote that, "[Michael] Pendec was actually a naughty boy. He only resourced the software and released an updated software version."

In a web archive of his old website, it states with a bit more additional info:

ActionReplay IV


Author: Michael Pendec
M.Pendec needed a working non-system monitor that would work on his A1200 so he resourced AR3.xx and made the nescessary changes for it to work on 68020. AR4 is basicly and simply a needed hack. As far as I've heard the real AR4 isn't a real improvement.

MP did the resourcing and recoding. I made the installer/gui/overlay routines.

If non-system monitors are of interest you should take a look at BigBrother which I have devoted several years to perfect. And which is I might add not based on any resourced code.

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by h0ffman

HAHA, literally talking about starting a disassembly on our discord this morning

Excellent work na103, I'm gonna have to get one of these soon.

[Kin Hell]

.....Clapping hands.....

Amazing!! - A dear friend of mine always Raved about his Action Replay Cartridge some 40 years ago....

He's not into Retro Amiga's these days, but I've sent him the link anyway. - I know it will kindle fond memories!

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by demoniac

I found a [ Show youtube player ] showing the 2 UV EPROM M27C1001 being used.

At some point, Datel used other EPROMs (likely for cost reducuction) such as the AT27C010 and NM27C010V OTP EPROMs. Images from the Big Book of Amiga Hardware.

In that case, I guess the 'DATEL' chips might be roms as well, since the 27C256 is only a quarter of the size of 27C010. In the photos you linked, there's only 2 rom chips, and 5 pld's. Unfortunately there's no pcb photo of the Mk1 on BBOAH, so not easy to say what's going on there..