Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001

Protected MVS/AES release that uses the PROGEOP board that is exclusive to this game. No ROMs are encrypted but the P1 includes protection code which will display a red warning screen and hang if it fails. It's a challenge/response setup similar to what the SNK-9201 was used for.



PLD
An Altera MAX chip is included on the PROG board for:


 * Protection read/write accesses ($2FFFE0+)
 * Bankswitching ($2FFFF0+ as with PROGBK1 games)
 * Controlling /E and /G pins on both P1 and P2
 * P1 + P2 D0-D7 pass through (P ROMs don't connect straight to D0-D7 on the cart edge)
 * Decoding V ROM output enables from NEO-PCM address inputs

The chip seems to die frequently. Since it also does some other essential things, either the ROMs have to be transplanted to a PROGBK1 or the dead PROGEOP has to be modified. A hacked P1 ROM needs to be used. The MAX chip combines what was done with the LS08,LS74 and LS139 on regular BK1 boards so those circuits have to be added manually to revive the game without the MAX.

Unknown QFP144

 * Connected to the Altera through a 245 chip. Apart from that it's completely isolated from everything else?
 * Maybe it does the protection. Altera seems to do every other possible needed task.
 * Altera handles forwards read/write requests through 245 from $2FFFE0+?

CHA
It's paired with a regular CHA512Y board.

Emulation
MAME currently patches out the protection code instead of emulating it: (mslugx_install_protection)