The Guru's ROM Dump News - ZN1 / ZN2 Dump Status

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Progress has been made on breaking the ZN1/ZN2 protection (key) chip, which seems to contain an 8 byte table. With this in mind, we need access to all the ZN1/ZN2 game PCBs to dump those protection chips on the main boards and game boards. The main board protection is per BIOS. Meaning there is only one used for each BIOS type. The game board protection chip is different for each game.
The boards I have are listed with an (*), and these security chips have been dumped. This list keeps track of exactly what is and is not dumped for future reference.
Update: Further progress has been made and we can now brute-force all the security keys except the Capcom ZN2-based ones without needing the real chips. We'll still need to dump the ZN2 ones though as it seems they can't be brute-forced (yet).
Update: The remaining ZN2 security chips have been brute-forced though some games still don't work in MAME due to unknown reasons. It's possible some of the brute-forced keys are incorrect. Games listed with (*) have had their keys dumped and are correct. All others are brute-forced.

Here's three sample pics to give you an idea of how it's done..... (click thumbs to see larger pics)

Basically, a BIOS ROM is modified to probe the protection chip on the main board and output some numbers to screen. The original BIOS chip was a small surface mounted MASK ROM, so I've had to locate a suitable 40 pin EPROM equivalent and wire it up manually. I've socketed the protection chip so it's a simple matter of just swapping out the other chips, powering up the PCB and writing down those 8 numbers, which takes about 15 seconds per game.

Please note the following.....

If you would like to donate towards buying one of the remaining undumped ZN1/ZN2 PCBs, contact me.

If you want to donate/loan some ZN1/ZN2 PCB's, contact me.

Status
D

GOOD
ND Dumped, but either untested in the emulator, or it's unknown if it is good or bad due to emulation related problems.
Dumped and OK
Not Dumped... yet

ZN1 / ZN2

General Comments:
This list is preliminary.
The ND listed below refers to the protection chip, not the game.
This list may not be complete. Information listed is what we believe to be true and deals with only the BIOS and protection chips. I'm not concerned about which 'system' these games run on, or the manufacturer of the game, only that they share the common ZN1/ZN2 main boards.
Please help us to fill in the '?' if you _know_ the information (i.e. you actually have those PCB's).

BIOS: Acclaim [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board (*)
AC01 GOOD BIOS COH-1000A

NBA Jam Extreme (*) / Judge Dredd
AC02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000A

BIOS: Atari [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board (*)
TW01 GOOD BIOS COH-1000W

Primal Rage II (*)
TW02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000W

BIOS: Atlus [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board (*)
AT01 GOOD BIOS COH-1001L

Heaven's Gate (*)
AT02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1001L

BIOS: Capcom ZN1 [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board (*)
CP01 GOOD BIOS COH-1000C

Battle Arena Toshinden II CP02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000C

Star Gladiator (*)
CP03 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000C

Street Fighter EX (*)
Street Fighter EX Plus
CP04 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000C

Gallop Racer (*)
CP05 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000C

BIOS: Capcom ZN2 [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

Rival Schools (*)
CP06 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

Plasma Sword / Star Gladiator 2 (*)
CP07 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

Street Fighter EX 2 (*)
CP08 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

Tech Romancer / Kikaioh
CP09 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

ZN2 Main Board (*)
CP10 GOOD BIOS COH-3002C

Tetris The Grand Master
CP11 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

Street Fighter EX 2 Plus CP12 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

Strider 2 / S.Hiryu 2 (*)
CP13 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002C

BIOS: Eighting/Raizing [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board (*)
ET01 GOOD BIOS COH-1002E

Beastorizer (*)
ET02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002E

Bloody Roar 2 (*)
ET03 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002E

?
ET04 ND

Bust a Move 2 (*)
ET05 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002E

BIOS: Tecmo [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board (*)
MG01 GOOD BIOS COH-1002M

Gallop Racer 2 (*)
MG02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Cool Boarders Arcade Jam (*)
MG03 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Shanghai Matekibuyuu (*)
MG04 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Dead or Alive ++
MG05 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Flame Gunner (*)
MG06 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Logic Pro Adventure (*)
MG07 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Gallop Racer 3 (*)
MG08 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Tondemo Crisis
MG09 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

1 on 1 Government (*)
MG10 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Brave Blade (*)
MG11 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

The Block Kuzushi (*)
MG12 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Tecmo World Cup Millennium (*)
MG13 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Monster Farm Jump (*)
MG14 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1002M

Other Tecmo ZN1 Games (Games Not Dumped - Needed!)

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

Photo Play / Masters World Championship
? ND

BIOS: Taito ZN1 [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board
TT01 GOOD BIOS COH-1000T

Super Football Champ
TT02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000T

Psychic Force (*)
TT03 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000T

Ray Storm (*)
TT04 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000T

Fighter's Impact Ace
TT05 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000T

Magical Date
TT06 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000T

G-Darius (*)
TT07 GOOD Confirmed ZN1 & BIOS COH-1000T

BIOS: Taito ZN2 [D]

GNET ZN2 Main Board (*)
TT10 GOOD BIOS COH-3002T

GNET game board (covers all games) (*)
TT16 GOOD Confirmed ZN2 & BIOS COH-3002T

BIOS: Video Systems [D]

Game Name
Prot. Chip # Status Comments

ZN1 Main Board
KN01 GOOD BIOS COH-1002V

Sonic Wings Limited
KN02 GOOD Confirmed ZN1, BIOS COH-1002V

Updates will follow as I find out more......

If you want to see more games here, please consider donating.