dissect the bumble bee

[Tatsujin]

ok, I have here lying a street fighter II' hucard in front of me, and the question is now, should i dissect it and determine the innards? or should i leave it in one "peace"?

and since i can't decide it on my own, i will listen to you guys. so vote wisely

PS: as an info, that one costed me less than 25 cents and on the top, it isn't in the best shape out of the remaining 7 pieces i have in stock meanwhile.

[SignOfZeta]

You've never seen the inside of an SFII' HuCard before?

[guyjin]

you suck. you keep games in their shrinkwrap, never to be played, and then when you get one out, you destroy it! you are a gaming devil. 

[Turbo D]

I voted yes! You must make sacrifices to gain knowledge. Plus it would be cool. I hope that if you do, that you post some pics of the innards 

[nat]

I voted yes so you can post pictures so I don't have to annihilate my own copy.

[Tatsujin]

@sign: no, i believe i've seen some pix of inside the bulky ten no koe bank and eventually the populous hucard, which where all empty where you expecting something have to be.

@guy, as i said, it isn't just up to me. and this game is so damn common that i could buy tons of it and use it as bricks to build up a new fancy house.

@D: it's all 'bout that.

[Keranu]

I voted yes. You probably have a thousand extra copies of it anyways  .

[Tatsujin]

/sfiihucard1at2.jpg

[Tatsujin]

since the poll seems to be already decided, there will be no return

so as for the people (me including) which do not know yet, if there really is something hidden under the bulky area, so what do you guess?

the betting office is open now

[nat]

I don't think there is anything over the bulky area.

The chips themselves will only be on the backside of the black PCB. The raised area is only provided as a means for Capcom to get a chance to have a picture label the same size as all the other HuCARDs.

[guyjin]

I think it will be full of gamma radiation which will turn your outside into the hideous mutant you are inside. 

[Kitsunexus]

I think underneath the bulky area there is a FPGA that has the sole task of "Blast Processing emulator".

[Tatsujin]

or maybe a miniature CPS1 device, brought by someone from the future?

[Keranu]

I think the bumble bee is going to fly out and kill you.

[Tatsujin]

probably yes.

[Joe Redifer]

Well, get on with it already!  Post pics!

[Tatsujin]

done.

/sf2openng5.jpg

Halleluja!!

btw: the game still works fine

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, in the Ten no Koe and Populous you'll find a battery in there. In SFII' and the Arcade Card Pro you'll find nothing.

[Tatsujin]

no bumble bee which try to kell me

[Joe Redifer]

You need to flip the black part over.  We need to see underneath.

[Turbo D]

  wtf, there is nothing in there?!?!?!? rofl 

[Nazi NecroPhile]

I voted no, 'cause I wanted you to regret the vivisection..... or not really give a shit.

Does the writing on the back of the cover translate to "ouch"?

[Kitsunexus]

Bump. You're not getting out of this, Tatsu.

[Seldane]

Yeah, in the Ten no Koe and Populous you'll find a battery in there. In SFII' and the Arcade Card Pro you'll find nothing.

No battery in Populous. Apparently.

[TurboXray]

 Pic #2 - his eyes look like they're bulging from decompression..

[Keranu]

Thanks for posting the pics, that was interesting, sorta.

[spenoza]

That was incredibly anti-climactic and makes me wonder if a few design changes could have eliminated the need for that tiny hump.

[SignOfZeta]

What do you mean "design changes"? There isn't any use for the hump whatsoever. If anything it was a marketing ploy to show how full the HuCard was with ROM when in fact the actual chip is the same physical size.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, in the Ten no Koe and Populous you'll find a battery in there. In SFII' and the Arcade Card Pro you'll find nothing.

No battery in Populous. Apparently.

Really? It says, "ROMRAM HUCARD" on the spine like the Bank does, and Mednafen specifically states, "Support for Populous's backup RAM" as a feature.

I don't own this game, so I can't look into it. Maybe it uses some sort of micro capacitor or...flash? It does save without a booster/duo/etc, right?

[guyjin]

i feel cheated. 

[rolins]

That's it? What waste of space.

[Kitsunexus]

Wow, I completely did not see the pics. Wow. That was disapointing, not even one resistor.

I am entirely grateful you did this however! ^.^

[TR0N]

done.

/sf2openxk6.jpg

Halleluja!!

btw: the game still works fine

Ok but the game didn't have this bumblebee in it!?
/Bumblebee-animated.jpg
Shoot it isn't much of a spolier then jk.

[nat]

Don't act so surprised. I told you what he would find before he even opened it up:

I don't think there is anything [under] the bulky area.

The chips themselves will only be on the backside of the black PCB.

Furthermore:

There isn't any use for the hump whatsoever. If anything it was a marketing ploy to show how full the HuCard was with ROM when in fact the actual chip is the same physical size.

was also explained in the very same message:

The raised area is only provided as a means for Capcom to get a chance to have a picture label the same size as all the other HuCARDs.

I was being completely serious.

On HuCARDS that utilized more chips than "normal" HuCARDS, thereby increasing the size of the "black area" (upsidedown PCB), they glued on a raised piece of plastic so the cart could have a normal-sized picture logo. And that's it. Exciting, huh?

[SignOfZeta]

I uh....don't get what you mean...how does a raised area give you more area for a label? If anything it would give you less since the raised area is beveled.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

I uh....don't get what you mean...how does a raised area give you more area for a label? If anything it would give you less since the raised area is beveled.

Without the bump, the label would have to be partially printed on top of the pcb (black area) or made smaller.

[nat]

Exactly. Notice how the raised area overlaps some of the black PCB, giving the label the same area that it would have on a 4 or 8 megabit cart.

With the label piece taken off, observe how far down the card the PCB extends. Without the raised plastic piece, you're stuck with a tiny area for the label.

[Joe Redifer]

Without the bump, the label would have to be partially printed on top of the pcb (black area) or made smaller.

Exactly.  God forbid the artwork be shrunk!!!!

[lkermel]

Waooo, this is crazy, I also always thought the card was thicker because of the extra memory...
Nat, you're right, it makes sense that they raised it for the art work. I wonder why they didn't make it thinner though, the bump is nearly as thick as a HuCard if I remember well...
Interesting find !!!!

[Kitsunexus]

Why does the HuCard surface look like a tacky leather couch?

[nat]

Because you're looking at the backside of a PCB (circuit board) painted black. If you flip it over it looks just like your standard PCB with super-low-profile ICs.

[guyjin]

Why not just use a sticker?

[Turbo D]

it would easily peel off. Although Dr. Neo just used a sticker 

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Why not just use a sticker?

If they did that, then Black_Tiger wouldn't be able to wash it in the sink without ruining the label.

[spenoza]

If they'd have put the chips on the bottom of the HuCards instead of the top they could use most of the surface for the label.

[nat]

If they'd have put the chips on the bottom of the HuCards instead of the top they could use most of the surface for the label.

That's true. They could've just put the labels on the back side, making that the front, and had you insert them upside down into the system. That would've been interesting.

Maybe they thought that was too much space.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

They probably didn't think that they'd ever cover so much of the card with chips when they originally designed the hardware, and by the time they had such high capacity cards, it was far too late to redesign the card socket.  Still, they could've made those few cards upside down and wrapped the connections around the edge to get back to the front side.

[Turbo D]

they did put stickers on the back! But only on the korean turbo.

[Seldane]

Yeah, in the Ten no Koe and Populous you'll find a battery in there. In SFII' and the Arcade Card Pro you'll find nothing.

No battery in Populous. Apparently.

Really? It says, "ROMRAM HUCARD" on the spine like the Bank does, and Mednafen specifically states, "Support for Populous's backup RAM" as a feature.

I don't own this game, so I can't look into it. Maybe it uses some sort of micro capacitor or...flash? It does save without a booster/duo/etc, right?

Yes I know, it's really strange. Someone on this board opened their cartridge and there was nothing in it. I think I remember a lot of members stating it wasn't possible to save in the game as well.